As gasoline prices reach beyond $4.00 per gallon, let’s take a pause to figure out if it is worth paying 20 cents more for the premium grade. The best place to look for an answer is in the owner’s manual.
If it asks for a regular grade (87 octane), then pumping that premium oil will be of no additional benefit. However, often time vehicle manufacturers suggest the premium fuel only to achieve optimum performance for the car. In that case, if the regular grade is used, the car will experience a negligible performance loss upto 5%.
Mordern cars automatically adjust the engine with the fuel grade provided to avoid damage. There is lot of information available on this topic from sources including scientific research, automakers and gasoline experts. Share your experience and opinion on premium gasoline. What grade do you use?
Until now applications like Google Earth let you roam all over the planet but now the rest of the universe is not that far either. Access all the universe at home using Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope.
The program was delevolped on the idea of late Jim Gray, Microsoft computer scientist, to make the universe accessible to everyone. It was acheived in partnership with NASA and California Institute of Technology for use of astronomical data and high-resolution images generated by top observatories and instruments such as Chandra and Hubble. The Worldwide Telescope uses images generated by observatory telescopes on earth and in space. The images are stitched together to put celestial bodies in the correct perspective and in their actual positions in the sky.
Worldwide Telescope can be download for free at worldwidetelescope.org
Some of us easily adapted to the new Vista environment without many complaints but for those who are nostalgic for sweet ol’ Windows XP operating system, PC Magazine has step-by-step directions to downgrade from fancy Vista to the simpler XP environment.
Vista requires more RAM than XP to operate and the GUI is certainly impressive but those who don’t care much about the appearance and just want to get their job done should switch back to the more stable, faster OS.
PC Magazine: How to Downgrade from Vista to XP
Google is stepping into the mobile business after achieving the status of most popular search engine and developing other free and useful services such as Google maps, Gmail, and YouTube. Although these applications are available individually for today’s mobile phones, the new generation of phones from major cell phone manufacturers like LG or HTC will already come integrated with Google search and applications. Google might even surprise us with their own innovative hardware with all the essential Google applications built into the headset system.
I expect something even better than Apple’s iPhone.
More Readings:
Amazon.com introduced Kindle™. Now you can take your paper and your library with you wherever you want. It also reads blogs and personal documents.
Kindle is a wireless device that can get your daily newspaper delivered to you every morning without you getting up and stepping out the door. In addition to newspapers, Kindle also allows to obtain books from Amazon’s Kindle Store and blogs from the internet instantly.
Kindle uses free high-speed data network (EVDO) so you never have to locate a hot-spot, no wireless bills and no contracts and as a complement, you get free access to Wikipedia.org whenever you want. Kindle does not require connection to a computer.
Battery life is long and weight is only 10.3 ounces, less than the weight of a typical paperback, convenient for travelling and commuting. With the wireless capability on, it needs to be recharged approximately every other day and with wireless feature off, you can read for a week or more before recharging. Battery fully recharges in about 2 hours.
The best feature about this gadget is its no-glare screen. The display is 6″ diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper so it feels like a real paper plus benefits of search, bookmarks, annotations, and built-in dictionary. This easy to use device can also make use of an additional SD card in addition to its internal memory that can hold about 200 titles.
The price tag on Kindle is $399.00 (includes two-day shipping) but due to heavy demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out at Amazon.com but they’re offering reservation if you pre-order. To learn more about Amazon Kindle, please visit the Kindle detail page on Amazon.com
