Home > Technobuddy > Archives > 2007 > December > 21 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USDon’t join the club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I belong to a club that meets once a year. We don’t keep membership lists, but we have no trouble recognizing each other - the vacant stare is a sure tipoff.
Our members meet in store aisles and at cash registers each Christmas Eve. We wander stores and malls with wild eyes and the desperate desire to find a few gifts and get the heck out of there.
Consider today’s column the annual newsletter of the Last Minute Holiday Shopping Club. I’ll try to offer ways to ease the pain.
Those of us who are into high-tech stuff have certain advantages. Tech items are readily available, and the stores that sell them are often located outside a busy mall and usually better stocked this time of year than those of other merchants.
You notice I said “stores” - there’s no time for online ordering now. The last minute is here, and it’s ticking madly away.
I’ll offer some specific gift examples, but first a bit of shopping philosophy: You never want your gift to look like you snatched it up in pure desperation. But you’re also dealing with limited time, and probably limited money by now. Finding something both welcome and affordable is challenge. Fear not; it can be done.
If I was holding a class for my club members, I’d write this on the blackboard in capital letters: ADDING PERCEIVED VALUE.
It’s a term I learned while working for a group of gift-oriented companies owned, at the time, by R.J. Reynolds. As the terms suggests, it’s a method of making something seem more expensive than it actually is.
Let’s say your recipient likes computer games. You would bundle a game with small items that fit the theme: a joystick, a new set of speakers, a manual, perhaps. You could even throw in some munchies to snack on while playing. Wrap it all up and you have a gift that totals more than its individual parts.
This works with almost any gift theme. For someone who enjoys digital photography, you could include a memory card for the camera, rechargeable batteries and even a book on photography - all in a small camera bag.
Another themed gift that is both practical and useful is a winter survival kit, for those times when the power is out. Start with a fluorescent lantern - and if your budget is tight just the lantern alone makes a fine gift.
Unlike a flashlight it throws a wide beam of light that makes it practical for reading or seeing while you cook on your gas stove. And, unlike camping lanterns that use fuel, it’s safe for indoor use.
Just as an example, you can find the Coleman Family-Size Retro Rechargeable Battery-Powered Lantern for $34.98 at Target. Or, at the same store and for about the same price, the Viatek Dynamo Lantern. Other stores have similar items.
Add a couple flashlights and batteries and you have a good basic survival kit. If you want to get fancy, you can add other items that would come in handy during a power outage, such as a small battery operated radio.
This is a terrific gift since you are certain to be thanked twice- once when it is opened and again, with great fervor, when it is needed.
I hope these ideas help you survive the (last-minute) holiday shopping season.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns
Comments
By Tiny Tim
December 22, 2007 8:26 PM | Link to this
Technobuddy, I have a question: Can you get a decent website built by a high school student whiz-kid? I need to make my website better. I dont have any money, but I can pay a high school student techie genius guy a couple hundred bucks. Is this possible? Can it be done? Are there high schoolers who will do this?
By Bill
December 22, 2007 8:30 PM | Link to this
Well, first - Tim - yeah, you probably can. But I can’t recommend anyone in specific. I guess - in your shoes - I’d get in contact with the computer science department at some high schools and ask for recommendations. You could also check with colleges.
I wouldn’t worry about whether someone was in high school, or college - or none of the above. I’ll bet you can find someone who is starting out, look at some samples, and get it done.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 8:32 AM | Link to this
Thank you so much, kind sir. Can you recommend a new computer brand? I only have less than 500 bucks to spend, and not even that if I have to pay a high school student for the websight. I’m poor. I’ve always been poor. Are used computers a good idea?
My brother suggested that I hire a high-school techie months ago, but I just didn’t believe him. I thought that if a student could design a state-of-the-art websight, he would already be snapped up by the “Girls Gone Wild” industry websight, and thus ruined for the rest of us.
I’d like to take this opportunity to throw my support for Huckabee. Vote 4 Huckabee. (He had me at “halo”).
By Lester H. Hollans
December 24, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
Bill, I’ve done a dumb thing and even a $65 per hour techie has been unable to help me. I had over 900 e-mails in my Outlook Express that I had kept as records of transactions in my eBay business. When I wanted to contact someone, I just pulled up an old e-mail and replied to it. That way I had a complete record on the page of what we had talked about in the past. It saved hours of researching printed copies. Well, a few weeks ago, after getting my computer back from an overhaul, I tried to go from one of my e-mail boxes to another, I hit something and all 900 disappeared into the bowels of my computer. My techie can’t find them anywhere. Is there any way I can trace what I did and recover those files? If I can’t, I’ve got to restart my business from scratch.
By Wayne Gunn
December 24, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
Tiny… even though your future web portal will allow people to view it and therefore will be a ‘sight to see’, the actual word is ‘site,’ a place where your stuff is, a destination.
a smart high schooler can do the simple stuff you probably need. make sure you spell check it though…. these english synonyms can make you look a little foolish to the millions of people sighting your site….
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 3:17 PM | Link to this
Wayne, Did I say websight? I meant gunsight. I’m a excellent hunter, sir. I shoot woodchucks. I thought this was FieldandStream.com. Sorry. Hey, something moved in the bush! I’m off again for another day of good marmot hunting. I hate marmots, those dirty rats.
I SAID I HATE MARMOTS!@!
By Bill
December 24, 2007 3:23 PM | Link to this
Hi Lester, try this program:
http://www.outlook-mail-recovery.com/
I’m not sure what you did - so I can’t swear this will work - but seems like the stakes are high enough for you to make this worth a try.
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 5:23 PM | Link to this
Bill, you are a hi-tech angel, and I hope you have the bestest xmas of all time!
You rock, sir.
I’ve been a fan since before being a tecnobuddy fan was cool.
Of course I do hate the mouse-click thing. I never really understood why the morons who invented the hardware went with the mouse. I mean, it never really worked, now, did it? You can never quite click on the right pega-mixel now can you? I always miss, and usually have to spend a half hour getting out of the pop-up goat porn ad site that I accidentally clicked on. I try to explain this over and over to my wife, but after fifteen years, I think she’s okay with it…….did I type any of this comment out loud??
Merry Christmas to all technobuddies everywhere.
By Bill
December 25, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this
Thanks, Tim, I hope it’s a good holiday. I got my wish and received a remote control airplane to fly (I used to fly real airplanes but - given my age and skill level - this seems safer).
I’ll paste in part of the instructions that came with the aircraft. I’ve seen poorly translated instructions before, but these are literally impossible to decipher. So part of the present has been the humor in reading the directions. Here are a few samples:
“The first open the remote control shot the machine power switch, confirming the blast-off the electrical engineering on the machine motive manipulate the pole is placed in the most next position, then open to fly.”
Or this gem of writing:
“toss the opportune moment head is tiny to heading up … being the well-trained empress can just toss the sky.”
Finally, this:
“At the ground leaves before the ground is roughly 0.5 rice.” Jeez.
By Bob Gorsuch
December 26, 2007 10:41 AM | Link to this
Bill,
I had a question I submitted last month but never got an answer. Hopefully you can get to me this time. My question is “What would cause my Windows Media Player (in XP) to not work when downloading videos form emails, etc?” What happens is that the player gets to the display window and freezes and does not play the media. Thanks
By Paul
December 26, 2007 1:18 PM | Link to this
Bill, I am replacing an old computer with a new one and I’d like to know if I can install the old harddrive with winxp instead of the one that comes with win vista.
By Tiny Tim
December 26, 2007 3:27 PM | Link to this
The guy who designed the Space Shuttle must have written those plans, Bill..
By PatrckB
December 27, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this
Paul, in a word, no. It sounds like you want to run XP rather than Vista. Good for you. That is smart. But the XP that is installed on your old hard drive loads drivers for your old computer. Put it in your new computer and the old XP won’t be able to talk any of the boards in the new computer.
You may be able to install the hard drive in your new computer as a second disk drive. This depends upon the type of interface your new computer has vrs. the type of interface your drive has. You may be able to access the data on it but the programs on it won’t run.
A lot of manufactures are getting the message that just because Vista is the latest and greatest doesn’t mean consumers want it. Ask when you buy the new machine if they will load XP on it instead of Vista. They have the capability since most all businesses still want new computers with XP and not Vista. If they won’t load XP, find another place from which to buy.