Hervey Bay Gossip

I was surprised to see figures recently that show that sales of camera phones are booming around the world. If the current trend continues manufacturers will be shipping around 847 million camera phones a year by 2009.

Here in Hervey Bay a camera phone that has a 1.3 megapixel capacity is considered big news and finding someone at one of the phone stores who has much of a clue about camera phones can be difficult. But out there in the wider world it is possible to pick up a camera phone with an 8 megapixel capacity and that figure could well increase in the near future.

Camera phones that pack that much punch have a better resolution than many consumer-level digital cameras and many American households are opting for a camera phone instead of a straight digital camera.

But don’t be fooled, a camera that takes pictures is not the same as a phone that takes pictures. You may think that a camera phone offers a level of convenience that is missing from a digital camera but that may not be the case.

Perhaps all that makes me sound like a Luddite but I’m not. I have a camera phone and I have a digital camera and the phone is great for phone calls while the camera is great for photographs.

One of the more important things to think about when making the purchase is what you have to do to transfer the images from the phone to your computer. Is it as simple as plugging it into your computer or do you actually have to email the photos to yourself?

Battery life is another important factor. It’s great to be able to take heaps of photos with a digital camera but the battery size and life of a camera phone may severely limit the numbers of photos you can take before you need a recharge.

You don’t want to be in the position of having to decide whether to grab that last great snap or retaining enough battery life in your phone so that you can be available for that important phone call that could arrive at any time.

Also compare the cost – is your camera phone going to be used predominantly for phone calls? If it is going to be used for that purpose is the added convenience of being able to take photos worth the extra price

Finally, analysts believe that despite such big megapixel numbers industry analysts think that ultimately the biggest demand will come down to cameras in the 3 megapixel range. Is the quality going to be the same from a low megapixel phone camera as it would be from a consumer-level digital camera?

Few people realise just how fragile a computer can be and if you want your machine to last then you really must look after it.

Taking care of your computer can extend its life by quite a considerable margin and one of the simplest things you can do to look after your computer is to turn it off and unplug it from the wall socket any time an electrical storm is in the area.

Another important time to unplug it from the wall socket is if there is a blackout or if the power has been turned off by the electricity company. On Wednesday Ergon disconnected the power to parts of Kawungan for five hours and at least one person found that simply switching the machine off prior to the power cut was not enough to protect it from the surge that came when the power was restored.

Here at the Hervey Bay Gossip’s office we always turn off and disconnect whenever a storm is around and whenever there is a power cut.

Does this herald the end of the music CD?

Are we at the dawn of the music Flash Driove?

Probably not but a Canadian group, the Barenaked Ladies are releasing their latests set of music on a reusable 128 meg Flash Drive that will plug into a USB port.

For just $30 you will get 29 songs in MP3 format along with some album art, photos, videos and more.

Once you’ve downloaded the music to your computer you can use the flash drive for other things.

And just in case you don’t know what a flash drive looks like let me tell that most of them look like this:

They are very handy little gizmos for transferring data and they are really very sturdy – Rick from Fraser Coast Computers regularly runs his through a heavy duty wash cycle in his washing machine.

If you’re worried about your kids spending too much time online playing games or chatting then perhaps this may be just what you’re looking for.

Southern California startup Woog Laboratories Inc. today introduced PC Moderator™, http://www.pcmoderator.com, a parental control device that tackles the problem of computer addiction, particularly among teens.

PC Moderator lets parents effortlessly, and with less conflict, limit the amount of time their children spend while they play games or chat online. Unlike parental control software, PC Moderator operates independently of the computer and cannot be easily hacked by tech-savvy teens. Easy configured, PC Moderator is compatible with most desktop computers, operating systems and applications.

The small device easily and securely locks to the desktop computer’s VGA (or DVI with optional adapter) video port. During setup, parents choose passwords and time limits for up to 8 users. PC Moderator simply shuts off signals to the display when the user is unauthorized or time is not allowed. PC Moderator contains a battery-backed clock and microprocessor enclosed in a compact 18-gauge, stainless steel case.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study, the time children spend on the computer has doubled over the past five years. As of 2004, ten percent of 8-18 year olds use the computer for more than 3 hours daily. Thirty-five percent report having their own computer.

Of particular concern are massively multi-player online games, widely considered addicting. One such game, Everquest, referred to by many players as “Evercrack,” received broad public attention for its highly addictive nature.

“With the phenomenal response to World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular online game, we’re worried that more teens are at risk for computer addiction,” said company founder Dr. Kenneth Woog. “The problem has gotten so bad in China that the government is now requiring online game manufacturers to incorporate anti computer-addiction time limits into their games.”

PC Moderator is now available at www.pcmoderator.com for $79.95 with a money-back guarantee.

Woog Laboratories, Inc., founded in 2004, develops products to assist parenting in a high-tech world. Its patent-pending PC Moderator parental control device provides simple, hack-proof control for enforcing time limits on computer use.

Lots of small and medium sized businesses in Australia are beginning to see that there might be benefits in taking their business to the world via the Internet. Even if your market place is only just a small slice of south east Queensland there can be benefits in having an online presence.

There can also be a lot of pitfalls too and your scribes – who have been building websites since 1996 – have seen some rather disastrous results as business rushed in without taking the time to do some research.

If you’re one of those business people who are thinking of moving online then you might find this article - published on the Gossip’s sister website Home Office Guide - of some use as you start your research.

You might also like to get some free advice by calling us on 043 865 5110 and talking to us about your needs. There’s no obligation and it could help you save money rather than wasting it on something that isn’t really going to meet your needs at all.

While many people think that everything on the Internet is free … or should be, I have to tell you that very little on the Internet is free and maintaining a site like the Hervey Bay Gossip costs money.

To cover those costs many web sites carry advertising. The way that a site makes money from that advertising varies from site to site and only the sites that get a lot of visits every day attract the big advertising dollars. And those dollars are big.

For the first half of this year advertising in the US amounted to $70.5 billion dollars and . As I write this the current exchange rate translates that into $A96.3 billion. Of that figure $3.6 billion, or 9.4%, was spent on Internet advertising.

The biggest advertiser for that period was Vonage, a company that provides online phone calls to many parts of the world. That company spent $US20,632,000.

The next biggest was Classmates.com, a company that runs a website that reconnects old school friends. That company spent $US15,510,000 in advertising for the first half of the year.

Those figures dwarfed the amount spent by traditional online companies such as Amazon – the book e-tailer turned mega-store. Amazon spent a mere $US5,462,000.

The top 20 even included a university. The University of Phoenix (in Arizona) spent $US4 million dollars in advertising.

Now no company spends money on advertising in places where it is not going to see a return for that expenditure so from those figures you can see just how important advertising on web sites is becoming.

If you’re one of the many parents who are worried about the amount of time that your children spend in front of their computer and online playing games then perhaps it’s time to encourage them to do more.

Yes, that’s right, perhaps you should be encouraging them to actually work at playing the game because there is big money to be made by people who are involved in such games as World of Warcraft, Second Life and others.

While ‘big’ is a very relative term and exact figures are not known there is no doubt that a lot of people are making a very comfortable living from those games. And they aren’t the people who designed, promote or sell the games; undoubtedly they are doing very nicely from those games too. But people who play the games are also making money.

In fact there is a whole hidden economy at work within those games. Forbes.com estimates that, this year alone, as much as $US1.5 billion dollars in real money could be generated by people who play those games. Forbes.com also estimates that figure could climb to as much as $US2.7 billion dollars in 2007.

The money is generated by the manufacturing and selling fantasy tools, implements and even houses within the games. Players are spending real money to buy these items from other players who are producing them within the game.

It has become such big business that some experts are even suggesting that it could redefine the meaning of work.

And if you think that it’s not likely to happen here in Hervey Bay then perhaps you need to think again. That fantasy economy has even reached our city and real money is changing hands amongst those in town who play World of Warcraft. There is one young teenager here in town who can sell you a very charming little potion.

You’re scribe has heard some unsubstantiated rumours that a computer store down in Urangan – who also has some advertising right here on the Gossip – may just be selling USB Christmas Trees this year.

Well they’re now selling all sorts of strange and unusual gadgets for the USB connection on your computer so why not a Christmas Tree?

Silly me, I thought the USB ports on a computer were all about data transfer but evidently not as you can see from this crazy selection.

Here’s a USB cup warmer – ideal for keeping your coffee hot while you’re lost somewhere out on the Web – and yes I could certainly use one of those

You can find out more about it here

How about a massage ball to help relieve the stress and tension when that script isn’t working or your ISP has suddenly gone down in the middle of a upload?

You can find out more about them here

And then for just $US69.00 you can have a USB Aroma Generator. It comes with three different cartridges and each will last for around four hours. Hmmmm.

You can find out more about this one right here

Well it depends on who you talk to as to whether this is really a laptop or a tablet PC or as Gateway calls it, a Convertible Notebook.

You can use it as a conventional laptop or you can twist the screen around, fold it down and turn it into a notebook that you can write on with a special stylus

Whatever you might call – and however you might choose to use it – it it’s just been released in the US and if I lived in the US then I could definitely see one in my future. After all, if it’s good enough for Bill Gates to use one then it certainly is good enough for me

edited to remove a dead link

A discussion on a small business blog led to me being challenged to write about some of our experiences in doing business almost entirely online. While most of that topic would be of little interest to you there is one form of online communication that we use that everyone should be interested in.

It’s called Skype and it uses VOIP technology. If you have seen that term before and wondered what it meant let me tell you that it stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and it simply means that if you use it you can talk to others in just the same way as if you had picked up the telephone and dialed their number.

This form of technology will be much more wide spread within the next few years and it really will mean free phone calls to just about anywhere in the world.

At the moment we use Skype and all you need to have to use that service is a small piece of free software installed on your computer and a headset/microphone combination. Once it’s installed you can talk to any other Skype user anywhere in the world for any length of time for free.

If you want to talk to someone overseas who is not a Skype user then you can still do it far more cheaply with Skype than you can with a normal telephone.

If the person you are calling does not have Skype installed Skype takes your call to that person for free to a dial-in point in the country where they live and from there you pay for the call at a rate calculated as if you were calling your friend from within that country.

It’s very simple to use and it’s very effective and if you want to learn more about it then follow this link to the Skype website.