Logged into Gmail on Chrome and keep getting the notice to enable email desktop notifications.

12 years ago maybe I would have said oh yeah! These days I really shudder at that thought. There are way too many emails that come through my multiple in boxes. Even if there weren’t, having email disrupt me each time is really really bad for productivity.

Even on the phone one of the first things I did after activating Android is to make sure all the beeps and vibrate notifications for email is set to OFF.

I try not to make email my first stop after turning on the computer or on the phone for that matter. If I get in there, I’d spend at least 30 – 90 minutes just puttering. So I try not to. Not perfect but is something I absolutely strive to do.

It’s almost like a game. How many tasks can I finish before allowing myself a ‘reward’ for checking email?

However… if there was a way to only get notifications only for emails that you mark which can then be ‘unmarked’ anytime once the need has passed, then that might be something I could use for when you’re waiting on an important reply.

Do you know something that can do that? Do share!

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There are notebook cases that protect … and then, there are notebook cases that actually do that – and look cool, too. Check out Twelve South’s BookBook – a leather case for Macbook Pros: it looks exactly like a vintage book or ledger!

According to it’s maker, the BookBook leather case “brings three levels of security to your prized Mac”
… firstly by its hardback cover and spine for impact protection, secondly via disguise as a lookalike old leather-bound (and large!) book. It claims the third level of security is “the stylish case protects you from being like everyone else because BookBook is totally original, just like you.”

Am not too sure I’d agree to the last claim, for it sounds more like marketing-speak more than anything else …

Anyway, it definitely looks cool with such a design. It is closed with hidden twin zippers all-round on the edge of its very authentic-looking “pages”. The leather zipper pulls mimic that of bookmark ends really takes the cake! The Macbook Pro’s LCD screen and lid is secured into the case by way of elastic bands at the top two corners; not too sure about the bottom, though. Photos do not show how that is done – it could be using hook-and-loop strips, or just resting bare on the case without any fastenings. All BookBook cases are handcrafted and its leather hand-distressed, so no two of them are exactly the same … I suppose “one-off” exclusivity is good consolation for anyone that is willing to shell out $79.99 – $99.99 for a notebook case.

Twelve South also makes a similar case for the iPad/iPad 2, which doubles up as a landscape-oriented stand when the cover is folded back. The two halves are prevented from flattening out by way of a cord that attaches to both halves.

Am not too sure about protection via disguise as an old book is entirely a good thing, though … What happens if someone decides to use “that old book lying on the desk” to whack a trespassing roach or two? Oh, dear …

The hottest (and coldest) months of the year always remind me to look for ways to cut our energy costs. One of the things that my husband and I have always looked forward to is making our own energy. For starters, we just want to power a few key appliances in the house.

Ideally, we’d like to stick it to the power company and say good riddance and live off the grid. But can we? I don’t know, we are so conditioned to buying our power that this idea itself is quite scary. That’s why we hope to be able to start small and see how the land lays from there.

All is not lovely in the land of renewable home energy either. Have you seen the prices of some of these things? Sheesh… I know, I know. You pay a high price but you save in the long run, many times more. I get that. Still… I’m a cheapskate and we’re geeky. We like to make things especially on the cheap.

I found this Home Made Energy guide that shows you how to make your own solar power system and/or wind power system for as low as $100. Going to send it off to hubby to see if I can convince him to give the guide a go.

Have you built your own energy system? How did it go? Any words of advise?

Image via Wikipedia

So summer is in full swing and reading programs are popping up all over the place. Incidentally, I am at the library right now writing this. Gotta love technology.

Usually, taking the kids to the library, registering them for reading programs is something moms do. But dads can certainly pitch in. Who says you have to be in a structured reading program?

We found this Dad’s Playbook: Coaching Kids To Read guide. In it, are several stories from other dads how they coach their kids on reading. Plus wonderful ideas for learning new vocabulary, word play and just have lots of fun, quality time as well.

It is a PDF so you will need Adobe Reader or any PDF reader to open the file. Click to download the Coaching Kids To Read playbook. It is 100% free.

Hey all, we got news of this recently. Since we are a Wii household and know little about Xboxes, I hope this is a deal because it does sounds like one and we thought we’d pass the info along regardless. Walmart.com is selling the Xbox Arcade Console for only $149. It comes with two free games. Plus you get a $50 Walmart.com eGift card so it is like, paying only $99 for this bundle.

If it is a deal I hope you have a chance to get it before it goes away

Not an electronic gadget for once. I saw these awesome little things in All You magazine. The first is a key finder. They are pretty little hooks that you hang to the side of your purse and the keys go on the inside. Neat idea. This way, you won’t have to rummage all over to find those keys.

From the same company, you’ll also find purse hangers. Forget about putting your purse down on dirty floors at the restaurant. Use this hanger that clamps to the side of your table and voila! A portable hook. I think it would be handy to hang diaper bags and other stuff too, provided it isn’t too heavy. No idea how much weight it will take.

I love this time of the year because you can usually find a lot of gadgets that you’ve been wanting come down in price. It seems however that the deals aren’t as great as far as gadgets go. That’s just my personal observation. At the same time, we’re all on tighter budgets too. Well, instead of showing you some ‘top’ gifts that are probably way off budget, here’s a list of under $50 gadgets you can consider for any mom or kids.

jWIN Electronics JX-MP224 1.5″ Color Video 4GB MP3 Player/FM Radio

$26.99

What I like: 4GB built in flash memory with expandable memory with miniSD. It even can be a voice recorder and one of the video formats accepted is .AVI. Rechargeable battery.

Sennheiser RS-110 Wireless Headphones
$37.99

This is an awesome price. Sennheiser is reputedly a good brand for headsets and audio equipment. I’ve had this unit on my radar for a long time and it usually averages $100. I eventually settled for a cheaper brand but having a wireless headset is a great mom tool like watching late night TV without waking up the kids. That’s what I use mine for most of the time.

George Foreman Vari-Temp Grill

$29.00

Last week, our family has used our 6 year old George Foreman grill twice and I will probably use it another time in a day or two because the girls asked me for grilled cheese sandwiches and I promised it to them. Easiest way to make them and a ton of other things too. I love this grill for helping me make healthy meals easily. We had a deal on hamburger recently. It was so good I stocked up but they were the 80% lean ones. I normally only buy 93% lean. The fat difference between them was a lot. Especially when I’m not used to it. So when we made hamburgers last week and we used the grill, all the fat dripped out. Yet the burgers still tasted awesome. Definitely a good gift choice especially for the price.

Conair Compact Garment Steamer

$29.93

Which mom wants to spend time ironing? Not me, you can bet your bottom dollar. Ironing ranks all the way at the bottom. Even doing dishes trumps it. But a steamer is so so much easier and faster too. We have a small one and it’s several years old but seen many uses.

HoMedics – Back Revitalizer 5 Motor Massage Cushion

$25.00

I got one for my husband a few years ago, the shiatsu one. It is great. Now they have ones with heat which would probably be a lot more relaxing.

HoMedics SoundSpa Lullaby With Picture Projection

$17.99

This is so cute! When my babies were still babies, we had one of those mobiles that made stars on the ceiling. They so love that. Even now, my youngest at 5 years old still enjoys the stars going around and around.

While not exactly a comprehensive list, I hope we’ve at least given you some ideas if you’ve been stuck what to get and not burn a hole in your wallet – that is important.

While cleaning up my hard drive this week, I ran into a really annoying issue. Somehow, some files became corrupted and I could not delete, open, rename, copy or move the files. The message I get is,

“Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk”

Well how in the world am I supposed to get rid of this thing now? Thankfully, I found a solution. It will involve firing up the good old fashioned Command Prompt. If you are not afraid of using that, it works great! Anyhow, Duncan gives pretty clear and concise instructions here even if you aren’t too comfortable with Command Prompt, you can do it.

To start Command Prompt, go to Start >> Accessories >> Command Prompt or Start >> All programs >> Accessories >> Command Prompt on Vista.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Do you ever find old pictures of family kinda creepy? Yeah I remember thinking the same thing of my great-grandma’s photo. Saw this today on ThinkGeek. It’s so creative. Basically it is a old picture that most would assume is one of your family when displayed in the house. But watch closely, it changes!

The pictures are a little ‘dark’ and probably too scary if you have small children, but for older kids, teens and even adult Halloween parties, I bet it would be fun to see what kind of reaction you get from them. They are sold for $9.99 for the 5×7 one but the Restless spirit one – my fave – is a 8 x 10 which goes for $24.99.

I’m not entirely sure since I don’t have a digital photo frame yet, but I think with some graphic animation software and a digital photo frame you should be able to achieve something similar if you’re looking for a DIY solution. That way you can make it funny instead of really scary.

There’s no denying things are rough for a lot of people now. But life goes on. We still celebrate our loved ones and friends, kids still have birthday parties and the holidays still come around at the same time of the year. It is already October and I am thinking 2+ months ahead. I’m not the type who plans too far ahead. I know of some of my super organized friends have already purchased up their kids’ Christmas presents and stocking stuffers. Kudos to them!

While our family has not had major upsets this year, that doesn’t mean we haven’t felt the pinch. This week, the kids are invited to a birthday party. So we came up with a really nice gift pack that included an assortment of various small inexpensive toys but wrapping? I normally go for gift bags because they are less troublesome but you know, gift bags can be expensive! In high school, my friend used to work for a gift store. I spent tons of hours there with her – the boss was hardly around but I think the boss didn’t mind it that much because while we where there, we helped wrap gifts for the customers – free labor but that’s another story.

So I learned to make some bags there from sturdy wrapping paper – not the cheap tissue paper thing type wrapping paper. The only thing I did not learn was to make a gift bag. So I Googled and come across several methods. Some weren’t what I was looking for, some were way too complicated. Then I stumbled upon this tutorial from Kaboose. Bingo! How simple! Wrap the paper around a box but of course! Duh! If you’re looking for a way to make your own gift bags, check them out.