Laptop Bags

I was quite content with my old laptop bag, in spite on how bulky and beat up it is.  I bought it in 2002 when I spotted it in Meijer when looking for a diaper bag, as the one that I had at the time was falling apart. I also had a thin laptop bag, and a purse.  Let’s just say, it got interesting when we had to go anywhere.

The one thing I love about this bag is that I could carry everything in it. Think purse/laptop/diaper bag all in one. The front pocket had many smaller pockets for everything, including IDs, credit cards, pens, pencils, disks, cell phone and whatever any other little thing you want to carry with you. It has two large pockets, one is lined for a laptop, the other is where I had used to keep diapers and wipes and whatever else I need to keep a baby happy.

It also came with a separate laptop sleeve that you can use separately (not shown as I seemed to have misplaced it in the last year or so). It’s too bad that High Sierra doesn’t sell this particular bag anymore, but they do have a many other designs to look at.

When my youngest was potty-trained, I began to dislike carrying it around, especially when I didn’t bring anyone with me. So I started to look for alternative. One bag (which has since fallen apart), was too small to carry a laptop, so I would have to also carry the separate laptop sleeve.

I finally decided to try to find a smaller, or at least lighter alternative. Enter the Solo Vintage Laptop Bag. It’s very inexpensive and in spite of the cost, it has a lot to offer in terms of space. The only thing that’s missing from that photo, is my laptop (which I was using with a webcam to take the photo) and larger notebook, which I don’t carry on me much.

There’s still space in there for a couple of diapers and a flat container of wipes. You can se more photos on the amazon link above.

The only downside: the materials that are used are pretty cheap. The edges of the strap are starting to fray and it doesn’t seem to hold up to the abuse I had put the larger bag through. I wonder if their more expensive designs like this one and this one are better made.

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My Tablet adventures - P1

My Tablet adventures - Intro

Yeah, this was supposed to be about the joys and sorrows of owning a tablet but there had been a few mishaps since my last post.

 I ended up frying the charging circuit on my tablet. For some reason, the plug to my daughter's tablet, that I had just got done debugging, has the exact same size plug as my tablet did - except it was 12v instead of 5v.  That's right, I gave it too much "juice" and knew exactly what happened the moment I heard that "POP!"

So I bought myself a new one. It wasn't that expensive, even though it was a slight downgrade from the other one, it still ran nicely.  I was able to install google apps without rooting it, like the last one. It was synchonized to my google calendar and all was well and I continued to mess with it so that I can post my findings.

Fast forward a few months. I had put velcro on the back of the tablet so that I can hang it on the cabinet door.  It was an unusually busy day and I had reached for my tablet to take somewhere, I don't remember where now as it was no longer important after what happened next. For some reason, it was on way too tight and I wasn't expecting as much resistance, so my grip wasn't as tight as it should have been.

It slipped, right over my coffee cup and hit the edge. Now, you would think that between ceramic and a hardened plastic corner, it would at least be a draw.  But no, the crack in the screen started from the top right corner to about three quarters of the way down on the left. There's only a few times where I have been extremely angry with myself for being such a clutz after my teenage years and that was one of them.

I manage to turn off the tablet (actually shut it down) by pressing in different areas of the screen until the right button was pressed. After cooling down a bit, I fired off an email to Coby and told them how wonderful their tablets are but I had fried one and the other was dropped.  I didn't say who dropped it as I wasn't ready to admit to Tech support that I was one of the idiots that they make fun of at coffee break.

They then sent an email back with instructions on sending it back for $50 for each tablet and shipping. For some reason, we missed the shipping part and didn't send it in. Perhaps because no amount was specified.
A few weeks later, I got the email saying that we need to still send $15 each tablet for shipping. This was just a few days before vacation. I said I would send it in the next day, but my husband refused, saying that it would get back while we were gone and he didn't want a package like that to sit outside for any length of time.

He sent it the day we got back and interestingly enough, it took long enough that it would have been here a few days after we got back.

When we got the package, I was quite surprised to to find that it wasn't out tablets that came in, but two new 7" Coby Kyros Mid 7042 with Android 4.0.4 installed. I don't think there's an emoticon that relects the look on my face at that moment when saw the two new boxes.

It's one inch smaller but much faster with a capacitive screen, as opposed to a resistive screen. It took me about a week to stop using my fingernail and I still occasionally apply a little pressure when trying to type or move icons around.

This blog post is already too long to go into details (this I will do in the next tablet adventure post), but I got to say, if you want a decent tablet that pretty much does the basics for a reasonable price, this tablet is it and at the time of this post, it's only $109.00. Of course there's the awesome customer service to consider as well. When we are done recovering from our trip financially, I plan on getting one for everyone.  They'll come in handy for homeschooling.

<<  My Tablet adventures - Intro

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Free! From... Microsoft?

Microsoft has changed.  When I was growing up, getting anything free from Microsoft was as fictitious as Santa bringing in free gifts. Well, almost. One of them is real (explain that to your kids).

Recently, I had downloaded free "Live Essentials" and I was impressed by the quality of the programs.  The old adage "you get what you paid for" is no longer true. I've already blogged about Windows Live Writer which I switch back and forth with Scribefire - depending on my mood. Live Writer is pretty decent as it supports many blog formats including Blogger and Wordpress, two of the most popular blogging sites. Unfortunately, (and this is the real reason why I switch), Live Writer does not support Tumbr or Posterous.

Recently, as I was hunting for a better free, web design software, I came across this gem from microsoft: Visual Web Developer It's a bit over the top for just making templates (as in templates for modx) but if you are interested in starting a whole new website from scratch, this would be an excellent product for you to try it. So far, I'm impressed. It has so many features that I haven't discovered yet. I don't think I will be using it much, yet, as it's a bit over the top for what I need.

As a matter of fact, I'll probably stick to Kompozer - which, by the way, was aquired by Mozilla.  How much do you want a bet that we will finally start seeing some improvements?  They've already improved their website.

Another little know WYSIWYG editor is Amaya. Amaya is made by w3.org which sets the standards for website design. If you are within their standards, then the majority of your audience can view your website the way you intend them to view it.

The problem with Amaya and Kompozer is that it's difficult to be "cutting edge" Both don't support HTML5 tags, but you can always put the tags in anyway. It just won't show up in the preview.
I have a page with some freebies for you to check out.  These are all programs that I have used and like.  It's here: http://mometek.blogspot.com/p/free-software.html.

Free Stuff: Windows Live Writer

I decided to try out Windows Live writer, since it does work with blogger.  Perhaps I won’t have to load my browser to use Scribefire – which, by the way, is excellent for blogging, except you do have to load your browser, which means that if you have a lot of plugins (as I always do), it may take a while to load.

Posting directly from blogger isn’t so bad either, but once again, you still have to wait for the browser to load.
Writer on the other hand is free for Windows user and you have to at least have XP service pack 2 according to their website.  This is good, you don’t have to pay for an upgrade to Win Vista or 7 to get it.  You can download the whole package here, or you can download just the writer here.

So far, it’s been pretty easy.  Setting up is a no-brainer.  When you first load live writer, it asks you for your blog username and password.  Then you just have to wait. 

Now you are set to go.  Not only is it easy to set up, but you can manage multiple blogs.  So far I have this blog and my WordPress Blog set up.  Yes, I finally set up a WordPress blog just to see how Writer handles it.  Haven’t gotten around to it yet.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t tested many features at all.  I just wanted to see how quickly I can get a blog post up.

So there you have it.  If nothing else at all, you can at least post from Writer very quickly and easily – and of course, it’s FREE.

I'm still testing Windows Live Writer so in the near future, I may come back to this topic.

Decided on a new mug

The last post talked about a mug by Thermos©. For a little while, I couldn't find the mug the mug that I had owned in the past so I was considering buying a different mug. Then, last week, I found it.  This mug lasted about two years but with kids, it was a God-send. I don't know how many times it was knocked over, but there was no mess to clean up. This saved me a lot of time in running to the kitchen for a towel, then running back to find that my youngest decided that it was fun to paint the walls with the spilled coffee.

It also helped me in cutting back on coffee.  I prefer to sip my coffee throughout the day, but in this weather, the coffee gets cold within a few minutes of being poured in a ceramic mug.  So I would drink it quickly - which would cause the jitters, but boy, would I get some housework done!  After an hour or two, the caffeine high would wear off, and I would make myself another cup.  In the end I would drink about three to four cups of coffee.

That's a bit too much.

However, when the coffee stays hot, I sip it and I can cut back to that one mug a day.  If I choose to quit coffee altogether, I can use the mug for tea or hot chocolate - which I make homemade.

It should be here any day now.

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