With Windows 7 moving towards a touch-screen interface, people are already thinking the end of the mouse as a means of interface with your computer may be coming to an end.

A researcher at Gartner has proclaimed that within five years we will no longer be using the 40-year-old mouse to interface with our computers.  He feels the touch screens, facial recognition and possibly even thought control will take over from the trusty mouse.  He also points to the fact that laptops have already done away with the necessity by incorporating the touch pad into their systems.

While this is all very interesting, I find it doubtful we will ever see the mouse go away completely.  There are too many things that it is still better to be precise with yout pointing than fat fingers pressing on a screen.  Graphic illustrators would probably flip out without a mouse.  When you need to move just one pixel, the precision you get with a mouse is essential.

It’s a nice dream to have one less thing on your desk, and it may very well take a bit of a back seat to its current status, but to totally go away is highly doubtful.

Hard to believe we’re already at 100 posts here, but it’s true.  That also means we’re 100 days in, so just like the government, it’s time for the readers to give us a report card.

How are you liking the site so far?  What would you like to see us cover?  Anything you would change?  We can only grow with your input, and the time for that input is now!

With every social networking site encouraging you to post your pictures of yourself, it is up to you to you to use discretion in what you post, or it could come back to haunt you.

The latest case of someone using the poor choice of posting an image that will haunt them for years to come is Joshua Lipton, pictured here to the right. (image credit to Valleywag)  Mr. Lipton was on trial for hitting a woman while driving drunk.  Before his sentence was handed down, he chose to party in an orange prison jump suit that said “JAIL BIRD” on it.  The prosecutors found the image and the judge agreed this showed he had no remorse over the incident.  He got a prison sentence of two years for his actions.

While this may be an extreme case, it is a lesson in that you never know who may be looking at the images you post to your accounts on sites like MySpace and Facebook.  In May of 2007, a woman sued her college for $75.000 over their issues with an image she posted to her MySpace profile. The day before she was due to graduate with a degree in education, Millersville University determined that a photo of her in a pirate costume, drinking from a Mr. Goodbar cup at a Halloween party promoted underage drinking.  They decided this was not in accordance with their ethics, and her college career was wiped from existance over one picture.

In November 2007, Kevin Colvin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank, told his employers on October 30th that he had to head home to New York City for a family crisis.  On November 1st, Mr. Colvin received the following email from one of his bosses:

Kevin,

Thanks for letting us know–hope everything is ok in New York. (cool wand)

Cheers,

PCD

It seems Mr. Colvin had lied and actually attended a Halloween party dressed as a fairy, complete with the wand his boss referred to.  He then posted an image to his Facebook account, and his bosses discovered it.

The basic rule of thumb is that you should only post pictures that have no chance of coming back to haunt you.  The only pictures I have ever posted of myself online have been from work events, portrait style or once when I had a full beard and I was asking people if they thought I should keep it.  Essentially you have to think of any images you post online as becoming public domain, no matter if your account is set to private or not.  Many celebrities with profiles have had them hacked and then had embarrassing images released to the world.

Basically, always think twice before posting an image online… and then always err on the side of caution.

For those of you who downloaded Firefox 3.0, you should be receiving notices of an update to 3.01 any time now. As this is a security update, you need to get this as soon as possible, if you do not see an auto update announcement from Firefox soon, please do the following:

Go to “Help” up in the toolbar

Click on “Check for updates”

The system will handle the rest, and all you will be left to do is restart the browser for the update to take effect.

This is a good chance to also remind you that you need to check on your extensions/add-ons every so often to make sure they are all up to date.  You do the following to check on them:

Go to “Tools” up in the toolbar

Click on “Add-ons”

Click the button for “Find updates”

And the system will handle most of the rest with you following the on screen prompts.

Always make sure your programs are up to date.

We asked previously “Will MobileMe Be For Me?“, and the answer is: I’m not sure.

I now have it fully set up with my iPod Touch, and it is very nice to have all my calendar events and contacts updated constantly.  However, for a lot of people in this world, I highly doubt they will have much use for it.  How often do you really update your contacts?  Is it worth having your calendar updated every 15 minutes if it costs you $99 a year?

For me, yes, I need these features, but not everyone is going to need this.  Add in that I do most of my calendar work on Google Calendar, I would find this totally useless if it wasn’t for Google Sync keeping Outlook and Google Calendar constantly updating each other.

Overall I like MobileMe, but I do find it lacking in some areas, and I hope they will be fixed in coming updates.

- Does not sync with Google Calendar.

- Syncs bookmarks with Internet Explorer and Safar, but not Firefox.

- Seems to use battery life a bit faster.

I’m still glad I took the plunge, but would like to see some changes to it down the road.

Every so often someone comes up with a way for you to make money on the Internet for jsut doing your every day activities, and sometimes they even seem like they may work.

Scour is a new search engine that will let you search Google, Yahoo and MSN all at once from one interface.  Once the results come up, you can vote thumbs up or down on them to help with future rankings and leave comments on them to help other people with their searches.

Where it gets interesting is when you  start doing all of these activities, you earn points for your actions.  Earn enough points and you earn gift cards of cash.  It will take quite a few points to earn money, but it is better than getting nothing at all.    As you tell other friends about it, and they sign up, you earn points for their searches also, so you can climb even faster towards your goal.

From everything we can tell, it is legit, and it is not the first time something like this has come along, but these types of projects have a checkered past of not lasting for very long.  For now, it’s worth a definite try for how little effort you have to put in.

I think you all know by now that I am not a true techie. A lot of the tech I have been exposed to is at the behest of my son who IS a tech lover to the nth degree. I do have the advantage on him though of having seen much technological advancement in the olden days that are the grandparents of the technology he now enjoys.

My family had one of the first TVs on our block in the early 50’s—small screen and large cabinet. Only a few hours of viewing pleasure and then the National Anthem which was my favorite in my toddler mind. Everyone had to stand up and salute if I wasn’t asleep yet. My parents really loved me at that hour. Since then I have seen portables, rabbit ears, color and now HD (high definition).

This past weekend I had to make a quick trip to St. Louis and stayed at my favorite hotel chain in one of their brand new locations. After I got past the shock of their view of cutting edge I finally noticed the large (42”) flat screen TV in the living area. Once I turned it on I was really impressed. Now I happen to own a flat screen with HD but my receiving equipment for all my other gadgets doesn’t cut the technology requirements. I know you all have heard or seen the ads about HD as it comes closer to being provided by law but it really isn’t that scary. If you have a satellite dish or cable and are watching tv at this point you are safe. What you should be concerned about is taking full advantage of HD. Wow!! The picture was crystal clear even for my old bi-focal eyes. Absolutely breathtaking color and clarity and it really did enhance my viewing. I actually watched an old movie that certainly was not filmed in HD and it was gorgeous. While I realize that this may sound trivial in light of the volatile economic situation we are in all over the world I would ask you to take a moment and realize that you might just be watching a few more hours of telly as your entertainment choice and I would suggest to you that you embrace HD and enjoy it.

Sean recently wrote why he was against the majority of extended warranties, but now it’s my time to argue for them.

I just recently read an article regarding extended warranties and why you shouldn’t buy them. The article actually pointed out the idea of planned obsolescence and its negating the worth of such extended plans. On the whole I agree with that theory but recent events in my life have proven to me that such plans do indeed have merit.

Now I know you think this blog is just about techie things like computers and such but in my vision it is really to help all of us benefit from anyone of our experiences in this world regarding things that hum, run or befuddle us. Take my refrigerator—please. I researched this purchase for months and finally bought a favorite brand. Great—no. It freezes everything and because I did not get an extended warranty I am subject to the phrase ‘Well, as a courtesy’ Courtesy my foot. It is a poorly designed unit and you know it or you would not have a ‘fix’ available for the problem. I have had five repair calls and two ‘fix’ plans and it is not fixed. Now it is time for them to step up and give me a new refrigerator because the time for ‘courtesy’ has passed.

Will they do it? I don’t know but I am ready for the phrase I have heard after every call “Do you have an extended warranty?’ I really shouldn’t matter if the item is poorly designed but evidently it does. I paid a lot of money for this impersonator of a fridge. The extended warranty was only $89.00 for three years –not bad. Or I could have paid for it with American Express and had the first warranty doubled for free. I am now paying for almost everything with my Am Ex card. But if you don’t have an Am Ex what do you do? Save all paper work and get ready for a fight.

And then there is Apple. We happened to have an opportunity to purchase a barely used iPod Touch and upon adding an application the thing went wonky. I know that is not a tech term but when you realize that even their engineering department was stumped wonky it is!! Their customer service has been exemplary. We have even had progress reports on their research of the problem. No ‘as a courtesy’ bs—just good customer service. So in light of this great customer service should we have bought an extended warranty? My thought is yes. Even though Apple is proving themselves to be a good corporate giant things do go wrong and with a unit that has already gone wonky I would feel better if I had an extended warranty.

To take the problem of extended or no to its most base level I feel you have to look at not only original price of the item but also its importance to you. I need a working fridge—it is a cornerstone of my kitchen and yes it was expensive. On the not too expensive side was the Touch and yes I need that too—it is the basis of my road warrior organization. If you find that you can’t accept the idea of planned obsolescence as I can’t then I suggest extended warranties are the plan for you.

GPS is my new friend.

Everyone who knows me knows I have no sense of direction—I can get lost going in a straight line with no turn possibilities. For that particular reason I have come to rely on my OnStar in my car and maps from various sources.

I am on the road and in my car more hours than I do anything else so I must have decent simple directions in a hurry –I can’t read maps while I am driving so I need an alternative. Now, as much as I love OnStar there are times when it just doesn’t get me where I am going due to certain route requirements set up by the provider. The operators have trouble sometimes routing me in a simple manner such as fewest turns, no interstates or gas stations located in front of me not 20 miles behind me!

So I decided to look into a technology I had used before but had set aside for OnStar—GPS. WOW!! How times have changed!! Done all in color, voice rendered directions and a wealth of information readily available—my dream. I purchased a Garmin NUVI 750 and I couldn’t be more pleased. I can change my route easily, find a gas station at midnight, locate food in a small town—and I really don’t have to look at the screen as my new friend “ Chatty” tells me where to go and when to go—heaven!!

I have only one complaint and that is the book of directions left a lot to be desired and I do mean a lot. I worked with the unit for several days and learned so much—I wasn’t afraid of it and I didn’t let it win and now we have a comfortable relationship in my techno zone. There will be more to come on this subject as I learn the basics and the fine points of my new best friend.

Now that you have either upgraded your iPhone or iPod Touch to firmware 2.0, or bought a device with it pre-installed, what the heck are all these “apps” and what is the “Application Store”?

As the name implies, these new apps are applications that you can add to your iPhone or iPod Touch that will give you new functionality from the devices.  This can be anything from new games, to ways to access your Twitter account, making payments with Pay Pal or any other number of things.  At the time the Application Store launched there were already 500 apps available, so there is sure to be something for just about every one out there.

The apps range in price from free to $29.95, so be careful to check the prices before you go too crazy with your downloading.  As we get to play with them more here at StarterTech, we will be sure to let you know which ones we’re really liking, and which ones we think are duds.

Our one big caveat at this time is that each app adds another icon to your home screen on your device, so it could get a bit overwhelming with all these new things to click on.  Our suggestion is that since you can make new pages, why not make pages for the different types of apps?  Say, a page for games, a page for social networking, etc.  This may help you keep your sanity a bit more as you flip through, looking for that one app you want to be using.