Good talk from Car Talk

From Tom & Ray:

Car Talk will now be available via the Windows Media Player, rather than RealMedia. That’s right, we’re unceremoniously dumping RealMedia.

Why? Because, for a long time, we’ve had tons of complaints about RealNetworks. And the one that ticks us off the most is the perceived trickery they use to sell their premium products. This is just our opinion, mind you, but it’s shared by enough of our listeners, that we finally decided to take action.

Here’s the problem. In order to hear our audio, you have to go to Real.com and download their “free” RealPlayer. But when you get to the web site, the free player is harder to find than Osama Bin Laden at night. And the site seems to do everything it possibly can to get you to “buy” a player instead. You have to work very hard to get the free player. And we think that stinks. And get this. It stinks so much that it even makes Microsoft look good by comparison. That’s something, huh?

We’ve heard from many of our fans that have been duped, and who have accidentally shelled out their hard-earned dineros. And we won’t even get into the ways that the RealPlayer tries to take over your computer once you install it. So, after surveying the alternatives, we’re switching to Windows Media Player (which works on Macs, too).

NewMexiKen understands that you can download a spyware free copy of RealPlayer from BBC Radio.

Engineering geek names son version 2.0

From CNN.com

Tacking Jr. or II onto a boy’s name is too common, a new father decided, so the self-described engineering geek took a software approach to naming his newborn son.

Jon Blake Cusack talked his wife, Jamie, into naming their son Jon Blake Cusack 2.0.

When? When? When?

As of January 29th dooce was still pregnant but her site had a new masthead.

The woman teaching the class has never had a baby, and she openly scolded me and Jon when we shouted out, “Cigars!” in response to the question What should you bring with you to the hospital? I’m certain she was looking for a more obvious answer, like The Book of Mormon or an extra set of Heavenly Underwear, two VERY important items in a birthing plan, right up there with tequila and porn, if you ask me. I think I may have crossed the line when earlier this week during a discussion about the pros and cons of breastfeeding I suggested that one of the advantages of formula feeding was being able to get back to my rock and roll lifestyle. You’ve never seen a more frightened group of pregnant women, many of them obviously terrified that their child would one day encounter my child and be introduced to the evils of coffee and MTV.

The first woman elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate…

Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway was born on this date in 1878. Mrs. Caraway was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Arkansas to fill the unexpired term of her deceased husband early in 1932. She won reelection to a full term that fall and again in 1938.

Movie immortals…

John Ford and Clark Gable were born on this date. Ford in 1895; Gable in 1901.

John Ford won six Oscars for Best Director: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). The other two Oscars were for World War II documentaries: The Battle of Midway and December 7th. Other memorable films include Drums Along the Mohawk, Young Mr. Lincoln, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Searchers. Regardless of where Ford’s westerns were set, most of the exteriors were filmed in Monument Valley Arizona/Utah.

Clark Gable won the Best Actor award in 1935 for It Happened One Night. He was nominated for Best Actor for Mutiny of the Bounty and Gone With the Wind.

Sunday snow

NewMexiKen’s residence received a lovely 2-inch snowfall overnight.