Archive for category Technology
Automatic Dialers – How Telemarketers Operate
Posted by admin in Technology on May 23rd, 2009
Automatic Dialers are software and hardware tools that telemarketers use to make their phone calls. They want to spend time selling you stuff not calling a number, waiting for someone to pickup, dealing with fax numbers and answering machines. So they have a machine that does all that stuff for them. The really insidious ones are called predictive dialers. They can keep track of how long agents are staying on the line, how many calls are being dropped etc. Then their dialer software makes calls and sends them to telemarketers sitting idle. Have you ever picked up the phone, said “hello” and had a 3 second silence? That’s the autodialer software trying to decide if you’re human then sending it to an agent that is ready. They don’t know who you are that’s why they have to ask “is this: ?, at such and such an address”. That’s how automatic dialers waste your, and my time.
Benefits of Portable AC
Posted by admin in Technology on May 20th, 2009
Portable air conditioning has evolved a lot in the past 15 years. It was once as simple as turning on a fan and opening a window. As technology has improved, so have the features on portable AC units. The ability to add and remove humidity from a room is a feature that is gaining popularity. Portable evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) run warm air through a moist filter and dispense the cooled air into a room with added moisture. Some units have built-in heaters that work great during the winter, making it an all season appliance. Programmable thermostats with timers allows you to set the exact minute you want your AC to be turned on or off. Another neat feature that is becoming commonplace is remote control. This allows you to adjust your thermostat or turn the unit on or off from anywhere in the house.
USB Condenser Microphones
Posted by admin in Technology on May 17th, 2009
If you’re a musician looking for an easy and (relatively) inexpensive way to record your music then a USB condenser microphone might be just what you’re looking for. There are plenty of USB microphones out there but most of them are for VOIP communication or gaming. A USB condenser mic is more like the microphone that recording professionals use. Condenser microphones have a large mic capsule that is sensitive to a wide range of frequencies and produces a more natural sound than the tinny “telephone” sound you often get from headset USB microphones. You don’t need a sound card or any external digital audio hardware, the microphone will plug right into your USB port and be recognized as an audio input by your computer. There are many USB condenser microphone options out there, many for less than $100. It’s an easy way to take your music recordings to the next level.
My Digital Photo Frame Rocks
Posted by admin in Technology on May 13th, 2009
So I finally went out and bought a digital photo frame. What makes this cool is that normally I’n not that much of a techie kind of guy so buying something as sophisticated as a digital picture frame is indeed a big deal. The frame I bought is by no means expensive, and not the best available out there. My Kodak Easyshare digital photo frame is only 7-inch as fas as the display goes, but it does it job more than adequately.
Uploading pictures to my digital frame is very easy using the memory card slot, or I can even use the provided USB cable to upload pictures from my computer. Once the photos have been uploaded unto the frames memory I have several options in how I can view them. I can have the frame display one picture at a time, or I can have a very fancy slide shows with cool transition effect. The choice is mine and no matter how I want to display my digital photos they look very crisp, and clear and the colors are vibrant.
All in all I am quite satisfied with my purchase of the Kodak EasyShare digital photo frame.