For quite some time, this was my professional blog and online portfolio. Well, with all this whacky new social media, a personal website isn't really as important as it once was.
Now go to dascontentmedia.com.
Thanks!
Doug
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
What Are The Differences Between In-ground Hot Tubs and Portable Hot Tubs?
When considering the benefits of owning a hot tub, many homeowners start by deciding whether to choose an in-ground spa or a portable hot tub. While both types of hot tubs offer wellness benefits, premium portable hot tubs may prove to be a better choice when evaluating placement, massage and energy use.
What are the design benefits of in-ground hot tubs and portable hot tubs?
Portable hot tubs can fit in a variety of settings in your yard. If you live in colder weather, a portable hot tub can be placed very close to your house. Portable hot tubs can be built into a deck or above ground, and portable hot tub equipment is built into the hot tub exterior. Portability is an advantage -- you can, with some effort, take your hot tub with you when you move.
In-ground hot tubs can be designed in different shapes and sizes, and are often attached to a pool or part of a pool setup. In-ground hot tubs can also be worked into a yard or landscape. Equipment is not built-in and is usually in a separate location and can be bulky and noisy.
Do portable hot tubs or In-ground hot tubs have better massage options?
Portable hot tubs offer many more jets and configurations, and the jets are differently sized depending on location and hydro-massage options, and adjustable. Portable hot tubs offer multiple types of ergonomic seating options, as well as varied seating sizes to fit bodies of all sizes and types.
In-ground jets are usually one size with bench seating that is not as conducive to hydro-massage. Sometimes, it can be a challenge to align your body to a jet to hit just that right spot on your back, and forget about a neck massage –that requires submerging your head below the waterline!
Are in-ground hot tubs and portable hot tubs energy efficient?
Portable hot tub filters and water care options are very advanced making water care easy, and owners can often care for their own tubs. Portable hot tubs are energy efficient and designed to run all the time. So, there’s no heat up period. They work with covers and cover lifters so can maintain temperatures and stay cleaner. Many portable hot tubs are made of acrylic, which is easier to clean and not as abrasive as materials used in in-ground hot tubs like concrete, textured surfaces, tile, and fiberglass. In-ground hot tub surfaces can also be rough on the skin and on swimsuits. Perhaps most important to consider is that in-ground hot tubs have to be heated prior to use, and don’t run all the time so are not as energy efficient, and cost more to run overall.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Meditate In Your Own Headspace
A post for Caldera Spas' 20 Minute Renewal blog...
With the Caldera 20-Minute renewal blog, we help inspire people to realize the value of taking 20 minutes to renew, re-connect, relax and de-stress. How do we do this? By providing resources and tips on the small things you can do each day to improve self-care, such as meditation.
Why is meditation good for us?
Meditation can help manage stress and reduce blood pressure, improve your focus, help with sleep, and help you learn to live more in the moment. According to prominent wellness expert and blogger Dr. Andrew Weil, “meditation for healing is about establishing a different relationship with your thoughts, just for a little while. Instead of attention being drawn off by whatever thought happens to present itself, in meditation, you watch your thoughts from a different, more stabilized perspective.”
Is there an app to help you meditate? Many of us are more connected than ever in terms of technology and social media. For the hyper-connected crowd, there’s actually now an app to help you meditate so you don’t have to unplug. It’s calledHeadspace and here’s how it works:…
What is the Headspace meditation app?
- Headspace is a meditation app, designed to be a “gym membership for your mind.” You can sign up for free, and use the “take 10 program” to learn the basics of meditation in just 10 minutes a day.
- If you don’t have 10 minutes a day to spare, you can also work with shorter sessions, depending on your schedule.
- With your mobile device you can listen to sessions and meditate anywhere, and even download sessions if you’re going to be offline.
- With a subscription, you can gain access to guided meditation tied into topics like addiction, relationships, creativity and more, based on your moods and lifestyle.
- Your Headspace profile can map your journey, show and track progress, you can get rewards, and work with friends using the app so you can motivate each other along the way.
- Headspace has other great resources as well. A good starting point is learning about the science of meditation, where you can learn about how meditation techniques can help with stress, creativity, focus, anxiety, and relationships with cool and fun little animations and videos.
- The Orange Dot is Headspace’s blog offering a myriad selection of posts on topics including meditation, mind, body, relationships, skillful living, and birth and death.
- Radio Headspace offers podcasts from experts discussing meditation and Headspace related topics.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Comic-Con 2014 Wrap Up
Well, another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone, and many geeks are still recovering. There are other cons in the season, but no one would argue that the San Diego Comic Con is the king of the cons! This year had its share of overcrowding complaints, long lines, surprise guests, revelations and controversies.
Let’s take a look at what stood out this year.
Read full post: http://www2.geeks.com/comic-con-2014-wrap-up/
Image courtesy of Getty Images
Copyright Schmopyright—Copyright in the Digital Music Era
Copyright was designed to protect original works. It of course started with books, and then evolved from there as creative works evolved. With modern technology, copyright had to evolve as well to include digital assets like software and the like. In the late 90’s, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed to protect digital properties, and to try and help regulate Internet copyright issues and violations.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, image courtesy of NME.com
Now, everything entertainment is digital—books, movies, music, and more. As these items have become available online, ways were found to pirate and distribute them. If it’s digital, it can and will be pirated.
We can stream movies and TV shows and music. We can read books online. You can also see pirated movies and listen to pirated albums and songs on YouTube. You can download albums and songs for free if you look in the right spots. You can find pirated books online, if you know where to look.
Digital Health is the Future of Your Health
Like so many other things in our lives, our health is now going digital. The term digital healthencompasses a convergence of health and technology that promises to make health information more accessible, more accurate, more affordable, more personalized, and perhaps most importantly, more actionable.
In his book “The Creative Destruction of Medicine” Dr. Eric Topol “enumerates how these digital technologies, social networking, mobile connectivity and bandwidth, increasing computing power and the data universe will converge with wireless sensors, genomics, imaging, and health information systems to creatively destroy medicine as we know it. He refers to this as digital medicine, or the digitization of human beings,” according to the article“What Digital Health Is (and Isn’t).”
Oculus VR is the Future of Reality
You know the evolution of gaming–pong to blocky figures on Atari consoles. Cartoony graphics on Nintendo consoles to higher quality graphics on PlayStation. High definition gaming on Xboxes connected to the Internet. The lure of virtual reality fully interactive games.
Perhaps you’ve seen “Avatar” where humans get in pods with virtual reality headsets and enter new worlds. Maybe you’ve read the bestselling sci-fi book “Ready Player One, ” set in the year 2044, in a world in turmoil and depleted of resources. All human activity takes place within a huge virtual universe called the OASIS. Humans “log on” with their virtual reality headsets to virtually go to school, work, and live their real lives virtually.
Image courtesy of https://www.oculusvr.com
When I went to the QuakeCon video game conference 3 years ago, John Carmack was talking about virtual reality immersion and how it was the future of video games and entertainment.
By the way, Oculus doesn’t officially have a product yet–only prototypes and promises. But the promises are big, and…promising."
Carmack is a legend in the video game industry, responsible for basically inventing and perfecting the first person shooter videogame with titles like Castle Wolfenstein, Doom andQuake. Carmack previewed his clunky duct taped headset to a chosen few and also said ID Software was slow in their development, and it was frustrating. Then along came Rift, the virtual reality headset from a company called Oculus VR. Carmack left ID Software and joinedOculus VR.
Like so many tech legends and realities, the Oculus legend started with a smart kid in a garage. Palmer Luckey started working on his VR headset prototype in his parent’s garage at the age of 18 in 2011. Carmack brought his duct-taped headset to the E3 videogame show in 2012. The next year, Oculus blew E3 away with its early Rift headset. Oculus brought a more advanced version to CES 2014, and still another version to the Game Developers Convention in March 2014. Soon after, Facebook purchased Oculus for nearly $2 billion in cash and stock.
By the way, Oculus doesn’t officially have a product yet–only prototypes and promises. But the promises are big, and…promising. With the rekindling of interest in virtual reality, and virtual reality becoming reality, other companies are rushing to develop their own headsets. Developers are developing software for the future of Oculus Rift. Video games, apps, even movies are in development for the Oculus Rift.
Full article at http://www2.geeks.com/oculus-vr-is-the-future-of-reality/
Full article at http://www2.geeks.com/oculus-vr-is-the-future-of-reality/
Greatest Geek Movies Of All Time?
So many geek movies out there, and so many lists. But what makes a Geek movie? To me a geek movie is a film that some would say is a “cult” film, and it has to be quotable. Many of these films deal with aspects of “geek” culture as well. This is certainly not THE definitive list of geek movies, but…it is a list of geek movies. I had to phone a friend for help. There are so many geek subgenres, you could do a list for each, but…
In no particular order, and with no perceptible pattern, my favorite geek movies list:
“Empire Strikes Back”
You can’t not have any “Star Wars” on a list like this. So why not whip out the best. “Empire” is without a doubt the top of the SW universe. Darker, and a better story than all of the other SW films combined.
“The Wrath of Khan”
The second and by far best of the “Star Trek” films, any iteration. Ricardo Montalban as Khan and William Shatner as Captain Kirk went to the same school of overacting. Plus, it’s highly quotable. When I was 13, I knew every line.
“The Matrix”
This one probably tops many a geek film list. The first film was great, but after that the franchise went down hill. I enjoyed this film, but I don’t think I’ve seen it more than once. But still, to quote Keanu Reeves, “whoah.”
“The Big Lebowski”
Near and dear to my heart, one of my favorite films that gets better every time I watch it. Epically quotable, and The Dude is such a loveable slacker I named a dog after him.
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
The height of Monty Python’s work. “Grail” is hilarious, and oh so quotable. I think everyone knows some lines from this movie.
“Office Space”
A tribute to anyone of us who have…worked at a company, any company. Hits the nail on the head in so many places. Not just the TPS reports.
Apache OpenOffice –The Alternative to Microsoft Office With 100 Million Downloads
The Apache Software Foundation recently announced that the Apache OpenOffice Suite has been downloaded more than 100 million times within the last 2 years, making it without a doubt one of the top alternatives to the much more expensive Microsoft Office. To top it all off, Apache OpenOffice is open source, free to all users, and works with Microsoft Office files.
Much like Microsoft Office, OpenOffice offers a suite of productivity tools. OpenOffice includes an open-source document tool as an alternative to Word, a spreadsheet tool alternative to Excel, a presentation tool alternative to PowerPoint, a vector graphics creation tool, a database creation tool, and a mathematical formula editor. SourceForge offers more than 750 extensions, and 2,800 templates.
OpenOffice tools are very similar in function and layout to their Office cousins. Compatibility is rarely an issue, though there is the now and again minor issue with file saving and conversion.
OpenOffice’s Word tool Writer offers similar document templates to Word, frames, mail merge, style management, section-based headers and footers, and more. The Base tool offers database design and formatting tools.
A new popular feature of the latest OpenOffice version is the sidebar feature which allows the launch of commonly used OpenOffice tools. The sidebar is especially designed for large monitor users, and helps make OpenOffice features quickly and easily available. The sidebar displays the most commonly used functions, and control sets are grouped into 22 panels which can be opened or collapsed as needed. Third party extensions are also available to improve the sidebar.
There are a number of alternatives to OpenOffice as well.
Make Your Dumb TV Smart
Times are tight. Like so many I’ve been looking for places to cut expenses. One of our biggest monthly expenses is cable TV. I’m sure it’s the same with you. We’ve got a ton of channels, and they all look really nice on Verizon FiOS. But looking at the channel line-up and looking at the bill, we’ve decided to experiment with cutting the cable cord. I don’t make any decisions like this lightly so we’re looking at all options.
I put the word out on Facebook, and got a lot of great feedback. The obvious and most suggested options were Netflix and Hulu, and they’re on our list. Vudu was suggested as a better alternative to Netflix. A lot of friends recommended Amazon Prime. Some are fans ofApple TV. Apparently ABC also has a great app. There’s alsoRedbox, though I lament the demise of the local video store! I’m a Chargers fan so I need to see some football. ApparentlyESPN has a lot of live spots on the web options.
In our house we’ve got 3 HD flat screen TVs of varying sizes. They’re nice TVs but not “internet ready.” We use the Wii on one to stream Netflix, but the others are plugged straight into the cable boxes. We can supposedly watchYouTube via FiOS, but it always seems to lock-up or crash for us. We have dumb TVs so we’ll have to hook laptops into our TVs via HDMI. That was the plan…the testing is ready.
What makes a TV smarter? Smart TVs can connect to the Internet, access media libraries, use social media, share photos, music, allow you to play games online and access Web content. Basically a ton of entertainment options are opened to you.
Overall, there are many options out there.
You could go with a connected TV that connects to the internet. You’ll have a smarter TV right out of the box. A new TV can be expensive, though there’s quite a price range and TVs for every budget. You will have to pay for subscriptions to services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, and the like. Keep in mind that your yearly subscription fees to several of the streaming services will be much less than you’ve ever paid in a year for cable TV.
Set top boxes use your home Internet connection to stream media from the various services. Services like Roku and Apple TV seem to be the top choices here. Remember though, these are for streaming services, not for live TV viewing. Costs also include subscription fees.
You can go the home theater PC route as well. We’re so used to watching a lot of media online now anyway, so connecting our PCs or laptops to the TV is a viable option. You’re going to want a PC or laptop with an HDMI connection to connect to your HD TV so your shows and movies look great.
You can stick with cable. This is probably the most convenient, but expensive option. Cable, satellite or telephone companies often offer bundle packages to save you some money. So far most of the cable boxes don’t have the internet capabilities they could or should have, especially for the price. Some have limited web app access, but the interface is annoying, and they seem to be prone to crashing. AT&T has no web video option, and only a few web apps.Verizon widgets include Facebook and YouTube, but they’re difficult to navigate via a TV remote. Remember though, cable services are pricey, and the price is the reason a lot of us are moving away from cable.
What will we pick? Who knows? Probably some bizarre hybrid of several options. Just know that there are MANY options out there and Geeks.com can hook you up as usual!
Spotify or Pandora, Which is the Streamiest?
I like my music portable as I move around a lot. I left both my 1TB hard drive filled with music and my iPod at home this morning. On the drive in to work I had to resort to listening to CDs! I got to work and wondered what I would listen to, and decided to do a little streaming withPandora Radio on my phone.
There are a lot of choices out there competing for your attention in the streamisphere. Undoubtedly the two top contenders are Pandora and Spotify. They’ve got a lot of similarities, but they’re also very different.
Pandora is an online streaming radio site with 150 million usersthat’s actually been around for quite some time (since 2000) compared to the relative newcomer Spotify. You can stream Pandora online in your browser, or you can download the app to your computer or mobile device. With Pandora, you can create your own streaming “stations” based on an artist, song, or even genre. Pandora’s musical algorithm quickly puts together a station with a wide variety of artists and songs similar to what you’ve indicated you’d like to base the station on.
The Pandora algorithm is surprisingly accurate and relevant and matches well with what you tell it you like. The algorithm is based on the Music Genome Project, a ten year ongoing analysis and catalog of music ranging from the latest pop gems, back to the hits of the Renaissance. When a song plays, you can give it a thumbs up or down, and the algorithm will get more dialed in to what you like. You can also skip the song if you don’t like it, but only for a limited number of times in the free version of Pandora.
Pandora has nearly a million songs in its database, and allows user to stream for free in an ad based version. I’ve found the ads infrequent, and not that much of a distraction.
I like the accuracy of the Pandora algorithm, and don’t often find myself skipping songs in my stations. I make sure to give thumbs up and down when I can, to keep getting good results. I skip when I can, and usually I’m not bothered by the limit in the free version. I have quite a number of stations set up, and find myself most often using the “QuickMix” function, which pulls from all of your channels. I like the variety, and once again, the relevancy of the musical choices.
Spotify has gotten a lot of notice over the last year or so. It was first available in Europe only, but launched in the US last year. Spotify has streaming rights to nearly 18 million tracks, so has a much bigger catalog than Pandora. The biggest distinction is that Spotify music is available on demand. You can select an artist or album and stream it for free in your web browser. To listen on mobile, you have to upgrade to the Premium account for $9.99 a month. That’s the main drawback to Spotify. For me, I listen at home on my computer. It was awesome when I worked at home, but now that I don’t, I don’t use Spotify as much as I used to.
Spotify is very socially integrated, allowing the creation of playlists, and sharing of playlists, albums, and songs. Spotify is Facebook oriented, requiring users to link Facebook accounts with their Spotify accounts. If you do so, you’re also authorizing frictionless sharing, so your friends on Facebook will see what you’re listening to. From experience, you’ll see that your friends will like and comment on the popular stuff you listen to, but might give you some grief for some of your guilty musical pleasures! This is a drawback for a lot of users.
Spotify has nearly 10 million users, with 3 million of those being paying users. Spotify is also bigger globally than Pandora, and is available in 13 countries. Pandora’s license only applies to US operation.
Spotify has just launched a free radio feature in the US, currently for use on iPads and iPhone, so is looking to take a chunk out of Pandora’s pie. Pandora might be sweating a bit, but it’s going to take Spotify some time to get where Pandora is, if they can manage to take that market. I would imagine Spotify could have some success cannibalizing those users like me who use BOTH services. Plus there’s the lure of the much larger catalog. Time will tell to see how Pandora adjusts to this challenge.
So which is the winner? It depends on what you want to do. If you like a lot of variety, Pandora is the way to go, more like a radio station. Spotify is a bit more like having your music collection online—they don’t have EVERY artist and EVERY album, but I’ve usually found most of what I’m looking for. I think both Pandora and Spotify are winners, and I’d recommend using both, as they both have free versions available.
For me, I’m starting to use Pandora streaming on my phone more and more. I like the “QuickMix” function, and the accuracy of the songs in the stations. I like the ability to skip songs I don’t like, and the thumbs up and thumbs down function. I don’t find myself using it on my computer at home, unless I’m mowing the lawn or doing yard work and I’m streaming on my phone.
I’m considering upgrading to Spotify premium so I can pretty much have my music collection available for less than the price of an average CD a month on my phone. I like to be able to go to specific artists and albums, and I like the size of the catalog. I’ve got a lot of artist “best of” playlists on Spotify, and a lot of mixed playlists as well. I don’t mind that on Facebook you might see some of my guilty pleasure listens, like my affinity for 80s pop music
Trends are showing that teens prefer streaming to downloading and even buying music online. Obviously CD sales are down. With the increase in use of mobile devices, it’s getting more and more convenient to stream music. The music industry as a whole has failed to adequately adapt to the digital revolution. If you put it out there in digital format, people will find a way to get it for free.
Mac or PC?
Ahh, the age old questions debated since the dawn of time…cats or dogs, left or right, Jobs or Gates, Beatles or Stones, Mac or PC ? Few other topics may divide the tech community as much as the question “Mac or PC?”
The camps used to be easy to split. Graphic artists and designers liked Macs, and “other” business people usually worked on PCs. There were always file compatibility issues and learning curves that came from the two very different systems if you went back and forth. That was when the battle was merely taking place on desks across the world. We’ve even seen the stereotypes exacerbated on TV where Mac commercials portray the PC owner as frumpy and out of touch, and the Mac owner as younger, hipper, and cooler.
Now it’s not so clear. With the emergence of the iPod, laptops and Macbooks, mobile phones and tablets, the lines have blurred. Apple has moved its way into most of our lives with one product or another. Where most of your friends used to be PC or Mac, now most of your friends have probably (including me) been seduced slowly into the iWorld with one gadget or another, whether it’s a music player, phone or just iTunes on a PC.
The good news is both of you Mac and PC fans are right! The lines between Mac and PC have blurred a bit, and there are more similarities between the two platforms than there have been in the past. But in a lot of ways, it still comes down to what you’ll be doing on a day to day basis, and what you want to spend on a system.
A recent post at Wisegeek points out that speedwise, PC and Mac are pretty much on even ground, with both integrating Intel “Core” i3, i5, and i7 CPUs. Wisegeek gives the gaming advantage to PC, mostly based on game availability and the ease and choice in upgrading PC video cards. Mac wins out in the apps department, with cool choices like Garageband, and is still often seen as the go to choice for editing and graphics production, according to Wisegeek.
Macs have always been lauded for their lack of virus issues as opposed to PC, but Macs are beginning to have more issues with infections than in the past. Mac virus issues have been in the news of late, with the Flashback virus potentially infecting some 600,000 Macs.
Windows PCs often seem to be more “crash prone” than Macs. There are more PC users out there, and hackers are trying to attack the majority of computers and users that happen to be using Windows PCs. Who can forget the Windows 98 crash years ago embarrassing Bill Gates on live TV?
PCs are often seen as more affordable than Macs. You’ll see a lot of customized PCs, where that’s not as much an option in the Mac world. Macs come much sleeker looking out of the box, but they’re not as easy to upgrade as a PC. PC wins out in the selection battle as well, as there are just more models and variations of PCs out there than Macs. Many companies pump out PCs, but only one company makes Macs. Obviously the market share leans much more into the PC column.
Macs are often said to be easier to use than PCs, that they are more intuitive. If you make the switch from one to another, there’s a definite learning curve. Mac always seems like a slicker, cooler, experience, while PCs usually seem…efficient.
Macs are known for their sleek and cool design and packaging. Most Apple products have not only great functional, ergonomic design, but also tremendous aesthetic appeal. Admittedly, PCs have gotten sleeker and cooler looking, but Apple is still a (if not the) leader in the design category. Apple also has the advantage of providing great service. Stories from the Apple Store of service are nearly awe-inspiring. Drive by any Apple store and you’ll often see a crowd shopping, and sometimes even a line out the door!
As far as refurbished products, Apple is the leader as well. Apple refurbs are known for being completely and reliable re-checked, re-built, and warranted. PCs aren’t known for the refurb quality that Macs have. You hear more people looking for refurbished Macs than refurbished PCs. Apples are also built by Apple with Apple components. (As a company in the business of selling a great number of refurbished PCs, do we want to be saying this in this way?)
Macs still seem to have the advantage when it comes down to working with digital video, graphics, music or multimedia. Macs offer a range of music, photo, and video editing capabilities and applications not comparable in the PC world.
Then there’s the “cult” moniker association with Mac and Apple. I see all kinds of Apple stickers on cars, but I don’t see stickers for PCs. Apple has extreme customer loyalty associated with the brand. There’s no denying Apple and its products have always been cutting-edge and groundbreaking. PC just can’t win in the mystique battle – it’s no contest there.
So when it comes down to the bottom line, Mac or PC, what are we looking at? Thisinfographic sums it up pretty well.
Mac wins in stability, security, and reliability. Macs are better for working on multimedia projects, working with typography, and color-matching.
PC wins out in affordability, selection, gaming, big screen connectivity, software compatibility, and 3D rendering.
So if you’re looking at buying a PC or Mac, figure out what’s important to you. What are you wanting to do? What do you want to spend? Both PCs and Macs can do the same stuff, just differently and with different efficiencies. You can browse the Web on both, you can work with documents and projects on both, you can play games on both, and you can edit music, graphics and movies on both.
I’ve found that the bottom-line factor when buying a computer is what you’ve used in the past; whether you’re used to Mac or PC, at work or at home.
At the end of the day, whether paint brush or power saw, computers are tools for creating something new or getting a job done.
So what is it for you? Mac or PC? Why one over the other? What else should be considered when making the choice? Share your thoughts!
Repost from http://community.geeks.com/techtips/mac-or-pc/
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