The computer I use both at home and my business.  It is mostly used for business, but some personal use as well.  It’s a notebook (Apple Macbook pro 17 inch)

I have an external 24″ monitor (Apple LED Display) I use along with the built in display at home.  I use a 19″ widescreen display at my business (Asus LED). both have built in audio.  The 24″ display also has a  charger, usb hub, microphone, and camera built in.  So I use the charger that came with the computer at my business. I also have an external optical mouse both places because I am sometimes more comfortable with that than the track pad.

For TV if I really want to watch it, I hook up a USB tv tuner(Elgato Eye TV Hybrid).

Even though I have one main computer, I do have other computing devices.  I have an iPod Touch which can browse the web, take photo/video, and run apps among other things.  I also have an Android phone which can besides doing phone calls, browse the web, run apps, gps, take photo/video and more. I also use either my computer, phone or iPod instead of a watch.

I also have an stand alone gps navigation system, and fm radios in the car, home, and office.  And 3 dedicated cameras that can do both video and still – besides the other devices that have cameras.

For viewing photos – It can be done with my computer and monitor, my iPod, on the camera itself, with another person’s  TV connected with a cable to my camera, my printer has a viewing screen, or on my phone. I also have a key chain photo viewer which I rarely use since my phone can perform that function better.  So a digital photo frame is not necessary for me.

I use external hard drives for video storage and local backup.

In addition I use outsourced providers for doing online backup and web hosting.
So maybe I have one computer, maybe more depending how its counted.

Later on I found out it was used in propaganda by Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain without my permission.  They used it on a report against bike trails.  They did credit the photo, but not properly. It was an insult to my hometown,  and a transportation option I and many others enjoy.  It had misleading information including information about our representative in congress. Also At the same time I found out about an inline skater killed crossing a road while on a trail near me.

The whole situation bothered me quite a bit, but I am not getting a lawyer for it since I cannot afford one.   I am glad for the Flickr user who pointed this out, I’m sure there are many others that have misused my photos but not to this extent.  Later, I never renewed my Flickr pro account (there wasn’t much pro about it).

It has not stopped me from taking photos, but I have been slower to post them on the web.

Copyright Nathan Steffenson

I was reading several stories one in the Brainerd Dispatch print about how we can help in Japan. It mentioned how we can donate with PayPal.

I read several stories in the Star Tribune online 3-18-11.  Two of them I read, I purposely read because they were technology articles.  One was about Internet changing news media, and the other was about a new top level domain by ICANN which I won’t mention the name because of keywords(which government leaders and others weighed in on).

Then I went on to read more articles. There were two about crime in Blaine that dealt with the internet.   One was about someone dieing and several others overdosing from synthetic drugs that are available on the Internet and a suspect was arrested for distributing it.  The other article was about a “hacker” charged with a crime. And there were a few other articles that didn’t have much mention of the Internet.

The Internet has obvious good things, some mixed good and bad, and some very dangerous. It is not simply a virtual world. It’s part of the real world.

I learned about this watching Tekzilla

• Email Forwards are usually sent by people you know and trust.  However many times the information in forwards is not trustworthy and may not even be what your friend or relative actually thinks.
• Many forwards I get have completely made up information, that can be easily be found to be false or partially false with just a little fact checking.
• I have found an interesting and useful urban legends web site that deals with some of these http://www.snopes.com
• Even though an email may be true at one time, parts can be changed to make it at least partially untrue.
• Some forwards have very controversial information or opinions – many anonymous or miscredited.
• Some forwards say you have to forward to so many people or say that you have to give it back to show you’re really a friend.   This can be a good way to spread annoying emails.  Do you really have to reply to a forward, that they didn’t write, to show you are a friend?   Some of these emails say you’ll get something free for sending so many – I have never found that to be true.
• Some forwards are fill in the blank and forward.  This might be giving too much information out.
• Some forwards have copyrighted text and images that might be illegally redistributed.
• One misuse of forwards is redistributing a private conversation.  This can be very hurtful to some people.
• Another misuse related to forwarding is telling everyone to write to one particular person, which can overwhelm someone.
• Many forwards are basically chain letters.  Chain letters are of course illegal to send in the US Mail.  Email is still fairly unregulated (or hard to regulate) and unsecured.  I would advise people to avoid sending these forwarded emails.
• After a while the people that send me forwards, I usually ask them to stop sending it.

It used to be some people would say they only use their computer for word processing and maybe a game like solitaire.
Then it became, use it for email, and web browsing. -internet access
Then add a digital still camera, you want to store and view photos with your computer. -larger hard drive, maybe a better monitor
Then add downloaded or streaming digital music and video. – high speed internet access, large hard drive for downloaded content, good video card, good sound system

I personally started off using computers for games, word processing and drawing (and printing).
These days I use them for my digital photos and video from my cameras. Keeping track of bank accounts, keeping accounting books, and taxes. Download music from iTunes and Amazon. Watching video by others-streaming, downloaded, DVD, or TV tuner. I use Word processing more for email and web sites rather than printing. I don’t play much for games on my computer anymore, but use my friends Nintendo Wii once in a while. I’m trying to print less and less and have been converting paper, film, and tapes to digital form stored on hard drive and/or DVD. I didn’t think I’d join social networking web sites or send text messages on the phone, that changed.

My parents as recently as a couple of years ago weren’t planning on watching video on a computer, now they do.

If you see a feature or something new, you may not use it now, but that will likely change.