All About Kimberly

Sailing Along the Life of Single Parenthood

Tag Archives: Technology

What an Awesome

Contest this is.  Check out the prizes:

Can’t tell what is all in the picture?  Or think you’re eyes are playing tricks on you?  Check out the list:

  • HP TouchSmart IQ816
  • HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
  • HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
  • HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
  • HP MediaSmart Connect
  • HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
  • HP 564 Photo Value Pack
  • Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
  • Microsoft WIndows Live
  • Corel VideoStudio X
  • Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs
The contest is being hosted by GearLive and entry is fairly easy (especially for such an awesome prize package):
To gain your first entry all you have to do is:
  1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
  2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
  3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
  4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#glmagic”.
  5. Once that is done, leave a comment on the GearLive post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.
There are also ways to earn extra entries so go check it out and get yourself entered.   (and with all these great prizes, if you win, please remember who told you about it….LOL)  j/k

One Task for Next Week

Next week I have one major task on my list – changing hosts for my websites.  I have had it with my current on as it seems like my site is down more and more.  When you are participating in blog parties or have sponsor ads, this presents big problems when you can depend no your website hosting. For the last month or so I’ve been researching other hosts and trying to make a decision of who to go with. Just when I thought i had decided on one, I started to find ltos of people that use them that were having big problems so I was back to square one.  One site that I’ve found really useful in this resarch is Web Hosting Geeks. They have hosts ranked in order of superiority. Then they have separate lists if you know what you are looking for in a host. For example, I know that I am looking for a host that will easily handle my multiple domains so I went to their Best Multi-Domain Hosting chart to see who they recommended.  Reliability is going to actually be one of the most important factors for me.  I want my site to be up. I don’t want anymore ad suspension notices, and I don’t want to get ready to go add a post to only find that my site won’t load.  If any of you have stories to tell (good or bad), I’d love to hear them before I make the final decision next week and you should go fill out a review at Web Hosting Geeks also so others can benefit from your experiences.

Win a Nokia E71

This is such a great contest, I’m almost leery to share it with you.  After all if you enter, that decreases my odds. But my goodness won out and I’m going to share with you the opportunity to win this $500 phone from MomDot.  Now since the contest ends on my birthday (December 16), I personally feel that fate says this phone should be mine!!

Check out this phone:

Got your attention? Well head over and enter this contest by voting for Trisha in the Walmart contest, blogging about the contest, and stumbling the post.

Withdrawal

Yes. i’m going throuhg major withdrawal.  I cna’t stand not being able to access my blog all day long.  This is a real bummer. I can’t stand it.  So today I kept thinking of things and wanting to share, but I couldn’t.  i wanted to approve the comments, but I couldn’t and I wanted to go check out all of your Wordless Wednesday posts, but most of your blogs are also blocked.  And the few I could pull up, it was blocking the images so it made the Wordless Wednesday posts kind of pointless.  *sigh*

So I’ve never looked into the wireless cards or wireless modems that I think you buy through cell phone providers, but I think this is the move I need to make.  That way while at work, I can just connect through it instead of my school’s network.  How does this work though?  I’m not sure of the cost? Upfront costs and monthly costs.  I’d also like to know how fast it is and are there limits on how much you can use in a 24 hour period? month? 

Anyone have any idea?

Dragon Speed Test

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred

I like to think that I type quickly.  My students are always amazed at how quickly I type, but just now I took Dragon’s typing speed test! Now I’m thinking wow!  What I could do with my time if I used the services they provide.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is a way to turn your voice into text.  You can use it for word documents, emails, or instant messages.  If I had that ability, it would be super neat!  The notes and worksheets I create each day.  And even these blog posts.  You can even surf the web with your voice by using the Naturally Speaking software. It types 100+ words a minute with a 99% accuracy rating.

If I could create blog posts, create worksheets and tests, with this speed and accuracy, I could get so many other things done like all the household chores that I have a hard time keeping up with and grading papers.  Those are two things that get piled up because I procrastinate both.  

Just my blog writing and worksheet/test creation takes at least 2 to 3 hours a day, but if I could cut that time in half, that would be more time to spend with Cameron and Becka.  We love playing games and watching movies, but I find that I tend to be doing this with a laptop in my lap so that I can try to do both.  This means my girls don’t get my undivided attention (which at times I regret).

Do you think you could write a novel in a month? Starting November 1st, you can try using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for NaNoWrimo, and write your novel at 150 words a minute!!

Interested?  Check out these Dragon Reviews: