Category: technology and gadgets

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Newlyweds

The good news is that my daughter was recently married. The bad news is that she will be leaving town with her new husband. The newlywed couple is moving to Connecticut and they will be starting a new life together there. We will all miss seeing them on a regular basis, but it’s what they want to do. We thought we would try to make the transition as smooth as possible.

I always say that being protected is a good thing. That’s why I wanted to ensure they had adequate Connecticut home insurance. I started by looking on the internet for a reliable company to provide them with it. I found a company named Paradiso that had the insurance coverage we wanted. I liked the way the site was set up as it was affordable and easy to access. I felt good knowing I could help.

Since I was on the site and things were looking good, I decided to check out the other insurance options they had. I checked out their Connecticut auto insurance as well as the Connecticut annuities they had available. Things are looking up for them and I am satisfied that they will be protected from financial disaster. It can be hard to be a dad, but good companies like this make life so much easier.

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The Fridge!!

One of the major intersections around our house is the refrigerator. It seems the kids are always in front of it and looking in. I have been known to open it and stare in myself. The thing is that I know for the most part what’s inside, but still hope to find a hidden morsel that will assuage my hunger. The fridge has many other uses as well.

We have many magnets on our fridge which hold any number of papers. Some are the kid’s school papers which have good grades on them and some contain semi-important phone numbers. Of course we have the usual amount of pizza places and Chinese take-out flyers. If you want something to be noticed, I think the best place to put it is on the fridge!

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Hard work and money

One thing that always amazes me is how much money there is to be made in this world. Some people are just fabulously wealthy and are able to buy just about anything they want. I have always wondered about how they got the money they had. I have found a few friends that are doing very well and they suggested that I look into Stock Trading as a way to build my portfolio. It’s worked for them and they are sure that it will work for me too.

One thing that I don’t have is a lot of time. That’s why I preferred to start my investing career online. It is so much easier for me to stay at home where I am comfortable and work at my own leisure. I began Online Trading earlier this year and can say that I have been very happy with my results thus far. With a little studying and some hard work, I have been able to do very well with the money I had when I started.

One tip that I would like to disseminate to everyone is making sure that you can get help when you need it. I would suggest that you contact an Online Broker to help you through the rough spots. They can assist you with the terminology and a number of other tricks to help you get started. I am glad that my family will be able to rely on the gains that I have made. My financial security is getting better all the time and that makes me feel good!

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Tiles

Whenever I get the chance, I like to work around the house. I am always looking for new tasks to do so that I can keep busy while improving my home. An excellent opportunity came up recently when my wife suggested that I try to install tiles on the bathroom floor. Our old floor was that cheap laminate that was getting pretty ratty looking. I thought this would be a great job to take on.

The first thing we had to decide was what type of bathroom tiles we wanted. I was lucky to find a site on the internet that was really neat. The site is called glasstilestore.com and it has a nice selection of tiles to choose from. I never knew there were so many types of tile. I even found subway tiles on the site. I knew it would take some time to figure out what tiles we wanted.

Another thing I liked about the site was the fact that we were able to learn all about the advantages of using tile in our home. That certainly made our decision to install tile much easier. I am eager to get started on the project and hope that we will soon have a beautiful new bathroom floor. I know my wife and kids will enjoy it as well.

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Food safety

There has been some debate lately over whether or not farmers should need licenses to sell small amounts of food. Vendors at farmers markets are pushing for deregulating strict laws that put an unfair burden on them they say. Selling a few of mom’s apple pies takes a lot of government red tape that makes it almost impossible for mom to make a few extra dollars.

Those in the food safety industry are saying that controls need to remain in place. They say food borne illnesses are a threat to the public and not having the ability to inspect where food is produced will hamper their ability to maintain public safety. Small food processors also say that they could lose thousands in sells to those who don’t have to pay for inspections.

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3D TV

One thing we have all been hearing about lately is the new 3D technology that has been spouted as the latest craze. Before we get too excited about it though, we need to look at some of its drawbacks. The first major drawback is the money that will be needed to purchase the new TV that is required. Our old TVs won’t be able to work with the new technology and will have to be replaced.

Another drawback will be the necessity of wearing 3D goggles to view the shows produced. That may be uncomfortable as well as a turnoff. There are still more problems with the technology that will occur. In order to redo the thousands of shows for 3D will be problematic for studios as the process to update the shows is difficult and time consuming. My opinion is that this is a technology that will not catch on anytime soon!

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Jamming to a Great Playlist on Spotify

All this work on web sites can get really tedious, but it helps to have some good music playing while I’m slaving over a hot keyboard! I’ve been jamming to a great playlist on Spotify. I’m not even sure how I found this playlist, but some chi calling herself Leathrn has put together an “Adult Contemporary” playlist of great songs.

They are all relatively current songs that are easy on the ears. It’s not easy listening – that’s a different style. I mean that there is not disco, no teenybopper and no rap on the list. It is all stuff that you an sing along to, chill on while you are driving, and in my case, you can listen while you work.

She has so many excellent songs on her playlist that you can listen to this all day long and not hear the same song twice. About 300 tracks, each at about 3 minutes means about 15 hours of music. And I really like her picks of the songs. She has a great ear for music and I wish she would put together some other playlists, like country songs or even jazz, for the nights at home.

Spotify is really great – much better than Pandora. On Spotify, you can pick the exact songs you want and in the order you choose – or you can do a random play, too. There is a free version, but I believe in supporting business that I really like, so I subscribe for just $5 a month, which lets me access my playlists from any device, not just my home PC.If you have not tried it yet – give it a go and tell me what you think.

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Looking Forward to the Release of the PS4

Now that my Playstation 3 is pretty much obsolete, I’m going to waste any more money buying games for the PS3 platform. I’m looking forward to the release of the PS4 around Christmas and the improvements to the technology and graphics of the new system. I plan on being one of the first in this town to own the new PS4 and whatever new games are coming out for that platform.

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Not Happy With Windows 8

Had to buy a new laptop to replace the one that got trashed when my dog trampled it. I had left the laptop on the bed and my dog lost his mind and stomped on the keyboard while trying to get across the bed to run to the door. My fault for leaving the laptop open and on the bed with the dog, but I’m blaming the dog.

Anyway, I found a decent Toshiba laptop on sale for under $300, so I grabbed it up at a local retailer rather than ordering it online and waiting a week for it to arrive UPS. But what I had not considered is that the new computers all come with Windows 8 installed on them. Ugh.

I figured out most of what I needed to know to set up the new laptop. I had to install updates and software, set up the router to get online, and transfer my documents and graphics files from the old laptop.

Once I started using the new laptop, I realized the most annoying problem with the new Windows 8 is that they count on swiping to trigger all the menus and apps. Well, if you are using a touchpad, swiping is part of your everyday use for everything from typing a Word document to playing a quick game. The swiping blanks out your current screen display and replaces it with an app or a menu. Its very annoying and time consuming to have to cancel the swipe and get back to what you were working on.

Right now, I’m frustrated and not impressed with the Windows 8 at all. As far as I’m concerned, Windows 7 was fine. It did the job, we know how to use it and all Microsoft did was fix something that was not broken just for the sake of change. It’s like Microsoft has adopted the Facebook mentality – keep changing things and pissing off your users.

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A Surprise

I was reading an article today about women drivers. The article stated that contrary to popular belief, most women are better drivers than men. I was quite surprised by this statement. I have spent most of my life believing the opposite. After living through many of my own experiences, I thought that girls were bad drivers. Surprisingly, according to the numbers women are safer drivers than men.

I was also unaware that in many cases, car insurance for women is cheaper. There are companies that actually seek out women drivers in order to get the lowest rates. I always say that the numbers don’t lie and I guess I’ll have to change my opinion. There are also other ways for to obtain cheap car insurance for women. By taking advantage of discounts and enrolling in driver education courses, women can get insurance that is very affordable.

I guess the battle between the sexes will go on for awhile longer, but I am certainly disheartened to find that men are on the bottom end of this deal. I will be glad to know that at least my wife will be able to afford the coverage she needs while driving around. I guess the insurance companies haven’t seen her driving yet!