Crackberry

“the First One’s Free” is what they always say in movies, when you’re talking about the hook that most drug dealers use. This is in theme with the “Crackberry”, as it’s been called. But for me, my first Blackberry actually cost me $50, which is pretty close to free when you add on the fact that I didn’t have to change any contracts or pay upgrade fees. Simply buy the used device from a friend who was getting a G1 and go from there.

At first it was easy to not depend on the Blackberry, because I only used the WiFi adapter so I could surf the internet anywhere I found a network signal. The phone still took pictures and made calls, but I couldn’t use many of the features that required a regular data package. And that seemed to be enough.

Then the OS upgrade came out. The new Operating System (OS) for the phone allowed me to use the camera for taking videos. It also allowed for better web-surfing so I found myself using those WiFi hot spots more.

My fall came in Christmas of 2009, when I was going to the Valley to see my family. I added the data package only to make sure I had access to loved ones back in Houston since I wasn’t sure if I could use my laptop from my cousin’s house. I realized all the new features the data package allowed.

Recently, I’ve sent pictures of my new office across the upgraded email software and I don’t use chat programs on my computer thanks to Google Chat on my phone. As we go into March I realize that the data package I meant to turn off before we rolled over into 2010 is still going strong, and… I just can’t stop! I don’t think I want to stop.

I guess The first one really cost me $50.

I think every teacher should take a martial arts class, and I don’t say this because I used to teach Karate. I say this because in Karate you will eventually hear a sentence similar to the following: If someone ever tries to grab you on the street…

Like many people, I hated Math. I hated Algebra in particular and have often felt like I’ve never use it. The problem is that no teacher ever told me: If you need to make a household budget in Excel…

That’s right. Today I’m going to touch on the idea that you can use a spreadsheet for you household budget, but I’m going to take it one step further so that everyone can play along. For starters, there are people out there who live check to check and others who have one or two jobs and never know how much they might make in a week. I becomes hard to plan your bills when you don’t know where the next check is going to come in.

Well lets just assume you don’t have the money to get Excel. That’s where OpenOffice.org comes in, and because we love things that are free but effective, that’s what we’re going to use today. If you don’t have OpenOffice, you could still use Microsoft Office since they work the same. But this demonstration is with OpenOffice.

Budgeting 102
A Budget is pretty simple. Step 1 is taking all your bills for the month, Step 2 is adding all of them together, Step 3 is setting aside that much every month, Step 4 is spending what’s left on Amazon.com… or maybe that’s just me.

As I said before, the hard part comes when your paychecks fluctuate. And here is where Algebra (I know, I hated admitting that) comes in to play. Look at this Formula:

B2*B1=B3

In your spreadsheet you put the words:
Pay Per Hour in A1
Hours Per Week in A2
and Pre Tax Pay in A3
You leave B1 and B2 blank but type =(B2*B1) in B3.

Now, when you type the amount you make an hour in B1 and the hours you work in a week in B2 you will instantly see a number appear in B3.

Using this simple little formula you can look at how much you make and determine how many hours you need to work. Is it worth it to get that second job? I don’t know but =(C2*C1) in C3 will allow you to use column C to add in that second job.

Mind you all of this is pre-taxed and clearly you can add more complex formulas. But even at this level you can predict if you need to work more hours at your current job, just ask for a $0.25 instead, or just find a job that pays just that much more. Since the formula is alive the data changes to not only budget your money, but help predict what you will take home.

 In my own spreadsheet I even have all of my bills being totaled. I then have the Est. Paycheck reduced for what I estimated my taxes to be, and then have the bills subtracted from that total amount. Now , hold on to your hats, I then have that amount divided by 4 so that I know, more or less, my own weekly budget for imported beerI mean online books!

 When you look at it this way, Algebra isn’t about finding out what X is. We always know what X is because it’s the trip, the gift or the outfit we want. But in this way Algebra becomes a system for asking: If X is the cost, then what’s the best way for me to aquire the funds.

To me, that’s the real meaning of working smatter over harder.

It may not look like much to you, but to an imaginative tech this is a treasure chest!

And yes, you read this correctly in that I am talking about getting a new PC for under $300.  I know it’s possible because it’s what I’m getting ready to do soon. You see, my computer is in need of a major upgrade and so I’ll have to be buying some parts for it, but the good news is that I can reuse some of the parts from my old PC.

It’s amazing what one can do with a little creativity and an old system. For example, I just acquired a PC that was in working order but the hard drive failed. It was from someone who gave up and decided to buy a new PC and thus planned to dispose of the old one, which I’m sure many of you have done in the past. I was given the old system, with it’s failed hard drive, to salvage what I could.

To be honest, I salvaged the whole thing! I went to a computer store in my area that specializes in second hand parts and picked up an 80 gig hard drive. Brought it back and tested it throughly to make sure there was nothing wrong with the drive and then installed it and a clean copy of windows. Since this was a Dell, I made sure I used the Windows CD that came with it in the first place. I then added some free virus software that you can get off the internet, an free copy of OpenOffice, updated to the lastest version of windows and bought some $6 PC speakers (new!)

My total out of pocket expense was $25. I plan to sell the system for $150 because it has both a DVD RW (which was tested) and CD RW (also tested). I went to YouTube and played some videos which I’ve done at customer’s homes. I find that YouTube lets me test the internet, video and audio all at the same time. Plus, if I pick a topic like “[Insurance Company] Commercial” I’m pretty sure to get very family safe videos.

My point is, this PC could have been turned into a secondary PC if the customer had wished. I’m sure they wouldn’t have cared to clutter up the house with another PC anyway but for growing families there is often a fight over who gets the computer. I would have charged a total of $225 for the hard drive, the install, and loading all the software, service packs, drivers (which can be tricky and time consuming), and internet extras. $225 for a Spare PC that the kids can surf the internet on and OpenOffice to do all their homework?

Don’t count those old PCs out just because a major component dies. It might worth it to get a Tech to take a second look at it. With a little creativity you might just have a good hand me down.

I just ran across this article today: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108504/10-things-not-to-buy-in-2010

It talks about the 10 things you shouldn’t spend money on in 2010 and while I mostly agree, I think you should be aware that there are some factor that this articles does not take into account. My goal with this blog is to keep everyone informed of complex issues with simple ideas. And so this is a good example of how I can do that for you.

1. DVDs. I will agree that spending money on DVDs is an outdated concept. I don’t think I’ve bought a DVD in years as I’m a rental kind of guy. I have considered buying “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” and “the Guild” (to free up space on my Xbox 360), but those are different issues. For me, the idea of owning movies that I may not watch more than a few times a year (at best) is not cost effective. Why not rent? But what this article fails to mention is that Blockbuster.com also offers a feature like Netflix.Blockbuster not only ships movies to your house, but they also have stores where you can exchange your online rental for an in store one. So, if you’ve got Benjamin Button and No Country for Old Men sitting around, but are really in the mood for ANY Comedy, you just take one of the two into a store and swap it out. Put the movie you just exchanged back in your queue and bump it to the top. No mess, no fuss! When you take the in store copy back (no late fees!) the next available in your queue is shipped. I’ve done this countless times over the last year and a half. Some people like Netflix, others liked RedBox — but Blockbuster.com is like Netflix and RedBox rolled into one.
2. External Hard Drives. Oh! Fancy online services for $20 less per year than just buying a hard drive. But consider this — how many computers do you expect to buy in the next year? Yes, there is a 10% chance that your hard drive will crash every year. I’ve known some people to run the same hard drive for 10 years and others to go through a hard drive every year. When you buy a $70 external drive, you buy it once.  If you need it 3 years later, that’s less than $24 a year you spent on your external. Compare that to the $160 you’d spend with an online service. If money is no object, and your data is THAT important then by all means. But don’t get into something for a long haul when you don’t need to. Most of what you want is in your “my documents” anyway.
3. 

   one "iPhone killer"

   “Smartphone also-rans”. What does that even mean? The article states that you should probably get a Blackberry or iPhone because they have the most apps. Well, yeah! Blackberry has been around for 10 years and is a back bone to most offices since 2002. You think those guys ONLY use it for work? No. So obviously there are toys for it too. the iPhone is the biggest fad since Atkins. It was so revolutionary that everyone jumped on it. But when the person who washes your rental car sits down and pulls out an iPhone to send a text you start to realize just how commonplace the phone has become since it’s release in June of 2007.  And to say that only 5% of people said they would purchase the My Touch is a very misleading statement. That’s like asking “How many people plan to buy a Toyota Corolla in 2010″? because the My Touch is a T-Mobile only phone.  People want AT&T, Verizon and Sprint as well. Sprint has the Hero, Verizon has the Droid, AT&T is working with HTC (makers of the original G1 Android phone) for their own Google Phone.  The first Android came out in Oct of 2008? And so limited to only T-Mobile users that it’s still taking time to catch on.My advice is not to limit yourself to just Blackberry or iPhone. Go out, look at the phones that has features YOU want. With the Cliqs, Droids, Heroes and Touches out there I’m betting you’ll see more Android apps hitting the market very soon. Unlike the iPhone, which is only with AT&T, programmers of the Android apps know they will be hitting larger audiences. Just like Blackberry.

Every thing else I agree with, except the idea that you’re advised to buy a bulkier alternative to a digital camera with a 500% higher price tag. Yeah, I think I’ll stick with the $70 Nikon that’s about a thick as my wallet. Thank you!

So, 2009 was supposed to be an era of change and hope. Well, I’ve seen a lot of change and I have a lot of hope so I guess that’s what we were shooting for. But with 2010 I’ve decided to make changes, especially to W00TDave.com. As many know, I’m an IT guy with a creative soul. My biggest strength has always been ‘talking customer’ and one of my greatest passions is writing so I’ve decided to do both.

What this blog will feature is articles written to be a common person’s view on a technical person’s world. When we talk about hard drives, bandwidth, dataplans and wifi signals it’s clear to use what we are talking about. To many people in the IT world the easiest way to explain a WiFi adapter is; an adapter that picks up wifi signals. But to most people they don’t know what a wifi signal is or where it comes from. They know that Starbucks offers it for free in some places and there are things called ‘Hot Spots’ but outside of that it’s not very clear.

I have a blackberry with a dataplan right now. I love it, but to save money I’m about to drop the dataplan. No tears, because it has a built in wifi adapter. This means that I can stand in the middle Bestbuy and look up video game reviews on my phone before buying anything. Or stand around in Boarder’s Books checking email, because the Blackberry patches into the wifi of the surrounding locations. No WiFi means my Blackberry becomes little more than a cellphone that plays music and videos. I once pulled out my Blackberry to make a call, as I was leaving a restaurant, and realized I could have been surfing the web while waiting for my meal! It was one of the reasons I ate there again later that week (I kid you not!)

So, how do I do all this? And is there an easy way for you to do it too? Sure! But that’s too much to go over in one post. I just wanted you to know what’s possible and that I won’t get all complicated when I explain it. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to go turn my Xbox 360 into a DVD player while looking for work on my laptop.