NetBloke.com - Shopping Bonaza
Publication Date: 29th December 2003
ISSN 1445-1360
Publication Date: 29th December 2003
ISSN 1445-1360
G'Day Blokes and Sheilas! What a wonderful but different holiday season it has been for me! As I mentioned in the last issue I went a visited Hayden a week before Christmas. It was a wonderful time and Hayden and I had a great time. As always I went into some more detail in my blog. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were interesting too. I went with Casey to Eric and Janice's place to exchange gifts, and then we went to Casey's mother's home for the rest of the holiday. I don't think I have played so many board games in years! First there was the 20th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit played well into Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day we played a game called Scene it! which makes use of a DVD that adds another dimension of game play. Finally I received a game I have always wanted to play, Stratego. Casey was nice enough to play it with me and let me win (or was that my superior strategy?). As I have told many of you personally I am still working out some of the tweaks in Newsletter Ease, which I use to manage the subscribe list and formatting the newsletter. So please stick with me as I work out the problems. If I create new ones as I solve others please let me know! This issue should have a readable text version if your email client only excepts plain text messages. If it doesn't let me know! Seeing this time of year seems to focus on bargain shopping you will see I am sharing some sites that may aid you in picking up those bargains. I also am continuing to share some of the lessons I have learnt since rebuilding my main computer recently. Have a Happy New Year! Nathan Allan
We all love to shop. Or perhaps I should say we all love to get the best deal! So here is my list of comparison shopping engines. ShoppingList.com was a great little find. It is a quick and easy way to find what store locally has the best deal on any particular item at any point in time. PriceGrabber.com catch phrase is "Comparison Shopping Beyond Compare". This is a pretty accurate description from my experience. Not only can you find the best deal on a product but it will also take in to account shipping charges. There are reviews by your fellow shoppers. Merchants are rated, which shows not necessarily the cheapest merchant is the best to buy from. MySimon.com from my memory at least, is the oldest of the comparison shopping sites. I have swapped to using PriceGrabber but I still try MySimon every now and then. With all the same features as PriceGrabber this is also a great comparison engine. Not to be outdone, from the makers of Google comes Froogle. When I first stumbled across this site I thought it was a rip off of my favorite search engine, however I soon found it was a comparison shopping engine. It is still in Beta and features the same basic interface as Google. So what are you waiting for? Go and help kick start the economy!
This program has to be the best thing ever for logging the hardware and software that makes up your computer system. The program creates a web page that is displayed in your Web browser. This page includes a lot of information, here is just a small sample of the information:
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
In the last issue I described DOMAIN in layman's terms. Douglas Paterson was nice enough to send me an actual definition of it. For those of you who are a little more technically minded you will find this interesting.
This week I believe I have found a great little USB Wireless LAN Adapter that you would have to be crazy not to think is cool! The fact that PC Mall have it free after rebate helps even more!
After a little hunting I found that this is developed by the Syntax Group and I have found some more specifications on their site.
It seems like a good deal and I might just buy myself one to see how well it works!
If you see a bargain and would like me to share it with all the other blokes and sheilas that read the newsletter please let me know. If you know of an Australian based site that offers regular amazing deals let me know about that too! All you have to do is use my contact form.
Computer Terminology Aussie Style
Log On: Make the barbie hotter
Log Off: Don't add any more wood
Monitor: Keeping an eye on the barbie
Download: Get the firewood off the ute
Floppy Disc: What you get lifting too much firewood at once
Window: What you shut when it's cold
Screen: What you shut in the mozzie season
Byte: What mozzies do
Bit: What mozzies did
Megabyte: What Townsville mozzies do
Chip: A bar snack
Microchip: What's left in the bag after you have eaten the chips
Modem: What you did to the lawns
Dot Matrix: Old Dan Matrix's wife
Laptop: Where the cat sleeps
Software: Plastic knives and forks you get at Big Rooster
Hardware: Real stainless steel knives and forks from KMart
Mouse: What eats the grain in the shed
Mainframe: What holds the shed up
Web: What spiders make
Web Site: The shed or under the verandah
Cursor: The old bloke that swears a lot
Search Engine: What you do when the ute won't go
Upgrade: A steep hill
Server: The person at the pub that brings out the counter lunch
Mail Server: The bloke at the pub that brings out the counter lunch
User: The neighbour who keeps borrowing things
Network: When you have to repair your fishing net
Internet: Complicated fish net repair method
Netscape: When fish maneuvers out of reach of net
Online: When you get the laundry hung out
Offline: When the pegs don't hold the washing up
