PCPrays

So I found one thing so far that I don’t like about Ubuntu.

Nyssa is trying her best to be a coupon queen (and thats a good thing).  Part of this is to download and print coupons on-line.  However all the sites want you to download their “coupon printing software” to do it and none of them work in Linux.  My guess is they all have spy-ware in them and thats why they want you to install their program.  So maybe it’s a good thing.

Anyways, I was going to install Windows back on her computer but I can’t find any of the Keys that I have for it.  I have like 3 or 4 copies (from when I got convicted that stealing software is sinful and that God was not glorified by me doing it) and they all have the “hey this is genuine windows” but they don’t have the stupid key.  Sigh

Anyways, I had to reinstall Ubuntu for Nyssa   I wanted to do a fresh install anyways, it was a version that was updated from the older version and I had installed Kubuntu and I never used the KDE so it’s nice to have just a fresh install with only the Gnome desktop on it.

The only stupid thing that I did was I think I lost some of my saved video files.  I still have all the ones from this year (they were on my laptop) but I think I lost all the ones from before this year.  But thats not many, I have a boat load of pictures but only about 5 to 10 videos for each year and most of them were just me showing off how cool it is to jump in water with my water proof camera.

Share on Facebook

Really, Roger?  “To Droid or Not To Droid” what like your being clever or something?  I’m such a dork.  Please pray for Nyssa as she has to live with me.

---

So I’m thinking about getting a Droid phone (I like the Droid X which is going to be out next Thursday).  I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth it to me or not.  If I got one it would cost me a total of $920 over two years ($200 (up front for the phone) + $30 (monthly data charge) * 24 (two year contract).  And $920 is a lot of money.  So is it really worth it?

• Two years total cost = $920 or $460 per year
• Three years total cost = $1280 or $426 per year
• Four years total cost = $1640 or $410 per year

That price is with out the phone insurance thing that they sell.  I think that’s another $5 a month or $60 a year.

Okay, so why would I want to spend somewhere between $450 and $500 a hear for a phone for the next 4 years.  Also in 4 years I’m sure the Droid X will be really out dated so do I start the cycle all over again?  Would I even make it 4 years?

Historically I have always been of the opinion that smart phones were really just a jack of all trades master of none.  Everything that they did I had something that did the same job better.  So why would I want one device that does many things crappy?  But to be hones this new generation of smart phones have really over come that.  Smart phones do a lot of things really good now.

• Multimedia

The Droid X is a media phone.  It can take 8 megapixel pictures and take up to 720p video.  Right now I have a Olympus Stylus 1030 SW.  Let me tell you it’s a great digital camera, it can take up to 10 megapixel pictures but the video is not as good as the Droid X.  It can only do 640×480 at 15 fps (you can do 30 fps but then it limits you to 10 seconds of video).  It’s worth noting that my 1030 SW will keep it’s place as my “play camera” it’s water/shock/cold proof so it’s my trail/lake/what ever camera.

I would also like the fact that I could upload pictures and video directly from my phone to photobucket or youtube.  I’m sure I would still keep a high quality backup on my computers but it would be easier to post pictures and video.

Many new movies are coming out with the new “digital copy” thing and so I would also be able to watch them on my phone.  Not sure if I would (or would want to, why then would I have a 61 inch TV?) or not though.

• GPS

Another neat feature on the new smart phones is the GPS features.  You can get turn by turn directions like any other GPS and it uses Google Maps so it would always be up to date (more so then other GPS anyways).  Again to be honest I’m not sure how much I would use this.

But smart phones have geocaching apps.  Right now there is not an official app out yet (looks like there are two by third party companies that are okay) Groundspeak has said they are working on one and that they are making good progress on it…  Anyways, I do like my current GPS.  It’s not the best one on the market for geocaching.  But it does do it’s job.  And now that GPS Babel supports it I can easily upload lots of caches all at once.  But it does have it’s down sides…  I can’t see any notes about the cache.  I don’t always have my GPS with me so if I’m somewhere with spare time I can’t do any quick caching.  I would need to have the information loaded into the GPS before I go.

So from a geocaching stand point the new smart phones rock.  But I could also get a Garmin Oregon 550 for $500 and do paperless caching with that too.  It can hold up to 10,000 way points so it would hold a huge area and kinda do the same thing.  It would just not always be up to date.  But in four years it would be $1140 cheaper.

• Internet

So do I need easier access to facebook?  Not really, most of the time I don’t read what most people post anyways..  Some things would be nice, I would not have to print out recipes when ever I want to try something new.  If I’m shopping I could quickly look up what I would need also.  I don’t know if I would want to use it for my RSS feeds or if I would still want to use my laptop.

I’m sure I would not want to update my web page with it.  I could not imagine trying to type this much text into a phone.  I already mentioned the uploading photos and video would be easier.

I have started using Mint.com to track all our financial stuff.  It would be neat to be able to check it from my phone.

You can also listen to Pandora from it and that’s really cool.  I listen to Pandora all the time (I am right now) and it would be cool to listen to when I’m on my bike or we could even hook it up to Nyssa’s new radio in her van.

• Calender

I used to have a Palm that I got used from my boss.  It was old, black and white, but I did use it all the time because of it’s calender feature (I also kept track of my financial stuff so maybe I would use Mint.com).  I also used it as a way to keep track of all the prayer request that I would get.  I think I would that feature of the phone a lot.

• Bible

They have some cool Bible programs for smart phones.  I just did a quick search and found a free one called YouVersion that has the ESV in it.  I think I would like having the Bible in my phone.

That is about all the positives that I can see right now.  The question is not if I would like the phone or if I would use it but rather is it worth it?  $410 every year for four years is a lot of money.  So I’m not sure what I’m going to do right now.  But the phone does not come out until next Thursday, so I still got some time to think about it.

Share on Facebook

So Dave Ramsey says that there are two types of people in any marriage.  The free spirit and the nerd.  I just wanted to say that I am the nerd in my marriage.  It’s not really a surprise and I’m sure none of you are shocked.  But I was just laughing at my self.

I love Excel (okay, I use Open Office Calc but it’s the same thing only free!) and I have several spreed sheets for all our money things.  I have one for our budget where I have all that we make and then all that we spend it on.  Then I have columns for “weekly”, “monthly” and “yearly”.  So for example we spend $30 a week on gas, which goes over to the next column for $120 a month and the next for $1,440 a year.   Then that amount gets subtracted from the total that we bring home.  And the goal is to make the bottom line as close to zero as we can.  Now the problem with this budge is that we start with week then times that by 4 to get months then times that by 12 to get years.  That will give you a 48 week year so I have an additional little section where I add in an additional 4 weeks.  To this number I add in an additional 4 weeks of pay and then subtract out the things that we get every week (gas and food).  Then that number should get us close to our real budget.

I also have a section for “Major Buys” and it’s pretty cool.  I have a list of items and how much they cost (car, roof, air conditioner, oven, etc) and how long we expect them to live and then do the math to see how much we need to save every month to be able to buy that item when ever we are going to need it.

Next I have a “Home Mortgage” sheet.  On this one I keep track of all our mortgage payments.  I track the date, amount owed, principal paid, principal paid for that year, total principal paid and total # of payments left.  It’s pretty cool, I like getting to see the total amount owed go down and the principal amount paid go up.

Anyways, if you managed to read all of that and get to this point in the post, I’m just wondering are you the nerd or the free spirit?

Share on Facebook

So Nyssa and my self are going to have a deficit this year.  Yep we are going to spend more then we make, how much you ask?  It’s not too bad, just $100,000.  So given that I asked if we could find anywhere to cut our budget so that way it will be less then $100,000.  Guess what, we did!  Is that great or what, we found a total of 0.006% (If your wondering that’s $6.00) that we can cut out!  So now we will only have a deficit of $99,994.  Woot!

Okay, I’m not talking about my self or Nyssa but about the amount that our government managed to cut from their budget.  President Obama ordered his cabinet secretaries to find $100 million in the budget to cut.  They found $102 million.  Sounds good, but $102 million is only 0.006 of this year’s deficit.  Mr. Obama did this to “Show that he, too, was serious about belt-tightening.”

If Nyssa and my self were going to over spend this year by $100,000 and told you that we were going to tighten our belts and cut $6.00 I don’t think you would be too amazed at our sacrifice…

I used $100,000 because it’s a number that I can understand.  A 2 trillion deficit (and even $102 million) is to big for me to see and so I asked “what if it was my house and it was from a total of $100,000?”

Linky

To me the worst part of all of this is the following line…

By increasing the number of soldiers traveling on each airplane chartered for rest-and-relaxation leave, the Army will save $18 million in the next few months.

Expenses for our soldiers should be the one of the last things to be cut.  Not the first.  To be honest if everything in the budget was cut except for money spent on our soldiers and their families, I would be okay with that.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook