The Google Tablet is rumored to be in development, based on the popular Android operating system. Image from Flickr.

The Apple iPad may be the first mass-market slate computer to gain market share, with a rumored Google Tablet on the way, the iPad may not have dominance for long. The New York Times reports that “unnamed sources report the Google CEO is discussing a Google Tablet. The Google Tablet has not been officially announced yet (or has it?), so tech geeks around the world can start filling out personal loan application paperwork now for this soon-to-be-had device.

Google Tablet rumors run wild

The rumors about the Google Tablet are, thus far, very nebulous. Some say that the Google Tablet will be made by HTC – the same company that makes the Google Android phones. Others say that the fact Google will be launching an e-book store soon points to a possible Google Tablet. Rumors are that Hewlett-Packard is also working on a Google Tablet that uses the Android operating system.

The Google Tablet – WePad

If a native Google Tablet is a reality or not, there is already an in-production Google Tablet. The WePad, a slate computer that runs on the Google Android operating system, is already in production. A Google Tablet in operating system and design, the WePad is designed and build by Neofonie GmbH – a German company. The WePad has a larger screen than the iPad, offers a faster processor, webcam and integrated USB ports as well as support for Java, Flash, and Adobe AIR — all features the iPad lacks. The WePad is a Google Tablet in the fact that it runs on the Google Android operating system. It will be available for pre-ordering in Germany on April 27 and worldwide soon after.

Google Tablet through Android

Much like Google’s cell phone market integration, the Google Tablet will most likely take several forms. The Android operating system is being licensed and used by many device operators other than Google. While a Google Tablet may take a year or two to develop, the Google Android system is ensuring that there is money to lend when a company wants a stable, unlocked operating system.

Other iPad tablet competitors

The Google Tablet is not the only rumored iPad competitor. The Microsoft Courier, a product rumored to be released in early 2011, is a dual-screen, pen-based tablet-style device that will run on the Windows operating system. Nokia is also working on a small “converged” e-reader. H.P.’s “Half-Pint” in a Google Tablet style device that is tiny, only six inches diagonally, that will run on Android.

The United States Postal Service does deliver mail on Good Friday. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The new official list of 2011 bank, stock market, and federal holidays is now available.

Today is Good Friday, the day many Catholics and Christians around the world spend at church and preparing for Easter. Good Friday is not, however, on the list of federal holidays, USPS holidays or post office holidays. Good Friday does, however, count as one of the stock market holidays and some bank holidays. In other words, if you are wondering if there is mail on Good Friday or are banks open on Good Friday, the answer could vary. You may or may not be able to visit a personal loan company on this religious, not federal, holiday. So what are the official holidays for these services?

Stock Market Holidays 2010

The stock market holidays 2010 are very close to the bank holidays and official NYSE holidays list. Officially, the stock market holidays in 2010 are:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Good Friday – April 2
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Day after Thanksgiving – Early close (1 p.m.)
• Christmas – December 24 (observed)

Bank Holidays – Are Banks open on Good Friday?

Though the Stock Market Holidays include Good Friday in their official list, Bank Holidays are more varied. Individual banks can choose to close in observance of particular holidays, so to know for sure you should check with your local bank. If you will be filling out a personal loan application, call your banker to find out if you can turn it in on Good Friday. However, the general list of U.S. Bank Holidays in 2010 include:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 25

USPS Holidays – Post Office Holidays 2010

If you are wondering is there mail on Good Friday, the answer is yes. The USPS does not observe most religious holidays. The Post Office Holidays 2010 include:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 25

Federal Holidays

The U.S. Government does officially recognize some holidays. The specific federal holidays that are observed do not easily change, though the “observed” holiday may be moved by a day to accommodate work schedules. The official 2010 Federal Holidays are:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• Washington’s Birthday – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 24 (observed)

The specific holidays that are observed by various institutions, your workplace or local businesses may vary greatly from stock market holidays, bank holidays, post office holidays and federal holidays. If you celebrate Good Friday today or not, it is important to call ahead to make sure the places you plan to go are open.

Earth Hour is easy

In the most basic sense of the word, Earth Hour’s call to action is the very least we can do. Taking part in Earth Hour doesn’t mean we have to actually take responsibility for the environment by changing any part of the way we live or consume. All we have to do is switch off the lights for an hour.

Shop, donate, borrow money

It costs nothing to participate in Earth Hour; however, those who hope that buying more merchandise will help stop climate change, can shop for Earth Hour Gear on the official web site. Those who believe it may make better environmental sense to donate money directly to Earth Hour can do that online, too. At the time of this writing, Earth Hour Gear was not yet available, but donations can be made now, so it’s not too early to fill out a personal loan application if you need a loan to do your part for Earth Hour.

Climate change in a nutshell

According to the Earth Hour web site, the effects of climate change are being felt throughout the United States. Alaska’s climate has warmed twice as quickly as the mainland United States. Spring snowmelt is earlier, sea ice is reduced, glaciers are retreating and permafrost is thawing. In the Northwestern states, winters are wetter and summers are drier, water supplies are strained and erosion is increasing. In the Southwest, water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce and droughts are a significant concern.

In the Midwest, heavy downpours are now twice as frequent as they were 100 years ago and lake ice is reduced. The Northeast has less snow and more rain. The Southeast has more hurricanes, increased air temperatures, higher winds, greater rainfall, and more storm surges. On the coastlines and islands, which are particularly sensitive to impacts of climate change, sea levels are rising, shorelines are eroding, wetlands are drowning and the man-made environment is threatened.

Taking a real stance doesn’t have to be hard

It makes sense to take a stance about global climate change, but taking responsibility for the problem requires more than an annual hour-long blackout ritual. Taking responsibility, on the other hand, doesn’t have to involve living in a teepee without electricity or running water.

A person might ride a bike on occasion instead of driving a car, purchase fewer wasteful and unnecessary products, or choose foods that require less fossil fuel energy to produce. There’s nothing to stop people from switching off the lights for Earth Hour while making real changes, too; except, of course, that change is hard and flipping a switch is easy.

Charts like this are created using U.S. Census Data. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Almost every mailbox in the United States is going to receive a form from the 2010 Census this week. The U.S. Constitution requires a census of the country every 10 years – and those numbers help determine everything from congressional representation to educational funding. Filling out the form takes 10 minutes – less than a personal loan application – and is incredibly important. So what are the census required answers? Is your information safe? And what happens with the data?

Census required answers – what to tell the Census Bureau

Because the 2010 Census will help determine the allocation of hundreds of billions of government dollars, it is incredibly important that the count be accurate. According the the United States Code, refusing to participate in the census means a fine of $100, while deliberately giving false answers can mean a fine of $500.

This year’s 2010 Census form is only 10 questions – and is one of the shortest forms on record. It asks about the number of people that live in the household, their ages, their ethnicity and whether they stay somewhere else. There is also a question about what type of home it is – a mobile home, apartment, condo, house, etc. So what are the 2010 Census required answers? All of them. An answer to every question is required by the Census Bureau.

What happens if I don’t mail back my 2010 Census Form?

If a household does not mail the form back, the U.S. Census Bureau will send an enumerator to the house – and send them back as many as two dozen times – until they talk to someone. If th enumerators are not able to talk to anyone at the house, they will talk to neighbors in an effort to get an accurate count of people. The Census enumerators are not immigration officials, police officers, members of the military or even representatives of anything other than the U.S. Census. They don’t care about anything except the number of people that live somewhere.

Is my 2010 Census information safe?

It can seem very scary, giving personal information to a government representative. However, the U.S. Census exists in a very unique “walled garden” of government protections. As the Washington Post reports, not even the U.S. Patriot Act, which overrides dozens of security protections in other parts of the government, can penetrate Census information.

Private information about individuals is never published by the Census Bureau, and it publishes statistics only. U.S. Census workers are subject to a quarter-million dollar fine and five years in prison if they so much as share an address. That is the kind of fine  that most U.S. Census workers could not even pay with the help of quick payday loans. Census workers are not allowed to discuss even the area of a city they are working in, much less any private information. Not even immigration enforcement can make use of the data. Illegal residents are specifically protected in the Census and have been since 1790.

What happens to my 2010 Census Answers?

Once you’ve filled out the 2010 Census forms or talked to a Census enumerator, your data is used in a dizzying array of places. Not only is the data used to determine congressional representation, it is also used to help allocate funding for roads, education, stimulus packages and more.

Census data is also used by financial institutions and businesses to determine expansion and business improvement plans. Everything from the population signs when you enter a city down to the new sidewalks in your favorite business district are determined by the Census. Depending on your locality, a single person providing the Census required answers can help allocate anywhere from $1,400 (in Wichita Falls) to $4,656 (in Washington, D.C.) for the city.

Some cyclists love big hills, but if you don't, check out Google Maps

Yesterday, Google announced that it has added biking directions to Google Maps for the United States. Whether you ride for exercise, to run errands, to commute to work, or just for fun, Google Maps can now make your life little easier, a little more scenic, and even a little safer.  No matter why you ride a bike, chances are you’ll appreciate this: Google Maps bicycling directions will help you avoid hilly terrain whenever possible.

Google Maps now includes a “bicycling” layer showing bike lanes, bike-friendly roads, and bike trails. The directions feature of Google Maps, which previously included walking and public transit as well as automobile driving, now provides detailed routing directions for bicycling, too. When you’re strapped for cash and out of gas, you can pull up Google Maps, print out directions, hop on a bike, follow the best possible route to any number of payday lenders, and fill out a quick personal loan application.

It’s as easy as riding a bike

Just like Google Maps for driving, bicyclists simply type in a starting point and a destination, choose “bicycling” from the drop-down menu, and customize their routes by clicking and dragging. Before starting out, bicyclists who prefer not to sip on the fly can use Google Maps to figure out where to take water breaks, and those who aren’t comfortable fixing flats on the fly can figure out where bike shops are along the route. True to form, Google Maps even provides bicyclists with time estimates based on route length, terrain, fatigue over time, and other factors.

Naturally, there’s more

As if that weren’t enough, the “more” drop-down menu on Google Maps displays a color-coded overlay to indicate trails (dark green), bike lanes along roads (light green), and roads without bike lanes that are appropriate for biking (dotted green), based on traffic, terrain, and intersections. It’s really pretty impressive. Take a look: It could make you turn off your computer and go ride a bike.

Working with others, including you

Google has partnered with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to provide bicycling information for more than 12,000 trail miles in the United States. Rails-to-Trails is a nonprofit organization that builds walking and riding trails on former railway lines. Google encourages bicyclists to provide feedback by using the reporting tool found at the bottom of the map.

Oh, how I wish I could do this to Facebook. Image from Flickr.

The Internet has done countless wonderful things for humankind. However, it has also served to highlight people’s lack of regard for the written word, specifically when it comes to grammar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling. Most days I feel I must not waste time being annoyed by the countless errors I’m subjected to as I read through my friends’ status updates on Facebook, but sometimes it is just too much to bear. If you want to make the day just a little better for your cousins, your grammar-loving friends, your mom and especially me, avoid these common Facebook mistakes.   You can learn to avoid these mistakes without needing cash loans for tutors.

1. Misusing “your”

For some reason this word seems to be misused more often than it is used correctly. If you are using the contracted form of “you are,” the word is “you’re,” with an apostrophe and everything. Take the extra two seconds to think about what you are writing and get it right. You double check your information before you submit a personal loan application, right? Your is possessive, as in “your Facebook status.”

2. Apostrophe usage

Many people have decided that using apostrophes is unnecessary when posting message for all the world to see on Facebook. This can result in unclear communication and, more importantly, annoying me. When you’re using a contraction or making a word possessive, go ahead and use apostrophes. It will make your pinky feel useful.

3. Capitalization

I admit, I often neglect capitalizing when I am talking to friends on instant messenger. However, that’s because many times a lag in the conversation can make it confusing. When it comes to a Facebook status message, don’t be in such a hurry. Capitalize things, especially when referring to yourself as “I.”

4. Using homophones incorrectly

Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. People use “past” when they mean “passed,” “then” instead of “than,” “to” instead of “too,” etc. This bothers me mostly because I think that if writers were to think for a split second, they’d know the correct form to use.

5. Totally random punctuation

People use punctuation on Facebook that doesn’t actually exist or have a function in the English language. For instance, I have a friend who often uses “..” instead of an ellipsis (…) or a period. Why? I understand that commas and hyphens and semicolons and such are way too much to ask for, but at least stick to real punctuation. Calm down on the exclamation point usage while you’re at it.

6. Copy/paste statuses

This is not a specific mistake so much as an instance in which mistakes are more annoying. I am not a fan of the “copy and paste this to your status” trend, and it bothers me even more when I see the same mistake over and over. If you do copy and paste one of those viral status messages, go ahead and fix mistakes in it. You can do it. It’s as easy as getting online cash loans.

7. Quiz titles

I have actually seen grammatical mistakes in quiz titles that were about grammar. I don’t know who writes these quizzes, but for heaven’s sake, if you are writing a title on something that will be passed around and inevitably end up in my news feed, please get get it right. It is annoying enough to have my news feed clogged with announcements about the ridiculous quizzes my acquaintances are taking; at least don’t force me to read even more grammatical mistakes than I already have to.

Jeep Patriot image from Flickr.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has come out with its annual list of Top Safety Picks. Eight SUVs and 19 cars have been given Top Safety Pick awards for 2010. People who want to make sure they’re getting the safest cars before filling out a personal loan application for a car loan should definitely check out this list.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named six vehicles made by Ford, which makes Volvos, Top Safety Picks. Subaru and Volkswagen each had five vehicles named on the list. The Institute picked four Chrysler vehicles.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

For 50 years, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has operated for the purpose of reducing automobile accidents and injuries. The Institute is a non-profit organization that gets its funding from insurance companies. Each year, four tests are conducted to determine the Top Safety Picks:

1. Frontal offset impact test
2. Side impact test
3. Rear crash protection and head restraint ratings
4. Roof strength test

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also rates child booster seats for cars and other consumer products. Of course, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been accused in the past of serving the interests of the insurance companies rather than the public, which is why vehicle testing is highly regulated. It has also come under scrutiny for being unfairly hard on motorcycles, but who are we kidding? Motorcycles are not known for their safety features.

New safety requirements

The New York Times noted that there were some major changes in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s list. For instance, last year 94 vehicles were named on the Top Safety Picks list, and this year there were only 27. Furthermore, Toyota and it subsidiaries last year earned a total of 11 Top Safety Picks awards, and this year the company, which includes the Lexus and Scion brands, got none at all.

In order to make the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Picks list this year, vehicles had to get a rating of “good” on the roof strength test, which measures rollover protection, was required in order to make the list. “Good” is the highest rating. This change caused Toyota vehicles to be shut out, the length of the list to be reduced dramatically and the Honda Accord to be left off the list after it made the 2008 and 2009 lists.

Auto industry impact

Naturally, safety ratings play a big part for many consumers when they are considering vehicle purchases. After a couple of tumultuous years in the auto industry, the stellar safety ratings for Ford should help the company stay afloat while we ride out the rest of the recession.

Chrysler should be particularly encouraged by its four wins after it had to file for bankruptcy protection this year. Sales of the four vehicles that made the list should help stabilize the company. Those four vehicles are:

• Chrysler Sebring 4-door with electronic stability control
• Dodge Avenger with electronic stability control
• Dodge Journey
• Jeep Patriot with side torso air bags

Check out the full list of vehicles that made the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s list in the New York Times’ Wheels column.