We all know that arguing over the internet is a lot like competing in the Special Olympics... alright, I'm not going there, but I did find a great new site that settles many arguments once and for all... or at least until the debate is no longer cached by Google.

Convince Me allows users to debate a topic against other users. Their opinions also come with a vote, and they must choose a side. At the end of debate, you can look back and see which side has more support. This site could be much more useful than your average poll, because the participants are passionate about their views and supply supporting opinions.
Convince Me - Debate Online

Alright, so you've got a great idea for a website, and now you just need cheap web hosting, right? It can be quite a dilemna, with all the choices out there. You don't have your site up yet, so you have no idea how much space you'll need or what kind of traffic you're going to get, so you're not sure which package to buy.

You can check the site above for comparisons and reviews of all the popular website hosting sites. There are a few things you should know about hosting before you dive in. First of all, cheaper is not always better. Beware of resellers, who are selling their excess account space and bandwidth. Although some web hosting companies make it easy for their customers to set up reseller accounts, things can still get complicated.

I prefer to pick one of the top web hosts. I'm not going to name names here, but with a small amount of research, even without leaving this blog, you can probably figure out who the biggies are.

Some questions you need to ask yourself:

Is my site going to host a lot of pictures and videos?
If the answer is yes, look for a host with more storage space and more monthly bandwidth.

Am I going to host multiple domains on this account?
Some hosts allow for 10 or more domain names, others give you just one or two.

Is my site going to have an integrated database?
Look for a host that gives you unlimited MySQL databases, among other things. Most of the big web hosts have this with their standard package these days.

Does this host support all the programmer and website languages I want to use?
Most do, but you should still make sure.

Do they have free support and throw in a lot of extra goodies (shopping cart script, one free domain registration, marketing software, etc) when you purchase and annual package?
They should, and you should find one that's giving away the goodies that you'll actually use.

The site I link to at the top is great for making all these comparisons. Since you don't know exactly what you need, you should at least make sure that your host is going to offer more of the things you think you'll need than its competitors.

I've had the same buddy icon for years. It's Hunter S. Thompson with an American flag draped over his shoulder. Other people I know like to change their icon every week. They should check out this site I found where you can
www.acmeicon.com
I spent at least 30 minutes making my icon just right, but it's a lot quicker with this site. They have lots of popular icons too, like Beastie Boys and Pink Floyd.

If your want to overclock your computer to an extreme speed, you should probably shy away from the methods used by Tom's Hardware. They truly are pros.

So what is Tom's Hardware's method? They fabricate a custom case and pour oil into it. The oil absorbs heat and distributes it faster than air, allowing the computer to be overclocked to 5 GHz.
TechEBlog » How Not to Test Your Computer

Someone posed a very interesting question today that I think warrants some discussion. Why is so easy to buy a gun, but many states forbid the purchase of non-lethal self-defense devices like tasers and mace pepper spray?

It doesn't seem to make any rational sense. Shouldn't our government be encouraging us to defend ourselves with non-lethal devices rather than guns? The answer is almost certainly that the gun industry has a lot more money than the self-defense industry. They have the power to hire big name lobbyists to influence politicians, who will then vote to give Americans their "gun rights", which is all supposedly outline by the Second Amendment. That may be our most dated and least useful right, meant to protect citizens from having their weapons seized by the British, but the gun lobby contends that it's just as important as our freedom to speak freely.

Stun guns and tasers can be used maliciously, but even then they are rarely lethal. The laws against misuse can be stiff, so it's not like the owner of such a device would be given a free pass to do ill. Gun owners do get a free pass. It's disturbing who is allowed to buy one a weapon intended to take a life. The gun lobby and the NRA seem to like it that way, because it's "their right to protect themselves". I think we need to do more to seek alternative ways of protecting ourselves. Guns intended to protect families are involved in accidents every year that end up taking the lives of those family members. They also get stolen and used by some of the lowest low-lifes to do horrible things. A gun is one of the only products that is worth more as a stolen item than it is when purchased legally, because it's harder to trace when stolen.

Think about whether we should promote the legalization of non-lethal self-defense products like stun guns and tasers and ban unsafe firearms.

I would encourage my significant other to carry some sort of protection on her at all times, just for my own piece of mind. I would be very upset if she wanted that protection to be a firearm. Plus those things are heavy, and she'd look kind of ridiculous carrying one of those around.

It seems like each decade, music has a dominating genre. In the 80's it was arena rock, in the 90's it was grunge/alternative, in the late 90's/early 00's it was boy bands and girlie pop. What's the next genre? Indie, and it encompasses all genres.

Check out unsigned.com, it's a site just for artists who are unsigned by a record label.

The internet has enabled artists to do their own promotion, and sites like Unsigned Bands is there to help them along the way. While many bands are looking to get signed by a label, it can really help if they can become at least a local success before they go under a label's wing. That means utilizing the internet to get the word out about the band.

Jeremy Schoemaker, a Technorati top 100 blogger, has been subpoened in a slander case. Schoemaker, who runs the ShoeMoney.com blog, is not the person being accused of slander, but someone who left a comment on his site is.

It's not clear if Schoemaker could be charged in this case. If he is, the legal battle could create a very important legal precendant for bloggers everywhere, and could lead to an end to blog comments as we know them. Bloggers should not be expected to police their own comments section. I can see how they would be expected to remove offending comments if they are brought to their attention, but actively checking the comments on each post is ridiculous. I hope the courts understand this, but when do courts ever understand new technology?
ShoeMoney, You Just Got Served! - ShoeMoney™

Free cell phone deals have been around since the dawn of the cell phone age. They can be great deals, but you still might want to comparison shop to find the right phone and the right contract for you.

I've found this site called Wirefly which has all the best cell phone deals. You can get free RAZRs, with no rebates required, or a Motorola v325i, or Samsung Blackjack that's all the rage these days.

What's really great about this site is that you can check to make sure service is available in your zip code, and you can sort by both cell phone maker and by service carrier. That's important, because what good is a free cell phone if you can't use it?

You're going to end up paying for a montly cell phone service plan anyway, so why not get the phone companies to pay for your phone? It makes a lot more sense to me than paying for both.

The popular Mozilla Firefox browser will work with Microsoft Windows Vista, but to Vista users its look might remind them of... 2005 (gasp!). Now Firefox users can download a theme (see link below) that will give their Firefox a look that integrates a little better with the look of Windows Vista.
Vista Firefox 2 BETA v4.1 by *solidfilter on deviantART

I found out about VideoDetective a few days ago, and it's a really great place to find movie trailers, both new and old, along with various TV and DVD promotions. They have a search of various web video sites to find what you're looking for. In addition, they have spoofs and trailer mash ups, for when you're really feeling wacky.
videodetective.com

I did a few test searchs for some movies I like, and I found trailer videos for all of them. Try it out!

I, like many webmasters, can't get enough SEO. It stands for search engine optimization, and it's basically the concept of trying to get the highest ranking for a topic in a search engine (usually Google these days, but Yahoo and MSN are also significant).

SEO starts before a site is built, or at least it should. Competitor analysis and keyword analysis are things that should be researched before choosing a topic for a site.

There are many tools that you can use. Here are some: http://www.seo-monitors.com/project/service/.

The key is figuring out what topic to build a site around and the best way to "present" that site to the search engines. What are the popular keywords for that topic? When you do a search for the keywords people are searching for, how many results come up?

Other things to consider are how to make your site look popular to search engines. The search engines like to rank sites that are popular very high in their results. How do they know if a site is popular? They look at other websites, and find out who is linking to your website and what words they are using for that link. If 1,000 sites link to your site with the words "Six Sigma tutorial", chances are your site will rank high in the search engines for that phrase.

The site I've linked to above has more information about SEO, and tools that will make the whole process much easier for any webmaster.

Ink and toner cartridges are one of the top expenses an office has to pay for, other than salaries. Buying them from the right place could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Buying your next toner cartridge from OfficeSupplyOutfitters could save you a lot of money. They have a lot of specialty brands, like HP, Dell, Samsung, and Lexmark; along with the IBM, Xerox, and Canon carts that most of you probably use.

I was surprised to see that they sell ink ribbon and paper rolls, because I did not realize there were still offices that used them. If your office does, get with the times and digitalize! That said, if your boss is a stickler for the old fashioned gizmos from the golden age when everything was well-made and every dinner was steak and lobster and everyone was always happy... well, OfficeSupplyOutfitters has the replacement products for the products he's forcing you all to use.

There are many choices in toner cartridges. You can find thousands of sellers on Google, most of them re-sellers or just affiliates of the real sellers. OSO focuses on selling them as efficiently as possible to make the customer happy. The competition might beat them in Google results, but you can only get so far with smoke and mirrors. OSO knows that, and they'll be around long after the competition has bit the dust.

Having trouble figuring out what to get your girl for Valentine's Day? I know, you think girls really hate all the tech stuff you're in to. It's not true. Think about how much they love digital cameras and making digital photo albums and posting them online. What do they probably need? A place to store all of those photos.

Here's the idea: buy her personalized flash drives, or just one if you're broke.

You can preload them of pictures of yourself or the both of you together, and she'll always have that to take with her wherever she goes. It can be a lot cheaper than a dozen roses and a necklace, and it'll make her happy for a lot longer.

Next time you're thinking about coming up with that complicated but special gift, remember to keep it simple and stick to the things you know. And never assume that girls are not in to the gadgets and other tech goodies you are. Just make sure it's something special just for her, and not something you grab off the shelf at Best Buy.

Some very bright and possibly very bored engineers came up with this neat little hack for the Wiimote: they made it control a robotic arm. They attached a tennis racket to the arm for some live action Wii tennis. After that, check out what they did with a sword. It's all here on this video:

I just wanted to alert everyone to this free IT training offer from Train Signal Training.
trainsignaltraining.com

This company has training for all the latest IT topics, including Windows Vista and its enhanced security features. Other topics include Exchange Server, Virtual PC and Certification help. If you're working in IT, you know how important it is to have proper certification.

As larger manufacturers like Motorola and Nokia begin to sell "unlocked" cell phones which can be used on any network the buyer chooses, will the smaller companies follow suit, and are consumers going to be willing to pay more for these cell phones?

People have become used to cell phones costing between $50 and $100. They brag about the cell being worth $500, but they "got a great deal." That great deal usually means they agreed to a 2 or 3-year contract when they bought the phone. The service provider has a deal with the manufacturer, giving them a piece of that contract in exchange for selling the phone for cheap. Although consumers may be better off with the unlocked phone, it's hard to tell if they will understand that when they are faced with paying $500 for the latest and greatest cell phone.

Full story

I have to admit it, I like old-school tech. Computers adn cell phones are great, but sometimes I just want to play around with a quality set of bushnell binoculars.

Eagle Optics has some of the best prices on Bushnells, and a wide range from the popular binocular line. If you've ever a pair of regular binoculars and then used a pair of Bushnells, you know why they've been considered the best for decades.

I'm not a bird watcher or a professional spy, I just enjoy seeing things from a distance. It really is that simple.

A nice Bushnell binocular set can actually be quite fun when you've grown tired of the Wii and PSP. They're also great to take along with you to sporting events, especially at stadiums so huge you can barely see the playing field from the upper deck (cough, Yankee Stadium, cough). You won't even know what sport they're playing without some nice binoculars.

TechCrunch broke a huge story yesterday about Microsoft paying people to vandalize Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, by giving different computer-based articles a pro-Microsoft slant.

Now a Microsoft employee by the name of Dare Obasanjo (according to cruchnotes.com) didn't like the bad story about his employer. He decided to get back at TechCrunch by... you guessed it: defacing the Wikipedia entry about the TechCrunch website.

If this is all true, Microsoft needs to educate their employees on proper conduct when dealing with journalists and the media in general.
CrunchNotes » Microsoft Employee’s Wikipedia Attack on TechCrunch

Do you know how much it costs to recover data from a dead hard drive? It's not always possible, but when it is, it's very expensive. That is just one reason to backup your PC data. Here's more information: www.onlinebackupguide.com/.

There is a lot of software out there that can help you backup the data on your PC. Before you even dive into the various titles of backup software and all the great sites that can help you out along the way, ask yourself what type of backup you need. Do you need a bootable disk, or just the data on a hard drive? Are you backing up one PC to another over a LAN connection? Do you want to backup a hard drive to a CD or DVD disc?

There are different types of software that specialize in the different types of PC backups.

Remember to play it safe with your data. Don't assume that just because you can access it now, you'll be able to get to it tomorrow. I've lost several hard drives and lots of information that was important to me. Now I backup to other hard drives, and also to another computer on my network with several hard drives that serves as the backup PC for my LAN. It's really not as complicated as I might make it sound.

Home theater systems are becoming the latest rave, fueled by high-end high definition TV systems like the Samsung 61 Inch 1080p HDTV.

There are plenty of other great HDTVs to base your home theater system around. You should basically be looking for the system that best fits your budget and the size of the room you will be putting it in. While it's true that these TVs are not like the 3 feet deep sets you grew up with, you still have to consider wall space when you buy a new HDTV.

Don't forget, it's not just about the television. You also have to think about things like audio and what type of DVD player you want to hook up to your home theater. Remember, no matter how much you paid for the HDTV, chances are the built-in audio (assuming it has it) is not going to be any greater than what you get from your analog TV at home. Even if your friends are impressed by the size of the screen, they'll make fun of you for the weak sound. A good stereo system is a must for a nice home theater. At the very least, look for a 5.1 stereo system, which will include 2 right speakers, 2 left speakers, one center speaker, and a subwoofer.

With government regulations that could possible force all analog TV users to make the switch to a TV capable of receiving a digital signal within the next 2 years, now is the time to start thinking about a nice HDTV system.

A pair of Canadian engineers have developed a magnetically-levitated axial flux alternator with a vertical axis. I know, that's a lot of big words from engineering nerds, but here's why this is a big deal:
people will be able to "capture" wind on their own rooftops and generate power for their homes.

A big drawback of traditional wind-powered turbines is that the fins need to be large, making them less-than-feasible for home use. Any structure over a certain height becomes subject to FAA regulations and other local codes. Imagine if that same wind power could be captured by a device only a few feet high. I can imagine the day when new homes are actually designed to hold two or three of these devices on the roof to power our computers, HDTVs, and subserviant robots.
Mag-Wind Vertical Axis Turbine for your Home (TreeHugger)

I've been on a bit of free tech trip lately, but why should something like that need to end? I've found another great site for my readers: techbooksforfree.com.

http://www.techbooksforfree.com/


Any good programmers is constantly trying to improve their skills in a coding language or learn a new language entirely. This site has books on everything from operating systems like Windows and Linux to coding languages like C++ and Python. There is something for everyone, check it out.

Drupal has released version 5.0 of their free content management software, and early reports are that it blows other CMS's out of the water.

Drupal is the software behind some of the most popular sites on the internet, from the blog of Tim Berners-Lee (if you don't know who he is, look up "world wide web" + "history" on Google) to NASA to MTV.

With community sites like Facebook and MySpace now valued in the billions of dollars, it's clear that Drupal and it's ilk are the must-have software of the future. Drupal is built by thousands of hard-working individuals, many of whom use the final product on their own personal websites. Everything is open, so you really get to see some of the best ideas from the greatest programmers flourish.
Drupal 5.0 CMS

Alright, I'll admit it: I've made more than my fair share of prank phone calls in my life. I've used the very lame ("is your refridgerator running?") the very sick ("do you have used contraceptive products for sale at a discount"?) to the just plain bizarre ("uhhh, do you sell the Grand Slam meal with extra 'slam'?"). The rest I can't tell you about.

Here's something I could have used:
www.SpoofCard.com

Back in my day, few people had caller ID. In addition, I used an internet phone that did not have a traceable number. I made crude attempts to disguise my voice, and I played rather lewd audio in the background at times (those are the calls that cannot be mentioned). Anyway, Spoofcard is great because it offers untraceable numbers, along with the ability to disguise your voice. You can even change the gender! Want more? You can select the number you want displayed on the receiver's caller ID!

I'm not telling you to use this product for ill. Prank phone calls may be a crime, depending on where you live. It's poor manners. Alright, I can't go much further, because we all know it's hilarious to make fun of people we don't know.

I'm posting this because I'm on a public computer and I want to be able to find it again in the future. That said, this is a really cool mindcloudmap of various "Web 2.0" websites and apps. From del.icio.us to digg to writeboard, this map has all the sites I use on a daily basis, and many that I don't... but will very soon.
Web2.0 - extended mindcloudmap on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Today, I came across a new tech site by the name of Techzoogle. They are comparable to Engadget and Gizmodo, and cover all sorts of technology, from Gaming to Web 2.0. They even cover automotive technology.

An example of a post that I found to be useful was this one: http://techzoogle.com/?p=364
I know many people who have asked that same question, as each new version of IE seems to be more and more like a virus that can't be cured. I know at least one computer repair technician who wishes that above link was including in everybody's bookmarks, because it would save him a lot of time.

I can't get enough of gadget sites, because it seems like there's too much tech for one site to cover. By adding this to the list of my daily visits, I know I can come close to getting my fix of gadget news. Hey, it sure beats paying for a subscription to Popular Mechanics or Wired (which also has a website that I visit daily).

I'm not a Mac fanboy, I prefer using whatever product gets the job done. I guess I'm lucky that I have access to a variety of technology from different companies and don't have to pin myself down to one company.

That said, I do have fun watching all these Macs vs. PC commercials and print ads. Traditionally, Windows has taken the side of the PC. After all, it wasn't until last year that a Windows operating system could be loaded on a Mac.

Macs are traditionally viewed as the better computer for graphics applications, such as photo or video editing. That's no news to Microsoft, who apparently has been using a Mac version of Adobe Photoshop to make at least one of their print ads. The picture proof of this is linked to below.
MS+MAC.jpg (JPEG Image, 1024x768 pixels)

Google Talk and AOL Instant Messenger will interoperate by the end of this year, according to sources within Google. This has been in the works ever since a 2005 deal between the two companies.

This is a smart move for both companies. Despite Google's success, they have failed to make serious inroads in the instant messaging market. Despite its failures, AOL still holds a fairly large piece of the IM pie. Now Google will be able to push more ads through instant messaging and AIM users will be able to communicate with their more sophisticated Google friends.
Google Operating System: Google Talk to Interoperate with AIM This Year

Lasonic is showing off a prototype of an iconic boombox that could be seen on every city street in America during the 1980's. The new boombox has a 5 band equalizer, as well as support for USB, SD, and MP3. Oh, and it also has a DVD drive and analog tuner. No word on when, or if, this product will make it to market.
Lasonic "Ghetto Blaster" - Gizmodo

NetSimplicity is a B2B software specialist, and the latest versions of their products can really make your business run smoother.

www.netsimplicity.com

Meeting Room Manager helps you schedule your rooms and resources from online and with Outlook. This software could have come in handy last week, when the VP barged in during the middle of a meeting and took the projector, as if I wasn't going to use it. I was, but he's the VP, so I had to let it go. If I had known beforehand that he was going to need the projector, I could have scheduled the meeting around it, or petitioned to have him canned.

Visual Asset Manager is used for inventory and tracking assets. Once again, it works from the web and also handheld scanners. I've worked for so many businesses who have no idea what they own or where it is at a given time.

Both of these products are available for a free 30 day trial.

I found a great story that looks ahead at where the processor market is going in the coming year. Intel has already doubled up their Core 2 Duo processors, creating a chip with 4 cores, not to be confused with the true Quad Core chip expected later this year. The standard Core 2 Duo will get a cheaper, bargain-hunter model, sort of like the Celeron chips to the Pentium.

While the article does cover what AMD is doing, I won't. Although they still have a strong foothold in the cheap desktop market, they have really crapped the bed in the high-end market, letting Intel pass them and take a huge lead. The newest Intel chips have an 8MB cache, compared to the 1MB on the AMDs. Other specs also show a great divide. Trust me, these things make a huge difference to the high-end buyer, and those are the consumers who bring chip makers the highest profit margins.
Digit Online

The iPhone, a product that seemed to be a figment of consumers' imaginations for years, is finally a real product. Apple announced today that it would be releasing a cellphone/iPod/PDA combination product, with a widescreen and touch controls. More on this later... much more.
The Apple iPhone runs OS X - Engadget

Here's a neat little guide that shows you how to download videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video to your hard drive in a format that you can view without any special video players (I assume you have Quicktime, Windows Media Player, and Shockwave/Flash). I know there have been plenty of times when I wanted to download a video so I would always be able to play it when I wanted and I had no idea how to do it. Thanks, Gil!
How-to Download Videos from Websites Like Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, and Others | Gil's Method