Flu Vaccine Locator (Both Seasonal and H1N1)

Google announced in its blog that collaborates with U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) and American Lung Association to offer this flu shot finder for U.S. at www.google.com/flushot.  Just go to the webpage and enter your city or zip code, it will show the locations that offer seasonal flu shot, H1N1 flu shot or both shots.  Here's the map around Monterey Park, CA area.

The locator provides location, phone number, data, time, cost (some of them are free) and the availability of the vaccine.  The same flu shot locator will be available on HHS's www.flu.gov and American Lung Association's http://www.flucliniclocator.org/.

Please note that currently the locator only has data from 20 states, but they are adding information from chain pharmacies and other providers in all 50 states. Of course you should call the providers beforehand to find out about more details about the two vaccines.

If you didn't know yet, Google also release flu trends information for 20 countries they gather through people's search term here: http://www.google.org/flutrends/.  If you want to know more about how they gather the information, they explains it here: http://www.google.org/flutrends/about/how.html.

Take extra care.

T-Mobile Upgrades Its 3G Network to HSPA 7.2

T-Mobile 3G users will enjoy the fastest 3G network in US.   According to this post from AndroidandMe, T-Mobile users in New York, NY and Chicago, IL start to have the new speed of 3.8Mb/s and 5.4Mb/s, respectively.  If you don't know much about the speed(Mb/s), that's faster than the internet connection I got from charter cable internet(advertised speed 5Mb/s but I normally get around 3.2Mb/s), which cost $29.99 per month.

New York, NY

Chicago, IL

For those T-Mobile users doesn't get this speed yet, your wait won't be long.  The other post from AndroidandMe reports T-Mobile is on track to finish the deployment of HSPA 7.2 in US by the end of 2009.  What's more?  They are going to deploy HSPA+ in 2010, which has a speed of 21Mb/s (more than 4 times what I get from home. sigh... )

If T-Mobile's Android phone can upgrade to Android 2.0 OS (Should be able to next year 2010), this speed and the Google Maps Navigation will be a big plus for T-Mobile.

Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0

(Updated 2009.10.28-12:53 PDT - Added video for each feature)
(Updated2 2009.10.29-12:47 PDT - Garmin and TomTom's stock drop 12.3% and  23.4%, respectively, yesterday.)

Google releases "Google Maps Navigation" in its blog.  Navigation is a free, internet conneted GPS system provided by Google. It requires

1. Google's newest Android 2.0 mobile operating system (Current only Droid from Verizon uses it)
2. mobile internet connection

The service currently only limited to United States.  And from the blog post, it listed 7 features unique to Navigation:

1. The most recent map and business data
2. Search in plain English (video)
3. Search by voice (video)
4. Traffic view (video)
5. Search along route (video)
6. Satellite view (video)
7. Street View (video)

Also, they have a car dock mode(video).  Below is a video and some screenshots about the service.

Video:

If you don't see the vidoe above, use this link.

Screenshots:

  

  

 

 

How Should Google Use Its Money To Help The Most People

Last fall Google asked people to submit project ideas that could help as many people in the world as possible.  And they are

committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible.

Now Google has consolidated all the ideas into 16 "big ideas." And you get to decide how Google use its money.   Go here http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html and cast your vote.  Act now, voting ends October 8, 2009 (tomorrow).

Here's a list of topics you could vote for:

1. Work toward socially conscious tax policies
2. Build better banking tools for everyone
3. Collect and organize the world's urban data
4. Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists
5. Help social entrepreneurs drive change
6. Make government more transparent
7. Provide quality education to African students
8. Create real-time natural crisis tracking system
9. Promote health monitoring and data analysis
10. Enhance science and engineering education
11. Create real-world issue reporting system
12. Create genocide monitoring and alert system
13. Build real-time, user-reported news service
14. Drive innovation in public transport
15. Make educational content available online for free
16. Create more efficient landmine removal programs

Here's a video to introduce the Project 10 to the 100 (10¹⁰⁰)

What Is A Browser? What Browser Are You Using?

Google asked the above question in Times Square, New York and only less than 8% of the people know what a browser is.



Now they want to tell you what a browser actually is by create this Youtube video and a website: http://www.whatbrowser.org.  In that site, if you click on "A few useful tweaks", they will detect your current browser and tell you some useful tweaks about your browser.  Also, you will find you actually can use other browser on your computer by clicking on "Try a New Browser."  My recommendation for browser in this order: Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer.



[via Goolge Blog - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-is-browser.html]

08/31/09 PHD comic: 'Peak Productivity'

I used to have the same productivity graph.

08/31/09 PHD comic: 'Peak Productivity': from PHD Comic"

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com
title: "Peak Productivity" - originally published 8/31/2009

"

Points Of View

Funny. Hehe.

Points Of View: from Geek Hero Comic "

© Salvatore Iovene for Geek Hero Comic - A webcomic for geeks, 2009."

Tech Support Cheat Sheet

Tech Support Cheat Sheet from xkcd.com:

remember to read the "alt" text by hover over the image.

Bubbles Popping

Cool Photos.

His Photos was even on News paper.

See more pictures in Richard Heeks' Flickr account.

(Via A CUP OF JO)

Have An Idea To Improve US High-Speed Internet Access?

If you have an idea or want to vote the best idea, go here National Broadband Plan Moderator.

From the Google Blog, Google and New America Foundation had teamed up to listen to everyone's idea

for what you think the Commission should include in its National Broadband Plan. Two weeks from now we'll take the most popular and most innovative ideas and submit them to the official record at the FCC on your behalf.

 If you are interested, go submit your idea or cast your vote.  You have less than 2 weeks to act.

Source:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/submit-your-ideas-to-change-face-of.html
http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=a4977&t=a60d6

How To Wrap Badminton Racket Grip

I bought two badminton rackets recently on Ebay and need to wrap the racket grip.  I saw someone did it longer time ago, but didn't remember actually how.

What do I do?  Google it and found this site with video tutorial.

While searching for above site, I encounter this page that show to how grip the racket, forehand and backhand.

Source:
http://www.badminton.tv
http://www.badminton-information.com

5 Credit Card Company Tricks You Should Beware Of

I was reading the Lifehacker several days ago and came across this article about 5 credit card company tricks and how to counter them.

If you pay off your credit card bill each time, you might not need to read the article.  Otherwise, it's a good read.

The author debunks 5 promises from credit card company:

Promise #1: “As low as 9.99% APR!”
Promise #2: “Up to 5% cash back!”
Promise #3: “0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months!”
Promise #4: Your card has a credit limit of $3000.
Promise #5: “Any time for any reason”