For several weeks now my hubby and I have been discussing buying a new digital camera.  The one we’ve been using is falling apart - literally.  The door that holds the batteries in place has broken and we have to tape it shut.  And we lost the cord that attaches it to the computer to download the pictures, so now we have to use a memory card to insert into the camera, remove it and put it in the computer and then download the pictures from the memory card. 

That’s not that big a deal except that it is stored in the camera right beside the batteries, so when I want to get pictures off of the camera I have to untape it and then tape it up again.  It is only a 5 megapixel camera, which was top of the line when we bought it, but times have changed and we’d like a better one that doesn’t need to be taped together!  I don’t know if maybe the newer ones are easier on batteries, I sure hope so!  The camera we have now is only good for about a dozen pictures and then needs new batteries, which is a huge pain in the neck!

Anyway, we are going to be looking at a website to compare digital cameras to see which one is the best digital camera for our needs before we go out and buy one.  We know that we want a small one to make it easy to take with us when we go places, but we don’t know yet if we want a compact digital camera or an ultra compact digital camera.  I’d like to get the one that has the most megapixels and the most zoom, but it appears that the price of those are more money than we want to pay, so we have to decide which feature is most important to us.

Posted: July 5th, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Entertainment/Fun, Family, Finances/Money, Internet, Life, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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Hotel reservations are easily obtained using the Internet nowadays.  Gone are the days when one had to find a travel agent to help you find the best deals on everything, or join a travel club in order to get their guidebook full of their reviewer’s rated hotels.  One of the best websites I’ve found for making easy hotel reservations for just about any popular tourist spot such as London, Paris, or even Washington DC is the Easytobook website.  

When you go onto the website, you are given many different options of which country you are interested in traveling to.  Once you pick the country, then you are given the options of which city.  Once you’ve made that choice it shows you a large variety of hotels, their descriptions, reviews, and prices.  The site also lists nearby airports, hospitals, shopping centers, amusement parks, museums and other attractions to help you plan your trip.

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Entertainment/Fun, Internet, Online, Shopping, Technology, Travel.
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My cousin and I like to exchange emails where we send links to humorous news stories that we find as we are browsing the Internet.  We like to try to “one up” each other when we can.  Well, today my cousin sent me the link to a story from the BBC website about a woman who saw a cat stranded up a tree and tried to rescue it by climbing the tree herself.  Well, the branch she was standing on broke off, and she became stranded herself!  The fire department had to be called to come out and rescue her with their ladder truck.  After all was said and done, the cat got out of the tree without any help at all!

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under Computers / Software, Family, Internet, Life, News.
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I guess it all depends on my mood at the moment whether I find people losing their data in a hard drive crash sad or funny.  Of course, a hard drive crash is never funny; it is a pain in the neck!  But people who are so short sighted that they don’t back up their files several times a day (if it is important!) have no one to blame but themselves data loss when their hard drive crashes.

I never think in terms of “IF a hard drive crashes.”  I think in terms of “WHEN a hard drive crashes.”  I read some kind of article a while ago that said something to the effect that 3% of all computer hard drives will crash.  Well, if that’s the case, I’ve seen more than my share!  I have been around personal computers since the very first MacIntosh came out around 1982ish.  My mantra, ever since “day one” has been “backup backup backup.”  I have helped my office “mechanize” with the purchase and installation of the IBM compatible PCs around the same time.  In the office that I was the “IT manager” for I required that everyone backup their computer at lunch and before going home for the day.  I have seen many many many hard drive crashes.  My own personal computer at home has crashed more than once.  This was very frustrating, but I had my files intact.  The biggest issue for me was getting the computer repaired, but I had no loss of files, only loss of productivity while waiting for the repairs.

I recently found out about a system, called an ARAID system that solves all of that by providing automatic backup.  This system is a second hard drive installed into your own PC that provides PC data storage and data protection by continuously backing up your data.

It is, in essence, a complete duplicate of your hard drive.  So if your hard drive crashes, you have the ARAID there to take over.  There is no loss of data, no loss of productivity.  This is a great idea for small businesses and personal computers alike.

(This post brought to you by the folks who make this ARAID backup system)

Posted: June 26th, 2008 under Business, Computers / Software, Internet, Life, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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My younger cousin sent me an email, inviting me to “meet her online” in Spicy Town. Spicy Town is a fictitious town in an online video game produced by the company that sells Slim Jim spicy snacks. So I went to the online game site to meet my cousin there. I had to create an avatar to use to play the game. It was kind of fun, creating the avatar. The avatar was called my “spicy side.” Setting up my “spicy side” was quick, easy, and amusing. I had to take a picture of myself and upload it to their site, then their program helped center my facial features around their pre-drawn outline of facial features, then they make a funny little creature with horns and funky hair, and then they turned me loose into the video game.

During the game I was supposed to go around collecting Slim Jims that I found lying around on the ground. I only found three, but I only played for a few minutes, trying to find my cousin. There were other people’s avatars in the game walking around too. Some seemed to be fighting with each other (I don’t know why, maybe one insulted the other, those spicy sides are unpredictable and uncontrollable!) some were just walking around ranting and raving. The game has chat functions and buddy lists and chat functions, but I didn’t stay on it long enough to check those out; the baby started fussing and I had to get off the computer and take care of lunch time!

If you want to play the game yourself, go to www.spicyside.com!

(This post brought to you by the architects of Spicy Town.)

Posted: June 26th, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Entertainment/Fun, Family, Friends, Internet, Life, Online, Technology.
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