I’ve been thinking lately about getting a portable hard drive that I can store my mp3s and pictures on. Right now, that stuff is on my desktop. Since I have my laptop and desktop networked, I can access them from my laptop. But I have to have the desktop on. And I’d rather not turn that on. It’s loud. And since the desktop is rather old (over 8 years I believe), it’s gonna die eventually. I don’t want to lose my music and pictures. If I had that stuff on an external, portable hard drive, then when the desktop died, I’d still have them. And I could access them without having to turn on the desktop as long as I plugged it in to the desktop.

My plan was to do some research online to figure out what I wanted. Well, I never got around to doing that. But I was looking through the Best Buy ad and noticed that they had several kinds on sale this week. I did check out a couple of them online and decided to get the Western Digital 250GB My Essential Portable Hard Drive. So I went to Best Buy this afternoon and bought it. I couldn’t pass it up. It’s normally about $150 and it was on sale for $99.99. I also bought a case for it. That way I can take it with me if I go on a trip and not have to worry about keeping it safe.

I couldn’t believe how small it was. I have an external hard drive for my work laptop. It’s HUGE. And it has to be plugged in. The one I bought is tiny (see the pic below). It’s not much bigger than my digital camera. The pic shows it relative to my mouse and cell phone.

Click to enlarge

And the other thing that I like is that it doesn’t have to be plugged in. It’s powered just by plugging it into my laptop via USB. It’s exactly what I wanted. It did have some software installed on it to set up a sync program as well as a few other things. I removed all that stuff … didn’t want it. I did copy it to my laptop in case I change my mind later. But for now, I just want a hard drive that I can copy my stuff to. I don’t want to set up any syncing software.

I copied all of the pictures I have on my desktop to the drive this afternoon. That didn’t take long. A while back, I burned a bunch of pics to CD because I was running out of disk space. So I don’t have much left on my desktop. Now, my mp3s on the the other hand, that was a different story. I have around 5GB on my desktop. That took a while to copy over. But it’s all on the portable drive now. I need to get busy ripping the rest of my CDs. I have a bunch that I wish I had on my computer. I’ll get to that eventually.

I sure have been busy getting tech toys lately. Since Christmas, I have gotten my laptop, my digital camera, and now the portable hard drive. My next new toy will come toward the end of July. I’ll be eligible for a new cell phone (using Verizon’s ‘New Every Two’ program). I’m contemplating getting a ‘fancier’ phone … one with a qwerty keyboard, maybe even a BlackBerry or a phone like that. I just don’t know that I need one that fancy. And I don’t know if I could justify the cost of a plan for internet access. But I have time to decide.

I sure have been giving away money lately. I gave $357.81 to the repair shop yesterday. I’ll be giving around $200 to the repair shop (or some other one) within the next 2 weeks to get my front brakes replaced. And now tonite I spent just under $300.

I’ve been wanting to get a new camera for a while now. I have a Canon PowerShot A75 that has served me well for years. Almost 4 years, to be exact. It still works, but the display is starting to peter out. Some times I have to whack it to get it to come on. Other times, you can see some discoloration around the edges of the display. And still other times, I get lines through the display. All that and the fact that it’s only a 3.2MP led me to finally get a new one.

I wanted to stick with the Canon model. It’s a name that I trust. I did decide a month ago or so to get the SD1000. But, of course, as soon as I decide that, it gets discontinued. I then started leaning toward the SD1100 since it was the replacement for the SD1000, but it was about $300. I didn’t want to spend more than $250 or so on a camera, so I decided to wait a little while.

Well, in the Best Buy ad for this week, the SD1100 was on sale for $250. I then checked NewEgg.com, and lo and behold, it was only $219 there. Since I got paid today, and I should be getting my stimulus rebate around the end of next week, I decided to bite the bullet and get the camera now. I did go to Best Buy tonite to get my hands on the camera and play around with it a bit to make sure it’s what I wanted. And it is. I also priced out a spare battery and a larger media card. Also cheaper online.

I stared at my shopping cart on NewEgg.com for close to an hour, debating if I should really get it or not. I also did some comparison shopping. Everything pointed to getting it from NewEgg.com. So I did. This is what I got …
Camera: Canon SD1100IS - $219.99
Extra Battery: Dolica DC-NB4LA Li-Ion Battery (Replaces Canon NB-4L) - $12.99
Media Card: SanDisk 4GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SD/SDHC) Flash Card - $29.70

Shipping (Guaranteed UPS 3 Day) was $11.04 and there was no tax on my order. So all added up, I paid $273.72. If I would have gotten the same stuff at Best Buy, it would have been around $360. The only difference between the 2 was that Best Buy doesn’t have the same battery as NewEgg. But they’re still pretty comparable.

So now the waiting begins. If they ship it out tomorrow, I should have it on Monday. Hopefully they all show up the same day. They split my order into 2 separate orders. And each item shows up as being shipping from a different location. The camera is coming from NJ. The battery is coming from TN. And the media card is coming from PA. I guess that means that they’re drop shipping from different vendors. It would be nice if it all came in one box. But I’ll be happy if they all show up on the same day. Then I’ll get to play.

I have decided that I need to get a new digital camera. I just don’t know how long my current one is gonna last. I had to whack it the other nite to get the display to work. It’s a Canon PowerShot A75 … and only 3.2MP. But I’ve had it for quite a while. I ordered it way back in July 2004. So it’s around 3 and a half years old. I paid a little over $200 for it back then. I could spend around that same amount now and get a 7MP one. I’ve got my tax refund to use, but not all of it. I really don’t wanna spend more than $200 for a new camera.

So … my faithful readers. Do I have readers … as in plural? LOL I hope so. Anyways, I’m hoping someone out there in cyberland who is reading this might have some suggestions for me.

I was initially thinking about sticking with Canon. I really like the one I have. I was just hoping to upgrade to a newer model and maybe get one that’s slightly smaller. I had taken a look at a Canon ELPH at Target. I like the size of them. But don’t know anything about them.

My first digital camera was a Fuji. I really liked that little thing and used it ’til it broke … literally. I had to take it apart to fix it. And somehow, after all this time, it STILL works. I had given it to my sister and she still uses it. Poor girl gets my castoffs. And she’ll probably get my current one when I get a new one … as long as the display doesn’t die completely.

Other than those 2 brands, I’m not sure where else to look. Basically, I want a compact digital camera. Mostly “point and shoot”, but maybe with some manual options as well. I’m hoping for a 6 or 7MP camera. Something that will last me another 3 and a half years … And as I said, I’d like to keep it under $200 or around that mark (I would like to save a little bit of my tax refund).

So … any suggestions? Either brand suggestions or actual camera suggestions? I would be eternally grateful.

I am not one who likes to spend a lot of money … mostly because I don’t like to waste what I have. When I need things, I tend to go for the cheapest version I can get away with. My coffee table and tv stand came from KMart. My kitchen table came from Target. My dresser and computer desk came from Walmart. I even got my stereo from Walmart.

There have been times when I’ve actually spent more money, but that was either because I had to or I had tax refund money to use. My couch is actually pretty nice. Don’t remember the name of the place I got it, but it was an actual furniture store. The only real bad thing is that it’s over 4 years old. And for my bed, I did get a nice mattress and box spring. But I skimped on the bed frame … went with the cheapest thing they had … it’s just the metal frame to put the box spring on.

And my most recent spring was my laptop. But it took me forever to save up for it. Bills and groceries and other necessities kept getting in the way. But it did replace my nearly 8 year old desktop (which is still running and will be turned into my media center after I finish removing all the other stuff that it doesn’t need anymore).

Since I got the laptop, there are some accessories that I’ve wanted to get. I already got a wireless optical mouse. But I needed a carrying bag for sure. And now I’m thinking of getting a KVM switch so I can use my monitor with my desktop and my laptop. And the mouse too. Then I could get rid of that corded beast … LOL. Not sure about the keyboard though. I actually don’t mind the one on the laptop. The only beef I have is that there is no number pad. But that’s what you get when you get a 15.4″ laptop … there’s no room for that separate number pad. But I’m getting used to the embedded number pad (if that’s what you call it) on the keyboard. When I do use the keyboard for the laptop, it takes some getting use to again. I was also thinking about getting a cooling pad, but I’m not really sure I need it. That will be the last thing I get, I think.

But the main thing I needed was the laptop bag. I wanted the messenger bag style one. I really don’t like the backpack ones. My work laptop has a backpack. I find it really awkward. I wanted to get one here in town so that I could actually get my hands on it to check it out. If I got it online, all I would have to go by are the pics. I went to Best Buy first. They’ve got crap for bags. Didn’t have much for KVM switches either. They only had one brand and 3 models of that brand. They had very few bags to choose from. So, I was outta there in less than 10 minutes. I went to Office Max next. They only had one KVM switch there. But they did have more bags to choose from. And some were even on sale. I think I spent 15 to 20 minutes looking at them. There was one that just kept calling my name. And it was one that was on sale. I was hoping to get one for around $25. This one was regular priced at $62.49 but was 25% off … so around $46-47. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to spend that much, but I thought about it. I paid over $900 for my laptop. I want a bag that will keep that investment safe. So I got the bag. Now I can’t wait ’til I go somewhere with the lappy so I can use it. This is what I got …

Targus 15.4″ Urban Messenger

Click to enlarge

I think I’m going to get a KVM switch from Dell. I got a $25 coupon from the earlier this week. It was a “thank you” for buying a laptop with us kinda thing. I looked at what they had for KVMs the other day. I was hoping to pay around $25 for one (as I started this post saying … I’m a cheapskate). So with the coupon, that means I could get a pretty nice one if I still go with that. Or maybe one even cheaper. But I really don’t know what to look for … what brand to get … what’s good. I’ll just have to see what they have and then see if I can find some reviews on them. Anyone out there reading this have a KVM? Any pointers on what to look for?

I feel bad. I’ve been neglecting my websites for quite some time. I used to be able to unwind and spend hours working on my websites. Now, after working on someone else’s website all day at work, I just don’t feel like doing anything with my own when I get home.

But lately I’ve started getting the itch to work on things again. I haven’t updated my racing websites since April. But with Jr’s sponsor and number announcement, I’ve gotten the itch to work on my racing sites again (I even fiddled around with a header image last nite) … consolidate them into a single site for all my favorite drivers.

At work, we have php5. I’ve gotten so used to working with it, I thought I’d finally bite the bullet and switch to php5 for my own sites. I checked out the forums for my host, and it turns out that all I needed to do to switch over to php5 was put the following in my .htaccess file:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php

Talk about easy. So I am now running my websites on php5. I looked things over, and everything looks like it’s working. This blog is working … my photo gallery is working … and even the crappy guestbook script I wrote several years ago still works. Woohoo! But if you happen to run across any issues while visiting, please let me know so I can fix things.

I have several things that I want to do:

• write a database connection class (I already wrote a basic one, but I want to expand on it)
• write a recordset class
• update and improve on my guestbook script (who knows … maybe I could even make some money on it)
• update and improve my weather script … expand it to get the forecast as well as the current conditions

When I do dive back into my sites, I’m going to have to transition working with MySQL again. At work, we use mySQL. I have gotten so used to it, it’s going to be interesting working my MySQL again.

Now that I’ve actually put my plans in writing, hopefully it’ll be motivation to stick with it. And I’ll hopefully have techie stuff to post about (since I am a High Tech Redneck Woman … LOL). So stay tuned …

Product: Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB mp3 player
Amount Spent: $138.39 (after $10 gift card) at Best Buy
Pros: Small, Rechargeable Internal Battery, Durable
Cons: Capacity a little low, Controls take a little bit to get use to

I have had this mp3 player for exactly one month. (I’m writing this a little later than I had planned, but I’ve had more time to play with it.) I love it. Where to start …

I mainly use it at work, but I do use it some times at home (I’m actually listening to it right now while I’m typing this up and watching Busch Series qualifying on tv … nothing like multi-tasking … LOL). I also listen to it in the car from time to time since I bought a (6ft) stereo mini cable. That’ll come in handy when I take road trips.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I decided to get my mp3 player from Best Buy. Since my federal tax refund was deposited this morning, I went there after work to get my new toy. It’s plugged in right now charging. I love that it has an internal battery. But it sucks that I’ve gotta wait for it to charge up before I can play with it. :G-frown:

Now I have to decide which songs to upload. I already have a pretty good idea of which ones I HAVE to have on it. And it’s got a radio too, so I can still listen to Froggy.

I’ll put up a review after I’ve had time to play around with it. Probably not until early next week, after I’ve had a chance to use it at work. Now I need to go eat. I was gonna order a pizza, but if I did that now, I wouldn’t get it until after 7pm … and I’m hungry now. I guess that’s what I get for playing with my new toy. :G-LOL:

I get my federal tax refund tomorrow (or at least I’m supposed to). So tonite, I’m trying to figure out where to get my mp3 player from. I’m down to 2 options …

Best Buy
color: black/green
price: $139.99
tax: + ~$9.10 or so
shipping:+ $0.00 (I’d get it at the store here in town)
gift card: - $10.00
——————–
total: ~$139.09

NewEgg.com
color: black/green
price: $126.99
tax: + $0.00
shipping: + $5.64 (3 day shipping)
———————————-
total: $132.63
PLUS … there’s a $40 mail-in rebate here

So … the prices are pretty close. With Best Buy, it would be in my hands IMMEDIATELY. With NewEgg, I’d have to wait ’til almost the end of next week (with processing time and shipping time). But that $40 rebate would be nice. But it would be up to 10 weeks before I’d get that.

I’m really leaning towards Best Buy for the instant gratification thing … But getting $40 back sure would be nice.

I REALLY hate decisions … LOL.