December newsletter

Tomorrow morning we'll be sending out the December issue of our newsletter to all of our subscribers. Here are the contents of the issue:

News and Views - Chuck Hajdu's editorial

Technology Spotlight -  Toasted Leg Syndrome
Reviews of the Targus HD3 Chill Mat and ThermaPAK HeatShift sleeves

Sights and Sounds of MultiMedia -
Reviews of the Plustek OpticFilm 7400 and Que books on MSFT Excel

Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition

Holiday Gift Ideas for Road Warriors
Reviews of Verbatim Wireless Nano Mouse, Logitech M570 Trackball, Logitech Lapdesk N550 and Franklin Roadie AMP'D Speaker

Un-Mouse Reviews, Part 2 - Adesso Browser Cat II

Technology Today

Maintaining Important Data in Your Backups

The Deals Guy

TaxAct information

We received this from TaxAct today and thought our readers would like to know about it:

From scholarships and student loan interest, to qualified tuition program expenses, figuring out whether you can claim deductions or credits for college and educational costs can be difficult. TaxACT has released a free, easy-to-use, interactive tool that gives taxpayers straightforward information about college tax breaks.

TaxACT's College Tax Whiz breaks down 10 tax benefits for current and future college students, families and even graduates. Information includes amounts, acceptable expenses, types of education and other key qualifiers for 2010 returns in a question and answer format.

Additional tools for the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits, worth up to $2,500 and $2,000 per student, are included in College Tax Whiz. The tools guide users through the detailed criteria to help them determine whether or not they qualify for these valuable credits.

College Tax Whiz accounts for two major educational tax breaks that expired for 2010. While the $1,800 Hope Credit is not included in the pending tax extenders bill, the above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses, worth up to $4,000 in previous years, could be renewed for 2010 returns. If this deduction or any other major education tax breaks are added for 2010 returns, TaxACT will add the information to College Tax Whiz.

Available now, TaxACT 2010 Free Federal Edition guides you through all education credits and deductions. As you answer simple questions, TaxACT completes the forms and does the math. Results are backed by accuracy and maximum refund guarantees, and unlimited tax help via e-mail is free. Best of all, TaxACT Free Federal Edition allows everyone to prepare, print and e-file a simple or complex federal return free. Learn more about Free Federal Edition in our Preview press release.

The worst idea.... EVER

I just saw an ad on TV for a new AT&T phone with Dolby surround sound speakers! Give me a freakin' break!! It's bad enough that I have to listen to people talking on their cell phones when they're out in public, but now I'll have to endure them listening to their "tunes".

Most of what passes for music today is little more than rhythmic grunting and I abhor it. Please do me a favor people, if you must listen to music then use earphones!!

COMDEXVirtual

COMDEXvirtual hits a browser near you on Tuesday, November 16 and Wednesday, November 17. Register now if you haven’t already to hear keynotes from industry heavyweights such as Symantec's Enrique Salem, high-tech entrepreneur (and Dallas Mavericks owner) Mark Cuban and IT pundit Nicholas Carr, plus a slew of sessions on hot technology and business issues. Here’s a preview of some of the topics that will be discussed, fresh from the COMDEXvirtual blog.

Facebook "email"?

Zuck made an interesting announcement at a press conference today. He announced a new service on Facebook that will allow greater commiunication for Facebook members. Here's how Harry McCracken of  Techlan saw it:

For months, there have been rumors that Facebook was working on turning the inboxes of its 500 million-plus users into a full-blown e-mail service. Today, Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg formally unveiled the subject of the rumors--code-named "Titan" and officially named simply "Facebook Messages"--at an event in San Francisco. And he spent much of his time stressing that whatever this new thing is, it's not e-mail. (More on Time.com: Why Facebook Deals is Bad News for Foursquare)

Instead, it's a massive update to Facebook's current messaging system, chat feature, text-messaging integration, and smartphone applications that mashes up all sorts of communications (including e-mail) into one unified stream. Zuckerberg and Facebook engineering honcho Andrew Bosworth mostly talked about the service rather than demoing it, but they said that it'll include features such as these:

• Every Facebook user will get an e-mail address: If your Facebook profile is located at facebook.com/yournamehere, your e-mail address will be yournamehere@facebook.com.
• If you're logged into Facebook, incoming e-mail will show up in the service's chat service; reply to a message, and it'll be sent as an e-mail.
• Similarly, the Facebook iPhone app will notify you of e-mail and let you receive and send messages. (An Android version will come along later.)
• In a feature that sounds a little like Google's Priority Inbox, you can organize the people you receive messages from into important folks (friends and family), others who aren't so vital (your credit card company, say), and Junk. The goal is let you see stuff you really want to see immediately, allow you to check in on less urgent messages once a day, and ignore spam.
• You can also choose to have messages from people not on your Facebook friends list bounced, period.
• Like e-mail, Facebook messages will be able to include file attachments; a deal with Microsoft will let you edit documents using the Office Web Apps online suite.
• The service will go beyond threaded-message interfaces such as Gmail's Conversations by letting you scroll back through all the communications you've had with a particular person via Facebook, all in one place. (You'll be able to opt out of this--or skip all the new features, period--but that presumably won't be enough to satisfy every privacy watchdog out there. In fact, I can hear them growling from here.)

More thoughts on eBooks

I've been reading two eBooks recently and have come to a couple of conclusions. First is the obvious, ePub files are much smaller than PDF files. Second, I really prefer PDFs. Why, you ask? Simple, they look far more like print books than ePub files do.

I'm reading Myths of Innovation from O'Reilly press and I've found the PDF version to much more enjoyable to my eyes. Maybe my opinion will change after I've used them more but right now I'm a PDF guy.

eBooks

I've been a slow convert to eBooks. I have many books on my shelves that are a gazillion years old and every one of them is still easily readable. Will any of today's eBooks be readable in 19 years? I kind of doubt it.

However, I received an email today that shifts my persprctive, not change it mind you, but shifts it slightly. I reviewed a book from O'Reilly a couple of months ago, the superb Cooking for Geeks, and really enjoyed it.

Today I received a link to their eBook site allowing me to update to the revised version at no cost. This is the one spot where eBooks rule, they can be updated MUCH easier than print books can.

For certain types of books eBooks make a lot of sense. But I still feel that any book that you really value and want to retain for generations then you must stick with print.