Culture Questions

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Oh sure, rub it in. You get to see all the latest releases while I’m roasting here in Austria waiting for all of the good movies to come this way. We are just getting Knight and Day this weekend and Toy Story the following one. Yet somehow they felt Predators and the Prince of Persia were worthy enough to get through in a timely fashion. Conspiracy Theory!

Hopefully I can wake up from this nightmare and find out the prince was just slaughtered by a predator. And Inception, by and by, I have to pass the time for two more weeks and I don’t like waiting.

So how do I get my movie fix filled? First and foremost, one of the true veterans of the web: The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). This wiki-esque mountain of movie minutiae is the place to go to find out anything you want about movies and TV shows. If you search for a movie title in Google, I can almost guarantee the IMDB entry will be in the top three.

Although the homepage is as spartan as the clothing was in 300, along the left side you’ll find the links to what’s hot now, and what will be in the next few weeks. The true power though is in the IMDB search feature, which has never failed me, whether for movies, or actors, or characters. They even have information on movies that are just now being filmed like the Butch Cassidy sort-of-sequel, Blackthorn.

Of course, I’m a visual person and where the IMDB kind of misses is the presence of movie trailers. These are the two-minute long previews they show at the theater in seemingly endless quantities before they actually let you see the movie you paid for. Many people hate ‘em like Lindsay Lohan, but I love ‘em like Lucy Lawless.

I’ve found, with much trial and error, that Apple’s iTunes (trailers.apple.com) site is the best for finding, watching and re-watching trailers for upcoming movies. Like everything Apple, it isn’t just a website, or a phone, or an MP3 player – it is an experience. Competing sites like Trailer Addict (www.traileraddict.com) and Comingsoon.net just don’t deliver the same eye candy, nor are they organized as simply as Apple’s site.

As far as buying movie tickets, Fandango (www.fandango.com) is still king. Though, without a lot of sci-fi megahits – like Batman and his Marvel brethren, or Harry Potter – coming through at the moment, you probably don’t need this service as sell-outs seem unlikely. Still, it is nice to know you have options.

Fandango is also handy at finding movie times. But recently I’ve just been using Google’s built-in results. Search for “movies richmond,” or whatever your city is, and up comes the movie times, which you can sort by film or theater. It’s Blood Simple.

Of course, how do you know a movie will be any good? I mean, you’d much rather see Il Postino than The Postman. I’m still upset I had a late fee for that heap of donkey dung. The freshest site is Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). Use it’s Tomatometer to find out if Angelina Jolie’s next movie, Salt, is closer to her breakthrough Gia or the forgettable Original Sin.

Now back to my own problems. What should it be tonight? Marmaduke or When in Rome? Eesh. Why can’t I get Netflix over here?

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I’m not sure, but if you spent more time in the kitchen and less time online, maybe you’d be a better cook! Okay, maybe not. But here are some Internet-based suggestions for improving your culinary creations.

For those pesky terms neither you nor I have heard of, like “agar-agar” or “zwieback”, take a look at CooksRecipes' on-line dictionary at www.cooksrecipes.com/cooking-dictionary/cooking-dictionary.html. You can search for items alphabetically by clicking on the first letter of the word. Additionally, CooksRecipes lists more recipes than you could ever hope to cook. You can do a search by recipe name or major ingredient, or browse recipe categories from their side-bar navigation feature.

Another great site is www.allrecipes.com. I particularly like their ingredients tab at top. There you can list ingredients that you know you have on-hand, and the search feature will list numerous recipes using those ingredients. That’s great when you need to put a meal together pretty quickly and don’t have time to shop. Additionally, you can list items you don’t like in the search to make sure you don’t get any recipes using my least favorite food: turnips.

The site also lists common recipe substitutions. Did you know that you can substitute a half teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of ginger, and a quarter teaspoon of cloves to equal a teaspoon of allspice? I didn’t either, but that would have been helpful to know the last time I made Lebanese green beans, only to discover in the middle of the process that I had no allspice.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, take a look at www.foodnetwork.com. It features all the star chefs from the television channel. You can grill like Bobby Flay, whip up a pasta sauce with Giada De Laurentiis, or concoct a delicious artery-clogging dessert with Paula Deen. I shouldn’t trash Paula Deen, bless her heart. Her lemon blossoms are to die for, especially if you eat too many!

I love to eat, but I also love to drink. Unfortunately, I’m not the best bartender in the world. Not to worry, take a look at www.webtender.com. I love the In My Bar link that allows me to select from an extensive list of ingredients and then gives me a listing of drinks I can make.

At www.idrink.com, you can find out what’s hot with their "Top 10 Recipes" tab, as well as what’s not on the "Worst 10 Recipes" tab. IDrink also gives party theme suggestions and even mentions a few games to play, not that I would recommend that sort of thing.

I hope this has helped. I’m now both thirsty and starving, having written this article … time to head out for lunch!

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There is no shortage of issues, controversies, scandals, and the like surrounding the world’s religious communities. As a rule, these events can have a polarizing effect on people, so big and little issues can become significant.

This PropellerHead believes you already get enough press regarding today’s religious headlines. Depending on your point of view, the reporting may be accurate or slanderous. But religion certainly has an impact on your life, even if you consider yourself thoroughly secular. Since understanding can lead to true tolerance, respect, and acceptance, I thought it would be helpful to relay some websites that could contribute to a better understanding of organized religion.

Obviously, we can’t cover all beliefs or their websites. Rather, we will to provide some online resources that are a good starting point for research about the major religions of the world.

A good place to start is www.religionfacts.com. Religion facts begins with what they call The Big Religion Chart which lists in grid format 42 regions/sects/beliefs, a brief background, number of followers, basic interpretation of God (monotheistic, polytheistic, etc.), purpose of life, afterlife, practices (prayer, sacrifice, etc.), basic text (Bible, Qur'an, etc.) and links for more information. According to their chart, about two thirds of the world’s population consider themselves followers of Islam, Hindu, or Christianity. It lists atheists at a little over a billion. That leaves about one billion for the rest of the world’s population.

The BBC in Great Britain has very nice website (www.bbc.co.uk/religion) with easy navigation and features like a multi-denominational calendar to help you get caught up with the religions of the world. As you might expect, it is chock full of BBC audio and video clips covering various religious backgrounds and stories.

The Hartford Institute for Religion Research is another great resource. Their denominations page (http://bit.ly/cW5qgB) contains links for hundreds of websites, many of which are the official websites of religions.

Some websites of note include:

• for Christianity: www.christianity.com
• for Islam: www.islam.org and www.islam101.org
• for Hinduism: www.hinduwebsoite.com
• for the Roman Catholic Church: www.vatican.va
• for Buddhism: www.buddhanet.net
• for Judaism: www.jewfaq.org
• for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: www.lds.com
• for Scientology: www.scientology.org

If Tip O’Neil was on to something, I suppose all religions are local too. Many organized religions have local places of worship where you can meet members, experience the services and rituals, and get involved in a religious community. Google local makes that easy with searches like “Catholic Church Richmond VA” or “Synagogue Tampa Bay FL”. So like anything else, you can’t believe everything you see on TV regarding religion. Rather, do some research on your own, either on the web, or in person at a place of worship.

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Privacy Schmivacy – who cares about privacy these days? Obviously, you do, I do, and the Federal Trade Commission does … but that’s just about it.

Well, not really, but privacy as a concept has changed. If you were born before the boomer generation, your idea of privacy probably includes not giving your address or phone number out randomly, and closing your curtains at night so strangers can’t look into your house as they pass down your street. Boomers, the fastest growing population on social networking sites, are comfortable allowing a bit more information for public view. And beginning with generation X, or generation X-hibitionist, as some would call it, there seems to be less and less concern with online privacy.

Have you ever clicked to accept the privacy policy of a given site without really reading it? Chances are you’re not alone. Most of us skim the verbiage to make sure nothing too bizarre jumps out at us. But reading an entire privacy policy is both tedious and time-consuming. LinkedIn’s (www.linkedin.com) privacy policy is six pages of tiny print almost too small for this boomer’s eyes to see. MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com) also have detailed privacy policies that no one wants to read. Even Twitter (www.twitter.com) has a three-page privacy policy, and Twitter encourages its users to share what they’re doing and where they’re doing it. Privacy? I don’t think so.

So what can you do to maintain a modicum of privacy as you maneuver your way around the World Wide Web? Take a look at your profile settings on the networking sites you frequent. Make sure the information you’ve provided is being “shared” the way you prefer.

With Facebook, you decide whether your friends, your friends’ friends, or everyone can see your posts. Err on the side of caution by selecting a more restrictive option. And remember, you’re known by the company you keep, so be careful who you say your friends are. If you wouldn’t want to stop and chat with someone in the grocery store line, you probably shouldn’t accept a friend request from that person.

Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want a stranger to know. Talking about your trip to Cancun is fine once you return. But letting the world know via the web that you’re leaving for Cancun tomorrow is not a great idea unless you want to invite burglars to your home for a visit while you’re away!

The Federal Trade Commission warns that the rules to protect privacy aren’t keeping pace with technology. Computer programs can easily determine lots of information about you without even knowing who you are. Your zip code gives marketers projected incomes to determine whether their ad should come to your house or the house across the tracks. And have you ever noticed that ads seem to be based on sites you’ve visited in the past? That’s because your online habits are tracked and used to market items to you. Internet Explorer 8 and some other browsers claim to let you surf anonymously to prevent your web history from being used to track your interests. Take a look at www.ftc.gov/privacy for more information.

Time for me to close. I’ve got to pack my bags, stop my newspaper delivery, and close my curtains. I’ll be in the Caribbean next week! Wait … did I say next week, I meant next month, no make that next year … oops!

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Okay, I get it…give it a rest. After the first sentence I could tell you were suffering from Norm Crosby Syndrome (ask your Dad about him). But you got a bit carried away, didn’t you? You must work for the Department of Redundancy Department.

Yes, there are some useful Internet sites you can use to help you in your writing tasks. Writing proper English can be difficult. What with homonyms, homographs, and homophones, it’s tough picking the correct words. By the way, a homophone is not someone who is afraid of getting a call from Richard Simmons. So how do you pronounce Polish? What about polish? Rēad or read have different pronunciations and meanings depending on the context. Give me a brake. Dam…now you’ve got me doing it.

This is compounded by the fact that English is a living language, so the rules change. I don’t know what’s worse – having your speech corrected, or finding out that your usage is now acceptable. I really only wrote that last statement to protect myself from all the corrections to this article that are likely already on their way.

So, how do you know if it’s insure, ensure, or assure? What about affect, infect, effect? Got a clue on its, its’ or it’s? Please help me out with there, their, and they're.

The first place I would look is www.confusingwords.com. This is a great resource for quick definitions and distinctions for these words and others.

What about colons versus semicolons, ellipses, parentheses, and comma usage? Oh my! Check out www.bartleby.com/141/. It’s a great on-line resource for Strunk’s The Elements of Style. That's the fine couthtome we used in high school to resolve issues of style (ask your great grandfather about this).

You might also need some help with more subtle issues, like…what’s irony? Don’t bother asking Alanis Morissette; she doesn’t know. I would check out O. Henry instead (ask your book-learned aunt about him). For this, consider www.englishforums.com. In addition to covering common grammar issues, it has a fairly active forum where you can post your own questions.

For the latest talk, much of it not ready for the dictionary or sensitive eyes, check out urbandictionary.com.

Once you get a handle on these things you can start helping me out with my pet peeve: the misuse of the adverb. Seriously, what’s up with that?

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Pretty much every diet plan you’ve heard of now has a web component, from Weight Watchers (www.weightwatchers.com) to Jenny Craig (www.jennycraig.com) to NutriSystem (www.nutrisystem.com), and everything in between. Along with the “big three,” there are gazillions of others out there just waiting for you to check them out.

Most of the web sites require that you set up a log-in so that you can track your success, or in your case, lack thereof. Many of the sites are free. Well sort-of free. You can browse and poke around a bit, but ultimately there’s a push to sell a product or service of some type.

If you want to “drink” your calories, take a look at SlimFast.com. You don’t have to buy anything from the site to use it, but they do make diet planning easy, and even offer free shipping through Amazon.com. There are also tips on exercising, connecting with a support group, and weight-loss tools such as weight-loss and Body Mass Index (BMI) calculators to help you find out just how super-sized you are.

If you prefer eating your calories, you might want to take the Special K Challenge available at SpecialK.com. Special K is not just cereal anymore: there are protein shakes, snack bars, waffles, crackers, you name it. In addition, you can follow along on Facebook.

Perhaps you would prefer just making small changes in hopes of buying smaller clothes. SparkPeople.com is a truly free site that allows you to customize your own plan by providing a food tracker and personalized meal and fitness plan, and support from its experts.

If you’re like me, the real issue is that it is always easy to talk yourself into starting that diet tomorrow, or next week. Losing weight isn’t nearly as immediate as the afternoon sugar fix of a Snickers bar.

So, how do you resist the Snickers bar and other dietary disasters? There’s a new website recently reported in Time magazine which may supply the necessary motivation. HealthyWage.com offers cold hard cash as a reward. The idea behind the site is that money is an excellent motivator for weight loss.

The site is offering $100 to everyone who registers with a BMI of 30 or more and achieves a BMI below 25 by the end of 2010. That’s right; you can be $100 richer just by shedding some pounds!

The way the plan works is that you must be accountable for your behavior and your weight loss. There are weekly weigh-ins to track your progress, and tools to help you stay on track and learn to have a healthier lifestyle. To get the money, your weight must be verified by your doctor at the start of the program, and again at the end. Sorry, you can’t just lie your way out of this one.

Where does the money come from to pay you and all the other winners at the end of the year? HealthyWage makes its money from corporate sponsors, advertising opportunities, and perhaps even you. If you’re brave enough or rich enough, you can invest $300 for a chance to win $1000 at the end of the challenge. Now that’s putting your money where your mouth is, which is better than putting all that food there!

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Why would the government want to know how much cash is... oh, wait, nevermind. It turns out that lazy writers often rely on deus ex machina-tions of a technological bent. Half the actors in crime dramas today should be required to look directly into the camera and say "I'm not a programmer, but I play one on TV."

WARNING: What we are about to reveal will make it harder for you to pull off "the willing suspension of disbelief" the next time you're at the movies, so hold on to your innocence little techno-Bambie, 'cause we're going for a ride.

First stop: CSI. From Las Vegas to Miami to New York, these guys showcase more unrealistic techno-drivel than Apple's marketing department. CSI: Completely Stupid IT, in which crimes are solved by repeated use of the "Zoom" and "Sharpen" tools in Photoshop. "Zoom in on the ATM camera footage to see the killer's reflection in the victim's eyeball!" This is so popular Adobe should add a "Solve the Crime" option under the "Help" menu. A video's worth a million words, so check out youtube.com/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU for a fitting parody.

Plot devices aside, the unrealistic user interfaces can be tougher to forgive. To set the record straight: Software that compares mug shots or fingerprints doesn't "look" at the images it's comparing, so it doesn't display hundreds of images on the screen per second while sifting through them. Oh, unless it wants to run a hundred times slower. Then it does.

Investigators use applications that look more like MineSweeper or the ugly little program that came with your scanner than all this flying-transparent-window-hocus-pocus. "MurderTracker 2.0" isn't a cool iPhone app – cops have fancy badges, not fancy computers

Next stop: the movies! Here you'll notice that all newly-typed words appear at the bottom of the screen and flow up, which is behavior you might remember from 1971! And if deleting a file on your laptop at home results in the screen image starting to disappear, there's no need to file a warranty claim: You're just using any laptop from a 90s movie!

You can join the fun – go to nullsoft.com/free/nbeep/ to download a program that will adorn your keystrokes with bleeping and blooping too! You're hacking now, Johnny Mnemonic!

One classic is Jurassic Park, when a character saves the day with her knowledge of the park's computer system. "It's a Unix system! I know this!" she announces before firing up what is essentially a screensaver. We can only guess how quickly the velociraptors would've killed everyone if the park ran Windows.

The 1996 blockbuster Independence Day is even worse: Will Smith destroys the alien mothership by uploading a computer virus to it from his Mac laptop (alien motherships have USB ports!). Apple was paying good money at the time to get their logo in movies, but everyone knows Macs don't get viruses! Duh!

And then there's Hackers, in which characters were digitized and flew around over the motherboard circuits. Still, the most unrealistic part was 1) a female hacker 2) played by Angelina Jolie (her first major film).

More great examples are available at http://bit.ly/1HySoZ with a geeky discourse at http://bit.ly/oEAkO.

So to all you Hollywood writers out there: We at PropellerHead Central would like to help improve on-screen realism, and offer our services as technical realism consultants. We won't work for free, but we can promise that when our consulting fees are transferred from your bank account to ours, a giant progress bar won't pop up on the screen, Mission Impossible-style.

Dear Propeller Head: My car radio just died, and I was thinking of replacing it with an HD Radio receiver. Is HD Radio worth the extra money?

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Just to clarify, the HD in HD Radio does not stand for High Definition. Nor does it refer to a famous American motorcycle manufacturer. It is simply the trademark for a method of transmitting digital audio signals designated as a US standard by the FCC in 2002. In Europe and Canada, a similar technology is called Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB). HD Radio is not the same as Satellite Radio, although both utilize digital transmissions.

Think of HD Radio as the audio equivalent of digital TV, except that the meddling bureaucrats in Washington are not going to force you to convert to HD Radio the way they did with digital TV. The digital broadcasting technique was developed by a company named iBiquity.

According to the iBiquity site (www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio), HD Radio “allows a radio station to broadcast multiple program streams over a single FM frequency”, and provides better reception (“No static at all”, to quote Steely Dan). It also promises CD-quality FM sound (and FM-quality AM sound) and includes data services (like the artist’s name and song title). HD Radio receivers are widely available at consumer electronics outlets, and over 1,800 stations currently broadcast in the HD format, including most of the stations you listen to now. And it’s free!

But there is a catch. HD Radio receivers cost a bit more than regular units. This is due to the fact that there has been little consumer demand to drive the prices down. Radios with a display screen large enough to fully realize the advantages of the HD data stream are fairly expensive (starting at around $250). However, prices are dropping, as more companies incorporate HD Radio receivers into their products. Microsoft has announced plans to include HD Radio on the new Zune HD in the third quarter of 2009.

But HD Radio still faces obstacles. Radio is not the primary method of music delivery that it once was. Consumers today have dozens of listening choices, from iPods to satellite radio. HD Radio offers few tangible benefits over other methods, and does not address some of radio’s historical limitations. For example, HD Radio signals reach no farther than normal radio, and you are still stuck listening to musical selections someone else has chosen.

So, should you upgrade? That depends on how important the advantages of HD Radio are to you. It’s a little like that old saying about free milk and cows with a twist: would you be willing to buy a more expensive cow to get slightly better free milk? If you are considering a premium car radio, it may include HD Radio anyway. But if you were planning on a budget system, I’m not sure the benefits of HD Radio justify an upgrade, although an HD Radio receiver for a premium home audio system might make sense.

If you want to learn more about HD Radio, check out the iBiquity site mentioned above, or read the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio.

Copyright Data Directions, Inc. Richmond, VA All rights reserved.

Answer:

Well, do you prefer forest green, or is chartreuse more your speed? Just kidding! A “green car” already exists, and more are in the works. From electric, to hydrogen, to fuel cell, there are many ‘green’ or at least ‘greener’ vehicles in various stages of development. And there’s a lot going on in the rush to bring affordable models to the U.S. market. Today, I will focus on electric cars.

General Motors has been at the forefront in manufacturing and marketing a truly green car. Ever heard of the EV1? I didn’t think so – most folks haven’t. It was the first modern electric vehicle from a major automaker. General Motors manufactured and leased only a few hundred. In 2003, GM withdrew all leases and destroyed the cars, having decided that they would never be commercially viable. Then GM’s emphasis switched to gas-guzzling SUVs as they grew in popularity. We all know the result of that decision. GM and other U.S. automakers are now suffering the consequences of that trend with very uncertain futures.

But GM has not given up on electric cars. In fact their existence may rest on the development of their hybrid prototype; the Chevy Volt (www.chevrolet.com/electriccar). Electric car … Volt, gotta love it! Even with GM’s recent bankruptcy filing, they report that progress on the Volt is on target. The Volt is expected to be offered for about $40,000, and the first ones should be available for purchase in 2010.

Already on the market, but requiring a little more green than my wallet is ever likely to have, is the Tesla Roadster. Tesla Motors (www.teslamotors.com) has had the electric Roadster on the road since 2008 for around $120,000. It is an electric sports car with impressive speed and power, but that price tag is truly shocking. Tesla expects to have a more affordable family sedan, their Model S, available toward the end of 2011. It is expected to sell for about $55,000, and Tesla already has over 1,000 reservations for the car. The race for green continues, Toyota and Honda also expect to have electric cars available within the next couple of years.

But, China’s automakers may prove to be stiff competition. Numerous electric cars are in the works there. They have strong government support, and with China’s huge population and its desire to clean the environment, the push to bring affordable electric cars to an anxious market has Chinese automakers scrambling. They expect to bring several electric cars to the marketplace as early as next year. Great Wall Motor Company (www.gwm.com.cn/eng) unveiled its GWKulla recently and expects to introduce it at a starting price of around $10,000. While that model would not meet U.S. safety standards, the Coda (www.codaautomotive.com), another Chinese model, is expected to go on sale in California as early as next year for about $45,000. The Coda will meet U.S. auto safety standards and will come with all the bells and whistles we have grown to love, such as power doors and locks, satellite radio, and a navigation system.

So it’s likely we will have several green car options in the near future. My favorite color of green is MONEY, and I’m hoping to be able to save a bundle when these more fuel-efficient vehicles become readily available. To learn more about alternative and clean fuel vehicles, check out www.greenercars.org.

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Feeling a bit mortal? It’s not morbid to make arrangements for that time when you shuffle off this mortal coil. And since more of our time is spent online these days, it makes sense to include our virtual lives in the planning. Will your wife know how to access your online retirement account when you are pushing up daisies? What about your e-mail accounts? Will messages go unanswered once you have assumed room temperature?

Of course, you could just write down all your accounts, user IDs, and passwords. But that’s just so twentieth-century. Fortunately, several hardy entrepreneurs have figured out how to make a bundle…, uh, I mean assist you in passing this important information along to your beneficiaries and friends when you become extinct.

Legacy Locker (http://legacylocker.com) and Asset Lock (http://assetlock.net) act as a central repository for your online accounts, securely storing account credentials. After providing your account information, you designate beneficiaries who will receive the information when you expire. When someone reports that you have been exported to the flat file, the services require a death certificate and beneficiary identity verification before they release the information.

But what about all your friends on social networks or gaming sites? Do you want them to be left wondering why you never responded to that e-mail, or why your avatar suddenly vanished from the game? That’s where Slightly Morbid comes in (www.slightlymorbid.com). You set up e-mail addresses of people you want to be notified of your demise, and then send certificates to people you trust to act on your behalf. When Slightly Morbid is notified that you have clicked the bucket, they facilitate communication between the people on your list and your certificate holders.

Have secrets that you want to reveal only after you have cashed in your chips? Then Deathswitch is for you (www.deathswitch.com). This service allows you to create messages (that can include document or video attachments) that will be mailed out when you stop responding to their login prompt. Imagine how comforting it will be for your spouse to learn about your secret love-child in the weeks following your funeral. Just don’t forget to respond to the prompts, or you secrets may be released prematurely.

Since you spend so much time online, wouldn’t it be nice to have an online memorial where friends and family can share loving memories of you, or where your wife could vent about that love-child? Eternal Space (www.eternalspace.com) can create such a site. You can choose your own monument and landscape, and a quest book allows visitors to record messages. Since it’s all in the virtual world of cyberspace, the plastic flowers never fade and the grass never needs trimming. Your monument will exist forever, or until the Eternal Space servers crash.

So, before you are sent to the dirt archives, you might want to take a few minutes to make arrangements for your virtual remains. It will be one less thing your family will need to worry about. Including that love-child.

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 You mean you haven’t bought every pregnancy and childbirth book at the bookstore, consulted your mom, every aunt, and all of your girl friends for advice … girl, you’ve got a lot to learn. The good news is there’s a wealth of information right at your fingertips to help get your little one off to a good start.

Let’s begin with a warning … I know you’re already scared out of your mind, but this warning should help ease your worries. Here are your PropellerHead words of wisdom, ‘Don’t believe everything you hear!’ There are so many pregnancy and childbirth myths out there; even Dr. Spock would have trouble deciphering them all. And even if your doctor doesn’t want to see you for a while, call and talk with him if you have any concerns. It’s better to consult with him than to guess about what you should do and then worry.

Are you having food cravings yet? Don’t drink too much coffee, or your baby will have brown birthmarks. Watch out for very spicy foods, they might cause pre-term labor. Tell your husband he better get you those dill pickles and chocolate ice cream or he will get a sty in his eye. See what I mean, there are more ridiculous myths than you could imagine.

If you’re concerned about proper nutrition, take a look at www.mypyramid.gov. There you will find information about what you should or should not be eating while pregnant. If you’re willing to let Uncle Sam know your current weight and due date, the site will give you a suggested diet plan to help you maintain a healthy weight during your pregnancy as well as after the baby arrives when you’re nursing and trying to shed the baby weight.

There are several sites which offer a weekly email describing your baby’s development based on your due date. Take a look at www.pregnancy-calendars.net or www.babycenter.comto find out the size of your baby, and how he or she is coming along.

Those sites and many others are available to offer you information on everything from conception, to name suggestions, to what to do with a colicky baby. I had to rely on my trusty Dr. Spock book for all that info since my fellas were born before the birth of the World Wide Web. Heck, there’s even a Dr. Spock website, www.drspock.com. There you will find valuable information beginning with pregnancy and going up through school-age children.

As far as exercise and hanky panky, consult with your doctor. Chances are, you will be permitted and encouraged to engage in both. Just be sure to take all those myths with a grain of salt, but not too much salt unless you want your baby to be a boy. Load up on the sweets if you want a girl … or did I get that backwards?

Enjoy your pregnancy and your new little one once he or she arrives. Your life will never be the same, but surely you expected that!

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Well, I don’t recommend burying your Mac Mini in the vegetable garden. You’d end up with apples. But, there’s help for your ‘maters in the intersphere.

You might want to think about using an “earthbox” (earthbox.com) for this year’s contest. This is a new take on the self-watering planter. You can buy what you need or if you are a little handy, it’s easy to build one yourself. The results in tomato size and quantity are amazing. Single-plant “earthbox” containers should hold at least five gallons of potting mix. Anything smaller will give the plant claustrophobia, causing plant stress and ruining your chance at that blue ribbon. Without that, how are you going to face Aunt Pearl.

Next you can check your bright idea with a SunCalc at thesuncalc.com. You don’t want to be in the dark about how much light your tomatoes are going to get. Tomatoes need at least eight hours of full sun if you want a prize-winner. It’s not just light intensity, but how long intense sunlight reaches your plants. Who says size doesn’t matter?

If you are going the traditional backyard approach, you need to do some planning. I might suggest investing $20 in Plan Garden software (plangarden.com). Their web-based application lets you graphically lay out your garden, keep track of what you have planted and your garden maintenance activities, and record progress. Then you can show all of your friends your virtual garden, even at night.

You could also use what’s already on your computer to help out. Use calendar programs like Microsoft Outlook (microsoft.com/outlook) or Mozilla Lightning (mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/) to help you remember to water, support, feed, and do all those other fun tasks related to your tomatoes. They can remind you to plant your peat pots each year on the same day, or to water each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then you could use a spreadsheet like Excel (office.microsoft.com/excel) or OpenOffice Calc (openoffice.org/product/calc.html) to keep your records.

You'll want to research tomato varieties so you won't bring a great-tasting grape tomato to the “Largest Tomato” contest. Match your seed selection to the contest. Seed Savers Exchange at seedsavers.org is a great organization, and their Seed Savers Yearbook is a great resource in finding that prize-winning seed. These guys specialize in trading, selling, and preserving heirloom seeds.

You can get seeds at your local feed-and-seed or the garden section of Lowes or Home Depot. Then you can talk to folks about differences in varieties and how to take care of them. Or you could do like this PropellerHead and avoid human contact whenever possible. I have had success from gurneys.com and burpee.com (excuse me).

If you run into problems, you can find help at online forums like davesgarden.com. There in the forum section you can borrow the expertise of tomato gurus like Carolyn J. Male. You can post pictures of your tomato plant problems and have others, some who are experts, diagnose them. You can even get advice on growing your tomatoes bigger and better. Be sure to post a picture of you and your beefsteak when you win. A photo of your tomato would be good too.

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A: The "green" movement's rise has led to several new "eco-friendly" gadgets. But can the same geeky gear that spins our propellers also satisfy our barefoot, flower necklace-wearing inner Gaia-worshipper? As Kermit will tell you, it ain't easy being green.

First: What does "green" mean to you? Although the Environmental Protection Agency has its Energy Star certification program (energystar.gov), no central authority defines "green" standards. Still, several manufacturers advertise environmental bona fides, even though consumers can't distinguish the chartreuse cell phone from the merely teal.

Usually "green tech" means lower power consumption, recycling, or both. Is the environmental impact more positive than skipping some laundry and recycling your underwear? Hard to say.

Some desktop computers, like the Dell Studio Hybrid (dell.com/hybrid) and the Asus EEE Box (usa.asus.com), use smaller components and thus less energy. That means they're underpowered for gaming, but fine for e-mail and web browsing. Apple sells "green laptops" at apple.com/mac/green-notebooks.

Eco-peripherals include Energy Star-compliant printers from Canon (usa.canon.com), Dell, Epson (epson.com), HP (hp.com), and Lexmark (lexmark.com). The Energy Star web site lists specific models, and allows searching by brand, equipment type, and other criteria.

D-Link (dlink.com) offers a Wi-Fi router that can be configured to disable its wireless radio at night, whereas Netgear (netgear.com) took a simpler approach with one of theirs: they added a power button. Most routers only turn off when unplugged and still draw power when not in use.

Fantom (fantomdrives.com) and Western Digital (wdc.com) sell reduced-power-consumption hard drives. Just look for the word "green" in the product name.

APC (apc.com) and Belkin (belkin.com) sell surge protectors that completely kill the power to plugged-in gadgets, preventing them from leaching standby power when turned off. (This phenomenon has sinister-sounding aliases like phantom power, vampire load, and electricity leakage.)

Samsung (http://bit.ly/102vRU), LG (http://bit.ly/uBgn2), and ZTE (http://bit.ly/CyTIg) recently debuted solar-powered cell phones. Samsung's is made from recycled water bottles, natch.

Besides making the products themselves recyclable (and using less material), many companies are doing the same with packaging. Dell's Studio Hybrid even ships with a recycling kit for disposing of the PC it's replacing. It also includes minimal printed documentation. Green or cheap? You decide! (Dell also sells replaceable plastic covers for adding a splash of color, but we think that defeats the purpose.)

Al Gore will be happy to find carbon-neutral tech products on the market. Witness Brenthaven's (brenthaven.com) "zero-impact" laptop carrying cases or the Motorola Renew W233 cell phone (http://bit.ly/34iLUH). The Renew is made from recycled water bottles too – what is it with bottles and phones?

So take Chevy Chase's advice and conserve water by showering with a friend, or let it mellow if it's yellow. But for "green gadgets," do your research and make sure the "green" isn't referring to the mark-up. Also read CNET's take on what else to consider at http://bit.ly/17KHEF.

And to "go green" without losing your own green, develop a habit of shutting down computers and peripherals when not in use, and donate or recyle any electronics instead of just trashing them. The EPA steps up again at http://bit.ly/mzrD to help out.

Lastly, the PropellerHeads have devised a kit that turns existing hardware into certified "green gear." Send $100 to the address below and specify the shade you want – we carry all the same options you might find in the spray paint aisle at your local hardware store.

Answer:

We’re afraid that on-line courses will never help you recapture the magic of Hazing Week at your old I Tappa Keg fraternity, but if you’re serious about “getting your learn on” this time, the Internet can be a great place to, uh, “matriculate.”

Of course, if your idea of college courses includes face time with professors and other students, there isn’t a good substitute for showing up to a classroom. But if you’ll settle for on-line access to assignments and lectures from prestigious institutions like MIT and UC Berkeley, then you’re in luck!

MIT announced an on-line initiative in 2001 called OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu), to “advance knowledge and educate students […] to best serve the world.” Seven years and 1800 courses later, anyone with an Internet connection can download syllabi, quizzes, and video lectures for courses ranging from Aerospace Engineering to World Literature.

The idea of getting edumacated without paying tuition proved popular, prompting other universities to follow suit. There’s now an OpenCourseWare Consortium (ocwconsortium.org) of schools from around the world, from Australia to Vietnam. American participants include Notre Dame, Tufts University, and Johns Hopkins, among others.

Other institutions provide similar resources. The University of California at Berkeley has an entire YouTube channel at youtube.com/ucberkeley, and is one of many schools that offer audio and video recordings of lectures on-line for free. Apple’s iTunes University (apple.com/education/itunesu) has more.

Free access to raw course materials is great, but Carnegie Mellon is exploring more interactive methods of teaching over the web. Their Open Learning Initiative (cmu.edu/oli) offers only ten courses, but employs “innovative online instructional components” like virtual laboratories and group experiments.

MIT and others are quick to stress that – while great resources for “self-learners” – these sites do not provide a college education. In particular, no degrees, certificates, or continuing education credits are awarded based on the use of OpenCourseWare materials.

Participation also does not include access to faculty, so don’t expect a virtual Mr. Peabody as part of the deal. In addition, many instructors do not post all of their material on-line, leaving you to fill in some of the gaps yourself. But you really can’t complain since it’s free – Wossamotta U?

Looking for something more formal, like paying tuition and getting a degree? Then you’ll want to check out on-line universities. Some good places to start include elearners.com, collegedegree.com, and adultlearn.com, which allow you to browse a list of schools or search by academic subjects and degrees.

So people looking for a convenient, flexible, and inexpensive – if not quite perfect – way to continue their education need only a web browser and some free time. Nothing on the Internet will bring back those glorious college days of partying at the I Phelta Thi house or witnessing a sorority pillow fight, but there are probably other web sites for that kind of thing. In the meantime, enjoy your free Introduction to Computational Neuroscience class.