Amazon is offering Tivo’s 80-hour Series 2 recorder for $170 – with a $170 rebate, it’s free, with free shipping. You still have to sign up for Tivo’s service, of course, with a year-long commitment (but without Tivo service turned on, it’s a free door-stop).

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Spring’s publishing schedule is full of science fiction books I’m anxious to read. Here’s the first batch of them… click on the cover or title to check them out on Amazon.com; click on the author’s name to see the author on Amazon.

Robert J. Sawyer’s “Rollback” (3 April 2007)

A few years ago it seemed that many of my favorite writers were suddenly dead – and if they weren’t dead, they were at least not publishing enough to keep me busy. I started picking up more books because the covers looked good or because Amazon told me that I should consume – I mean read – books that it recommended. Robert J. Sawyer was one of the new authors I tried, and I went through quite a few of his books rapidly once I started reading him. Possibly my favorite was “Calculating God”, a story about an alien landing in Toronto whose first words are “Take me to a paleontologist”.

Sawyer’s a decent writer, smart, rational and (as a Canadian) never above taking a few digs at the US. His latest book looks to be a story about the second received message from aliens, with a focus on the woman who decoded the first message, her failed attempt at rejuvenation and her husband’s successful attempt.

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These folks seem to specialize in disturbing USB devices. At their web site you can find USB sushi, USB duckies, USB creepy… things…, and, let’s not forget, FATBEAR.

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I recently hit level 40 with my Blood Elf character in World of Warcraft, and let me tell you, now that I have a mount, it is such a pleasure riding around the World of Warcraft on a giant purple chicken and having 14 year old Alliance players make clucking noises at you!

Until now, the only character I’d had reach level 40 was my Paladin. As a Paladin, I had my mount given to me as the reward for a quest, so I’d never gone the normal route and purchased and trained for a mount and I realized I didn’t know what I needed to do. Being a Blood Elf doubled that confusion as most of the mount guides you’ll find by Googling don’t cover the Burning Crusade expansion pack.
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