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Archive for November, 2011

10 Vacations Where You Have to Go Low Tech

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

It’s hard to relax and enjoy your surroundings when your smart phone is constantly drawing you back to the virtual digital world. Some people are so addicted to their technology that they need to find a place where they are forced to detox. With an increasing number of vacation destinations advertising their high-tech capabilities, it’s getting more and more difficult to find a place where you can get unplugged. If you need to find a place to get away from your computer, phone and television, here are 10 vacations where you have to go low tech.

  1. Dry Camping in an RV – Amazingly enough, you don’t need to go to the ends of the earth to find a place with “no signal”. Traveling with an RV, especially in the deserts of America’s southwest, you can do what is called dry camping or boondocking. There are millions of acres of BLM land well out of range of cell and TV towers. There you can relax and explore, but still have all the comforts of home.
  2. Grand Canyon – If you’re just following the crowds on the rim of the Grand Canyon, you’re still going to have digital access to distract you from the spectacular view. However, if you travel deep into the bowels of the canyon, there are places like Phantom Ranch. It takes some doing to get there, but its well worth it to travelers who want to disconnect with technology and reconnect with nature.
  3. BWCA – The Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the Canadian border of Minnesota is the ultimate low tech vacation. You not only have to leave your technology behind, but also any motorized vehicles. Since everything has to be carried in, nobody wants to pack a laptop. AT&T wanted to put up a cell phone tower near the edge of the BWCA, but was prevented from doing so.
  4. Fishing – Avid fishermen know that the best way to get unplugged is to go fishing. The best lakes and rivers with the biggest and most abundant fish are in remote areas far from any digital technology. Even if the cell phone works, you can’t fish and tweet at the same time. If you try, your fishing buddy is likely to throw your phone in the lake. Water and digital technology just don’t mix.
  5. Alaska – Another U.S. destination that makes it easy to go low tech is Alaska. Most of the vast wilderness of our biggest state is impossible to populate with cell phone towers. It doesn’t take much research to find places like the Ultima Thule Lodge where you can be transfixed by the Northern Lights display instead of a video one.
  6. Canada – That’s 5 unplugged destinations and we haven’t even left the country yet. Similar to Alaska, Canada also has vest expanses of wilderness to get away from technology. You can go camping with a tent 50 miles from the nearest store or book a vacation at one of their many fly-in resorts.
  7. Mongolia – For travelers who want a more exotic location, there are very few cell phone towers in Mongolia, so it’s pretty easy to go low tech there. You won’t get any signal at the Three Camel Lodge where you can stay in a traditional felt tent used by the local nomadic herders.
  8. Anquilla – In order to take temptation away from digitally addicted travelers, the Arawak Beach Inn in Anguilla locks up their digital devices upon arrival. They don’t want Blackberries and laptops distracting their guests from the relaxing vacation this Caribbean island has to offer.
  9. Grenadines – If you need a place to get away from it all, go to Petit St. Vincent in the Grenadines. There you can hide from digital distractions and enjoy the beauty of another Caribbean paradise. Dig your toes into the white sand beaches and live the life of a hermit if you so desire.
  10. Belize – There are certainly many vacation destinations with digital access in Belize, but the Whipray Caye Lodge is on a private island and is non-wired by design. There the topic of conversation among the guests is not the latest viral video, but the catch of the day.

No HD digital display can match the beauty of nature itself. We could all use some low tech time to relax and reflect. Instead of looking for the hotel with the best free WiFi, find a place where the only blackberries around grow on bushes and are delicious to eat. Take a moment to unplug and unwind where the only things tweeting are the birds.

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10 Best Urban Legends Ever in Our Email

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Ever since the first email accounts were created, there have been at least a few of them filling up the others’ in-boxes with bogus messages of one kind or another. Of the various types of spam that have circulated the worldwide web these many years, the urban legend has been the most enduring. Today we look at some of the classics; those whose titillatingly elaborate blends of believability, conspiratorial splendor, and downright outlandishness have suckered in about 9 out of every 10 AOL users who ever logged onto the ‘net. We give you, the 10 best urban legends ever in our email:

  1. The Elevens of 9/11 – During a time of exceedingly high emotions and a search for answers, this urban legend’s combination of numerical oddities and coincidences struck a chord with many. Of course, it was all just an attempt to create some pattern out of a chaotic event. Though we do admit to being somewhat weirded out by the Wingdings bit ourselves, the Q33 part was also proven to be untrue.
  2. Don’t Flash Those High-Beams! – As a supposed form of gang initiation, street thugs are reported to be driving the streets at night, with their headlights off in search of hapless prey. Their victims? Anyone foolhardy enough to flash their headlights.
  3. Facebook Cartoon Characters – An instant classic in that it morphed into two separate mutations, sending many recipients scrambling in opposite directions. At first it was an attempt to stop child abuse; then it was “discovered” that the whole idea was started by a group of pedophiles looking for a way to surreptitiously friend minors. Nonsense all around.
  4. It Takes Guts to Say Jesus – A warning sent out to unwary souls who would open a message with this subject line: that this is in fact a computer virus. This hoax has some legs, it’s been around for well over a decade.
  5. Cash Reward for Forwarding Email – According to this urban legend, recipients of this email will earn cash awards from Microsoft or AOL for each person they forward it to, and each person who then passes it further along. Typically accompanied by a note from a lawyer and relative of the originator with check in hand, complete with their contact info.
  6. Kidney Thieves – So renown is this story since its introduction that it’s been incorporated into movie plots. You know the one: an unsuspecting house guest wakes up in a tubful of ice, only to discover (gasp!) …
  7. Nigerian Scam – AKA the “Advance Fee” or “419” scam (for the section in the Nigerian penal code dealing with fraud), in some form or another it’s been around for decades.  An email from a Nigerian official (or royal family member) requests that you assist them in releasing a huge sum of money. You must remit a fee to cover a transfer fee, tax or some other fee in order to get things rolling.
  8. The Devil and Proctor & Gamble – We remember this particular fable from as far back as 1969. According to legend, the CEO of Proctor & Gamble, during an interview on a TV talk show (Donahue, Sally Jesse Raphael, Dick Cavett, take your pick) declared that portions of the company’s profits went to the Church of Satan. When asked if he was concerned that this revelation would hurt his business, her replied that there aren’t enough Christians in the United States to make a difference.
  9. Spam ‘Til it Hurts – The names of the benefactors and their beneficiaries have varied over they years, but the premise is essentially the same: A billionaire or corporation vows to donate money for every forward of this e-mail, in order to save, or grant the dying wish of, a child.
  10. It Slices, It Dices … – Emails touting long lists of unusual uses for household products are some of our favorites. Some of the suggestions are downright comical, but enduring, legends.

In the case of WD-40, there are dozens of all-purpose functions for which this miracle product is uniquely suited to do: remove scuff marks, cleans bugs off bumpers, repels pigeons. The email goes on to say that the product was created at the former San Diego Rocket Chemical Company, and was so-named because it was the 40th attempt at a Water Displacement formula.

In this case, however, that’s all true.

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10 Things I Love and Hate About iTunes

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

iTunes, like so many other great parts of our digital world, has things we love about it and things we hate about it. Sometimes the things we love, we also hate. Here’s my list of things I love and hate about iTunes.

  1. Love: It’s easy to buy songs – Your credit card or your itunes gift card are attached to your account, so that all you have to do to purchase songs is click ‘Download’ and it transfers the song to your computer or your iphone instantly. It’s wonderful!
  2. Hate: Too easy to buy songs – The other side of that story is the fact that it is so easy to do download songs that you do it more often than you would if you were purchasing at a store. It is so easy, that you don’t put as much thought into it and probably buy a lot of music that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
  3. Love: You can buy a song at a time – I love the fact that you can buy just one song at a time, instead of having to buy a whole collection on a CD. You can buy just the songs you want, and they’re usually only .99 each.
  4. Hate: How fast each .99 cent song adds up – Only .99, but it’s amazing how fast those dollars, less one penny, can add up to the same price of a CD. If I’d of had to buy the whole CD for that song, I wouldn’t have bought it at all. Now I’ve boughten 10 songs from ten different CD’s.
  5. Love: I can sync all my devices – I can have all my music on my computer, my ipod, my iphone and my ipad. Every time I add something new in one place, I can add it to the others as well.
  6. Hate: It gives preference to Apple devices – iTunes does play favorites. It’ll let you download to PC instead of a Mac, but you’ll find that it prefers to ‘play ball’ with its own mp3 players rather than the less expensive one that might work just as well.
  7. Love: Having all my music in one place – iTunes keeps all your music well organized in one neat space. You can sort your music by artist or song. I can setup playlists of groups of songs. I can just keep building and building, my music collection.
  8. Hate: Having to keep upgrading my ipod – I hate that I keep running out of room on my ipod and need to keep buying bigger ones to keep up with my growing music collection. I really wish they were more expandable.
  9. Love: That it isn’t just music – It isn’t just music that I can buy and download from itunes. I can sign up for podcasts, TV shows, movies and books too. I can feed on digital media galore!
  10. Hate: It doesn’t have that one song/podcast/show I want – For some reason, the one item I really was hoping to download tonight isn’t available on itunes. They have ‘everything’. How can they not have the one thing I wanted?

Yes, we love and hate our wonderful itunes. But since we keep using it, I guess we must love it more than we hate it. Right?

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10 Ways to Maximize Bandwidth Caps on Your ISP

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Bandwidth caps have quickly become the norm among internet service providers, and despite their assurances that such usage restrictions would only affect a few heavy users, it’s no secret that bandwidth can evaporate pretty quickly even with average use.  Video streaming, gaming, and families of users can go through quite a few gig in a relatively short period – short enough to warrant a warning, if not a surcharge, from their ISP.  So it would be useful to know some tips on how to make the most of your allowance. Here are ten ways that you can take smaller bites out of your allotted bytes:

  1. Do a Background Check – No, we don’t mean hiring a PI to dig up dirt on the CEO of your ISP. We’re talking about programs or applications that run on your device whenever it’s online. You can monitor for unnecessary drains on your resources by downloading TCP Eye.
  2. Pass on the Auto Updates – Many programs will install with user-selectable update options. Use these opportunities to save bandwidth by de-selecting automatic updates. You can get the updates manually later on.
  3. Block Ads – Apart from just being annoying, those pop-up ads take up bandwidth. Download ad blocking software so you can make better use of it.
  4. Savings in a Flash – Some websites make use of Flash to stream videos automatically when visiting certain pages. Make sure you don’t have Flash set to run automatically. There are also flash ad blocking add-ons available for multiple browsers and platforms.
  5. Cache Savings – You can set your browser to cache images, and even select the amount of memory to set aside for the task. This will allow you to retrieve stored web pages from your device’s memory rather than the web, and thereby saving you more bandwidth.
  6. External Drive – You definitely need multiple back-ups of your important files in case of a crash, damage to, or theft of, your device. We recommend making use of an external drive source in favor of online storage when bandwidth is a concern.
  7. Choose Wisely – Regarding those files that you do choose to backup online, you may want to be more selective about what needs safeguarding and what can simply do with a disk copy.
  8. Change Your Resolution  –  Video far and away represents the largest slice of the average internet user’s bandwidth pie. If you can’t do with less video, maybe you can get by with a little less quality in your videos via a lower resolutions setting.
  9. Apply Compression – As a First Aid measure for saving bandwidth, this treatment can be a life-saver. Download image optimizing software that allows you to send photos in a compressed format.
  10. You’ve Got Mail Issues – Specifically: forwards, attachments, image loading – all of which can add up. Screen your inbox and only open those forwards that you really need to, and only those attachments that aren’t likely to be lolcatz; set your mail client to not load images automatically. You’ll thank us later.

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10 Most Useful Bandwidth Speed Tests

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Every now and then it’s a good idea to check the performance of your PC or mobile device. Bandwidth speed testing is one such check, which samples how fast your device downloads and uploads files. The results can then be compared to your ISP’s advertised speed and in some cases, other users in your area. Since the amount and the value of the results data can vary widely from one site to the next, we decided to rate the top ten bandwidth speed tests by their usefulness in testing and troubleshooting a computer:

  1. ISPGeeks.com – By far, the most informative website about all things techie, including testing data. As its name would suggest, this site is designed to provide as much info as the average user is likely to ever need, and then some.
  2. Speedtest.net – Slick graphic display and a choice of servers for testing. It will show your IP address, ISP, and ping time as well as bandwidth speeds. You can then opt to share the results for regional comparisons, and to supplement the site’s test results database.
  3. DSLReports.com – Here you’ll find a directory of online speed tests. We especially liked the Flash test, which gives the option of choosing from 8 different cities, with the server that is being used. Ping, line quality and FAQ tabs gave comprehensive help in sorting out the data.
  4. InternetFrog.com – Very detailed test results, including average results for your ISP, and an explanation of what your down / up speeds mean in relation to file sizes. Round trip times, and quality of service are also measured.
  5. InternetServiceProviders.org – Another site that provides very detailed analysis including round-trip time, packet info, consistency of service, etc. via 5 graphic displays. Test server site is shown, but not selectable.
  6. Xfinity Speed Test  - Shows IP address, server location (which can be selected) and distance; peak speeds as well as overall. Speedo goes only to 20Mbps, which we thought was odd for a cable ISP. Not much info to work with beyond raw test data, though the FAQ link is somewhat helpful.
  7. TestMy.net – Will test your bandwidth speed with a choice of multiple file sizes, or by using the SmarTest mode, it will automatically select file sizes up to 200 MB, according to your connection type. Fairly comprehensive test data provided, but speeds were consistently slower from the Dallas test server. The one other location, Washington D.C., did measure more comparably with the other test sites.
  8. Linksys.Speedtest.net – Nine test cities to choose from, including London.  Useful aid in testing your device; but be advised, there’s a daily limit on the number of tests you can make.
  9. SpeedTests.net – Accurate measurements of down / up speeds, ping / latency, and provides ISP and IP address of client. Servers located in Chicago only.
  10. McAfee.com – Includes a decent explanation of the testing process and results. Lacks any selection for server sites, though; and the speedometer only goes to 2Mbps, so accuracy is impossible beyond that speed.

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10 Ways to Propose Marriage Using FaceBook

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Facebook is used for many different types of personal communication, both positive and negative. It would be interesting to know how many people have used facebook to propose marriage and what creative way they used to pop the question. Here are ten ideas on how it might be done. 

  1. Share a video proposal – Create a video of your proposal, down on one knee and the ring in hand. Then post the video on the facebook wall of your sweetheart. Hopefully, she will be the first to view it, and no one else will spoil the surprise.
  2. Note proposal – Write up your proposal on a facebook note and tag the lady in the note that the proposal is meant for. You can share it further after she responds with the affirmative, but keep that initial tag just for her.
  3. Upload a photo of the ring – Upload a photo of the engagement ring and tag the lady as being in the photo. A simple, “Will you marry me _____?” as the title of the photo, should complete the proposal.
  4. Sweet and simple – Why make it complicated? You could just message her or post on her wall. You could even do this with your phone while you are both sitting in the room and watch for her reaction when she reads it.
  5. Request relationship status change – Make the proposal a little more subtle by requesting that she change her facebook relationship status to ‘engaged’. You might add a little, “I will, if you will,” note to that.
  6. Change relationship status – Another version of the relationship change would be for you to change your own relationship status to engaged, and then ask her if she’s willing to make the leap to the next tier with you.
  7. Event invitation – Create a facebook ‘event’ for an engagement party, and invite only her. Then you get to wait for her response of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or the miserable ‘maybe’.
  8. Fiance list – You probably have a family list and a friends list on facebook. You might even have other lists, such as co-workers and acquaintances. You could create a special ‘fiance’ list and add her to that list, and then ask her if she approves of the list you’ve put her on.
  9. Poll question – You can create these great polling questions on facebook. Why not create a proposal poll?  Will ____ marry me? Yes – No – Of course!
  10. Share jewelers website – Locate the website of your local jeweler and post the link to the site on her facebook page and ask her if she’d be willing to meet your there to do some shopping or if you should just pick out the ring yourself.

This is a pretty simple list. I’m sure there are some creative guys out there that have come up with some much more romantic ideas than these. If you really want to keep it romantic, however, do the proposal in person, instead of on facebook.

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