Free (legal) Music Download at Buy.Com

Buy.Com is offering a free music download if you visit and redeem this before 6/4/2007.

Note that you must be using Internet Explorer to do this download.

http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=81063728&adid=17662

Dell changing their tune?

Dell has decided to start selling some of their personal computers at Wal-Mart.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18845098/

It's an interesting departure for a company that made a name by selling directly to consumers and removing the "middle man".

This is done in response to Dell losing ground to Hewlett-Packard in the PC market...but perhaps they should focus on the low ratings people give their tech support. Reseller Ratings users give them a 2.4 out of 10 - click on "Show Category Ratings", versus a (still not good) 4.0 out of 10 for HP. It could also be lagging consumer trust - for example, New York's Attorney General is suing them for things like "bait and switch" marketing. Whoops.

For the record, I have a Dell and have no real complaints thus far.

Windows Shortcut Keys

I love hotkeys in programs. I actually had one student last semester point out that I rarely use the mouse, and it's true.

I ran across this list of keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) the other day:

http://www.wacug.org/kbshtcts.pdf

(It's a PDF file - this means you need the free Adobe Reader to view the file)

Enjoy your memorial day!

Web Hoaxes

There's always some sort of garbage that ends up in my email inbox, and I am not only talking about spam.

There's always something like "forward this to 10 people and Bill Gates will send you $100"...or "Don't buy any gasoline from Exxon and Mobil and prices will drop" sitting in my mailbox.

For the record, if I get something I already haven't seen 20 times, I check it out on www.snopes.com - an excellent resource for this stuff.

Anyway, PC World put together a list of the 25 greatest Web hoaxes of all time. I found it amusing to revisit some of these.

Link to article

PCCC Graduation 2007

Graduation 2007 is in the books.

Every year, I see more and more of my former students graduate, and that makes me proud. There was one student who took a class with me when I was a part-time faculty member in 2001...there was another student who took CIS 101 with me as a learning community while still taking English as a Second Language courses.

If you graduated, take a moment and be proud. As our president said last night, in the United States, only around 35% of people have any form of a college degree. That number rose slightly last evening. I looked through the list of graduates, and counted 58 of you who had at least one class with me at some point.

I took some pictures tonight, and they are available here, if anyone is interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/profcameronpccc/

Congrats, graduates, and keep in touch...!

List of PCCC Graduates (notice there are three sections: People who finished in Summer 06, Fall 06, and Spring 07).

Evaluating Web Sites

In many of the classes I teach, I point out how important it is to evaluate a Web site for things such as credibility, timeliness, authority, etc.

I just came across this article that points out that not only students have this problem.

A prominent Chinese newspaper got caught a few years ago publishing an article from theonion.com, which offers news parodies, and publishing it as fact.

Story on the mistake
The original Onion story that prompted the Chinese story

Free CFL bulb from Yahoo!

CFL bulbs are more energy efficient and can save you $30 in energy costs over the lifetime of the bulb. They are a small way people can also go about helping the environment.

Yahoo is offering a free one to anyone who signs up on their Web site and pledges to try to be more efficient.

The city who has the most people sign up will win 10 hybrid taxis!

http://better.yahoo.com/planet/

File Sharing on College Campuses

I've discussed with various classes the stalemate (lack of a solution) with illegal file sharing. Congress has decided to get involved, sending 19 big universities, including UCLA, Columbia, Duke, and Vanderbilt, nasty letters saying that they need to stop illegal file sharing on college campuses.

Why is Congress getting involved? Well, that's another story. I always feel like they should have better things to do than this, but that's just my opinion.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/47988/

New Jersey InfraGard

Who has the responsibility of educating the business world on security?

Well, there is an organization called InfraGard that does this sort of thing. It's a free organization. It's a joint effort between the FBI and some businesses, including PSE&G.

They have monthly meeting, some of which require you to be a member, some of which do not. They are having a May meeting which includes the following topics:

* Security Awareness (Ctrl-Alt-Delete before you leave your seat)
* Espionage and Counter Espionage Technology

This is a free meeting taking place in Edison, NJ on May 29 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. I plan on attending, and if anyone has questions or is interested in attending, feel free to email me.

NJ Infragard Web Site
May 29 meeting details

Free Microsoft Certification Exam (Networking/Support Only)

Pearson Vue is one of the companies that offers Microsoft Certification exams.

They are offering first time users the opportunity to try an exam for free!

http://www.pearsonvue.com/freemicrosoftexam/

This applies only to the 072 exams. In other words, not the Microsoft Office Specialist exams, but any of the Networking and User Support type exams found on this page:

http://www.vue.com/ms/aatc/

Offer expires June 30th. Take advantage of this!

Free 2 cent stamps

As you may or may not know, the United States Postal Service is raising rates on Monday, May 14th. A regular stamp will now be 41 cents. However, this is what they call a "forever stamp". After this stamp comes out, there will be no need to buy 2 cent stamps the next time postage goes up.

However, for those of you like me that have a bunch of the 39-cent stamps sitting at home, that doesn't help now. Here's a solution. DYMO.com will mail you 10 2-cent stamps at the link below for free:

http://global.dymo.com/enUS/CampaignsHome/DYMO_Stamps_2_cents.html

Free 2-liter of 7-Up Soda

7-Up will mail you a coupon for a free two-liter of soda if you fill out the form on their Web site.

http://7up.com/Diet/Registration/CouponTwoLiterRegistration.aspx

Bookstore Buyback

The bookstore is currently buying books back. The sooner you sell your books back, the better the price. The last day to get the "best price" is May 18th. It can't hurt to go over and ask how much they are buying your books back for.

A lot of students wait to do this, and as a result get very low prices for the textbooks. Going in now will lead to you getting the best price - for example, the CIS 101 textbooks will apparently give you $48.25 back.

Of course, wait until after you finish your finals for a class before you sell the books back!

Staples Free Stuff: Week of May 6

This week at Staples, the following items are free after rebate:

* Staples 6-outlet surge protector
* ATS 2.4GHz Cordless Phone
* McAfee Total Protection 2007
* Peachtree Pro Accounting 2007
* Webroot Spy Sweeper with AntiVirus
* Zebra Z-Grip Max retractable ballpoint pens

Link to this week's ad

Free Guide: Preventing Identity Theft

The Federal Citizen Information Center is offering a free book "Preventing Identity Theft". They will mail it to your home.

Note this is a ".gov" site, so I trust it.

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/rc/d58.htm

Big Money Majors?

What do the following majors have in common?

• Business
• Engineering
• Marketing
• Accounting
• Information Technology

According to this article, they are five "Big-Money" majors with plenty of room for advancement.

Big Money Majors