Modern Soapbox

The holidays are around the corner, and everyone is wondering what to get each other. It’s 2008. Get your loved one something digital. We’re living in the digital age. Everyone must own the digital version of everything. Books are now e-books. The “tube” is now LCD and hi-def. Vinyl to cassette to CD and now MP3. 8mm to VHS to Laserdisc (HA!) to DVD and now Blu-ray.

Let’s look at digital photography. Everything but the lenses are going to digital. Polaroid has discontinued their instant developing film. People bring their flash drives in to print out pictures these days? Why even waste your money on prints? The digital picture frame is a perfect present for anyone this holiday. People all over the country will be giving digital frames for gifts this year.

Which one is the best one to give someone? By visiting a simple-looking digital picture frame review site that seems to only review one brand might be the answer. The web is a vast universe that sells anything you can think of. You might have trouble finding this one, because it has a way to go in supplying reviews of other brands but maybe one of the models they review is one that might suit your gift-giving needs.

Insurance is a necessary evil. Some people question why they should pay money every month for something they don’t use. In the car insurance world, you never know when you need it. States have passed law that require it.

Life insurance is required for your loved ones. You never know when you may pass on or maybe you’re on your way. Having life insurance adds comfort to living and will cover the funeral costs and prevents families from being financial unstable.

With the web revolutionizing the way the economy works, you can browse online for the best life insurance quotes based on your needs. Look online first, because you’ll probably find the best prices.

There are many occasions in one’s life where it is appropriate to give a gift to others. Evens such as birthdays, weddings, promotions, and graduations are all evens in which gifts are appropriate.  For these such instances, Gift Baskets may be appropriate.

You could give Gift Baskets to your new hires welcoming them to town. The could be personalized to highlight special things about their new home. Gift Baskets full of kitchen cooking utensils, plates, cups, and snacks would be appropriate for your newlyweds.

Relaxation is precious  in today’s hectic modern society. It’s essential to your well being to have a relaxing bedroom. This can be done by painting, window treatments, Bedroom Furniture, and accessories.

Choosing Contemporary Bedroom Furniture will create a modern look for your room and allowing you to feel at ease. Modern Bedroom Furniture features sleek lines that provide a clean, simple design for your bedroom. Your bedroom will provide you with a haven from the stressful world.

The next generation in televisions, models built flat with LCD screens, is becoming the mainstream in home theaters. Since LCD televisions are becoming commonplace in homes all over the world, the prices are significantly dropping.

LCD televisions for less than £300 (that’s $558.78 for you Americans) are widely available. Granted, you won’t be getting one of those big screens, but they’re great for a bedroom or a guest room.

Some of the more popular televisions like the Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 can be found for much less online than going to your local electronics store. Sure, shipping can be expensive (and at times isn’t when the promotions come around), but it’s probably less than paying local sales tax.

Stop being old-fashioned and invest in an LCD television. That big box you have uses more energy and takes up way too much space.

Late last month, Mare picked up some naan (pronounced ‘non’, not na-an) from Whole Foods, and we made some tasty pizzas with it.

These are naan pizzas topped with pineapple and red onion before they go in the oven. We made them just like we make our homemade pies with fresh dough, but no stretching needed to be done.

Here they are fresh out of the oven on the blazing hot pizza stone.

We experimented with an interesting topping combination: Canadian bacon and a sliced Granny Smith apple. You know how pigs are portrayed with apples in their mouths when they’re about to be eaten? It’s kind of like that but on a health kick scale.

The Canadian bacon/Granny Smith apple-topped naan pizzas after their ten minutes in the 400°F oven. They actually tasted delicious. The ham and apple compliment each other very well.

Parties or get-togethers require present-giving many times. The event could be a simple dinner party, or the occasion is an anniversary or birthday. Giving wine gifts is always a winner for dinner parties.

Wine gifts are usually more exquisite than just giving someone a bottle. They are given in a decorative presentation that make wine gifts a memorable item to give to someone in celebration of something.

The assortments are themed, so choosing which one to give is not difficult if you know what you’re looking for. Don’t be a cheapskate to your fellow wine connoisseurs when you bring something to the dinner table. Wine gifts will impress the guests as well as represent your good taste.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines thrive on it, and finding information on the internet in an organized fashion depends on it.

Businesses are established whose purpose in the economy is to make sure their clients are at the top of searches, so possible customers can pay them a visit and possibly do business. The more traffic a site gets, the more likely someone who visits will help the company’s revenue.

In similar terms, companies with similar business will have something like this video made by Base OneSearch, a search marketing company: SEO WARS. (To all you SEO geeks, that video is worth a watch.) A business will hire a search marketing company to generate text ads and build links everywhere to where the site’s PR will rocket it to the top of the most popular searches. This is the power of SEO.

The internet has become the #1 stop for the casual shopper. Anyone with the equipment and the connection can visit the digital universe where shops are pages and carts are only symbols that represent lists.

If you were looking for a wireless service, then you can find deals galore like Verizon Wireless promo codes that get you valuable savings unknown to the unknowing customer. You can find all kinds of coupons, discounts, and deals just by visiting a few sites that host them.

Planning a trip? Look for some Travelocity coupon codes. This can save you time and money just for being a super sleuth at locating those deals you deserve. Online shops and discount codes go hand and hand. Don’t find youself checking out of a popular site like Newegg with entering promo codes that get you free shipping in this world where gas is inflating the prices of everything.

Even though Blu-ray won the hi-def digital disc format, DVDs are still the prevalent form of home theater viewing today. VHS stuck around for a while, and you can still find them in bargain bins everywhere. DVDs provide quality that stays consistent view after view and will probably stay around for years to come.

With the latest and greatest technology in high-definition viewing entertainment moves on to higher-density discs, the DVD has become a commodity that is widely available at very affordable prices. DVD players are found as stand-alone systems that can be hooked up to a television, in both desktop mobile computers, as well as high-definition movie theaters (R5s).

The DVD format is also used for today’s video games. The amount of data that can fit on a dual-layer disc provides enhanced rendering for more realistic imagery.

DVD±R media holds gigabytes of data and can be used to back up information such as: important documents, programs, photographs, and even DVDs. Advanced compression algorithms in easily obtainable software such as DVD Shrink allow normal DVDs to fit on single-layer DVD±R discs.

DVDs are widespread revolutions in themselves. They have become the accepted form of physical media in the mainstream.

Happy August 8th, 2008!

I just finished watching the third season of Bones. The theme song is done by The Crystal Method, and the volume gets really loud when the music plays at the beginning of each episode.

Magnavox revolutionized the television set back in the days of square glowing boxes versus today’s slim hi-def descendents when they featured an option called Smart Sound. Basically, it was automatic volume control but was very effective when TV shows went to commercials which were intentionally much louder.

With this plugin which is compatible with most popular DVD-playing applications in the universe, the software you use to watch DVDs on your computer will have the ability to adjust the volume if it goes outside the parameter you set. This is very effective if you like to watch TV at bedtime, and the film or show you’re watching has loud explosions or parts where much louder music plays.

I’m dreaming or maybe I’m not. Does software like this exist? You tell me.

Here are some quick highlights for each category to keep you in the loop.

life: wake up, go to work, go home, eat my one good meal for the weekday with Mare, stay up ’til it’s time to go to sleep, sleep, repeat until the weekend, then the weekend flies by in two days and the cycle begins again.

comics: (new this week on the reading list of Sig & Mare) Cable #6, Hulk #5, Wolverine: Killing Made Simple, Echo #5, The Amory Wars (volume 2) #3

computers: c0rey is back up and running. ASUS is giving me a bad time for not getting a tracking number for my RMA, so I purchased an ABIT mobo compatible with my Phenom and it’s performing better than ever minus the strange start/restart ritual it likes to go through when loading Ubuntu. k0rma & 1nertia are scheduled to move offsite which will either happen tomorrow or some time over the weekend. Diode has been upgraded with a Maxtor 750GB SATA II/300 internal hard drive with 32MB cache for a total of 1TB disk space. w00t!

DVDs: One of the August project is to back up K$’s collection.

food and recipes: I tried Dan’s Hamburgers for the first time a couple weeks ago, and they are so much better than Mighty Fine and cost so much less, too! Dan’s has made my Top 5 burgers in Austin. I’m still finalizing that list, but off the top of my head in no particular order: Dirty Martin’s, Burger Tex, The Crown and Anchor Pub, Bagpipes, and now Dan’s. Suggestions are welcome.

movies: The last one I saw in the theater was The Dark Knight at Alamo. Joe finished his short film, but I can’t indulge you with the details ’til after it’s official screening.

music: Delay the Inevitable (DxTxI) is an amazing band.

work: Same ol’ gig that pays the bills. I have a review and a raise pending, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

That’s what I have for now. I really want to update this more often, but we’ll see. Peace out.