1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies (undrained)

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano

Pinch rubbed sage

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

2 cans (15 oz. each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

2 cans (15-1.4 oz each) whole kernel corn, drained

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped green onions

10 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

Prepare corn bread batter according to pkg directions. Stir in the chilies (undrained), cumin, oregano and sage. Spread in greased 8 in square baking pan. Bake at 400 for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.

In bowl, combine mayo, sour cream and dressing

1. Business Information Site – A business Informational site is a small site which gives basic information about a subject or business. This type of website usually contains the business contact information, location, and general information about the business. This type of site does not need to be updated frequently. The creation of this type of site can be done using the templates offered for free by most hosting services. Many web developers will charge lots of money to set up this type of site, there is no need to pay big bucks for an informational site the template creation tools from services such as Netfirms will do it for you. Keep in mind this type of site is very limited. If you want to have more control over your site and room for further expansion a blog is probably the way to go.
2. Blog Site – Blog sites have evolved from sites used for daily ramblings from writers to rubust web content platforms in the last couple of years. Services such as Blogger.com and WordPress.comoffer tools that allow a person with no experience in web creation the ability to create a professional website with updates, picture albums, videos, message boards, chat portals, e-commerce, and much more. In fact, a WordPress based website can do about anything you need to do on the Internet. Especially, if a person has no experience with websites, I recommend starting with a WordPress based site.
3. E-Commerce Site – Selling things on the web can be really tricky. There is a lot of money to be made, but there is also lots of competition. My recommendation is to go with a large store service site. A good place to start is Yahoo stores. Yahoo offers a large variety of store options and integrates merchant account services into their stores. As with all my other advice, Yahoo is a good place to start for the person who has little web site experience. Yahoo has a great store back-end that allows users of any level to add new products and process orders.

Although there are many other types of sites out there, most new web developers will start a project that fall into one of these categories, or a combination of two or all three. For a person starting out, the following is my recommendation.

• If you want Free, try blogger.com or WordPress.com and play with all the templates to see what you like.

When your ready to get serious, start with the following.

• Sign up for Netfirms.com Advantage or higher plan (about $10 per month).
• DO NOT pay a lot of money for a URL, it doesn’t matter. The URL Auctions are scams.
• Your URL does not determine your google rank, and that is really what matters.
• You get 5 free URL’s with Netfirms Sign-up.
• Next, load WordPress on your server, don’t worry, it’s easy and free, it’s included with your account (Install is automated)
• Play with all the cool themes.

These basic steps will get you started on your adventure. It may seem that I am pushing Netfirms and WordPress hard, but those are the services I use now, after a lot of trial and error. They are also services that are very low priced and allow a user to do their website themselves while maintaining a professional look and feel. Believe me, plenty of professionals use WordPress.

• 1 can Campbell’s tomato soup
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown vinegar
• ¾ cup Crisco oil
• ½ cup catsup (regular catsup works, but I use “hot kicker catsup” to kick it up a notch)
• 1 T paprika
• 1 t Worcestershire
• 1 t garlic salt (or powder)
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed or minced)

Mix well in deep container.  Cover & store in refrigerator.  Shake well before using.  Keeps for two weeks.

The Woorkz pick for video game of the month is Mass Effect 2. This game is a great combination of 3rd person shooter and RPG. The Game takes place in space, and moves very quickly from 1 mission to the next. Electronic Arts created this game using the Unreal 3 Graphics Engine, as is evident in the detailed graphics for the characters. For a player that wants a game they can sit down and play for an hour or so at a time Mass Effect 2 hits the spot. Not to mention this game has been getting consistent high ratings since its release a few months ago. Check it out if you want a fun space game with great graphics.

Most importantly is how to backup.

• External Hard Drive Backup – Using this method a person buys an external USB Harddrive and plugs it into his computer. Then you can use software tools to sync or backup your data to that drive at a daily interval. A good free software program to use to sync the files from your hard drive to the external is Toy Sync. This is a free project created by Microsoft. External Hard Drive Backup is a great place to start to backup your data. If your computer fails you have all your important files on your external drive. Make sure you keep your files in both places though, your internal and external drive. This way if one of the drives fail you have the others. The downfall to this backup method is that it does not help you in the case of burglary or fire, when a thief breaks into your home and steals your computer and the external drive connected to it.
• Local Network Storage Devices – This method is pretty much like the External Hard Drive Method except that the hard drive is connected to your network and not directly to the PC. If you are going to deploy this method a good tip is to keep this device in a different area than your computer, this will help with the theft issue. A good backup software or sync software can also be used with this method.
• Online Data Backup Service (My Preferred Method) – In this case you sign up for an account with an online company that backs up your data on their servers off-site. I use Mozy for my service, but there are many others, such as Carbonite.  Once you are a member, a software service is put on your computer that monitors the folders that you want to back up. Every night the software pulls new files off you computer, encrypts them, and stores them on a remote server. If your system fails or is stolen, you can go online and download your archived files back on to your new computer. The big downfall to this method is the time it takes to upload your files to the remote server the first time. This process can take weeks initially, but after that your are good to go every night. It is nice to not have to worry if those pictures will be there after your computer crashes. (This Method Requires High Speed Internet)

The method I use, is to backup to an external drive for fast access to my files, and a nightly upload to Mozy for all my files. The one thing I don’t really worry about anymore is my computer crashing or getting stolen. I always have access to my important files.

At a very simplistic level, DDNS allows you to name your network on the internet so that you don’t have to remember IP addresses. Your router reports your IP address to a web site running a DNS server to keep your domain up to date with your IP.

There are many different DDNS web sites, but my favorite is Dyndns. This site offers a free service for up to 5 devices. Follow these steps to set up your Dyndns account.

1. Go to Dyndns
2. Create an account
3. Under My Services / My Hosts select add host services
4. Next select a Hostname and an extension (mycomputer.podzone.net)
5. Select host with IP address under service type.
6. Complete the transaction as the site requires.

You are now done with the Dyndns part.

Next, you have to go into your router and set up the DDNS settings. Most new routers on the market now have DDNS capabilities, and most have built in account compatibility with Dyndns. All routers are a little different, but essentially you need to put the hostname you picked on Dyndns into the hostname field, give it your user name and password, and tell it to update when your router changes its IP.

After everything is setup, every time your router changes IP addresses it will report the change to dyndns and instantly update your hostname. So you never need to know your IP again, just the Hostname you picked.

Getting into your home network will also require some port forwarding, but that is another article. Just remember, most ISP’s block port 80 on your modem unless you pay to have it unblock. They do this so you can’t run a web server from your house without giving them extra money. Using port forwarding in your router you can get around that to access your computers remotely.

In the past few years Apple has mastered the art of being at the edge of technology releases with products that have few technical problems and are easy for any user to operate. It seems that companies then follow Apples lead and try to come up with competing products. I am sure that Apple would not want its competitors to know that it is placing two cameras in its new phone, even though it does make sense. The launch of the 4G networks by AT&T and Verizon are truly going to change the way we use our cell phones. Do not compare the current Sprint 4G WiMax solution to the LTE 4G solution the other carriers are deploying. They are like night and day. The AT&T and Verizon 4G solutions are boasting speeds faster than most cable modems. Speeds of over 50Mbs are possible on a 4G phone. None of the companies want the others to know what their devices will look like, or are capable of.

Apple has been very successful with its current marketing strategy, I doubt they would change something that is working so well.

Beyond helping a friend, this program also has a quite robust advanced feature package. One feature that I really like is the offline local IP setting. This can be used to connect to computers from with a local network with no outside internet connection via the local IP address.

There are different levels of login access you can set within this program. The software can be installed as a service, in which the login credentials are static allowing the remote user to login upon boot up or any time there after. Or, a user can initiate a session from their desktop and a unique password is generated each time. In this example the user opens the software and gives the unique login information to their remote user over the phone. The pass code will expire as soon as that session has been completed.

The benefit of this free product is in it’s simplicity. Team Viewer Website Link

So, let me now answer the question. The following is a list of guidelines you should follow when buying a new computer. Unless you are going to play videos games on your computer, in that case good luck.  My advice to the novice computer gamer is to buy an XBOX 360 (Sorry PS3).

• Never, never, never, buy a used computer.
• A duel core processor or higher (unless you get a smokin deal, like under $300)
• At least 2GB of RAM
• At least a 250 GB Hard Drive (Enough for lots of Pictures and Music)
• Windows 7 (If you need to remote desktop into your computer you must have PRO or higher)
• Things like USB ports, Wi-Fi, and network ports, should all be included in all new laptops.
• Everything else is personal preference.
• If you only go on the internet then a net book may be for you. The technical specs are lower but, they are designed for internet browsing.

If you want something small get a net book. If you like a laptop with a big screen, get one with a big screen. If you want a web cam, then get a web cam. These things are preferences that you have to decide you are willing to pay for. The above list is the minimum you should get so your computer will run smooth for at least 3 to 4 years from now. Do not plan on any home computer to be effective after 3 to 4 years, the industry moves too fast with new technology, it does not pay to try to keep up. My advice is to find the least expensive deal with the above requirements and then plan on getting a new computer in 3 years. For a laptop you should spend between $300 and $400. For a desktop, the same price, plus the price of the monitor that is to your liking. Good Luck!!!!

As we browsed the Blu-ray movies my daughter spotted the Monster’s Inc. Blu-ray, one of her favorite movies, and the Snow White Blu-ray edition. I went to grab the Monsters Inc. and then looked down at the price. I almost choked on my gum when I saw the price tag of $34.99. There were DVD players sitting there for less than that. Upon looking at all the titles, it occurred to me that a standard price for a Blu-ray was $30. No Blu-ray’s for me, I can get 30 movies from Rebox for that price.

I must say that the jump from VHS to DVD was dramatic and changed the industry of home entertainment. Does Blu-ray do the same? I don’t think so, at least not yet. When looking at a movie in SD (Standard Definition) DVD quality vs. Full HD 1080P I can’t really see that much difference. Yes, it looks a little better, but not $34.99 better.

Blu-ray does have many capabilities that have yet to be marketed and used, such as 3D and beyond. It’s storage also opens up many possibilities in the gaming world. In this tech geeks opinion though, Blu-ray is not going to take over the DVD. For most people a technology must be dramatic for them to abandon their old ways and embrace the new. I do not think that Blu-ray offers anything significant to get most people to make the switch. This will be true unless the price of the players goes way down, the price of the disc’s goes way down, and everyone gets a 1080P television.

For the above reason I believe that streaming video companies will start to push Blu-ray products out of the market and take over the way the people watch their movies. I can stream Monster’s Inc. in 1080P 7 times for the price of the Blu-Ray disc (not that I would do that, I can get it free on Netflix Streaming). Sorry Blu-ray I don’t think you are worth it.

On the other hand, if you have many devices within your house hooked up to your network, and you wish to transfer large amounts of information across this network. A Gigabit switch will increase your capacity on your network and allow for this transfer to happen faster within your local network.

Something to note though is that all the devices you are connecting to the gigabit switch must also have Gigabit network interfaces to operate at this speed. Most network devices do not have Gigabit capabilities, but rather the standard 100Mb network connection. Fortunately, many new devices do have this capability.

To recap, a gigabit switch will not make your cable modem go faster. But, if you want more capacity on your home network for transferring videos and files then you should invest in a gigabit switch or router and gigabit network cards for your devices.

It seems lately there has been a large push in the home theater arena towards sound bars. The claims from manufacturers are that the sound bars are replacements for full surround systems. This week I received a free sound bar/subwoofer from Vizio in return for a marketing program I participated in after buying a new 55-inch LED TV. I was very interested in testing the new sound bar compared to my 7.1 in-wall surround system.
I am no audiophile, but I do enjoy clean and crisp audio from my home entertainment system. I hooked up my new sound bar and was surprised by the audio quality that it delivered. As I fired up the wireless subwoofer, the deep tones filled the room. The sound from this system was very impressive.
I must say though, that even though the sound was great, it did not replace the effects delivered by my true 7.1 surround system. In my opinion the sound bar / subwoofer system is a great alternative for those wanting affordable sound quality. But, if you want true surround sound effects, you must install a true surround system.