One things I miss about not working in computer networking is keeping track of the latest computer products. It was always fun to research products or to find a product to meet a certain need. From buying used cisco products to finding an adequate photo software, no matter what the challenge, it was fun to do some online browsing.

Our computer network at home consists of a router. It doesn’t need much attention, so there isn’t a lot of tweaking or tinkering I get to do these days. Since I do plan to go back to the networking field once Rae is in school, I need to stay current on trends and products. It is just not as challenging when I am doing it for fun and not for a project. Still I will just have to find a way to make it enjoyable so I can keep up with the computing world.

Having more than one computer is great for our geeky family. It means my husband can work and I can work at the same time. It does have a downside in that sometimes there are files I need that are on the other computer. Lately I’ve been thinking that an external hard drive would be quite handy.

We could basically put our ‘My Documents’ folder on the external hard drive so that way we can both get to our files no matter which computer we happen to be working on. When we’re not using the external hard drive, there are storage cases that will protect the devices when not in use. That will be a must buy item especially with a two year old who is developing a fascination with dipping everything in water.

To have all of our data portable would be a good thing. The best benefit to an external hard drive would be to access any pictures or files I needed to at anytime. It’s definitely an item to put on the Christmas list for sure.

Today I ordered my husband his Father’s Day gift. He knows what he is getting and is very excited over it. Rae and I – well I guess it’s really just from Raegan – got him a new cell phone. We are changing providers and switching to Sprint just for this phone.

I guess we could have waited a few weeks to get an iPhone, but I think my husband will be just as happy with the Upstage from Samsung. You have probably seen the annoying commercials for this phone. It’s dual-sided, so it’s a phone on one side and a MP3 player on the other side. He has been salivating over it since he first saw it. Ordering online from Sprint was easy. I signed up for their basic plan, added the data package and still will pay the same for our current phone plan, just now we’ll have more bells and whistles. Once the phone is in our hands, we can call to get our number switched to the new phone.

I have one more little surprise for Father’s Day but will keep that secret since my husband doesn’t know about it. I also plan to make a custom ringtone using Rae’s voice. I’ll show off my finished project and how I did it once it’s complete.

I recently got the chance to try out AMD’s Personal Internet Communicator. It’s a device made by AMD that lets people connect to the Internet without a computer. All you need is a monitor and an ISP. They supply the rest. It’s a pretty neat little device. Although it is a little slower than surfing on my PC, it works just the same.

Here is a little video review I did of the PIC.

I’m not the type of person to change photos in picture frames. I usually have to cull through all the frames every couple of years. My biggest problem with switching photos is that I still want to display the photo in the frame while adding more to a room.

My solution is a digital picture frame. A digital photo frame will allow me to showcase all the photos I want without taking up a lot of shelf space. Digitalframez.com is an online electronics store that has a wide selection of digital photo frames. The one that really catches my eye is their popular aluminum coated 7 inch digital picture frame.

The digital picture frame comes with a card reader, so I can add a memory card and load as many pictures to the photo slide show as I want. Plus with a price tag at DigitalFramez of $99 makes it affordable.

Mother’s Day is coming up. I can use the “email to a friend” link to send to the husband as a not-so-subtle suggestion.

Rae loves to eat fruit. She especially likes it from the fruit cups. The only problem is that it is very messy when she eats it. She just dives in with both hands, sucks the juice off her hands and then crams the fruit into her mouth.

She loves the computer keyboard. So, as you can see where I’m going with this, I now have a sticky keyboard. A good cleaning trick I learned while working in a computer lab was to clean keyboards with rubbing alcohol.

Rubbing alcohol gets rid of sticky, gooey, yucky stuff off of keyboards. Take a cotton ball and dip it into the rubbing alcohol. Apply a little elbow grease, and that keyboard will be good as the day it came out of the box. Use a Q-tip to get in between keys for a deep cleaning.

Rubbing alcohol dries really fast, so there’s no risk to your keyboard. Although I have read to clean your keyboard just pop it in the dishwasher. I’m very skeptical of that, not unless you have three weeks or so to kill while your keyboard dries out.

Another good reason to use rubbing alcohol is price- you can pick up a bottle for under $1. It will also kill any lurking germs. Sickness has run amock this Winter in our house. The last thing we want is a Spring cold.

I knew my computer was loud; I just didn’t realize how loud until I booted up my parent’s new computer. The quietness of the PC made me question if it was actually on.

Although my power supply works perfectly fine, I’m now in the hunt for a new power supply. I have found one with good reviews through Amazon. Hopefully within a few weeks I can afford it. It’s not that expensive; it’s just I’m broke.

We moved my computer into the family game room, so when the computer is on, it drowns out the TV. Something has to give. I love having my computer handy and like the arrangement. A new power supply might just be in order. Too bad there isn’t a little video of it in a machine to hear just how silent it is.

It is once again time to spring forward. The switch to Daylight Savings time is a little early this year. Because of this, some computers may not automatically update to the new time.

Check for the latest software patches and updates for your operating system. Apparently this will fix the time change problem. If not, you can always adjust the time on your Windows computer by simply double clicking the time in the right-hand corner. Click in the hour column, then click the up arrow button to advance the time by one hour. Hit apply, then close the window.

Apparently Daylight Savings Time saves about 1% in energy costs for the United States, but since this year the time change has been moved up it will actually cost money to implement the time change. Ah, the government just can’t leave well enough alone can they?

My parents are computer shopping. They have found one that they liked. It’s an HP and is really a good deal right now at Best Buy. Since they didn’t have any in-stock, we will have to go back Saturday to get it. Since we were out I thought that we’d check some other places in town that sell computers.

I was surprised by a couple of things. The main thing was that computers now don’t come with a monitor. I guess this makes sense since they can leave it out, and the buyer can customize their system by buying the monitor they really want. I was also surprised that the prices were sort of competitive but not when you factored in that the Best Buy computer comes with not only a monitor but a printer. My parents really liked this “all in one” idea when buying a computer. Their printer is on its last leg, so they need a new one. Their current monitor is only 13 inches.

So, sometimes it’s good to shop around but when you find a great deal, chances are you won’t find anything that can compare to it.

Microsoft Vista is now available. I remember when Windows 95 went on sale at midnight. It was a big deal. I’m not so sure I’m all that “wowed” with Vista. My parents are buying a new computer and will go with Vista. I’m not sure they need all the media and other features of Vista. It hopefully will play solitaire well for my folks.

I’ll at least to get to tinker with it and see if it is something I want to upgrade to. I have a feeling though that I’ll upgrade when XP is no longer supported.