This past weekend my daughter and I did some bonding over rummage sales. It is the first time I have been out early on a Saturday to shop through other people’s discarded items in a long time – I was excited. The thrill of going to rummage sales is you never know what you may find.

I blame the thrill of being a rummage sales for my purchase of a flat screen monitor. My cardinal rule about used electronics at rummage sales is to never buy them – unless you can test it. I went against my better judgment and bought the Dell monitor for $10. It was at least a church rummage sale – so I figured if it didn’t work, then I just donated money to them.

I got home and was able to test it. Sure enough, it doesn’t work. There is just a white screen which is apparently the way Dell monitors say “I don’t work anymore.” At least I can take it to Best Buy for recycling but will have to pay. At least I will get a gift card – so I will still be out my $10.

My first clue that something was wrong with the monitor was at the sale. There were no cords with it – like the monitor and just the monitor had been replaced by the previous owner. I knew I should have listened to myself – but I bought it anyway. I did get a great chair at a rummage sale that I will have to share later.

So when it comes to electronics at rummage sales, don’t buy unless you see it work. Even then do not pay a lot for it because with electronics, it may have some quirk that doesn’t show up until it’s been on for three hours straight – and really you definitely do not want to spend that long at one rummage sale testing something.

So – lesson learned again. Like I said, I think I was just excited to be at rummage sales and lost my head. Too bad my pocketbook paid the price – $10 can go pretty far at a rummage sale.

This weekend we bought a new desktop PC. This is a first for our household as we have always built out desktops. With the ever-changing technology and no real interest in learning about it, we opted to buy this time around. It has been six years since we updated our desktop computer.

The new computer runs faster, is sleeker, and is just prettier than our old one. The one issue with it is that it doesn’t have all of our files on it. You forget just how many programs you have installed or documents you have saved on your computer until you get a new one. Then those files aren’t there and you will spend the next month transferring everything you think is important only to realize in six months that you missed a lot of items.

I don’t plan to clutter our new desktop with files from our old computer. Instead we are going to invest in a one TB portable hard drive – hopefully that will be big enough for our past and future data. If not then we can always buy more.

Our Internet connection had been really sluggish for about a week. We have satellite Internet, so this in itself is not an uncommon problem. It usually clears up on its own, but when I would use the modem’s diagnostic tool, the result was always the same – excessive web traffic.

Now this was very odd especially when no one was on the Internet. I decided to check my AVG virus scan history when I noticed that the past several scans were ended without finishing. So I started a scan up and then waited for the results. Turns out AVG found five trojan viruses and took care of them. Ever since then, there has been no more excessive web traffic.

The next time I get an excessive web traffic diagnosis then I will run a virus scan on my computer.

Taking care of your PC is like taking care of your house. You ignore it and soon you won’t be able to do anything because of all the junk in your way. This is what I’m experiencing with both my computer and home. I’m beginning to think that it would be easier to buy a new PC rather than fix our old one and to move into a new place instead of de-cluttering. Both efforts seem futile some days.

Lifehacker had an article about a free PC scanning program. There used to be a great one I knew about years ago. This one I used yesterday had some suggestions but nothing too earth-shattering like you have a trojan virus and that is the reason your computer is so slow.

One issue is our Internet. We have satellite Internet which is currently our only option for high speed. But when two computers are on the Internet at the same time, one computer gets the shaft while the other one is not affected. My husband used to complain about this all the time since it was the desktop PC that got the shaft. My laptop would be surfing fine. That issue is hard to find an answer for as Google has been no help.

We have decided to buy a new desktop PC at the end of August – maybe even a new router. Ours is working fine but maybe something newer would be better? I will have to turn to Google and maybe it will be more helpful this time -or maybe you have a suggestion. We have been out of the electronic tech loop for about three years – so yeah it is like we know nothing at all. Everything has changed.

Busy moms don’t have much time to spare, so anything that can help to improve that scenario is always going to be a great idea. Mobile broadband is one solution for busy moms that work as well as if you’re a mom who loves to spend time online, browsing the web, checking emails and posting social networking updates.

All you need to do is work out which device is going to best for your needs, as there are a wealth of different gadgets and gizmos that’ll allow you to get the best from your new found mobile connectivity.

Laptops have traditionally been favoured by people who want computing power but portability on the move, but take a look at the netbook marketplace too as these are smaller, often cheaper, but pack a decent computing punch into the bargain.

Time for change

However, if you’re looking for an even more portable device that you can pick up easily even if your hands are full, then the Apple iPad, or a tablet style computer like it, will more than fit the bill. These are compact and lightweight computers that offer lots of functionality and a great all round mobile broadband user experience. Get a Wi-Fi model that’ll allow you to use free wireless hotspots when you’re out and about as this is cheaper than using your mobile quota all the time.

Of course, it’s difficult to ignore the huge range of smartphones that are also on the market. The great thing about this is that, much like the rest of the computing world, it’s a very competitive area and all that points to great deals and offers. Admittedly smartphones have smaller screens and keyboards, but these can be great little devices for posting social networking updates, emailing and also browsing the web. They’re pretty handy for making calls too.

Best of both

Better still, shop around for some of the deals that combine both a tablet and a smartphone into one handy high-tech combination. You’ll doubtless have to sign up for a contract, but this can be a great way to go if you’re looking for the ultimate in connectivity and convenience.

Mobile broadband does have its limitations, and it isn’t really a replacement to home based broadband services – it’s more of a supplement. Nevertheless, if you enjoy staying connected and use a phone, email, the web and social networking, not just at home but all over the place, then any one of these great gadgets should fit the bill.

This post was contributed by Rob Clymo, who writes on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, helping you find the best free laptop deals and options for the latest in netbooks, tablets and smartphones.

Tuesdays are always my most productive day of the week. Too bad Tuesdays only roll around once a week. Not only did I tackle cleaning the much-neglected bathroom, I did some tinkering with our computer. Just a little background on our computer – we built it about five years ago, and we have been through about three hard drives. Our last hard drive we bought was a 500 gigabyte SATA drive. That hard drive crashed months ago and I could not get the computer to even recognize it anymore.

Recently we have been talking about building a new computer since we need Windows 7. I am finally reaching for one of my goals when I decided to stay at home with our daughter – to develop software. I’m really drawn to mobile development – more so for the Android but my husband is learning Windows 7 development. Since we are on a backup hard drive and 5-year-old technology, we want something faster with more storage. Our crashed hard drive was a Western Digital, so I decided to remove the drive to see if it happened to still be under warranty. Sadly it isn’t, so I went with plan B – try to get the computer to recognize the hard drive again. After some plugging, unplugging, cursing, and rebooting, the computer recognized the drive but still couldn’t read any data from it.

At least now I had a drive letter to work with. That is progress from last time. I ran check disk which took forever and didn’t help. So I added the command fix(chkdsk /f) to check disk – which again took forever but still couldn’t access the drive. I tried checkdisk with repair (chkdsk /r) that took the longest time but it also worked. For the moment anyway, I can access the hard drive. Now it is time to move all the files I want to keep to another storage option.

Our backup hard drive is a measly 80 gigs and is full. My portable hard drive is topped out at 60 gigs. That only leaves my husband’s portable drive and not sure how much space is left. So today I am working on deleting duplicate files and trying to make as much storage room as possible. I’m so glad I was able to fix the hard drive even if it doesn’t last. It’s such a relief to get some files especially pictures off the hard drive that I thought were lost forever. When something like this happens, it really shows how important it is to have a backup copy of your files.

Organization is not my strong suit. I have tried in vain through the years to improve this skill. I have bought several books, calendars, spent hours working organizing organization systems, yet nothing seems to work longer than a few weeks. A few years ago, I bought an HP Jornada 720 PDA off of eBay in hopes that it would be the answer to my organization woes. I tried using it but still found it not to be what I was looking for. I bought a mini-laptop that still didn’t fit the bill. Now I am back to the Jornada PDA to see if it works better now for me.

The PDA hasn’t changed but now I know what I need for an organization system. I need a device that boots up fast and that I can jot down my ideas. I lose so many great blog post ideas because of when the idea strikes me. It is usually when I’m riding in the car or somewhere else that would be awkward to pull out a computer. The PDA would work well in these scenarios. It is also small enough to fit into my purse.

Even though the tech is at least ten years old, the Jornada PDA may be the perfect fit for me. I normally don’t ‘dial back’ to older technology. I keep the Sega Saturn but never play it as with the Sony PlayStation 2. I am glad that I kept the Jornada even though I thought about selling it more than a few times. It seems I have finally found a solution to a problem that has plagued me for a while.

Printers are perhaps the most frustrating thing ever created. Their task is so simple and they function correctly 99% of the time, yet when you need them the most they invariably break down causing tears, frustration and network cable related injuries. The only way to fix this is with a new printer – or by trying out a few simple tricks.

Getting a new printer is always a good option for several reasons: they are cheap, use less ink and break down very rarely. Indeed, new machines will function well and smoothly ensuring that jams and breaks hardly ever happen: printer engineers are well aware of the angst caused by malfunctions and have done their very best to minimise them. If you get a new printer you will definitely notice a significant difference.

If you do have a break the first thing to do is look for a paper jam – these happen quite frequently in old printers as sheets bend and get caught in the mechanism. You can solve this issue by opening the compartments of the printer and fishing out the offending sheets. Be careful when you do this and be sure to pull the paper gently – if you rip it you will be left with dozens of tiny jams rather than one big one.

You may also have issues with your cartridges. This can occur with regular and colour laser printers – in this instance it is best to use your computer to do a print test which will identify how much ink you have left. If you turn out to have too little ink you will have to run out and buy a new cartridge. You can best avoid this problem by buying a high-quality printer as these use ink very efficiently.

These are two good solutions to most printer problems. If they fail you can resort to the tried and true method of turning the power off and on, or by giving the manufacturers hotline a call. Above all, think about getting a new printer as with prices where they are there is no real reason to let an old printer hold your happiness hostage.

For the past few months, I have been running/walking at least three times a week. I have been listening to the same tunes and am now ready to fill my Zune player with some new songs. I call up the Zune software and I have to log on. I try but get an error.

I then go to check my Hotmail account that is my Windows Live account that is also used for Zune. I seldom use Hotmail, so I thought the email might have been locked due to inactivity as it has been done in the past. As I try to logon, I get a message about my account being blocked and to have a test message sent to my phone. This will have a code that I can then use to unblock everything. No problem. I put in my phone number and then wait for a text message. No message after a couple of hours. I try again. Still no message. I try once more but then get an error about I have sent too many messages.

Then I try to have a code sent to my hubby’s phone. That works. I get my code and completely unlock my Hotmail. Voila! Once again, I can sign on to Zune through the PC software. So, moral of the story is that if you suddenly have trouble with your Zune login, check your Windows Live. You may have something blocked with Windows Live and can easily get it unblocked. Or – well – relatively easy.

Guest post from Spencer Hogg, tech writer at Broadband Expert

With the prominence of mobile broadband across multiple providers throughout the United Kingdom, customers find themselves left to decide between the portability and ease of mobile broadband, or the high download speeds and less-expensive fixed broadband service. With benefits and drawbacks to both technologies, choosing the best service can be daunting. Thankfully, the decision between mobile and home broadband has never been easier.

Home Broadband
Home broadband provides reliable and fast high-speed connectivity to the internet. Services are priced at record lows, and most users can expect speeds of 4MB per second. Higher download speeds permit greater file transfer, which is crucial for those who stream movies and television shows. Home broadband allows for larger downloads, an essential for those who consume large amounts of music, movies, and photos. The service also provides a reliable connection, where mobile broadband modems can lose signal during downloads or VoIP calls.

Though home broadband offers higher download speeds, a more reliable connection, and cheaper rates, there are considerable limitations. A home connection cannot extend beyond the limits of a wireless connection, restricting users from roaming freely while staying connected. Line rental costs, which are not a factor in mobile broadband subscriptions, can cost as much as £12 per month regardless of internet usage during a billing cycle. Switching providers may also prove challenging, as providers pursue different technologies and may require customers to pay for fibre-optic or phone-based lines to be installed in the home.

Mobile Broadband
Providing portability within a user-friendly design, mobile broadband is a popular option for portable browsing and mobile computing. Users can access the internet anywhere, removing the need for wired connectivity. Mobile broadband deals are available relatively cheaply, and can be tailored to specific bandwidth allotments. User-friendly USB modems allow for fast, configuration-free connectivity. What’s more, the use of mobile broadband allows customers to cancel line rentals, saving subscribers this fixed cost each month.

The technology does come with restrictions, however. Download limits are typically small, which could prevent users from downloading large files. Mobile broadband connections are best suited for users which do not intend to download music, movies, and photographs regularly. Once caps are exceeded, many companies inflict overage fees per additional MB used. The mobile services provided are aimed toward casual web browsers, those who stream low-fidelity audio and video files, and those whose primary downloads consist of text documents and spreadsheets. Additionally, the connection provided by mobile broadband is considerably slower than wired connections. While coverage throughout the UK and the US is good and growing, there remain areas where signal strength is weak and mobile broadband is not considered feasible: customers in rural areas may experience frequent connection disruptions as coverage areas increase over the next few years. You can learn more about mobile broadband at Broadband Expert, a popular UK site with some useful information if you are interested in learning more about this technology.