NetBloke.com - Back up a Second
Publication Date: 09/12/2003
ISSN 1445-1360
Publication Date: 09/12/2003
ISSN 1445-1360
G'Day Blokes and Sheilas! Thanks for persisting with me! Whether this is a first issue you have received (and I know there are at least one hundred of you that are new) you have been with me from the start I thank you for your interest in my little newsletter. It has been a tough year and just after getting a few issues out a couple of months ago I had a major computer meltdown. This halted production but I learnt a lot I want to share with you all. We shall all learn from my mistakes! So my computer was hit by something that totally slowed it down to the point of being unworkable. I thought I had a good back-up of everything so I decided to wipe the system clean and start from scratch. Well everything but my Newsletter Ease program (which I use to run this newsletter) was restored easily. With my whole subscription management and newsletter content database buggered I was stuffed! Obviously I have now resolved the problem thanks to my friend Eric and Brett the author of Newsletter Ease. Once again I want to reiterate that I want to make this newsletter useful to you, so all your feedback is appreciated. Don't just unsubscribe; tell me what you want to see and read. I am trying to mould my original objectives in with my current fads, whims, projects and the like. This issue has some great deals I have found for Christmas along with some of the things I have learned with the last rebuild of my computer (Black Beauty). Finally you will notice this newsletter is looking more like the Web site now. I am still fiddling and ironing out imperfections, however your feedback will help me make it look better so contact me and share your thoughts! Happy Holidays! Nathan Allan
A geek is normally used to refer to someone who is more studious or technically minded than the average Joe. However in today's day and age a geek commonly refers to someone involved with computers, hence the term Computer Geek. Today it also can be cool to be a geek, as your earning potential is raised by all those years buried in technology and schooling. I am not sure if I am a geek. Amongst the average Joe I may be but amongst geeks I am not so geeky. I suppose I am more of a Dag, but that is another definition!
Come on admit it! At least a little bit of you is a little geeky (see Definition if your not comfortable with the word geek). I have come across a number of amazing bargains, tech toys, useless wonders and the like in the past month or so. Now every good geek loves a bargain, especially the "free after rebate" type. I subscribe to a number of email newsletters that keep me informed on the bargains available out there so I thought I would share a couple of the exceptional ones with you.
PC Mall has a plethora of great gifts that are very cheap after rebate including Compact Flash, Kensington WI-FI Finder, and my favorite a 32MB QuikDrive USB Portable Flash Drive.
The guys at Cyberguys have set up a whole site aimed at the whimsical Christmas gift market.
The Removable Hard Drive Rack available from CyberGuys.com is something I purchased a couple of these racks when I rebuilt my computer. It allows me to carry my datadisk between two locations that I work at. It has worked out very handy as I have all my documents, email and data archives on a handy disk. I then simply copy this disk to my firewire drive once a week for a secondary backup of the data. You can get one here for only US$7.95.
Cyberguys have also put together a great geeky site with lots of useful and useless tech related products called X-treme Geek.
That should give you all plenty of ideas for the geek in your life!
As most of you already know my favorite, as with most Internet geeks, search engine is Google. However I rediscovered DogPile a while ago. It uses metasearch technology that returns results from Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, and many more search engines.
One of the big pluses in my mind is the "Refine Your Search" side menu that accompanies your results. This allows you to magically refine your results, targeting more specific area within your search query.
Another handy feature is the ability to focus your search on Web Pages, Images, Audio, Multimedia, News or Shopping. Admittedly I have only used the Web Page and Image search but having that extended capability is still appealing.
So why not try DogPile out now?
If you don't risk anything you risk even more.
I just noticed DogPile (my new favorite search engine). Has a Funny Bone Joke of the Day. Here is today's which I found particularly funny!
The math teacher saw that little Johnny wasn't paying attention in class. She called on him and said, "Johnny! what are 4, 2, 28 and 44?" Little Johnny quickly replied, "NBC, CBS, HBO and the Cartoon Network!"
