Justin Germino Ramblings

I am a serious tech guy and don’t mind people using gadgets all over the place but I as annoyed to the point of severe irritation while eating at Olive Garden with my family the other day and someone sitting next to us dining alone was having a 25 minute long conversation on the cell phone that was so loud everyone within a 10 table radius can hear him clear as a bell.

In surveying Olive Garden at around 5:00pm I saw no less than 4 people were on cell phones at the same time talking, some were with their families and still talking on phones.  Others still were playing with their android smartphones or iPhones, texting all while sitting next to a family member and they silently ignored each other.

People, you need to engage and interact with the person you are eating with.  If you are dining alone, text it up, chat it up (quietly), surf, read news…whatever.  But I feel that if you are dining with your family then you should be talking with them and this is especially true if you have kids.  It was a wake up call for me a few months ago when I took my kids to the playground and my son got annoyed with me that I checked my work emails while on the weekend at the playground with him.  He told me point blank, you are supposed to be at the playground playing with us.

He was right, darn right and at 7 years old I realized that kids are feeling "ignored" by parents that are too busy texting, talking or reading their phones than to have good old fashioned conversation with them.  I make a clear and conscious choice now to not read emails, text, and I don’t check in on FourSquare anymore or send Facebook texts for the last several months when I go out with my family. 

While I am sitting with my kids or wife, I make sure I engage them and the only time I answer my phone is when a work phone call or page comes in that can’t be ignored.  If it is a phone call I will often excuse myself to not disturb other restaurant patrons and step outside or into the restroom to talk.

Use some manners, engage in conversation with those who you are with.  Technology is great, but the social communication with those you are spending time with is far more important.

-Justin Germino

Today my youngest boy will be tested to see if he is ready to attend Kindergarten this fall.  He is not old enough to automatically qualify for Kindergarten due to his birthday falling in November so he needs to be tested to see if he is ready.

I suppose they are testing to see if he can sit still and pay attention long enough to teachers so he won’t cause disruptions and my youngest is a smart boy but is very strong willed and stubborn.  If he doesn’t want to do something the is quite forceful about it and hopefully he won’t resist the "testing".

We are very much hoping he will be accepted and can attend the same school as his older brother this fall, the boys look out for each other and will be able to be more comfortable knowing that they have each other in the same school.

We were having him tested at two schools just in case he couldn’t pass one he may be accepted into the other, the ideal goal is to have him attend the same school as his brother however.

Also, if he gets accepted into kindergarten this year I won’t have to pay for preschool every month for another 12 months, so it equals some savings as well.

-Justin Germino

Now that I have bought an iPad 2 for my wife I am on the lookout to see if I can get one sometime at the end of May or early June for myself.  I really tried not to get an iPad 2, I wanted to get an Android 3 based tablet but every review I have read from the Xoom and Acer Iconia to the Samsung Galaxy Tab proves that iPad 2 is still the reigning king in town.

Xoom would be a close contender though, except I haven’t had good success with  Motorola previously and am wary to get a Motorola device.  The android still does not have strength in the app store as the iPad 2 and iPad 2 trounces all other devices when it comes to battery life and ease of use.

The wait list for the iPad 2 is still too long for me to likely get one before my trip, and I will just have to wait and see.  Currently I still think it is more advantageous to buy the iPad 2 directly from Apple.com than anywhere else as the price includes custom engraving which you don’t usually get if you can find one in a local store.

Some online stores have them in stock but you will pay an additional $100 – $200 to get it quickly instead of waiting for the Apple 3-4 week turn around time.

How many readers have an iPad 2 or a Motorola Xoom?  Do you think the device was worth it?

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-Justin Germino

Picked up a slew of new games from GameStop this week and I must say that if you shop at GameStop for kids it is better to buy “used” games instead of new games.  When you buy a used game you have up to 7 days to return the game for a full exchange / refund, but if you buy a new game the moment you open the package you can’t return it except for whatever trade-in credit it is worth, with is a faction of the retail value.

Gamestop has used games for sometimes good prices, but Amazon.com still has best prices for new games unless you find some really great bargain deals.

So this weekend I picked up Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360), Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360), Sacred 2 (Xbox 360), The Sorcerers Apprentice (Nintendo DS), Crash Bandicoot: Crash of the Titans (Wii).  I picked up all of these games for about $65 with some trade in credit.

I compared each game price on Amazon.com and would have spent less money had I ordered them all from Amazon even new they were cheaper than GameSpot used prices.  This is especially true of The Sorcerers Apprentice which I spent $17.99 on and instead could have gotten for $5 on Amazon.com

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So in retrospect if I had more patience and was willing to wait for games to arrive in the mail I probably could have saved like $20 if I would have purchased the games from Amazon.com, buying in person at GameStop is more for impulse buys.  The trade credit is fair but you really have to trade 4-5 games to get a single used game in some cases.

Still, if you have a glutton of old games you don’t play anymore then either trade them in at GameStop or list them on something like Swap.com to trade them and only pay like a $2 shipping charge to trade the games with others.  This is the closes to an even exchange that I can find.

Wondering if anybody has played any of these games and what they thought of them?

-Justin Germino

Roku Still Not Having What You Need?

I recently got a Veebeam which allows you to wirelessly stream video from your laptop or home PC to your HDTV. This devices consists of two parts, one that plugs in to your HDMI or Composite video ports of your TV and another wireless USB key that sends a signal to it over a wireless network. 

Combined the Veebeam allows you to stream free Hulu, Megavideo or any other website movie service right to your HDTV. With Veebeam there are no limitations, no channels but it does have the inconvenience of you having to find and queue your movie on your laptop or PC so it can stream to your living room TV.

It works very well and I highly recommend the Veebeam 1080p if you don’t want to buy Netflix, Hulu+ and want to leverage only the free movie streaming services online and beam them to your HDTV.

This almost acts like a wireless projector for your laptop or home computer because you literally can share anything with it, though the company claims there is about a 2 second delay on the streaming which make it incapable of being used for gaming or anything that would be constrained by the delay, this delay is imperceptible when watching even 1080p movies as it doesn’t cause stagger but merely means your laptop screen might be ahead by a second or two compared to what is being output to the HDTV.

The Veebeam was a pleasant surprise and I endorse it as strongly as I do the Roku XDS as an option for Internet streaming.  It is a better option if you don’t want to have to purchase a Netflix or Hulu+ subscription and have a laptop already the only caveat is you need a fairly powerful PC or laptop at least dual core 2.2 ghz if you want someone to do any sort of multitasking on the PC at the same time.

With Veebeam you can stream anything you can hit with your browser to your big screen TV without paying any sort of subscription.

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Microsoft for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was sent a copy of Office 2010 and asked to create a TripBook about Agra, India with OneNote I was more than happy to test out this software which changes the way people create documents and store information.

OneNote is very different than your typical Word processor in that you are not restricted to lines and can merely click and put information anywhere on a page.  It also doesn’t limit you to pages but each “notebook” really is like having your own physical notebook.  You can create tabs, pages, sub pages and put any type of content inside your notebook.  This can be images, audio, video (wmv files), links, or even snippets of websites which you can cut and paste into your OneNote and it will include the link back to original source so you can easily reference it later.

With OneNote I was easily able to create a TripBook that included all the things I wanted to do if I visited Agra, India which included separate tabs for Hotels, Maps, Attractions but also included images, links, online coupons from restaurants and wiki information.

I even recorded my voice and embedded it as kind of a reminder on the things I wanted to do and see like the Taj Mahal and some of the famous tombs and forts.

My OneNote TripBook will be featured on Microsoft’s Vacation Planning site where they doing an around the world in 40 days where 40 bloggers have used OneNote to create TripBook’s about a city they either visited or want to visit.

My TripBook about Agra India will be featured on the OneNote Vacation Planning site on May 10th 2011 and I encourage you to visit and check it out.

The primary reason I suggest you look at OneNote is that you don’t have to have 20-40 different documents as a collection of notes and information any longer, you can simply consolidate all that information into a notebook and easily reference anything you want by simply copy/pasting it.  OneNote is fun to use and once you start using it, it is hard to back to a regular Word processor!

How many of my readers have already started using OneNote?  What is your experience with it, what do you find are the best features?

-Dragon Blogger

Affiliate Lights is the program which allows me to refer bloggers to use Blog Engage RSS Syndication and was put together by Brian who also runs Blog Engage.  This was a great program which allows me to promote Blog Engage and their service which I am a huge fan of and have been using myself since it was launched last year.

Now, Blog Engage is making the RSS Syndication Service even more enticing by offering automatic sponsorship in future Blog Engage contests based on the RSS Syndication Package you subscribe to.

What this means is that you will be far more likely to have your blog reviewed by bloggers entering contests if you are in the Business package, which will bring you even more backlinks, exposure and readers noticing your site.  This is a huge offering from Blog Engage and they are planning on giving away $3000 worth of cash prizes this year alone from contests.

It is because of this offering that I am immediately upgrading my RSS Syndication package from Platinum to Business package because this alone in addition to being able to have 10 blog feeds in 3 categories is worth the $19.99 per month.

-Justin Germino

I cannot express how much gratitude I have for my wife who is the mother of our two boys and she is one of the best moms on the planet helping make sure our boys grow into promising adults.

I find that she has even more patience than I do and is better than I am at keeping my son focused on his studies and excelling in school.  If it wasn’t for her devotion to his education and development, my son wouldn’t be at such a great school and be a straight A student.  She takes the time to make sure his homework is done and done right and prepare him for testing by quizzing him while I am still working and am not done for the day.

Mothers are the most important factor in a child’s life and I truly believe this and I respect all of the mom’s out there who put their children ahead of everything. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.

-Justin Germino

Ironically I was first intrigued while walking past the TV set which was set to the travel channel and watching them talk about a vacation where you stay and sleep inside an igloo and needed special thermal sleeping bags to endure the freezing temperatures.

I was thinking, what kind of vacation is this?

But, for one who enjoys "new adventures" I thought the Ice Hotel that has 20 igloo rooms kind of interesting and may be somewhat fun to say you stayed at at least once in your life.  Located in Finland, the Igloo Village in Kakslauttane gives you a way to stay in an igloo palace.

But you don’t even have to go to Europe anymore, there is an Ice Hotel in Quebec which is similar and has over 30 bedrooms, an Absolut Ice Bar, a wedding chapel, cinema, and exhibition hall/lobby area.

Honestly with it going to be about 115 degrees in a few months I couldn’t help but think that escaping to an arctic retreat should be in order at some point in the future.

Still, staying in an ice hotel or igloo just for a day or two to say I did it may be something to go on my bucket list at some point.

-Justin Germino

Proctor & Gamble and Kroger and their stores are launching a campaign to support the USO to help American troops and their families.  The kickoff of the Honoring our Heroes campaign coincides with a Mega Event sales promotion through which customers at participating stores receive $5 instantly at check out when they purchase ten participating Mega Event items.

Through this P&G and Kroger Honoring Our Heroes campaign Kroger will donate $250,000 to the USO which will touch many peoples lives.

Interact now and Shake Hands with a Hero by personally thanking someone in the military branch you choose.  You get to specifically select a member of that branch to personally thank and the first 50,000 people to utilize the web application to shake a hero’s hand on www.honoringourheroes.com will receive a special offer on one of the following P&G brands: Tide, Downy, Gillette, Pantene, Old Spice and Prilosec.

These gift coupons can be loaded onto your Fry’s reward card automatically via your online account.  It takes only an hour or so for the rewards to load onto your rewards card.

Show your appreciation for the military and support the Honoring Our Heroes campaign now by interacting and personally thanking a military service member and or donating to the USO now.

-Justin Germino