Never Drink Hot Water From the Tap NY Times: Hot water from the tap should never be used for cooking or drinking. "...hot water dissolves contaminants more quickly than cold water, and many pipes in homes contain lead that can leach into water. And lead can damage the brain and nervous system, especially in young children."

Qtrax Qtrax - This looks interesting. Free and legal music downloads. I'm looking forward to testing it. UPDATE: Maybe it's not going to happen.

Vista: Most Secure? Microsoft is saying that Windows Vista is more secure than XP, Mac or Linux. Riiiiiight.

Don't get me wrong, I mostly like Vista, but it's very hard to believe that it's more secure than Linux. It will indeed be interesting to see how the Mac and Linux communities react to this report.

Global Warming Is it just me, or has it become acceptable to blame Global Warming for whatever you'd like? This report says that Global Warming is the reason we haven't had very many hurricanes as of late.

Oscars The Oscar nominees were announced today, so let's talk Oscars...

(NOTE: I haven't seen all of the nominated films, so some of my guesses are based solely on the buzz. I'm not providing comments on the various minor categories.)

Best Picture: Essentially there is a tie for the frontrunner status between Atonement and No Country for Old Men. The Academy will likely give Atonement the Oscar for Best Picture, since it's a more conventional story and a romance. It likely has more mass appeal.

Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen will win the Oscar for Best Director for No Country for Old Men. Atonement will not sweep the awards.

Best Leading Actor: Daniel Day Lewis will bring home another one. Johnny Depp may surprise me, however.

Best Leading Actress: This one is too close to call. I believe that Ellen Page deserves it, but I also think that winning an Oscar at the age of 20 is a curse. Therefore, I actually hope she doesn't win. The nomination alone will cement her place as one of the two best young actresses working today. (The other one is Evan Rachel Wood.) Marion Cotillard will win this category.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Original Screenplay: - Juno will take this as a consolation prize, having lost both Best Picture and Best Actress.

Best Supporting Actor: We have the first real lock of the year: Javier Bardem will win this one, hands down. Others need not apply.

Best Supporting Actress: This one is too close to call, but I'm favoring Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone.

Achievement in Cinematography: - It's a tie between There Will be Blood and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which is my pick.

Achievement in Film Editing: - I don't have a clue. If I had to pick one, I would go with No Country for Old Men, or, more likely, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Cloverfield We saw Cloverfield at the theater yesterday. If you intend to ever see this movie, do so at the theater. Much of the intended experience will not translate onto the small screen. I recommend the film, but I do realize that its appeal is limited to a certain audience. The movie is most impressive at two levels: the sheer creative brilliance in which the story is told - via a single camera being held by main characters - and the special effects, in which once again, portions of NYC are destroyed. Let me also add that it is indeed possible for detractors to dismiss the film as yet another take on a tired Godzilla formula. Persons with this opinion are both correct and mistaken. The way in which the story is told is what separates this film from others. Watching Cloverfield on the big screen is far better than many amusement park rides.

Snow! We awoke to a steady, wet snowfall today. The weather report says we may get up to an inch. This is extremely rare, here in Mississippi. Here are some photos I took around my house.

Great Photo Great photo at Flickr. Beautiful creature.

New Apple Products Ed Bott offers some commentary on Apple's new products: "I was, frankly, underwhelmed. I wouldn’t trade my Tablet PC with its 200GB 7200RPM drive for a Macbook Air with an 80GB 4200RPM drive. And Apple TV looks like a local franchise for the Steve Jobs Video Store, where you can stuff dollar bills in it and they get pneumatically transferred straight to Cupertino. No thanks…"

Golden Globe Winners Here is the complete list of Golden Globe Winners.

Sony Goes DRM-Free Sony is now selling DRM-free MP3 files via Amazon. Their entire catalog will be available by the end of the month. This is great news.

Comcast to Offer 100 Mbps Internet Information Week: "In a keynote address at CES, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts promised a broad rollout of Internet services at rates up to 100 Mbps by the end of the year with more high-definition content."

Microsoft to Fix Office 2003 SP3 Problem eWeek: Microsoft Backs Down over Office 2003 SP3 File Blocking. Actually, you can already download some "reg" files that will fix the problem from David LeBlanc's site.

Blu-ray Winning? More rumors that Blu-ray is probably going to win the HD disc war. Having lost the Beta/VHS war, I guess this would be a huge triumph for Sony. Consumers don't really care, they just want the "war" to end and they want the prices to drop.

Racing Simulation Rig Jeff Atwood gives us photos and details of his Racing Simulation Rig. Yes, I'm green with envy.

Vista Sales ZDNet: "If these samples represent Dell's overall business, which in turn serves as a proxy for the PC market as a whole, Microsoft is on target in its mission to convert the consumer market to Vista through new PC sales. Business buyers, however, remain skeptical."

Bottom line: Businesses are sticking with XP mostly, but home users are choosing Vista.

Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Problem ZDNet: "Without warning the Microsoft Office SP3 update blocks over a dozen common document formats, including many Word, Powerpoint and Excel documents. Install the update and you can’t open the files."

Yikes!

TV Converter Box Coupon Program How to Convert to Digital TV - If you're not going to purchase a new television and you watch over-the-air programming, this is the information you'll want to know.

Yahoo! IM Spam Anyone else getting tons of Yahoo IM spam? It started a few weeks ago.