Window Shopper

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Things certainly changed when we got DSL. It took us about a minute to figure out that the computer was getting to places much faster than ever before. Of course, we were compared to the rest of the world, I imagine. Our area does not get new things as fast as the big cities do. Fast. There’s a word that cannot be used around here. Our phone company took it’s sweet time bringing in this service to us but we got it last year and, boy, did it make a difference.

We could not wait for the company to tell us we had DSL. It was set up and in place in a matter of a few days. Right before the day scheduled to turn the service on, we received a package in the mail. Turned out to be the Linksys router they sent us to replace the modem that we were using before with the dialup. I am so glad we no longer have the dialup. It was so slow. Now we found out that there is a speedier way to go but our area phone company does not yet offer it. Of course not. But it will. When it does, we will likely get it. But for now, we do have some pretty good connection speeds. And we are satisfied with that.

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Today my computer decided to crap out on me. When booting, it would not acknowledge that I had a monitor. Oh oh. This is serious. Well, it was. For the last I don’t know how many years, I have been running this computer with 384mg. of memory. It was fine. I did not see it as a problem at all. It was doing what I needed to do. Granted, it wasn’t doing more. But today, one of those memory sticks gave out. ACK!

As usual, I thought how personal that becomes when I need to do my blogging. I take my blogging seriously and it is quite personal. Even my griping is like that. So, I went on a hunt for more memory. And even though memory has come down drastically in price, not all of us can actually afford such things. Most of the ones I looked at were more expensive than I actually wanted to pay. I should mention here that I did not intend to just replace what died. I wanted to upgrade a bit.

Right now, my computer is running with 1- 128mg. stick. I have to tell you that I am so not used to my computer being so dog slow. Waiting for the browser to come up, I could probably have had lunch or it felt that way. Not sure I can stand this slowness for long. I know. WAAAA!! I would have said the same thing. This is my problem.

Then I went on eBay where I usually do not go anymore because of the fact that most things are not as cheap as they used to be even there. Yet, I did get a really good deal on a couple of 512mg. sticks for around $20. You cannot beat that with a stick……of memory, no doubt. Yes, they are new. I do hope they are not DOA though I believe they have a money back guarantee on their page. Once those show up, my computer will be faster than I have ever seen it. Oh yeah!! I like.

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You might have seen my quest for a new laptop. That is still on. However, I do have the computer I currently use which is more or less a Dell. Most of you will guess what I mean by “more or less”, right? For those who do not know, it means that this started out as a Dell but things have been added so it is no longer that brand completely anymore. I’m fine with that. This computer works pretty well for what it is. Not top of the line by any means but it does the job I ask of it.

But there are things I would love to see change too. I want to just completely upgrade which, I am sure, is going to take a new motherboard, CPU, the works. Until that happens, my computer is capable of a lot more memory than it has right now. I will be shooting for a memory stick or two in the near future. My computer can handle a gigabyte of memory but only has 384 meg. right now. Sad, isn’t it. But right now, it does handle the work I ask of it. So, I am as happy as I can be with it. Hoping it keeps on running for quite a while too!

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This shouldn’t be a surprise to find out that when buying things online, there is a danger of getting over charged. However, this type of overcharging is really bad in that it doesn’t end. I discovered this in an article that said that when a person goes to buy something online, there may be a pop-up that will go away if you click it but it may cost you a bundle later. One woman clicked to get the pop-up to go away and ended up paying for months on her credit card.

On the other hand, the company that had those pop-ups said that she must have put in personal information for it to be that way. I suspect the lady knows how much info she put in, as in none. I have had an occasion when a pop-up came up that already had all my info added. That was because I had put that same info into the original page and it was copied out. I did spot that and removed it. I have no idea what I would have gotten into if it had remained when I clicked.

She stated that the window was offering a $10 off coupon for the next purchase. That does not seem like the same thing that she ended up with. On the other hand, the advertiser says that there are boxes and boxes to fill out before you have that charge. My guess is that it does have that but it was also filled in. Some of the pages that I go to have check boxes. Those boxes can already be marked when I get there. I have to uncheck them in order to get on with what I want.

This is a ploy by the advertiser to get more money from the person that is already purchasing something from them. Or it could be someone else who has a deal with that website owner. Which ever it is, it is underhanded and should be eliminated. I do not allow pop-ups to come onto my screen. I have an ad blocker. This is a great idea for those who do much shopping online. I found that it does a great job of taking care of such things. I see very few pop-ups anymore. In fact, I get a notice when one is trying to open. It is blocked. I feel much better about that.

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A while back, I noticed a deal called Entrecard which uses the idea of traffic generation by way of “dropping cards” on all those who have the Entrecard widget on their blogs. Thought it was a great idea so I signed up. At first, traffic really did increase. Actually, if I did everything I could do, traffic would still be higher than it currently is on this blog.

What’s the problem here? With this particular traffic generator, you have to take the time to drop up to 300 cards a day per blog signed up. You can drop zero too. The idea is to generate the traffic and eventually find new readers. What usually happens is that I get a quite a bit less traffic than I give out, that is, I drop the required number but get less than a third coming back to me. If that was all the problem, I sure wouldn’t be talking about it. That’s just a matter of finding people who want to be on the blog. No problem there.

No, the problem is more in the nature of how Entrecard has changed to suit the few…themselves. A dropper gets what they call “EC” or Entrecard Cash. You get a point for each drop you make. The EC add up. And things weren’t too bad before this radical change was made. When you had enough EC, you were able to buy advertising on the other blogs depending on how much EC you had on hand. The more you have, the more you can spend on some of the really top ranked blogs. The downside to that was that you could never get in to their list. It was always full. Yes, there was a cap.

Today, it’s a completely different situation. I believe it has gone from bad to worse. Now there is no cap. So the price of the more popular blogs can be quite high, over 8000 EC. Yep, there is a problem there. If you drop 300 EC each day, it will take you a mountain of time to save up enough to buy advertising for ONE DAY on those really expensive blogs. At this point, it’s important to take note of this. When you buy advertising, you do not get the payback exactly. Entrecard takes most of your profit for themselves. In the real world, the lion’s share would go to the one who advertises and gets their payback on it. In Entrecard world, they get the big payback and the blog owner gets the shaft. The EC that rightfully belongs to the blogger is actually going to gather EC for the Entrecard company. Is this nuts or what?

Folks, the money is virtual. What the heck is that about? When the company gathers the VIRTUAL EC, they then put it up for grabs. Of course, the people who want the EC have to pay for it with REAL cash. You can get 1,000 EC for $9.50 and 5,000 for a whopping $47.50. And what do you get when you spend them? One whole day of advertising on another blog. One day. And as I stated before, there are blogs that cost over 8,000 EC to advertise.

Any comments here? Does this look even remotely sane? People are paying almost $50 to acquire a few EC that you can get for free. Granted, you really have to work for those little buggers but they are free. The problem is that it takes forever to gather them. Then you really do not get value for your bucks….either way.

Entrecard is definitely not all that. I will keep it for information purposes but it’s doubtful that I will spend a lot of time on site anymore. Just not worth the incredible effort it takes. Sigh.

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I have had a few suggestions concerning my hunt for my laptop. Most of them are wonderful suggestions if I only had a bundle of money and could spend it as I like. The reality is that I do not have that. So, I have to find other ways of getting what I want. And of course, every possible thing is getting in the way of that. But in that, I am persevering. Every time I see that word, I remember the home room motto that was on the top of the door. We looked at it every morning coming to school. My home room’s motto was PALS (Perseverance Always Leads to Success). I cannot tell you why that has stuck with me but it has long after I have forgotten so much more important things like…..what was my friend’s dress color at the prom. Yeah, it was that bad.

So, I am persevering. I have looked for all sorts of ways to have the laptop I need but the big prize is very illusive right now. Cannot imagine why. I thought about getting one of those that you finance online but they are so costly. First, you pick out the one you want. Then second, you start adding the little things like with a desktop computer….a keyboard and mouse. Now, I really thought that those things would actually come with it but they don’t. Added cost. Nice. I don’t know. I thought about computer rentals. I called. The local rental shop does not rent out laptop computers. That leaves me pretty much in the same place I was a while back..without a laptop and needing one for less than most of them cost. And I am stubbornly not wanting a used or refurbished one. Am I being a snob? I hope not.

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Maybe I am obsessing about this laptop a bit. Maybe not. I know that I want one. It is very high on my priority list. Unfortunately, a lot of other things and people are higher so getting one has been a bit of difficult, to say the least. But I can dream, can’t I? Okay, having said that, I will tell you my dream machine. It is a beauty too. For one thing, I have not seen more than one or two bad reviews about this particular machine. That says a lot since most of the others I looked at did have negative reviews a plenty.

What laptop, you ask? Okay, I will tell you right now. I want an Acer. It will be either an Aspire or Extensa with a 17 in. monitor. Of course, it will have to have a big computer memory chip in it since all the new computers have the vista thing in them. I hate that. I do not want that particular program installed in my computer because it is a memory hog. It takes up way too much memory for what it can do. If you were to buy a laptop with only 1 gig of memory, you would need to upgrade even before you started it. I hate that. So, it would be good to have the computer memory that you need right from the start.

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I have actually had three computers in my life that I owned, four if you count the one that my husband owned before we got married. It was a old CoCo. He still has it. It still runs. But I wanted something that I could actually understand and use. The old computer was good for online email lists but not for graphics at all. You had to know the computer language it spoke. My husband knows that, I don’t. Makes me dizzy.

When we got our next computer, it was a nice one, brand new…..we thought. We got it from a guy in business who said that he would build us a new computer. What he did not tell us was that many of the parts were older, used. We paid through the nose to learn that lesson. Next we got one online. It was used but very nice. By this time, we were buying them one for each of us. The only rub was that sometimes the video card did not match up with the computer. It was a major hassle until we were able to find the right one.

Since then, we have bought several used computers. My husband has assembled several himself. At this time, we have three in the house. One is an older computer that I had. Now it is used by our niece. She uses it for school work and, of course, for lots of games. Mine is a much better one than I have ever had before. Despite the fact that it’s older and probably out of date already, I do like it. My husband’s is one that he bought online and has had a problem with the motherboard. He had to replace that last year. Now, it’s a really good computer although it, too, is older and probably out of date. We do not care about that.

My newest quest is for a brand new laptop…NOT from that guy though. After a good deal of searching, I feel that the one I want is an Acer. I really like what people say about them. They have few bad reviews, it seems to be exactly what I want and isn’t too expensive. Now all I need is the money to pay for one!!!

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In the last few weeks, I have been looking for a really great deal on a laptop. I have looked at all sorts of laptops in order to get the best deal for the best price. At times, I thought I had actually found what I wanted only to go back and find out that it was not available to me anymore. Had I bought it when it was there, I would now be a happy camper. But, as it is, I am not.

After having looked at several good computers, I did happen to find one I particularly liked at Circuit City. But, as I said, about the time I actually want to purchase the thing, it’s gone. Still, I was certain that more places had the same thing if only I looked for it more diligently. And I did run across one that was sort of close at the online Walmart store. I did contemplate looking closer at this one particular laptop but…….I had a small problem. I guess you will see the problem if you look hard enough.

Here, for your enjoyment (as long as you aren’t really shopping for one), is one of the laptops I wanted to explore further. Is there a problem here? I think so.

For those who do not pay attention to detail, take a look at the availability. Not sold in stores. Not sold online. Hmmmmm. Wonder where they sell them? Any ideas????

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See, I cannot actually afford a laptop but I really need one to do my work. It’s too hard and long to explain this so I will simply say that I have actually needed one for a while but that need has gotten rather acute lately. So, that “ChipIn” widget on the sidebar there is my shameless asking for funds to help me on my way to a nice, not necessarily new laptop. I am grateful to anyone who would be willing to help me along the way with my quest.

Looking for laptops has sort of been a hobby of mine in the last year. I have seen some totally dream machines that unless I win the lottery will not reside in my house anytime this century. The problem is that I really need to settle on what my best shot at a good, cheap machine. So, I figured I could do a directbuy online IF I can find that one, just right for me, computer with all of what I need on it. Doesn’t have to be a fantastic machine, just something that I can work on somewhere besides my desk. With my back hurting so much, I cannot stay in the upright position in front of my desktop computer. Sad but true. And so my quest continues.

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