by Jen Fife

Thanksgiving will come and go on Thursday, and everyone knows what that signifies: the beginning of the holiday shopping season! Sure, you could wake up before dawn on Black Friday and wander through huge crowds hunting for bargains, but there is a better way: let the internet help you.

2008 Black Friday Ads maintains an up-to-date list of Black Friday ads as well as a strategy guide for truly devoted shoppers.

SlickDeals.net provides up-to-date information about bargains and also offers coupons for electronic items.

Forbes offers a list of the top 15 Black Friday bargains.

PriceProtectr sends email alerts if the price of an item you purchase drops within 30 days of your original purchase. If the store where you bought the item has a price match guarantee, you may be able to take the receipt and proof of the lower price to the store and be refunded the difference.

These sites should prove to be helpful tools for your holiday shopping.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

by Graham Ricks

With the holidays fast approaching, people are beginning the search for the perfect gift. Our nation’s most prolific shopping day, Black Friday, is a week away. Stores have already begun stocking for this shopping rush. Each year we hear more elaborate stories of people camping out overnight for a Tickle Me Elmo doll, or the newest game console, but with the use of the internet you no longer have to worry about fighting those long lines and sitting in hours of traffic.

Cyber Monday has brought holiday shopping into the 21st century. For those of you who have not heard of Cyber Monday, this is the name given to the Monday after Thanksgiving. Instead of fighting people for the last toy on the shelf, many people have decided to do all of their shopping online, and most people tend to do it while at work and behind their computer. Below are a few tips to follow when doing online shopping.

* First of all, make sure you are dealing with a reputable online retailer. This time of year a lot of websites pop up hoping to catch unsuspecting shoppers giving out their credit card numbers for a seemingly good deal. If you stick to larger retailers like Buy.com, Overstock.com, or even EBay’s Shopping.com you have less to worry about than if you shop at a generic internet discount store.

* Make sure that any page you submit any personal information to begins with https://. If the web page address does not begin with this, DO NOT ENTER PERSONAL INFORMATION. The “s” in the address indicates that the page is secure; if the “s” is not there your information could be captured by an outside source looking to steal your identity.

* Look for logos on the site from groups like TRUSTe or VeriSign. These are companies whose business is to verify the legitimacy of other websites. They look at things like how long the company has been in existence, customer surveys and the amount of internet traffic they receive. Making sure a website is verified by TRUSTe or VeriSign will ensure a more pleasant shopping experience.

If you follow these guidelines for online shopping safety, you are going to insure that you have a pleasant and safe holiday shopping experience.

Happy and Safe Computing!

by Jen Fife

Thanksgiving is coming up next week, and a Google search will generate many websites oozing with turkey-day suggestions. Below are a few nifty sites to enhance your Thanksgiving experience.

Thanksgiving involves many kitchen appliances, but if you have no idea where to start in the Thanksgiving Extravaganza you’ve decided to host for your friends, try the Food Network. This website will provide you with menus, recipes, and even step-by-step instructions.
www.foodnetwork.com/thanksgiving/package/index.htm

Meat centered dishes abound this time of year, but what if you’re trying to stick to your newly declared vegetarian lifestyle? Look no further than Vegetarian Kitchen. The site provides meat-free recipes for salads, main courses, stuffing, side dishes, and desserts.
http://vegkitchen.com/recipes/vegetaria ... giving.htm

After dinner is over and you just want to take a nap, it’s always a good idea to pop in a movie. This website provides a list of great movies for Thanksgiving Day, along with little blurbs about why the movies are so fabulous.
www.springfieldlibrary.org/reading/thanksgivingmovies.html

You will very likely have massive quantities of food left over from Thanksgiving Day, but why throw it away? Use the recipes from Mr. Breakfast to turn your leftovers into body and brain fuel for your Black Friday escapades!
www.mrbreakfast.com/thanksgiving/asp

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Break!

by Joni Meadows

Everybody uses a camera these days, whether to take pictures of friends or to capture a beautiful landscape. No matter the reason, cameras are a universal product that is created for everybody to use.

Photography companies like Nikon, Sony, Canon, and other camera manufacturers are always upgrading their latest products to suit the evolving requests of potential buyers. With each new product, they promise several factors such as better picture quality, easier use, higher resolution, or other special features like zoom or video capabilities. Each camera is different to better suit a person’s interests. For example, someone wanting to carry their camera around with them may want a handheld camera, while someone with a desire to make a profession out of photography would want something more complex. Cameras have come a long way since the camera obscura, the very first camera where a person stood behind a curtain and traced out a person's picture, by being able to take pictures at a much faster rate, with better looking photos, and becoming much more convenient.

To choose which camera would best fit your needs means to start looking at different manufacturer’s websites and go to your nearest electronics store. If you’re looking for a brand new and fun method of showing off your pictures, the new Nikon Coolpix S60 might be for you. It’s small and lightweight, comes in several fun colors, and is even shown in a commercial with Ashton Kutcher. The LCD screen on the back is touch-sensitive and when viewing your photos, you can flip through them with a swipe of your finger. But what if you’re looking for more of a professional camera that concentrates more on quality than quantity? These cameras are usually bulkier, have detachable lenses, and have more manual settings than compared to the smaller point-and-clicks. But these are only digital camera options. Maybe you would rather develop your own photos or just stick with the camera on your phone? There is no right or wrong camera because they all come out with the same result: your memories captured on film.

by Jen Fife

Children are an infinite wellspring of energy. This little fact can be unnerving. But what if that energy could be applied usefully? New York based Saber Technical intends to find out.

Saber has developed green playground technology in the form of systems that use children’s energy to create electricity. The most common equipment being used seems to be the merry-go-round. Children run around it to generate electricity, and they are rewarded by flashing lights if they run fast enough.

Green merry-go-rounds are in place on many private-school playgrounds in the United States, and many universities are following Saber’s lead and their various science students are replicating such technology. A group of Brigham Young University students have already installed an electricity-producing merry-go-round in a small village in Ghana that provides electricity for the small school located there.

Saber tech is hoping to start sister programs for their donated playground technology in India, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The company also has projects in the works that hope to improve living and educational conditions in various countries using their kid power playgrounds.

by Graham Ricks

You cannot walk into an office in this country without seeing some form of modern technology. The technological advances we have made in the past few years allowed for tasks to be accomplished quickly and easily. Some of the more mainstream advances are:
• Computers made it vastly simpler to type up a document, by eliminating typewriter ribbons and adding the ease of backspace.
• PDAs and smart phones have basically combined your cell phone and computer into one small mobile device, essentially putting your office in your pocket.
• Email made it possible to send a “letter” to someone in mere seconds.

All of these advances have made it possible to begin working before you arrive at work. In days past business deals may have taken weeks or even months to complete. With the help of the technology around us, these same deals can be negotiated in a matter of hours.

During the past few months there has been a big push towards a new technology that will drastically change meetings and travel as we know them. TelePresence from Cisco offers companies the ability to have meeting across the globe with real-time response. This means if you need to have a meeting with a colleague in Tokyo but you are in Chicago all you have to do is sit down at the TelePresence conference table and start the meeting. The one drawback is the $600,000 price tag. The 3 screen TelePresence 3000 costs $300,000 per installation, and of course you need 2 installations. Cisco does offer a single screen model for just under $80,000 per installation. With those kinds of price tags only large corporations could afford to use the TelePresence technology, right? Not exactly. The newest advance is called TelePresence Public. Companies are purchasing TelePresence systems and making them pay-per-use. One hour in front of a single screen model costs around $300, making the technology accessible to both large and small businesses. Now, instead of spending thousands of dollars to bring clients to your location you simply schedule a time to use a TelePresence Public system.

No matter what technology a business uses, whether it’s smart phones for employees or a TelePresence system, it helps to make tasks run much more smoothly and quickly than before.

Happy and Safe Computing!

by Jen Fife

Technology has no doubt been an invaluable resource in the workplace, but exactly what does so much instant access mean for productivity?

Email at one’s fingertips offers a never-ending distraction. Many workers feel the need to check their email several times a day, and not supplying a speedy reply to emails is frowned upon by many managers and coworkers. The next time you’re sitting at your desk, keep count of how many times you check your email in a 30 minute period—you may be surprised. But coworkers are distracting for many of today’s employees. While many may think walking across the hall to tell a coworker something face-to-face will reduce email distractions (and this is true) it will often lead to conversation that isn’t work related.

Handheld wireless devices such as the Blackberry, iPhone, and other cell phones are convenient for busy workers, but these items can become as addictive as checking email, especially if they are enabled with built in email functions.

Some common workplace distractions are as follows:
-e-mail
-crisis of the day
-personal interruptions
-changing priorities
-coworkers

While technology has provided workers with many invaluable resources, it hasn’t come without cost. It is estimated that American companies lose as much as 650 billion dollars a year as a result of workplace distractions (www.businessweek.com). The initial American attitude was “we can’t live without technology.” Now, it seems, the best thing for workplace productivity would be to break away from the technological phenomenon.

by Jen Fife

Technology impacts almost all areas of American life, and not even the presidential election can escape the clutches of technology. But how deeply is technology impacting this election and the public’s view of the candidates?

The availability of the Internet as a campaign tool allows candidates to reach more people and raise unparalleled amounts of money for their respective campaigns. So many voters having the internet at their fingertips allows them 24/7 access to any and all information about the candidates. However, anyone can make a web page or publish content to sites such as Wikipedia, so voters should be weary of information they are exposed to online. It is best to stick to each candidate’s official website.

Informational websites are not the only form of media influencing the election. Possibly the most popular videos floating around youtube (and various other sites) are the Saturday Night Live skits featuring all of the candidates, particularly the ones containing Tina Fey’s rendition of Governor Sarah Palin. Many people argue that these skits will negatively influence the outcome of Tuesday’s election due to voters considering the actors and politicians as one in the same.

The best voters are well informed. By this point many minds are made up, but there is a wealth of information floating around for anyone who is still undecided.

Have a safe Fall Break, and don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 4th!

by April Patriarca

Halloween is here once more; time for ghouls and goblins to come out from their hiding places. It is time for us to turn our houses into Dracula’s castle! Here are some simple tech gadgets that are perfect for turning houses into haunted havens.

A fog machine is a perfect gadget to give the impression that something is lurking around! A thick layer of fog floating around will surely give that eerie touch to any spot. A small fog machine can reach $29.00 to $69.00; this will surely terrify trick-or-treaters trying to get through lawns with thick layers of fog floating about. Nothing beats the good ol’ sound of storm; the thunder and lightning machine is another tech gadget to help in the transformation of a home. Thunder and lightning machines will give you a realistic impression of a storm—the loud thunder is certain to make a few spines tingle amongst your treat-seeking guests. A thunder and lightning machine can range between $15.00 to $52.99. A cobweb in a can is a very realistic and convenient way to create spider webs around the house, giving the sense of Dracula’s ancient castle inside your own home. The price for a cobweb can range from $5.99 to $50.99, depending on how big your home is, and how many you need to truly deck it out. Just add small spiders for decoration to complete the transformation, and your living room creeps into Dracula’s lounge.

Another alternative for less expensive fog would be using dry ice to imitate the fog. Dry ice is solidified carbon dioxide that, when melted, turns condensed water vapor and carbon dioxide into a thick layer of cloudy fog. This alternative is a lot cheaper; a pound of dry ice can range between $1.00 to $3.00, depending on the place of purchase. A less expensive way to make thunder would be creating a CD mix of a storm, or a Halloween CD with mixes of thunder, and just put it in repeat. Unfortunately, there isn’t a cheap an alternative in making lightning or a cobweb that will not cost more, or would require an extensive amount of labor. I’m wishing everyone a Happy Halloween and to stay safe!

Here are some websites where you can get the listed items at an inexpensive price:
www.halloweenexpress.com
www.frightcatalog.com

by Graham Ricks

Halloween is coming up and when I think of Halloween I think of monsters, and when I think of monsters I think of aliens, and when I think of aliens I think of mind control devices. I don’t know if the aliens have arrived yet but devices that get into your head sure have.

A new form of audio technology is allowing sound to be projected into your head, and you may not be able to avoid it. Holosonic Research Labs (http://www.holosonics.com/) has a form of audio technology they are calling audio spotlight. This new form of speaker allows one to place audio in a very small area using ultrasound waves. This allows the user to project sound to a particular person without anyone else around them hearing it.

This idea was first thought of by the U.S. Army for projecting voices into the heads of enemies, possibly in order drive them insane. Now it is being used for advertising. In Soho New York a billboard stands prompting passersby to view a particular television show, but that’s not all it does. Thanks to audio spotlight technology, people passing through a small section of the street hear a voice tell them to tune in to the show, which is creepy considering it is advertising Paranormal State, a ghost related reality show on A&E.

While many people are objecting to not having a choice of being submitted to this cranial penetration, it has some very handy uses. Several museums around the world are using the invention of Holosonic Research Labs to allow users to hear about individual exhibits without disturbing others, a preferred alternative to those goofy headphones. There have also been reports of cafes using these speakers to allow people in different parts of the café to hear different music.

Audio spotlight is the new means of getting audio to the people and it is becoming more widely spread everyday. If you like the thought of subliminal audio check out Holosonics website, but if you don’t like the idea of sound being broadcast into your skull you might want to make yourself an aluminum foil helmet and prepare for the invasion.

Safe and Happy Listening!