If your going to a Red Sox game this year, you could consider parking at the Prudential. They charge $16, which is one of the lowest parking price of any garage around the Fenway area. I believe the garage at 100 Clarendon is slightly cheaper, but adds about 10 minute walking time to/from Fenway.

According to the signs around the Prudential Mall, the walk to Fenway is only 10-12 minutes. However, using Google Maps, the walk appears to be about 20 minutes long. I guess it all depends on how fast one walks.

If you take the Mass Pike, then the parking at the Prudential is a good option, its really easy to get to the garage off the turnpike, and even easier to get back on the turnpike. After the game, instead of getting on the Pike at Copley, take the Mass Ave. exit. It's a little less traffic to maneuver around.

Today I got an email from Adrian Hurel that "Thanks for purchasing Platinum Sync." Which is very weird since I rarely ever use the Plaxo service. (I believe I signed up because a friend on Facebook was on it.) I am very sure that I didn't recently upgrade.

FYI: Plaxo brings all your contacts into one place, gives you access to your data where you need it, and keeps your address book up-to-date. You can upgrade for $5 a month to add 2-way, real-time sync keeps your address book consistent and accessible from the essential communication tools you use every day.

To make sure that I didn't upgrade, I logged into the service - not too quickly as it took several tries since I completely forgot what my username/password was. After a few choice guesses, I was in. I notice that my "membership" was still at the basic level and its still free. I also noticed that I only have 3 contacts in Plaxo, so I don't think I would have upgraded.

I don't know if something weird happened at Plaxo, as I have no idea why they think I purchased their Platinum service. Guess they need better QA on their emails.

From Amazon's Website:

The Kindle Owners' Lending Library allows eligible U. S. Amazon Prime members who own Kindle devices to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free -- including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers -- as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

Basically what Amazon is saying, is that Prime Members get up to 12 free book rentals a year. Make sure you make a good selection on what books you rent. I read some places online where someone rented a children's book, and now they have to wait till next month to rent another book.

Make no mistake, there are good choices in Amazon's Prime library, just remember that what ever you select, that you have to wait until next month to select another book.

Last night I saw some of the Doomsday Prepper show on the National Geographic channel. I couldn't believe that people were seriously getting ready for the end of the world. They were spending thousands of dollars to build fallout shelters. They also were spending lots of money for food and supplies.

My question is what do they really think will happen on December 12, 2012? How will the world come to an end? Why do they think what they are doing is going to make that much of a difference? The TV show didn't really provide answer to those questions, just showing what people are doing to prep for that day.

Are people really going to rely on a particular date of when the world is going to end from a civilization that doesn't exist anymore?

If you're really paranoid on what is going to happen on December 12, 2012, make sure to update your countdown clock.

Yesterday, we watched the 2012 Boston Marathon in front of the La Cantina restaurant in Framingham MA. Heres some tips on watching the marathon from Framingham:

• Arrive early! It takes about a 1/2 hour for the runners to get to the corner of Winter Street and 135. Don't wait until the last minute to arrive!
  
• If you arrive before 8:30, you'll find plenty of parking at the Joseph P. Keefe Technical High School. After 9, you'll probably be parking on Fountain Street.
• Bring a beach chair or blanket to sit on.
• Bring plenty of drinks and snacks!
• You can find plenty of viewing spots if you continue to walk east on 135.
• Before the lead runners arrive, you'll see several police motorcycles and then the media car.
• Anytime you see a media car, you'll be sure that it's a lead runner.
  
• Take lots of pictures and video and cheer on the runners!

The schedule below lists the various divisions and arrival times for the 2012 Boston Marathon to mile marker 5:

9:30 a.m. - Mobility Impaired Arrive
9:47 a.m. - Push-rim Wheelchair Division Arrive
9:52 a.m. - Handcycle Participants Arrive
10:02 a.m. - Elite Women's Arrive
10:30 a.m. - Elite Men's and Wave One Arrive
10:40 a.m. - Wave Two Arrive
11:20 a.m. - Wave Three Arrive

Runners will pass through Framingham headed east from the Ashland town line to the Natick town line on Rt. 135, (Waverly Street in Framingham).

Have you ever browse the web and found an article that you would like to read at a later time on your Kindle? For example, let's say you found a great article about Who really found the Titanic? and you wanted to read it offline on your Kindle. There is an easy way to get web content onto your Kindle.

There is app called, 'Send to Kindle' that makes it really easy to send Web content to your Kindle. You can setup this App in Chrome or Firefox very quickly. What's great is that anytime you find an article that you want to read later on your Kindle, you simply click a button. You just have to remember to sync your Kindle before heading out.

I find it great for researching CSS3 topics or when I find a long article and want to read it on the train. Here are some resources where you can find some good content to read:

• freearticles.com
• ezinearticles.com
• articlesbase.com

You can be creative in your Google/Bing search too:

• Project Blue Book - You heard of it? But have you actually read it?
• Lincoln Conspiracy
• JFK Umbrella man
• Missing Gold of Atlanta
• Unsolved Mysteries of Boston

As you can see there's a lot of cool content out there, you won't have to worry about buying books on Amazon.com. Try 'Send to Kindle' out and you'll find it to be a great productivity saver.

From the product description page:
Send to Kindle is a Browser extension for Kindle owners who prefer reading web content on their devices. It's designed to offer a quick way for pushing web content to Kindle, so you can read articles or news later on your device.

You can download the app here:
http://www.klip.me/

Amazon still hasn't gotten the right formula to selling eBooks. Here's the price guide for 'April 1865: The Month That Saved America on Amazon.com on April 11, 2012.'

Clearly the publisher is setting the price as I also checked Apple's bookstore and saw that the eBook is also $10.99. I don't know why they think that consumers would pay more to have the book in electronic format?

Since I have Amazon Prime, I ordered the paperback version. I can wait a couple of days to save $5 dollars. I have seen this price difference on many books - where its cheaper to get the paperback version than to get the Kindle version.

The better price model would be to have the price of the eBook be at least 20% less than the new hardcover or paperback version. The electronic version is pure profit for the publisher since they don't have to worry about distribution and overstock inventory.

Basic Instruction on Adding Code Snippets to Microsoft Visual Studio. This is useful when you find yourself typing the same commands over and over again. By adding your own Snippets you can significantly increase your productivity.

Create a directory to store your Snippets. I used C:/Snippets, but you can use what ever directory you want.

1. You need to update the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Snippet Manager to point to the new directory. This should be located under the Tools Menu. If you can't find it, here's the instructions on enabling the Code Snippet Manager:
1. Goto the Tools Menu and Select Customize, which is the second to last menu item.
2. Under Categories select Tools.
3. You should see "Code Snippets Manager" on the right. Its the 7th one down.
4. Drag the Command any place you want, such as the Tool Menu.
2. Open up the Code Snippets Manager
3. Add your directory that you created in Step #1 and Click Ok

 
That's it! Now anything with a .snippet you create in your directory will appear in Visual Studio!