AA Blog

This past Christmas I gave a digital photo frame as gifts to my parents. I think this was the best things they received.

This digital picture frame was loaded full of pictures of their grandchildren over the past year. I see my mom going thru the digital frame she would a conventional photo album. The cool thing is that the pictures change randomly and all day long so every time you walk passed it the chances are you will see a new picture. Being that my parents are senior citizens, I thought this technology may be a little challenging for them, but I was wrong. The digital photo frames are very easy to use. You simply turn it on or off and there are buttons to manually go forward or back and pause. In addition, there is a wide array of sizes you can choose from ranging from smaller 7 inch frames up to large 15 inch frames. There are also all kinds of designs and colors available to choose from. You can probabbly find anything to match whatever it is you are looking for….from classic wood finishes to more modern looking frames. In other words, you can find any style for any taste and any age!!! Im telling you, you can not go wrong with this. Either as a gift or something for you to use.

I think the cool part is that because you can store so many photos on the digital frame, you can actually be reminded of the good times you have had and remember things, events and people that made you feel good.

I liked the digital frames so much that I ended up buying 5 more. Have one at the house, one at the office and three more available to give out as last minute type of gifts.

I have often wondered how people that have bad credit loans get out of the mess they are in….Its a catch 22 situation in that they can not get more credit, but without it they are very hard pressed to get out of the credit debt they are in. In addition to this, creditors or credit card companies seem to prey on these types of people and offer them credit products that sound good and have a low interest for a very short time and kick in with high interest at a later time.

There is a solution….

This site allows consumers to compare bad credit loans offers from a number of different sources and providers.  It allows the consumer to have a true understanding of what it is they are getting into and what the differing terms and rates are being offered by different credit card companies.  This is a very important tool for financial security and freedom from debt.  Bad credit needs to be addressed and resolved ASAP.  And this site will allow you to take a step in the right direction!!!

I found a site where you can now play instant bingo directly in your browser. There’s no need to download any software. It’s free, easy, and you can start playing immediately.  I tried it and its a lot of fun.  By playing online bingo, you get to meet a lot of new and interesting people and at the same time have a relaxing activity where you don’t have to use your brain (too much anyway).

The site offer a number of bingo games for you to choose from.  They range from your traditional bingo game to more updated versions like 90 ball bingo, 75 ball bingo and instant bingo.  You should try each one of these games to see what the differences are.  But they all do have one thing in common.  They are all loads of fun to play.  Im telling you, you will start and not be able to stop.

So, if you want to have some fun on the computer and not have to install apps, play bingo!!!

OMG….How many times have you been asked for pc help with a friend’s or family member’s computer? I cant begin to tell you how frustrating that becomes. Once you help them, you somehow become their exclusive IT Support!!!!

But I have found a solution….read on…..

BT is a company that offers Home IT Support. Just refer the people that ask you for help to them. They offer Phone Support for things like support with printers, cameras, set-up and more, Hints and tips and they let you watch them as they fix things, and they even offer in home face to face support for things like full PC health check and installing secure wireless networks, etc. They even offer computer repair services!!!

Thanks to BT’s service offerings I am no longer in the computer repair business!!! I refer people to BT and walk away from the whole thing!!

Found a website where I can backup and store my local files for safekeeping. I have tons and tons of personal files which include, pictures, family videos, mp3’s, tax documents, etc.. it was becoming a pain to back them up on DVD’s and even external hard drives. The biggest problems I was dealing with was cataloging the files and accessing them when I needed to. Having them on other types of media prevented me from getting to them quickly because I had to go find the right one and look thru it to find what I needed. Now, with BT, I upload them to their website and can access them ANYTIME and from ANY PC.
With this service, my files are protected, I can run Automatic Backups and Share my files with ease.
The other cool thing about this Digital Vault service, is that I can access my files for work in progress projects from any computer. I dont have to carry thumb drives or CD’s. All of my files are on their site for me to download and work on them from anywhere. This comes in really handy with pictures. I can share them at a moments notice and show them to people from any PC.

Check them out at BT digital vault service

Tags: DigitalVault, Online file backup

In designing and developing webpages, I am often asked to incorporate email marketing tools within the sites I build.   Well, I found a site that offer these types of tools& features and even more….

iContact is the best option out there for anyone who wants to send out email newsletters. They have great inbox deliverability, an extremely easy to use interface, great prices that start at $9.95 per month, lots of templates, and also include surveying, autoresponder, and blogging capability from the same application at no additional charge.

The application available allow small businesses, non-profits organizations, and associations to easily communicate online with their customers, prospects, and members.

They have an easy to use interface and over 300 professionally-designed email templates. The application allows you to track the opens and clickthroughs on your emails, add a sign-up form to your web site, segment your list, and manage your subscribers.  They will even take care of managing bounces and unsubscribes for you. In addition, they also take care of making sure your message gets to the inbox of your recipients through their ISP relations, feedback loops, and whitelist status. If you are currently running into deliverability issues with your existing newsletter sending method, iContact will be very helpful and ensure inbox delivery of your messages.  I cant begin to tell you the horror stories I have heard about developers doing things like this on their own from scratch.  The last thing you want to have happen is to get black-listed by your ISP for spamming.

This is definitely the tool that will make your life easier and make you look like a champ in the eyes of your clients.

I found the perfect site to get gifts for for co-workers and people  I know.  I can get all kinds of laptop skins from SkinIt.com.

They have a wide variety of skins for almost any kind of laptop imaginable.   They have sport themes, music themes, art themes, urban themes and you can even upload and create your own design.  They are all priced very reasonably and even easier to put on.  You simply peel and stick…and thats it.  Their designs are really cool and they give your laptop a brand  new look.  These are so cool that I have bought 4 just for me…I plan on re-skinning my laptop every couple of months.

Now, not only do these guys have laptop skins, but also skins for almost any device, like phones, pdas, MP3 players, etc…

Their site is really easy to navigate and very user friendly.   And, one of the best things is that they are always adding new designs.  Definitely something to bookmark.

More and more I am asked to create sites that accommodate shopping cart technology and ecommerce software.  I have gotten tired of creating these features from scratch and incorporating them into what I build.  So, after some searching, I was able to find a company that offer hosted chopping cart software.  This means all I have to do is integrate their technology into the sites that I create.  This makes my job easier and faster, which means I can collect faster.  The tools provided by this hosted shopping cart software vendor are intuitive yet powerful.  They allow for a multiplicity of options and are feature rich.  They offer great customer support and are able to answer any and all questions you may have and they provide the total solution.

Some of the other things they offer are:

1. TECH SUPPORT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
2. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZED STRUCTURE
3. EASY SOLUTIONS
4. AFFORDABLE SHOPPING CART SOLUTIONS
5. CUSTOMIZABLE DESIGNS

Im just glad I found them and I now use them regularly.

A few years back, some buddies and I created an investment company and started investing in real estate in the UK.  We started out with one property and had one single mortgage to worry about.  Since then we have re-invested in the real estate and now have 3 mortgages to deal with.  I hadn’t realized that having a UK mortgage would be just as beneficial as having a mortgage in the states in terms of tax purposes.

I mean investing in real estate is just as easy in the UK as it is here in the states…all we did was get mortgage quotes, compared them and went with the best mortgage deals.

It really is true that real estate investing is the same everywhere…

Now that our home renovation project is in full swing, we have moved on to the bathroom.  Namely, the bathroom plumbing fixtures.  We looked at moen showhouse faucets, devonshire faucets and aberdeen faucets.

All three had great designs and all the fixtures were reasonably priced .  There was a lot to consider in making the decision of what to finally buy and install.  Because we have 2 boys, ages 8 and 4, we had to consider the following:

1. 1.        Durability – our kids would not be so gentle in using these fixtures.  We had to make sure that they would last in spite of being used very rigorously.
2. 2.       Usability – We also had to consider how easy it would be to turn the faucets on and off (again the kid factor)
3. 3.       Safety – We had to make sure that the faucets we chose for the shower and tub would have safety features, or at least make it difficult to turn on the hot water (yup, the kid factor comes into play yet again)
4. 4.       Style – Lastly we had to consider the look and design of the fixtures.  With the varying tastes of the members of my family this actually turned out to be the most challenging part.  There are so many models and designs to choose from that every day something else seemed to look better.

After about a week of looking at catalogs, visiting showrooms, hardware stores and doing research we finally decided on the kohler devonshire faucets.

We had the fixtures installed in our two bathrooms.  The installation was actually much easier than I had anticipated.  They fit well, look terrific and work great.  Now that we are don with the bathroom fixtures I think the kitchen will probably be next the next remodeling project we will take on.