Aerogel is cool !

Whoa look at this stuff: It's a solid but it's lighter then air. It was developed for a space mission to collect particles of dust from a deep space comet. It also protects these crayons from the heat. it feels like styrofoam to touch but it is very tough. Here is a pic of Aerogel holding up a Brick Wonder what would happen if you touched it? "Silica aerogel is semi-elastic because it returns to its original form if slightly deformed. If further deformed, a dimple will be created. However, if the elastic limit is exceeded, it will shatter catastrophically, like glass." Check out the Jet Propulsion Laboratories here

90% of all purchases made with only 10% of the.....

I read that 90% of all purchases are made with only 10% of the required knowledge to make an informed decision. Just working with all the computers that I see in a week. I believe it ! It seems that the majority of the systems out there run with integrated video, a old monitor, too little RAM, and some kind of weird ergonomic keyboard and a generic ball mouse. Gahh ! Optical mice start $20 ! Are we all waiting for a free optical mouse in our cereal?

It must all come from the fact that we (the consumers) buy the cheapest item we can find. We all seem to shop by price alone. I used to buy a pair of Reebocks for my everyday shoe more then once a year. No matter how careful I was the white leather on them cracked and the insides would give out. I was wearing them all day so I never complained. A friend of mine says--"Look you need to buy a quality shoe, that's all" he takes me shopping and points me at a pair of Clarks. I am not too impressed with the chunky look of it but I put them on and I think I am walking on a cloud and there is a distinct spring in my step now. I have only purchased two pairs of Clarks and it has been 10 years! You see... I didn't know that you could spend $140 twice in 10 years instead of $60 x 20 for the running shoes. I still wear a running shoe once in a while but you can't beat the support you get from a quality shoe.

Even if you have an old computer or your are thinking of a new computer consider these recommendations from me: If you are looking at an old CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor of any size or if you own a 15-17 inch LCD from a few years back take a look at the Viewsonic VA902b 19" LCD monitor. It is analog only which means it will hook up to all the older video cards. The picture quality is superb and it can be purchased for under $400 CDN. I have sold several and I use one here in the office for text and gaming. I am sure that as time goes on we will see more affordable DVI input monitors and even larger displays but 19" is the minimum size you should accept and don't forget that you only need to set the refresh rate to 60hz for a LCD. The native reolution you would set your desktop to is 1280 x 1024 and if you find your icons are a little small just change the DPI (dots per inch) settings to 120 from 96 (default) and/or grab the Cleartype tool from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx or do both!Your computing experience can improve immensely with just a few informed buying decisions.