Victorian Laptop with Wind-up Start

You are sure to get a kick out of this unusual laptop made by Datamancer.
Inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

How Many Email Addresses Should I have?

I am kinda embarrassed to say how many email addresses I currently have because I have so many that I have forgotten the actual number. I started out like everyone else with one and that one happened to be created almost 15 years ago, does anyone remember the Internet service Prodigy? Well that was my very first email address. I then went on to get an email from this little upstart company some of you might have heard of called AOL. I no longer have an AOL address but my oldest current email address is about to celebrate its 10 year anniversary.

Ten years of having a Yahoo email address is not really that great but I would challenge you all to find out what is your oldest current email address and can you beat 10 years. If so please post how long you have had it and let me know if you have saved any emails from that address from so long ago. I have never deleted any of my emails from Yahoo and probably never will. Yes I KNOW I should delete the old ones but it really is a kick to see some of the emails I sent and received from people 10 years ago.

So at present count I think I have about 45+ email addresses both professional and personal and YES I do check them all. Some I don't check as frequent but I am very good and creating folders and setting up rules in Microsoft Outlook to keep most of them organized. My good friend Peggy Duncan who is a Professional Productivity Expert thinks I am crazy to have so many email addresses and even more crazy that I never delete any of the emails I get. Don't get me wrong I do delete most of the spam but the rest is archived and backed up on a regular bassist.

I am sure I don't hold the record for one person having so many email addresses. Who do you know that has more?

As a rule of thumb most small businesses should only have as many email addresses as they need to get their business done. If you are a soloprenuer like myself I would go with 3 professional email addresses to start. The first one you should have is your main email address Yourname@Yourcompany.com then I would go with info@yourcompany.com and sales@yourcompany.com I would then get 2 free personal email addresses from any of the free email services say gmail.com and yahoo.com. Use these email address for things you really don't want to come into your business email address or things you think you may get more spam then legitimate email. If you need more, I say GO FOR IT but only if you can keep track of them.
Don't lose any business because you forgot to check one of your many email addresses.

So, how many email addresses should you have? As many as you can keep track of and not have to hire someone to do it for you.

Digibabes Rule the Websphere

I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs techcrunch.com but I just had to go just a little further when it comes to the webs digital divas. TechCrunch did a blog on the many digibabes of the web who reported on everything that is technology. There were some great entries but one of my favorites was left out so I decided to write a blog entry about her and her show in hopes that she is included the next time around.

Created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf, EPIC-FU is all about the things that make us geek out -- the coolest art, tech, and music from the online and offline world.

I am not sure why Zadi was not included she is a true digibabe and her show is extremely entertaining. I catch the show on youtube.com every chance I get but I have since been going to her website epicfu.com to see her in full effect.

So the next time you see a blog post giving some of these giga goddesses their due please give Zadi with EPIC-Fu some love.

Below is a youtube video from their 100's show. Congrats on the 100 and keep up the great work.



If you are not into the music or some of the content that Zadi brings to the table you can check out another digibabe that is more to the mainstream.

WebbAlert is Morgan Webb's website and daily videocast, covering the day's developments in tech news, video gaming, gadgetry, and digital culture. It's engineered to keep tech-interested people current on the news and trends that move the industry with a small investment of just a few minutes per day.



Please let us know which digibabe's way of bringing the tech content is your favorite.

Track the NCAA Basketball Tournament using Google

With all the hype over the NCAA Basketball tournament and March Madness fast approaching most viewers won't find it hard getting help filling out their brackets. All the major sports websites have online web based brackets ready and waiting for your office pool.

This yearly tradition has gotten so popular even Google has gotten into the act and now has a way to track all your favorite teams in their version called Basketball Bracket Battle. This feature can be created using the iGoogle gadget tool.

If you already have a Google Gmail account you can just add this gadget to your iGoogle desktop. Once you have added this gadget you can then create a bracket for yourself or even form a league with your friends or co-workers.

Once the NCAA Basketball Tournament starts you will be able to track all your chosen teams on the Basketball Bracket Battle gadget. As the tournament gets going you will also be able to see how you rank against your friends and co-workers brackets.

If you still want to print out your brackets as we did in the olden days check out Maddux Sports and print out a pdf file that you can just write in your team positions.

Domain Registry of America: Domain Name Hijacking

I keep getting these letters in the mail at least once every other week notifying me that the domain name that I registered is about to expire. This letter looks very official and it is emblazoned with a graphic logo that depicts the American flag at the very top of the letter. Also at the top reads the words "Domain Name Expiration Notice"

This letter is strategically made to look like an invoice, complete with line items that spell out how long I have until my domain name expires and how much it will cost me to register my domain name for another year. It even gives me the chance to register my domain name for up to five years at a discounted price.

To most this letter would seem like an awesome reminder and even a better way to make sure I don't miss out on keeping this domain name secure for my current and future use. Unfortunately that is not the case.

I currently have 3 of my clients who were so inclined to take this company up on its offer to renew their domain names. Here is the best part, two of the three really thought this company was officially in charge of registering their soon to expire domain name so they proceeded to pay for three years in advance.

What my unsuspecting client didn't realize is that they were tricked into paying more than three times the price for registering their domain name to a company that had no control whatsoever in whether or not it expired. Instead of paying less than $30.00 for three years of registration they paid $30.00 per year to register just one domain name.

Once they paid this money, they automatically gave this company the right to become their new registrar of their domain name. We then had to go through and act of congress to get the domain names back but the money they spent would not be returned.

Why didn't they get their money back you may ask? Well the letter that they recieved was again made to look like an invoice but it clearly said in bold letters "This notice is not a bill" It also had some fine print on the back of the letter that spelled out what was going to happen if you paid for this domain name to be registered with their service.

Here are the steps involved in not getting your domain name Hijacked.

1. When registering a domain name make sure you remember the name of the registrar. Whether it's Godaddy.com, Networksolution.com or Proemailaddress.com make a note of the date you register the domain name and put in on your calendar.

2. If you cannot remember who your domain name registrar is or you own the domain name but your webmaster registered it for you, do a whois search of your domain. Going to http://www.whois.net/ will allow you to put your domain name in their search box and find out when the domain name is set to expire.

3. If someone else registers your domain name, say your webmaster/web developer make sure they put your email address as the one that will be notified when the domain name is set to expire.

Most domain name registrars send you multiple reminder emails months in advance notifing you that your domain name is set to expire.

4. This may be something you may not want to do but I highly recommend doing it if you are given the option when registering your domain name. Register it for more than one year. Some registrars like proemailaddress.com will allow 10 year registrations of domain names.

5. Finally if you do get one of these letters in the mail from Domain Registry of America or any other company other than the one that you acctually registered your domain name with, throw it in the trash with the rest of the junk mail.