Teens glued to electronic Media.

If you know a teen who is spending lot of time on electronic media, you are not alone.

See: http://www.pcworld.com/article/187353/todays_teens_glued_to_electronic_media.html

9hrs per day with a gadget, 9 hrs per sleep leaves 6 hrs a day for hygeine, food, exercise, studies, talking to parents.

I predict that this will lead to increase in Obesity, decrease in life expectancy
for the millennial generation in the US and the baby boom generation in Asia compared to their parents.

If you have been using AAA for a long time, you now have other choices.

Are you a member of AAA? If so, you now have other choices.

I have been a member in AAA since 1984. In those days, if you had a car you pretty much needed AAA.
Emergency roadside assistance for dead battery, out of fuel, flat tire.
Maps and Trip routing when you travel to a new place for the first time.
Tourbook to find places to visit and also on Hotels/Motels 15% or so discount.
Also, you could get discount on parking at airports.

Then came internet at home in 1995 due to work account that you access using a modem. No real substitute to AAA.

In 1996 Mapquest.com was launched but then many of us did not have internet at home unless we used office computer.

In 1999, DSL was available for $50 a month and it was paid for by the office. Internet then came home to the desktop PC.

In 1996-2000 map software was available such as Expedia Streets and Trips for $20 with a $20 rebate = free. It replaced the need for AAA maps, Triptik but you could use AAA to get discount on Hotels/Motels and airport parking. Better than Mapquest since you could take your laptop on the road and you could connect a cheap $100 Garmin GPS to actually have a geek's GPS.

In 2002 Garmin GPS (fat and heavy) but great navigation came for about $700 plus a $200 for a 2GB Compact Flash. It was for early adopters who wanted to save time on a weekend but did not want to spend $2000 on a car Nav system.
It certainly replaced AAA maps, Triptik. Still AAA was good for discounts on Hotels/Motels and airport parking.

Then came Expedia.com in 2002 to book hotels and flights. You could do even better than AAA discount with Expedia. Also came coupons for discounts for airport parking.

So, you need AAA for emergency roadside assistance. Right?

Wrong! You could get this for a small addition to your auto insurance.

In fact for Executive Members of Costco who get 2% discount on all Costco purchases like me who also have Auto Insurance from Costco Roadside assistance and 5 mi towing was free for which you pay $54 per yr for primary member and $31 for additional driver. So, I paid $85 per yr for 6 yrs to AAA for nothing. That is $500.

Then I gave my 1994 minivan to my college going son in 2008 and upgraded to AAA $89 primary and 2 x $46 for other drivers for 1 year till he turned 21 and then he had to get his own for $89 which in a way I was paying too. That is another $180 for 1 year and $135 for the last 6 months totaling $315. Then came the surprise! Apparently there is limit of 4 Roadside assistance per member per yr and there is a limit for total as well. My inexperienced son called AAA 5 times and I was billed $65 for the 5th instance. AAA will not consider my long history with them and not waive the charge. They just did not care if I stopped being a member.

You could get a GPS for under $100 and use it for 2years. Beats the heck out of $54 per yr for maps at AAA. In fact if you have a smartphone you have a free GPS now.

Finally I woke up and realized that I spent at least $900 since 2002 for something which was free to me.

If you are like me, may be you can wake up now and cancel AAA.

I finally added update manager icon back to panel in Xubuntu 13.10 beta.

I finally was able to add back update manager icon to Xubuntu menu item or panel launcher.

Here is how I did it.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4e-yCoZRAkTaHRpb19FY0FzMTg/edit?usp=sharing

Diet Soda is not really good for you.

So you think Diet Soda is OK?

Think again.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4e-yCoZRAkTN2VlZWQxOTMtMmVjMS00YmVhLWI4MTEtYjdjNjVmNTU2ZmI0&hl=en

What to store in the cloud and what not to? Here are my thoughts.

Are you scared if your computer dies? I am not.

I organize the data as follows:

1. Very critical and fits in 2GB:

I use Dropbox.

Examples:

Word, Excel spreadsheets. Any finacial date must be password protected and    even encrypted. 

Save only on Dropbox folder. Why Dropbox? Multi-platform: Windows, Mac, IOS, Android    and even Linux. 2GB free. Other choice is Ubuntu One 5GB and all the same platforms.

Disclosure: I use Xubuntu Linux for everything except filing taxes for which I use WIndows    on a dual-boot laptop and I use Android Samsung Galaxy Note 2 5.5" 720p "Phablet".

2. Somewhat critical and fits in 10GB:

I use GoogleDrive.

Examples:

Documents you share with others, Favorite photos or music you always want    to access even from a phone.    

I bought 80GB of space per year under Google's old plan for $20 per yr. All my    photos and video clips go there. There could be better and cheaper choices just    for Photos and Videos.

3. Important but too big to save in Dropbox or Google Drive:

I use external drive + copy on a computer.

Examples:

Photos and Videos not on GoogleDrive such as home video.

Have a copy in data drive and frequently backup to external drive.

   

4. Not that important but nice to have:

I use external drive only.

Examples:

Movies from youtube you download to watch on a plane or your DVD or Bluray movies that you backed up.

If you really like the content, have 2 copies on 2 external drives/

5. Strictly temporary and small files you can get again.

Just fine to leave them in your Download folder.

6. Strictly temporary and big files you can get again. 

Examples:  

 

.iso files of software you paid for or free. Moving data around or sharing with others.
Put them in a directory on the external USB drive called Temp.