Passport Photo Racket

CVS charges $9.99 to take a passport photo. Other companies like AAA and Fedex charge about the same. This is a pure racket.

I took a normal photo against a white background with my smart phone and correctly sized it at http://www.epassportphoto.com/ I saved the file on my USB thumb drive and took it to CVS and paid $0.29 to print out five passport photos.

There is a serious discrepancy in pricing when I paid 1/35 what the person in line beside me paid. That's unfortunate for him - but why is it that we are expected to pay so much for exactly the same product?

Next time you need a passport photo for a visa application or passport renewal, save your money and take the photo yourself.

Google Laptop!

Well, I've never won lotteries or prizes until today. I came home to a surprise UPS shipment - being the return address was my hometown, I thought it was an early Christmas present from my parents. No, it was from Google!

On a lark, I signed up last week for Google's CR-48 pilot program.

Well, so far it's really cool. 90% of the time, I'm checking email, surfing, or doing stuff online. I share docs on google docs. I use google calendar. I post pics with Picasa. I'm a self confessed Google head.

The only complaint so far: Netflix doesn't work. But then again, it doesn't work on my pre-Intel iBook either.