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Found an interesting post on Slashdot that discusses the concerns around starting a home business.

A post on Slashdot orginally asked the question if anyone had noticed the fact that printers are lasting shorter and shorter as the quality goes down and manufacturers seek to find continuous revenue streams through ink cartridge replacements. A sub-post pointed out just the general perspective of consumer products as following along these lines. I personally have noticed this as well and I’ve been trying to take a look lately at what we *consume* at home and how much waste we create. But it seems like its getting *more* difficult to achieve that lofty goal.

So I help the neighbor lady who’s a little older clear out her driveway of snow. The time before last I, cleared off her car and tried to free her windshield wipers from their frozen state. In the process I ended up ripping both wipers. So, before she notices I wanted to replace them. Sort of it, I needed to know what year/model/etc. her car was. Several sites provided the same information around deciphering your vehicles VIN number.

Tips to understanding your vehicles serial (VIN) number

They are as follows:

* 1st character- Identifies the country in which the vehicle was manufactured. For example: U.S.A.(1or4), Canada(2), Mexico(3), Japan(J), Korea(K), England(S), Germany(W), Italy(Z)
* 2nd character- Identifies the manufacturer. For example; Audi(A), BMW(B), Buick(4), Cadillac(6), Chevrolet(1), Chrysler(C), Dodge(B), Ford(F), GM Canada(7), General Motors(G), Honda(H), Jaquar(A), Lincoln(L), Mercedes Benz(D), Mercury(M), Nissan(N), Oldsmobile(3), Pontiac(2or5), Plymouth(P), Saturn(8), Toyota(T), VW(V), Volvo(V).
* 3rd character- Identifies vehicle type or manufacturing division.
* 4th to 8th characters- Identifies vehicle features such as body style, engine type, model, series, etc.
* 9th character- Identifies VIN accuracy as check digit.
* 10th character- Identifies the model year. For example: 1988(J), 1989(K), 1990(L), 1991(M), 1992(N), 1993(P), 1994(R), 1995(S), 1996(T), 1997(V), 1998(W), 1999(X), 2000(Y)——2001(1), 2002(2), 2003(3)
* 11th character- Identifies the assembly plant for the vehicle.
* 12th to 17th characters- Identifies the sequence of the vehicle for production as it rolled of the manufacturers assembly line.

Whether or not these are true, I was forwarded a list of anti-war slogans that supposedly were on signs at the recent anti-Iraq war rally in DC.

1) These colors don’t run the world
2) One nation under surveillance
3) How did our oil get under their sand?
4) Go Solar, not Ballistic
5) Who would Jesus bomb?
6) Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now
7) Don’t blame me, I voted with the majority Buck Fush!
9) It’s NUCLEAR, not NUCULAR, you idiot!
10) Patriots are idiots - Matriarchy Now!
11) Resistance is Fertile
12) (Pictures of sheep carrying flags) Stop Mad Sheep Disease Now
13) (UFW sign) Pick Fruit, not Fights
14) (On a five year old) More Candy Less War
15) Say can you see my democracy?
16) (With pictures of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) Asses of Evil
17) It’s the oil, stupid
18) War is expensive, Peace is priceless
19) Read between the Pipelines
20) No More BuSh
21) Smart weapons, Dumb president
22) The only thing we have to fear is Bush himself
23) How many Lives per Gallon?
24) Peace Takes Brains
25) Anything War can do, Peace can do better
26) Negotiation Not Annihilation
27) Make touchdowns, not war
28) Another patriot for peace
29) Oh, Say, can You Cease?
30) Star Spangled Bummer
31) Don’t Arm a Son of a Bush
32) Don’t do it, George, Dad will still love you
33) Power to the Peaceful
34) The last time we listened to a Bush, we wandered in the desert for 40 years.
35) War: How Americans learn geography
36) George W. is pro-life*
*certain areas of the world excluded

I have always had a hard time with word choice and trying to make sure that what I wanted to express, in terms of my thoughts, came out appropriately in the words that resulted. Along those lines, I came across an article, on the subject of writing for the web. The aspect I need to delve into more at some point is the proper use of hypertext links in the words that we write. So many times, reading through text we don’t think about the purpose behind the google(links) some people decide to include. Maybe this is a minor issue, but I think it merits a little thought.

I finally found a page that talks a little about issues/solutions with MovableType blogs and XHTML validation. For some reason this was harder than I thought it would be to find information on the topic. I had this site XHTML 1.0 compliant at one point, lost track, went to check it one day and it was completely invalid. But this provides a helpful starting point.

I found this short article to be interesting. Some of it confirms more for me what I thought were trends in various technologies. The point I appreciated the most was:

Be satisfied with small steps, and don’t let time (or the absence of it) get in your way. Instead, make time to look at, research, and test new development techniques and tools.

Found a Slashdot post on how to Build Your Own Linux PVR

Cool. So much to learn.

Slashdot had a post around an informal cost analysis of K12 software that might be helpful in conducting discussions on benefits of OSS.

This sounds interesting, Macromedia is announcing a new product line called Macromedia Contribute. Ultimately it amounts to a content management system that aims to keep the *content* separated from the technical under belly. In other words, if a site that’s managed needs to be updated with a few minor edits, the person interested in making the change (who is more often than not, unfamiliar with web development) uses MM Contribute to make the changes for which they’re allowed to make according to the rules set up by a web developer. Web developers don’t get bothered by minor site edits and content developers are empowered to make the change themselves without having to go through the web developer.