Holly’s Happenings

I know that the products I had for my children when they were small were much better and far more advanced than the products that were available when I was in the first few years of my life. For instance, when I was a baby, car seats weren’t used, let alone mandatory. My mom has told me stories about how she would hold me in her arms when we were in the car (She didn’t have a drivers license, so she didn’t drive when I was a baby). My point is that technology had advanced in a big way from the time I was born until my children were born, and it has only gotten better since!

My children are a little more than 2 years apart in age, and one of the things that made my life the easiest when they were small was a good stroller! One of the worst things about strollers, even 13 years ago, was the fact that they were heavy and awkward! On top of that, if you wanted to take it anywhere that didn’t offer paved walks or smooth floors, you played heck trying to push it!

Parents these days have the benefit of advanced technology as well as the experiences from parents like me to thank for things like the Bugaboo stroller. These are, without a doubt, one of the most awesome strollers I have ever came across and I wish like heck they had these when my kids were little! Not only are they nice to look at, they are also light weight, compact, very well built and offer parents the ability to not only use them in places that offer paved paths and finished floors, they can easily be used in areas with rough terrain like paths and grassy areas!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that strollers had advanced from what they were when I was a small child to where they were when my own children were small, but a Bugaboo stroller would have been nice to have had VS the strollers that were available when my children were small!

I’m sure you’ve all seen the newest commercials on TV with various characters explaining to people that they’ve entered “the dead zone” as for cell phone service. The funny thing is, where we live is exactly one of those areas!

We’ve been told that because our house is directly in one of the flight paths of the nearby airport, that’s the biggest reason why the cell phone signal in the area is as poor as it is! And it’s actually been suggested to us more than once that we look into a cell signal booster for our home and our vehicles. I think what amazes me the most is the fact that it’s nearly impossible to pull in a reliable signal on my cell phone in my yard, but if I go less than half a mile down the road I’ve got a full signal.

It stinks that I moved into a “dead zone” area for cell phone service, but hopefully some day I can pick up a good booster and change that! In the mean time, if you call my cell phone, don’t be surprised if it goes straight to voicemail

I love music, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t like just one kind of music. Being a teen in the 80’s exposed me to what I think are some of the best rock songs EVER! Yes, I’m talking about all the Hair Bands…LOL! The music was so awesome and most of it actually made sense! But there were so many different groups and so many different types of music and songs!

I remember jamming to groups like The Beastie Boys, The Eurhythmics, Poison, Ratt, Quiet Riot, INXS, and of course Motley Crue! But then I had my moments where the true country girl in me came out and I wanted to listen to songs from Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, and even Willie Nelson!

Today I still love a vast array of music, and what I want to listen to depends on my mood. If I’m in a goofy mood I might want to listen to songs about things like spaghetti, boa constrictors or even adult diapers. If I’m in a serious mood I may prefer to listen to songs that talk about how special friends and loved ones are, and if I’m in a mad mood, I just might want to jam out to some serious head banging rock and roll!

My point is that MP3 players give me the ability to pick and choose what songs I want to listen to! And since the MP3 player I have is ran off an SD memory card I have the ability to have a different card for each type of mood I’m in or each type of music I want to listen to. Or, I can do what I’m doing right now and mix them all up! The card in my MP3 player right now has a little bit of everything! It’s kind of funny to go from a song that makes you want to jam to a song that brings tears to your eyes. But then I can just hit the fast forward button if a song comes on that I don’t feel like listening to at the moment!

Last fall it became obvious to us that putting off replacing our old router was no longer an option! With two of our 4 computers being capable of being on a wireless connection, we looked into wireless routers, but because of the layout of our house, we were a little nervous as to just how good of a signal they’d be able to get. It probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if both of the computers that had wireless capability were in the same room, but they are actually on opposite ends of the house.

But after doing our “homework” we soon discovered that the wireless technology that’s available today gave us an extremely good chance of both computers being able to pick up a strong and solid wireless signal! We looked into several different brands of wireless routers, including Belkin, D-Link, and Linksys before making our final decision.

Which one did we end up choosing? We went with the Linksys WRT 54G and we absolutely LOVE it! Not only do the 2 computers that have wireless capability get a strong and solid signal, we’ve found that we can even pull in a good signal if we decide to take my husbands laptop outside! And not just outside on the deck, we’ve even taken his laptop out to the picnic table and have successfully gotten almost as strong of a signal as he does right here in the family room where the router is.

So, if you are at a point where you need to replace your old router, and have been considering replacing it with a router that offers you the convenience of a wireless signal, don’t be afraid like we were! Take the plunge and I have no doubt you’ll be completely thrilled like we are! Do your research and find out which router will work best for your situation! You’ll be happy you did!

I’m sure you’re probably tired of hearing about our recent road trip to Baltimore, but I’m sorry, there are still more things about the trip that impressed me that I want to talk about, so you’re just going to have to bear with me…LOL! Besides, it’s been YEARS since my husband and I have taken any type of road trip, that alone is worthy of at least a few blog posts…LOL!

Since it’s summer time, the roads that we took were filled with miles and miles of road construction areas, which is to be expected! I remember as a kid when we’d take family road trips, dad would be cruising down the road with traffic when all of a sudden traffic would almost come to a stand still, and we’d have no idea what was going on. After driving slow for a few miles we’d suddenly discover the reason why was because of road construction that was going on.

While we did have several areas during our trip where traffic was slowed down because of road construction, the use of digital signage prepared everyone driving down the road well in advance, and I honestly think it does help in the prevention of accidents as well. We drove over 1,000 miles round trip and, knock on wood, didn’t see a single accident. So yes, technology does have it’s benefits!

It wasn’t until my first semester of college classes that I was introduced to the handiest piece of technology I’ve ever come across. And it still amazes me that something the size of my little finger can be a lifesaver. But I honestly don’t know what I’d do without the convenience of my usb flash drive! It saved my butt more than one time in my classes because I’d always back up my homework onto it and if something happened and I couldn’t find the already printed version I’d just pop my flash drive into one of the computers in the classroom and print it up right there!

They also come in handy when you want to transfer files between computers that aren’t on a shared network or when you need to transfer files to a new computer, like I did just a few months ago. And when I was doing various paperwork for my boss, I could work on it here at home, upload it to my usb flash drive, take the flash drive to the office and download it on my work computer.

So I’m a big fan of these handy, dandy little pieces of technology, and I’d like to suggest that you invest in one if you haven’t already done so. They’re inexpensive and once you’ve used one, I’m sure you’ll wonder what you ever did without them. And there are so many different types and sizes of them, I’ve even seen usb flash drives that are ink pens, how cool is that? And if you’re starting a new business or just promoting one that you’ve ran for a while now, usb flash drives printed with your company’s logo and information are a great tool to help promote your business!

I’ve noticed lately that I’ve had several visits from people looking for info about the HP w2207 monitor. Some are looking for cleaning instructions, while others are looking for the owners manual. Since I had some of the same questions after I purchased my monitor, I thought I’d do a post here to talk about the information that I’ve come across and found useful as well as links to site that I feel may be helpful.

First off, you can go to this page for basic information about the HP w2207. Support and drivers from HP can be found here. If you’ve come here looking for a users manual, you can find it here. If you’re considering purchasing an HP w2207, you can find reviews about it here, here and here.

Now that we’ve gotten the “technical” stuff out of the way, I can tell you about my personal opinions and the things that I’ve discovered, like how to get this thing clean…LOL! First I should let you know that I have had this specific monitor for a year now and I absolutely LOVE it! It is by far the best computer monitor I have ever had! The brilliancy of the colors never ceases to amaze me and I’ve learned to deal with the glare from the screen by making sure I have my monitor situated so that it doesn’t have a window near it. If you do not like a glare on your monitor from time to time or don’t have the facilites to put it where it’s not near a window, then this might not be the monitor for you.

I also love the fact that I have the pivot option on this monitor! Most of the time I keep it so that it is wider side to side, but occasionally I do pivot the monitor so that it is vertically taller. Yes, I admit I don’t know the techincal terms, and I apologize for that, but I think you know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen in some reviews where people complain that the speakers that are built in are cheesy, I’ve never used mine, so I can’t give you any information on them.

Probably my biggest peeve with the monitor is how difficult it is to clean. Over the past year I’ve tried several different types of products to clean it and have only come up with one method that actually works well without leaving streaks on the monitor. What words best for me is first, to have the monitor powered off, then I use 2 different products. First I use an anti-static/alcohol free cleaning wipe that is made for monitors and other types of electronics. I clean a small area with that, then follow up behind it with a dry lint free cloth. The one that I use is almost like a terry cloth material. I use this for “polishing” the monitor and removing the streaks left behind by the wipes. I’ve tried other products to clean the monitor, but none worked as well as this one does. The one thing that you absolutely cannot use to clean the monitor is paper towel because no matter what brand it is, it always leaves behind lint. I also try to dust the monitor off with Swiffer dusters at least a couple of times per week.

One tip that I’d like to pass along about the pivot feature is to make sure your cords are in a position so that when you pivot the monitor they won’t snag on something and pull free from the monitor. Also, if you plan to use the pivot feature, you MUST have the driver that allows you to do this, which you can find here. If you don’t have that installed, when you pivot your monitor, the display will not turn. I’ve also found that some downloadable games will not work if the monitor is pivoted so that it is taller. I’m not sure why and I never have been able to fix this.

That is about all I can think of now. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post and I will be happy to answer it if I can! Thanks to much for stopping by, I hope you have found this post informative!

I’m sure you’ve heard me talk here about the problems that we’ve had with our phone company. Since we live out in the country having cable TV and/or internet is not an option. I tried to convince the cable company to bring service to our old house, even going to the extent of drawing up a petiton and taking it to the neighbors and asking them to sign it if they would be willing to switch to cable if it were offered. Amazingly better than 75% of the neighbors were more than happy to sign, they all agreed with me in the fact that they were tired of the monopoly that the phone company held over the area and wanted other options! Unfortunately, the cable company didn’t “bite” and said it just would not be financially feesible for them to bring service any further.

Since moving to the new house, we’ve been faced with problem after problem when it comes to the phone and internet service. Once again our only option is the same phone company we had at the old house. But we also found out that lightning had gone through the lines at this house sometime after the last people lived here, and we also found out that the current lines would only support a lower speed DSL connection than what we had at the old house. But a recent letter from the phone company talked about changes and upgrades that they plan to start implementing to their customers starting this spring. One of the upgrades is supposed to include replacing the current phone lines with better fiber optic cables that are supposedly going to give us better phone service as well as the option to upgrade to a faster DSL speed. They’ve replaced the lines once since last October with very little improvment, so lets hope the upgrades they plan on doing this Spring are an improvement because I’m really NOT liking their services and I don’t like not having options!

OK, I’ll be totally honest with you! When I realized that I actually was going to be able to replace my old computer, the thought of switching from Microsoft XP to Microsoft Vista scared the bejeesus out of me! I had used XP for most of the years that I have used computers and frankly, it was like an old security blanket. It was something I was totally familiar with and something that I was completely comfortable with. I was able to experience Windows Vista the few times that I was on my son’s computer. But since I didn’t use his computer that often, I honestly had no clue as to how well I would like it once I started using it regularly.

Since it’s been a couple of weeks since I purchased my new computer I decided that I’d let you know how things have gone so far! First, I have to admit that I actually like Vista, although maybe not as much as I liked XP…LOL! But I think some of it’s features are really neat! It gives off a very sleek appearance, making me feel “high tech”…LOL! I like the look of the “all programs” section under the start button. (Sorry, not quite “techie” enough to know the technical name for it) Rather than the menus popping out like they have in every previous version of Windows, they function more like a drop down box and open in a column below the name of the file and/or program, which, in my opinion, makes it much easier to find what you are looking for. Windows Vista also comes with a few new games, my favorite is Mahjong Titans!

The tool bar for Windows Vista comes with this nifty little button titled “switch between screens”. If you have several pages open and click on it, it gives you a view of them out on the desktop and you just click on the page you want to view. Granted, it’s something very “trivial”, but it’s still a neat little feature!

As for the cons, trying to figure out how to disable having to click “allow” for everything you do is about as difficult as deciding which term insurance policy is the best one for your personal needs! The other thing that’s been driving me crazy is trying to figure out how to share files between the three computers we have that all have Vista. I have a friend who has had a Vista computer for quite some time and know from talking ot her that sharing with a computer with XP on it is virtually impossible, so I didn’t even try to figure that part out. The biggest thing that stinks about that is the fact that my daughter has to now email me any homework that she needs printed since she can’t access my printer now.

But over all, I’m actually pretty happy with Vista! I haven’t had any major problems with it and dealing with the quirky things can be kind of a hassle, but once you get used to them, you kind of stop noticing.

Since we know we’re going to have to replace our router this week, hubby and I have spent some time today looking around on line trying to decide whether or not we should consider going with a wireless router this time around. I posted this question with my concerns at a message board I frequent and got some EXCELLENT information, and found out several things about wireless routers that I honestly didn’t know about!

For instance, I had NO idea that wireless routers also offer wired ports, which is a HUGE plus because it would offer us the ability to go back to wired if we found that wireless just didn’t work well for us! I was also thrilled to hear from several people about how well their wireless routers allow connections in various areas of homes that are much bigger than ours as well as outside of their homes! I also got a comment there from someone that had actually just recommended a wireless router to a friend of theirs. The router was from the same company as the routers we’ve owned and had awesome luck with and the price was AWESOME! Since I have a couple of days until payday that will give me plenty of time to shop around and find out where I can get the best buy on that router or at least one similar to it!

They say that you learn something new every day.  Most days, I can’t remember what it is I’ve learned, if I learn anything at all….LOL!  But today I learned something that made me go WOW!

Last spring I purchased this monitor:

I have loved this monitor since the day I hooked it up!  It is an HPw2207 22 inch wide screen monitor.  Rather than having the matted screen like most newer flat panel monitor have it instead has a glossy screen.  I do love the clarity of the glossy screen, but my biggest peeve with it is that it is the most horrible thing to clean!  I have yet to find a way to clean it that doesn’t leave streaks.  But that’s NOT what this post is about, I didn’t learn a way to clean it today, I instead learned that it can do THIS

This is the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen!  I loved my monitor when it was horizontally wider, but it made many websites look “odd”, especially if it was an off centered website or one that only used the far left side of the screen.  With my monitor now being vertically wide, OMG, not only do sites look better because they’re not being stretched out so badly, but I actually get the full length of the page, which is a better option in my book!

Now, if you’re wondering what too me SOOOOOOOOO long to realize that this monitor flipped like it does, well, as embarrassed as I am to admit this, I never read the owners manual…..LOL!  I found out because I was at HP’s website checking out computers and seen that if I ordered a monitor identical to mine with a new computer from HP, the monitor would be well over $100 less than what I paid for mine.  That made me curious so I went directly to the monitors page where I seen a graphic showing it being flipped…LOL!

That made my day!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my monitor now…LOL!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for many of the advances that have been made in many areas because of modern technology. But when it comes to advancing consumer technology, well, it confuses me! I mean, HDTV, Plasma TV, LCD TV and then then necessity for things like HDMI switches and cables. Come on, just give me a TV that is easy to turn on and find the channel that I want to watch, that’s all I need! Sometimes it seems like consumer technology is advanced only to confuse the consumers into buying things they don’t necessarily need!

Although you won’t find me doing too much complaining about living in the country, there is one thing that definitely needs to be improved! My husband and I have cellular phones from 2 different carriers and neither one of us can get service on our cellular phones when we’re in the house. For me, it’s not that big of a deal because I really don’t get that many calls on my cell phone, but 99% of my husband’s work related calls are done through his cell phone. We’ve decided that we’re going to look into a cell phone booster for the house, from what we here, it just might do the trick!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most technology savvy person in the world. Yes, I have gadgets, but I’m talking about bigger things. I’m very happy that my school does have technology savvy people working for them because they keep the schools intranet software up to date. That allows me the ability to check my grades, my school email address and the school’s blackboard where any messages or updates for my classes show up. So, even though I’m not that savvy, I “know” people that are.

If I were in a position where I needed my own intranet software, I would definitely consider Epazz! Epazz offers a 30 Day free trial of their software with no strings attached, you just contact them to get the information for your set up. If you don’t like what they offer, you simply cancel before your 30 days are over. But I have a feeling once you see and try things like their in depth personalization, their enhanced communication that allows better communication between users and the fact that Epazz works with you from start to finish, you will be so happy with their service that you’ll want to stay with them!

As sad as it is, it’s about time for my computer to go to the computer hospital! With the various things that have recently stopped working on it (i.e. NIC card, graphics card, USB ports), I have no doubt that my mother board needs to be replaced! While I have it in the shop I’m going to also have them do some upgrades on it! I found a good deal on memory, but not only do they carry the type of memory I need, they also have memory for all other computers including IBM memory at great deals!