Sure facebook is the coolest place for your avatar to live on the net (sorry WoW) and I say avatar because I’m sure some people’s facebook pages are… a little more calculated than their real life.  Ok I know people who put just about anything and everything up there, but many make their webprescence shine a little more than they do.

So how many people remember Myspace?  Most of you?  How many still use it?  Myspace is the dark back alley to facebook’s perfect suburban neighborhood.

Many moons ago Myspace was the coolest neighborhood on the net, everyone was there, News Corp spent big money to be there, now its a place of indy bands.

Who remembers the original coolest neighborhood on the net?  A place where everyone gathered to tell you a bit about themselves?  Geocities.

Yes that’s right, before Yahoo shut off Geocities for good, years and years ago it was the coolest place to be (yeah I knew some Angelfire weirdos too!).

But man if you were on Geocities you were the king of cool!

My address on Geocities was in TimeSquare (which was for computers and video games, yeah I was always like this!).  Those were the days!  But the world changes and we move forward, we move up in life, from the underworld of a text based internet into a picture and video tagging limelight.

Its always good to look back to where we came from to see how far we have come!

/TimesSquare/Maze/4098/

In my ongoing series about things less expensive than going to the Regal (Theater) I find an interesting piece of technology.  A tablet computer from India costing $35.

Yes, that’s right you can have a tablet PC for $35!  It will be right between the Reese’s pieces and the Butterfingers any day now!

Two tickets to see Toy Story 3 3D at the Regal, a media pop and popcorn (or instead a pack of Reese’s pieces and a Butterfinger from right next to where you found this tablet) and boom, could have surfed the internet, while driving your Tata Nano of course! (or your Aveo, Delorean, Ferrari, or even the gas for it! If you’ve been following my Less Expensive than the Regal Series)

Tablet computers from India, Less Expensive than the Regal!

Starting in the roaring twenties and going through the mid 1930s, the art deco movement was king.  With its long lines and futuristic look architectural masterpieces include the Chrysler building in New York.  The movement included not just buildings, but car design as well.

One would think the splendor of this design would have ended with the stock market crash, but it extended clear through the Great Depression.

Today we sit at the end of the worst decade in the history of the stock market and yet signs of art deco are cropping back up.  Two great examples from the motorized world include the Victory Vision and the Lincoln MKX (and the entire new Lincoln line really).  They both have fine details and flowing lines will invoking feelings of the future (somewhat retro-futuristic today) but even eighty years later one can’t help but look at the art deco movement as a vision of the future.

I truly hope this design style continues as we look to a bright future of grandeur and cease focusing on the immediate past.

Here’s to the New Art Deco Movement!

As you may know whenever mentioning Nikola Tesla a great deal of lore surrounds the stories.  I believe much of it to be true especially considering the great inventions we do know for sure (alternating current) and that the US government took all of his papers after his death.

You may also know that Nikola Tesla invented alternating current, the type of electricity at every outlet at your home and office.  As such he also invented the first hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls, NY.

In nearby Buffalo, NY it is rumored that Tesla invented an electric car.  It was far from the first electric car as it was based on a 1931 Pierce Arrow and being 1930 at the time electric cars had seen the light and lost to internal combustion.  According to the story Tesla and his nephew Peter Savo had taken the engine out of the car and replaced it with an electric motor (probably a Westinghouse, but unknown).

But here is the Tesla part.  The engine was powered by an energy receiver (like a Tesla coil).  According to Tesla’s nephew the vehicle could get up to speeds of 90 mph.

Believable, I think so, conspiracy, myth, maybe.  Any way you cut it, Tesla Motors is building on a great name.

Some information gathered from sources citing: “Revolution in Technik, Medizin, Gesellschaft” — Hans A. Nieper

Ask an eight year old kid who Mark Zuckerberg is and they will text you back, the guy who owns facebook.

Man do I wish I were him, facebook is projected to be worth in the billions (with a b) after Microsoft bought 1.6% in 2007 for $240 million.

Actually the man I wish I were was Paul Ceglia of Wellsville, NY who has a contract with Zuckerberg giving him more than half the company.

Why did he wait so long?  Well the contract had an escalating value the longer the agreement went on! (up to 85% now)

Right now the trial is underway in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Buffalo.

I will be following this one very closely as I can’t wait to see how it turns out!