Keys To My Heart

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

I bought a little tv to play DVDs after Christmas. There is a great story about this first. I usually go to Jasper or Bedford but for some reason I decided to go to the Washington Wal-Mart for the first time since it was built. I asked for help getting the one I wanted unchained (they had all of the 19″ Vizio tvs hooked together–what a sad comment on our society), and the girl at the register was one of my former students. Ashley looked great, and I talked to her about Mrs. Trueblood and her days at NDE. She said she was married, had one little girl, and another baby was on the way. It was wonderful seeing her!

Now back to the recall. After I got it home I thought it would be a good idea to hook it up to my computer for a 2nd monitor. Well, that didn’t work. I have a Sony Vaio All-In-One, and didn’t realize that it doesn’t even have any computer outputs. I looked on the Sony website for possible graphics card updates and saw my computer cord was recalled due to electrical shock hazard. I checked the parts number, and sure enough, mine is on the list. I ordered the part. They say not to use the computer anymore. They have got to be kidding. Really? I haven’t even got the email response back from them, and I’m supposed to wait until they decide to send me a part?

Back to the output problem. I found a dandy little device that I’m going to get as soon as I pay for my medical bills, Christmas, etc. It will output any monitor through a USB port to DVI or VGA ports on the tv, and it even sends the audio too through RCA jacks. When I’m working on my genealogy, I have dozens of pages open, including my legacy software and my genealogy website. It clutters the screen pretty fast so this would really be a nice fix. Here is the details on the Arkview USB WA62 to DVI/VGA/HDMI.

I also found one from Atlona that says it does video on the extended tv, so I might have to do some research first. Here is a link to the Atlona. It looks a little less cluttered and comes with all the cords needed, but it only does HDMI. I can’t imagine the need to hook up to anything but that though.

I’ve updated several things on my genealogy website including the new category about my Dad’s family’s businesses, Sherfick Inc. I also put guestbook and famous kin sections (my paternal grandmother is a distant cousin of Patrick Swayze). This flash webshow has a funny blue screen preloader, but something is messed up with the software, and the company said they would update it soon. The software I used is Wondershare’s Flash Gallery Factory and is really easy to use. I will be happier though when they fix this blue bug. The flash is clickable on my website, but that doesn’t seem to be working on the blog. It took me forever to figure out how to get flash on a WordPress blog. I used a plugin called kimili. Here is a link for my genealogy website. You will have to log in as user and password: guest.

Our secretary at work died Wednesday, so it’s been a pretty tough week. I also had some weird kind of flu that coated my vocal cords so that I couldn’t talk, let alone sing. It was hard to do anything but sleep or sit and think of my friend’s family. If anything can keep my mind occupied, though, it is gadgets, especially electronic gadgets.

A little back story–On Christmas Eve my phone suddenly just stopped working. I really liked that phone too as it kept me in contact with my kids, and I felt a little safer on the road. I had insurance so I could either get a refurbished phone sent to me (but not in time for my trip to Florida) or extend my contract by two years (and get a new phone). I decided to do the later, getting another Razr phone, knowing that I had 30 days to trade it in, and I would have one on the road. I needed it too as coming back my car acted up, and the guy at the station said it was desperate that I get 2 new tires. My car ended up breaking down two weeks ago too, something to do with tie rods (and the brakes are going and will only last a few months). Dandy news.

Fast-forward to last week–My month was running out, so I had to make a decision. I went back into the phone store and upgraded my Razr to a Blackjack II. I would have been stuck with the phone for two more years and could really use a PDA type for school. I ended up getting a good deal as the rebate I got covered the extra cash I had to spend. The new one has a lot more gadgetry (it can run powerpoints and spreadsheets), so I had to teach this old dog some new tricks. Most of this weekend was spent trying to just figure out ringtones. It wasn’t that hard once I did the first one, so I went crazy and made me 11 new ones. I’ll never have to pay for another ringtone again–yippee! I put mostly oldies on: China Grove, Listen to the Music, Desperado, Witchy Woman, Life in the Fast Lane, Jessica, Free Bird, and Roll With the Changes. Can you tell I was a kid in the Seventies? The Eagles are still my favorite band! I did put a few new on too: Life is a Highway, Dreamgirls’ Love You I Do, and the re-worked Elvis song, A Little Less Conversation.

I also put some home screens on my phone too. Three were Daisie kits, and others I just made from clipart I already had. There are some animated ones and some still screens. The generated screenshots are pretty bad as they’re at a low resolution, so I won’t put the ones I made of me & the girls as we look like we have some kind of hideous growth on our faces! Well, I hope this next week is better than the last few, Lord willing. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be able to talk in my regular country drawl instead of this raspy frog voice too!