Window Shopper

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The gist of it is that we are in need of a new television set. We have tried for a few months now thinking that it would last a few more years but the fact is we are running out of time. The set is about to go down the tubes, so to speak. It has been in our family now for about 10 years. Not bad for a television that runs far more than it was meant to run. And, of course, the fact remains that in less than a year, the analog television will pretty much be history, at least for the purpose of getting signal without help from a converter.

Okay, so we should go out and get a new set. Not as easy as all that. For one thing, it’s Christmas time. The funds are going out for presents for the family, something I look forward to and dread at the same time. LOL! Nope. We do not have the money to be using on a television right now. But I had my eye on one that is really not that expensive. But then, you think about all the extras that we are probably going to get too. What extras? Well, our vhs player is almost shot too. Then, we could use a new DVD player. But what is really intriguing to my husband are those little boxes called HDMI switches. He wants one of those to make it all work together. Now, my idea was to keep it simple, right? Not these days. No way. You have to bring in the techoweenies to get the job done in a sensible way. That’s why my husband is fixing the whole thing when we do get the set and accessories, not me. I have no clue. So there you are.

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What tech toys are you looking for now? My personal quest is for an affordable laptop. Yeah, I know. There are some out there but they have to be affordable AND have the goodies too. That can be a challenge to find.

So, I went to this page that had excellent search capabilities and I did come up with a few really good deals on laptops. What do you know. I found this really great Acer that had a number of the things I was looking for in a laptop. Duo core, 15 inch screen, 200GB hard drive, 2GB of DDR2 memory, webcam, free shipping and a Canon all-in-one printer with it. Now that’s a good deal. The price was good as well.

But what kind of tech bargains are you looking for? They have hot deals on just about anything you are looking for in electronics. Think! Do you need an iPod, PC, HDTV, how about a cell phone? This place can give you comparison searches. Now that you have an idea of what you want, want to know what other people think about that particular product? Reviews on many of the products they have listed are available to you, the consumer. The site is loaded with information on each of these products including prices and where they are located. That laptop is for sale in my home state!

Techbargains has coupons and deals galore. One way or another, YOU are going to save money on the toys of your dreams. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter that will have the deals of the week in them. You can also have alerts on your special items. I really like this site for the information on the best deals for you.

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One thing that a modern day business needs is to get into the twenty first century. Most people who buy products really want to know about the details of the product like how it works, how long it will work, what accessories does it need, where is it and so many more questions. Thing is, most businesses need to field those questions one way or another. A lot of them have a customer service line. But, have you ever tried to get through on those things? I have. Bad news. The thing is busy, busy, busy and it takes FOREVER to sit on the phone waiting. At that point, you wonder if they have forgotten you. I have actually been forgotten on hold. I hate hold. Some have gone to support chat online.

It’s really hard for small companies to get started these days. Costs so much. So, coming up with any type of customer support is going to be too expensive so they hire some person to come in who has no idea what the product is or any other information about it. This one fields the questions. But you know what’s going to happen. On the other hand, if a start up company had a support chat online, it would take a bad situation and turn it to the good.

LiveHuman can do this for those companies that want to get ahead quickly. They have a support chat software service that will bring the company and the customer closer together than ever before. Sounds expensive, right? Not at all. LiveHuman service is available for as low as $13 a month per operator on a yearly contract. You can now shout..”Is that ALL?” The answer is YES! They can talk to their customers in real time. That is so important that the customer feels that the company cares about their problems and questions. There is no obligation to the customer but questions answered make for happy clients. The chat window is even customizable to your particular needs.

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When I first saw this program, I thought it would be complicated. Frankly, I am challenged when it comes to computers and programs so I simply figured that it wasn’t for me. But, someone asked me to try it anyway. With a great deal of trepidation, I got the program and started to run it. WOW! How easy can it actually get??!!!!

First, once the program called Morpheus Photo-Morpher is in you have a place for two pictures. You find a picture on your computer and upload it. Then do that again. Once you have two pictures, the first will morph into the second after you finish with what it wants. Ever play connect the dots? That’s about all you have to do. Put dots on the item(s) in the first picture. Then do the same in the second picture. Match the dots on each one. Like if you had a person’s face, put the dots on strategic places like face, ears, eyebrows, etc. Then in the second picture, match those to whatever area you want it to morph to. Simple.

When you finish that, you will want to decide how many frames the pictures will go. The slower you want it, the more frames. You can find that on the drop downs at the top of the page. After that, it needs to be rendered. That’s on the file menu. It’s saved. Now you have a real morphing picture. You can get as creative as you like. Any two pictures will work. I dunno how good a cat and a house would look but, hey, try it and see!

By the way, this whole thing came from Zoombli.

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I find myself trying very hard to stay away from the elaborate games that you find on the net. The reason for that is that if I get in one of those games, and I like it, I do not come up for air anytime in the next week or so. So, you can imagine what it would be like if I gave in and got a playstation 3, right? I think that I have resisted all this time just so that I could get the one that beats out the rest. Not sure what that would be but I’m sure we can figure it out eventually.

Thing is, those games are so addictive that I am sure that when folks buy them, they won’t be able to get away from them either. Ah, but that’s part of the charm, isn’t it. So, we will all fall under the spell of the games, games and more games.

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Robots are coming of age in a big way and soon. What was once only in the movies is now becoming reality…robots to do housework, watch the home in security mode and take care of the kids while the parents are out of town. No, they are not the babysitters though someday that will happen. You wait. It will.

A bot similar to the one that iRobot Corp has now that is essentially a vacuum cleaner but has a webcam on the top of it is being developed for home use. It is designed to make the parents feel as though they were almost home. The parents can send the bot into the bedroom of the child, the child could open a book right in front of the bot and the parents could read to the kid while they are far away on a business trip. That sounds like fun to me….doesn’t it to you?

What’s next? The bot can hug and kiss ‘em goodnight so that the parents can go out on the town while the kid sits at home waiting for them to show back up? Oh please. I really think that they need to get some humanity into this project before they start building R. Daneel Olivaw.

I do not think I will plan on shopping for that just yet. Happy Shopping for other stuff though!!!

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When I want to buy something, like say a laptop computer, I search out the exact things I look for in a laptop, which by the way, I really want right now. There is this really cool search place that compares prices and stats for you for eBay products, Amazon, TigerDirect and a number of other places. Now, are you looking for things like that computer I want? Maybe you want jewelry or movies on DVD? How about DaVinci Baby Cribs at AuctionSHARK? Yep, I said AuctionSHARK.

So, I started this search for the laptop. I hate to pay retail or anything close to it so I am looking for a really low price with all the goodies that my laptop needs to have. At the front page, I can see lots of choices but I want computers and software. Click. Next page has a number of options so I click hardware, then PC laptops. The program takes a few seconds to search out my specific needs. I end up on a page with a HUGE assortment of prices and types of laptops. This is going to take a while because I see nothing but good!

I can check out category, price range, processor speed, price, hard drive capacity, brand name. It’s all right there on the sidebar. The searches narrow it down so that you have the exact stats you want for the item in question. Now, my search has ended with a really sweet deal on a laptop…PC Notebook Toshiba Satellite A135 Intel C 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz 2GB 240GB 15.4″. Is that sweet or what? The price is $779.00 plus shipping. But you can get anything like it from about $699-$1,608 for the criteria that I searched.

Now it’s your turn. This site gives you a lot of comparison prices on the items you are searching for but in so much shorter time than you could if you searched everything out yourself. What are you waiting for? Go get that special item you have been wanting for, like, ages.

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I just read an article about a conference where some of the more brilliant minds of our country gathered and the best they could come up with is that some day soon, computers are going to be smarter than we are. DUH! Actually, I suspect some computers are smarter than we are already. Maybe not more intelligent than they are but certainly brainier than most of us “point-and-clickers”.

This is a quote from those who are supposedly in the know at this conference: When asked about computers being smarter than humans, they replied, “If that happens, it will alter what it means to be human in ways almost impossible to conceive”.

Now you have my attention. Uh what? Silicon Valley techies and scientists were asked to imagine a world where the computers were getting smarter and what happened? They decided that there would be self-programming computers and, get this, brain implants that would make humans think at speeds coming close to what today’s microprocessors are doing now.

Robotics is on the way up and scientists and techies fear that if we do not start putting in guidelines now, it will be too late soon.

“We and our world won’t be us anymore,” said Rodney Brooks, a robotics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

This is some scary stuff here. We won’t be us anymore? That sounds too much like something taking over my mind and brain. I don’t think so. This is one time I am not going to say happy shopping. Here we go…shopping for brains today. ACK!! No way.

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Okay, I call it tech stuff. It’s probably got a better name than that. Unfortunately, I am tech challenged. Electronically challenged. Computerly challenged. Digitally anything challenged. I have FINALLY come to the place where I can set the vhs to record something on a timer. Laugh if you want to but it takes me a while to get the hang of it. Do NOT ask me to do the same for the DVD player. Well, I know it doesn’t record so that was silly.

At this time, we are searching for some science projects and electronic kits to help our nieces learn some valuable information on science and electronics. Because of my handicap, my husband will do any teaching of these things. However, we have to find them first.

I did come across an FM radio kit at Radio Shack. We bought that. It was really inexpensive. I was surprised. I am still looking for a couple of science lab kits and a couple of electronic kits of some kind. Not sure just how great this will be in the end but I am giving it a shot anyway.

I thought that eBay had let me down.  But I was able to buy a set of electronics kits for a nice price. I will continue to search for more things to teach.

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