Quicken Online Beta

There have been some articles talking about the advent of Intuit's new Quicken Online product. It is supposed to be available this winter with beta testing beginning this month.

I have been using Quicken religiously for over 10 years. I track everything - even the cash that goes in and out of my wallet. The last few years, I have been using Linux, and Intuit does not make a version of Quicken for Linux. Therefore, I've had to keep a Windows laptop around just for the purpose of running Quicken. With Quicken Online, I should be able to dump Windows forever!

Just now I did a Google search for Quicken Online Beta, and found out that they have already begun the beta testing. You can sign up to be a beta tester or to get notified when Quicken Online is available. I signed up for both and am anxiously awaiting an email telling me I can login.

New Hard Drive Camcorder

With a new baby on the way, I thought it would be a good idea to get a camcorder. There aren't any videos of me growing up, and I always wished there were some. I decided not to spend a lot of money for the latest and greatest camcorder because I am not yet familiar with camcorders and I don't really know what features I want.

Out of the different storage medias, I went for a Hard Drive camcorder. I plan to edit and archive all the videos on my computer, and a Hard Drive camcorder makes it really easy to transfer the videos. There is no need to playback the video while capturing as is necessary with other storage formats. It is just like having a digital camera: Take the video, connect the camera to the computer via a USB connection, and drag and drop the files over.

I was comparing various camcorders from JVC and Sony and ended up with the Sony DCR-SR62 after reading various Amazon reviews and playing with both of them at Best Buy. The Sony had simple-to-use touch screen which I really liked.

The camcorder comes with software for Windows, but my computer runs Ubuntu Linux, so it doesn't do me any good. Luckily, there really isn't any need to have software since the computer just sees the camcorder as a USB drive.

The camcorder stores the video in MPEG-2 format which are instantly viewable with Totem Movie Player which comes with Ubuntu. There are several video editors available for Linux, but so far I've only played around wtih Kino. Kino first converts the files to DV format, but after that it is pretty easy to cut up clips and then stitch them together.

I have filmed and edited one video so far of me and my wife talking our dog for a stroll around the neighborhood. It was a lot of fun.

Shanghai vs LA: Building a Subway

An article in the LA Times today, Shanghai's Booming Subway, talks about the success Shanghai is having with the building of their public transportation infrastructure. Shanghai started in 1990, 4 years after LA started building the Red Line, and they're already on track to have one of the world's best systems.

It takes so long in LA and other American cities because so many proposals have to be vetted before so many people before anything gets approved. Most of the time, the NIMBYism takes over and no progress is made. By contrast, according to the article, this is what happens in Chinese cities:

At the risk of only slight oversimplification, the system works like this: Planners draw subway lines on a map. Party officials approve them. Construction begins. If anything is in the way, it is moved. If they need to, Chinese planners "just move 10,000 people out of the way," said Lee Schipper, a transport planner who has worked with several Chinese cities in his role as director of research for EMBARQ, a Washington-based transportation think tank. "They don't have hearings."

Miro To The Rescue

This weekend I discovered Miro, an open source Internet tv and video player that can be installed on Linux [1]. I have been looking for an application like this for a long time. I am now using it (instead of iTunes) to manage my video podcasts.

I first added TeXtra, Geekbrief, and TikiBar as "channels", and then I discovered a few more video podcasts using Miro's "Miro Guide". I now plan to watch Google's engEDU series which features presentations made at Google about various tech topics.

It seems like I'm starting to watch a lot more video on the Internet. I would much rather be sitting on my family room couch while watching these videos instead of being at my computer desk in the office. I think I'm soon going to need a solution that will let me play these videos on my TV - preferably a Linux-friendly solution.

[1] There is an Ubuntu repository from which you can install and update Miro. Click here for details.

Arrested Development on the Pier

We went to see Arrested Development on the Santa Monica Pier this evening. It was a free concert that was a part of the Santa Monica Twilight Dance Series. They played a lot of hits, e.g. "Tennessee," "People Everyday" and "Mr. Wendal", from their early 90's album 3 Years 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of....

Speech, the lead singer, thanked the crowd for supporting the band for 17 years. It is hard to believe they've been around that long. They didn't seem that old. I guess that's because I'm getting old.

I really liked Speech's voice and phrasing. I miss the time when bands like Arrested Development and Digable Planets were more prominent. I much prefer that brand of hip-hop (lighter, more rhythmic, and full of insightful social commentary) to what you hear on the radio today.

If you haven't been to any of the Twilight Dance Series events, I recommend you check it out. It is so nice to walk out onto the pier, watch the sun set, and then enjoy an open-air, free concert from a great band like Arrested Development. Good times.