Build an inexpensive Vista PC for $500 – revisited
About a year ago I wrote a pretty successful article (it got Dugg over 1000 times and I still get traffic via search engines) and I’ve decided to revisit this article and update it a bit with fresh hardware. In a year, memory and processors got cheaper, so I will be including these in this new build. This time, we will be building the computer for about $500 (without tax) with Vista Home Premium included. I don’t get into the specific of building the machine itself because there are plenty of guides out there, like these from...
read moreFree teeth whitening in exchange for 15 minutes of work
Normally, I wouldn’t be blogging about my last visit to the dentist’s office (still no cavities, yay!) but I just had to due to outcome of the visit. I had an appointment for just a general checkup and cleaning. While the doc was taking x-rays he asked me about my work and how I earned a living. I gave him the standard answer, which is something like, “I fix/build computers, servers and I do networking. I also design and develop websites”. It was then that he decided to share with me his computer issues there at his...
read moreService reviewed: Relakks
Relakks is a VPN connection provider based in Sweden, that allows you to mask your internet activity. Why would anyone want/need such a service? Simple: privacy. Relakks doesn’t keep any records since it is not required to and will only hand information (such as an email address) to authorities if, and ony if, a crime punishable by 2 years in jail has been committed. I came across Relakks because I wanted to stream a couple of TV channels from JumpTV that are not available in the US because of licencing restrictions. My logic there was...
read moreNew posts on DigitaWiseGuy
I’ve written 4 new posts over at DigitalWiseGuy, the ultimate source of tech info as I like to call it. - Form-shifting mouse. A new concept of a computer mouse that can be molded instanty into any shape the user desires - New Sony Full HD Projector – Details on very-capable HD projector by Sony announced and soon to be available. - Water-resistant Digital Camera by Minox – perfect for the outdoors - ShakeMMS – an app developed for the Symbian platform that utilizes the Nokia S60′s accelerometer to read text...
read moreMy home network, part II: the server
This is the second part of the “my home network” series. In case you missed the first part, you can find it here. I will focus mainly on my server setup. To recap, all my files (pictures, documents, music, videos, etc) are stored on my server. This server is an old HP Proliant LC3 with a 500 MHz Pentium III processor, 512 MB of RAM and two 36 GB SCSI drives. This machine has been proven to be very reliable (its been running for 112 days now non-stop), as it sits on a closet outside in my balcony. I did have to run ethernet cabling...
read moreI've started a new blog…here's how.
I did it. I bought a nice domain name (did I?), I set up WordPress and a new theme and I’ve setup a new blog for my girlfriend. She’s a behavior therapist that works with autistic children and I thought that the premise of a blog from the perspective of a therapist would be interesting. There is quite an extensive network of autism-related blogs out there, but most are from the perspective of the parents of autistic children. Check out the site at http://autismchronicles.com. After setting up the new blog, I thought that the...
read moreNew client – new challenge
I got a call last week from the owner a real estate company, who was referred to me by my largest and oldest client. I had a meeting with the him last week, where he gave me quick tour of the office, introduced me to his employees and showed me his (quite frankly, chaotic) network. I explained the services I offer and he then committed to a service plan where they will get a scheduled weekly visit, unlimited phone/remote support and one unscheduled emergency visits for a reasonable (in my opinion) monthly fee, which is the way all my...
read moreMy home network, part I
I want to share the way my home network is setup because it works for me, and I might give you ideas as to how to set up yours. My data is very valuable to me and I will also share with you how I protect and access it from (almost) anywhere. A hard drive failed on me about 5 years ago and my data (music, documents, videos, photos…etc) was lost forever. I did manage to get a few files back from online/CD backups, but for the most part, I lost the files and I couldn’t afford thousands of $$ on professional recovery. First, I will...
read moreMy 1st website review
I’ve decided to review a website to generate a bit more traffic to my blog. But first, let me give you a bit of background on how I found the site I’m about to review: I came across TylerCruz.com thanks to a suggestion by Google Reader (you know, “Top Recomendations” area on the top right), and after reading a couple of his posts, I decided to become a subscriber. I have found numerous quality sites thanks to Google’s recommendations in the past. Then I came across this post where he reviews blogs that review...
read moreMore clear objectives for this blog
I’ve been reading lots of other blogs, specifically blogs about blogging (hold on, that is not redundant) and the reason why I’ve been doing this is because I want to increase the readership of this blog and potentially monetize. After doing this bit of research I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to define a couple of elements: 1. A Business Plan: as John Chow explains, one needs a defined business plan, and more specifically, one needs a goal defined over a time-period. Based on this, my goal is to have 300 RSS...
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