Sanders Media

We all have those piles of photos in shoe boxes. Many of you, no doubt, have long since abandoned putting them in photo albums. Because most of us have digital cameras, recent pictures are often stored on our computers. This is inconvenient if people are visiting, and you’d like to show them off. 

A better way is to assemble them online into a printed photo book. These are much thinner than the bulky photo albums of years past. Plus, they make a great gift for family members. I make one for my wife and I every year. Snapfish is a great place to try this. Prices usually start around $20 for 20 pages. With similar pricing, Mac users can assemble and order directly in iPhoto. 

You will find making photo books is a lot of fun, and a reward that will last a long time.

When we decide to set up a network in our home or office, we typically decide between wired or wireless. Most buildings aren’t pre-wired for ethernet cables. So, unless your router is right near everything you want to connect, you’ll have wires running everywhere. Since that won’t work for most of us, a wireless network is our choice. Wireless has it’s drawbacks, however. It’s not going to be as fast as a wired connection. While that may work fine for regular internet browsing, it tends to be insufficient if you are streaming video or music to different components throughout your space. If you have a large area where you need coverage, a wireless connection might not reach some parts.

Another way to create your network is to use powerline network adapters. These turn your ordinary electrical outlets into conduits for your network. While they still aren’t as fast as ethernet cable, they will do just fine for video and audio. They even have enough throughput for HD video. They don’t work as well in places whose wiring is subject to superfluous signals from other electrical equipment. They might not work at all if your wiring is made of aluminum or has multiple breaker panels and outlets that create circuits.

If you do decide to try powerline, make sure you buy from a place with a good return policy. You’ll want the option to try it out at home. If it does work, you’ll enjoy the flexibility you have with the placement of your various components. You’ll find powerline quite handy with products such as the XBOX 360, Playstation 3 and Netflix’s Roku video streamer.

‘Tis the season to make wish lists. Instead of a list of presents I want, I am going to list technological innovations I would like to see very soon. 

1. Longer Battery Power: Most of us have run into this problem. We’ll have this great device, only to run out of power. With mobility the rule of the day, I would have hoped this would be solved by now. One interesting solution on the horizon is fuel cell batteries. You fill up the batteries, instead of changing them. It’s kind of like refilling your car. 
2. Truly Green Automobiles: Okay, I admit it. This looks obvious. Regardless, it seems we merely trade one carbon footprint for another. I just hope the currently declining fuel prices don’t lull us to sleep. We must generate our own energy.
3. Real Choice In Home Entertainment: For a long time, we could only choose between over-the-air and cable for our television. Of course, in the last decade, we’ve had the added choices of Directv or Dish Network. I would love a la carte programming. Since so many networks have come to being, it only makes sense that we would be able to pick and choose our own programming.
4. Faster Broadband: It seems to me content offerings are advancing faster than the technology that delivers them. Even though my entire network is wireless “N”, my XBOX 360 still slows down while streaming video. Without a wired connection, most of us are left with a subpar choice. 
5. Near-Limitless Storage: I used to think, “I could never fill up a 20gb hard drive.” Now, 120gb seems too small. Many of us have large media libraries. Since computers are becoming our entertainment hubs, it is tiresome to have to pick and choose what we add to our libraries.

These are just a few of the things I’d like to see come around in the next year. I’ll talk about more as the Christmas season progresses. Happy Holidays!

Most people know to be careful what they say in mixed company. It doesn’t seem as obvious to some to be careful what you say online. 

Everything you say online can and will come back to you. In the past, you could mostly keep your private life private. With the popularity of social networking online, potential employers, lenders and anyone else who doesn’t know you, can find out about you. 

If you were thinking about posting that picture of you and some friends partying on New Year’s Eve, you might want to think twice. It is very easy to do an amateur background check, and you could lose out on something you want or need.