When I hire someone, it's generally for graphic arts positions. A lame email address (and by that I mean "AOL" or virtually any "free" email address that comes with Internet access) is an early indicator that the person interviewing is not as technologically savvy as I'd like to find. It's not a hard and fast rule - just an indicator. I've found that a lot of credible candidates have free email accounts from Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail, and that doesn't seem to have any bearing on their tech savvy. But let me see something from "clueless1975@roadrunner.net" or "luddite6@aol.com" and I can promise you, they won't know their ass from their elbow when it comes to online work. Ironically, my best friend used his AOL address as his primary/home email for years...until I finally convinced him of Gmail's superior anti-spam filtering. And he was a fairly technical guy...a former mid-level manager at HP, GTE, and Nortel. You just never know...

Seriously. If you go to any FastSigns or similar quick sign shop, they can print anything you like on a flexible, shrink-wrap plastic they can then wrap around your case, like a second skin. The plastic wrap is can be shrunk around corners (they can even do electric guitars) and many stores have artwork ready to go - wood grain panels, steel, diamond-tread steps, rusted metal - lots of macho stuff. For better security, you can get your name or company logo printed on the material and then applied.

This from the party of "Green" everything? Here's the REAL story...a buddy of mine (who's dad is the chief engineer at an Amarillo, Texas TV station) tells me that it costs about $10,000 per month in electricity to run a transmitter. That's ONE transmitter - for either analog or digital. When you add a second transmitter, you double the juice, and double the cost. Same data. Same shows. Same commercials - just costs twice as much to air it. Now figure that there are over 300 local TV stations in the US. Delay the transition until June, and you're talking over $12,000,000 in wasted money (that the stations can't bill anybody for) and wasted electricity. How many friggin' mercury-filled florescent lightbulbs and carbon offsets will it take to make up for that kind of waste, hmm? While we're on the subject, how many people in the US don't have either cable or satellite TV? Seriously...I've asked as many low-income people I know or run into, and I've yet to find ANYbody that gets their TV through rabbit ears or a roof antenna. Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy the handful of Luddites new TVs and be done with it?

Bear with me please - I'm not a scientist...just a graphic designer. If a vacuum is a great insulator, why wouldn't it be possible/practical to encase your CPU in one - or even your entire computer's case become a vacuum-sealed box? I know heat is a big element in computing, but so is noise. If I could get rid of my computer's fan noise, I'd be one happy camper. Any ideas on this? While I'm at it, I wouldn't see the "heat converting" chip as a solution to energy problems, but if were efficient enough, why couldn't it work in much the same way as a turbocharger on a gasoline-powered automobile...essentially taking the excess heat and turning it back into power.