wooba.com - for your clicky finger

The crazy Chinese manufacturers lowballing basically killed themselves. Though I still don’t trust DVD players with brands like Shinco or Cyberhome… And doesn’t everyone have at least a few DVD players by now?
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Commoditization is hitting China’s DVD player manufacturers hard, according to researcher iSuppli. Between January and May, the average selling price of a DVD player exported out of the Guangdong province came to $40.80, leaving just about $1 in profit margins for the manufacturers.

Thirty Chinese DVD player makers declared bankruptcy in the first half of the year, Wu noted.

http://news.com.com/DVD+player+profits+down+to+%241/2100-1041_3-5302728.html?part=rss&tag=5302728&subj=news.1041.20

Hey, we’re the media and we need to report on this! Ha. #14 on the Dance Charts. Woop! She’s definitely related to Michael, she’s weird enough. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it, so you guys can do my 3-second review for me by commenting.

(The infamous Dan 3-second review is where Dan listens to an mp3 for 3 seconds, then decides if it’s worthy or not. Stastically speaking, 95% of mp3’s fail.)
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NEW YORK - Twenty-four years after La Toya Jackson cracked the top 20 of the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, she’s back — albeit with a slight name change.

Jackson fully understands that her name comes with much baggage, good and bad. “People weren’t giving me the chance to do my thing, which is to sing,? she said. “So, I altered my name for this single to see what would happen.?

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5642316

HotSpotHaven’s SpotShadow. Currently free, but you never know how long free programs last, these days at least… Bleh, I lied. This program sucks. Couldn’t get it to run initially at all.

Got some quick instant tech support from Noah via the Comments section. I needed the newest version of Java Runtime 1.4.2 to get this working. PITA to download Java Runtime. I think it’s a direct download if you go to the Sun link. That way you can avoid the mumbo jumbo registration crapola.

Yes, SpotShadow does work, and showed quite a few hotspots in the Seattle area. It didn’t list the newest Starbucks (opened probably 6 months ago at least?) near my house that has WiFi though. Only one free hotspot listed as well, and I know of at least a few free places offhand that aren’t currently listed.

So check it out, it’s free and it does indeed work. Just seems to be a program such as this should just be easily executable after a quick installation. Now how about a PocketPC edition? Sorry for jumping the gun, but I really couldn’t get it work after I installed it.
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http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

http://www.hotspothaven.com/spotshadow.asp

Well, duh, they can actually pay for the tickets and the lawyers associated with it. I have first-hand reports of normal citizens doing 120mph+ on a public freeway, then not getting one day or jailtime thanks to their legal department. I believe one didn’t even get a TICKET. That’s not gonna happen if you are a teen Honda ricer, sorry…
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According to the data, 60 percent of those surveyed with household incomes from $75,000 to $99,999 — and 66 percent with household incomes of $100,000 or more — said they “often” or “sometimes” drive 10 mph over the posted speed limit, compared with 42 percent to 49 percent of people at lower income levels.

Similarly, 77 percent of drivers with household incomes between $75,000 and $99,999, 73 percent earning more than $100,000, and 70 percent earning between $50,000 and $74,999 said within the past week they had exceeded the number of miles per hour over the speed limit that they thought might lead to a police stop.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/US/Business/speeding_040809-1.html

Ugh, I got nothing to hide!

But, still, I guess since it’s optional, it’s a good thing, but still, the idea of them having access to exactly how you drive and where is still downright freaky. But people will do anything to save a few bucks, I guess… Beats mandatory black boxes that the NTSB wanted.
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Through the port, the device constantly tracks car speed. By comparing that with a clock in the TripSense device, the device figures how far the car goes, mapping it against the time of day.

At the end of each policy term, the customer would download the data and see what discount he or she would get. Customers can see all their data before deciding to send it to Progressive, and can decide not to send it — and not get extra discounts.

In Minnesota, where the highway speed limit is 70 mph, drivers who go over 75 less than 0.1% of the time get an extra 5% discount. Drivers who avoid the most dangerous times — midnight to 4 a.m. on weekends — get bigger discounts than those who don’t.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2004-08-08-insure_x.htm

Finally! Bout time! They’ve been promising this for a few months, with a July ETA. But, hey, it’s Microsoft, what do ya expect? An EARLY release? 250MB for all free accounts, and if you pay $19.95 a month, you get 2 whoppping Gigabytes! Sad thing is, no emails this morning to my hotmail account are getting through at all… I’ve sent several emails, as well as have Adam, my Canadian buddy, try… And, OUTGOING email isn’t working either. Ugh, and I PAY for this?

And yes, I’m a sucker for paying $20 a year for it, but I paid like last YEAR, before this whole GMail thing.
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