What happened on the day you were born?
January 25, 2008 by admin · 4 Comments
Ever wondered what is significant about your birthday? Or what happened on the day, or year you were born? It used to be, parents saved newspapers from their kids birthdays, newspapers that yellowed, smelled musty and were all to easily lost forever in some obscure box in the attic.
Nowadays, all you have to do is head over to the Internet.
My favorite of all these when-you-were-born sites is this one, from a site called The People History. It’s organized by decade, by year and various subjects and even has video. Pick a year and there are all sorts of interesting facts… and old newsreel videos of the most momentous events that happened that year.
A site called Pro Genealogists has a nifty free feature that has you input your birthdate and it returns events that happened on that specific day and year, as well as famous people who died or share your birthday.
Finally, here’s the Kakorama site that tells you what song was number One on the day you were born as well as what was on Time Magazine’s cover, popular movies and cool inventions.
10 Megapixel Digital camera breaks $200 price barrier
January 18, 2008 by admin · 3 Comments
When it comes to digital photography, more is always better when it comes to megapixels. And just in time for the holiday season some the first point and shoot camera to pack a whopping 10 megapixels of quality into a price package well under $200.
It’s the DXG-110.
It’s a very compact little unit that takes some amazingly crisp and clear images. That’s what 10 megapixels will do for you and his easy-to-operate camera comes in at just $169. It has a large 2.5″ high-resolution color screen, 3X Optical/4X Digital Zoom, the ability to grab video with sound, digital voice recording function, and 32MB of built-in internal flash memory, with more available through a an SD card slot.
The flash does a nice job in getting the proper exposure and it comes with all the cables you need to be able to move it to your computer or TV.
Digital photography just keeps getting better and better… quality wise and price wise. I really like the DXG-119… available online and at most electronics and photo stores.
Meanwhile, here’s a link I found for a free report on how to take better digital photos.
GPS system shoot-out
January 11, 2008 by admin · 3 Comments
One of the hottest gifts for technology fans these days is a GPS system… a Global Positioning Satellite navigation gizmo for the car that delivers voice commands and on-screen maps to tell you where to go. I’ve been busy testing out four of them.
They are: The Garmin nuvi 760 ($749.99), the Magellan Maestro 4250 ($499), the OnStar turn-by-turn Navigation service for GM vehicles ($299 for a year’s service) and VZ Navigator, a $9.99 a month or $2.99 a day GPS system that works with the Verizon Wireless Phone service.
These prices, by the way, are suggested retail You can find much better pricing by searching online.
All of these got me where I needed to go, albeit on a couple of occasions by different routes. The Garmin and Magellan units are powered by a battery, charged with a cigarette plug or AC adapter and are meant to be mounted on the dash or windshied.
Verizon’s works on the phone and is as good as the big boys, though the tiny phone screen makes it hard to read while driving.
My favorite?
It is a toss up between the Magellan and OnStar.
OnStar is least intrusive, least distracting and the easiest to us . With OnStar there’s no punching in addresses or going from screen to screen. Just ask a real love OnStar advisor for the address and there it is, downloaded to your car radio complete with an arrow display showing which way to turn.
But for Maps, I liked the Magellan.
Here’s my video:
