Solar-powered wifi

A company called Meraki is selling a variety of solar-powered Wifi options that may make sense for public entities, businesses or even some consumers.

It's pricey to install ($1,300+), but over the long haul this sort of device may pay off. Not only would there be financial benefits, but there would be good public relations to be had. Imagine an airport being able to say "Our free wifi is brought to you by the power of the sun."

For businesses, it would be an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint, which is a marketable concept. If you're an owner of an appartment complex, imagine being able to say that you'll throw in free, solar-powered Wifi as part of the rent.

It would have good applications at parks, fairgrounds and more. See Meraki's Web site for more details.

Is the music industry finally ready to embrace the Internet?

This vague news report would suggest that the music recording titans are gathering energies to exploit the Internet.

Will they create their own portal? Will they partner with Hulu? Will the deal with youtube be expanded or modified? Warner, EMI and Universal are reporting growth of 29-39% in their digital sales over the past year. Clearly, they have to view that as progress.

Who knows how all this will play out, except for that CD sales will continue to decline. I only bought a few in 2008. And I have so many CDs downloaded to my iPod that I can't really get excited about paying to download a song or album online.

Really, I have more than 600 artists on a device, with more than 53 days worth of music.

What I'm really excited about is this handy device that will allow me to transfer my significant vinyl collection to my iPod. Sorry, music industry. That's a whole lotta love for my iPod that is already bought and paid for, collecting dust on a shelf. Can't wait to get to it (it should arrive today, courtesy of my wife for Christmas/anniversary). I think I'll be starting with my Dylan records first.