A few years ago, a buddy and I were talking about how much fun we thought Kayaking would be.  He knew a guy who loaned us his recreational Kayaks for a day on a river. We loved it! About a month later, I came across two used ones, grabbed them and had a great time for a couple of years. I started getting lazy and elected to sale them rather than have them sit in the yard barn.  Big Mistake!  I have missed it so bad!  So for about a year now, I have threatened to get back into it!  I have been internet shopping, reading, comparing, eliminating, etc.  Today I came home with the following TWO Kayaks!

General Motors and Segway have teamed up to create a new vehicle if you will. Although I will admit this is much more interesting than anything I have ever witnessed from Segway, I think it falls very short of being General Motors saving Grace.  Coined the P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) this vehicle does have some pluses. It has a very small footprint, appears to be very nimble, and is cheap to operate. ($.35 per charge)  Comparing it to your current GM product however, shows several shortcomings.  It is going to suck in Inclement weather, isn't fast enough to ride on any highway, and only has a range of 35 miles. I don't foresee how GM can take this, put it on an assembly line, and suddenly become profitable. If they can produce this for under $2000, (I don't think they can, and in all fairness I haven't heard them say that) I can see them selling briskly. For inter-city travel, I do see a market but only if they keep the price very low.  I see the $2000 Tata Nano to be a more viable alternative to the PUMA. The picture below is a photo-shoped concept of the finished product.  Click the "read more" link below for a couple of YouTube Videos.

You and I might not know them, but Tata Motors has been around a while. They are located in India building both passenger cars and Commercial vehicles that have been exported all across the east,  Europe, Africa and South America. But Tata stated a couple of years ago that they were going to build an Automobile that almost anyone could afford to buy. They were targeting a car that would be sold new for right around $2000 US.(100,000 Rupees)

Available now, as it was launched in Mumbai Monday. The Tata Nano, is just short of 9 and 1/2 feet long, and is outfitted with a 624 CC engine. Currently in the USA, you can't buy a 650 CC Motorcycle for even close to $2000. 

 "The Nano represents the spirit of breaking conventional barriers. From the drawing board to its commercial launch, the concept, development and production of the car has overcome several challenges," Tata chairman Ratan N. Tata said at a news conference.

"I hope it will provide safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who 'til now have not been able to own a car. We are delighted in presenting the Tata Nano to India and the world."

 The Nano offers impressive economy, that if I have calculated correctly should bring better than 50 MPG. You won't find safety features such as airbags and Anti-lock brakes.  Top speed is about 70MPH, and it is claimed to be capable of cruising at 65 MPH. 

If you want creature comforts, such as Air Conditioning, a radio and power steering, they are available as add-ons. 

The Indian company plans on producing 350,000 of these per year by 2010 in two plants. Plans are to introduce this car to the European Market in 2011. At this time, the company has not announced plans to bring this vehicle to the American market.

My question to you: Would you buy this vehicle? For Tata to sell such a vehicle in America, would require them to add several safety features, but would you be willing to drive a micro car such as this for a price that probably wouldn't require taking out a loan to purchase? 

Hit the "Read More" link for a video of a test drive.

Have you looked at external hard drives lately?  There is a plethora of options out there! Most start around 160 gigs and climb. When your hitting a terabyte at around $100, then I really don't have an excuse not to grab one.  Yesterday, I picked up a Western Digital "My Book". It's pretty much plug and play!  Plug it into some power, plug it via USB cable into your computer and pick your options.  It comes with some 30 day auto-software that I didn't go for.  Basically I grabbed all my personal folders sitting on my my hard drives and started dragging and dropping.  One thing I question is why this thing comes formatted for FAT 32.  If I would have caught that sooner, I might have re-formatted to NTFS.  I don't see it as a show stopper, but for some dealing with large video files, this is certainly something you should consider when you jerk this thing out of the box. Now that I have all my files backed up on two computers, I plan on backing up in two places for all files that I deem important from here on out!  Since it is recognized as a drive, it is very easy to use from my home network.

One word of caution.  It is not what I could call portable. It is rather large, and heavy! If you are looking for portable, they certainly exist!  And if the price is right, I might grab one of those for those times when I need to take something with me, or grab something. Look for those amoung Toshiba, Western Digital, and others. One thing is for sure!  With pricepoints on external storage where they are now, there is no good excuse not to have at least one of these in place to protect your digital pics, videos, and documents!

For a while now, I have been looking at netbooks. I have been thinking about how handy one might be for just surfing the net, checking email, and just light work and play.  Gateway has an LT series that caught my eye. I fell in love with the brushed aluminum case, 2.2 pounds of lightness, and not a bad price at $325.  The 8.9 inch screen was maybe just a tad too small for my tastes. If you have looked at netbooks, you pretty much know what to expect when you look at the spec sheet. 160 gig hard drive, 1 gig of ram, Windows XP, and 8.9 to 10" screens are very common. Gain almost instant boot times with flash based hard drives.  The problem here is cost.  40 gigs of Transistor drive is quite a bit more than the larger mechanical ones that are the more common.  So after months of searching something caught my eye in the Asus Eee PC 1000 HE.  Battery life!  And I am talking real battery life! An advertised 9 and 1/2 hours worth! This looked like a whole lot of netbook for less than $400. So off to Amazon I went!  Before I break down my opinions, let me save you a little reading in case you don't want to know the particulars: This is one incredible machine for it's intention. It is heavier than your typical netbook because of the battery. It isn't the smallest, lightest, fastest, or the thinnest. It is however, very portable, and more importantly, big enough to type on, and see web pages on. Netbooks with 7 and 8 inch screens..... Well, if you have the hands of a 6 year old, maybe you can type on them; I can't!  But that only solves the typing.  Seeing what you need on those tiny screens will still be a problem. I would recommend that you only consider netbooks with 10" or larger screens, regardless of brand. Click on the Read link below to get all the particulars.