Research and Compare

Keep those sticky fingers off the keyboard

We all get grease and stickiness on our fingers. There are natural oils in the skin as well. Not a big deal. We wash our hands regularly. However, in between those hand-washing times we use the computer, including the keyboard to make  or create our messages, to surf the internet, to read posts, and whatever else we do with the computer. We wipe off the monitor when needed, but we also need to wipe and clean the keyboard, after all, we are not touching the monitor with our fingers. What we have on our skin builds up on the keys. The result is that the computer keys get stuck, or what is on our skin gets down under the keys into the machine. The same is true with cell phones. We certainly need to be cleaning our cell phones regularly, since we are always touching them. I once had a Blackberry Curve, with a rolling scroll ball, as the Curve is famous for. I was attracted to that feature of the Blackberry. I soon discovered that the ball would not move. It was stuck. I took it to the cell phone carrier's store, and had the ball replaced, because it had oils on it from my fingers, causing it to get stuck. I had another cell phone with a ball in it, and also had the same situation occur. I got tired of Blackberry, partly for that reason, but I also acknowledged the importance of cleaning hands before using the phone. Now, several times a week, I take a clean, slightly damp, soft rag, and gently clean off the monitor and keyboard of both computer and cell phone. I also blow out any dust that may be collecting in between the keys, using a blow dryer. Have a happy preventive maintenance day!

Your Domain Name Speaks of You

A domain name is an address to your place online. It speaks about you. It identifies you. The domain name is the door to your website. It identifies you and your website. If I want to find your website, your online kingdom, I need to know your web address, and that is your domain name.

There are many places to go online to get a domain name. First, you want to list five possible domain names that you want to own, because you will be able to see if that domain name is already in use. after doing a search for that domain name, the system will let you know if it is already taken, or not. It happens in just a matter a seconds. A domain name is used by just one person, or company. It is a piece of online real estate, that belongs to the user as long as the user buys it, and renews it when it is time to do so.

The domain name can only contain letters, numbers or a dash, but not symbols are allowed. It does not matter is the letters are in capitals or small case. The computer sees only numbers whereas the viewer sees an attractive domain name that is often a person's name, a company name, or a phrase describing someone's interest. One way to check to see if a name you like is taken, without doing a search for it on a domain name webpage, is to go to the address bar at the top of the brower window, and put in the domain name, and see where it takes you. If you use .com as the domain name exension, chances are, there is a .com name for a name you like. Try the same name with another TLD, top level domain, or domain name extension, like, .ws, .net, .org, .biz, .us, and you may not find the name you put in.

When buidling a website, you first need a domain name. No domain name means no website. The domain name in this way serves not just as an address for the website, but the key to open the doors to the site. From there, you go in and create what you want the visitors to find: text, video, pics, games, polls, advertisements, contact info, about me info, links, and more, to make your website a complete online kingdom, a place to go to, to visit regularly, or to use as a source of knowledge. You decide what the purpose of the website is, why you want people there, and what you want to offer them. If you want them to come back, you want to keep the website updated with new information, or features. You want to do things to your site to give it curb appeal, and get visitors to become regulars, if that is your desire.

Children are producers, too!

I am in the living room watching my son create several duct-tape wallets to add to his inventory of wallets.  He tells me that making these wallets is not his talent, but I strongly disagree. He makes them all the time, and has supplied me and other family members, as well as some of his friends, with homemade duct-tape wallets.

Duct-tape wallets are simple, highly flexible, bend easily, can be adapted to any pair of pants, as they are not thick, bulky leather types, and, surprisingly,they last a long time, but sometimes do need some minor repair, which is easy to perform with duct tape present. It is a creation that a child can be proud of. They are not hard to make, and are unique types of wallets. All that is needed to make a duct-tape wallet is a pair of scissors, and a dollar bill to get the pocket size correct for the wallet and the duct tape itself. When I pull out my duct-tape wallet in the supermarket, or elsewhere, the cashier comments on the wallet. People have said things like, "What a cool wallet, where did you get it?", or "I like your wallet, wish I had one like that."

Prior to two years ago, I never imagined this use of duct tape. My son has opened my eyes to this, and to many other things, in his creative domain.

Shopping for a Blogging Platform

In a blog, both reader and writer come together, and interact. How? A blog has the option to let readers make comments to the blog article posted. Sometimes readers have to loginto the blog platform to do this, or sometimes they simple leave their name, or email, and make their comment. There are options for this, depending on the blog. The writer can then respond back to the reader's comment, and this can go on and on, with a chain of dialog. Other readers can join the dialog, and leave their comments. A blog in this way becomes a conversational medium.

For a blog to be a blog, not only is there the option to allow readers to comment, but also, each blog post appears in chronological order, with the most recent appearing first to the reader. A blog will offer a list of months or a cloud of keywords. The visitor can click on the month to find all the blog articles written, or a particular keyword to find all related articles. Also, underneath the title of a blog article, or at the bottom of the post, is a grouping of keywords that can be clicked on to view other article posts in the same subject. Sometimes bloggers leave off keywords, so they are not always available.

For a blogger to get regular visitors to the blog, the blog posts needs to be updated regularly, with new blog articles posted at least once a week, or twice a week. Some bloggers post daily. A blog content kept in new status, is attractive search engions like Google. Search engions llike the new. Readers also like new reads.

A blog platform should be free, and allow for the blogger to customize, and choose a template from many selections. A blog platform should offer the ability to upload video, pictures, and audio.

The three free, and popular blog platforms, which are very user friendly, and easy for making blogs is Typepad, Wordpress, and Blogger.

From Old Analog to Digital Wireless

In the old days, back before the 90's, cell phones were on the old analog network, all over the world. Sound was of poor quality by digital standards. There was often static, and wind sounds. Data transfer speed was slow. Then, came the digital age. Yeah. The digital wireless systems gave us what the analog days did not: text messaging, and multi-media applications on our phones, fast data transfer speeds, and a clear, strong sound quality. Most people use digital wireless networks today for these reasons. 

Now the various wireless networks, IDEN, CDMA, TDMA, EDGE, EVDO, all have the letter "D" in them. The "D" means digital. IDEN, is a network created by Motorola. The popular feature of IDEN is the push to talk feature, or the walkie-talkie. Boost Mobile phones are on the IDEN network, and come with that walkie-talkie feature. Unlike most CDMA phones, IDEN phones do have sims cards. These phones are often stronger, weather, and sand resistant, and made to meet military standards. CDMA is the biggest, and most popular wireless network in the United States, and is getting popular in other parts of the world, particularly certain Asian regions. 

GSM is like digital, but it serves the international community.It is the phone with the sims card. If traveling to other parts of the world, it may be a good idea to have a GSM wireless network phone.  

Before buying a  cell phone device, it is a good idea to know your wireless network in your region, as not all wireless networks serve the same location. The digital networks are getting digital improvements. Stay tuned, and consider life without the wonderful digital features many so desire and demand on their phones. 

Wheelbarrow Gardening

Although, I don't see many neighbors with wheelbarrows, I know these rolling wagons are out there. I went to a local organic garden, and saw a good use for the wheelbarrow in the garden. Now, I always promote simplicity when given the opportunity, and now is that opportunity. The simplicity of wheelbarrow gardening. All you new or experience gardeners, or organic gardeners, pay attention. This is a neat idea. 

In this garden, I saw a wheelbarrow being used as a garden bed. Several holes were drilled in the bottom of the wheelbarrow, to allow water to drain, and dirt filled the wheelbarrow garden bed to a few inches before the top of the wagon. There was a layer of compost, and peat moss spread in and over the dirt. A thick mantle of greens were growing just fine in their garden home. 

Think of the benefits with this enclosed metal garden container. There is control. The plants stay in the bed, and it is easier to reach down and control weed growth. It is a pleasure to garden with this very upraised garden. How many of us have back issues, and don't want to have to bend over all the time to touch the surface of the earth. Gardening is fun, and not a burden, when done in comfortably, and wheelbarrow garden is an easy way to garden. The bed is already laid out, the metal frame and foundation of the wheelbarrow. 

I am eager to start this kind of gardening, but there is just one problem. I don't have a wheelbarrow. Oh well, I do have several rectangular, raised vegetable beds with a ceramic block border, and I do have a couple container gardens. I am still very impressed with the practicality of the wheelbarrow garden. I must might buy a wheelbarrow just for that purpose, since I do want to add one more garden bed to the yard. 

Fun With a Breadmaker

Last year, my wife ordered for a T-fal Bread & Baquette Maker. Since then, we have been making homemade bread several times a week. We have stopped buying bread in the supermarkets because after eating homemade bread, and learning how easy it is to make bread, we don't need to buy it. The bread maker does all the work, and in about three hours, more or less, new, fresh bread is born on earth.

The T-fal Bread & Baquette Makers comes with a recipe book of 13 bread recipes. The easiest two, and the two that I make the most are the sandwich loaf and the Farmhouse loaf. The main thing I need to check on before making bread, is to see if we have enough white flour, whole wheat flour, rye, and good quality yeast. Have those items and the bread is on the way. The sandwich loaf requires only white flour, whereas, the Farmhouse loaf requires, white, wheat, and rye. The bread maker also comes with, a measuring spoon, measuring cup, metal a tray for the baguettes. The machine makes little noise, but does make a sound letting us know when the bread is done. Of course that is a happy sound in this family.

All that is necessary is to put in the ingredients into the bread bin in the maker, close it, set the program to the appropriate number, since each recipe has a program number, and then, let the bread maker do its job. After about three hours of painful waiting, hahaha, I get to taste the freshness of new bread, with some butter or cheese spread, on top. This is a treat for this household. 

A tip for making bread with the bread maker, is to be sure to follow the recipe with regards to measuring the amount of the ingredients needed. Too much or too little of yeast, water, flour, oil, can change the appearance and taste of the bread. It can come out too soft, or too hard, too brittle with knife sharp edges, and cushion soft.

Now I am not a cook, and don't claim to be an exemplary kitchen food preparer, but, I do know how to make bread with the easy to use, dependable bread maker. I am the primary bread maker of this home.

Gold Nugget Squash Golden and Delicious From the Garden

Back in May, I planted one, and one only, gold nugget squash plant in our backyard organic garden. Although, we waited a number of weeks before getting any squash out of the plant, once the plant did produce, we had squash after squash, coming forward in our garden,and now that we are in December, the plant still has squash for me to go out and pick.

This one plant has taken over a large part of the backyard, and not just the garden, with its long arms stretching in all directions. It has covered our mint, tomato, and other plants, and even reached outside the boundary of the yard. Just one plant, and we  have had week after week of soup, pasta, risotto, and just plain gold nugget squash for our taste buds.

What we learned:

Make sure you have plenty of garden space for this squash variety to expand, because it will, and if not controlled or given enough room, could become an unwelcome resident in the neighbor's yard. We found that out, although, the neighbor made no complaint, but we did discover some missing squash on that end of the plant. Make sure you don't plant other food plants as the nugget squash will climb over them, and cover them from the sunlight. This is a dominating plant in the vegetable garden. Make sure you let each squash reach its potential in size, before cutting, and also, be careful that you don't cut the vine itself, when trying to cut the squash.

This is our first year of growing gold nugget squash in our garden. We almost lost hope in the gold nugget squash plant in the beginning, thinking that all we are getting is long green arms of the plant, but no fruit, and therefore, a waste of garden space. We thought that we should have gone with another plant. However, once it is producing fruit, the gold nugget squash produces non-stop. These squash are big, durable, and survive the heat, and the autumn coolness. I did not keep track of numbers, but I believe we have reaped at least 100 squash from this one plant, and I am going out to pick more.

Tis the Season for giving applause.

We heavy computer users are out and about doing what we do best. Use, buy, manipulate, and reap the rewards of our computers, the computer software, the Web2.0 experience, and the mobile devices to advance our communication. Now, this time of year is a time to reflect on what we have, and think about how it all came about. There are so many who have contributed to making the high tech world in which we live in, a valuable commodity, a valuable place to exchange ideas. Think of what we all have:
blogs, websites, social media sites, internet security, computer hardware to deliver ourselves into the universe of cyberspace, mobile devices to allow us to stay connected through texting, talk, walkie-talkie, mobile email, and instant messaging.

One thing that we all could do the next time we come across the founder of some useful website, or blog, or even online affiliate income opportunity, is to sent a friendly comment, or email, thanking that individual for his/her contribution to Web2.0, the web we have grown to love.

AVG is a Dependable Computer Friend

We ought not spend any time on our computers without an good internet security system, and AVG Anti-Virus is that security needed. I have used it for years to protect my computers from viruses and spyware. Each day it does its security scan, and makes updates to its system. You can have AVG scan specific files, folders, or scan the entire computer for threats or issues. While on a particular website, or web page, you can have AVG scan that page or site. It is important to always keep the anti-virus program updated, regardless of which is used, since new viruses come forward every day. AVG lets the user know what the newest internet threats are, and what they mean. Very interesting, but serious information.

AVG offers a database of information about viruses, and the top internet threats. From the AVG menu bar at the top of the screen, click on the help button, then, click on About Viruses and Threats. 

AVG will scan incoming and outgoing email for threats. Even with the strong security protections that come with Google's gmail, I still use AVG for added security.

The AVG Web Shield is protection application protects against accidental downloads of infected files. Many users who spend considerable time of the internet would value this function of AVG. Resident Shield scans files during the process of downloads. The AVG Linkscanner application is valuable because it guards the computer from viruses or spyware, when a website is at the point of being entered. 

AVG is so busy doing so many things as an all-purpose guard for computer users. While doing all the many things I do online, I know that behind the scenes, faithfully at work, is my hired security guard, AVG.