Last night I forgot all about watching the season finale of a show that I have followed weekly for months. I couldn't believe it! "Now what?" "There has to be a way to see it right?" The good news is here. I found a way to see it and also a way to see episodes of other shows that I missed along the way. http://tv.blinkx.com/
If you go to this site, you can do a search for your show. With a little bit of luck, you can watch your favorite show right on your computer screen. I found the episode that I missed last night and I just spent an hour in pure self-indulgence...watching my show, eating my lunch, and drinking an iced cold soda. They have past episodes of Glee, American Idol, Cops, Hot in Cleveland, Saturday Night Live, the Real Houswives shows, and lots more. A word of caution though. They also have a movie search engine. I tried this a few times and it only brought me to web sites that wanted to sell me something. The TV shows are free. Movies cost money and I haven't found any legitimate site that is willing to let you watch them for free.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Keeping Track of Your Own Medical Records
I am guilty of it and just about everyone that I know is guilty of it. Where are your medical records? Mine are at the offices of several different doctors, at the medical labs, at the hospital, at the X-Ray center, and probably at a few more places that I can't remember. These days, doctors want you to not only bring in a list of your medications, but the actual bottles. I remember the last time that I went to a doctor and I had to do this. I sat in the waiting room feeling like all of the patients were silently comparing just how ill we all were by glancing over at the number of bottles in each other's plastic baggies.
Google once again has come out with something that I think is very worthwhile. It's a way to organize your medical records and the program is all set up for you and free to use.
http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html
You can go in and start out by listing all of your medications and dosages. Then you can list the names of your doctors, their addresses, and their telephone numbers. (This is more organized than I am already.) From there you can upload your blood test results and any other lab or any other test results that you have had done. Google has already partnered with some of the major testing facilities and they are trying to gain more partners as I type this. In my opinion, this is something that has been needed for a long time. By filling out a few forms, we will eventually be able to get the testing facilities and the hospitals to e-mail our results directly to our Google Health page, therefore building a log of our own medical history. Why is it that doctors have always guarded our medical records as if they are top secret? Isn't it time that we take charge of our own health and start looking at doctors as paid professionals? When is the last time that you hired an auto mechanic and he told you that you couldn't look at the results of his findings? He would tell you what he found, but you couldn't read the diagnostic results from his fancy auto mechanic's machine. Now that I think about it, maybe that happens quite frequently. But when it comes to health, and your own health, isn't it about time that we are the owners of our own records? With the Google Health Program, once you have it compiled, you can simply refer to it yourself, or should you see a new doctor, you can forward him a copy. It will include your insurance information, medications, allergies, medical conditions, test results, hospital visits, etc.
The medical profession openly talks about mistakes. I have personally experienced them and just about everyone that I know can tell you a story about their own medical mishap or someone else that suffered the consequences of a medical error. If nothing else, should something happen to you, a family member or a friend can pull up your information immediately if you give them access, or if you think ahead of time, you can send them updated files. Like many things in life, it takes time. It is just one more chore to do. But, is it better to do it now and make sure that it is accurate, or wait and have the emergency room staff try to figure everything out once you are there at their mercy? I am going to start filling mine out right now.
Google once again has come out with something that I think is very worthwhile. It's a way to organize your medical records and the program is all set up for you and free to use.
http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html
You can go in and start out by listing all of your medications and dosages. Then you can list the names of your doctors, their addresses, and their telephone numbers. (This is more organized than I am already.) From there you can upload your blood test results and any other lab or any other test results that you have had done. Google has already partnered with some of the major testing facilities and they are trying to gain more partners as I type this. In my opinion, this is something that has been needed for a long time. By filling out a few forms, we will eventually be able to get the testing facilities and the hospitals to e-mail our results directly to our Google Health page, therefore building a log of our own medical history. Why is it that doctors have always guarded our medical records as if they are top secret? Isn't it time that we take charge of our own health and start looking at doctors as paid professionals? When is the last time that you hired an auto mechanic and he told you that you couldn't look at the results of his findings? He would tell you what he found, but you couldn't read the diagnostic results from his fancy auto mechanic's machine. Now that I think about it, maybe that happens quite frequently. But when it comes to health, and your own health, isn't it about time that we are the owners of our own records? With the Google Health Program, once you have it compiled, you can simply refer to it yourself, or should you see a new doctor, you can forward him a copy. It will include your insurance information, medications, allergies, medical conditions, test results, hospital visits, etc.
The medical profession openly talks about mistakes. I have personally experienced them and just about everyone that I know can tell you a story about their own medical mishap or someone else that suffered the consequences of a medical error. If nothing else, should something happen to you, a family member or a friend can pull up your information immediately if you give them access, or if you think ahead of time, you can send them updated files. Like many things in life, it takes time. It is just one more chore to do. But, is it better to do it now and make sure that it is accurate, or wait and have the emergency room staff try to figure everything out once you are there at their mercy? I am going to start filling mine out right now.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
WebMD Keeping Up-to-date with your Medical Conditions
If you have a medical condition and you would like updates on the latest research and treatments, you can sign up for newsletters from WebMD. They will send you up-to-date news on your condition and provide you with the latest research. WebMD is a professional organization...not one of those hokey sites that is going to diagnose your condition by filling out a form on your computer screen. They have lots and lots of great information. This is an invaluable tool in managing your health. https://member.webmd.com/newsletters/newsletters.aspx
Sunday, June 27, 2010
WeatherBug
I know that lots of people listen to the news and get weather updates on the hour. I think that you have to remember what your minute is...every hour at 8 minutes past the hour or something like that. I use WeatherBug. It's a program that you can download and use for free. In return, the company asks that you pick out a couple of advertisers and allow them to send you promotional offers once in awhile. That's a fair trade-off in my mind. In return, I have the current temperature displaying on my computer screen and I get severe weather alerts instantly when a little weather bug icon replaces the temperature icon and starts beeping unrelentlessly. WeatherBug also provides 7-day forecasts and just about everything else that your weatherman predicts on the nightly news.
Now the BIG question is, "What makes WeatherBug so great?" The company was originally developed as sort of a school project. They placed live cameras and weather tracking devices at schools across the country in order to aid the teachers and students in science classes. It grew from there and developed into a national weather service that is now used by our own Homeland Security as well as by over 100 television broadcast stations. They are now the world's largest proprietary weather network with over 8,000 weather tracking stations across the U.S. and 1,000 live cameras. I live on the ocean and my area has 10 tracking stations that I can choose from in order to get the most up-to-date weather. My feed is coming from the local high school which is .45 miles away and it also has a live camera. At a glance, I can tell exactly what the temperature is and just how strong the wind is blowing. If a severe storm is coming, my little bug friend starts chirping like crazy, warning me to clear the deck and batten down the hatches! You can also go into WeatherBug and view live pictures from the cameras. I just went in and looked at a live camera shot from Philadelphia, PA and another one from Wildwood, NJ. It's a calm night in the northeast! WeatherBug is also available for mobile phone users and there is lots more information for boaters. Check it out! http://weatherbug.com/
Now the BIG question is, "What makes WeatherBug so great?" The company was originally developed as sort of a school project. They placed live cameras and weather tracking devices at schools across the country in order to aid the teachers and students in science classes. It grew from there and developed into a national weather service that is now used by our own Homeland Security as well as by over 100 television broadcast stations. They are now the world's largest proprietary weather network with over 8,000 weather tracking stations across the U.S. and 1,000 live cameras. I live on the ocean and my area has 10 tracking stations that I can choose from in order to get the most up-to-date weather. My feed is coming from the local high school which is .45 miles away and it also has a live camera. At a glance, I can tell exactly what the temperature is and just how strong the wind is blowing. If a severe storm is coming, my little bug friend starts chirping like crazy, warning me to clear the deck and batten down the hatches! You can also go into WeatherBug and view live pictures from the cameras. I just went in and looked at a live camera shot from Philadelphia, PA and another one from Wildwood, NJ. It's a calm night in the northeast! WeatherBug is also available for mobile phone users and there is lots more information for boaters. Check it out! http://weatherbug.com/
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Comparison Shopping-Finding the Best Price
Google has outdone themselves once again. If you read my last post about comparing prices on a printer from 156 stores, you probably wondered how I did that. If you type "compare prices" into your browser, you will come up with several of the old standby internet price comparison sites. Google has come up with a search engine that will not only compare prices from internet sellers, but from local stores and it will tell you which ones are in your area along with a map showing you how to get there. The search engine also compares prices with tax and shipping so that you get a true bottom line price. You can find it at http://www.google.com/products or right from your gmail screen if you click on "more" from the navigation bar at the top of the page, and then click on "shopping."
Let's use the Canon Pixma MP640 printer as our example. If I type that into the search box, I can then sort my search by relevance, price, product rating, and seller rating. I can also enter my zip code to find stores in my area. I am going to search using my zip code. The first item that comes up tells me that the printer is being sold in 9 nearby stores. If I click on the "compare prices" button, now I not only see the prices from the internet sellers, but I can also see what Sears, Walmart and Staples are charging. I can also look up customer reviews, technical specs, how-to videos, similar items and accessories for the printer.
If you can get used to using this search engine, you can stop going through the Sunday newspaper ads to see who has the best price in your area and stop searching all over the internet in order to compare prices. I would imagine that there are a lot of retailers who aren't thrilled about this nifty tool, but for the consumer, it's golden!
Let's use the Canon Pixma MP640 printer as our example. If I type that into the search box, I can then sort my search by relevance, price, product rating, and seller rating. I can also enter my zip code to find stores in my area. I am going to search using my zip code. The first item that comes up tells me that the printer is being sold in 9 nearby stores. If I click on the "compare prices" button, now I not only see the prices from the internet sellers, but I can also see what Sears, Walmart and Staples are charging. I can also look up customer reviews, technical specs, how-to videos, similar items and accessories for the printer.
If you can get used to using this search engine, you can stop going through the Sunday newspaper ads to see who has the best price in your area and stop searching all over the internet in order to compare prices. I would imagine that there are a lot of retailers who aren't thrilled about this nifty tool, but for the consumer, it's golden!
Deal a Day at Woot
If you've never heard of Woot.com, it is an internet site that offers a daily deal on what they call "cool gadgets." Every day, just one new item is listed for sale at 12:00 midnight central time. It is available for sale until 11:59 pm the following night, unless it sells out beforehand. Their motto is, "One Day, One Deal." If they run out, that's it. You only get one shot at it! Today they were selling a Canon Pixma Mp640 All-in-one printer for $79.95 plus $5.00 shipping. The lowest price that I could find in other stores after comparing prices from 156 sellers was $130.00 including tax and shipping. Needless to say, Woot's price was so good that the printer sold out.
By now your're probably thinking, "I could have bought 20 printers and resold them on eBay." Not so fast.....Woot has a limit and they only allow three items per person. If you do take a look at their site, take a moment to check out their Woot Faqs page. These guys have a great sense of humor and it's well worth a read!
Okay, it's 12:58 eastern time. The daily deal should be showing up any minute now! http://www.woot.com/
By now your're probably thinking, "I could have bought 20 printers and resold them on eBay." Not so fast.....Woot has a limit and they only allow three items per person. If you do take a look at their site, take a moment to check out their Woot Faqs page. These guys have a great sense of humor and it's well worth a read!
Okay, it's 12:58 eastern time. The daily deal should be showing up any minute now! http://www.woot.com/
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Jango An Online Music Jukebox
Being a music lover, I think that Jango is one of my favorite internet sites. Jango is kind of like having your own personal juke box. You simply create your own music station by typing in the names of your favorite artists and adding them to your station. Jango will then play songs from that artist on your station and add songs from artists that are similar in genre. The more songs that you add, the more you can customize your station. You then can save this station for the next time that you want to tune in and listen. You can also create more than one station. You have to sign up intially, which is free. Then you can start creating your own channels. As an example, I just created a new station which I named, "Saturday Night Listening." So, for starters, I typed in Michael Buble. From there, I let Jango do its thing. The next songs that it played for me were by Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra, Josh Groban, Norah Jones....which were all right up my alley. Then I saved this station so that the next time I go back, I already have my "Saturday Night Listening" music all ready to go. If I want to customize the music, I just type in the name of an artist that I like and add it to my station. Jango is pretty smart. It will continue to pick and choose more songs to play for you according to the artists that you add. You can also choose not to have it play songs and it will bypass those artists.
Okay, now let me really confuse you. There are other people who have saved their stations and you can tune in and listen to what they have chosen to listen to. You can also interact with them and get them to be internet friends. I haven't gone in that direction. I am happy to just bring up my Jango and click on one of my saved stations. I also get to hear artists that I probably never would have discovered on my own. (There are just so many hours in the day.)
So...go check it out. There isn't much not to like... Oops, they do throw in an occasional advertisement. Trust me, if you can watch TV with ads every 10 to 15 minutes, you can listen to one on Jango about once every 15 songs.
I hope that you enjoy Jango as much as I do. http://www.jango.com/
Okay, now let me really confuse you. There are other people who have saved their stations and you can tune in and listen to what they have chosen to listen to. You can also interact with them and get them to be internet friends. I haven't gone in that direction. I am happy to just bring up my Jango and click on one of my saved stations. I also get to hear artists that I probably never would have discovered on my own. (There are just so many hours in the day.)
So...go check it out. There isn't much not to like... Oops, they do throw in an occasional advertisement. Trust me, if you can watch TV with ads every 10 to 15 minutes, you can listen to one on Jango about once every 15 songs.
I hope that you enjoy Jango as much as I do. http://www.jango.com/
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