In case you needed another reason to avoid using AOL.

Slashdot | AOL Fined for Making it Hard to Cancel Service: "AOL paying a $1.25 million fine and agreeing to reform its customer service procedures"

I recently told a new friend to stop using AOL. Just stop. The justifications for such advice are ubiquitous. Here's #1183.

Quick timesaver

Turn on address autocomplete in Firefox - Today's Browser Tip:

Here's yet another Firefox feature that's buried in about:config but which you won't be able to live without once you enable it: Address autocomplete. While by default Firefox will show you previously-visited sites that start with whatever you've entered in the address bar, when you enable this setting it will fill it right in where you're typing, so when the address you're looking for floats to the top you can just press enter.

In order to enable autocomplete in the address bar, first enter about:config in the address bar. Then right-click anywhere on the list and select New > Boolean and create a preference called browser.urlbar.autoFill. Finally, double-click on the item you've just created to set it to true. That's it!

Volleyball

We play in a volleyball league on Wednesday nights. We lost last night, our second of the season.

Losing is usually frustrating, but not worth stewing over to a point that prevents enjoying time with friends.

But last night I played like a sixth-grade novice. I hit the ball a dozen times, once pretty well, twice more a bit better, missed two in the beginning because of my terrible ... timing, and instead of turning the crank on half a dozen solid sets, I dinked it over the net, zero times gaining a point. And I couldn't pass to save Sheree's life. And it even started getting to me in the game, probably contributing to some passive play that saw some balls that should have been mine to be passed poorly by teammates acting on my distraction.

One concept team sports teaches is how a chain is only as strong as the weakest link. It kills me to let down the team, so Sheree is going to have to hit a thousand balls my way and force me to use good form and teach me to pass more like Karch.

And should we lose again, I won't have to pout like a petulant child.

Google Desktop 2.0 (Beta) review by PC Magazine

Google Desktop 2.0 (Beta) review by PC Magazine: "a heavily customizable sidebar for bringing Internet content straight to your PC"

Why I love Google Desktop, Bulleted version

• It only takes up a vertical 16% of my screen.
  
• Pick photo folders and websites, it slideshows through ALL of them.
  
• Quick View is like favorites, but different
  
• Web Clips quickly shows the latest content from my friends' pages
  
• News is regularly updated with fresh stories
  
• Most importantly, email (Outlook or gmail, maybe others) shows up almost immediately.
  
• Weather, Stock Quotes, What's Hot, Scratch Pad
  
• Desktop search provides Results-As-You-Type.

Ten minutes a day, $90 a month.

State Limits Hybrids in Fast Lanes - Yahoo! News: "The state says only three hybrids — the Honda Civic, Honda Insight and Toyota Prius — will be allowed."

The article mentions twice that people may not use the solo carpool ability when selecting a new gas-efficient vehicle. It will be our biggest factor.

She spends 1.7 hours on the daily commute, and our monthly gas budget is $300 ($115 for my 12.8mpg Tahoe and $185 for her 80 miles/day.) So our next car will allow us time-efficiency as we drive solo in the carpool, and her mpg will double, mine will quadruple!

Behold the power of democracy to effect social and environmental change. Even at glacier-like speeds.

No te preocupes. I will see you on the other side.

I do not expect to die anytime soon, but on Thursday last week KPCC's Past Sunset spent a few minutes talking about The Funeral Industry. Included in the discussion was the increasingly popular Green Funeral:

The environmentally-concerned may choose to be buried in a fashion more suited to their beliefs. They may choose to be buried in a coffin made of cardboard or other easily-biodegradable materials. Further, they may choose their final resting place to be in a park or woodland and may have a tree planted over their grave as a contribution to the environment and a remembrance.

The program talked of a forested cemetery with GPS-enabled wireless units that digitally marked the location of each plot. MSNBC's article pictures plot markers made of natural, flat stones.

Until I heard of this option, I had settled on cremation followed by a scattering from a beachcliff. A green burial seems more natural. Matt has told me of his preference for an upbeat party in lieu of the more somber traditions, and I agree, but what kind of music should be played? And how about finger sandwiches? Does this have to be a morbid subject?

Another thing about death, I have not prepared any documents. I prefer to save the $300-$500 I would expect to pay an expert to help with the task. I hope to find some templates, complete them, store them at the bank, and give instructions to the family. Life insurance, living wills, and estate distribution documents will be followed in a few years by one to cover handling of the kids.

One less thing to buy at Costco

Populicious pointed me to a NY Times article about drinking water vs. tap water that has me asking a handful of questions.

Is this writer a shill for municipal water suppliers? What the hell does that mean? Will there be a backlash of misinformation provided by the bottled water industry? Why do you get one brand when you spell naïve backwards?

I wonder if we can taste a difference between tap & Kirkland & Arrowhead. Why was wine the only thing used to palate-cleanse between samples in the writer's informal experiment? Why not beer? Or Maker's Mark?

Portia tells me to avoid bottled water. It's wasteful to make so many bottles. Our house recycles maybe half of them, probably more than most, but definitely not enough to minimize the environmental impact.

Developing countries have limited access to clean water of any kind, which makes a strong argument to also find, the illogical enthusiasm for bottled water not simply peculiar, but distasteful.