A simple spelling error led a vacationing Swedish couple to a destination 400 miles away from where they had intended to go. They had planned to spend some time on the Italian resort island of Capri, but when they set off on their journey they typed “Carpi” into their GPS unit instead – and that’s exactly where they ended up!

One would think that such an error would be easy to catch, especially with all the road signs indicating that you were X number of kilometers from Carpi. But if you think about it, such a minute spelling error could actually be pretty difficult to catch if you were in a foreign country which spoke a different language.

Capri…Carpi… Oh well, at least they were in Italy so I’m sure they probably had a great time anyway. I guess the moral of the story is “Always pay attention to detail, especially when you’re traveling in a strange land.”

According to an article on Space.com, many of the astronauts who have been there say getting a good night’s sleep is very easy in space. Apparently the lack of gravity eliminates the constant pull and tug that cause muscles and joints to ache when we’re lying in our beds down here on earth.

And it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. I used to swim a lot as a kid, and I can clearly recall how the semi-weightless feeling I experienced while treading water always provided a definite soothing sensation over my entire body.

As for me, I have never been a particularly good sleeper. In fact, I wake up several times a night, only to have trouble falling asleep once again. And when I finally do get back to sleep, I usually wake up again long before my body has had time to “recuperate” from the exhaustive routine of my day. I have back problems and an inflamed sciatic nerve right now and it seems like I just cannot get any productive rest.

Once you pass 40, gravity seems to really take a toll on your body. But all we have to do is climb aboard the space shuttle and blast off into earth orbit to “sleep like a baby” once again. Does anyone know where I can purchase a ticket?

The Auto-Focus (AF) function of modern digital cameras is simply amazing, especially when using a Digital SLR (DSLR). In most instances shooting in AF mode will result in a sharp, crisp image that rivals the ones you’ll take by focusing manually. But there are some situations in which you’ll get better results by focusing manually, and others where Manual Focus (MF) will be your only practical option. Here are a few tips to help you recognize when you should opt to focus manually:

1 – Low-light photography

Most digital cameras have trouble focusing automatically at night or under extremely low-light conditions. You can usually tell when this is the case because the camera will “hunt” by zooming in and out as it tries to find a clearly defined subject to focus on. If it fails to find one, the camera usually won’t even attempt to take the photo and an error message will be displayed. In instances like this your only option will be to focus manually.

2 – Close-up (macro) photography

All auto-focus lenses have a minimum distance between lens and subject at which the auto-focus function will work properly (usually several inches) . If you place the camera closer to the subject than this distance, you’ll have to focus manually.

3 – Portrait photography

When shooting portraits, it is almost always desirable to ensure that the eyes are in perfect focus, a task that is very tricky indeed when using the camera in AF mode. By focusing manually, you can concentrate on the eyes and get the results you are looking for.

4 – Shooting a “crowded” scene

When shooting a subject in a crowded scene, your camera’s AF will often have difficulty finding the subject that you wish to focus on. For example, if you’re trying to focus on just one of the individuals in a group, you’ll probably have to focus manually to get the desired effect.

5 – Wildlife photography

As in #4 above, photographing a bird in a tree or an animal peeking out of some underbrush will almost certainly require manual focus as there will be branches or other objects for the AF to “find” and focus on.

Conclusion: Sometimes you’ll simply have no choice except to focus manually in order to get a decent shot. To do so using a DSLR, you usually have to flip a switch on both the lens and the camera body from “AF” to “MF”. Many point-and-shoot cameras require you to change a menu setting. Your camera’s user manual will provide instructions if you need them.

These days I see or hear an ad advising me to buy gold just about every time I turn on the radio or television, and the gist of the pitch is always the same: “Gold has never been completely worthless, and it’s the only investment you can really count on to hold at least part of its value in dire economic times”. This is true of course, but there is one sticking point that really makes me uneasy about these ads…
 
Virtually all of the companies hawking gold want you to let them hold on to your coins or bars for “safekeeping”. In my opinion, accepting a paper “title” to a pile of precious metals held on your behalf in some other state or country is no safer for your long-term fiscal health than investing in stocks or bonds.

I mean think about it – if the bottom falls out of the world’s economy, chaos will reign supreme and “titles” and “ownership” will mean little or nothing. And what if that company in Texas or Switzerland or Australia or Mozambique goes belly up? Will you have any realistic chance of getting your hot little hands on your hard-earned gold? Not likely by a long shot.
 
I agree that buying gold is one of the best ways to “insure” your financial future in the event that the financial world should some day fall apart, but you should take steps to store your gold yourself in a secret and secure location that you alone will always have complete control over. That way if you ever need to “spend” your gold, you and only you will have physical access to it.

Many people will fire up their anti-spyware programs and perform a scan in the background while checking email, surfing the web or watching YouTube videos. This isn’t really a good idea, for several reasons which can affect the thoroughness of the scan.

For best results, it’s best to shut down Internet Explorer, Firefox, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and any other applications that access the Internet before initiating a scan. Some people I know even go so far as to disconnect their Internet connections completely by logging off of their dial-up connections or unplugging their cable / DSL modems.

Windows and the programs that run on it can work in mysterious ways, and I believe it’s always good to err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting your computer from malware, and yourself from identity thieves and scammers.

Computers have become commodities in recent times. PCs that are dozens of times more powerful than their predecessors of just a decade ago now cost less than a mid-range television at Wal-Mart and many other discount retailers. But while this is a very good thing for consumers, it poses quite a problem in one respect…

Old PCs are being replaced with faster, more powerful, yet cheaper models at a record pace. This means of course that there are countless used computers and monitors sitting around while their owners try to decide just exactly what to do with them. They can be recycled, but I believe a better course of action is to simply keep them and use them for routine tasks that would otherwise suck up CPU cycles on the new PCs.

Here are a few great uses for a used computer:

1 – Using the Internet

Most any computer with at least a Pentium-class CPU will work just fine for surfing the Internet and sending and receiving emails. This frees up your new computer for running resource intensive applications such as photo and video editing software or games. Even better, if you happen to visit a website or open an email that contains a virus, your primary computer will not become infected.

2 – A “learning” PC

If you have you been planning to learn Linux or a powerful programming language, you can install the software on your old machine and experiment to your heart’s content. That way when you make a mistake and wipe out the system, it’s no big deal. Simply format the hard drive and re-install.

3 – Running beta software

Have you always wanted to try out a beta version of Windows or some other software package but you were afraid to install it on your only PC? Well you can install and “test drive” beta software any time you like on a backup machine. Again, if a problem arises, you can simply reformat and re-install.

4 – Tinkering around with its “innards”

Have you always been curious about the inner workings of a computer system? Well pop the case on your old one and have a ball removing parts, upgrading others, and learning everything you can about computer hardware without having to fear damaging your primary PC.

Conclusion: The number of uses for your used PC is limited only by your imagination. Hook that baby up, turn on the power, and have some fun!