msalabs.com

Look farther ahead. So many of us keep our eyes glued to the back of the car in front of us. The car goes where you look, so get those eyes up and anticipate your next move!

(Credit:
Reagan Morgan)

Cars respond more slowly on slippery surfaces. Always wait a moment after steering, braking, or accelerating to see how the
car behaves before giving it more input.
Visibility is greatly reduced in bad weather. Make sure you can see clearly, and turn on your headlights.
Brake carefully and accelerate more gently.
Get the car pointed where you want to go before getting on the gas.
Be aware of reduced grip.
Take corners at lower speeds.
Brake sooner and longer than on dry surfaces.
Apex later.
Look for fresh snow - it provides more grip.
Avoid icy ruts.
Check tire pressures monthly - tire pressure can change by 1 psi for every 10 degree F change in temperature (use manufacturer-recommended pressure).

And perhaps the most important tip taught in every driving school, whether it’s in the snow or on the pavement:

Here are some winter driving tips straight from the Porsche Camp4 Colorado curriculum:

The rest of the report is posted after the break.

Top Searches Overall

1. Love

2. Funny

3. Emo

4. Happy birthday

5. Sexy

6. Heart

7. Music

8. Friends

9. I love you

10. Heath Ledger

I would like to see other popular social sites release weekly or even daily stats. The very nature of site stats are similar to Digg, Delicious, and others, in providing entertainment and a window into the habits of other users.

Dugg Image of the Week (through a partnership with Digg, users are able to Digg images on Photobucket). Here’s one that stood out this week: Map of European Languages

One of my favorite things to get in my e-mail each week is the data report from News Corp-owned Photobucket. Think of it like the Google Zeitgeist, but for people’s searches on the popular photo hosting site. While the report doesn’t offer up every statistic, the creators pick a few interesting or pertinent things that make good reading. This week’s tidbit? Politics.

Clearly the Dems like to search. Despite getting more love from the media, Huckabee, McCain, and Romney combined don’t come close in searches to Ron Paul. Take that for what it’s worth. However, it could mean that people are trying to figure out what the guy looks like.

Democrats:

1. Hillary Clinton (25,400)

2. Barack Obama (24,736)

3. John Edwards (1,829)

Republicans:

1. Ron Paul (10,589)

2. Mike Huckabee (2,064)

3. John McCain (1,986)

4. Mitt Romney (1,785)

The Democratic and the Republican presidential nominees (Edwards now obviously excluded from that list) are represented with several thousand search hits each. So what do the numbers show?

commentary

Augmented reality? Perhaps Gartner could use some of that.

Open source creates better software?

This doesn’t sound so bad, though it’s important to remember that Gartner’s IT predictions tend to follow the market up or down. In other words, they’re a good barometer of what happened last week on the stock market rather than a clear view into the future. If things get worse, Gartner’s IT predictions will probably follow them down.

Forrester, for its part, does much better in consistently identifying open source’s opportunities for enterprises.

Chart: The perspective from IDC

Indeed, when IDC asked IT and business professionals last year whether open source creates “better quality software,” over 60 percent agreed or strongly agreed that it does. How can higher quality at a lower cost not factor into Gartner’s suggested IT strategies in a resource-constrained market?

This is perhaps not surprising given Gartner’s historical blindspot to open source, but it’s a poor service to the CIOs that rely on Gartner for a balanced, rigorous view on IT priorities. It’s also not consistent with other Gartner data that suggests that open source is increasingly eating away at proprietary software. Which Gartner should we believe?

I read with interest ZDNet’s report on Gartner’s revised IT spending predictions for 2009. The gist? Worst case, IT spending will fall by 2.5 percent, rather than grow by 3.3 percent, with Western Europe and North America the hardest hit.

Where is open source, that low-cost, high-value software development and delivery mechanism? It doesn’t make Gartner’s top 10, despite being hailed for creating significantly better software and dramatically lower prices.

(Credit:
IDC)

But I don’t fault Gartner for not being able to discern the future. Rather, I am confused by its suggestions of where to invest IT dollars. In a list that includes virtualization (good idea), Gartner also suggests spending money on a bevy of buzzwords like “Web mashups” and “semantics,” as well as the downright wacky suggestion to invest in “augmented reality.”

Frank Cecchini claims in his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, that he shouldn’t have to see any of the “intrusive and misleading” ads that appear as text in the e-mails because he pays $25.90 a month for his service, according to a MediaPost article.

AOL has been offering free e-mail for the past two years but still sells dial-up subscriptions that include e-mail and other services.

At least one California man thinks so, enough to sue AOL.

By now, most of us are used to the ads we see in our Web-based e-mail . But if you are paying for the e-mail service, those ads might be extra annoying.

An AOL spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation. However, she said AOL subscribers can opt out of receiving the ads and the company tells anyone who complains about the ads exactly how to do it.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status and more than $5 million in damages. It alleges fraud, unjust enrichment, and California business code violations.

Atom will find its way into fit-in-your-pocket MIDs from Gigabyte, Toshiba, LG Electronics, Lenovo, and BenQ, among others. Netbooks (inexpensive, Internet-centric ultra-small notebook PCs) such as Asus’s popular Intel-based Eee PC, MSI’s Wind PC, and Clevo will also use the chip.

Willcom D4 ultra-mobile communications device

The handheld-size device uses a 1.33GHz Z520 Intel Atom processor and runs
Windows Vista Home Premium (with Service Pack 1). Other prototype devices based on similar designs–referred to as mobile Internet devices or MIDs–have also been shown running the Linux operating system.

Willcom D4 is slated for a June release and is expected to be priced at 128,600 yen ($1,272).

The D4’s inclusion of a 40GB hard disk drive is an indicator that the device is meant to run Windows–because of the operating system’s typically larger footprint–not Linux.

Intel Atom technology includes a single-chip with integrated graphics called the Intel System Controller Hub.

(Credit:
Willcom)

Microsoft and Intel were also credited with development of the device, according to the Japanese-language release on the Sharp Web site.

With a separate headset, the device can also be used as a phone using Wilcom’s Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) network, both Sharp and Willcom said.

The device weighs in at 470 grams (about one pound) and features a 5-inch sliding LCD (1024×600/262K colors) with an LED backlight, a 1.8-inch 40GB hard disk drive (Ultra ATA/100), 64-key QWERTY keyboard, a built-in camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a mirco SD card slot, and a USB 2.0 slot.

Sharp got atomized Monday. The Japanese electronics maker along with Willcom announced the ultra-mobile Willcom D4 “communication device” based on Intel’s Atom processor and Microsoft’s Vista operating system.

“Oh.”

“The operating system on your computer.”

Last spring, my mom got a new computer. She really, really wanted an XP machine because that’s what she knew and loved. Well, that’s what she knew anyway.

But, overall, she said, she’s been pleasantly surprised. “The things I’ve wanted to do on the computer, I really haven’t had a problem with,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve had any true glitches or problems that I didn’t have on the old computer.”

And there’s this other message, she explained, that keeps asking her if she is at home or work. (That’s actually Vista trying to automatically apply security policy based on the type of network). “I don’t see why they need to know, so I just close the window.”

There were a couple things she explained. Sometimes she gets a message from Windows Live OneCare. “I don’t get what they want me to do.”

“So I wanted to see how it’s going.”

To make sure I had the right impression, I gave my top-secret source a call on Tuesday.

“I was calling because I’m writing a blog on the one year anniversary of Windows Vista.”

“Of what?”

So that’s the “mom” test. I’ll be posting a few other looks Wednesday at how Vista is shaping up, a year after its consumer launch. Feel free to drop me an e-mail with your experiences at ina dot fried at cnet.com, or sound off below.

She was initially skeptical. She was worried it wouldn’t work with her Palm handheld and also that it wouldn’t work with a specific program she needed for her job as a geriatric case manager. After doing some research and assuring her that both would work with Vista, she grudgingly agreed to get a Vista machine.

“I’m actually doing well,” she said.

The real test, I knew, would come in the ensuing days and months. I waited for the phone to ring with news of a problem. It didn’t. In fact, I’ve had zero support calls so far.

But my mom also decided she wanted to buy it at retail on the weekend I was home visiting. I think it had something to do with having her own personal “geek squad” to set it up. I tried to assure her that only a few XP models were around, meaning, to get the other things she wanted, she really needed to go with Vista.

Note: This is one of a series of blogs being published Wednesday, the first anniversary of
Windows Vista’s consumer launch.

After I set the machine up, she got to working on her new Toshiba laptop. Most of the things she liked had nothing to do with Vista and everything to do with the fairly standard keyboard I got her. I programmed a few function keys to open each of the handful of programs she actually uses–a big hit.

Perhaps the best indicator I have on Windows Vista is what I scientifically call “the Mom test.”

“Hi Mom.”

“Hello.”

As for Vista, she was a bit taken aback by its new interface, but seemed reasonably able to navigate through things.

Oddly enough my post was on the fact that the CNet blog tool ate my last post about CohesiveFT. I am sure we will find it sooner or later.

(Credit: Dave Rosenberg)
Just when I got used to Twitter the server stopped responding. Five minutes without this minimal communication is killing me.

Twitter failed me

For the full shakedown of the Boulder, check out our review, plus take a look at the slide show.

Few times do I get a chance to dunk a cell phone in water, throw it around on the floor, and generally torture it like a 10-year-old brat. Indeed, a part of me delighted when I received the G’zOne Boulder in the mail, knowing that I would get paid to kick around a cell phone as much as I wanted.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

The G'zOne Boulder is water-resistant.

As you might have guessed, the Verizon G’zOne Boulder is one tough handset, military-certified to resist water, dust, shock, vibration, and other environmental elements. However, unlike other rugged cell phones, the Boulder has a sporty racecar look that is not at all unappealing. I like the round external display, which is reminiscent of a stopwatch, and adds interest to its design. Also, unlike most phones that place durability at the forefront, the Boulder comes with a lot of features. It includes a 1.3-megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. A, push-to-talk support, access to Verizon’s V Cast Video and V Cast Music with Rhapsody, a music player, and more. It even has a few cool outdoorsy features such as an electronic compass and a flash LED that can be used as a flashlight.

Unfortunately, I ran into a few audio quality problems when testing the phone. There was quite a bit of static and echo, and a lot of my callers reported some crackling during calls. Of course, this may vary depending on the phone in your area, but this is what I discovered on the phone I received.

Sanyo Katana LX

We saw it at
CTIA earlier this year, but the Katana LX has now finally launched with Sprint. The sequel to the Katana II, the Katana LX retains the same basic feature set–Bluetooth, VGA camera, and speakerphone–but it has a whole new look. The Katana LX has a much sportier look and compact shape, plus a translucent OLED front display. Sure it isn’t much, but for $49.99 with a two-year service agreement, it’s meant to be an entry-level phone anyway. It’s available in Pacific Blue, Elegant Pink, and Liquid Graphite, and you can take a peek at it in our Sanyo CTIA slide show here.

(Credit:
Sanyo)

Amazon currently gives developers the option of deploying their S3 data either in Europe or the United States.

Amazon Web Services on Thursday is scheduled to release features meant to give its hosted computing service a better safety net.

Amazon Web Services last month suffered a multi-hour outage to its Simple Storage Service (S3), which affected several Web 2.0 sites.

Also on Thursday, Amazon Web Services introduced a IP service, called Elastic IP, that lets developers have an IP address associated to an account, rather than a physical machine.

Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service now has an application programming interface (API) that lets developers choose where its application physically runs.

This Availability Zones feature is important because people can now add redundancy to their application. Choosing multiple zones, people can have server instances with separate power, cooling, network access, and physical servers.

Selipsky said Amazon will add more “granularity” on the choice of location for data over time.

“Up until now, if you boot up more than one EC2 instance, you had no control where it resided–it could hypothetically be sitting on the same machine because there is no notion of location or proximity,” said Adam Selipsky, vice president of product management and developer relations at Amazon Web Services.

The change makes EC2 better suited for Web application hosting, Selipsky said.

“Now we’re exposing that as a feature and you can choose to instantiate your ‘nth’ server in a different availability zone,” he said.

Selipsky said the new feature will let developers add redundancy in the “vast majority” of cases.