Mommy Gadget Review

Portal with Online Tools with Review and Category Search

2010-11-19T23:36:00.000-06:00

I was looking for education online websites to teach our children. I found go2web20.net very useful. It provided a quick way to listing different websites based on the audience, types of tools to meet different needs.

It's pretty easy to navigate and you can even see how many facebook users liked the websites that were provided.

Free Typing Lessons Online

2010-11-19T23:10:00.000-06:00

For anybody wanting to learn to type typingweb.com is a great place to start. I had my 8 years old boy try it and he was able to follow pretty good. I began learning to type in the old typewriter when I was 8 or younger. It makes things easier for me when typing for leisure or for work.

Sing and get scored with Karaokeparty.com

2010-11-19T23:05:00.000-06:00

For anybody that loves to sing or just have a good time with family friends, Karaokeparty.com is what you want to add to your party gatherings. Just create the free account. You can purchase the monthly service, but I find that we're content with the free songs available with the free account. Some nice features below:

1) Free
2) Current famous songs are available to sing such as Linkin Park, etc. even old classic karaoke songs.
3) You can battle others by joining one that was setup by another member or you can start one yourself. (Note: Free account there is a limit of how many times within the 24 hours.)
4) It scores the way you sing, so you're able to track your progress.
5) You have statistics of all the songs you've sang and see how well you perform.
6) When you finish a song it tells you what level you are for the day, the week and month. Highest scores are in the 9000 range.
7) There are lines that show the scale so if you know to follow the high and low pitch well and follow the rhythm correctly you receive high scores.
8) You don't have to have the greatest voice to sing well for this game.
9) It's fun to have the kid's sing as well since they practice following directions and give them music awareness.
10) You can also request songs that are not available in the list.
11) You can search by artist name or song on their song search filter.

So try it out and have a blast with this website. We've stayed up plenty of nights just singing our hearts out! :)

Tell Stories and Share with Storybird.com

2010-11-19T22:46:00.000-06:00

There are so many social web portal now a days that it is part of our lifestyle. Story telling is one of them. You can now create short stories, add colorful pictures and share them online and collaborate with family and friends. It is a free account and it's a fun way to interact with your little ones.

It was a great exercise for my 5 year old boy. In the story I asked questions that he could answer as well as have him read the story himself.

Try it out and have fun!

Netflix.com - Unlimited Video Streaming/ No late Fees for DVD returns

2010-06-02T23:54:00.000-05:00

This is the best paid online DVD rental site that we've ever had. There is never a late Movie fee. Sign up for how many movies will be shipped at a time. As soon as you return the recently watched movies, you will get the next set in your queue to your home. In addition, you have unlimited movies to watch on Instant view. Below is a few great things that Neflix offers for users.

1) Very easy to upgrade from 1 DVD, 2 DVD, 3 DVD, etc.

2) Optional upgrade to include Blue-Ray DVD Movies.

3) Can filter categories or genres of movies to be listed as available to review.

4) Very useful review from movie watchers. The viewers have provided pretty accurate review regardless of the rating of the movie ex: PG13, R rated. Some movies even when they are rated PG13 is not necessarily a movie you want your entire family to watch.

5) After watching a movie you can rate the movies you have watched. This makes it easier for you to either remember how you liked or not liked the movie.

6) Netflix recommends movies to watch depending on your ratings and how often you watch a specific genre of of movie.

7) Easy access to two separate queues. One for DVD's being shipped and for Instant Watch movies (i.e. remembering favorites or bookmarking instant movies).

8) As long as you have internet you can login to Netflix.com anywhere and be able to watch streaming movies WITHOUT commercials. I've been at stuck an airport for work before and was able to watch movies through tethering or being on the WIFI while waiting. I like this option. It's also great to show others when you are at your friend's home for example.

9) If you do watch Instant watch movies with Blue-Ray included as a service, some movies maybe streamed in HD.

10) There are plenty of movies to pick from of all different types. A few of our favorites Bones, NCIS, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and more? So it's not just movies but TV Series as well. Anybody a fan of Anime? Well there are plenty of those to pick from. There are way too many to list here. Since we have 4 children we have plenty of Kid friendly movies to pick from as well.

11) If you receive a cracked or scratched up DVD it is very easy to report online and they will ship a replacement as soon as they receive the report.

12) Customer service is very quick. I haven't had to sit in queue yet. There is also an automated ticket number when you are logged in to Netflix to provide the customer support. They are efficient.

13) You can re-order queues whether you want to bring to the top or drag and drop to the next few positions.

14) If the movie has not come out yet you have the ability to save it in queue and when it becomes available you will receive notification in the queue that the availability is now.

15) All you do is watch the movies, when you are done place it back on the Movie sheet to match the label and place inside the ready posted envelope to return to Netflix. No postage necessary. If you send it the same day after you have watched depending on the postal office it may be delivered the same night and they will begin shipping the next movies in queue next day to arrive the following day. So the goal is to ship back the movies as fast as you can to get the next set of movies right away. We've had 12 movies in one week before! :)

Enjoy!

Hulu.com - Free HD Movies

2010-06-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

Certainly there are many other websites that let you view movies for free. This one is actually a legal website. You also have the option to purchase or pay a small free to see less commercials.

Pros:
1) It is a free service.

2) HD video streaming.

3) Categories by genre are available even TV Series episodes.

4) No need to download the video and occupy more space on your hard drive.

Cons:

1) They have added commercials to this so you need to pay a small fee to get rid of the AD.

2) Not as many videos I would like to watch are listed or available for free.

Google Voice for Blocking Calls

2010-06-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

Google Voice is one of the most effective ways to block or even tag calls as SPAM! Can you believe it? Have you tried calling your cell phone provider and they say they cannot block specific calls or they will charge you a fee that you don't want to pay? Have you experienced harassing calls or just calls from people that you no longer care to hear from or receive? Well, Google Voice is for you! I use it also for emergency calling for our family. It's a Single Number reach approach. Basically you sign up for a Google Voice and request a number for your area. You can pick the easiest one to remember if it is available. Here are many of the great things of Google Voice listed below:

1) It's FREE. Of course I will share it when it is free. :)

2) It is linked to your existing Gmail account that you register. So if you don't have Gmail yet I highly recommend it.

3) You can create separate groups of users and have it call specific phones simultaneously. For example co-workers you only want them to call your cell and work phone maybe. For personal callers you want them to call your cell phone and maybe a home number or another cell phone. For emergencies you want them to reach you at all the numbers in case you are not available on one phone or in my case I have both my husband's and my cell phone as reachable for school, park district, utilities or bills. The goal is you never broadcast your real phone number.

4) If you change your personal cell to another for whatever reason you don't have to worry you can just change it on the listed phones to call.

5) Google Voice automatically transcribes your Voice Mail messages for free. You will receive a text message of the transcription.

6) You will receive an e-mail of the Voice Mail audio file to listen to as well as the text message. So you can archive your voice mails as long as you want to keep it.

7. You can also call from the Google Voice interface as if you are calling from your google voice number.

8. Call History - it will list all the numbers of placed, missed and received calls. Isn't that convenient?

9. You can add notes per call and block per call. Now that is cool!

10.Of course you have the option to add a number as a contact just like on your cell phone.

11. Just like your gmail account you can treat the calls like e-mail. You can archive it, put a star on the call, mark as SPAM. Did I mention they can send you text messages through this number as well?

12. And just like gmail you can always invite friends to join to make it easier for them to join.

Check out Google Voice!

Gmail Account - Google Talk - E-mail, Instant Messaging, Web/Video and More

2010-06-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

How many have used an e-mail service such as yahoo, hotmail and maybe others? Did you have difficulty sorting through your e-mail? Are you able to put labels and star an e-mail for future reference? Are you able to track previous chat conversations with your own e-mail account? How easy is it to search through your e-mail? Do you receive a lot of SPAM through your e-mail even when you report it?

GMAIL is the answer for many users now a days. It is used for personal and for many businesses. Below are a list of the things you can do with GMAIL that you may have not known.

1) It's a FREE e-mail account.
2) There is a 7 GB e-mail account and still increasing. I'm still at 9% usage. I haven't had to delete my e-mail in a long time.
3) Built in Chat or Instant Messaging for texting, audio only or audio and video. It is shown on the side menu within your gmail account when other gmail users are online.
4) Easy Task list built in as well that you can see on your iPhone, Android or other smart phones. So create a task list online on your PC and see the same list even on your phone.
5) There are many labeling colors and you can rename as you please.
6) Easy creation of rules on what you want to do to your e-mail whether it should go to SPAM, get deleted, copied over to the Archive or just sent directly to the custom folders you like.
7) Every so often there is also a settings option with Lab features you can add.
8) You can upload multiple attachments in an e-mail very easily.
9) If you look at the top section of the gmail there is a Documents section where you can upload, excel, word doc, power points and such and save/store and even share.
10) The calendar is also built in you can make as many types of calendars and can invite and create recurring meetings with other users even non-gmail users.
11) If you look at the top section of gmail there is a more drop down, you can also upload and share Picasa pictures to gmail and non-gmail users. If you want to share to non-gmail users you have to make it a public for all to see. I highly recommend inviting users to get a free gmail account to keep your photos private. You can buy extra storage for your photos for 20 dollars a year you can have up 80GB storage for your account. Not bad for a backup of all your photos. If you share with others they don't use up their storage only yours since you're sharing the photos.
12) You can create a Blog such as this one for free. You need a gmail account to register so that's two or multiple things taken cared of.
13) There are built in tools that can be controlled more such as Buzz similar to Facebook posting.
14) You can also select to keep a history of your web history. So you can be in any PC and be able to search your web searches.
15) You can also set up an RSS reader that you can put in any newsfeeds you want to read and monitor.
16) Also with this option you can register to have a Google Voice phone service for free. I use this for emergencies. You can attach many cell phones or LAN lines and it will call all the listed devices. I will write a separate article about Google Voice. This is only by invitation so you must request to be invited.
17) There is also a tool for medical history if you want to keep track of your medical events virtually.

Another thing, check out the gmail services and see how many other useful and free things you can have when you sign up.

How to Unlock the iPhone

2010-05-21T21:02:00.000-05:00

This was definitely the fastest way to unlock the iPhone and get my tethering back. I upgraded my iPhone so that I can use other free applications for video recording on the iPhone.

Of course as any tool for unlocking the iPhone make a backup of your iPhone first. This tool literally restores and unlock without having to erase everything on your phone. When it completes the restore it takes you back to your normal mode whether you unlock your iPhone or don't have a lock menu.

Cons so far: When I sync to my iTunes it restores back to the mode that it is not unlocked and tethering is gone again.

Mint.com - Online Finance Planner/Budget - Like Quicken Online But FREE

2010-05-14T12:44:00.000-05:00

It took me a long time to find a good website that can actually act like QuickBooks. The answer is Mint.com.

Pros below:
1. It's a free account.
2. Add Bank Accounts, Student Loans, PayPal account, Upromise Savings and Upromise account.
3. Trending of your expense by category.
4. You can create new expense category if not listed.
5. Edit each transaction and multiple transaction to create a summary/trend/report of expense.
6. Visual Pie Chart representation and graphical report of your expense per month.
7. Automatically calculates what your budget is based on your monthly income.
8. Gives you a summary of your Income, Net Income.
9. Can add manual transactions such as debt from unlisted businesses.
10.You can add Fidelity Investments and Ally Savings accounts.
11.Very user friendly and easy to understand the different screens.
12.Gives you suggestions on options on saving money for retirement and so on.
13.Built in tool suggesting ways to save whether CDs, IRA and so on.
14.You can download the app for the iPhone to view your budget for the day or month in a quick view.
15.Tells you the most expensive transaction and the most visited place. I.E. Jewel Osco for Grocery.
16.Clean and simple web interface for viewing all different types of transactions.
17.You still go to your bank websites to make your bill pay and make transactions, but this is a great way to use a free tool available 24/7 online without having to install it on your PC.
18.No need for formulas since it calculates everything for you. Great buddy checker as well to compliment your budgeting tools.

Cons:

I just began using this account today, and so far that I see the only limitation is other businesses not listed in the search list. You can always manually add.

I hope this is very useful to you.

SUSE 11.2 - First Impression

2010-04-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

I couldn't help but write a review about SUSE 11.2. I have run it in VMware Workstation 6.5 and I must say I'm very impressed. I'm actually going to run it more often on my laptop just to get familiarized with it. Some of the cool little features that we have in Windows 7 should be reminded to be borrowed from the Linux distributions. Multiple desktops, awesome background and theme options, desktop search and so on have rooted from UNIX. MAC OS hmmm, UNIX in it? Let's get to the cool stuff about SUSE 11.2 Operating system below.

1. Very nice interface. It's very crisp and moves very fast.
2. I like the Personal Information Manager. It has RSS feeds, e-mail, To Do List, Journal, Calendar, Birthday Reminder and more.
3. The Splash screen when you initially boot up can be changed just like desktop themes.
4. Another thing, hmmmm Firewall is included! Not an additional purchase of software. And for those familiar with Linux distros they know security is something that many of this Operating System distributions imply as important.
5. Many of the drivers are automatically downloaded as long as you are online.
6. Many tools we use in a Windows OS are included in the OS.
7. The system does not assume you are dumb. There are many administrative tools available within this OS.
8. You can host a website and more!

Despite the great option available on SUSE 11.2 it is still a Linux distribution. You still need to familiarize with the syntax when using the terminal mode. Anybody trying a Linux is in for a rude awakening if they think they can get by with not reading or getting familiarized with the system. Take your time and run it on VMware server on your laptop to get an idea. So far I'm definitely going to use it more.

Buzz from Google - Very Simple and Controlled Posting

2010-04-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

One of the cool tools that Google has come up with among others is Buzz. Not to many people realize that this feature is a new option for the Gmail accounts they already have. Some things I like about this tool is that you can easily organize or limit who should see your shared status online. It's a built in blog as well since you can also add pictures and notes of what you would like to share. The best part there are no applications added like Facebook. Sure, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have become the networking must, but I like simplicity. All the applications that you have to accept to allow on your wall after a while gets tiring or distracting of the things you want to really share with the rest of the world. Not to mention the lack of privacy in Facebook. If you search yourself in Google, hmmm what website do you think will come up first? Facebook!

I think with all the social networking online that are free we have risked our privacy entirely. Privacy??? What is that?? Just my thought. Anyway, check out Buzz it may fit your need when it comes to sharing.

Pandora.com - Listen to Free Radio Streaming on PC and Mobile Phones

2010-04-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

One thing many cannot go without for the most part is listening to great music. Back in the days I used to go yahoo to preview music video and such. Even longer was to listen to the radio station and hope to hear the same good song again and find out who the artist, album is if you can catch it from the Radio Host. This is the beauty of the internet world. We have pandora.com as one of the favorite applications to install on our mobile phone and listen to when on our laptop/PC.

Great things about Pandora.com are below:
1. You can use the thumbs up and down to select good tracks and it will find you similar artist of that genre selected.
2. You will find new bands that you probably have not heard of since it also covers international bands.
3. The website gives you the ability to bookmark the artist or just the song itself.
4. Information of the artist is provided concisely and can download the song from different paid services if chosen.
5. The system also allows shuffling of different stations you've created, which pretty interesting when you have different genre of stations in your account.
6. The account is free with limited in between advertisment.

Cons are below as well:
1. The free version does limit how many songs you can skip when selecting to forward to the next song.
2. You cannot replay the song.
3. After a few hours you will need to select that you are still listening for it to continue playing music.

Overall, I love this tool. The song sounds really good considering it is being streamed. Enjoy the music!

http://headsprout.com/ for Early Childhood Reading

2010-04-03T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is my second time purchasing the online service for my boys. My soon to be 5 years old is taking in strides in reading with online flash games.

Some great things about this website are listed below:
1. It is very easy for a 4 years old and up to follow the instructions.
2. The game is presented as a series of read out load flash games with stories.
3. It begins with the very basic sounding out the letters and then moving in to syllables, then sentences.
4. The stories or characters in the game are clean and very funny for the children to understand.
5. They introduce silliness which makes it more interesting for kids to have the attention.
6. My 2nd to the oldest boy can complete at least 2 chapters or more in one session.
7. It introduces fun with learning in a very easy accessible online game. As long as you have internet than you can access the account anywhere the children can.

Hope you find this a useful tool to introduce your child to reading prior to beginning kindergarten.

VMware server for Multiple OS On PC/Laptop

2010-04-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

http://www.vmware.com/

This is the way of the future now. Many applications and Operating systems are being run on the VMware platform. Virtualizing servers or client OS is much for efficient for many administrators to manage in their businesses. I'm currently running SUSE 11.2 on my laptop through VMware. It's great for testng different Operating systems and getting familiar with the different features.

Workstation 6.5 is great so far for our use. It's used for our lab environment for work. But we've also used VMware server. This is the free version and for what you need it for, this is a great tool use.

You can create manny virtual machine instances and bridge them to your physical NIC card to have access to your network and go online. It even recognizes CD-ROM and USB devices and even sound. You can also create a capture of the last state that your VMware was in. In the even that the VMware is mulfunctioning you can revert back to the last good state.

Great reasons to also have VMware is that you can configure different types of setup without affecting your host PC OS and application. If you're testing many applications creating another instance of your OS is much easier than having to rebuild your laptop/PC from scratch.

You can install the OS from ISO image so no need to burn many DVDs to install on VMware. Another cool feature is that it doesn't allocate the Hard Drive space permanently. It creates a virtual instance of the size of the Hard Drive space you need to fit the installation requirement per Operatins System or application. It's great for simulation testing.

Try it out and have fun!

Jing - Image and Video Capture - 5 Minute Videos

2010-04-02T10:50:00.000-05:00

http://www.jingproject.com/

This tool is comparable to SnagIt. I like the video capture since the file is not so big once you've recorded the session. It's great for trying to remember some steps you've done while on the Cisco router or Cisco Communications Manager steps. Instead of just taking notes just see the steps you did for about 5 minutes to review. Much easier to recall the steps this way.

Other captures do record and you can edit it, but the file size is is much bigger. For simple or short sessions SnagIt fits the need.

GNS3.net- Router Network Simulation

2010-04-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.gns3.net/

This website is useful for anybody trying to be more familiar with networking in general. You can simulate 2600 Cisco routers, 7200 switch and more. You can install the actual IOS for each of the devices and act like a real device.

Other useful information about this tool below:

1. It is a GUI based tool - very easy to install the application
2. Can connect real devices through the cloud
3. Configure routing protocols such as RIP, EIGRP, OSPF and so on
4. Run the command in CLI mode just like you're in the real equipment
5. You can save your configuration as a lab file name to edit later

This is great for lab testing and so on.

Check it out!

Scrapblog.com - Online Scrap Book

2010-04-01T13:21:00.000-05:00

This is another website that allows you to create cool scrap books online to share with others or print images of your creation.

I know I don't have the time to purchase actual scrap book papers and wondered there must be an online version of it right? Well, yes there is!

It's pretty easy to use. Upload the pictures you want to edit and you have plenty of stickers, options, and templates to make a great Holiday greeting for your events. It's been great to use for Xmas cards as well.

Scrapblog.com is a very user friendly website and you can even purchase to print out your scrapblog for a price. I highly recommend just downloading the image and using Kodak photo gloss paper or card type material yourself for a much more budget friendly creation.

Have fun and enjoy with this cool website!

YouMail.com - Put Custom Voice Mail Greetings Based on Caller ID

2010-04-01T11:25:00.000-05:00

Not too how many of you wondered what you can do to play custom voice mail greetings per caller. Youmail.com can filter calls with this especially for unknown or private caller ID. Basically once the latter type of caller calls in I have a Telco Disconnect greeting available. Depending on how often I talk to people I put a custom message for the specific people I know of whether personal or for work. At first impression most people are surprised that a custom greeting is played back to them. Initially I had Youmail repeat back the contact name so text to speech. For example of Anna called, you were greeted with "Hi Anna, I am not available at this time. Please let a message and I will contact you as soon as I am available."

The following list some cool things that Youmail.com can do below:
1) Custom greeting per individual.
2) You get a text message that you had a missed call.
3) You can set the notification to give you additional caller information. It may give you the carrier that they use.
4) If the caller is unknown or private you can configure to give custom greeting of a Telco disconnect tone as well as set this caller ID for a ditch call.
5) If the caller is marked or tagged as a ditched call it may have the option to not allow the caller to leave a message at all.
6) There are many free custom greetings that are funny that you can set.
7) You can even filter your calls and have them record their name before you answer your call.

Check it out and see if this is helpful for you.

SketchUp from Google - Building 3D Modeling Buildings and Cities

2010-03-31T21:13:00.000-05:00

My son is almost 8 years old, but he did pick up the art in me. He loves to draw Dragons at this time. He has the aptitude with dimension and depth which is great. I bought him a book to guide him for practice in drawing with proportion. I've used it myself for practice since I haven't drawn in a while. I like dinosaurs too like my son does so I drew that using the guide book.

But then I remembered that I bumped into SketchUp from Google. It's another free software and you can build an entire city with it. It's great for building your own house that you want to design or even just model an area for example. This became one of my son's favorite software to use. It's a much better outlet than him breaking things. He is just as hyper as I was and I am still.

It does take a bit of patience in following the tips on how to use it. Once you get comfortable with the software you can make some amazing 3D designs. You can zoom in, make holes and go through it like you are navigating around your 3D object? You can make the texture change and look like bricks or even water. The limit is your imagination.

So if you have the art in you and want to build something very cool try out SketchUp.

Noteflight.com - Compose your own music and share online.

2010-03-31T21:06:00.000-05:00

We watched the movie August Rush and I became inspired with wanting to get to my artistic side. It was a movie about music being all around us and how it affects us all especially when we listen carefully. This gave me the drive to want to compose my own music. I'm not the most gifted musician, but I always love good music.

The answer was Noteflight.com. You can setup a free account as long as it is for personal use. You create notes and it gives you the scale and counts within each set of notes you want to compose. There are options for you to select the type of instruments that samples your composition. You can save, edit and share your composition and get feedback on your composition. It's a very good way to introduce young children to music as well if they have the ears and heart for music.

Have fun and check out this cool website.

iPod Cassette Adapter - Maxell - New Toy

2010-03-31T20:59:00.000-05:00

Not sure why we waited so long to finally get this cool affordable gadget. We finally got tired of just playing CD's in one of our cars. My husband did some research and found that the cheapest and easiest way to play hmmm let me see Pandora or any other music from my iPhone or Android HTC was to buy the iPod Cassette Adapter. It only cost 24.18 with tax included from Walgreen.

It's a simple setup as long as you have a cassette player. I know many new vehicles do not come with this anymore. Plug in the cassette adapter and connect the cable to the headset port for your phone and there you go. It will play music from Pandora and whatever music software you use to play music with.

So we're still trying to find another way to connect our iPhone and Android HTC to our van as well. We thought we would try the auxiliary on the van but did not seem to work. Doing more research for our van at this point.

I thought I would share this simple setup.

Netvibes.com

2010-03-11T02:17:00.001-06:00

Ever needed to find a web portal that will let you preview all the e-mail accounts in one page, RSS feeds, Social Networking websites and maybe even games.

This website is a free service. But what I like is it gives you one page summary preview of what you have e-mails about and if you care to read in detail you can log in to your e-mail account.

iPhone vs. Android HTC First Impression

2010-03-11T02:03:00.000-06:00

We just received our first Android powered mobile phone. For the first few hours of tinkering with the phone, I believe that iPhone still beats it hands down. I am listing the reasons below:

Cons:

1. Touchscreen is not as responsive as an iPhone.
2. The pages that show the applications listed is not as easily accessible.
3. Zooming within the picture or document not as easily done.
4. Navigating around the Android was a bit challenging. The menu option is somewhat misleading when it comes to editing settings. It took me a while to find the option to actually update or change an existing contact information.
5. Some apps even Skype work better on the iPhone. (Don't use iSkoot. Use Nimbus if you actually want to make the Skype to Skype call work whether to another mobile phones with Skype or computer with Skype app.)
6. When unlocking the Android HTC or trying to see the programs the touch screen menu takes awhile to adjust or drag down.
7. Number size or fonts are a bit small. I kept mistyping.
8. The auto-correction is annoying. It predicts too fast and incorrectly. You can certainly turn this feature off.

Pros:
1. There a lot of cool apps to pick from.
2. I like that it integrates all the google free applications that I already use.
3. There are plenty of cool ring tones to choose from and sounds great.
4. I like that the facebook contact if setup is automatically linked to your phone contacts.
5. The phone is nice and slim too.

So far this is the review between iPhone and Android HTC. Interesting comparison.

OpenSourceCMS.com

2010-03-11T01:52:00.000-06:00

Have you ever wondered what would be the fastest way to setup a nice website without starting from scratch? Have you also noticed there are other websites that seem to have similar formats/layouts and have the signature relating to the copyrighted website format? CMS or Content Management Systems are available for us to use. OpenSourceCMS.com provides you a list of the different types of web portals to meet different types of website services by category and have you try it out for free. There are also available reviews for these types of CMS websites. This is also for the more patient users. You need to read, read, read, test, read some more and test and tinker some more. This is just one part of the web hosting process. You need to have a server that can host the type of database, web GUI and services running this website. The terminologies used when customizing the CMS also varies depending on who has compiled them. Also, it depends if there is a community actively involved with developing and supporting this type of application.

It's still a lot better than designing a website with just plain HTML. There are different languages used for creating websites that let you create the layout and let you manipulate the content displayed in a specific manner. It's a great experience for those interested and would like to learn something new.

DynDns.com

2010-03-11T01:44:00.000-06:00

For those of you who really just want to try to host a website for free, try out DynDns.com. It is not a simple setup as usual to host a website. Designing a website is another topic or discussion. All I cover in this article is that this service can provide the following options for web hosting on your local server at home.

1. Can be used with Dynamic IP address users. (SOHO - Broadband services, with routers)
2. You can select a free domain to point users to with the prefix of the dyndns available free domains.
3. You can update the IP address to match when IP address lease is expired.
4. Great way to learn about the basics of web hosting.

Requirements:
1. Read the instructions.
2. Takes patience to understand how web hosting services function.
3. Have fun with the concept.

Zoho.com

2010-03-11T01:39:00.000-06:00

It's a handy website when you want to do white boarding, remote PC support, web conferencing, e-mail and more. It's also a free service. How did I bump into this, you probably wonder. Well, I decided I needed to find an equivalent to Microsoft OneNote. Instead I found blogs about using EverNote and others and eventually I got to the Zoho.com website. It also had notes capabilities and you could share it and it was not an application that needed to be installed on your computer. So this seemed appealing to me at that time. I don't use it too much since I still have the Microsoft suite to use and now a days I tend to use Notepad++ instead for collecting my notes for specific things that are technically related for reference.

I've used it mainly for web conferencing for my personal contacts. I have used it to help me set up my LogMeIn users that need much more patience and require visually seeing what settings need to be corrected remotely.

Give it a try and search out Zoho.com. You may find more use than you thought you may need.

LogMeIn.com

2010-03-10T18:28:00.000-06:00

Were you ever curious in finding a service that you can use to control other computers such as your parents, relatives or friends who need help troubleshooting their computer? Have you lost your patience in explaining the technical steps/instructions in setting up changes over the phone? Well, LogMeIn.com is the service you want. Just be careful and select the free version. When you first sign up they usually automatically sign you up for the 30 day trial of LogMeIn Pro2. Thankfully, you can change the computer subscription from the trial to the free version when it does expire.

Great reasons to use this besides what I've explained earlier are listed below:

1. Very easy setup.
2. Secure connection. SSL VPN
3. Unlimited Computers to control as long as it is for personal use.
4. You can send Instant Messages to the computer being controlled.
5. It is Remote Desktop control.
6. You can do Wake-ON-LAN, meaning you can turn ON the computer remotely. (This is best if you have computers in your own network.)

Cons:
1. On initial setup you need to probably setup a web conference with that person to initially install the client.
2. I recommend using zoho.com for that. This is a free service as well that provides e-mail, collaboration tools and more. I will talk about this in another article.

Newegg.com

2010-03-10T16:22:00.000-06:00

Who doesn't use newegg.com when they build their own computer? I think many that tinker with their computers and electronic gadgets have purchased at least one item from them. We've been buying from them for over 6 years now. Some of the notable things to like on this website is their active feedback from users. Great things about their website are listed below:

1. Many post very useful positive and negative comments before making a purchase.
2. You can pretty much find comparable prices here. They have great Black Friday purchases when on sale.
3. They have a variety of discounts depending on what gadget you are interested in.
4. They keep a history of all the purchases you've made since opening the account.
5. Very easy to navigate on the website.
6. We've had great experience with shipping and delivery.
7. Great customer service. (I can't really remember a time that they were not helpful if we called in for support.)

Search around in many of the google search, froogle, pricewatch and more and it wouldn't surprise you to find a good deal in Newegg.com.

OpenDNS.com

2010-02-27T21:02:00.000-06:00

Have you had concerns regarding having the ability to block adult content for children? Well then OpenDNS.com may help you out. This is not the complete solution. This website does allow you to filter by type of content but not all keywords that should be specifically blocked. The great thing about this service is one it is free for home users. It is very simple to use with your existing home router as well as just individual computers. Just follow the instructions for setting it up. It also allows you customize the picture and messages for the warning or blocked contents that users will see.

Technology is very much available for many ages especially the young. It is not an excuse that a parent or any adult is stating that just because they are not technology savvy that they will just standby and watch kids take over their computers and not monitor what they are doing to interact with strangers in the virtual world.

Anyway take a look at this website it is very useful.

Techie Mom

Ninite.com

2010-02-27T20:46:00.000-06:00

For anybody that likes to use cool things and opensource software, Ninite.com is a useful website. Some of the cool things that it does is allow you to just select a checkbox for the options of software you want and package it in one installation file. It saves you time from having to go to each website to download each application.

Some applications that are the following:

1. Mozilla
2. Googletalk
3. Openoffice suite
4. Foxitreader - I use this a lot for PDF file reading. Much easier than Adobe Acrobat to read and take notes.
5. VLC
6. AVG
7. Utorrent
8. RealVNC
9. Defragger
10. Putty
11. Notepad ++
and More

I would advice just checking out the link yourself to see for yourself. It saved me quite a bit of an installation. You can also submit other software to add to the package, which is great.