Buying for the Kids

Guest post of the week by Val Flores

I am all for teacher children responsibility. I’m a firm believer that if people invest their time and money in something, they are much more likely to appreciate it, and take care of it. Some kids around here turn 16, and their parents toss them the keys to a new car. Or they get given a cell phone as soon as they can walk, and the parents pay for it. Not us. We are more than happy to provide all of the basic needs and most of the wants for our children, but anything that goes above and beyond that that they want, they have to buy. The kids wanted expertsatellite tv in their rooms, so they earned the money and bought themselves small tvs off Craigslist. Some other parents might think we are not giving enough, or offering our kids enough, but the way we look at it, we are giving our kids a gift that money can’t buy. We are teaching them to be responsible, independent, and hard working. To us, that is the most important.

New Apple Products

What do you think will be the next Apple product?

A new iPhone? New Apple TV? Smaller iPad?

We can only wait and see.

Carpool

Thanks for the article from Glenda Hanson

My children are in private school, and it’s wonderful. They enjoy the school, have great friends, and are learning a ton. They’re far ahead of some of their friends in other schools, and I know it’s the right decision for our family. That being sad, there is one pretty major downside of private school—we don’t have any bus service. This means I have to drive my children to school every day and their father picks them up. It gets to be kind of a drag, because I have to leave my house forty-five minutes early to sit in their parking lot for twenty minutes in the carpool line! WE use the time to talk and catch up, which is nice, but there are definitely days where I have a lot of other things I need to be doing with that time! My husband, who is brilliant, came up with a great solution for what to do with that time I spend waiting. He did a Google search for wireless internet franklin and discovered that we have Clear internet available here! I can now catch up on all of my emails while I’m also catching up with my kids. It’s a win-win!

Sister's first apartment

Content by Mitch Osborne

My sister is moving into her first apartment. While it is not a big deal to most people, it is to her. I keep trying to remember the first time I moved into an apartment. It was a long time ago and I am sure I was excited too. However, she is clueless. She just thinks you move in and everything is taken care of for you. I think everyone wishes that were the case, but it is not. She didn’t know she had to have direct tv internet, power, and water installed. I also don’t think she knew there were other bills other than rent. She has always been the clueless one of the family. I love her to death, but sometimes I wonder how we could possibly be related. She once tried to make a grilled cheese sandwich without taking the wrapper off the cheese. She is a great sister, but I am worried this apartment might be a little too much for her to take care of alone. I think there will be a lot of phone calls from my sister in the near future.

TV Battle

Thanks to Darwin Barton

When my husband and I moved last year, we had a huge fight over the new TV we planned on purchasing. I thought that we should get a nice one, but he thought we needed to get the best of the best. I was annoyed by the amount he wanted to spend and thought we could put it to better use for other things. In the end, I lost this battle and he bought the TV he wanted. We purchased an awesome satellite TV package from http://www.direc4u.com/ that had a bunch of HD channels. We never had HD before because we had an old TV that wouldn’t support it. I hated to admit it, but my husband was right about getting the best TV we could afford. I am now a total HD snob and hate watching any channels that aren’t on HD. I get so proud when our friends come over and ask what kind of TV we have because the picture is so much better than theirs! I wasn’t happy at the time but I love our TV and HD channels so much it’s pretty funny. I guess from now on I’ll leave the technology shoppingto my husband and defer to his judgment on what we need to spend on each component.

Early move out

Thanks for the post from Stan Atkins
I have moved out on my own. All of my friends think I am crazy. They tell me I am too young and that I am not prepared, but I don’t listen to them. I know what I am doing and I know why I am doing it. I have always been an independent person. I love my parents. I really do, but I just needed my own space and I needed to live by my own rules. I found a place fitting my small budget. I have done everything I can to have the lowest bills possible. I found a great company using electricity providers mcallen. I also found a great job. I don’t start for a couple weeks, but I have enough in savings to live off of until I get my first paycheck. My parents are having mixed emotions about the whole situation. They are proud of me for being independent, but they are also sad to see their baby leave. I think it will all be for the best and if nothing else I will learn a lot from the entire experience.

Enjoying our family 4th of July picnic

Guest post written by Teresa Stein

We used to have these really huge family picnics for the 4th of July when I was growing up. But then a lot of my extended family moved farther away and it was much harder to do that. Well, I'm really trying to revive that old family get-together this year and am heading up the whole thing. I'm not really sure how it's going to end up being but I've done all kinds of planning for it.

I was trying to look up recipes that would be good to ask people to bring for the picnic and as I was doing that, I saw the website hearingaids.Miracle-Ear.com. I read through it some and after that I considered getting hearing aids. I made an appointment and am going to see if I need to go and get them.

I sent out all of the emails to everyone and got some really positive feedback. I guess I'll have to wait until the actual picnic to see but I think that this may be so great that we'll want to keep up this revived tradition.

Making over our backyard space so we'll use it some more

Guest post written by Stacy Porter

We have this pretty big backyard, but we just never really use the space that we have. I'm really excited for all the improvements that we're making.

I'm trying to be really cost-effective about this whole backyard makeover and coming up with all kinds of new ways to use the backyard as much as possible. I went online to find some ideas about what I could put in the backyard and while I was doing that I ran across the website WildBlueDeals.com. After reading through it completely, I decided to switch over our home internet service to the provider.

We're getting an above-ground pool for the backyard and I think ! that's really going to make it one of the main socializing areas of our home. We're going to get rid of the old picnic table that's in our backyard and actually get some better looking seating through a patio set of chairs and tables. I'm going to put those near the grill and I think that will be an easy way to get the whole family out there and supervise the kids while they're swimming.

Pics Of Water Cooled PC Guts

Pretty sweet huh?

Pics are from this link.

Another Overly Priced NetBook: Samsung

Once again we see the more solid technology companies begin to think that they can attach a name to a product and sell it at a significant price. This time it is Samsung.

The 12" NC-20 has some decent specs for a NetBook, but it is fairly pricey for a NoteBook.

Here are some of the specs: "A big-sized sequel to the 10-inch NC10, purported specs include an unnamed VIA U225 processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 1.3MP webcam and a weight of 3.3lbs. Slated for February (in Italy at least), the system is said to retail at $650. " [Gizmodo]

Again, $650? That's like armed robbery when I get can a modest, yet weaker model, for half that price?

Could Apple Survive Without Steve Jobs? [Apple]

Several sites and blogs are talking and speculating about the after math of Steve Jobs not attending the next MacWorld. The main point of emphasis is: Is he leaving Apple?

While speculation is likely to continue until Mr. Jobs actually confronts the issue, maybe Apple fans should focus on another, closely related topic:

What would happen to Apple should Jobs leave?

While it would be hard to compare a post-Jobs Apple to a post-Gates Microsoft, the results may be similar. The jury is still out on the post-Gates Microsoft result, but changes have been made and will continue to be made throughout the company.

Should Jobs leave Apple, would anything really change? I personally doubt it, at least for the next few years. Apple is doing very well in several markets, including music sales, the i-Line, and there various PC competitors. Apple has gained a respectable share of the computer market, "Mac’s share is now 10% worldwide and an impressive 21% in the U.S." [Apple Blog] Why mess with success? 

That level of change would only spur more interest and development in where Apple sees their strong suits. Major changes could prove counter productive to users, and could be seen as an abandonment of the Jobs legacy.

People like familiarity, and might bounce at the first site of a new "regime" making major over hauls to the product line. The only change I would recommend would be to at least attempt to compete in the lower cost PC market (not necessarily the Netbook market though).

Although Jobs is the face and major visionary behind Apple's success, whoever takes the reigns after he leaves, if he leaves, would be a fool to alter the formula to much.

How To Un-Install Inernet Explorer 8 Beta 2

If you have already fallen into the deep, dark abyss of Internet Explorer 8, here is how to get out of it.

The link to un-install IE 8.

Internet Explorer 8: Beta

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available for your use and abuse.

Here is the link.

MacTini: The Future Of Apple [Humor]

With all of the grief that Microsoft gets, it's refreshing to see someone take a jab at Apple every once in awhile. 

The following link, goes to a video portraying "someone" giving the rundown on the new Mac-Tini.

Be sure to watch the video.

Chrome Updating Secretly, Quietly?

Has anyone noticed that you may have different copies of chrome on your PC? After reading a post on Gizmodo, about the latest "release" of Chrome not being in Beta anymore, I decided to re-download it.

After a weird sequence of events, or non-events concerning Chrome download, I navigated to the file folder where the executable is stored.

This is where I found application versions. 

It seems that the first of these versions was made on 0.4.154.29, on 12/5/08. The second, 1.0.154.36, was on 12/12/08. The Chrome executable is from 12/9/08. 

If one browses these folders (the ones with the version numbers) one will find separate setup executable and what I assume to be a version of Chrome packaged (Chrome.7z).

So if it is true, that Google is pushing more current versions of Chrome to users without them even knowing it, is that a bad thing to you? There can be a difference of opinion on this.

I tend to be of the mindset, for Chrome only right now, that this is a good thing. The user need not worry about finding another version, or upgrading whenever Google sends out their "we fixed it" e-mail. Google can push a new version to the masses without the slightest hint of anyone knowing. Though it would be nice if they told us, formally, that they had changes for Chrome coming.

My only concern would be that an application is re-building another application on your computer without your knowledge. Now while Google isn't a bad group of pirates, there are those who are. If an OS doesn't know that a new application is being built quietly and silently, without user request, to me that could leave some doors unlocked security wise.

Again, for Google to do this is to me, not an issue. It is the possibility of some malicious persons doing it as well. 

So knowing now, what you know, do you feel any different about Chrome or Google?