C's Layer

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Sorry!

Yes I know... this blog has turned up the Suck level lol! I havent posted in forever and most of the recent articles have not exactly been up to par. Hopefully I will have time to write some better articles if time permits. Well happy blogging everyone!

What the Heck is this thing?!?!?

The other day me and some friends were at a local mall and we decided to go mess around inside of a dollar store. We were looking around at all of the things that this dollar store had to offer. Well when we were on our way out we happened to spot this priceless child protection thingy. Who on earth would buy one of these things it looks like it was made to suffocate the poor child lol! I just feel sorry for whatever child would be forced to have one of those things on them. I mean I can understand that it is supposed to help keep the child away from bad weather occasions but with today’s technology couldn't we have found some other way than placing a plastic bag or tarp over a child? Well here is the picture.

Cheap First-Dibs

You may wonder what I meant by "Cheap First-Dibs" in my title but you will soon understand. The holiday season is coming around and everyone wants to find the best deals. Most of the time everyone else gets all of the good sales and you get left with nothing but the normal high-cost of whatever it was you were going to buy. Well here is what to do to have the "First-Dibs" of everything you want.

Look in the newspaper, on the internet, as an employee, call the store, or do whatever you need to in order to find out when everything goes on sale. Specifically whatever it is that you want.
Now that you know when the sales will start, find out what hours the store operates. Not just for the sales date but for a few days before that too just to be safe. Example: The sales date starts out on Friday the 24th, find out the store hours for Wednesday as well as Thursday specifically. Mainly you just need to know the previous day.
Now that you know the sales date and the store hours here comes the actual going-out-to-buy part.
Go to the store about an hour or an hour and a half before closing time. When the time is getting pretty near to an end make sure you seem really interested in you product. Maybe even ask one of the store employees to help you out.
Take as much time as you can to delay your purchase for the method in which this process works is not full proof or guaranteed.
Make sure that when you purchase the item, it is past the hours for the store. [Example: The store is open from 8am-10pm. Stay and finally make your purchase at around 10:30 or so.]
Now hopefully everything will work out and you will have purchased your item at the sales price for upcoming sale.

--How it works/Own experience--

This is how it works. The store computers are programmed to sell at their normal price during regular operating times. This would mean that if the store is open on a regular day the price is going to stay the same from opening time till closing time. Typically it doesn’t change. However during holidays and similar events it does change. The key for me was finding out WHEN it changes. Most often the computers are pre-programmed to change on a specific date as to adjust for the sales. Well how I figured it out was like this. My family was looking to buy a T.V. and it was the Thursday before the 4th of July weekend sale. We went to the store near closing time and looked at all of our choices. Finally after closing time we had made our purchase. It was actually cheaper then the sale because the computers had changed to readjust to the sales weekend. So we got "Cheap First-Dibs" on the T.V. of our choice!

I can not say that this will work every time but it is at least worth a try!

New, Creative, Tasty Pocket Organizer.

This idea is pretty creative. What you will need for this neat organizer is: a pack of gum, the larger pack which comes with 17 sticks I believe; a pencil that is pretty short, a good idea is to get a used pencil that you may find somewhere in the house; and you're set to go!

First get you pack of gum and unwrap it from the top. Usually there is a small tare or a strip that you can unravel to tare the top part of the wrapper off.

Once you have the wrapper off you should then take out a few pieces of gum so that you can then fit your small pencil into the pack of gum.

Once you have done that you are set to go. Here is the way how this little organizer works. The gum wrapper is wrapped in a smaller sheet of paper. Just take out the stick of gum and write your notes on the paper. This is a great organizer because you always will have a stick of gum at your disposal plus it's handy and compact.

Alt-Tab and Exposé Alternatives

I have really been mesmerized by the user interface with macs. I love the new exposé feature or "dashboard" as some call it. I wanted my windows computer to have the same ability as the macs did. However most all of the software I found was trial only, and you had to pay for the full version.

Anyway after much looking I have found some great alternatives for the ALT+TAB / exposé feature.

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Microsoft ACTUALLY did something pretty neat. The program is called Virtual Desktop Manager. It is one of the Microsoft Power Toys.

-Download Here.
-View Site Here.

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TaskSwitchXP is an advanced task management utility that adds visual styles to the ALT+TAB dialog and also enhances it by displaying thumbnail preview of the application that will be switched to.

-Download Here.
-View Site Here.

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Exposer for Windows is the utility that comes most closely to the exposé feature of macs. This program takes all of your windows and zooms out so you can see all of them, and then select the one you desire.

-Download Here.
-View Site Here.

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C-Layer OUT!

Anti-Virus, Anti-Porn, Anti-Spyware, and Fire-Wall Programs

Here is a list of some useful programs that will help you protect your computer to the best of its abilities.

One of my favorites is AVG by Grisoft. Unlike Norton, it is not expensive at all! It is FREE! And AVG actually does something about viruses. One of my friends recently purchased the Premium version of Norton Antivirus. After a few weeks he discovered that he had a virus. How he discovered it was through Norton. And that is about all it does. It discovers your viruses and then tells you about them. It is basically like "oh hey, yea we found a virus in your computer,... um we can't do anything about it, so um yea here is a link to our site that possibly might help anyways good luck." To say the least he wasn't too happy with Norton. Basically all Norton does is tell you that you have a virus, not fix it. Most of the virus-writers today are smart and know how to bypass Norton, so basically you spent all that money on a program that will just tell you what you already know, that you have a virus. With AVG it will actually help you to remove it, quarantine it, or vault it. You may choose from these different choices depending on the type of file that the virus has infected. In conclusion to anti-virus software, AVG is free and useful while Norton is expensive and pointless. Use AVG

Anyway, this is a list of programs that are great for anti-virus, spyware, porn, and firewalls.

Anti-Virus
::::::::::

- AVG
o http://free.grisoft.com/
- AntiVir
o http://www.free-av.com/

Fire-Wall
:::::::::::

- SoftPerfect
o http://www.softperfect.com/products/firewall
- Zone Alarm
o http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company
/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Anti-Spyware
:::::::::::::

- SpywareGuard
o http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
- SpywareBlaster
o http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Anti-Porn
::::::::::::

- Spybot-S&D
o http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
- Parental Filter 0.23
o http://www.download.com/Parental-Filter/3640-2162_4-10425523.html?tag=tab_ur