Here are some things that we recommend:
Some of these are quite well known, many are free and all are things that our family uses. None of them do we have a financial interest in, however some of the links below are referral links where the company linked will give us some sort of bonus (free service, free month, etc) for referring people. Typically these referral links give some sort of extra to the person clicking them too, see individual links for details.
- Adorama / Adoramapix - Adorama is a camera shop in NYC that provides excellent customer service and great prices. I recently bought a 40D in excellent condition from them for $282 shipped. This is a camera that retailed for about $2000 in 2007 & is an amazing upgrade over the 300D I bought for almost $900 in 2004. Opening the package you'd never know it was a used camera - it was wrapped like it was worth thousands of dollars. Adoramapix is owned by the same people; it's their professional print lab that makes the best prints I have ever had done (including when I used to print my own) but is priced comparably to local, lesser labs.
- Andrea Mosaic - Andrea Mosaic is software for making photographic mosaics. It is completely free to download and use, but the developer relies on donations to keep the project going. If you know Don, you know he's pretty ... thrifty, but even he made a donation - the software is great and the developer is very helpful. Here is a YouTube video Don made with the software.
- Dropbox - Do you have multiple computers? Have any documents on your computer that you would be sad to lose? Would you like remote access to important documents? If you accidentally saved over a document and wanted to go back to a previous version, would you like to be able to? Is your idea of backup a thumbdrive? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need a Dropbox account. Dropbox will give you a free 2GB account (2.25GB if you use my link) that you can save files to. I know that may sound complicated, but the folks at Dropbox really made it easy & have videos on their webpage showing you how it works. Basically, once it is installed, you store files in a special folder on your computer that automatically backs up to their server & if you install it on more than one computer, it will automatically sync these files between the computers. If you are on someone else's computer, you can log into their webpage to download any file stored in your Dropbox & if you accidentally overwrite a file (say homework, or a resume for example) it can recover a previous version going back up to 30 days. You can purchase more space if you need it, you can also refer more users to Dropbox & they'll give you another 250MB each. No more thumbdrives necessary!
- Google Voice - Surely you are aware of Google's search page & likely you are aware of their email service, but did you know they also offer a telephony service? Google Voice is different than your typical Voice over IP service (for one thing, it's completely free), they give you a telephone number in the area code of your choosing (they'll even let you pick the number from available numbers) that you can give out instead of your cellphone or landline number. What can you do with this number? For starters, you can forward it to multiple numbers. This way you can have one number that rings you at home and on your mobile (simultaneously), you simply answer the phone you want to take the call on. Ever get a call from a telemarketer or other you do not wish to talk to? Simply log into your Google Voice account and flag it & never hear from it again. Know someone that likes to call you at all hours of the night? You can set a rule that their number will go straight to voicemail at certain hours of the day. Have out of town family that still use a landline? Get a number local to them & forward it to your existing number. Maybe you want to be able to send and receive text messages without paying for that feature on your mobile - GV can do that. You can set up custom voicemail recordings for different callers (by number or by group of numbers) and you can even get your voicemail messages sent to you TRANSCRIBED to your email or sms. Notice the 'call me' button on our contact page? Another GV feature.
- Join Me - This is a free service from the LogMeIn folks; simplest way I have ever seen to remote into someone's computer either to see what they are seeing or to take over to assist someone with something. It is session-based, so no security concerns (when you are done the person that remoted in cannot remote back in without you re-inviting them). How it works: Go to join.me (yes, the address is really that short) & click 'share.' A small program automatically installs and gives you a session code (9-digit number) that you share with the other person. They enter the number on the same webpage where it says 'join.' Couldn't be easier.
- NewEgg - NewEgg is where I buy just about all of my computer-related equipment. Their prices are competitive and their service has never disappointed. The rare problem I have had over the past 10 years shopping there have been dealt with quickly and in a professional manner.
- Steam - If you play any computer games at all, you owe it to yourself to get a Steam account. Steam is the definitive online game store, regularly running sales with games as much as 90% off. There are even a few completely free games to download. Especially check daily around major holidays as they run some pretty incredible sales!
- Weebly - Weebly is the service that Don made the webpage with. We already owned the domain (www.thedaltons.us) but Weebly is how we made the page & they host it for free. If you do not have a domain of your own you, can either buy one through them, buy one through someone else or use theirs (they will give you something like jazzlad.weebly.com for free). They do offer some 'pro' features & if you use my referral link we'll both get a free month of 'pro' (but it is pretty full-featured free). It's very easy to use, give it a try!