Bye Bye Isuzu

An AutoWeek Breaking News post By DALE JEWETT:

Isuzu Motors America said on Wednesday that it will stop selling vehicles in the U.S. market. The decision is effective as of Thursday, Jan. 31, the company said in a press release.

Isuzu vehicles in the U.S. market--the Ascender SUV and i-series pickups--are reworked versions of General Motors vehicles. The Ascender is reworked from the Chevrolet TrailBlazer/GMC Envoy, and the pickups are rebadged from the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon.

Isuzu sold 7098 vehicles in the United States in 2007, down 17.6 percent from a year earlier.

Isuzu said it would continue to honor warranties and encourage its dealers to continue as service-only centers.

I had a 1998 Isuzu Rodeo S model. Unlike the majority of them and the sister Honda Passport, I had it with the 5 speed manual. It was a nice vehicle.

Too bad. From making cars and trucks, as well as supplying vehicles and engines to others, the end comes where things are pretty much the opposite. Only selling a very limited line of vehicles made by others. Moving to the we only make trucks mentatlity might have worked if the timing were right and the product line wasn't so limited. Who knows, like others, them may be back some day.

E-mails Gone!

I am waiting for the Missouri Edition.



Maybe having a bit of fun with the comment above, but this is actually a real book by David Gewirtz. It is an analysis of White House e-mail.


Below are some reviews from the back cover of the book.

E-mail retention

As e-mail rentention is a hot topic right now, one might be interested in checking out Missouri's Secretary of State website for electronic record resources and e-mail records guidelines.



The Managing E-mail Records Guidelines were approved and recommended by the State Records Commission.

I believe the membership of the Commission at that time was as shown below:


Click graphic for larger version.

An early version (May 2001) of the Managing E-mail Records Guidelines was a bit different from the version of today.


Appears it was last updated in 2005, although just glancing it doesn't appear that anything in the document has really changed, aside from the cover page.

Old cover page:


New cover page:


I believe the membership of the Commission today is shown below:


Click graphic for larger version.

Missouri Secretary of State site in Identity Theft Story

Not the kind of story you want your website to be mentioned in, or worse yet, displayed prominently.



Is town hall helping identification theives
Is your local government unwittingly helping criminals access your personal data? NBC's Lisa Myers investigates.

More Missouri Government Blogs

I noticed that the Missouri Department of Mental Health started a Blog back in June.  They have chosen to host their blog on TypePad.

The Missouri Senate started using Blogger for their blog in March of 2006.

If the Missouri House would decide to follow suit, they will need to follow a different naming convention than the Senate as MissouriHouse.blogspot.com is already taken by someone trying to sell a house in Brookfield, Missouri for $6,400.

The Missouri State Employees' Retirement System is also on Blogger with their MOSERS Rumor Central blog.

Loss of an income stream

The Governor of Missouri, Matt Blunt, announced today that he will not seek another term, hence you know longer see the MattBlunt.com ads showing up on Google.

Many state employees can't get to YouTube, but as mentioned in the press release a video of the announcement is avaiable on YouTube.



I didn't even know that the Governor had an Official YouTube Channel.

Matt Blunt or Jay Nixon - Either one could be paying me

I mentioned in a previous post that Governor Blunt's Campaign could be paying me and now it turns out that the opposition, Jay Nixon's Campaign, could be paying me as well. Both camps are using Ads by Google.

Notes.ini

IBM/Lotus has a nice online reference for Lotus Notes/Domino Notes.ini settings.



It has been some time since I have gone out and checked out the Notes/Domino Fix List. Of course, from here you can check out upcoming releases and "What's New". The site has a fresher look since the last time I checked it out.

Although it is currently just at Stage 2-Code Freeze, it looks like 8.01 is estimated to come out in February. Currently looks like there are 709 fixes for 8.01.



I need to get back to looking at what it will take to get our Notes/Domino environment upgraded. I imagine we would be looking at 8.01 at this point.

Of course, the Lotus Documentation site can be a good place to check out when looking for information on your Lotus products.

So, have you joined BleedYellow.com yet?



It is the eve of Lotusphere 2008, so you will probably see more from Lotus in the next week.

LinkedIn

I hadn't logged in to LinkedIn for a while so headed there the night before last, but they were doing some maintenance.

Paint 3.22

Paint.NET 3.22 is out. A new item to 3.22 is Noise Reduction.

State of the State

Missouri's Governor gave the State of the State Address this evening. If you missed it and are interested, you can see it and the Democratic response on KRCG's site.

New Missouri Online Services

Missouri recently rolled out some updates to its Accountability Portal. One update allows you to find information about state employees pay, searching by Agency, by Employee, or by Position.

One has also been able to find a snapshot of state employees pay via the "Blue Book" from the Secretary of State's Office. It is currently in its 66th Edition and has been available via the web for some time.

The Portal also has a link to Revenue's "Who Is Not Paying" site, which allows one to search for businesses that have a revoked Missouri Sales Tax License. From the site:

A business may have its sales tax license revoked for failure to remit sales tax collected from its customers to the Department of Revenue or a business may have its sales tax license revoked for failure to remit income taxes withheld on behalf of its employees to the Department of Revenue.

Revenue has also recently released the No Returned Required site, which is "for individuals in the military who are stationed in Missouri or have a Missouri home of record and are not required to file a Missouri income tax return." By submitting their information via the website they are notifying the Missouri Department of Revenue that they are not required to file a Missouri income tax return.

The latest release by the Missouri Department of Revenue is a site that allows one to "Search for an organization or business with a current Missouri Department of Revenue Business Tax Registration". Just remember that the site is based on the information that Revenue has via the business tax registration, not necessarily by the name you think of as the business name. If you don't find a business name under business or exempt organizations, you might head back over the the Secretary of State site and do a "Search for Business Entity...", as it is possible a business might have a fictitious name registered. If you find the business you were looking for here, then you might check under type to see if it is a fictitous registration, if so, you might follow the link and look in the filed documents where you might actually find the name that they have used for business tax registration.

Photoblog

I did it. I moved my photoblog to a new site. Hey Blogger has been good to me and I am not looking to move my main blog, but my photoblog, now simply called Bonj's Photoblog is now at http://pics.aminus3.com.

That just happened to be the name I picked when I was testing it, I really wasn't thinking much about it, so that is what it is. If you put bonj's photoblog in Google it is the first hit.

Sick Again

Another Monday and I am at home sick again. Kind of like last week, but somewhat hoarse this time and I was running a fever, which I don't do very often. This time I went to see the doctor and left with three prescriptions. Hopefully I'll be feeling noticeably better tomorrow.

Google Reader & OPML files

Did you know that you can import OPML files into Google Reader to subscribe to feeds.

Simply go to Manage Subscriptions...



...then click on Import/Export, browse to the OPML file you want to import and then click upload. (You can also export your Google subscriptions if you would want to import them into another reader, of have a backup copy in case you mess something up.)



Recommendation: It is a good idea to have your feeds assigned to folders, making them easier to manage. It is also possibly to manipulate the OPML to put items in folders you already have setup, but I'll probably let someone more in the know on that one give insight on how to do that.

AMINUS3

Aminus3 currently has a community page, which shows some of the photos posted for that date. At the bottom of that page you can select to see all photos posted for that day. It displays them as thumbnails and then you can click one to see it on the individual's site.

If you know one that you are looking for you can use CTL-F to bring up the find dialog box and enter the display name associated with the site to find their picture, such as entering bonj. If you are on the page for all photos posted for the day and you don't find the name you are looking for, then the person has probably not posted a photo for that date.

You can only post one picture for each day, but you get to pick the date. If you upload one for a future date, it will not be visible per your site or the community list until that day comes. If you post to a date in the past, it will show on your page, but as the date has past, it won't make it on the community page.

Picked Up Focus

Woudn't you know it. I picked up my car yesterday, but they only got one of the parts in. It was the PCV tube assembly which is the more important of the two as they state driving with the PCV problem long enough could cause engine damage. Not having the yaw control simply means that the traction control does not work, which is not that big of a deal. The yaw piece is now expected to be in on Monday, but they said not to bring the car in until they call when they have it in hand.

I noticed when stopping on the way home that the car really idled rough when stopped and in gear. I called when I got home and mentioned it. They told me that the tech had reset the computer, so it was still learning where it should be idling at. He could not remember how long it took for it work its way out, but was pretty sure it would by Monday. With their track record, I am not sure I have a real warm fuzzy feeling about it, but we will see.

Ford Focus in the Shop

Some of you may have read about my 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 S2 over the years. It is up to a whooping (ha!) 47,000 miles now, but it is back in the shop.

This time, the traction control light was popping on a few times over a couple of days and then when driving home from volleyball the other night the check engine light came on and stayed on.

Diagnosis, it needs a new yaw control piece (sounds like an airplane) to take care of the traction control issue, and a new PCV tube assembly to take care of the check engine light. That is if they diagnosed it correctly.

They ordered parts yesterday and said that I should expect my car back today. I guess only time will tell.

Photoblogs

I am toying with the idea of moving my photoblog. I like my photoblog template a bit better than the old one I used to have for it on Blogger, but I like a lot of the photoblogs that have a truly photo centric look/feel.

Like Blogger I would like to find a free solution without having to really worry about space requirements.

I am thinking of something more like AMINUS3 (I posted some of my pics there to see how it works), but not sure that I like the tie to one picture a day. As you can place them on any day you want, it may not really be an issue. Not really after the look of photo hosting like Flickr or Zooomr.

I look at a fair number of photoblogs (often those submitting their pics on Photo Friday and Thursday Challenge) and realize how much of an amateur I really am, but taking and sharing photos is enjoyable nonetheless.

If you have a favorite photoblog hosting site, or have an opinion between my currnet one and Aminus3 feel free to comment. Thanks.

Another One Bites the Dust

Imagestation is going away.

Billy G

A funny video from Billy G's last keynote at CES. This takes you to a page on Autoblog that has a cropped down version from SlashGear.

You can follow the link below for the whole keynote:

Billy G's keynote

Exclusive Car Dealership Break In

Interesting TrueTV Video.



Tiger Team, and I am not talking Mizzou, breaking into an exclusive car dealership.

Tornado Warnings

There are tornado warnings in adjacent counties. The sirens are going off in our city, which makes it hard to sleep as I was trying to do.

EAS has taken over the TV a couple of times, but each time there were no announcements coming through. That is handy. About as good as the PA system in the building where I work.

Darkar Rally Cancelled.

AutoWeek reports that the Dakar Rally has been cancelled. I always thought the Dakar Rally would be an interesting experience. Not sure I could survive the 6,000 miles though.

Photo Rights

Saw this one listed in the comments of a video post on the Digital Photography School Blog.

Photographer's Right, "A Downloadable Flyer Explaining Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography", by Bert P. Krages II.

Lethal Injection

Saw a story about lethal injections on CNN today. Kind of interesting.

Found the topic online as well.

Link to online version of the story: Lethal injection creator: Maybe it's time to change formula

A story on Fox earlier in 2007: Lethal Injection Father Defends Creation

At the end of the Fox online story, Dr. Chapman says:

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with the guillotine," he said impatiently. "It can be operated by an idiot and it is a very effective instrument."

You often hear talk of death penalty executions being painless. A curiosity question. How does one actually go about determining that it is painless? You can't ask those that were executed.


Missouri's Old Gas Chamber built in 1937. The site of 40 executions.

Sick

I am at home sick today. Not fun. Sinus and/or cold with the aching muscles stuff. Logic says I should spend some time catching up on some work and my mind says it is not Claritin clear enough for doing work like that. Not going to be much of a productive day. Maybe I'll go back through some posts I noticed were still in a draft state and finished them up.

I e-mailed work early this morning and then got back up to call in per work policy then went back to bed again. I then woke up around 10am. It was one of those, when you wake up kind of confused, as something just doesn't seem right. It didn't take long for me to figure out what it was. The electricity was off. It came back on about 30 minutes later.

Poll Results in Favor of State Government Participating in Social Media Sites

Finally getting the poll taken off the side.

My poll on Social Media in State Government only had 7 respondents. The question was:

Do you think State Government should participate in social media sites (wikis, blogs, video sharing, etc..)?

The possible responses were:

Yes, definitely and open to all employees.

Yes, but only if limited to public information officers and/or designated web personnel.

Yes, and even though it removes some of the socialization, only if the technology is used within the government webspace.

No, I see no reason for it.

No, I think there would be too many risk and liabilities.


The results were that 71% were in favor of State Government participatin in social media sites and having it open to all employees.

Converting .MOV files to .AVI

The home PC crashed not to long ago and it ended up that I can't remember what little app I had found to convert .MOV files to .AVI files, so I went looking again. As usual I looked for open source/freeware and ran across MediaCoder.



Looks like it might not be to bad if you new much about video. I don't. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18K does videos in .MOV file format. I usually use PhotoStory 3 and Windows Movie Maker when making videos. Windows Movie Maker doesn't like .MOV files, hence the need to convert. After playing around with it, I did get my videos to convert, but they were enormously large compared to the original and after stringing together and publising a moving from Windows Movie Maker they looked awful. Some more playing around and I finally got the settings to where it was outputting files of similar size that would come out viewable from Windows Movie Maker.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and welcome to 2008!