CMUThought Community Thought

We have seen a tremendous advancement in cell phone technology in the last 2-3 years. Usually over time we learn how to use them in our daily lives. Then we get use to them and wouldn’t know what to do without them. I was a little late on the cell phone craze and I am just now getting caught up on them. It seems every week there is some sort of sale on the newest phone device that has just been introduced.  The latest craze is now with texting and it has become such a huge problem that many states are banning the use of cell phone all together while driving. It seems people and mostly teens don’t even use their cell phones to talk anymore. Everyone just wants to text message each other and it’s become a popular way to communicate.

The new advances in technology does have a down side and it’s not all good news. You can look at text messaging on cell phones for a good example of this. Apparently there is great benefits with text messaging, but it’s become a nightmare on our highways. People that drive while talking on their cell phones was already a social problem for us. That is why I have invested in a Motorola Bluetooth earpiece for both my wife and I. Now we see more dangers with people driving and trying to send a text message at the same time. Adults and young drivers are losing their lives on our roads and text messaging is to blame. We will have to figure out ways we can get the benefits of a text message; while protecting the millions of innocent people that drive on roads each day.I look forward to seeing where technology takes us 10 years from now. The world is better and technology is to thank for most of the improvements.

We recently took a trip to Disney World and decided it was time to upgrade our digital camera. The reason for this is that when we were taking pictures of our kids with the various Disney characters and on the rides there was this 2-3 second lag between pressing the picture and taking the picture that we missed those great candid moments. We had been looking at the different SLR and point and shoot cameras that are typically on  sale at the large retailers and online stores like buy.com We saw several people with new Canon SLR cameras that were able to take multiple shots in a row and catch more of the action so we knew it was time to search for a new camera. Since there are so many variations of cameras ranging from 8-10 Megapixels it is tough to know which one will actually perform.

With so many feature and price points it comes down to what you are most comfortable with. With a nice Kodak EasyShare camera they take great pictures and are easy to fit in your pocket and can take pictures pretty quick. With the SLR cameras while they are great for those burst shots they are also more bulky so taking them on vacation to a place like Disney land can present a challenge when you are hanging onto your set in Space Mountain. For us we are going to land on the point and shoot because there are no adjustments needed and the Kodak brand is one that we are familiar and already have on that we use that just needs to be updated. So when you are searching for that new camera look past the megapixels and look for the performance of the camera and you will not miss another shot.

For those of you that have a wood burning fireplace, you will want to chop more wood than you expect to use. Buying your firewood is not needed, if you will get out now and do the work yourself. It does save money if you cut your own wood for the fireplace or if you have a wood burning stove you plan to use this winter. There are various types of fireplaces that you can have that are wood burning or gas. The different Amish fireplaces that are available can give you a traditional looking fireplace without the hassle of having to burn wood. You never know what Mother Nature has in store for us this year and if we have an extended period of below freezing weather; then you will burn a lot more wood on these days.

Your laptops will deliver your tv programming to you as good if not better than your current television will. You also have tons of memory on these versatile computers, so you don’t have to put the digital camera away and can still save all your pictures and files to your laptop. The new netbooks like the Acer Aspire nake it even easier to take your content with you for travel. If you don’t own a laptop yet, you can shop for one at buy.com. An excellent website that allows you to compare prices for laptops, televisions, cameras, and other tech gadgets you seek to own. If you haven’t tried to watch television from your computer yet, be sure to give that a try and judge for yourself if it’s not just as good as watching your television.

I like the grey hound races and there is a track located next to the Daytona race car track. I always make it a point to make at least one trip to the dog track when I go to vacation in Florida. I have even thought about over the counter sleep aids so that I can be well rested for the next day because it always seems that I do not sleep well in a hotel. Daytona also has all the things to do on the Atlantic Ocean and beach. You can drive your cars on the beaches around the Daytona area. You will also find lots of great places to eat at in Daytona. I really like to find the seafood restaurants, but the Daytona restaurants are all great places to eat and you will not starve while visiting Daytona.

It is now more important to make sure that you get plenty of sleep and stay up on your vitamins. It is especially important for pregnant women to talk the Dr. about prenatal vitamins as part of a healthy pregnancy. With the winter months brings on the cold and flu season.We all have heard don’t go out in the cold with out a jacket or you will get sick. This is not entirely true, what typically happens is that your immune system is weaken, and thus makes you more prone to colds and other viruses. What is essential is that you maintain plenty of fluids, wash your hands ( a simple but effective way to reduce the chance of getting a cold) and the proper nutrition and vitamin intake.

We found a site that offers quick trim reviews where they try and offer fair and balanced information. After you read their review it is clear that there are still some questions about what exactly the product does contain. This was an interesting fact since most consumers will not look this closely at the label, but rely on the product claims are not supported by much evidence and the FDA does not regulate these dietary supplements. So my suggestion is before you pick up the latest diet pill that read the label and if you are not sure what the ingredients are then do some research or read the latest reviews to help get a better understanding of what it is that you are buying.

So what are the best coins for 2010?. While looking through this section on their website I came across a great story that took place on the high seas. A ship that was bound for New York and went by the name S.S. Central America would run into a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas. The ship was carrying many valuables like nuggets, gold coins, and about 2 tons of gold dust. When this ship went down it was considered one of the most costly losses in terms of money that happened in the USA. Later on there were more treasures lost at sea and so many valuables just sat at the bottoms of the ocean.

Now with modern technology these ships have been found and many of the treasures that were on board these ships is in the possession of  Rare Coins. There are ways to market and find buyers that are  willing to sell their treasures or buy yours. So if you have valuable treasures that have been recovered from the sea and would like to sell. Also there are companies that you  get in touch with if you would like to own some of these valuable treasures they have recovered from the waters off the U.S. Coast.

Most people who make purchases online will usually by credit card or through some online payment system. There are still quite a few consumers who are reluctant to give their credit card online so merchants have turned to offering a phone check system that allows the customer to make their purchase and the safeguard for the merchant is that the check can be cashed that same day. With checks in a normal retail world merchants would have to go through a check clearing process which could take a day or two and then the check could end up bouncing. By using an online system you can verify the amount and validity in faster time frame. This will give you another option to attract new customers to your site.

In our home with have had difficulty in getting both the upper and lower floors to stay warm at the same time. We found out that by reversing the spin of our ceiling fans on both floors that we can create a better air flow and have a more economical heating bill. Because most ceiling fans have switches that allow you to pull or push the air from the ceiling by making a simple adjustment and having the air pulled down from the ceiling in the upper floors and doing the opposite in the lower floors we have been able to better heat our home.

If you have a basement or slit level home then you may already use a humidifier to help keep the moisture in check. Few people think about changing the humidifier filters in their homes because it is something that is usually not on the top of the list. If you have kids that have allergies then you are changing the filter all the time, but for most of us we are using one to help control the moisture levels within the air that is circulating throughout the home and the filter is not changed as regularly as is should. Although many of the new ones are equipped with an alarm to alert you that your filter needs to be replaced.

We all need a little time for ourselves and our family a couple of times a year. It’s great to pack up and get away from the daily saga of working and being sure that every thing runs smoothly like a well oiled machine. The hotels are okay, but they don’t say welcome. Any time you consider vacation rentals you should look in to the fair pricing that you get by staying in a condo, or a lodge, or a home. And with orlando hotel reservations and packages you can find suitable accomodations for the entire family. It’s just a little more personal and you can actually relax and not be so worn down and tired when you return home. Get your bags packed and see the vacation rentals that are available for you in the destination of your choice. My family does this every year in Orlando, Florida and we all have a good time.

I have found a great website that has some really great deals. It’s called Buy.com and they have a lot of items cheaper than most of the other places you find online.  I saw a nice television there, that is less than $1300 on sale and it was an LCD televisions with a 52 inch screen. You don’t see many televisions like that under 1,500 dollars. This particular model was a Samsung 52″ LCD TV with 1080P resolution! I would love to get this TV for downstairs to play our Wii games for the kids and watch the latest Blu-ray movies that are now available.You can find other great products in categories like Computers, Digital Cameras, Games, Toys, Books, Music and Sporting Goods.

I also took a glance at all the DVD’s you can find at Buy.com. That new movie that has Denzel Washington in it and is called American Gangster is less than 18 bucks! Some other movies I saw on DVD there was No Country for Old Men, Gangs of New York, Saving Private Ryan and the trilogy to Lord of the Rings. You can shop for other movies there and search for the ones by price range. There’s just a little bit of everything there and Using the online stores like buy.com allow you to find and compare some of the hottest products for this holiday season. We have used the site to make multiple purchases over the last year and use it as a shopping guide when we are out and about looking at various electronics.

When you are just barely making ends meet, there is no time to get sick. When you start feeling under the weather, it can be a double whammy. You are no longer able to work and bring in new money and you might have to spend money you already have to pay for doctor bills or medicine to get you feeling better. Before you get sick and get to this problem, now might be a good time to check your individual health insurance. For companies looking for health insurance lead recommendations you can find them online and find the carrier who will help you make your decisions. Just make sure it can take care of most of the high costs from doctors and those prescriptions you will need to get filled. We can’t stay feeling good and healthy forever and that next sickness can be just around the corner. We can do things now like saving money and having a good insurance plan in place, so the next time we get sick, we can afford it!

If you are the major breadwinner in your family and you happen to get injured or disabled for a certain amount of time do you have the correct policies in place to protect your income. We all think of disability insurance as a means to help pay some of the bills while we are temporarily out of work due to an injury or long term illness. What I found interesting is that in certain cases your social security disability may only cover you up to a certain point even though you may still need benefits. This is especially true if you are working professional or physician where your revenue flow is dependent on your presence.

The market for gold continues to climb as the stock market makes a come back. Now more than ever people are looking to put money into more tangible goods that actually have a hard and fats values. The dollar has been on the lower end of investors portfolios as foreign ecomonies look out pace the US in 2009 and early 2010. To buy gold has gotten easier thanks to companies like monex.com where you can even have them store your assets. Gold has been a good constant investment over the past several years and there appears to be no signs of weakening.

You will find that higher end faucets and might cost a little more, but you get what you pay for and the extra quality that goes into these higher end faucets are worth the extra dollars. I briefly worked for this company and did a lot of buffing on these products. The company takes great pride in the quality of their Kohler faucets and they made sure that we buffed these to the highest standards they set for their products. I can vouch that if it’s not perfectly done, they will scrap it and it never makes it to the stores. They only let the best faucets leave their factories and every customer is assured of getting one of the nicest faucets that is on the market today.

If you have ever wanted to purchase something nice for your or your family for the holidays then you may want to consider a spa. These can be a great investment in your health and well being and something that can be used for the entire family. The upkeep for most spas are realtively simple and only require occasional treatments and changing of the spa filters. They can be used year round and provide some health benefits if you have a nagging back problem, or play sports and need to just soak after a big game. I remember having one growing up and it was great to be able to come after soccer practice or a game and just relax.

It’s fun to go to the various stores and shop for electronics. I think we all like shopping in the electronics department. There is so many things that can catch our eyes in the electronic sections of department stores. The technology of gadgets has increased so much over the last few years. They are probably changing faster than you can get to the department stores to shop for them. There is a better way to keep up with the latest technology to come out. It’s by shopping for electronics online. It’s easy to do it this way, and any day through the week when you get off of work, you can check on the latest technology toys that are out there. So shopping on the internet makes a lot of sense, and can save us time too.

Abt Electronics has been doing electronics since 1936. They haven’t been online since then, because I don’t think they sold too many computers back in 1936. The important thing is that they are online now and have anything in electronics that you might want. A very big selection to choose from, if your looking for televisions, dvd players, portable satellite radio, digital cameras, printers, radar detectors, or even audio for your boat. They will have it at Abt Electronics.

Wireless connectivity has become so common that you see wi-fi signs in almost every restaurant and shop that you visit. With so many places offering internet connectivity having a secure and high band width modem like the Netgear Rangemax dual-band 3700 is becoming more of the standard. This is because these newer modems offer a higher throughput with multiple layers of security to help both home based wireless connections as well small business application. With the current rise of mobile broadband and the authority of a few large wireless companies, the word dongle has become synonymous with mobile broadband modems.

Simply stated, mobile broadband dongles are portable modems that plug into your laptop or desktop computer’s USB port to provide mobile Internet access over a 3G network. Dongles are popular with users who want the accessibility of being able to access the Internet where ever there is a mobile phone network. Dongles offer great flexibility and increased broadband range for Internet use on the go. These laptop accessories can help you gain access to mobile broadband access as well stay connected while you are at home or on the road. We have recently upgraded our home router to a dual band Netgear router and the coverage and speeds have been awesome. You can now find these high end wireless routers on sale at buy.com where they are currently offering shipping and costing under $160.00. It was just a few short months ago that these newer high end routers were tipping the price point at $200 plus. If you are seriously considering upgrading your home or small business connection then would recommend looking at the dual-band models to provide future growth and backwards compatibility.