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Best Buy doesn’t quite live up to its name

As I may have already mentioned once this week, Best Buy just opened its first store in our home town of Grand Junction, Co.

Folks in Grand Junction have been very excited about the new store and today was the Grand Opening. As much as I love Best Buy and gadgets, I must say that I was not very impressed.

There were no great specials and the prices were pretty much the same as you find anywhere else. I wasn't really suprised by this since Best Buys best prices are generally only sale items.

What did suprise me who how many people were buying stuff. Most computers, software and gadgets are all price fixed. This means that an XBox at Target, Circuit City and Best Buy is always going to coast $399.99. I don't know how or why this is legal, but it is how it works.  Wal-mart breaks the rules by charging something like $399.88.

Vacation hair cut

Rick's vacation hair cut

When we go on vacation (especially camping), I don't like to waste time trimming my beard and shaving, so I usually shave the beard off. This year I did that again…and a little more. Now, I can spend my extra time monitoring my home surveillance equipment with my Treo!

Even though I have been on vacation, I still plan on submitting articles to our Shotgun series. Most will probably have a travel theme to them (like my wireless hints yesterday). I will be traveling with my MP3 player (Rio Nitrus), laptop (Averatec ultra-portable), digital camera (Canon S2IS), and of course my cell phone/portable Internet and email/maps/calendar/camera phone/a million other things (Palm Treo 650). We also loaded up the bikes for their first foray outside of Colorado. Surely all of this technology and madness will present ample opportunities for some good Shotgun fodder.

Taking Better Pictures (Part I)

Taking Better Photos

Part 1 

 

Composing Photos:

 

No reckless shooting of innocent civilians. Take aim, compose the shot and FIRE!

 

Taking Better People Pictures

Taking Better People Pictures:

Taking pictures of people should involve more than just pointing the camera in a person's general direction and pressing the shutter button.

Here are a few ideas and styles for taking great pictures of people.

Remember the rule of thirds.

As a general rule place your subject in 1/3 of the photograph.

<<— Notice how Allen's face is not centered in the photograph. This takes the viewer through the photograph and around the subject.

 

Giving Photos a Professional Look

Giving Photos a Professional Look

Have you ever wondered what makes professional photos look so. . . umm. . . professional?

The following tips will help you create photos that look like you know what you are doing!

Taking Better Pictures:

There are several links in the group archives giving tips on composition. Here are some other helpful tips.

Use the color wheel.

Organizing and Viewing Digital Photos

Organizing and Viewing Your
Digital Photos

The key to organizing your digital photos is sorting them from the beginning.

I begin by saving a folder to my desktop called "Camera pix," but it can be named anything. Inside this folder, I put a folder for each month. Inside each of those folders I make new folders as I need. For example, In my Camera Pix folder for last year I had a folder called December. Inside my December folder I have three other folders, "POL" for Parade of lights, Christmas, and "Misc."

I love my Treo

Today I helped a couple setup their brand new Motorola RAZR phones. These are do-it-all phones, or at least they do a lot. They have built-in cameras, they do email and Text messaging, they have Bluetooth radios and that's about it.

Motorola RAZR

RAZRs are very popular right now because they are thin and they do a lot. But they aren't very easy to use. Granted, they are some of the easiest cell phones to use, but that doesn't mean that they are easy to use.

In order to check your voice mail, you have to hit the little mail button, then go through a menu to choose voice mail (as opposed to text message, email, and about three other kinds of mail). Everything involved several menus.

Walking stick and Tripod

Life Span tripod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long time of customer of mine had this walking-hiking stick/camera tripod and I thought it was a great idea. I snapped a photo of the flyer with my Treo 650 so that I could remember the what it was and where to find it. This shows just one of the many hundreds of uses a Palm Treo 650 has. For a better photo than my Treo can provide, visit the manufacturer's web site .

Everything is color coded

It seems like a lot of people are moving lately. I have seen three clients this week who have moved into new homes. My job was simple in each case. They wanted me to setup their computer.

In the excitement of moving they took their computer apart and put the pieces into boxes. Then they couldn't figure out how to put them back together again.

When it comes to putting a new computer together or re-assembling an old computer, there are two secrets that I will share.

1. Everything is color coded.

  • There are usually two green plugs that go into green ports or jacks. These two green plugs are your sound output for your speakers and your mouse cable.
  • There is one purple plug, it is for your keyboard. Keep in mind that in each case both the plug and the socket are matching colors.
  • There is one trapazoid shaped blue plug. This is your monitor.

2. With only one exception, if the plug fits in the socket everything will work fine.