Winterizing Week

This week has been what I like to call winterizing week. Last Saturday we put the jet skis away for the winter. Wednesday night I pulled the camper to storage after winterizing it. Yesterday the pool was closed. And hopefully the sprinklers will be blown out soon.

These winters are starting to get complicated! As you may have guessed, I haven’t got much done this week other than messing around with getting the toys ready for winter…

Technorati : North Dakota, camper, freeze, jetski, planning, pool, snow, winter, winterizing

Holly takes Rockstar competition

Congrats to Holly on winning the annual Bucks Rockstar singing contest last night.

She has a great voice and I love listening to her sing. I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera last night.

Holly also got engaged recently.

Congrats Holly!

Technorati : Bucks, bar, music, singing, winner

Birthday Calculator

Neat birthday calculator:

http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

It says I should get along well with my fiance, so it’s pretty accurate.

Depending on the day!

Technorati : birthday, calculator, cool, neat

Get yourself a router

Windows tip of the day:

If you have a broadband internet connection (DSL, cable, etc), go down to your local Office Depot, Best Buy, or Staples and get yourself a wireless router. Even if you don’t need wireless.

Why?

Because those handy little wireless routers come with a firewall automatically configured. If you don’t need wireless, just turn it off, but the firewall is what will save you.

They are only about $30 on sale and they will be well worth it to save your computer from Trojans, viruses, and even some spy-ware.

Technorati : firewall, router, tech, tip, windows, wireless

WordPress is all about audio-video integration

Looks like WordPress now has support for Odeo.

Add this to the YouTube and Google Video support and it just goes to prove that WordPress is all about audio and video integration.

I guess my time has come to start a podcast…

Technorati : Google Video, WordPress, YouTube, features, inline, podcast, video

Reduce Winter Heating Costs

My goal this winter is to reduce my heating costs by 35% without going the easy way of just turning the thermostat down 10 degrees permanently.

Here are my plans so far:

• move my office from upstairs to downstairs in the room directly below our bedroom – I figure this will warm the one of the coldest rooms in the house (on the north side and also furthest from the furnace) by the upward rise of heat from the computers I usually have running. I know this costs electricity but they are running anyway, might as well re-use the heat they generate.
• buy and install a programmable thermostat – I think this one is obvious
• get the chimneys cleaned and gather some wood to use the basement chimney a few nights a week
• keep the shades lowered on the south facing huge windows – for those that don’t know, most of the south side of my house is huge windows that overlook the backyard pool. They have mechanical shades that has one section not working so I have refrained from using them but I lowered them this spring to keep out the sun and its heat, so I’m just going to leave them down.

Any other ideas?

Technorati : cheap, costs, heating, money, reduce, save, winter

Grocery Store Delivery

At lunch today we had an interesting discussion about the recent addition of supermarket delivery in our city. Two supermarkets, that we know of, are offering delivery of your groceries for a nominal fee.

The website where you order your groceries from is arranged like any other e-commerce web site. Some said this may take just as long to order online as it would in the store.

This is what prompted my question, “Do they offer you the ability to store a ‘basic cart’ of items you buy every time so you don’t have to re-add them every time you use the service?”

If they don’t already offer this, they should. This seems like the difference of this new service making it or breaking it.

Remember you heard it here first! I hereby claim patent to this service if it does not already exist!

Technorati : delivery, e-commerce, feature, food, grocery, online, store, web

Commenting with the New Layout

Last week I was giving Kristy a hard time about not allowing comments on her blog.

Today I receive this email from her:

From: Kristy
To: me
Date: Sep 27, 2006

Hi Pot, this is Kettle. Here I went to post a comment on your site, and guess what? Can’t!

Well folks, you can still comment, you just need to click on the title of the post first and then below the post you will find the comment box. Or you can click the “No Comments” link. Your choice.

Either way, I welcome comments. OK Kristy, your turn!

Technorati : blog, comments

8 Years of Google Mania

Google is celebrating their 8th birthday today.

Unbelievable to think that Google has only been around 8 years.

Recap of what they have accomplished:

• created a household name
• Google has been recognized as a verb (as in to google something)
• everyone involved in the beginning is now super rich
• their stock became a stock market phenomenon
• taking the web AJAX arena by storm
• pushed the limits with web email
• one of the first great image searches available
• has a video service that rivals youtube
• one of the best desktop searches available
• browser toolbar is great
• great advertising model with Adsense and Adwords
• Took KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) to a new level

Congrats Google

Technorati : AJAX, Google, birthday, desktop, search, webmail, website

Free Checking?

I’m always amazed that I see financial institutions advertising free checking like it is an unheard of idea.

Why would anyone pay for a checking account?

I have 5 checking accounts (personal and business) at 4 different banks and they are all 100% free. A couple of them even earn a modest interest rate. No minimum balance, no restrictions.

Is free checking really that hard to find for the average Joe? I don’t think so. I think the secret is picking a local bank over a national one. None of my banks are national. Do I see any difference in service?

Absolutely.

With two of my banks I can usually set up a loan over the phone and sign the papers when I get time. Try that with a Wells Fargo. Also local banks need your business more, they are more willing to compete and negotiate, and they usually know you by name.

Technorati : banking, banks, checking, financial, free, free checking, life, local, national, tips