When I’m driving to work I’m usually zoned out while listening to sports radio or NPR if “All Things Considered” is on. Every so often I’ll notice something that jolts me back into reality

On my way to work I pulled up behind an old Ford Truck. We’ve had snow the past few days so the roads were wet and dirty. So while stopped at this light I notice the guy driving the truck is holding a gallon water jug in his left hand out the windows. He then proceeds to turn on his windshield wipers and toss water from the jug onto his windshield. He did this so effortlessly that he must have had a lot of practice. He let the wipers do their job for 20 seconds, retracted his arm, put his truck in gear and pulled away from the light.

I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. I don’t know the year of his Ford truck but it was probably an early 1960’s model although I’m not certain. Maybe they didn’t have wiper fluid nozzels back then. Whatever the case I was impressed with this guy’s skill in cleaning his windshield.

Bloglines is the first feed reader I used, and although I’ve looked at several of its competitors, I continue to stick with Bloglines. It’s like Outlook; not perfect but I’ve learned to work around it’s weaknesses.

TechCrunch looks at how Bloglines and eight more online readers stack up.

The Dashboard Spy has a humorous look at what Scoble’s Dashboard could look like. My favorite part of the dashboard is the “Overhype” section where only the Origami is listed. Someone please add Tablet PC to that list somewhere.

As a follow-up to ajaxWrite, Michael Robertson announced ajaxSketch.

For right now it doesn’t seem realistic that either of these (or really any other) web-based products can compete with say, Microsoft Word or Adobe Illustrator. They are more proof of concept than anything for the time being. But they do provide a glimpse of the possible future in how programs are deployed and used in a collaborative environment. It would be foolish for Microsoft, Adobe and the like to dismiss this development.

If so, you could pull this prank on a coworker. I wonder who picked them all up?

• Another office prank using a massive amount of aluminum foil.
• The sky is falling office prank.
• The big rubber band prank
• This prank went all wrong for the poor fellow.

PeerGuardian 2 is an IP blocker for Windows. It integrates support for multiple lists, list editing, automatic updates, and blocking all of IPv4 (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), making it the safest and easiest way to protect your privacy on P2P networks.

The first version I used was a CPU hog and required intricate and manual driver installation to work properly. The hassle is now gone and version 2 is easy enough for anyone to install.

I’ve wondered why Gates and Allen don’t seem to be very close friends. This could explain the reasons behind their chilly relationship.

2Spare has a list of the top 87 bad predictions. Here are a few of my favorites:

• “It will be gone by June”
  Variety, passing judgement on rock ‘n roll in 1955.
• “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad”
  The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.
• “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”
  Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), maker of big business mainframe computers, arguing against the PC in 1977.
• “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys”
  Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878
• “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night”
  Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.