Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Free eBooks at Project Gutenberg

Here's the Top 100 list, but there are tens of thousands of free eBooks for reading here...  You could spend a lifetime and not have to spend another dime on a great book.  Here's ALL their books in one listing...  it might take a few seconds to download!
 
Cheap Geek,
Matt
 

Monday, September 8, 2008

Life Hacks to Simplify Your Life

The blog Zen Habits has some interesting ideas on how to slow down our lives, get more quality with the little time we have.  I'm definitely working on the "retire early" plan by saving, saving, saving...  Now if I can only get down to five emails a day!
 
 
 
 

Sunday, September 7, 2008

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sennheiser CX300 headphones

These bad boys were just $10 after rebate I found on spoofee.com, from newegg.com.  Retail rate is about $50 - $90.
 
I've been on the look for a decent pair of headphones.  While mowing the yard, it's tough to get a pair that stay where you put 'em, and block out the mower noise.  I have been using some Pioneer headphones that came with their portable XM Radio:  decent sound, but tended to fall out or loosen up with exercise. These Sennheiser headphones come with three different sizes of smooth ear inserts, so a perfect fit was easy to accomplish. 
 
I worked in the yard today for about four hours, and sweat and all, they stayed in the whole time, without the need to figdet them back in occasionally (as my Pioneer earphones loosen up all the time... very annoying).  The assymetric cord was about 6" longer than the Pioneer headphones, so there was less tugging/pulling of the cord while the MP3 player was in my front pocket.  The CX300's stayed in my ear. Period.
 
They also sealed out the noise of the mower to a level that you would think there is active noise cancellation, but it's just the superior seal of the earphones.  The mower noise was never a bother while jamming out.  In fact, I could turn down the volume, as there was almost no mower noise to conceal.  That will save my hearing and my batteries.
 
Sound was clear, bass VERY DEEP for headphones, and non-fatiguing.  Fatigue is when you put in a pair of cheap headphones and you just get a headache, and the music never sounds "right"... you just want to rip them out of your head.  Not these Sennheisers... NICE and HIGHLY GEEK RATED.
 
Geek out,
Matt
 

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Ecomodder website

Do you want to know how to "hypermile"?  How about ways to mod your vehicle to get more MPG (and look geeky all at the same time?!)
 
Then you want to go to www.ecomodder.com and dig into the articles, forums and start logging your own mileage and see if you can attaing the elusive "hypermiler" monicker!
 
Since trying the tips on the website, I've raised my MPG average from about 22 or 23mpg to around 25 to 28mpg (less if I have to use A/C).  Not bad, really, for not having to buy a new car.  The EPA estimate is 19mpg combined for the V8 Lexus GS400.  I'm a "hypermiler"!!!
 
Geek out!
Matt

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google's Chrome suggested I download something..

...Internet Explorer 8... What???
 
Talk about "open source"...they don't even care if the first suggestion upon clicking the "suggest site" on their new browser is the Download link to Internet Explorer 8.  Kudos, Chrome, kudos!
 
To be fair, this was probably due to the auto-import feature which Chrome gleaned these "favorites" from IE7 already installed on my machine...

Chrome loads in about 3 seconds, and IE7 took almost 17 seconds to load the first time after reboot... ouch!  Firefox took about six seconds, so Chrome wins the fast start award.
 
Geek out, Google,
Matt
 

Geeky Hurricane Trackers

Well, with so many cutely-named storms headed to destroy the Gulf Coast lately, it's good to be up-to-date on current storm trackers..
 
Google has a storm tracker here  and I especially like Accuweather's maps and prediction models...which pretty much lets you pick and choose which diverse track makes your wife feel better when she sees it.

Google's Chrome web browser coming today

Google has created their new *much* safer and crash-proof browser, called Chrome.
Here's a fun comic strip detailing all the advantages to Chrome... some of it pretty geeky, but that's what this website is all about.
Bottom line: faster, safer, crash-resistant, personable, more-intuitive, and free is always good!
Geek out,
Matt