From the Inside Out

Every time you use the computer, you may be unconsciously saying something about yourself. According to a study into desktop psychology by Windows Vista, your habits may be revealed simply by the way you customize your desktop icons and background. For example, if you have desktop icons strewn all over your desktop, then it’s likely you are disorganized and tend to be unfocused. If you have plain blue wallpaper, you may be the type of person who keeps his/her personal life private.

“Our desktops are our personal space and as such provide a fairly accurate personality description of an individual,” says Donna Dawson, a personality and behavior psychologist.

Other personality indicators include:

• Even icons on each side - values balance and proportion and tends to keep a cool head in tricky situations. Likely to be organized and dislike clutter.
• Desktop with many rows of icons - reflects a person who likes to feel in control and on top of their life, while at the same time revealing a tendency to be slightly disorganized.
• Personal photos as wallpaper - indicates the kind of person you are and what priorities you have. Often a parent will have a photograph of their child, or a keen traveler will have a photo of an exotic location. Photos of friends show popularity, which is useful in work environments where you need good people skills.
• Trophy photos as wallpaper - can suggest a big ego and someone who revels in their past successes.

It’s probably no surprise that I’m an “even icons on each side” kind of gal. I also tend to stick with the standard wallpaper screens — at work it’s because I don’t want pictures of my family or friends appearing when I need to present to a customer or when I’m sharing my desktop via a quick webconference. I think it’s a bit unprofessional, but maybe it’s really because I like to keep my private life private…hmm, I’ll have to think about that one. I do use the screen saver that displays personal photos, so maybe I’m a mixture of the two.

It’s like a bad horror movie. You are working on the computer, browsing the Internet, or writing a blog when suddenly everything goes black. You are frozen in place…well, to be more specific, your computer screen is frozen which makes you stop momentarily to question what is happening.

“Is it a temporary glitch, the blue screen of death or something worse?”

You hold your breath. You mumble a prayer. You hope for the best.

Seconds later, it restarts. The machine seems to work fine now, and you breath a sigh of relief. Ah, it was just a small glitch. You start working again and everything seems to be running smoothly until it happens again…and again and again.

“NO, this can’t be happening…not now, not ever!”

You become emotional. It’s just a machine, but it feels like you’re losing a friend, your only connection to the outside world. Emotion turns into frustration, then anger.

“Why is this happening to me?”

“This computer is so crappy.”

“I hate Windows Vista and Dell!”

“Who do I have to kill to get it working again!!!!!”

Have you ever had one of those days?

Me too.

My computer died this weekend. To my dismay, it could not be revived. It was down for the count with a fatal hardware problem that requires a technician to fix it.

So, I’m stuck using my old computer as a back-up until the new one gets resuscitated sometime this week. It’s kind of sad that my old computer has lasted longer than the new one — there’s something seriously wrong with that. It’s also frustrating because I need to access documents, blogs, and applications stored on that computer!

Argh, the nightmare of computer ownership…ain’t it grand?

If you had to choose, would you be willing to forgo sex for two weeks in exchange for Internet access? According to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Intel, almost half of the women questioned would rather give up sex for two weeks than be without their precious Internet access during the same time period. Interesting enough, only 30 percent of men were willing to do likewise.

The U.S. survey, which queried 2,119 adults last month, found that the gap grew even wider for both men and woman who were 18 to 34 years old. For woman, the percentage of those willing to skip the sheets in favor of the Web rose to 49 percent, while it climbed to 39 percent for men. For women 35 to 44 years old, the figure jumped to 52 percent versus 23% for men aged 35-44.

The Internet also seems to have leapfrogged TV in terms of popularity. The same study found that the majority of adults would be willing to forgo two weeks of watching TV versus losing one week on the Internet.

I am amazed at how quickly the Internet has invaded our lives to the point where it has become more important than physical intimacy. On one hand, it’s a little sad and pathetic. On the other hand, I can relate. It would be really tough for me to go without Internet access for a full two weeks. I think I’d start going through some serious withdrawals.

Fortunately, I don’t have to choose one or the other.

I can post my blog and…well, we’ll see what happens next.

ChaCha has answers. It doesn’t matter where you are or what type of question you have, ChaCha can help. It’s a free text messaging service that provides a quick, one-sentence answer to your most pressing questions. According to CNN, here’s how it works. “Users text message ChaCha (242242) on their mobile phone or call 1-800-2ChaCha. The question can be on anything — from local weather forecasts to who starred in the 1960 suspense classic “Psycho” to how many children Angelina Jolie has now.

Questions are sent to a worker, or “guide,” who searches the Internet using sites preapproved by ChaCha. When the guide finds the answer, he or she text messages the user back in less than 160 characters — all for free.”

What makes ChaCha unique when compared to other computer-automated answer services like Google SMS is that it doesn’t rely on technology alone. It uses people to search the web, find the most appropriate response and provide the answer — a method that has won the company several awards.

ChaCha has about 25,000 guides who respond to questions. Most of them are college students or stay-at-home moms who want to earn extra spending money. ChaCha offers the ultimate flexible working environment. Guides can work whenever they want, and no minimum hours are required. They simply log in, answer questions, and get paid per question. On average, they make $3 to $9 per hour. It sounds like a neat gig for anyone wanting to earn a few extra bucks. You can learn more about how it works here.

So, the next time you’re playing Trivial Pursuit or you have to settle a dispute with a friend who insists he’s right (but you know he’s wrong), send a text to ChaCha. They have all the answers.

Brad and Jen. Ben and JLo. Jessica and Nick. We’ve seen lots of celebrity couples split up during the last few years, but none have affected me as much as this one. I was really disappointed, sad even, when it happened.

Normally, these separations last forever. You seldom see two big names reconcile after parting, but it finally happened. The announcement came yesterday. Two “greats” are joining forces, re-embarking on a once thriving relationship. Apple and NBC have worked out their differences — they are together again. Okay, I know what you are thinking. Apple and NBC are not a celebrity couple, but they are two really big names (dare I say “celebrities”) within the technology and entertainment industries. With that in mind, I think the intro is fitting.

Anyway, the two companies parted last year after disagreements about the pricing structure on iTunes. Some reports stated NBC sought control over the pricing, wanting to charge up to $4.99 per episode. Before the fight, NBC (including its family of networks like Bravo, USA, and SciFi) was the number one supplier of iTunes digital media.

I was really hacked when they pulled out of iTunes. When I’m traveling, I like to download a few episodes to watch on the plane. After NBC left, I couldn’t access some of my favorite shows. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was annoying.

I’m happy to report that it’s all over now. NBC shows are available again on iTunes. They are even extending a few “welcome back” perks to customers. For a limited time, you can download some of the most popular NBC (and peacock network) shows for FREE. Yes, that’s right — absolutely FREE.

If you are an iTunes user, you can head over there now and let the downloading begin. If you aren’t an iTunes user, it’s easy to become one. Simply download and install the free software, then click on the iTunes store. Once there, click on the NBC banner at the top to download the free episodes.