Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS)

With the writers still on strike, late night hosts are gearing up to putting on shows without help from any writers [subscription required]. For the past two months, while Hollywood writers have been on strike, late night television viewers have been served up re-runs of their favorite speak shows, but that is about to change.

It has definitely been a strange time for our late night shows to be on hiatus. With the now heating up presidential race offering up loads of good material, you know that the late night hosts have just been dying to get back into the action. But, don’t expect to be seeing the same sort of shows you are used to seeing when they return to the air next week. The shows should prove to be very different than business as usual.

The exception to this rule might be the two late night shows on CBS (NYSE: CBS). David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants Inc., is currently in talks with the Writers Guild of America and hopes that its “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” will be able to reach a deal to allow its writers to be able to contribute to its shows.

One of the aspects of late night that we have come to love and anticipate is the interviews with major motion picture actors regarding their new releases. While this typically represents at least one guest each night, it could be lacking from the shows when they return in the next few weeks. Most major actors have vowed that they’ll support the writers and avoid the talk shows. The negotiations between Worldwide Pants Inc. and the guild could be the only thing that leads to actors being able to come out and promote their upcoming releases.

One thing is for sure, as the shows begin to slowly come back on, we will all be getting our fill of commentary on the current presidential candidates, and who can complain about that?

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Business, Stories, United Says, Transportation, Airports, Budget Travel, News

Whenever I’ve rented a car, I’ve always felt a bit anxious wondering what option to take when it comes to the insurance–or if the price is going to truly be what the information states it will be. Driving off a automobile lot in something I don’t own is thrilling on one hand, but disconcerting in another. What if something goes wrong?

So far, I haven’t been scammed, but I’ve probably paid for insurance I didn’t need–that loss of use business makes me wary–and I’ve double and triple checked what it is I’m signing up for. In many cases, I’ve been able to work out a superior deal like trading up for a roomier automobile at the same initial rate for a smaller car.

Chris Elliot outlines scams to watch out for in his article “Hell on Wheels: Four Car Rental Scams.” They are scams because they unfairly tip in the vehicle rental companies’ favor if a customer doesn’t pay attention to the fine print. Here are the three that I’ve watched out for myself. For the fourth one, read his article.

1. Refueling- For example, as with happened with us this summer when we rented our vehicle at the Bellingham airport, the car rental person offered us the refueling charge option. At first it seemed like a fair deal, but it only would have been be a fair deal if we brought back the car with an empty tank. In our case, we turned him down and refueled making sure the needle went above the F right before we hit the airport. Elliot says that sometimes vehicle rental companies will charge refueling anyway, even if the tank is full, but the needle is a tad below the F.

2. Doing anything outside of the initial terms of the contract. If you bring a vehicle back early you can pay for a much higher rental feel. If you’ve rented for a week, you’ve a week rate. One day earlier puts you into the pay by the day category. I’ve always stayed within the original contract so this hasn’t been a problem. Years ago I added an extra week to a car leasing deal in Paris for not much extra money, but that sort of deal might be long gone.

3. Damage to the car. Automobile rental companies have also been known to charge for the same dent more than once. Technically, if the car is damaged while in your care, your insurance is responsible, unless you have the insurance through the vehicle rental company. Elliot suggests taking photos of the different sides of the automobile before you drive it off the lot to prevent the chance you may be charged for something you didn’t do. This fall I had a vehicle rental after a automobile accident and made sure the guy marked down any ding I saw no matter how small. The automobile was white which made me feel nervous the whole time I was driving it. I found myself parking far away from other automobiles whenever possible.

[via CNN.com/travel]

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Filed under: World wide web, E-mail, Productivity, Mozilla, web 2.0

Remember the Milk, one of the ideal on the internet task managers out there, has just released a Firefox extension that integrates its task management seamlessly into your Gmail account. One look at Remember the Milk sitting hand in hand with your Gmail and you’ll be saying, “this is how integration is done; seamless as cell towers passing off your phone call.” Oh, and you’ll have a rich, Holmesian accent as well. We can dream, can’t we?

Simply download and install the extension, and then restart Firefox. When you load up Gmail, you’ll see a new section running down the right hand side of the page (you’ll be reminded to login to the Remember the Milk site if you haven’t done so already). Once you’re logged in, you’ll see all of your tasks laid out next to your email messages.
But that’s just the beginning.

You can easily customize which tasks you see in your task window by filtering them based on tag, location, or advanced search criteria. You can also create new tasks at any time by typing in the box provided. Make it as detailed or simple as possible; you can include tags, due dates, etc…

And integration with the email next door? Take a gander:

If an email needs to be followed up or responded to, you can star that message, and have Remember the Milk automatically create a reply or follow up task. (Those settings can be edited and customized directly in the Gmail settings, under Tasks). You can also create a task from an email by selecting Create task from the More Actions drop down.

The Remember the Milk Firefox extension also connects to Google Calendar. You know when the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and it gets really cold? That’s not dead people; that’s the moment where Remember the Milk sees that you’re adding a task related to an event in your calendar, and automatically sets the appropriate due date. Creepy.

But enough talk! Download the extension, signup for a Remember the Milk account if you haven’t already, and get to tasking.

[Via Daily Apps]

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Filed under: Utilities, Linux, Productivity, Open Source, Troubleshooting

Imagine you just finished writing an important document with your favorite word processor. You hit save, and turn in for the night, satisfied that everything is fine. Unbeknownst to you, something happens as you slumber. Maybe it’s a wayward nephew, maybe it’s your cat, but at some point, something or someone deleted your precious file. What do you do?

Rest simple, friend, and take a look at this. Although the author of this app doesn’t seem to know how to run SpellCheck, Get It I Say (GIIS) is an invaluable data recovery tool. All you need is a Linux based system and a hard disk partition that uses EXT2 or EXT3.

[Via Data Recovery]

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