Seven years to pay for a DVD recorder

Jennifer Ann Logan of Dallas accepted a seven-year prison sentence following her arrest after an incident in which a dog in her vehicle was commanded to bite a Wal-Mart employee who accused her of stealing a DVD recorder.

According to police, on June 23, 2007 Logan took a $298 DVD recorder from Wal-Mart and left the store through the garden department. She was followed to her Ford Escape by a store employee, who grabbed Logan to keep her from leaving. A man sitting in the Escape told a dog in the vehicle to “Get him” and motioned at the employee.

The dog jumped out of the SUV and bit the employee on the buttocks and leg.

Logan, the man in the SUV and the dog fled with the DVD recorder. The employee later identified Logan in a photo lineup. (info from The Waco Tribune)

Finally, a cellphone you can go swimming with

The photo at the left, taken in 2006, shows your humble blogmeister interrupting his dog-paddling to accept an urgent call on a water-resistant cordless phone made by Uniden.

The photo at the right shows the new Samsung B2100 Xplorer cellphone, which can survive submersion in water up to one meter deep for a half hour without sucking in tiny fish or going belly-up like a dead fish. It also complies with "MIL-STD-810F" for use in harsh outdoor conditions over prolonged periods of time.

Built to be dust-proof and sand-proof, other features include a 1.77-inch TFT display, 1.3 mega pixel camera with built-in LED flash, MP3 music player, stereo FM radio with RDS, microSD memory card expansion supporting up to 8GB and Blueto0th v2.1 with A2DP. It also has a noise cancellation microphone, speakers, flashlight, video capture at 15fps, and support for JAVA.

It should be great for hiking, making war, going to the beach, floating in the pool, or fraternity parties.

More than 100 new features for iPhone and iPod Touch

Yesterday Apple announced over 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer. They include: cut, copy and paste which can be done within or across applications; MMS to send and receive photos, contacts, audio files and locations with the Messages app; stereo Bluetooth; syncing Notes to the Mac and PC; shake to shuffle; parental controls for TV shows, movies and apps from the App Store; automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots, and the ability to capture and send audio recordings on the go with the new Voice Memo app. Landscape view will be available for Mail, Text and Notes. Search capabilities will be expanded, allowing customers to search within Mail, iPod and Notes or search across all key apps by typing a key word or phrase into the new Spotlight search, conveniently accessed from the Home screen.

The updated Stock app will add the ability to display recent company news and current trading information like opening or average price, trading volume or Market Cap, and will offer a landscape view to see a full screen of any stock chart. Customers will also be able to view shared calendars right on their iPhone with CalDAV support and sync their calendars with iCal®, Yahoo, Google and Oracle.

iPhone customers will be able to download the new iPhone OS 3.0 software for free summer and iPod touch customers will be able to purchase a software update for $9.95.

Apple also announced the immediate availability of a beta software release to registered developers. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including In-App Purchases; Peer-to-Peer connections; an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and Push Notifications.

Included in these APIs is the ability to leverage the App Store within apps. In-App Purchases will allow developers to offer subscription content and provide the ability to sell new content and features in a simple and secure process. Developers can also more easily create peer-to-peer games for iPhone and iPod touch by using Bluetooth.

Another key developer feature in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta software is the ability for apps to interface with hardware accessories, creating a new element of control for iPhone and iPod touch accessory developers as well as a new ecosystem of solutions for customers. Developers will also be able to use Apple’s new Maps API to integrate Google Mobile Maps services within their apps which will offer Google Map tiles, current location, custom annotations and geocoding. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta software includes the Apple Push Notification service which provides developers with a mechanism to alert users with sounds, text or a badge.

Super-thin, super-expensive laptop from Dell

Dell is entering the ultra-thin notebook business with the Adamo, from the Latin for "to fall in love with."

The aluminum-body laptop costs $2,000 or more and comes in two colors, "onyx" and "pearl." It has a 13-inch screen and, with a depth of less than 0.67-inch, is thinner than both Apple's 0.76-inch MacBook Air ($1,800 and up) and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s 0.7-inch Voodoo Envy notebook (from $1,900).

Even the customer support package goes upscale. Dell will guarantee the same team of service representatives for $99 for a year or $349 for three.

Dell, known for affordable, no-frills computers, leaned toward the seductive imagery of couture as it designed a marketing campaign to fit the Adamo. The leap Dell is asking consumers to make from its core brand would be a risk in any economy, let alone the worst recession of the personal-computer age. PC sales are sliding and the lone bright spot in the market appears to be small, inexpensive "netbooks," Adamo's polar opposite.

CLICK for more info. (Info from The Associated Press, photo from notebooks-site.com)

Live TV and Sirius XM comintg to iPhones and iPods

MobiTV and CBS Sports will stream live video of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament to the iPhone and iPod Touch via Wi-Fi to people who buy a $4.99 application from the Apple iTunes App Store.

The application’s official name is “CBS Sports Mobile: NCAA March Madness On Demand.”

MobiTV already supplies live TV over cellular radio to other cellphones in the US but not to the iPhone. MobiTV expects to provide other TV content to Apple devices in the future.

The MobiTV-powered Wi-Fi application will feature live Wi-Fi video of all 63 games of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship from March 19 through April 6. Live audio of each game, however, can be streamed via the iPhone’s cellular 3G and EDGE technologies as well as live updates, stats and video-on-demand highlights of games.

The application delivers a “clickable” tournament bracket showing all tournament teams and allows users to touch any current game to launch live TV of the game.

Sirius XM plans to offer an iPhone/iPod Touch application in the second quarter.

The app would stream Sirius XM to iPhones and iPod Touch devices and will permit an estimated users to access Sirius XM content if they are paid subscribers. New subscribers won’t have to purchase a new radio. (info from TWICE)

New iPod is small enough to shove up your ass, and it speaks 14 languages.

Yesterday Apple introduced their latest iPod shuffle (they spell it with a lower-case "s"). Apparently it's the world’s smallest music player at nearly half the size of the previous model. If you don't have to endure a cavity search, you can smuggle it into a prison.

It's also the first music player that talks to you.

The new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names, and battery power.

The unit is smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and all of the controls except the power switch are in a small pod on the earbud cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle has an aluminum case available in black or silver, with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it easy to wear.

The iPod shuffle is based on Apple’s shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. And when you can’t remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist.

The tiny robot can even tell you status information, such as battery life. With the ability to hold up to 1,000 songs and the VoiceOver feature, you can now easily switch between multiple playlists on your iPod shuffle. iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

It's said to have up to 10 hours of battery life.

The new third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now available, with a suggested price of $79.

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This is a preview, not a review.

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Save 25% on mini widescreen TV at RadioShack

Apparently this is a one-day special, so act fast if you're interested.

Small battery-powered TVs are nice to have in the car, and in the office or around the house, and while traveling.

I've used them to monitor a security camera that observes my driveway, and even to watch one TV show with a headset in bed while my beloved bride watched some shitty show on the big HDTV. I also use one to keep busy in a parking lot while waiting for her to get out of the supermarket. And I sometimes use one while traveling to watch in an airport, or in a hotel or motel that doesn't have TVs where I want them to be,

The Shacks's Acurian Model #16-454 has a 7" 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen LCD display and its NTSC/ATSC TV tuner lets you watch both analog and digital TV broadcasts. An A/V input lets you connect external audio and video sources. The built-in rod antenna can be positioned for the best possible reception. It has an "F" coax connector so you can connect an external antenna if needed (often important in a car) or to Cable TV service.

Included accessories include a remote control with battery, audio/video cable, AC adapter, car power adapter, F connector.

Regular price is $199.99. Sale price is $50 less. CLICK

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THIS IS A PREVIEW, NOT A REVIEW.

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Digital TV converter coupons available again

This is probably not important news to the ultra-techies who usually read this blog, but it might affect some low-tech people you know.

The government agency that distributes coupons for digital TV converter boxes expects to eliminate its waiting list by the end of March.

Helped by $650 million from the economic stimulus package, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has started to mail out coupons to the 2.3 million households on the list.

The fund that pays for the $40 coupons reached its spending limit in early January. The NTIA was still able to mail out coupons, but only as old ones expired, 90 days after being issued.

The NTIA now expects to change its rules so that people who received coupons before but let them expire can now apply for new ones.

Coupons are now being mailed "first class." The government had been criticized for mailing the coupons "standard mail," which can take weeks.

The converter boxes allow older TVs to receive new digital broadcast signals. American full-power TV stations were scheduled to turn off their ancient analog signals on Feb. 17, but because of the coupon backlog, the deadline was extended to June 12. About a quarter of stations shut down in mid-February anyway, but most of them are in small markets. (info from The Associated Press)

Today is the last day to shop at Circuit City.

Today is your official last chance to go to a CC store to buy what other bargain-hunters passed over because it was over-priced, useless, defective, ugly or all four.

In a few weeks, however, the dregs, remnants and gleanings should be in the dollar stores and on eBay.

New book about phone equipment and services

(press release about my own book)

A hundred years ago, telephones were simple. If you wanted to call someone, you picked up the receiver, cranked the crank, and waited for the nice lady to say, “Operator, may I help you?” Then you said something like, “I want to talk to Daddy,” or “I need the doctor;” and in a few seconds you were connected. You didn’t even need to know the phone numbers.

For equipment, maybe you could choose between an oak box on the kitchen wall, or a metal candlestick model on the hall table. If you lived in a high-tech area, maybe you could get a dial instead of a crank.

Regardless of the telephone style, you would pay to rent it month after month, and there was just one company in your town that you could do business with, and that company owned “your” phone.

Today the choices seem endless. Phones can be analog or digital, rotary or touch-tone, plain or fancy, corded, cordless, or cellular. You can connect through a local phone company, a national phone company, an international phone company, a TV company, a satellite company, a cellular company, or a VoIP company. Phone companies sell TV service. Cable television companies sell phone service. They both sell Internet service.

You can get a phone or phone system or a phone gadget from hundreds of sources, and buy it, rent it, lease it or may-be get a freebie. You can pay someone to install it, you can install it yourself, or you can get something that needs no installation.

An authoritative but easy-to-understand new book, “Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business and Home” by Michael N. Marcus helps people sort out their options. It covers basic phones, multi-line phone systems, add-ons like headsets, music-on-hold, paging systems, backup power and fax equipment — for professional offices, businesses and homes. There are sections on technology trends, telecommunications terminology, tools, wiring, troubleshooting, and much more.

The book will help people pick out the right size phone system, to minimize initial cost, and provide room to grow. It even deals with the important items that people really do need in a phone system, but are often left off sellers’ bids and proposals.

The book also sorts out the various technologies for making phone calls and accessing the Internet: conventional dial tone, ISDN, DSL, cable, fiber, T1 and VoIP.

Marcus’s book includes about 40 detailed hands-on product reviews. Recommendations range from a $12.99 home phone to complex multi-thousand-dollar business phone systems, plus a wide array of add-one to improve communications.

It will help readers avoid the worst mistakes of phone system buyers, and can help them decide if they can save money by installing their own home or business phones. The book will also help people quickly diagnose many common telecom troubles, and often fix them easily and inexpensively or maybe even for free.

Marcus says, “But even if you don’t plan to do your own phone work, by understanding what has to be done, you’re more likely to get the right thing done, and pay the right price. You could save much more than the price of this book.”

Some reader comments:

• Outstanding! An entertaining and sometimes humorous thorough education on phones and telecommunications. It’s a must-read for shoppers as well as salespeople.

• I’ve been in telecommunications for nearly 30 years, but I still learned a lot from this informative and entertaining book.

• After just three minutes I learned that a really annoying telephone problem could be cured for $4, instead of nearly $400. This book belongs in every office and many homes.

• This delightful book makes phones ultra-useful for people who run mini-Fortune 500 companies. Highly recommended.

The illustrated book has 396 pages. It is available from Amazon.com and other booksellers.

This is the third book on communications equipment written by Michael N. Marcus, a writer who has specialized in electronics and telecommunications for over 30 years. Marcus is a successful and popular explainer, known for mixing technology and humor. His humorous memoir “I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life” was published in December.

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If you get a new Amazon.com credit card, you can get a $30 certificate to pay for the book.

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Good news and sad news at Sam's Club

I normally love Costco, and approve of almost everything they do.

I got really pissed off at them last year when they replaced my beloved Austin Toasty Crackers With Peanut Butter Filling with the much-too-salty Lance's brand.

Fortunately, by driving about three miles farther, I could get to my usually-much-less-loved Sam's Club, and buy Austin there.

Yesterday I was shocked to find that Sam's, too, had replaced Austin with Lance's.

Depressed and dejected, I headed for the exit.

My mood quickly changed when I saw an item that had been missing from Sam's for about a year: a FOUR-POUND PILLSBURY CHOCOLATE CHUNK FUDGE BROWNIE.

Technically, it's a 4-lb. slab that could be cut into 42 normal size brownies, but it's much more fun to think of it as just one giant brownie.

Apparently the Austin crackers have been removed because of the peanut-salmonella scare.

Kellogg makes crackers under the Keebler and Austin brands and says it gets some of its peanut butter paste from the Peanut Corporation of America -- the same company linked to tainted peanut butter that has sickened people across the country.

Kellogg says they did not recall the crackers but issued a "precautionary hold...until the company can determined if any of its products are linked to the tainted peanut butter."

So far, the Keebler and Austin brand peanut butter crackers are not linked to any illnesses....and the company is telling customers to hold onto the crackers, but don't eat them, for now.

I still have a few Austin packs I stashed at home. To make them last longer, I'll alternate them with my brownies.

Amazon will provide e-books for iPhones and iPods

Amazon.com plans to release a program today for reading electronic books on Apple iPhones, extending Amazon's sales of digital books to devices beyond its own Kindle e-book reader.

Amazon's software application, which can be downloaded for free, allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to read books or periodicals purchased on the Web or through their dedicated Kindle device, usually for $9.99. Using a service that Amazon calls whispersync, the program keeps track of a readers' latest page in any given book across both a Kindle and iPhone.

"There are times when you're going to be in a place where you happen to have your iPhone but not your Kindle," said Ian Freed, an Amazon vice president. "If I get stuck in line at the grocery store, I can pick up where I was reading with my iPhone."

Other e-book providers, such as Indigo Books and Music Inc.'s Shortcovers, already allow users to buy and read books on the iPhone. Amazon also faces competition from Google, which allows users to read e-books via a Web site optimized for the iPhone screen.

Freed said he is "not at all concerned" that making e-books available on other devices will cannibalize sales of the $359 Kindle. Instead, it will increase sales of digital books and the Kindle, he says. Amazon says it plans to release applications to read Kindle books on other devices, but declined to specify which ones.

Freed expects that users of the iPhone application would read their books for 20 to 30 minutes at most, after which eye strain or battery life might become a problem. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

In honor of Arthur, an updated rerun from 2007.SHOCK: Frozen pizza can taste like pizza

I grew up in New Haven, CT, and returned to the area in 2001 after a 37-year absence. New Haven and the surrounding towns have a huge number of Italian-Americans. New Haven is probably the second place in the US where pizza was served. New Haveners are fanatical about pizza, which is spelled apizza, pronounced ah-beetz and sometimes called tomato pie.

When I was in college, I sometimes arranged for friendly Allegheny Airlines stewardesses to carry fresh New Haven tomato pies on the plane and meet me at the airport in Allentown.

The geographic, historical and emotional center of New Haven pizza-making is Wooster Street, still an Italian enclave after about 100 years. On weekend evenings, there are long lines of the faithful outside the doors of the two traditional rivals, Sally's and Pepe's.

"Traditional" New Haven pizzas are baked in brick ovens with coal fires. They're thin, oddly shaped, partly charred, oily, sloppy, and delicious. No two slices are the same size, and there is minimal handle for gripping a slice. A "plain" New Haven pie is served without mozzarella ("no mootz"). They're also available with toppings like clam chunks, that you are unlikely to find at Domino's or Pizza Hut.

Cousin Dave, also a pizza maven and probably a fair representation of local attitude, says PH's food is edible, if you don't think of it as pizza. "It's not pizza," he explains, "it's pizza hut."

Although the national pizza chains have done notoriously poorly in this center of authentic Italian cuisine, new apizza joints seem to sprout up every couple of days (only a slight exaggeration). Within a few miles of where I'm typing this, there have been five recent debuts, and the sixth one to be announced is within a few blocks of four others. Some local folks make quite good pizza at home. My neighbor Connie (nee Concetta, and daughter of a professional pizza-maker), even makes great pizza on her barbecue grill.

One big problem with pizza, or apizza, is portability. My favorite local pizzeria (Papa's in Milford) has two outdoor picnic tables, but no indoor tables. I can't eat there in the winter or when it's raining; and even if I drive a fast Ferrari, the pie is cold by the time I get it home. A local caterer operates The Big Green Pizza Truck. They'll bake incredibly good wood-fired pizzas in my own driveway, but the minimum fee for even one pie is about 1000 bucks.

Another pizza problem is availability. Most pizzerias are closed for at least a few hours a day -- maybe the hours when you have the strongest urge for pizza. When I lived in Scarsdale NY, I was thrilled to learn that a nearby jazz club served pizza until 2AM. As a test, I went there at 1:45 one morning. The music was great. Alas, the pizza sucked.

Here is Southern Connecticut, the pizza capo-di-tutti-capi has decreed that no pizzeria can be open for business on Monday. The sensory deprivation is like having Lent or Yom Kippur every week.

A while ago, at my local Costco, I inhaled a familiar smell. PIZZA. It was not the usual cardboard-and-grease combo served at the snack bar, but something that smelled and looked remarkably like what I might get at Wooster street or from the Big Green Truck.

A company called Aliki Foods was doing a road show -- a special event a manufacturer stages to enable Costco members to sample a new product line, and perhaps convince Costco management to stock the product.

The Aliki folks had a bunch of miniature electric ovens stacked up under an indoor tent top, and were churning out magnificent personal-size pizzas every few minutes. I stayed there, wide-eyed, wide-mouthed, in love, mesmerized, imobilized, captivated and salivating. (If I drooled on you, I hereby apologize.)

I sampled every thin-crust gem they made over a 20-minute period. I even tried toppings like sausage that I normally don't eat, and a chicken fajita variety that was decidedly un-Italian, but decidedly delicious. Every pie was spectacular. I pigged-out, but I was not the only pig. I bought a box of three Margherita pizzas (tomato, basil, garlic and three kinds of cheese) for my own freezer, for $9.99.

The package is 10 inches wide, and fits just fine in the freezer side of a side-by-side. Estimated cooking time is 8 - 11 minutes, at 425 degrees.

Strangely, when I originally posted this blog entry, pizza was not even on the Aliki website (where they had lots of other Italian foods, and even Philly cheese steaks and mac-and-cheese), so it must have been really new; and my lucky readers were among the first to know about it. You owe it to your bellies to pester your nearby food sellers to stock this treasure.

Also strangely, the boss of Aliki is Michael Pappas, a Greek-American, not an Italian-American. Most Greek pizza is kind of like Pizza Hut pizza: maybe OK, if you don't think of it as pizza (the dough is too thick and fluffy, and there's not enough tomato sauce).

There's no one thing that makes Aliki pizzas so special; it's the combination of multiple good decisions, and perfect execution. The crust has the right mix of chewiness and crunchiness, and tastes like it came from an ancient brick oven on Wooster Street. Michael says "the flour we use is very high quality and the crust is hand stretched and goes through a lengthy proofing and dough retardation process for a rich flavor." The sauce is made from Michael's grandmother's recipe, which is securely locked up in a secret location, and protected by armed guards with sharp-toothed dogs. Aliki uses only fresh toppings, and highest quality cheeses that Michael can find.

The pizza varieties represent several ethnicities, including Italian, Greek, Mexican, and even WolfgangPuckian. You can get Four Cheese, Pepperoni, Margherita, Spinach & Feta Cheese, Sausage Delizioso, Chicken Fajita, or Grilled Chicken & Goat Cheese.

Aliki's pizzas are being slowly rolled out across the country, generally in warehouse clubs including Costco and BJ's, not supermarkets.

Michael Pappas credits his Greek grandparents for inspiring his great Italian foods: "I was blessed to have a grandmother who made the best food you could imagine, all from scratch. Many of the ingredients came from my grandfather’s magnificent vegetable garden. Whenever I visited them, my grandmother would always make an irresistable dish with her oven-baked bread, fresh vegetables from the garden, and spices from the old country. It always smelled so good walking into her kitchen, I can still smell all of the delightful aromas."

Michael has maintained the tradition, and recently, thanks to him, even Costco smelled delightful. Aliki Foods has the right recipe and terrific technique. The company is based in Old Lyme, CT -- not exactly New Haven, but close enough to have picked up the proper vibes.

Unless you live really close to a first-class pizzeria, Aliki makes the best pizza you will ever eat at home. GO GET SOME!

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UPDATE: When you heat your Aliki pizza in your oven at home, just put it on the oven rack, NOT on a piece of foil on the rack. It's better to have to clean up the bottom of the oven, than to have a crust that's not fully cooked.

Pizza you can eat while you drive,from Dunkin' Donuts

I'm probably the only regular customer of Dunkin' Donuts who has never tasted their coffee. Actually I've never tasted anybody's coffee. I was once accidentally served coffee ice cream and I hated it, and that was close enough. My mother has never tasted coffee either. Her mother drank about 14 gallons each day, so maybe mom was rebelling against grandma. My wife tasted coffee once and hated it and never tasted it again. Maybe she married me because she knew she'd never have to make coffee for me.

I've heard that Dunk makes great coffee and there's a Dunk conveniently next door to my office. The coffee smells good, but I've never been tempted to try it. On the other hand, Dunk does make the world's best hot chocolate, which I drink every morning in cold weather.

It's infinitely better than the too-sweet, too-thin crap they serve at Starbucks. I was in an airport recently at breakfast time and Starbucks hot chocolate was my only warm beverage option. I hated having to to say grande instead of medium. If English was good enough for Moses and Jesus (grin), it's good enough for me. Grande is Starbucks-Italian for medium. In Italian-Italian, however, grande means large and medio means medium. Dunk lets you order in good old American English.

Anyway, back in February '08, Dunkin' Donuts, which calls itself "the world's largest coffee and baked goods chain," officially launched its all-day Oven-Toasted menu. The new program is an effort to get people to spend money at the chain after breakfast, and includes easy-to-hold-and-eat Flatbread Sandwiches, Hash Browns, and Personal Pizzas.

Having grown up in New Haven, the spiritual heartland (or maybe the bellyland) of American pizza culture, I have very high standards for pizza. I regard white pizza as heresy, and what most Americans consider to be good pizza -- whether it comes from neighborhood independents or national chains like Domino's or Sbarro -- I think is barely above the level of cardboard with ketchup and American cheese.

Pizza Hut is in a special category. Fellow pizza maven Cynical Cousin Dave and I are willing to eat it and simply don't compare it to the genuine article. We've put PH in it's own classification. As we say, "It's not pizza, it's pizza Hut."

The new Dunkin' Donuts Personal Pizzas are five inches in diameter, a tad bigger than a CD or a DVD. They're basically clones of the Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza. You can select three varieties: Supreme (sausage, pepperoni plus green and red peppers); Pepperoni (with mozzarella); and Cheese (four varieties blended.) Some Dunks may not have all of the pizza varieties.

The first time I got one, I was surprised at its DVD size and assumed I would want a second; but found it both filling and satisfying. Although I hate green peppers, I ordered the Supreme, and didn't bother picking out the peppers. They didn't kill me. I've had about 20 more since then. That's a good sign.

After my plane landed from the trp with the shitty Starbucks hot chocolate, I drove to a Dunk near the airport and picked up a pizza to eat as I drove. When I got near my office, I got in line at the Dunk drive-up window, put the empty pizza box in their trash can, and bought a hot chocolate. Maybe I should buy some stock as well as food.

As with PH pizza, a Dunk pizza is not "real" pizza. But it's cooked much faster, available much closer, costs much less, is tasty, and can be carried, opened and eaten with one hand, and it's NEAT.

There's no way I could drive a car while eating a slice from Sally's, Pepe's or Papa's. The sauce, mootz, oil and clams would be all over the upholstery, dashboard and carpet.

Just as Mickey Dee's Egg McMuffin turned out to be the perfect one-handed mobile breakfast, Dunkin' Donuts has devised the perfect one-handed mobile pizza. It might even provide some McMuffin competition, because you can get it in the morning, or any time.

Bravo! Dunkin' Donuts. Bravo! When can I get a pizza grande?

Mama Mia.Vroooooooooom.Vroooooooooooom.Fix It Again Tony

Today is the fifth anniversary of my purchase of a 1978 Fiat Spider. CLICK for the story and more pics.

Buy a Fiat to be a toy, not transportation.

Turning the key is like spinning a gun barrel to play Russian Roulette. You never know what will happen.

It's wonderful to own a Fiat, as long as you don't depend on it to get you to work or school or anywhere important. It should never be your only vehicle.

New software harrasses laptop thieves

If your laptop has been stolen, you can remotely yell at the thief and interfere with his use of the computer.

Front Door Software's Retriever program displays your contact information as your computer boots up. There's even space for a plea to a Good Samaritan - "$50 for my safe return."

In most cases, that's enough to help an honest person return the machine, said Carrie Hafeman, chief executive of the company.

But Retriever can get tougher.

You can log on to a Website and check a box indicating the computer is missing. Now during start-up, a big yellow and red banner appears on the screen, boldly declaring the laptop lost or stolen. This message is set to reappear every 30 seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes the window.

You can remotely switch on a second password prompt if you fear the thief has also stolen your regular password.

Behind the scenes, Retriever uses built-in Wi-Fi to sniff out nearby networks, then figure out what Internet service providers power them. With that information you can file a police report and get help locating the criminal.

While waiting for law enforcement to come through, you can even let off steam by sending new messages to the nagging "Stolen Computer!" screen, such as "You are being tracked. I am right at your door."

The latest version of Retriever, which costs $29.95 for three years of use, is even more aggressive.

Now, when the "stolen" screen pops up, the laptop cries for help. Use a canned message ("Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, please report me now.") or record your own.

You can say, "Get your hands off me, you S.O.B." (info from The Associated Press)

We've come a long way, baby.After 15 years, I bought a second baby laptop

Back in 1994 I needed a portable PC that I could take to my customers' offices to program their phone systems. I bought a Compaq Contura Aero, touted as "the least expensive, fully featured subnotebook PC" available.

For the "low" price of $1399, I got a PC with an 8-inch monochrome display that weighed 3.5 pounds and provided up to six hours of battery life. There was a model with a color screen and faster chip, but I could not justify spending $2,199 or more. The Aeros were "driven by powerful Intel 486 processors" and came with hard drives providing as much as 250 megabytes (not gigabytes) of storage.

The Aero was approximately 45 percent lighter and 33 percent smaller than most notebook PCs and with a rechargeable Duracell battery option it could run almost twice as long as the average notebook PC.

The standard RAM was 4 megabytes (again, not gigabytes) expandable to 12 megabytes. The standard hard drive was 84 megabytes (like many corporate desktop machines of that time). The unit had a built-in trackball pointing device and a PCMCIA Type II slot for a modem (that could even work with a cellphone) or storage card. Networking was not even mentioned. An external floppy drive could be plugged in.

My Aero came preinstalled with DOS 6, Windows 3.1, TabWorks, Lotus Organizer -- an integrated package with a calendar and planner -- WinLink File Transfer software and a serial cable.

I used the Aero for about three years, even after the screen was damaged, rendering about 20% of the display useless, and then moved on to a succession of full-size and widescreen laptops.

In January I went to Florida to visit my parents for a few days. Normally I would have schlepped my wide-screen Toshiba Laptop, which usually travels in its own case with a bunch of accessories. I wanted to be able to avoid checking luggage, and my carry-on bag just could not accommodate my clothing and other personal needs as well as the Toshiba, so it stayed home. I figured I could manage to live without the Web and email for the weekend, and in an emergency I could use my father's iMac.

I turned out that his newly installed AT&T DSL service did not work, and I missed my PC. It was time to consider one of the new netbooks that could easily fit in my carry-on luggage.

Two weeks ago my new baby arrived. I had been aware of the category for a while, and tapped on a few of the mini-size keyboards at Staples and Costo, but was really not in the market.

A bargain pushed me to buy.

The super-cool Acer Aspire One sells for as much as $500 at RatShack (or just $100 with a two-year AT&T wireless contract.) Staples sells it for $300, or less with a rebate when you buy a printer, too. I got an apparently perfect reconditioned unit for $250 from TigerDirect.com.

Acer Aspire One was introduced in July 2008. It is based on the 1.6GHz Intel Atom platform, and is available in several shell colors: seashell white, sapphire blue, golden brown, onyx black, and coral pink. I got the blue, which ironically matches my much bigger Toshiba lappy.

Although some Aspires are sold with Linux, I was pleased to get one running Windows XP. It has built-in 802.11b/g WiFi for easy access to wireless networks, a bright and crisp 8.9-inch backlit display with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, and "CrystalEye" webcam for live video streaming, video chats and conferences. Other features include 1GB DDR2 533MHz memory, a 120GB hard drive, SD Card reader, multi-format media card reader, three USB 2.0 ports (more than my big Toshiba), and a bunch of pre-loaded software. It weighs about a pound and a quarter less than my old Aero.

After two weeks I am pleased to recommend it. It has worked just fine, and what's more -- it's FUN. Sometimes I use it on my desk at the same time I'm using my monster desktop machine. I found I was able to grab WiFi signals from neighbors at home and at work, and I sometimes take the baby in the car. I can frequently go online while in a parking lot, waiting for my wife to finish shopping.

Amazon has a different version of this baby selling for just $259 (new) and you can pay it off over six months with no interest. CLICK.

I'm a container collector -- actually "addict" is a better term. To me, one of the best things about getting a new lappy is to shop for a new case for it. I thought I might snag a bargain at a local Circuit City's final-gasp sale, but they had nothing. I also struck out at Staples, but found something perfect at ebags.com. It's made by CaseLogic, one of my favored case makers. It's designed and manufactured just right, and has space for the AC adapter, mouse, and other vital trinkets.

Value of Sirius XM may be in the billions it lost

Some investors are baffled why media titans John Malone and Charles Ergen are competing to throw money at Sirius XM Radio, the money-losing satellite-radio company that was perilously close to bankruptcy.

But the company's most valuable asset could be precisely all the money it has lost.

Sirius XM has at least $6 billion of tax losses. That means that the losses it has accumulated over the years can be used as deductions to cut taxes on future profits. As long as those losses stay with Sirius, they have little value, because the company's future prospects for significant profits are still slim.

But in the eventual hands of another company, like Malone's Liberty Media, those tax losses could become extremely valuable, helping to wipe more than $6 billion in taxable income off of its income tax returns -- thus some day cutting Liberty's corporate income-tax bill by more than $2 billion.

Tax concerns are often a big driver of corporate deal making, but few players maneuver through the tax code as thoroughly as Malone. In 2006, he acquired the Atlanta Braves in a way that enabled Liberty to effectively cash out its stake in Time Warner without incurring taxes.

Similarly, Sirius's tax losses are considered a key part of the company's appeal to Liberty. They were considered less significant to Ergen, who bought up Sirius debt in hopes of adding Sirius to his satellite assets. On Tuesday, Liberty announced it would rescue the company from a bankruptcy filing with a $530 million loan and receive a 40% stake in Sirius.

Companies often have tax losses. But experts say it is unusual that they are potentially a firm's most valuable asset, as with Sirius. The only asset that is comparable is the company's collection of radio wave spectrum licenses granted by the FCC valued at $2 billion.

However, for Liberty to maximize the use of those tax losses, it must navigate Internal Revenue Service rules intended to prevent companies from acquiring others solely for their losses -- so-called "trafficking in losses."

The IRS curbs already kicked in after the Sirius XM merger was closed in last July and limit how much of the losses can be used as tax deductions each year.

Another complication hangs over these tax losses. If ownership of the company changes again, the use of the tax losses would become even more limited, according to IRS rules. That is because the restrictions are calculated based in part on the market value of the company -- which is roughly 10% of what it was when the Sirius XM merger closed.

There is an additional wrinkle: If another investor purchased enough stock to give it a stake of 5% or more during the next three years, that could combine with Liberty's stake to trigger those restrictions anew. Sirius can implement trading restrictions to prevent that. At current values, a new restriction on the losses could cause Sirius to lose about 80% of its tax losses over the next 20 years.

Without those changes, Liberty would then be free to acquire the rest of Sirius in three years and use all the losses to shelter taxable profits elsewhere. (info from The Wall Street Journal)

Cable TV shows may be going online

Top cable television services including Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and TV network owners Viacom, Time Warner and NBC Universal are exploring a sweeping solution to the threat of online video: putting large numbers of cable shows online, but accessible only to cable subscribers. The cable networks include USA, TNT and MTV.

The cable operators hope the new Web services, which could launch this year, will attract new subscribers -- even given the popularity of free-to-watch Web sites such as hulu.com -- by offering a wealth of previously unavailable video.

Cable networks and operators have a big stake in preserving the cable TV business model: US cable, satellite and telecom operators paid cable-network owners about $22.5 billion in subscription fees in 2008. Citing those fees, cable operators have placed limits on how much free content some networks can put online.

The programming available on the proposed Web services would likely be in a streaming format with ads, accessible in and out of the home, and without any additional charge to cable TV subscribers.

Under the arrangements being discussed, existing cable subscribers could access content online that goes well beyond what is currently available free to consumers,

Major cable operators -- Time Warner Cable in particular -- have said that the proliferation of free video content online threatens to undermine the subscription business model for the cable-TV business. "If all of the programming goes to the Internet, and it's free, then there is a whole source of revenue that the entertainment business is not going to have anymore," Glenn Britt, CEO of Time Warner Cable, said last year.

Beside the technical hurdles, some critics say it might be too late to put the online-video genie back in the subscription bottle. A growing number of people are growing accustomed to watching TV shows online, without any charge. About 136 million people watched online video content in January, up 16% from the same period in 2008. (info from The Wall Stree Journal)

New book about phone equipment and services

(press release about my own book)

A hundred years ago, telephones were simple. If you wanted to call someone, you picked up the receiver, cranked the crank, and waited for the nice lady to say, “Operator, may I help you?” Then you said something like, “I want to talk to Daddy,” or “I need the doctor;” and in a few seconds you were connected. You didn’t even need to know the phone numbers.

For equipment, maybe you could choose between an oak box on the kitchen wall, or a metal candlestick model on the hall table. If you lived in a high-tech area, maybe you could get a dial instead of a crank.

Regardless of the telephone style, you would pay to rent it month after month, and there was just one company in your town that you could do business with, and that company owned “your” phone.

Today the choices seem endless. Phones can be analog or digital, rotary or touch-tone, plain or fancy, corded, cordless, or cellular. You can connect through a local phone company, a national phone company, an international phone company, a TV company, a satellite company, a cellular company, or a VoIP company. Phone companies sell TV service. Cable television companies sell phone service. They both sell Internet service.

You can get a phone or phone system or a phone gadget from hundreds of sources, and buy it, rent it, lease it or may-be get a freebie. You can pay someone to install it, you can install it yourself, or you can get something that needs no installation.

An authoritative but easy-to-understand new book, “Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business and Home” by Michael N. Marcus helps people sort out their options. It covers basic phones, multi-line phone systems, add-ons like headsets, music-on-hold, paging systems, backup power and fax equipment — for professional offices, businesses and homes. There are sections on technology trends, telecommunications terminology, tools, wiring, troubleshooting, and much more.

The book will help people pick out the right size phone system, to minimize initial cost, and provide room to grow. It even deals with the important items that people really do need in a phone system, but are often left off sellers’ bids and proposals.

The book also sorts out the various technologies for making phone calls and accessing the Internet: conventional dial tone, ISDN, DSL, cable, fiber, T1 and VoIP.

Marcus’s book includes about 40 detailed hands-on product reviews. Recommendations range from a $12.99 home phone to complex multi-thousand-dollar business phone systems, plus a wide array of add-one to improve communications.

It will help readers avoid the worst mistakes of phone system buyers, and can help them decide if they can save money by installing their own home or business phones. The book will also help people quickly diagnose many common telecom troubles, and often fix them easily and inexpensively or maybe even for free.

Marcus says, “But even if you don’t plan to do your own phone work, by understanding what has to be done, you’re more likely to get the right thing done, and pay the right price. You could save much more than the price of this book.”

Some reader comments:

• Outstanding! An entertaining and sometimes humorous thorough education on phones and telecommunications. It’s a must-read for shoppers as well as salespeople.

• I’ve been in telecommunications for nearly 30 years, but I still learned a lot from this informative and entertaining book.

• After just three minutes I learned that a really annoying telephone problem could be cured for $4, instead of nearly $400. This book belongs in every office and many homes.

• This delightful book makes phones ultra-useful for people who run mini-Fortune 500 companies. Highly recommended.

The illustrated book has 396 pages. It is available from Amazon.com and other booksellers.

This is the third book on communications equipment written by Michael N. Marcus, a writer who has specialized in electronics and telecommunications for over 30 years. Marcus is a successful and popular explainer, known for mixing technology and humor. His humorous memoir “I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life” was published in December.

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If you get a new Amazon.com credit card, you can get a $30 certificate to pay for the book.

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