It should come as no surprise that this I have no intention of doing anything malicious to my visitors but I think that Google's new requirement that each of it's AdSense serving sites should include a Privacy Policy is appropriate.

If you're interested in reading the new AdSense friendly Privacy Policy you'll see it linked in the footer as well as in this post.

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In the last two months I've had my LCD TV die and my Laptop die.

It turns out that the laptop crash was the result of a faulty heat-sink.   After shipping it off to Gateway and waiting for two weeks I've learned that Gateway is unable to fix my 2 year old laptop - they don't make that type of heat-sink anymore apparently so Gateway has offered me a brand-new PC at no charge.

Lesson - always buy the extended warranty if you can't fix it yourself.

Last night my HD TV burned out.  It's gonna take about a week to get someone in to fix it but thankfully it'll be fixed free of charge thanks to an extended warranty I bought from Best Buy because ... I knew I couldn't fix the TV myself.

Bad things always happen in 3s so now I'm just wondering when exactly my third thing is gonna happen - whatever it is I hope I bought an extended warranty.

Today on Lifehacker I spotted a new pocket of calendar called the "Thumb Calendar." The Thumb Calendar, by Adam Sporka, is an incredibly neat little design that looks ideal for popping into your wallet, hipster PDA or even your Moleskine.

When I started working full time (7am to 5pm) that changed. While I still don't drink hot coffee I find it absolutely necessary to have an iced-coffee every morning. Of course that creates a lot of problems.

I have not found a good way to make iced-coffee using hot brewing methods. Brew a pot of coffee - through it in the fridge and invariably you're unhappy. Buying an iced coffee every morning is even more trouble partly because of the money involved and partly because I end up buying a donut (or two) to go with it.

If you figure $4 a morning (for coffee, breakfast and a tip) times 365 days that's over $1400 a year at Dunkin Donuts!

I realized this just recently and immediately cringed at the wasted money. The good thing is it got me looking for a new way to fuel my morning coffee fix. What I found is called "Cold Brewed Coffee" and it's an incredible money saver for hot and cold coffee drinkers alike.

The system I bought (Toddy Cafe Cold Brew Coffee System) is extremely easy to use and makes a more consistent cup of coffee than any of my local Dunkin Donuts. If you're a coffee drinker looking to save money this year be sure to check it out!

Why do I need to see this icon if I never use the wired connection?

I did a little playing around and managed to find two ways to hide the icon. One doesn't appear to work all the time so I'll provide both just to be safe.

Removing the Local Area Connection Icon

This works perfectly for the wireless connection icon but on my machine it doesn't seem to work for the wired one. The first, really simple, option is to completely disable the connection. To do this you can double click the icon to open the Network Connections listing. Once this is done just right click the Local Area Connection item and select Disable.

In the long run this isn't really an ideal solution mostly because it involves completely turning off the wired network adapter. To avoid turning it off you can right click the listing and instead select "Properties."

Under the "General" tab look for the two check boxes and de-select them both. This should disable the icon while leaving the adapter activated.

Last Resort: Hide the Local Area Connection Icon

On my machine this didn't work - it did work to hide the Wireless Network Connection icon though. If you hit the same wall I have a work around that might help both here and in general for hiding icons in the SysTray. To get started right click the taskbar and then "Customize" under the "Notification area" heading.

The next section shows a list of all the items that are currently, or have recently, appeared in the System Tray. Under the "Behavior" column you can change the rules for each of the items - just select "Always hide" to keep the icons hidden.

Besides my pocket reporter I also keep a couple of Large Moleskine Notebooks for other purposes as well. The most recent addition is my Moleskine Weekly planner - it's a great way to track all your major events and a solid way to keep a paper backup of your Online calendar.

One major problem with Moleskine Planners? They sell out fast. If you're looking to get a hold of one of these great notebooks now's a good time to grab them as there are many available on Amazon. Wait too long and you may not be able to get them until early next year!

Links to all the products are available above.

Among the additions made by the extension are the ability to create folders in GMail (the one thing I really miss about traditional eMail), a status bar showing the current state of your GMail storage, and the ability to incorporate both Google Calendar and Google Reader into the GMail interface.

Head on over to Lifehacker and grab the extension to see what I mean.

About partway through May I downloaded the internet TV aggregator currently known as Democracy but soon to be renamed Miro.  While I won't get into some of the conversations covering the name change I have to say that this program has become a major part of my nightly routine.  Democracy / Miro makes downloading internet TV shows easy and rivals iTunes for anyone hunting for video content that's easy to download.

Right now I use Democracy / Miro to nightly to download several of the shows I stream to my XBox360.  If you haven't used this great software yet give it a try and let me know what you think.

I'm currently a Verizon subscriber, previously n at&t one, but who knows where I'll be in a few years.  While my cell phone is currently my primary phone, there are occasions where it's unreliable and I'm not just talking about reception wise - see I forget my phone at work or in the car A LOT!   For some time I've been thinking about getting a SkypeIn number to make myself more reachable but I worried about providing too many numbers to my friends.

Enter Grand Central.

Despite still being in beta Grand Central provides an incredible amount of tools for it's users. One of the most powerful utilities that Grand Central offers is it's call forwarding.  Once you've setup your free phone number you can set it up to forward to any other numbers you choose.  Mine, for example, currently forwards to my cell phone and home phone - I'll be adding my SkypeIn line soon I think.

In the beta version users have the option to set certain forwarding rules based on incoming numbers.  Users can also setup special ring tones and messages for their incoming calls.   Want your family to get one message?  Your friends another?  Grand Central makes it happen.

One of the major bonuses that I also consider a major selling factor was the ability to manage your Grand Central account right from your computer.   This is great for tracking messages and customizing some of the cooler features that are available.

If you haven't yet be sure to check out Grand Central and let me know what you think.