Kevin Bresnahan

I actually just picked up some Erdinger Octoberfest Weiss. I never even heard of it. Erdinger certainly didn't have a tent when I went back in 1999. They must just be jumping on the bandwagon. BTW, it isn't that good. I much prefer the hefe weiss. Oh yeah, speaking of German beer, is anyone else getting sticker shock? The Euro is killing us. It used to be I could get a 500 ml bottle for around $1.75-2.00. Now, most are >$3.00! The only one around here that hasn't gone crazy is Franziskaner. I have no idea why it's still around $2. Kevin

I agree, that's why I gave him that "thumbs down". Most of the juiciest rumors are over at http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/. Taylor seems like the leader of the pack. According to what I've read over on the patsfans website, his role has been mostly special teams thus far in his career. The reason he's in now is because the Pats almost signed him in the offseason. He smart and taken a hit on his rep due to injury, which seems to be the type of player the Pats have been signing lately. Kevin

I am going to try to be there.... 11:30 start time about an hour from my house... gonna be tough. Way past my bedtime, you know. Just so you know, you're competing with Scofield (at the Regattabar) and Ellis Marsalis (at Scullers). Scofield might steal a few. He usually sells out. I hope the turnout is there. Kevin

The Indianapolis Colts grabbed Reid back when the Patriots cut him. He's on their 53 man roster too, not the practice squad. The Patriots can't sign him. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hank Poteat back on the Patriots... which scares the crap out of me. He wasn't that good. BTW, Earthwind Moreland is available. I bet Troy Brown is practicing with the defense again. Kevin

Damn, they're copy-protecting vinyl now! FWIW, I was able to pre-order Mosaic's short-lived two-fer: CD & LP for $40.

Ditto Chuck. I wish we all heard from the guy. That eBay feedback is waaaaay out of character from the shrugs I dealt with.

Check his eBay feedback.

Chris, maybe you're kidding, but please note that I didn't refer to the place first.

Do yourselves a favor and drop it. I got nothing but crap over on Jazz Corner for inquiring about shrugs and it got worse when I tried asking Joe Christmas to use his military connections. Scew that... I ain't going there again.

Mitsui gold for me. Although I do have some generic Taiyo Yudens that seem to work fine.

SS1, I would not have done any better than you. This was upset-city this weekend. I never dreamed that the 49ers would win. I was also very surprised by the Panthers inability to beat a Saints team that really tried to lose. San Diego gets beat by Drew "I can't avoid the rush to save my life" Bledsoe? Say it ain't so! Kevin

I'd love to join in with you guys but very early on in my adult life, I saw several good friends get in deep with the bookies. One guy had to flee town or lose his ability to talk & walk properly. To this day, I refuse to gamble on anything but lottery tickets. ... not that this is gambling here. Besides, I would have done terrible. Kevin

It looks to me like you should have do that this week. You would have cleaned house. In fact, it looks like you went 0-fer.

The person who was advocating burning LPs to DVD was talking about burning to 24/96 DVD-Audio. There is no way you could fit 7 LPs of music onto a single DVD-Audio disc using 24 bit, 96 kHz sampling. That would be too much data. I suppose you might be able to fit 7 LPs of wav files, but I know of no player that could play back the resulting disc. There are also some DVD players that can read DVD data discs with mp3 files on them. Mine cannot. I suppose if your mchine can read these discs and the display is limited to 99, this would be a problem. Kevin

He might be in a boat with Sean Penn...

Oh, I don't know if the deep safeties were the reason. I think it was the switch to the 4-3 defense. Once they did that, they were able to line up Seymour and Wilfork in the gaps. Collins was not the same after the switch. I was so happy when I saw that switch to the 4-3. I have been telling everyone that the Patriots would be doing this. In fact, I thought that they would start out in a 4-3. Clearly they have the "4" to do a 4-3 whereas in the past, their "4" in the 3-4 was their strength. With the 4-3, they get Green on the field and it frees up the outside rushing lanes for Vrabel and McGinnest, two guys that can & do bring on the heat. The "loser" in this (so far) is Colvin but I think his time will come. He is getting close to where he was. I knew Moss was going to give us fits. Once I saw Tyrone Poole was on him man-to-man... well, I could have made that pass. Just throw it high. Poole can't jump and he's shorter than I am. What a mis-match that was. Of course, from then on, Poole was nowhere near Moss (and may even end up on the Patriots injury report, if rumors are true). Patriots are looking pretty beatable right now. Hopefully, Belichick can use the films from this and whip them into shape. A blocked punt? That was terrible. BTW, it sure looked to me like Watson caught that ball. Also, I think if Wilfork didn't come down with that INT, I bet a video replay would have ruled Collins' arm motion as a "tuck". Wouldn't that have been funny? Kevin

Get well soon Monsieur Griffin!! Come back to Boston when you're recovered and bring the JAMFs with you. Kevin

You probably will eventually. It's definitely not a good idea to purposefully unbalance your player. There are errors being generated. Some players are more susceptible to playback problems than others. Eventually, you may find a player that skips with these stickered CDs. Also, I would be very leery of playing these CDs in a car player. Car players are typically slot-loaded. Stickers can get chewed up by the slot-loading mechanism and get the CD jammed in the player. Kevin

On the disc or as artwork? As I mentioned above, I would not recommend putting any stickers on any CD, especially a single sticker like an address label. That would almost guarantee that the disc would become unbalanced in the player. Kevin

Maybe it's starting... From today's Boston Herald It's a pain in the ga$: Owners of SUVs feel pinch at pump By Donna Goodison Sunday, September 4, 2005 - Updated: 09:57 AM EST A 2000 Ford Expedition, with 60,000 miles on the odometer, went on the auction block Friday at the Adesa wholesale car auction in Framingham. It fetched $6,300. "That would have sold for $50,000 (new) five years ago,'' said Roger Groux, owner of the Honda Barns in North Reading and Stratham, N.H. "It depreciated to the point where it's worth about $1 a pound.'' Surging gas prices are sucking the value from sport utility vehicles. Once considered a status symbol for many drivers, today the SUV has become an albatross. More and more are showing up on used car lots and as trade-ins, and their going prices are dropping - fast. "People are just jumping out of their sports utilities,'' Groux said. "People are getting tired of throwing $100 bills at fill-ups.'' These days, the standard rule of thumb among wholesalers - who purchase the cars up for auction by new car dealers and then resell them - is to take the book value from the Galves Auto Price List and cut that by half. "In last year's normalized market, they'd be worth the book price,'' Groux said. "You can go buy a used, full-sized SUV now for really short money. If you're only driving 5000 miles a year, it's a bargain.'' Meanwhile, consumers are seeing less and less of a return for trade-ins compared to initial big-buck investments. Lisa Geary of Weston is considering trading down. "I can't wait to get rid of this car,'' she said as she stepped down from her 2001 Yukon XL in the Star Market parking lot in Auburndale. "I had buyer's remorse before the gas issues, because I'm past the stroller stage (with her children).'' While paying nearly a C-note hurts, said Geary, she's also worried about one day filling up her gas-guzzler while a line of people behind her do without. "It just seems wasteful to have such a large car if there's going to be a (gas) shortage,'' she said. "We were actually on the computer yesterday looking for hybrids.'' Based on current gas prices, 55 percent of consumers surveyed by R.L. Polk & Co. said they will change the type of vehicle they drive when they buy a new car, the Michigan automotive information company reported last month. "We see that loyalty among owners of large cars and full-size SUVs has dropped more than that of any other vehicle segment over the past year,'' said Lonnie Miller, director of industry analysis. Karen Hickman of Waltham was filling up her Mercedes ML320 at a Waltham Mobile station Friday for the first time since gas prices topped $3 a gallon. She bought the used 1998 model a little more than a year ago. "I really liked the car at the time, not thinking gas prices would go over $3,'' Hickman said. "It's just really bad.'' The 25-cents-a-mile reimbursement she receives from her employer helps, said Hickman, who spent $50 at the pump. "Not too bad, but still, more than I would like to pay,'' she said. "I wish I had a regular, midsize car - a sedan or something.''

Centered prints... I found this page that answers some of the questions I have. From what it says, I'm basically screwed. BTW, I have the same HP 895cxi printer that I've had since I had Windows 98. The printer driver used to have an option to center the print. I used it often. I cannot find any way to get this feature back. I'd even be willing to buy a driver that could do it.

My layouts are all centered on the page. the problem is that when I print, the printer always moves everything toward the top of the sheet. This would be fine too since flipping it over and printing the "inside" should also come out on the top. Unfortunately, once you print one side on the "top", on the flipside, that's the bottom. I can't find any way to get the print in a different place. Kevin

An interesting article in today's Boston Herald about how gas prices seem to be showing up in automobile sales. SUV sales seem to be finally slowing down. The weird thing is, this article is opposite of what I heard on FOX 25's news the other night, which said that last month had record SUV sales. Maybe Fox was quoting the "Small SUV" numbers? FWIW, the second page of the article summarizes sales as follows: Large SUVs (Ford Explorer, Chevy Suburban etc.): 2005 sales through July: Down 5.4 percent 2004 sales: Down 2.9 percent Small cars (Dodge Neon, Honda Civic, Ford Focus): 2005 sales through July: Up 2.2 percent 2004 sales: Down 2.2 percent Cross-over SUVs (Ford Escape, Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander): 2005 sales through July: Up 18.8 percent 2004 sales: Up 16.6 percent Large sedans (Crown Victoria, Ford 500, Chrysler 300): 2005 sales through July: Up 34.8 percent 2004 sales: Up 13.9 percent

Unfortunately, I use PowerPoint for my CD artwork. PowerPoint has no feature to center the printing that I know of.

Older printer drivers had a setting to center the printing on the page. This option seems to have disappeared from every driver in existence. I know of no way to center the printing any more. Oh yeah, if your driver has this, printing front/back is easy. You simply flip the paper over and print on both sides. Use thicker paper than usual though. The real cheap, thin paper allows the printing from one side to bleed through. Kevin