The Power of Induction

The other day my electric toothbrush died on me. I asked my wife to buy me a new toothbrush the next time she was at the store. I was quite surprised that the model she bought is recharged through a method called induction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction For those who don't know: induction is a method of transferring electricity wirelessely through a coil. Most people probably don't think much about induction, but for an engineer like me this is an engineering feet being used in an every day product.

Tempted by Tech

While at work today, I received a call from my wife. She was calling to tell me that Amazons deal of the day was a GPS. She wanted to know if she should buy it for me. I couldn't believe my ears. My first instinct is to say go for it. But deep down I knew I really new that I didn't need one more electronic toy. So as tempting as it was to hear my spouse want to spend money on a tech gadget for me, I tapped into as much will power as a man could muster up and said no. For now when I need directions I'll just have to rely on what man has from the beginning of time, the sweet voice of my wife telling me to turn left in .2 miles.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Junk or treasure

Occasionally in my business I have clients that have equipment that is so old, that they ask me to get rid of it. The most recent acquisition was a rack of old audio equipment. Before I saw what equipment they had, I envisioned equipment that I would value and have a use for. I was a bit disappointed when I took my first look and could tell the the gear almost predated my existence. I remember thinking to myself, now I know why they wanted me to dispose of it. Being a recovering electronics pack rat, I let the gear sit around for 6 month and then decided to list it on eBay. To my surprise there is quite a market for this stuff especially internationally. With that I'll end with the time honored quote: "One man's old dusty vintage electronics is another man's pay pal deposit".

Getting Schooled on eBay

This past weekend I listed two items on eBay. It has been a few years since I've sold anything on eBay. My wife is the master of eBay in our house and so I usually elicit her help in selling stuff. This time I decided to go solo, which was a big mistake. I used their quick format for listing the items. By using this method, I did not put in the typical jargon about restrictions on where I ship to. The first item sold for the buy it now price to someone in London. So now I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to ship a Wii game internationally. This has become quite a hassle. Instead of shipping from my house, I now have to go to the post office and fill out customs forms. I like to think that have most things mastered when it comes to tech, but alas I must concede my crown to my wife when it comes to eBay.

The Joy of Backing up

Before upgrading my PC to Windows 7, I decided to try an online backup service. What I did not realize is the time commitment involved with uploading all of my data. It's been about 7 days and I only have about 60% of my data backed up. The reason behind trying this method of service is that I'm not diligent enough to backup data on my own regularly and I value the importance of having an off site copy of my important data. There's 4 days left on my free trial of the backup service. That should be just enough to upload the final bits. Oh how I wish someone would create an indestructible, high capacity, high speed, non-stealable hard drive.

Care for a mint

Being the geek that I am, I decided to download and try a version of Linux called Mint. It's a free open source operating system optimized for media. Overall it seams to be a solid OS. I don't foresee myself using Mint on a regular basis. But if I need a PC for web browsing and other standard computer aplications, I would consider using Mint. I recommend a copy of Mint on a bootable CD in case Windows starts having issues. This allows you to run Mint from the CD drive to troubleshoot problems. The OS also has links to a number of applications that you can download for free. So go ahead and unleash your inner geek and give Mint a try. It will make your breath smell good also.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Social Media No no's

I've been thinking lately of the down side of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and how they should not be used. For the most part I love using these using these sites and really enjoy seeing what is happening in the lives of people I both know and don't know. I also feel the pros of this technology. outweigh the cons. But I have also recently seen these sites used in unhealthy ways. So I've adopted a few rules I feel are proper etiquette for my online persona.
Rule # 1: Never engage in a personal dispute using social media. No one needs to see you have an online fight.
Rule # 2: Don't combine your account with your significant other. Everyone on the receiving is always wondering which of the two people composed the post. (e.g. Bob & Susie Smith: great time shopping with my girlfriend today).
Rule # 3: Do post things that are either interesting, monumental, witty, cool, or informative.
By the way my profile has recently been posting items that I didn't post. Not sure if I should have a rule about letting the wife post for me or not. I must be big time now, to have people do my posting for me. Or maybe I'm just to busy following the latest celeb tweets.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]