Archive for the ‘Tips and Tricks’ Category
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Google has and (hopefully) will always be primarily a search engine. Sure, Google has an insane amount of tools and applications for everything from your computer to your television, but searching the web has always been it’s primary function. It all started with a simple site and a box. No advertisements. No sports scores. No world news. Just a text entry area and a few buttons.
From The Original Search Page Until Now
Over the years, that main Google page has not changed much, but now there is much more going on behind the scenes. “Googling” something has slowly evolved into a very intelligent, yet simple, way to find information on any topic imaginable. Over the last year, Google has introduced new search technology like Social Search and Location Aware Mobile Searching. And now, almost entirely under the radar, some new features have emerged from the Google Labs to further “enhance the experience of searching and help you find exactly what you’re looking for.”
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Tags: Android, applications, apps, background, Google, image, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Picasa, Search, searching
Posted in Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Consider this your official warning. Father’s day is Sunday, June 20th.
Now that you know when it is, let the gift hunt begin. Buying a gift for dad can be pretty simple, as far as picking out the right item, but what if you are trying to save money? Limited resources do not have to mean cheap gifts and homemade cards you know. Stretch your dollar and complete your Father’s Day shopping early using some of the sites and tools we have provided below. Your dad and your wallet will thank you!!
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Tags: Amazon, best deals, card, dad, father, fathers day, gift, gifts.com, photo frame, pritnable, Savings, scrapbox
Posted in Online Shopping, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
A recent survey by Norton revealed that 44% of people have been “victim of a cybercrime perpetrated via a social network – viruses, online credit fraud, unsolicited pornography, receiving excessive spam and ‘phishing’ e-mails (bogus messages sent by fraudsters posing as banks and other retail companies).” This number is increasing and the users of Facebook are growing more and more vulnerable to attacks from cyber-terrorists. So, as a user of the largest social networking site on the planet, how do you protect yourself? Norton is here to help answer that question with a FREE application called Norton Safe Web (BETA).
“The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site — it’s just that policing 350 million users can’t be an easy job for anyone…” said Graham Cluley (Sophos) in a recent CNET article. That is where Norton Safe Web steps in. The new tool works much like Web of Trust (WOT) and has already been available as an online service for some time. The folks over at Norton have just integrated it into Facebook for the specific purpose of testing your feed for links to unsafe/malicious content. There are some limitations to this new application, but it is a step in the right direction for Facebook users and their computers.
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Tags: bookmarks, cnet, Facebook, feed, FREE, links, malicious, Norton, pre-scan, pre-scanning, safe, safe web, shortened, test, unsafe, URL, warning
Posted in Free Programs, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
If I told you that I could give you detailed instructions on how to save $1,000 or more per year, would it be worth an hour of your time? No, this is not a pitch to get you trapped in a room with time-share vultures. This is legitimate information on saving money on your energy consumption and it is 100% FREE! That’s right, thanks to a BETA service from Micorsoft called Hohm, you can begin analyzing your energy consumption and saving money almost immediately. All you have to do is invest the time and supply Hohm with the necessary information about you residence and past consumption.
Before you jump in and begin entering information, lets take a look at this service. According to the press release issued by Microsoft (June, 2009), Hohm is a “new online application that enables consumers to better understand their energy usage, get recommendations and start saving money.” Recommendations are tailored to the individual home, based on house features, usage patterns and appliance information provided by the user. As a user, you can also compare your usage to neighbors and gain access to the community of participants online to share ideas and compare savings.
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Tags: appliances, cooling, cost, Electricity, gas, heating, hohm, Home, lighting, meter, Microsoft, Savings, usage, utilities, ware heating
Posted in Free Programs, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Are you a fan of really great deals? Do you like electronics, gadgets, t-shirts and/or wine? That list might sound odd, but it pales in comparison to the name of one of our favorite sites…. Woot! Woot is another one of those “must visit” sites that guided me to create JumpstartMyPC.com. I’ve been sharing the Woot with anyone who will listen/read since I first stumbled onto it almost 5 years ago and apparently I wasn’t the only one. The site has become something of a national phenomenon and with it, an entire culture has developed.
So what is Woot? Woot.com is an internet retailer base in Carrollton, TX and the originator of One Day, One Deal. The concept is simple, a new item goes on sale (at a great price) every day at midnight. The item is on sale until 11:59pm (central time) or until they are sold out of that item. Woot.com’s focus is “selling cool stuff cheap” and they always ship for $5. The woot! style of business became so popular that other retailers, including Amazon.com, Buy.com and Target.com have started their own One Day, One Deal selling strategies.
A Normal Day on Woot.com
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Tags: mywoot.net, one day, one deal, t-shirts, wine, Woot, woot watcher, woot-off, Woot.com, wootalyzer, wootwatch
Posted in Online Shopping, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 24th, 2010
One of my many hobbies/addictions is saving money on the web. I love to hunt for the ultimate deal by using price comparisons, coupon codes, cashback options, etc. I have had these tools at my disposal for at least 10 years now and have saved thousands of dollars, yet I still make some purchases in physical stores. Grocery shopping, although attempted as a web service years ago with Peapod, is not available here in Houston so I venture out to my local Kroger, Randalls or HEB at least once a week. Until now, these trips to the supermarket meant I had to leave the technology behind and earn my savings the old-fashion way (printed coupons). Thanks to Grocery IQ, that is all about to change.
Grocery IQ is a FREE application (originally priced at $4.99) for smartphone users and is currently available for iPhone and Android owners. The tool, powered by coupons.com, was designed to help users with a number of typical grocery shopping activities (listed below):
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Tags: Android, barcode, cellfire, Coupons, groceries, grocery, grocery iq, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, P&GeSAVER, randalls, safeway, savings card, scanner, Shopping, shortcuts.com, smartphone, supermarket
Posted in Free Programs, Online Shopping, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Way back when (Nov 16, 2009) I posted an article about the new clicker.tv web site. The original article (posted below) highlighted some of the great features of this TV, movie and music aggregate web site. Since that first post, clicker has gone and made some significant changes to its interface. We’ve got the skinny on the changes and new functionality available at the click of a button (now on your mouse or remote control).
The original article is posted below and the additions/changes are highlighted in green.
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Tags: aggregate, BETA, clicker, clicker.tv, episodes, Glee, Lost, Movies, Music, remote control, Television, TV
Posted in Free Programs, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Every week 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States.
That fact alone should be enough to frighten every computer owner on the planet. We all have photographs, movies, important documents, emails, etc. that we do not want to lose for any reason, yet I find very few PC users who regularly backup the contents of their computer(s). Every one of us has experienced a moment when we thought our PC had crashed and the first thought was “I should have backed up my files!” Why is it then that so few people perform regular backups? Is is Time…. Money…. Knowledge?
Whatever the hurdle is, it is time to overcome it and protect our important files from permanent deletion. There are several theories on what makes a “safe” backup, but we are going to focus on online backups. Why? Because external hard drives or CD/DVD backups are great, but they are almost never stored in an off-site location. Natural disasters and fires don’t show any mercy when it comes to destroying a home or an entire community, so let’s prepare for the worst scenario and secure our files in a secondary location.
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Tags: backup, crashplan, Dropbox, important documents, mozy, off-site, offsite, online backup, unlimited storage
Posted in Free Programs, Security, Technical Issues, Tips and Tricks | 4 Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Does your WiFi occasionally cut out for, what seems like, no reason at all? Do you feel like your wireless internet connection is dragging and you just know it should be faster? Both of these issues might be the result of interference caused by other electronic items in your home and/or around you. As simple as it sounds, a simple channel change in your router might fix the issues.
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Tags: analyzer, channel, interference, internet, router, smartphone, spectrum, video game console, WiFi, wireless
Posted in Technical Issues, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Wallpaper FAIL!
Of all the articles I have written and research I have done, no topic seems to be as popular as wallpaper. Believe it or not, it seems that more people are drawn to dressing up their desktop than making their computer run faster. I sure can’t blame anyone for pursuing a pleasant scene to stare at for hours a day, I was just surprised when I saw the numbers. Luckily for you desktop connoisseurs, I recently stumbled onto an article over at digital inspiration (via lifehacker.com) that outlines the benefits of using bing (the search engine) for wallpaper hunting. You don’t want to miss the details.
The original article on digitalinspiration.com, written by Amit Agarwal, outlines how you can use the bing image search to find wallpaper that fits your screen. While this may not seem like a difficult task to most, picking the proper image size for a desktop background can be more difficult than you think. In order to really explain the benefits of the “bing wallpaper search” I want to take a step back and demonstrate the “old” method for hunting down wallpaper and compare the two.
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Tags: bing, desktop, filter, Google, image, Resolution, screen, VladStudio, wallpaper
Posted in Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized | No Comments »
