Can You Balance The Budget?

This is an interesting game on balancing the national budget. It is flash based and free. You can take the tutorial to learn how to play. It is neat to see how moving things around can change things so dramatically.

Digital Magazines

This article on digital magazines talk about how more and more people are consuming their magazine content online. My personal feeling is if you are going to read it on computer screen you might as well read a blog. Which is more timely. Many magazines are putting all of their content up online anyway. I really don't see this as a "lifeline." You can check out Zinio for yourself.

Budget Hero

This is a link to a neat game on managing the US budget. I know it doesn't sound "neat" but it is kind of cool to see how it works.

Mars Hoover Landing

I have to admit the story about the unmanned Mars craft is pretty amazing.  

Microsoft Office Live Small Business

This is a really nice way to build simple small business sites. Microsoft is doing it for free!! You can get a domain and then manage the web from this spot.

When bad things happen to good computers!

This week I have had a couple of people call me about computer problems that were mysterious in nature. In both cases I couldn't ascertain what caused the problem but I was about to help them fix it. This is the way it is with computers many times. We can do things to fix the problem without knowing what caused it. However, I thought I would provide quick list on what causes most problems;

1. Installing software or hardware. Whenever you make changes to your setup it carries a risk. In most cases this risk is very low.
2. Online problems - Adware/Spyware - you can minimize this risk by going to reputable sites.
3. Lightning - power surges are much more common than getting a virus. Protect yourself with a good surge protector and if you really want to step it up try an uninterrupted power supply.
4. User Error - (maybe this one should be first) - many times we do things inadvertently and it causes problems. If you don't know what a file does on your computer I would play it safe and let it lie!

I am sure there are others but these are the most common ones I encounter. The bottom line is just be aware that bad things can happen even to the safest user.

Tropic Thunder

This new movie, Tropic Thunder, offers a 'red band' trailer. A 'red band' trailer is one that has R rated content. I am actually surprised we don't see more of them on the web. 

Yahoo and Microsoft still in talks

Doesn't it seem like this story will be with us until the acquisition goes through? 

Fox to cut back on ads for 2 shows

To me this makes a ton of sense. I understand the idea that if a network sells 16 minutes worth of ads they make more money than if they sell 5...but they seem to be finally catching on that retention of advertising is down.

I listen to a podcast called Cranky Geeks and they have a few commercials in every show. They are so short, however, that it isn't worth it for me to go through the hassle of fast-forwarding. I think this just might work.

Fizber.com is a nice resource for Home sales

Based on a comment in a previous post I came across this site. Great resource for selling your home if you are going to try without the ad of a real estate agent.

Here is a comment from their site;

It's all about exposure. Once you place your listing with us, we will
automatically add it to 70 + partner sites.

Google to blur faces in street view

This one doesn't surprise me too much. It is really strange to check out "street view" - it seems logical that they would blur faces. 

Reading Website

This is a neat site, starfall.com, to help your son/daughter read. Great resource for a teacher too.  From the site;

At age 9, young Stephen Schutz was still struggling to read. What came easily for some children required many more hours of Stephen's work, and he was consistently toward the bottom of his class in reading. Now a PhD in physics and a successful publisher and artist, Dr. Schutz wanted to make sure children in his situation today have a resource that can help. He turned to the Internet and conceived a program that would be available online across the world to all children who are learning to read in English.

Laptop Recovered Using "Back To My Mac"

I thought this was a nice story with a happy ending. Essentially the thieves used the technology in the laptop and in doing so got caught. 

Does Apple Make The Best Windows PC?

My sister dropped her computer the other day and it will require a new power cord. It is an older machine and she has wanted a new one for some time so this might be the excuse she needs to buy a new one. No sense in chasing good money after bad! Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because in talking with her about her new machine I told her that the new Macs are now on par (price wise) with comparable PC's. It used to be that PC's were cheaper than Macs and that was one of the main reasons that people switched. At the time Apple tried to convince people that the cheap PC's were using slower processors and components. This was a tough sell, however, because it was very hard to compare the machines.

Yesterday, I went online and built a Dell machine with the exact same components as the MacBook. I found that the Apple was about $50 cheaper after tax. This leads me to my question. It sure seems to me that the best option would be to buy a Mac if you want to run Windows! The up front cost is cheaper and the resale is better. Of course, you would also get to try out Mac OSX which I think is a better choice anyway!

In New York! Sharing Wifi.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I actually was on a brief mini-vacation to New York. My wife and I had a great time. I wanted to share a short tech related thing that happened. The hotel we stayed at did not have wireless internet (although they did provide wired internet)

Anyway, we found that an open wireless network was available from a nearby apartment. The moral of the story? It doesn't hurt to look.