It’s really sad when I get gas for $2.82 a gallon and think, “Gee, that’s cheap!” But when you consider that just a few months ago, I was paying $1 more a gallon, yeah, anything under $3 looks good to me. The dropping gas prices are the only thing positive I can find about the current state of the economy. Unemployment is SO high in my country, and I’m feeling lucky to have a job when I see so many people out of work and struggling. Even geeks, who usually have no problem finding work, are getting laid off right and left as...

I get emailed press releases every single day asking me to write about some new geeky gadget or tool. I turn down 99% of those offers, mostly for a lack of time. (I’m also afraid of taking a free review version of a product, finding it stinks, and having someone freak when I post a negative review…ha!) The folks at a new site called Gadget Advisor have no fear though! Instead of blogging about every new tool that crosses their desk, they only blog about the best of the best, handpicking from whatever floats their collective boat that day....

All of the bloggers I know online have felt the pinch from the economy. The money isn’t flowing around the internet as freely as it used to! Most of the folks I’ve talked to who are receiving “stimulus” checks from the IRS are planning on stimulating their bills with the money. Times are only going to get tighter, and those of us who are used to making money online will continue to feel the pinch. If your budget has taken a hit, now is a good time to investigate debt counseling online. Programs like debt analysis and credit repair...

Jim and I watched Family Guy last night, and it was the episode where James Woods seeks revenge on Peter by stealing his identity. Peter loses his wallet, and because James Woods has Peter’s social security card, drivers license, and the deed to his house, he’s able to move right in to Peter’s house. Absurd, of course, but funny. (Peter later gets revenge on James Woods by stealing HIS identity and going on David Letterman to promote a comedy about 9/11.) Identity theft is a real, and growing concern. I, like most of my neighbors and...

We’re on the verge of making big password changes at work for our system. Going forward, all passwords will need to have three of the following items: A capital letter A lower case letter A number A special symbol (*, &, $, etc) This is going to cause huge issues, because most of our users are…well, not technical people. They can’t even remember the simple passwords they’re choosing now, so when we break the news to them that their passwords have to change – well, people are going to be bent. It’s for a good reason...

I bought a new laptop recently (note to self: send rebate form in to get my $180 rebate!) and last night I finally got around to moving files from my old laptop to the new machine. It’s been a while since I switched laptops, and I had forgotten what a pain it is. I used one of those Belkin easy transfer cables to move everything, and that was simple, but I still had to download Firefox, and add in the extensions and add ons I use with it. When I did the Firefox install, one of the questions I was asked was what did I want my homepage to be? Because...

In another case of a company being afraid of a little competition, Experian (one of the three big credit bureaus) is attempting to block Lifelock from helping credit consumers. I’ve previously written about the great services offered by Lifelock on this blog, which include Lifelock creating fraud alerts on your behalf with the credit bureaus. Experian is trying to stop this, saying that current credit laws don’t allow for a third party to place a fraud alert on the behalf of a consumer. Hmm…why would Experian be trying to block this service,...

Just in case you’re a texting fool, Yahoo has put together a list of things you can do to protect your privacy while texting. I’m sure most of us don’t think of texts like we do emails – but text messages can be forwarded, and they are stored on your cell phone provider’s network. I’ll bet you didn’t know that text messages can be easily intercepted by anyone with a radio kit, and that it’s so easy to do, even Wal-Mart employees have figured it out! Treat texting like email – don’t send your PIN,...

I’ve returned to college this spring, and signed up for the first of what will be many online classes. It’s kind of amusing that I’m such an internet addict, yet in all my years of college, I’ve never taken an online class! I’m in the first week of statistics, and while there is some disconnect that occurs when you never meet your instructor or attend a lecture, I don’t mind at all. I’m saving time on commuting to the campus and sitting in a class trying to keep my eyes open. I can do all of my work at home and...

For whatever reason, when I got my new laptop from work, the IT guys didn’t install the calculator that comes with Windows. How the heck did that happen? I haven’t been able to spare the time to hand over my laptop to the IT guys to get it added, so I’ve been using cheesy free calculators online whenever I needed one. I just found out that the Google toolbar works with Firefox to give you a little free calculator utility, right in your browser! It even does square root functions, so I can use it for my statistics class.