Archive for the 'Internet' Category

10 Free Business Cards from Moo

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

Moo.com is offering 10 free “cards” that are made from your Flickr album.

The most obvious reason fro getting these is for business cards. I was going to make some for my Round Rock Web Design company but all the pictures I have online are of my family and house - not very compelling for business.

Anyway, if you have the need and the pics up on Flickr it is a good deal.

Technorati: , , ,

On the Hunt for a New Digital SLR

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

About a year ago I bought a Sony DSC-H1 which is a higher level camera that gives the ability to do manual adjustments such as aperture, shutter, and other adjustments that let you really want to get the affects that you want.

While that is cool the main reason that I wanted a new camera was that my other camera was just so sssslllllooowwwwww. Literally it was at least 1 second between the time that you pressed the button to the time that the camera would actually take the picture. This was not working very well with a little 1 year old running around. I was taking terrible pictures.

So I bought an open boxed DSC-H1 for around $300. Good deal for the camera.

(more…)

Staying Organized with Google Calendar

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

I have tried several different calendar programs/gadgets/organizers and none of them have been as easy and useful as Google Calendar.

The reason for the failure of the others and the success of Google for me is that I am not the type of person that can look at a calendar in the morning and remember what to do for the rest of the day. I need something that is in my face about 15 minutes before I need to do something that is time sensitive.

This is where Google Calendar rocks.

The function of Google’s calendar that work the best for me is the reminder function. I have mine set to send me an e-mail and to SMS my cell phone also. Therefore no matter where I am I can get the reminder I need. Then if it something that I cannot get to right away I just leave the e-mail in my email inbox as unread until it is done.

That coupled with my little check register program that I designed have saved me a lot of time and money.

Technorati: , , ,

It’s That Season - Time for Halloween Decorating

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

So from one day to the next here in Austin it went from 100+ degrees down to 85. That can only mean one thing - fall is here. And with fall Halloween.

So in order to scary off as many greedy little kids you should stock up on as many Halloween decorations as possible.

When I was a kid my parents had a couple a tomb stones that they would place in the front yard with one of them reading - “reserved for the nest greedy kid”. Then they would answer the door dressed like Dracula and try to scary the kids away.

Crazy.

Technorati: , , ,

75 Miles Per Gallon Car - When Can I Get One?

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

I would buy one of these especially since gas is only $2.30 here in Austin.

Technorati: , ,

Need Austin Office Space? - See Don Cox

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

Having just moved to the Austin area about 6 months ago I really had no idea how many major companies there were in this area. I mean you have all the major players that computer/internet related including IBM, Intel, Apple, AMD, and Coremetrics ;-) .

Anyway the company that I am with right now just moved buildings because of our growth and I know that they went through a bear of a time to try to find office space.

They should have talked with Don Cox. Steve has his pulse on the Austin Office Space scene and probably would have found something for us a whole lot sooner.

Oh well, at the rate that our company is growing we probably will be calling Don soon enough.

Technorati: , ,

Blinksale - An Easy Way to Keep Track of Invoices

Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

I have been doing a little work on the side lately and did not have a way to get invoices out to customers in an easy and professional looking way.

Enter Blinksale.

I came across them a few months back on TechCrunch. Basically they are a web-based Quickbooks type of site that allows you to send out invoices to your customers via e-mail. They have a free account that allows you to do 3 invoices a month.

I am happy to say that I had to purchase there services because I needed to exceed that 3 invoice limit.

Another thing that is cool about them is the fact that if you have PayPal you can have people pay you via PayPal via you Blinksale invoice automatically. I just had one customer do that today.

It looks like I won’t be digging through bank statements this year year to do my taxes thanks to Blinksale ;-) .

Technorati: , ,

In Car Entertainment = Sanity for Parents

Monday, September 18th, 2006

My wife and I made one of the best investments that we ever have before - a portable DVD player. Right now it gets strapped to the back the headrest  of the middle seat of the van for my 2 oldest ones to watch.

As cool as it is it is going to be short lived within the next 9 months as my little boy turns 1 year old and will want to watch too.  Therefore I am going to need a new roof mounted screen so all of them can see it. On top of that I will need to get a new stereo system because I am sure that the factor one is not going to work very well.

To get an idea of what I am up against I have been looking at in car audio systems that will not break the bank. Dixons has a wide variety of products that is right up my ally whether it is a new deck or the whole DVD system with the screen. It is nice to see that their prices are reasonable so it won’t break my bank.

Technorati: , ,

The Death of Adsense as a Battle Cry

Monday, September 18th, 2006

It has been a few days since I posted on this guy that is chanting “Death of Adsense“.

No really it is just a guy that has this site with a free E-book that tells you his experience with Adsense verses affiliate programs. His experience is the same as mine - affiliates rock while Adsense is well… dead in comparison.

One last thing. He is proving his point by letting you have a free affiliate where he pays $0.50 to you for everyone that downloads his free e-book from his site. I honestly have made more from his affiliate in the few days since my post then I did in Adsense on 5 blogs.

I am a believer.

Check him out here - The Death of Adsense.

Technorati: , , , , ,

Carbonite - A Great PC Backup Solution

Monday, September 18th, 2006

A friend at work asked me a few weeks ago if I knew of a good company to use for backups for his home PC. I really had not looked into but after a little research I found that Xdrive was still in business and that they where giving away 5GB for free for backup.

Well as cool as that is it suffers from the same problem that causes most people not to backup there data at home - it is manual. You have to sit there and copy your files to Xdrive.

Well today I saw this piece at TechCrunch about a company named Carbonite has a little different twist. What you do with them is download a piece of software that you then tell it what you want to backup. Then the software uploads 2GB a day until the backup is complete. Then it continues to upload on a daily basis without you having to do anything.

(more…)