It has been a while since I last traveled and had a little vacation. I've done nothing but work and school, and now the time has come for me to look beyond my concrete horizon of New York. My first place of interest was Australia but once I saw the ticket prices hitting and surpassing the $2k mark, I changed my mind to a more "local" destination.

I would like to visit San Francisco and enjoy the beautiful views of places like the Golden Gate bridge, and see all the houses like how it was in Full House. =) At the moment, it's not certain where I will be going but San Francisco has always been a place I saw myself visiting. I am also considering Chicago, Seattle, and some places up in Canada. If anyone has any recommendations for places to visit within North America, let me know!

It was recently reported over at Wired.com that Amazon is suing New York over a new law that requires online companies to collect taxes from customers. Being a New York resident, it sucks to find this out since I do shop at places like Amazon and Newegg.com. Amazon is arguing that it's unfair and against the commerce law of the constitution, while New York is saying that it closes a loophole. Personally, I think this was done to insure residents of New York (and other states) to pay taxes and not report purchases made online when it's that time of the year.

I guess having family or friends in a nearby state won't be doing you any good for much longer. I'd hope that the suing does result in New York pulling back the law that was passed, but I doubt it would go that way. Government officials want taxes saying that they fund city-wide projects and such, but I have to yet to see any improvements worth mentioning. With the possible $50 Million gain in taxes for New York, I expect it to be put into good use like cleaning up the city and improving the environment. What can I say? I have high hopes.

After all the advancements in today's technology, we're coming up with more things we can use once, and just trash it in the end. This time, a company by the name of Hop-on has created a phone with no LCD that apparently got lots of attention at CTIA. A European distributor bought 10,000 of these GSM based phones for a test run on how these would work out.

I know it's all good for business with the east profits and all, but I think this is just another way to use up more plastic and destroy our environment with plastics! Why can't we just stick with the awesome cheap phones that we can use many times over?

It's understandable that someone may not need a cellphone permanently, but may want a quick way to get in touch with someone. If someone is willing to pay $20 to use a phone for a short time and throw it out, why not just get a damn prepaid phone and keep the credit on that? If someone can give me a good reason to support this development, please do so!

I don't know if this is a good thing, or a bad thing, but it looks like we've reached the point where a law needs to be enacted so cars don't get too quiet! I thought it would be something opposite, like trying to put a limit on how loud those V8 muscle go! So yea, the bill is expected to be presented to the U.S. House of Representatives pretty soon.

AutoWeek reported that the reason why this bill was created is because cars that are too quiet pose a risk to disabled (primarily) pedestrians. This bill requires the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to undergo studies in order to determine whether or not a minimum sound level is needed. I understand the intention behind this bill and all, but I find it kind of humorous if auto makers were forced to make their engines go VROOM! More after the jump...

The recent buzz around the blogosphere has been about ISPs capping bandwidth and charging by the Gigabyte. To some, this is a complete disaster while others couldn't care less. The idea of capping bandwidth is not new as companies around the world have been practicing this method of service delivery (like Australia).

With the recent advancements in transfer speeds alongside things like online HD movie rentals and video communication, these people decide to introduce the cap now, when they're supposed to be doing quite the opposite! Imagine how quickly an average internet user will suck through 30 to 40GB of bandwidth in one month - HD movie rentals, international video conferencing, browsing high bandwidth web content (Youtube!), and so forth.

I just don't understand why ISP companies want to be greedy and make more money this way now. They know that people will go above their capped limits and the easy money will flow right into their pockets. Eventually, I believe that internet access will reach a point where it'll be so cheap, companies will be forced to just have one monthly rate. More after the jump...

Hey guys! It's Earth Hour in 10 minutes, and I'm psyched! I hope at least some of you try as best as you can to shut off things that you don't need on. Rock on, guys! Everything will be going off in my house, except the fridge - I can't really unplug that one for several reasons. Have fun in the dark, guys!

Well, it doesn't exactly "destroy" lives, but definitely causes an inconvenience. Thinking about it, living in New York, there are more Starbucks locations than many other store chains (McDonald's?). I read an article yesterday in the Metro newspaper (cover story) of how Starbucks closed down nearly 7,100 of its U.S. stores for 3 and a half hours to "retrain" its employees.

So, yea, the article expressed how caffeine addicts get annoyed at things like this, but still "life goes on." I guess that means Starbucks hasn't exactly brainwashed its customers to absolute loyalty. Other coffee shops stayed open during that time, and places like Dunkin Donuts and such received a nice rush of customers - for 3.5 hours at least. People are saying that this was more of a marketing act rather than an actual attempt to jump the customer service and satisfaction by making the best espresso you've ever tasted in your life.

I do believe that what Starbucks did was definitely good since it boosts the excitement of its employees, and reassures customers that their coffee will be done just right. I've been to enough meetings and gatherings in the retail world to know about these kinds of things. I don't think a huge corporate like Starbucks would risk losing an ounce of business for 3.5 hours, especially with over 7 thousand stores!

"Starbucks is losing ground every minute of the day. Now they're just another store -- they're like the GAP of coffee. By closing their stores, they're trying to say, 'We're restarting!' But there's got to be a better way than that" says CEO of R.I.M Public Relations, Richard Laermer. I still like my Vanilla Bean Frapuccino, so as long as that's around, they've got my business.

On March 29th at 8pm, millions of people in some of the world's major cities are going to be shutting off their lights. This is the result of a revolutionary collaboration of businesses, and people like you and me all around the world that care about global warming, and our environment. These are the beginning steps of spreading the word of such motivational actions taken upon, everywhere!

It all started with the simple question of asking how we can inspire people to take action on global warming, and climate change. The result was extremely successful with 2.2 million people in JUST Sydney, and over 2100 businesses taking action by shutting off their lights for one hour! The result was an amazing 10% drop in Sydney's energy use, which equals to taking about 48,000 cars off the road for one hour!

This year, March 29th will be the day where millions of people around the world will act together towards an extraordinary collaboration. I will be a part of it. Hopefully you will too, and you will spread the word about Earth Hour to your friends and family. Video and more after the jump...

This year's biggest camera show known as PMA 08, in Las Vegas is well underway, and there have been some pretty awesome releases and announcements. These things are ranging from affordable consumer (and prosumer!) cameras, to high-end technology that you probably can't afford but want anyway.

It looks like bigger LCDs, image stabilization, and face detection are what's hot now, and steep prices are a thing of the past! Canon announced its new A series cameras, now boasting more features and cheaper price tags! The model that mainly caught my eye was the A590. It features full manual control, Optical Image Stabilization, and a handsome 2.5" screen, all for $180! They've got some other lower models which are a bit cheaper, but drop features like the optical stabilization and manual control. Yea, it may not be the thinnest and most advanced point and shoot on the market, but for its price and what it can do, this is the piece to buy if you've been meaning to get into digital-photography (or looking for an awesome update over that 3MP brick you keep in a briefcase).

Canon has definitely been on a roll in the last few days announcing a new version of the Rebel series (Rebel XSi), 4 new prosumer and professional lens (1, 2, 3, 4), amongst a few other things. Now, clearly, Canon isn't the only company exhibiting at the biggest photography show. There are some other big names like Nikon, and Fuji on the block with some eye-turners too...