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...since I have been over to CouponChief, but I always find something cool when I am there. This post IS sponsored by CouponChief.com

The reason I like going over there is that whenever I am shopping for something on the Internet, I want to find the best deal that I can. CouponChief always has great coupons and coupon codes for me to use. For instance with Mother's Day coming up I know that I need to get my something. I don't know what yet but they have some pretty good deals for ProFlowers at the site like a free vase and six free roses with the purchase of a dozen Mother's Day Roses.

One place that I like to look for stuff is at Overstock. We found a 19" flat screen for my son about three years ago for less than $400. At the time that was great. With coupons from CouponChief you can get free shipping on orders over $50, up to 75% off on watches, and great deals on jewelry. The wife doesn't wear a lot of jewelry, so that option is out but if it weren't that's where I would go.

This Post is Sponsored by Adventure11.

...but this one is for surfing websites. Adventure11 is an Internet surfing game that allows you to win prizes for surfing websites. If you are one of those folks that surfs the Internet aimlessly looking for good content do so with a purpose and take home a bit of cash as well. Might as well make a bit of money for doing something you would already be doing for free, and get excited about it.

As a free member up to $1000 a week can be earned just surfing the Internet. Basically you win cash by finding "surfing surprises". You sign up for Adventure11, activate your account, and from the members area click on the "Go Surfing" link. The system automatically takes you to eleven different websites and during that time a Surfing Surprise might appear. If it does you click a link and see if you have won anything. Pretty simple, no?

Any payments are made within 49 hours and as with most contests taxes are your own responsibility. Once you have activated your account you are eligible to start winning the next day, you can only surf 30 websites a day, and you can only have one account per person with Adventure11. You can check out all of the legal disclaimers and whatnot at the link.

Even though I am very much into gadgets and home theater, our setup is very "retro". My cabinet is this huge hulking behemoth of wood with doors on the top with the TV and a few IR inputs behind it, and doors on the bottom that hide my HTPC when it is hooked up, my receiver, DVD player, VCR, wireless router, and a few others. I really like the setup.

Along with the theater cabinet all of the furniture is heavy wood, big wooden tables, and lamps to match. The only thing that I really want in here that would complete the setup is a grandfather clock. Clocks are just one of those things that no matter how much technology changes and gets better (and in some cases worse) they pretty much stay the same. They do their job. Might as well have something attractive as well as functional.

I've been having problems with my cell phone for about a year now. I'm on my third battery since I got the LG and it is starting to get real irritating. The last one would go dead after a couple of hours, but this one just shuts my phone off at inopportune moments and I don't realize it until several hours have gone by. Rather than dealing with Verizon this time I may just get a couple of extra batteries from the place where I got my last cordless phone battery. They have replacements cheaper than I can get them at Verizon, at least the last time I checked. I only have a few more months and I can get a new one anyway.

This Post is Sponsored by Data Deposit Box.

I'm glad that I came across this because it's been a couple of months since I made a good backup of my computer. That's one of those no-brainers that a lot of people just don't seem to do as often as they should. Sometimes the things that are easiest to do are the hardest to do and backing up data is one if those things.

If you've ever had a system crash where you lost all of your data, you know what I am talking about. It sucks to lose everything that you've worked on for months. I'm sure for some people it would even be longer than that. There are several different choices when making backups. Now that I am running Vista it is even easier, but most people still run Windows XP or something older, or perhaps a Mac. Backing up data is not that easy, and restoring it is even harder. I don't trust anyone else to do it for me either. There are places, "Geek Squads", that you can take your computer and have them back up your entire computer, but they won't give any kind of guarantee that all of it is saved or even accessible for that matter.

Backing up over the Internet is one more option. Online backup is easier than you think. Usually you can get set up withing five minutes or so and it's pretty cheap. Generally speaking it's pretty cheap as well, about $2 per gig of data. That's particularly nice if all you are backing up is documents and really important stuff. That's generally what I do. The operating system and everything else I can restore from DVD and then my docs are kept in a separate backup as well.

I am getting ready to make a backup of my web site as well. I have most of my blog entries archived, at least up through the 1st of April but the mp3s and pictures are not. I should be able to save most of the site offline so that if there is a system crash I can get up and running again pretty easily.

If you don't make regular backups, you need to ask yourself what would happen if your hard drive were to die right now. What would you lose?

I have right at a gig of computer memory in my PC, but since I have upgraded to Windows Vista I have been considering getting at least another gig (at least). Memory Store has some decent prices and a decent selection, so that is more than likely where I will get it. When I worked in Norcross I used to buy everything locally, as there are a few stores near our corporate office that carried everything I need at a cheap price. Since I am back in the restaurants again, I usually get everything online. I try to shop around so with memory I go to the Memory Store for my computer memory.

What's really cool is that they have a memory detection module that will detect your motherboard type, filled slots, and all the other info. Not sure but it probably uses Windows WMI information. I know it works for me great. I have four slots in my PC, and they support up to eight gigs of memory.

I found a 1 gig Abit module (my motherboard is a UL8) for $99. I am thinking about going ahead and biting the bullet to get four of them. Four gigs of memory should do me for a couple of years before I need another upgrade. By then I will be ready to replace the entire thing anyway.

...and this one's for your cell phone or MySpace blog. U-Doo is a personalized ringtone thing that you create and download to your phone and/or to your myspace blog. It is an animated avatar that also speaks. It allows you to build a custom avatar, select a message from either one that you record on your phone, via using text to speech, or there are several prerecorded ones to choose from.

I got this cool little skeleton thing over at my MySpace page with a very short text to speech message. I created it in a minute or so, and then told it to upload to my myspace page and it was done about 30 seconds later. Very quick, and it pops it in the 'about me' box.

It also allows you to email it to someone else (or yourself). I did this as well, and after I told my webmail provider that mail from myself was not spam :) I received it in my mail client. It emails a link to the web page for you or your friends to check out.

U-Doo is available free for your web page or via email, and is offered as a subscription service through cell phone providers for a 60 day free trial, and then it's $4.99 a month after that.

When I first moved into my house here in Temple I had no access to any kind of broadband whatsoever. Back in late 2000 or 2001, I was able to get DSL, and shortly thereafter Cable access to the Internet. I was really not aware of this, but apparently about 40% of Internet users are still using dial-up to connect. I honestly though that more people had access to high speed Internet.

Some of those people I am sure have access to it, but just don't want to pay anywhere from $30-$70 a month for the service. My next door neighbors that moved away a couple of months ago used dial-up, mainly because he wanted to save money. I also used to work with a guy, and he did it for the same reasons. Eventually they both migrated to high speed though.

PCDialup.com is an ISP, currently only serving the state of California, that offers dial-up access for $3.95 a month. That's a pretty good deal if you are looking to save money. The wave of 'free' internet access companies has all but disappeared, and this is most definitely the next best thing. With the fact that so much of the country is using broadband, companies like PCDialup are able to access equipment and phone lines much cheaper than they could ten years ago, and are able to pass that savings on to us.

They also offer accelerated web browsing for only $1 more per month. This is for basic 56k access. As I said before, it is currently only available in California, but they will be expanding their capacity to the rest of the U.S. shortly as the service grows.

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