Cash Money, originally uploaded by vyxle.

Okay, not really free, per se. I just got my Economic Stimulus Payment direct deposited into my account. It’s nice to get a little padding in my cash flow.

Now what am I going to do with my newfound booty? There are several suggestions out there. I should either pay down some of my current debt or sock it away into my emergency savings funds (which I have slowly been building back up)… I really like the idea to “invest into career development.” That could actually be what I really need right now.

But isn’t the point of getting this cash to spend it? You know, help actually stimulate the economy? Okay. I’m down with that. What to buy? What to buy? Make a large purchase? Or spend it on a number of random smaller purchases? Food? Gas? Clothes?

Um… I actually have been wanting to get a new digital camera. Maybe I should do some research first… but I’m inclined to get a Sony Cyber-shot. I don’t know why, really… the Sony brand has just been growing on me, I guess.

Well either way, I’m glad I have some extra cash!

I’ve had my eye on this phone, the Sony XPERIA X1, for over a month now… To think that over a year ago, I didn’t think I’d want all the cool features that I have on my Sidekick 3.

I use my phone a lot. I use it to take pictures when I don’t have my digital camera. I use it to browse the Internet (that in itself provides cumulative hours of distraction by checking e-mail, Facebook, news, and Flickr). I used to use it constantly for instant messaging, but I’ve recently cut back on that to put my time to more productive use. I use it to listen to my mp3s all the time. I use it to hold plenty of notes and information that I need on the fly (contacts, dates, wireless network keys, urls, personal information, etc). Yep… my phone is more of a mobile device than it is a phone.

I had thought about getting an Iphone… but I’ve been really reluctant to get it. It looks really nice, but I think what kept me from buying one was its lack of a QWERTY keyboard. I need that thing. Bad. I am not a single-handed texter. And I have no intention of becoming one. The touch interface keyboard on the Iphone looks nice, but I prefer the physical one.

The XPERIA X1 has a QWERTY keyboard… PLUS a touch UI. I would love to have that. And it runs on Windows Mobile. Not too sure if that’s a good thing or not since I haven’t had much experience with it… but I’m sure that I’ll have way more capabilities with that than my Sidekick (like getting my e-mail directly via POP rather than having it forward to my T-mobile account). And it has a sort of ‘flip’ on it to reveal the keyboard, which is more of a personal preference than anything. So yeah… I’m really excited about this phone, er, mobile device.

Hehehe. New episode of Lost premiered last night.

If you’re a fan of the show, you probably have a lot of theories or questions (most likely the latter). I just wanted to pass along this site: Lost: A Theory on Time Travel. A fun site to kill some time reading. The writer presents a very good case, and I find it very entertaining and thought provoking. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he’s spoiling the rest of the series, but shows us another way to go back and watch the series over again in a different view as well as giving the fans something to debate and mull over.

I won’t go over every single detail of the show… there’s just so much. Let the Lost Wiki Page do that for you.

Hehehe, this is such a great video… at least for web designers and coders like me.

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As the computer savvy person in the family, I’ve often been drafted to help solve their computer problems. It’s frustrating sometimes to deal with, but I do my best. I’ve dealt with spyware and virus removal, Internet connectivity issues, and even hardware failures. I’d like to say that I’m an expert, but I still look online for solutions from time to time (mostly for fixes for malware problems).

I just got finished watching this investigative news report: Peeping Techs?. Basically they purposely unplugged a power cord in their computer and took it into several computer repair stores, including those of big chains Circuit City and Best Buy, and see what they would do. A lot of them overcharged like crazy. One even lied about how they fixed the power cord problem, saying they had to replace a “fuse.” Any computer person would catch that lie right away. But the investigative team also installed some monitoring software which basically captures any and all operations done on the computer, recording whatever actions are done. And I wasn’t really that surprised by what I saw: a lot of them went through their personal photos and documents. What an invasion of privacy… Actually, Best Buy had been the subject of this kind of practice a while ago, so I was glad to see that they had stepped up and actually did their job responsibly.

So what do you do when you actually do have a problem with your computer (which I think is probably inevitable)? First, I would suggest you try and get in contact with someone you trust, friend or family, that actually knows about computers. I say this because it’s easier to deal with someone you know than with a stranger. And if you don’t know a lot about computers, hopefully your friend/family member will do you right and solve the problem for you the right way. (And maybe treat him/her to dinner, huh?

If the problem is beyond their capabilities, then I guess take it to a professional technician. I don’t have any good experience with calling tech support. It’s just too frustrating on both ends: neither of you will probably be able to understand each other. So I say, go in person and judge for yourself if that technician is on the up-and-up. There’s all sorts of problems with different solutions, so I can’t really say how long they should hold your computer and whether they did a proper job. That’s when I would say to have your computer-savvy friend handy when you get your precious PC back. Hopefully the technician can explain the problem and their solution clearly enough so that your friend can say they did it properly or just BSing you.

It’s kind of tough. Computer technicians don’t have to be licensed or bonded. They really aren’t held accountable for their actions by law. I want to say stay away from the mom-and-pop stores, because they don’t have to answer to a corporate office… but I’m sure there are some honest ones out there.

Ah… technology.