Computer Gadgets

Well, the holiday season is upon us, some of us lucky moms may have a 2nd monitor in the horizon. No better time than now to be ready so that you can get that baby up and running and enjoy on Christmas day. If you’ve never had two monitors before then the big question you’ll inevitably ask is how do you do this?

Two ways. One, if your computer’s graphic cards have two outputs. Many of the latest cards do have two. One for regular VGA and one for DVI. Most monitors include the required cabling. But it never hurts to have one extra. If you are currently using the VGA, then you’ll need to get a DVI cabling and vice versa.

The other method works well if your computer only has one monitor output. It is a multi monitor adapter. Because it is USB, you can get as many adapters as you like and chain it into a USB hub. How sweet is that? One such adapter is the Arkview USB-1612. Check out the image below to get an idea how it works. It’s got pretty good reviews too. Although I already have two monitors, I think this might be the one I’ll look in to when we ever add a third.

When we lived in a tiny apartment clear across town, our power was supplied by a small electric Coop. I’ve never given much thought to power outages because they were kinda rare and if there were any, it would be taken care of quickly. Now that we moved, we have a big company for our power company. Ugh! I cannot understand how a small coop can out perform a company with all the resources at their hands… wait a minute, I take it back. I can but that’s a whole ‘nother rabbit hole and not the point of my post.

Living in a hurricane prone zone meant we are aware of how even the smallest surges can completely fry our computers and just about anything really, but because the computers are such a big part of our lives, well, we put them all on a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) or backup power. We’ve added more since we moved because of that unreliable power company thing. I tell you, it’s a good investment. So many times, I would have lost all the work I spent hours on if not for the UPS. When the power goes off, it gives me 30 minutes to safely shut down the computer, monitor and any other peripherals we’ve hooked up to it.

This is huge – it is not fun to have to spend what you thought was your extra money that month on a fried monitor or computer or – fill in the blanks -

These things can get a tad pricey, if you can only afford a small one, I’d still say go with it. Remember, it’s not only the computer you may have to replace but you could lose all the data on the hard drive too.

Hey ladies (and a few gents around), just wanted to give you a heads up that Zone Alarm is running a 50% off deal from now until December 1st, 2009. I’ve been using Zone Alarm for 5 years now, if not longer and have been quite satisfied. Happy to report that other than small annoyances, I’ve not had an issue with viruses for a long, long time.

Now, that doesn’t mean this is a magic pill, I do a lot of other things to keep my computer safe and secure as well – we’ll talk about that later, but ZA is definitely my first layer of defense. If you want to try something new, why not do it for less. There are no coupons required. Just visit this page or click the banner.

Sometimes, when I direct someone to a website or page to find something they need, they don’t see it immediately. That is totally not their fault but the web masters’ for not making the site easy to navigate or find information people need. Most people would just leave.

Image by Su

But what if really need to find the item whatever it is? It often amazes me why people don’t use the magic buttons – Ctrl+F or Command+F for Macs. It’s like having a built in mini search engine for the page you are on. Great way to find stuff on a page.

I use it a LOT, on all kinds of pages and sites. Sometimes, instead of reading through a long list of replies on a forum I use Ctrl + F. Also, sometimes download links are not always easy to distinguish from ads. What I do is, Right click on the page, View Source and then Ctrl+F and search for “.exe” or whatever extension the download is. May not work all the time especially if the download uses a click tracker, but in that case, search for the word “download” or the name of the file if you know it. Huge timesaver, especially if you’ve been on the site before and know something is there but somehow just miss it.

Last year, I was sorely disappointed when I learned that Kids Programming Language retired. On its web page they recommended Phrogram instead but Phrogram is not a free program. Granted, it is a small investment to get the kids to learn a very useful skill, still. Times are tough.

Then I came across Scratch. It works on Mac and PC and even has an online community to share the kids creations. Mostly games. Some of the games are pretty fun too. Heck, I just whiled away some time there when I should be blogging.

Another programming software for kids I came across is SiMPLE.

Sometimes as moms we feel like we could use a little extra curricular activities that are just for us.  For some of us we like being “life long learners”.  What a better thing to learn than a new language?  It will definitely challenge you , stretch you and grow you. 

These days there is no better way to learn a new language than by using your computer and a program called Rosetta Stone.  With it you can learn one of 30 languages, just take your pick.  With Rosetta you learn the language as it is spoken and through spoken activities, not just with books and writings, making it easier to understand and pick up.

Rosetta is also self-paced so that you don’t feel forced or pushed further than you are ready to go.  You get to decide how slow or fast to take the course.  That way you’re sure to learn it and learn it well, at a speed at which you’re comfortable.

So, if you’ve been wanting to try a new language then this might be just the opportunity for you.

Mom, do you spend alot of time listening to audios on the computer?  Attend online seminars, listen to podcasts, chat on Skype?  If so you probably use a headset, but does it do everything you wish it would.  Is the sound quality all you hope it could be?

Choosing a headset for listening to online audio can be a bit tricky.  Not every headset is equal.  To get a headset that will offer you the best quality sound and allow you to hear and be heard clearly you want to look for one that connects to your computer via USB which gives a clearer sound quality, you want to look for one that has noise canceling capabilities which means it will clear up the noise in the background allowing you to be heard static free.

The Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB Headset does all this.  The microphone is noise canceling, plus it has the plugin and play USB plug.  It makes it everything we just described, and it is reasonably priced at just over $30.