verITableLIFE

A Guide To Purchasing a Television

After looking at the anchor weight that was previously referred to as the “Tube”, you finally decided that it is time to purchase a new TV, but after flipping through the Sunday circulars you realize that you are shifting through an overwhelming amount of information. What does it all mean? What should you buy? How much should you spend? Where should you buy it? I will try to answer these questions and more. I will look at the steps and approach I take in purchasing a TV, starting with creating a budget all the way to understanding the physical unit.

Before we start, you must first realize that you are the one that has to live with this purchase; regardless of the quality and price, you must ensure that it will be visually appealing to you.

Step one: Determining the usability

The first step in purchasing a television is figuring out exactly how and where it will be used. A television for the bedroom wall will be different than one for a home theater room. Additionally, depending on what you plan on watching will also determine some needs. Things to consider: Read the rest of this entry »

You Too Can Be a Webmaster: Part 1

Back in 1999, during the dot-com bubble, I decide to take a class on Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the programming language used to design and display web pages and websites; we were taught to use a text editor, for me that was Microsoft Notepad, and an FTP program, I used WS-FTP. Designing, hosting, updating and maintaining a website at that point in time required extensive knowledge of web programming; however, running a personal website has become much easier and less involved.

Here’s a quick list of what you’ll need:

1. Hosting package – can be free or paid for, I use PowWeb.
2. Domain Name -once again can be a free domain name or one that you paid for. I used MyDomain to purchase verITableLIFE.com.
3. An idea of what you want your site to be
   • Professional Portfolio
   • Photo Gallery (Plogger, ZenPhoto, Gallery2, Coppermine)
   • E-Commerce / Shopping Cart (osCommerce, ZenCart, phpShop)
   • Blog (Word Press, Serendipity, PixelPost, Nucleus)
   • <insert idea here>
4. Creativity

Okay, now you have your checklist, what next? I will use verITableLIFE.com as my example. You’ll notice in my “list of things that you’ll need” that there are a lot of different links. These are just a few of the free, open source web applications to help get your site off the ground. Back to my example,

1. Purchased a hosting package with PowWeb
2. Bought the domain werITableLIFE.com from MyDomain.com
3. Decided to blog, and chose Word Press as my posion.
4. Got very creative!! Here is the default Word Press install of verITableLIFE.com
   
   

The creative steps I took to get to my final result: all of which were quick and easy.

• Found a theme that I liked.
• Shuffled around my “Widgets”.
• Created a nice little banner graphic, although might be considered a little more advanced.
• Started filling in the content.

So there you have it, the quick and dirty story behind verITableLIFE.com. Look for Part 2, which I will show how easy it was for me to rent my duplex out with the help of technology.

Introduction

First off, welcome to verITableLIFE, the blog about the use of technology in today’s world. I have decided to embark on an exciting journey into the virtual world to help share my experiences and knowledge as an IT Professional. As with most projects I set out to do, I see a direction and an end goal in mind: with this blog, that goal is to help educate people on the purchasing and using technology, sharing my experiences with technology and my thoughts on technologies that don’t exist. In addition, I am always open to suggestions.

I’ll keep my first post short and sweet. I hope you look forward for future posts.