Digi-Tales
Secrets from the Edge of the web
TIME SAVING WEBSITES:
online auctions
The Internet is rife with deals, but the most dependable ones are between ordinary people. Out of this simple concept was born the online auction.
Online auctions are between users like you and me, but adjudicated by an unbiased third-party, the auction website. People often call this consumer to consumer (C2C) eCommerce.
http://www.ebay.com
The most popular of these is EBay. Lately they have been really spending a lot of advertising budget on television ads, and as you might imagine, everything that has ever darkened the inside of garage storage is represented; from the figurative white elephant to prized antique, it's all there.
EBay also has lately purchased another web company: Half.com.
http://www.half.com
This website is for the buying and selling of books and tapes that you may want to sell. They take the ISBN off the product and automatically load all the product information for you and then you can set your price based on the condition of the item.
My favorite auction related website though, is called eSnipe. http://www.esnipe.com
During any auction, you can imagine that two determined bidders could bid up the price beyond a reasonable level. To prevent that from happening eSnipe allows you to program their website to bid for you within moments of the end of the auction. The electronic bidder from eSnipe logs into EBay on your behalf and very often wins for you. Best of all using eSnipe takes the emotional impulse to outbid your competitor. The result? A great auction value.
If you would like assistance setting up an auction, please feel free to call. I can do digital photography for your auction and help you navigate EBay to find the right price for your product.
May all your bids win cheaply!
NEW FAQs:
When should I upgrade my computer?
Just like your car, your computer is a machine that when properly maintained can for last quite some time. The trick is to know the timing for maintenance and the schedule to take it into the shop.
I can't predict your system's needs without some custom analysis, but I do have a few rules of thumb that I use to make recommendations. Please accept these with a critical eye, but if you would like us to help you apply them please call or email us.
When should you upgrade to a new new computer? I usually recommend every three years to either upgrade the hard drive or the computer. This basically depends on the manner in which you are using your computer. If you are happy with your computer's performance, just upgrade your hard drive.
The three year clock is basically to put your computer usage on a new hard drive every three years, as this is just short of the typical life expectancy of the average hard drive.
This is because your hard drive is the hardest working part of the system, and is almost the only moving part for the largest part of the time.
The challenge in both options is the moving of your original information from the old hard drive to a new one or to the new computer.
The experts and I also recommend a good maintenance cleaning and memory diagnostics each year to keep the system tuned up and ready for whatever new computer challenge may be invented.
This is one of our most common types of service calls and we would be glad to help if you require this sort of service. We're wishing a long and useful life for your computer.
BUZZ WORDS:
search engine
What a strange name for a reference librarian! Somehow this is the label that came to stand for the research tools that help make sense of all the volumes of information that make up the Internet.
These strange beasts are the indices that can be used to find the answer to your query.
http://www.google.com
http://www.yahoo.com
Two search engines that often I recommend are Google.com and Yahoo.com. These are very different websites, but offer the bulk of responses that you could find anywhere else on the Internet. If you are looking to find anything on the Internet this is the first place I suggest you look.
Happy hunting!
HOME NETWORKING:
firewall reprise
I received some technical corrections to my last home networking article. Please bear with me if you aren't the technical type.
In short, the firewall and NAT features of a firewall/router/switch will well protect your network. However...
I was mistaken about the randomness of DHCP. Unless your ISP intentionally enforces this your IP may not release and renew in a timely manner.
The other advice I received was that a firewall, generally is best at protecting other computers connected to it. This reinforces the value of a firewall/router/switch for networks that require the highest level of security. Firewall software installed on a personal computer would be less dependable.
If this reads like confusing techie talk, please email me and correct me or ask questions and I would be glad to take some time to discuss it.
I can't say enough good things about this website! Cooking your first turkey and want a recipe? Would you like some desert ideas for the holiday? Songs? Activities? History? Holiday Reading? You have got to check it out.
Happy Thanksgiving!
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing,
15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
16 as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.
-- Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)
