All Posts by Paul

After Holiday Inventory — What you should know and why!

Paul

After Christmas is time to relax!

So you’ve given you family some technology gadget for Christmas and you really didn’t research it.  It always seems to happen that way.  We’re so excited we found something that we think will do the job.   I know all about this because my extended family seems to want to give these types of gifts to my kids and their own.  So here is a quick breakdown on what I’ve observed over the last few days and what seemed to worked and what didn’t.

  • Kindle Fire HD 7′ [Affiliate Link]– So my sister got one of her kids this and I must say she wasn’t happy.   Here are a few things you need to worry about.   Easily remove parental controls without a password, and no wall charger for it.  Seems kind of useless to give to kids right now.
  • Paper Jams Pro Guitar [Affiliate Link]– My kid got this one, but It isn’t really that good.   I don’t think it sounds anything like a guitar but it does work really well to entertain my kids.  I personally would of wanted something a little more authentic but it does the job.  
  • Nintendo DS Lite [Affiliate Link]– This is one of the ones that I bought my kids and knew they’d play this very much.   It wasn’t easy to find the games they liked but if you search around you should have a lot of success like I did.  Worth the money I paid for it, keeps my kids happy.
  • Cricket Phone [Affiliate Link]– I have talked about Cricket Wireless in the past but recently they are being available in my local area.  I might go back to them if it looks to be more reliable.  I’ve loved them in the past but it seems to be a good choice for my daughter even if I didn’t think she was ready for it.
  • Skywriter UFO [Affiliate Link]– Great little helicopter for my 7 year old.   He loves to fly this helicopter around and write out messages.  It was worth the money to buy this little beauty.   It probably won’t last long but it as least is being used and flown around the house.

So this was my quick breakdown on the electronics that worked and what you should be careful in your future buys.   I’ll be talking with my other sisters about what they gave their kids and will report back later.   It however is just luck what works with my kids, as it probably does with your kids.   So I just wanted to tell you my experiences and let you decide what they might want to get for their birthdays or next year when it comes to buying gifts.

Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2013!!

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affilaite Link

 

 

Looking for that Special Someone through Dating Sites!

Paul

I Want You to Want Me

Dating Sites and You!

I’ve recently told you about a few dating sites, and I wanted to talk about my experiences.  Some of the sites that I’ve tried are:

 

  • Christian Mingle — I’ve got my own profile and everything.   I personally have tried this site for several weeks.
  • Plenty of Fish — This is a good site for people who are wanting to chat for free.
  • Zoosk — Another site that you can use to find that perfect someone.  I just didn’t like the fact that you can look but not chat or even message people without buying a subscription.

 

These are just a few of the sites that you could visit if you are looking for that special someone.  I’ve been trying these sites few a months and I’m really am hoping I’d find that special someone.

Elizabeth Gallagher where are you?

I’ve calling out my readers to see if you can help find this person    I know there are people out there that are hopeless romantics but I saw this girl on Christian Mingle and also Zoosk.  Her Profile on one of the sites is quite interesting.  She’s a blogger and I’m a blogger also, this would be one of the many things we have in common.   Maybe even have something to do together, she could talk about sports and I’ll talk about the technology behind the sports.  It would be a glorious place for fans of sports to understand it. 

I’m hoping she gets word of this post and comes looking herself.   I know I’ve tried to contact her through the site and not had any luck with her.   I’m not sure if the spam system is blocking my attempts or what so I thought I’d be bold and do something that is totally outside of my comfort zone.   If you know her or her blog make sure to give her my site and tell her to check it out.   If you want also make sure she gets the blog post in question.   

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

 

Facebook Security and You — Why you Should update your privacy Settings!

Paul

Facebook Privacy and You!

Privacy for Facebook!

Who needs them? Your probably asking.  I know I am not one to preach about privacy but that doesn’t mean you need to worry less about your privacy on Facebook.   It just means you have to be more vigilant 

Every so often Facebook likes to update their privacy settings and not tell you.   Either to add a privacy setting or take one way, more likely than not it is to try to keep you from being private but that is where you need to constantly be checking to see if you need to do something or check something in your privacy settings!

Check List for Facebook Privacy!

  • How you Connect [See Above] — This little one is good for people who don’t want to have people constantly requesting them.  So if you are over sensitive to your privacy and security you should limit who can be friend you, look you up, or Send you a Facebook Message!
  • Timeline Tagging [See Above] — Figure out what you want to allow.  I know of friend who has made the choice to approve all tags of her from going public without her intervention.  I did the same thing because of my Ex-wife, she seems to be angry with me right now so I will not approve a tag unless it’s true.  
  • Ads, Apps, and website [See Above] — occasionally, you will have a lot of apps wanting to control what you do on Facebook.   I usually try to do a little Spring cleaning of Facebook apps every so often and this area is where you do it.  It also lets you personalize what gets thrown your way.
  • Block People and Apps [See Above] — You know you have those annoying people who just won’t stop harassing you.  So this is where you go to block them or unblock them.  You can also block certain apps or you can choice to unblock certain app requests.  Great little tool to keep your privacy safe from stalkers and other people!

The last part of this Privacy kick is who sees your posts, is it just friends or everyone.   You can change that here also whenever you decide you want more or less people to see your posts.   It however only go into effect when you start posting again.   All old posts are either only friends or public, so make you choice wisely.   You can however change that later on by going back and editing all your posts to what you want them to be either public or Private although you do that with each and every post so it will take some time.

I wanted to share some way to keep your privacy safe, I’ve not shown you everything but some beginner steps you will have to do become more privacy conscience.  You however should check it out every so often to see if Facebook decided to give you more options or to make sure nothing has change.  I try to do it every month but it is just me!  I hope this post helped you get back some of your privacy and keep your profile from prying eyes.

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

 

 

Christmas Gift List for 2012 : How to Shop for the Geek in all of Us!

Paul

Christmas Is around the Corner!

I know I did a good little post on what your significantant other might want on Christmas last year.  I thought I would update you a list of what they might want this year so you can be looking into getting them that special gift that will make any Geek happy!   This won’t be a complete list but it will be a list to remember and maybe even come back to when it is their birthday!

Simple Stuff!

It isn’t the things that make it hard but always look for the simple things life that brings the most joy.   I am going to demostrate this by giving out a few good simple gifts that will make any geek happy, whether they are male or female.   Nothing has to be expensive but it has to come from the heart!

 

  • Doctor Who [Affiliate Link]— If they are a Doctor Who Fan this would be a very simple gift idea for them.   Anything Doctor Who will make you an instant favorite in their eyes and it doesn’t have to be expensive just something that they can use time and time again.
  • Big Bang Theory [Affiliate Link]— Here is another  favorite of mine and thus it might be theirs also.  You don’t have to be picky about it just know that if you pick from the year you are more likely to make them smile.
  • Walking Dead [Affiliate Link] — I’ve not really watched this show but I do have people I work with who talk about it constantly so it must be a good show.  If he likes this show then you might want to head on over and find something to compliment the telivision show.

 

The are only a few ideas but they might work for your man/woman in your life.   Now I know I talked about tablets last year but I do recommend the A200 to A500 Series of the Acers Myself.  They have been nothing but a pleasure to use to watch all my shows that I might ever want.

More Techy Stuff!

If your guy or girl is more tech savy, you might want to consider getting them something like a Roku or even a Netflix Gift card but it just depends on what you want to accomplish.  If your know who your shopping for then you can always figure out what they are looking for.   If I tell you to buy something and am wrong then you will no doubt blame me but if I give some suggestions then you are the one who blame because you didn’t listen to your other half as well as you should.   

I will not give you any major gift ideas because that is something you should do but I do hope this helps you guide you in the right direction.

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

Google Play Movies & TV : What needs to fixed!

Paul

Google Play and You!

It hasn’t been long since I’ve moved from Amazon to Google Play, but there seems to be something that needs to fixed.   I’m going to talk about some of the things that Google needs to do and possibly help you out in the same process!  I won’t say that I regret the process but there are a few things that could be changed and also fixed.   I’m really am hoping that someone reads this and implements these changes in Google and thus making for a better user experience for everyone.   

Show’s don’t show up automatically!

When I buy a season on Google Play for shows, it doesn’t show up.  I have to clear the cache for the Acer a200 to be able to download the newest episode(s).  

 

1. Visit Menu > Settings > Apps
2. Tab over to “All”
3. Select the Play Store app, and then tap “Clear cache” and “Clear data”
Please note that after clearing the Google Play Store app data, if you have set a PIN code and/or a content filter, you’ll need to re-apply these settings
[Google Play]
This seems to be a lot of trouble everytime you have a new episode that comes out.  I waited a full 24 hours before contacting them about the next episode, so I know that if the app is going to check for new updates it should of done so in the 24 hour period.  It didn’t, and I had to do those steps to download the next episode to my tablet.   
It would be nice if Google play would clear the cache every 8 hours or so or when you load it up.   This is a failure on the part of Google to think about customers needs.   

Internal Memory and External Memory!

Something else that seems to be a problem is the ability to use the External SD card to put all my movies or shows on.   I bought a Sandisk Ultra 32 Gb Micro SD card [Affiliate Link] for that one reason, to be able to use it to keep my shows on when I download them.  Google doesn’t use this card and keeps all my movies and shows on the internal memory card because it think it is the external Memory card.   It sees it as the sdcard and not anything else.   The External Memory is consider is considered External SD on the tablet and thus nothing will be put on it.  
It would be nice to use the tablet the way I want and not the way they want me to use it.   I have been looking for ways to fix this and if I find one, my readers will be the first to know but I am hoping Google reads this post and fixes these two major problems that I’ve seen so far.   
Do you know of something that needs to be fixed with Google Play and you want my help, you can always Contact me and tell me what the problem and maybe I will talk about it on my website.

Paul Sylvester