You will need Caller ID for this.

Usually, it’s a telemarketing company located in India, putting your telephone number on their call loop until you actually pick up and they connect you to someone in India to sell you services on behalf of their client.

You are also probably a customer of said client.

Google their number, and you are sure to find forums filled with irate customers who have received the same annoying 1-800 number.

Call the company responsible to get to Customer Service.

Ask to be taken off every snail mailing, calling, emailing list they have in existence on their system for every type of package, service and product.

If they tell you it’s for your own good, reply with: “Don’t call or write to me.

Don’t worry.

I’ll contact YOU when I want to buy something from your company.”

Works every time. I have single handedly gotten all the banks and their affiliated insurance companies in Canada off my back and cellphone.

I have also received no more telemarketing emails or inquiries since.

(Umm.. no cats in the machine, okay? Source)

Would you believe that I actually enjoy laundry?

Call me crazy, but since I don’t do much in laundry, I like folding it, putting it away, ironing shirts.

Don’t start care packaging laundry to me. That was NOT an invitation.

Ahem.

What makes it more fun for me, is mindless work. I don’t have to think, write, type or do anything except make sure something looks clean and smooth.

I throw on my Pink Apple Shuffle, clip it to myself and dance around the apartment while fluffing towels (yeah, I’ll bet you have a really great image of that in your head now right?)

But here are some of my favourite laundry To Dos.

I always prep everything

I check all the pockets for missed tissues, papers, pens, coins, handkerchiefs.

I zip up the pants because if they are unzipped, the washer actually wears down the zipper and twists it beyond recognition which makes it hellish to zip up properly later, resulting in frustrating “ARRGH! Why are you stuck you sonofa#&$^@ ……***cue ripping noise“.

You know what I mean.

I also turn what I don’t want to fade in the wash inside out, and I pre-treat stains before they set and before tossing them in the laundry bin.

For everything that has to be dryer-free

I sling it on my back, head upstairs and immediately hang them to dry in the bathroom.

Why the bathroom? Because I don’t have a laundry room with a nicely installed bar to hang my clothes on, nor a clothes rack.

The bathroom is the cheapest, easiest option, apart from your closet which may or may not be overflowing with clothes to begin with

If you want to wash something that you don’t want to get lost…

Safety pin it. It’s the easiest, safest way to make sure that the shoelaces you are finally getting around to washing, don’t get tangled in the wash.

2 safety pins, one on either end of the shoelace, pinned to a towel. Comes out untangled, loose, and clean.

I use cold water for everything BUT whites

Never mind this sorting by darks, lights and whites. Everything goes into cold except for whites, which include towels (kitchen and bathroom), bedsheets, pillowcases and other items that require hot water washing.

It makes things a lot easier. Then I toss it all in the same dryer and let ‘er rip. (Source of Yellow Shoe Laundry)

Wash delicates by hand

“Seriously, FB?!”

Yes, seriously. I don’t have many lacy, delicate things that need to be handwashed, as per my shopping rule of:

No dryclean only items, No delicate handwash only items and Nothing that requires much work.

But I do have a couple of items that I just quickly run under water and scrub. Then I squeeze without wringing the item and let it dry on a towel.

Don’t let the item get bent out of its shape. Wool sweaters are notorious for this, which is why I only own one and mysteriously shrank the rest.

Throw some tennis balls in for good measure

In the dryer that is. 2 or 3 clean tennis balls, throw them in to keep items from being tangled up with each other, and to absorb the water (they’re really absorbent).

It helps cut down on the drying time, especially when you have thick heavy towels.

I’ve been (recently) taking my little Scan-a-thon farther, and scanning in all of my photos.

It’s not really that I want to get rid of ALL of my photos per se, but I wanted to keep a digital copy (just in case.. fire and water damage, you know), and I wanted to only keep the photographs that mean the most to me.

I also wanted to make sure I got the old photos in there before they faded away in time.

I decided to take the Wave approach, by sorting them in what I ended up calling waves with a focused goal in mind at each wave.

Wave #1: Sort & Destroy the duplicates

(I am such a geek…. did you catch that? All your base are belong to us.)

This was… not such a bad task.

I spent a lot of time reminiscing, showing BF pictures of me as a baby and a little girl and so on. It was kind of fun.

I sorted them with only this criteria in mind: Group together & get rid of the duplicates.

I had a LOT of duplicate photos. This was back in the day before digital cameras, so when we printed photos, we printed 3 sets of each photo roll.

What a headache.

Once I was done, I had trimmed down the stack almost by 35%.

Wave #2: Sort into major categories with a rough timeline

This was a bit trickier for my mind to wrap around. I wanted to sort them in a way that it would make sense to me (or in an album) and in some sort of chronological order.

I thought about it, and decided on sorting them by:

Dates (Not exact dates, more like “Around 5 years old”, “High School”, “College”

Events (Birthdays, Christmases, Vacations)

Then within each category of “College + Birthdays”, I arranged the photos so that they were sorted by each birthday.

Wave #3: Start scanning & as you’re doing it, toss the uglies

I scanned them all in. Mass scanning.

Sat in front of my scanner, popped in some addictive Law and Order: Criminal Intent and scanned 4000 photos.

I haven’t gone through THOSE scans yet, but at least I have them.

I scanned 4 or 5 photos per round, and since they were already sorted by Date and Events from Wave #2, I won’t have to hunt and peck for similar photographs.

This was decidedly the most boring part of the task, but I was just NOT willing to fork over $200 to pay someone else to do it for me.

HALE NO! Fugg that. I be scanning them myself, thankyouverymuch.

Ahem.

As I was scanning, I also re-evaluated the photos after they were scanned, and started chopping down the pile by another 30% to have a “final” batch of photos that I am going to keep physical copies of.

Anything of me as a kid from the age of 10 and below was an automatic keep.

Any older, and it was a bit easier to keep just 6 photos of my 16th birthday instead of 25.

Wave #4: Find the right photo albums

This was the step that was the hardest for me.

To find out how many photo albums you need, you need to count your photographs.

But count them by Date & Event!!!

You DO NOT want to run into a situation where you put in your 15th birthday, and you just have 3 photos left over that you CANNOT toss, that will have to go into another photo album and leave blank spots all over the place.

I wanted a cute photo album (silk cover), with a lot of space, and with acid-free plastic pockets.

I was hemming and hawing over the idea of scrapbooks but decided they were too much work and would cost me a fortune in the end.

My other option was to buy those sticky plastic flap photo albums that you pull over the photos like plastic wrap after you arrange them, because it’s a lot easier to arrange photos that are portrait style (upright) instead of forcing them into landscape style (horizontal) pockets.

But can I find these easily? Not really. So I was stuck at this level for a while.

Wave #5: Arranging the Photos & Making Notes

I had 2000 photos in the end, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but is a huge amount for me especially with how much I got rid of in the end.

I sorted them into piles that roughly ended up being:

- Before I was born
- When I was born until the age of 7
- Age of 7 to end of Grade 8
- High school
- College
- After college (not many here, they’re all digitized now)

I grouped events together (birthdays and vacations), and since I had counted the number of photos within each category, I could easily group together those piles and not have any spill over into another album.

I arranged the photos with some of them portrait style beside landscape styles on the same page, and tried to do it in chronological order of how it would have happened at that event.

I also made detailed notes in shorthand on the sides to help me jog my memories before I get too old and the memories are long gone!

I was just thinking about passwords and security the other day, and I got a little electric jolt.

“What if my Gmail accounts got hacked?

How in the world would I get them back?“

My accounts are my identity and lifeblood online.

If they got hacked, I’d have to call Google, for sure.. but how would they know it’s me and not someone posing as me?

They’d need personal information, right?

So here’s the MINIMUM of what you should do with your Gmail account.

There is much more of course, like making all your emails copy over to another email address as safekeeping, but here are some quick essentials.

It takes about half an hour for each email account, and 20 minutes thereafter as you start to get quicker at it.

1. Associate a phone number with your Google Account

If you use Gmail and don’t know how to get to your Google Account:

Settings (Top Right) > Accounts and Import > Google Account Settings (At the bottom)

Select: Password Recovery Options

Enter in a mobile phone number so that you receive an SMS text with a password-reset code on it to your cellphone.

This way, any time someone tries to reset your password (and it isn’t you), you will get texted.

2. Set up another Gmail account JUST for a password reset

I had to do this for all my email addresses.

You can name it something similar so you remember it.

So if you have an email address called: ilovegmail@gmail.com

Then name your password reset gmail account as: ilovegmailpasswordreset@gmail.com

Or something to that effect.

What to remember:

DO NOT use this email address for anything else.

Give it an entirely different password.

For each email address that was a password reset one, I gave them each a different password from the rest.

Just log into it once in a while, manually with a wired internet cable to keep it fresh, but leave it be.

Do not forward those emails from your Password Reset account to your regular account. It just defeats the purpose of having it there.

Set up in your Google Calendar a reminder to log in every 3 – 8 months so you don’t miss the deadlines and your account won’t be deleted.

Note: It’s really 9 consecutive months, but I like leaving a month out just to be sure.

3. Record down these 4 important bits of information:

This is just in case you need to call Google and they will have to  verify you are who you say you are.

Your first email ever received

• Sender
• Subject
• Date
• Time

To find your first email do the following:

All Mail (Under Labels) > Oldest > Scroll to the bottom

…And your first email ever sent

• Sender
• Subject
• Date
• Time

Click on Sent Items (Under Labels) > Oldest > Scroll to the bottom

Your list of personal Labels

If you use this function, you probably have something like:

• Friends
• Work
• Family
• Project A
• Event B

Write them all down, and keep them safe for just in case something happens. Google will want that info.

Your top 20 contacts

Click on Contacts (On the right) > Export (Upper right of the box) > Select: Most Contacted

And export it in whatever format you’d like.

Re-label it, and store it in a safe place so you can refer back to it just in case you need to.

4. Don’t record questions or answers that are easy to find out

Such as mom’s maiden name, your high school, first pet, favourite colour… you get the drift.

Pick something totally, utterly random and obscure, WRITE YOUR OWN QUESTION, and make sure that only you would know what you are referencing.

Examples of Random “Write your own Questions”

• Colour of that sweatshirt I stole from Linda the night we both fell in the pond
• Place where I danced to the tune of that old Audrey Hepburn movie I like

TOTALLY RANDOM things.

5. Do the same info recording for your other Google Accounts

Most notably Feedburner, Adsense, Orkut..

Anything that is linked to your Google Account in some way, that you will need to verify.

Write down specific information from each account and store it.

6. Set your Gmail to always use https

Click on Settings > Always use HTTPS and Save.

It’s a secure connection, and may take you longer to navigate and use Gmail but is well worth it

7. Check out your Activity Details Log at the very bottom of your Gmail screen

See what IP addresses are accessing your mail.

Click on Details and a window will pop up:

The window should only show ONE IP address — yours.

(Not my IP address shown below)

Passwords can be hacked, but don’t be an easy target

Remember: do not use passwords like “God” or “password” or “qwerty”.

They are easily hacked and guessed.

Do a twisted combination of UPPERCASE, lowercase, numbers, and symbols if you can.

If you have a hard time remembering passwords, think of a sentence that means something to you, and take the first letter of each word, and substitute words like “for” or “to” with numbers instead.

Feel like doing more?

Check out these sources for more paranoia:

• Labnol.org: This is where I got most of my wonderful info above.
• Little Miss Moneybags: A wonderful overview of security in general for 2010

I am no amateur photographer by any means, but I am someone who loves to use her digital camera on vacations, around family, friends…

And I don’t like fiddling with buttons or settings and I just want it to WORK.

If that sounds like your kind of review (I won’t be talking about fancy ISO or aperture settings), then proceed ahead!

These are all the things I look for in a digital camera, in the category of what they call “Point & Shoot”, meaning you point the camera at something and press the button to shoot the picture.

Here’s the rough rundown of what I am going to cover:

• Weight & Size of camera
• Memory Card format & compatibility with your laptop
• Scene Settings for getting the best picture
• Optical Zoom to really zoom in on an object
• Video capabilities
• Size of digital viewfinder to avoid squinting through the peephole
• Batteries used and its charging process
• Ease of use for zooming and adjusting settings
• Menu layout accesibility

How heavy and compact is it?

What you’re looking for is a Point & Shoot Camera.

Mine is a fair weight, and is pretty small. Enough to put in a pocket and go.

It is nowhere as slim as my old Fujifilm Finepix camera, but considering the other features and how easy it is to point and shoot.

Generally speaking, the more features a point and shoot camera has, the bigger and heavier it is likely to be.

This is where you have to bring in your own personal judgment and preferences.

Do you want a small, in your pocket compact camera that is light? Then you might want to look at 4X optical zooms or smaller, but you won’t be able to take beautiful pictures as with a heavier, bulkier camera.

For me, I like something that can fit in my hands, and isn’t SO thin that it looks like a card (those cameras have no zoom whatsoever worth speaking of), and can be held STEADY.

I have small girl hands, but even I have found that the smaller the camera for me, the shakier the picture gets. The heavier the camera, the easier it is to hold, point and shoot. It’s just my preference.

I’d rather have something substantial with features, than something super thin sleek and sexy (a lot of Sony cameras are like this — too sexy without any real features put into it for the price you are paying).

What kind of memory card does it take?

Don’t buy digital cameras with XD memory cards. Bla bla bla, it’s better… but let’s think along the line of practicality.

Almost every single laptop takes SD cards directly into the machine without any extra gadgets.

It’s incredibly handy to just be able to pop out the memory card and insert it into almost any new laptop on the market today to grab all the photos. Even my HP Mini 1000 netbook has a spot for SD cards.

In fact, it was a big selling point for me to get rid of my old Fujifilm Finepix camera because it had an XD card, and to pick up my now beloved Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera that has an SD card.

What size of memory card can the camera handle?

This may not be a big problem for you if you are buying a brand new digital camera. But if you are going to buy one used, I’d suggest Googling or asking the manufacturer what the camera can handle as its maximum.

The reason why I am saying this, is because BF’s HP Photosmart Camera that he bought 6 years ago, only takes up to a maximum of 2GB on his SD card.

In contrast, my Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera, takes up to 8GB and possibly more — I haven’t tried.

Having lots of memory, especially if you are a photographing hog like me, is crucial. I also like to take videos and multiple shots of the same thing.

Granted, I’ve never run out of space on an 8GB card yet, but if you are forgetful like me, you will forget to unload your pictures one night, and curse that your card is only 2GB.

Alternatively, you can just buy a second 8GB SD card as a backup, which is what I did.

How many scene settings are there and how easy are they to use?

I know I said I wasn’t going to get technical, but I had little to NO settings on my Fujifilm Finepix camera to allow me to switch between different scene settings like Beach, Aquarium, Indoor, Outdoor, Kids & Pets (fast action), etc.

You’d be surprised at what a big difference it makes to switch to a different setting based on where you’re taking pictures.

A Beach setting on a digital camera for example, will automatically account for super bright sun, high contrast colours, and do all the fancy technical work that old school photographers used to have to manually adjust.

And for Kids or Pets, the aperture speed will be much quicker, to allow you to capture a kid’s motions clearly rather than just seeing a blur.

Look for USEFUL scene settings that you are going to use. There’s no need to have 50 settings with options for Candlelight or Nighttime Landscape, if you only use maybe 5-10.

It is also important to be able to switch between the settings easily.

On my Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera, I am able to rotate between little icons of each of my settings VERY easily, click on the link to check out the review & see shots.

This saves me the time of having to press a button and then scroll through the 10 – 15 options of scenes, one by one, having to read the titles of each scene I could choose.

You’d be surprised how fast a minute or two goes by, and then the shot is finished — either the wildlife disappears into the forest, or the sun sets completely.

What is the OPTICAL zoom on the camera?

Ignore it when salespeople gush about digital zoom. That is just like going into Photoshop and increasing the size of the photo to “zoom” in. It turns out grainy, blurry, pixel-y and is not a REAL zoom feature to focus in on a part of a picture.

What you want to look for is the OPTICAL zoom. That’s when the camera has a little lens that physically sticks out, and zooms in on the object.

My Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera has an optical zoom of 4. And that’s pretty good for all the other features I got.

If you can get any higher, kudos, but more than likely, you’re going to pay more, or the camera will be heavier or bigger because it needs to have an extra retractable lens put in the camera to allow such a zoom.

The exception was BF’s HP Photosmart camera. It has an optical zoom of 8. It was UNBELIEVABLE. His camera is was really fantastic for close up shots from far away, but that was the only selling point of the camera.

It sucked for everything else.

How easy is it to zoom in and out?

On my Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera, I have a little wheel at the top that allows me to quickly zoom in and out with one finger instead of having to press buttons on the side.

I just put my finger on the little tip of the wheel, and if I pull the wheel to the left, it zooms in and when I switch the wheel to the right, it zooms out, all while looking through the viewfinder and not concentrating on another part of the camera. Very simple.

In contrast, my old Fujifilm Finepix camera and BF’s (now dead) HP Photosmart camera needed me to look at the back of camera and to adjust the zoom functions by pressing on a left or right button.

Kind of annoying, and not as quick as a wheel zoom.

Does it have video? Do you care?

This wasn’t a selling point for me. I don’t really care to take videos with cameras.. I mean, it’s interesting to do so, but when have I ever really shown videos to my family? Like never.

Still it’s a feature that seems to come with all modern digital cameras these days.

And if you want to do a hybrid two-in-one camcorder & digital camera, then this may be more important to you.

How big is the digital viewfinder?

The screen.

How big is the screen?

If it’s too small for you to see anything or the way you are positioning the camera, then you may want to think about buying one with a larger screen.

Mine has a 3″ screen which is GREAT. It’s big & clear enough to see what you’re taking.

Many people think that just looking through that little peephole is enough, but once you go with a picture viewfinder, you will NEVER want to squint through a little peephole and cause wrinkles ever again.

I love being able to hold out my camera, to see the picture before it’s being taken, and snap a shot.

In older or other cameras, a little peephole was necessary to see how the picture was being taken, but that has since become obsolete technology for me.

What batteries does it take?

Hopefully not AAA or AA batteries.

Ancient history!

Those can be handy in the sense that you just need to carry extra batteries to pop in new power, but for me it’s annoying to have to deal with 2 or 3 batteries just to charge your camera.

And it’s wasteful if you don’t use rechargeable AAA or AA batteries.

Enter the Li-ion batteries, or Lithium ion batteries. Fancy way of saying, it’s a battery pack that is rechargeable. You pop it into a charger, and into a wall… and it charges. Simple as that.

And I have 2 Li-ion batteries so that in case one dies, I have the other.

How does it charge?

This is a big deal.

I hate cameras that come with docking stations that not only let you unload the photos, but are NECESSARY to charging up a battery.

I mean, I couldn’t even pop out the battery in my old Fujifilm Finepix camera to put in a battery charger or charge in some other way. I had to literally dock the camera in the station and charge it that way. SO annoying.

On my Canon Elph 880 Powershot camera, I just take out the battery, put it into a separate battery charger and plug it into the wall. When the light turns green, it’s charged.

I also have an extra battery charged in case the power runs out (happens more often than you think, especially if you forget to charge it the night before).

FYI: If you are going to buy new Li-ion batteries, you MUST KNOW THE CODE of the battery.

Not all Li-ion batteries are made or work the same. They have different levels of voltage and you don’t want to buy something that won’t fit in your compact camera because it was made for a larger one.

My camera takes NB-5L Batteries. If I want to buy a third Li-ion rechargeable battery, I go out and look for that code.

Is the menu easy to navigate?

How easy is it to delete pictures? To change settings?

Do you feel comfortable with the buttons, moving from one area to another?

That pretty much does it. All you need to know about buying a camera.