Get After Christmas Cash From Old Gadgets

Ah, the gift giving season has rolled through like a retail tsunami. You did well this year. There’s really nothing else that holds the excitement of shiny new gadgets under the tree. But there’s nothing that puts a damper on the excitement like an empty wallet and big credit card bills about to land in January. What you can really use right now is some after Christmas cash.

Fortunately, there’s a fast and easy way to bring in some quick bucks without having to get another job or really do any work at all. It’s a win-win proposition because you get paid and reclaim some shelf space in your house at the same time. What you want to do is sell your old gadgets for cash while you can get the most.

Notice that I said old gadgets. You’re keeping the new ones, of course. It’s the stuff they are replacing that can go.

I know. You’re thinking of hanging on to the old model just in case you need it. Really? Are you actually going to re-activiate that old cell phone if you lose or damage your new one? It’s likely you’ll run out and get a replacement pronto. In all likelihood, you’ll never need your old device as a backup. Most electronics goes to the landfill in perfect working order. It’s trashed because it’s obsolete.

Here’s another astounding fact. Many electronic devices that are tossed to the curb have some cash value. Many others had cash value, but it vaporized over time so that now the dusty game or GPS in the basement is worthless. These things continue to pile up and eventually get hauled away as trash where they decay in landfills to pollute the environment.

Electronic circuit boards are an environmental nightmare. They’re full of lead and other elements that leach out over time. The green thing to do is get them to an electronics recycler so the materials can be reclaimed to make new gadgets. The green-in-your-pocket thing to do is get them to an electronics buyer so they be put to good use and you’ll get some money.

What’s the fastest and easiest way to get cash for your old electronic gadgets? Sell or recycle your gadgets online at no cost to you. Gazelle offers fast cash for cell phones, laptop computers, home audio systems, Blu-Ray players, digital cameras, MP3 players, video games, PDAs, gaming consoles, GPS devices, camcorders, satellite radios, calculators, external drives, camera lenses, LCD monitors, projectors, streaming media, and even movies.

How much can you get? Each device has a market value depending on condition and available accessories. You can find the current market value and get a quote in seconds online. If you decide to accept the offer, you’ll get free shipping and packaging. Send it in and a check will be on its way pronto. If it turns out that your gadget has no retail value left, you can still send it in for proper recycling

So, what are you waiting for? Gather up the gadgets that were replaced this year and any others that you have hiding in the closet or piled up in the garage or basement. Get instant online quotes to resell your electronic devices and send them in. Act quickly and you may get the cash before your next credit card bill arrives.

Merry Christmas To All From T1 Rex

Wishing you all the best of the season from T1 Rex. Take a break. Christmas is here!

It Really Knows When You Are Sleeping

Does this sound vaguely familiar:

It knows when you are sleeping,
It knows when you’re awake.
It keeps a record of all this,
And reports to you next day.

Big guy prowling around your house with a list? Animal droppings on your shingles? No, that’s something else entirely. This has nothing to do with naughty or nice. It’s all about the deep sleep.

If you are one of those people who gets up more tired than when they went to bed, perhaps you can benefit from a new technological innovation called Zeo Personal Sleep Coach. It’s a gadget that monitors your sleep patterns and gives you a chart of how restfully you slept overnight. The hardware is coupled to an online self-discovery program that helps you interpret the results. Plus you get guided coaching emails with sleep tips and advice.

The technology isn’t like anything you’ve seen before. You wear a special headband that contains sensors to wirelessly monitor electrical signals produced by the brain. You don’t need to wear any Frankenstein caps or smear goo on your forehead. This is a soft fabric band with silverized-fabric sensors embedded in the cloth. Pretend you’re going out for a jog and put on the headband before you go to bed.

The companion piece of equipment looks like a normal bedside alarm clock. Why, it even shows the date and time and works like an alarm clock. But that’s where the simplicity ends. The display shows a graph of your overnight sleep activity. It shows those times when you were lightly sleeping, deeply sleeping and in the REM sleep cycle. It will compare last night’s sleep with the night before and store up to two weeks of data for your review.

What does it all mean? You can have the bedside display dump the data to an SD memory card and then plug that into your computer to upload the data to an online sleep journal. You’ll get sleep scores to tell you how you are doing and email messages with tips for better sleep. All this feedback is designed to help you solve the mystery of why you aren’t getting the restful sleep you want.

If you just aren’t the type who goes out like a light and then needs a fire alarm to get you up in the morning, you may find that the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach has something to offer. There’s a lot of information on their site, including videos and a complete description of the equipment and how it works.

Sweet dreams!

The LAN WAN Connection Made Easy

The local area network has a standardization and continuity that makes sense. We know what Ethernet is. We know what an RJ-45 connection looks like. Nearly every piece of equipment has the ubiquitous 10/100/1000 Mbps network interface. It’s all so predictable until you try to leave the building. Then you’re up against a whole new set of telephone company standards that you don’t deal with in-plant. Is there any way to make the LAN and WAN worlds come together sensibly?

Not so long ago, you had no choice but to educate yourself in the unfamiliar and perhaps confusing technology invented and institutionalized by AT&T and the telco equipment manufacturers. It’s not a trivial task for network engineers and managers who spend their days talking packets and TCP/IP. You need to make a mental shift to DS channels, T-carriers, SONET multiplexing, channel banks, TDM synchronization, channel service units and data service units. Just figuring out how to efficiently match disparate networks could take some doing.

That was then, this is now. If you have the expertise and enjoy interconnecting dissimilar networks, you can do that and simply order the WAN connections that you need. But if you don’t have that level of expertise or just want to avoid straightening out the incompatibilities, you have more options available now.

One approach is to go with a managed network provider who takes care of the WAN link and the interface to your network. You plug into a managed router provided by the carrier and located on your premises. The routers at both ends and the network connections between them are monitored and controlled by the carrier. You don’t have to worry about what color alarm is going off or if the equipment is properly set to the line specs if you make any changes to your service. You simply plug in to the WAN port and use the service.

Managed router services are available for dedicated broadband Internet service, point to point data connections, MPLS networks for interconnecting multiple business locations, and ISDN PRI to provide telephone lines to in-house PBX phone systems.

Another service that offers ease of connection and use is Metro Ethernet. You can get mid-band Ethernet delivered on multiple twisted pair copper in many larger cities. Your connection is a managed router that has the special interface required to transport the signal. Ethernet is also available through fiber optic connections

One advantage of Ethernet services is that they tend to be less expensive, in some cases much less expensive, than other telecommunications services. Which type of bandwidth is right for your company? Find out with a quick business bandwidth price and availability check now.

Your Smartphone Business Office

Thanks to the miracle of microelectronics, we have now reached the age of the business office in the palm of your hand. This is great news for the empowerment of employees on the go and independent professionals. No longer are you tethered to a desk in a building just to have your necessary tools available. No longer do you have to lug a ton of equipment to gain mobility. Well, most of us sure don’t.

The key to all this freedom of movement is the smartphone. The smartphone takes a cell phone and adds a computer. They each have their own wireless networks, but can work in concert to help you get your job done.

Your voice connection is through the cell phone. Many business people add a Bluetooth headset to eliminate the weight of holding the phone to their ear, but also so that they can see the screen and use the apps while they are talking.

Here’s a point to consider when you select your phone and carrier. Some 3G smartphones can operate as cell phones and computers simultaneously. The iPhone 3GS is advertised as having this capability. Some other phones on the AT&T network can do this too if they have UMTS/HSDPA capability. But there are other phones and networks can only work in one mode at a time. If you need to actively search the web or enter data as you are talking, make sure that your device can do voice and data at the same time.

What makes a cellphone a computer is specialized software and a broadband connection. Cellular broadband is also called 3G or third generation. Connection speeds similar to basic DSL services are typical. On the small screen, Web pages should load quickly and give you that interactivity you are used to on a larger computer. Some smartphones have virtual keyboards that appear on the touchscreen. Others have hidden QWERTY keyboards that slide out so you’ll have that familiar tactile feedback.

Another thing to note with cellular broadband is that 3G coverage areas are often smaller than voice service areas. If you range outside of the 3G footprint, you’ll still have a data connection but the speed will slow way down. Most carriers have decent 3G coverage in metropolitan areas. It’s when you get out of town that 3G is harder to find. Check coverage maps for the areas where you tend to spend the majority of your time to make sure you have solid network signals and broadband data speeds.

WiFi Internet is even faster than 3G. If you really want blazing fast Web access, get a phone that supports both the carrier’s 3G network and WiFi b/g networks. That way you can park at a coffee shop, enjoy a cup of java and a muffin, and get lots done. Just be sure to find a quiet corner and talk softly if you are going to be on the phone a lot.

There are a couple of accessory services that can enhance your smartphone office. A low cost toll free number gives you a professional image and encourages prospects and clients to call you from wherever they happen to be. The Kall8 toll free service also sends you voice mail and FAX messages as email attachments. You can change the ring-to number from your cell to your home or office phone if desired. That way people have only a single number to remember to get in touch with you.

If you make overseas calls, you know that calling from a cellphone is either very expensive or impossible. But add the Tel3 international dial-around service and you can call from the US to just about anywhere on Earth for just pennies a minute. Now your smartphone becomes an international business phone. If you are going overseas, be sure to get a smartphone that has quad band GSM capability so it will work on foreign networks. A OneSimCard international SIM card can make those calls from outside the country a lot less expensive that they would otherwise be.

If you can make all of this work, you can pack really light for those trips away from the home office. You entire tool set tucks into a shirt or jacket pocket. Checked luggage? What’s that?