Well readers, I found a nice and simple solution for you to fill out your PDF forms, save them to your PC, and print them out.  Ready? 

This is my first YouTube video article and walkthrough – so I hope everyone finds it useful.  I’ll try from now on to split written articles with YouTube articles (or a combination of the two). 

What do you all use as Adobe alternatives that are free or open-source?

So you’re on the road and you do not have Mobile WIFI for your laptop – or you just straight-up want to get Internet off a device bigger than 3 inches!  I understand.  You’re already paying  your cell provider for Internet access – wouldn’t it be nice to use that internet on your laptop, to surf the web in “real time”?  You betcha – and you can – by tethering your devices.  Get ready to go Macgyver.

Rumors have circulated that the iPhone/Android/Smartphone’s with Internet access do not offer “tethering” on your service plan.  This could not be more false and I will show you a simple and easy way to get internet access off your android Smartphone device.  For those of you unfamiliar with Tethering (according to Wikipedia):

Tethering is the use of a mobile device such as a mobile phone to supply Internet access for another device which is otherwise unconnected, using the mobile device as a modem.[1] This can be done through Bluetooth wireless technology or cables (such as USB).

Tethering has been used to gain access to the Internet since mobile devices started using their networks to give users Internet access, but has increased in prevalence due to Internet connectivity in modern cell phones and laptops.

Methods of Tethering:

There currently are two different ways you can tether a phone, via:

1. Bluetooth: Use of Bluetooth wireless technology to pair your phone and laptop together to share a internet connection.
2. USB Cord:  Use of a USB cord to connect between your phone and your laptop to share a connection.

Bluetooth in general is the most wire-free (cool) tech way to go about it.  But it will involve a couple extra steps such as pairing.  USB is pretty much a no-muss, no fuss easy solution if you’re in a rush.  (Did I really just rhyme?)

Simple and Safe Tethering Solution:

This solution works for the iPhone, Treo, Palm OS, Windows mobile, Blackberry, and Android operating systems on phones.  I personally have experience using it with the Android platform and feel it’s top notch.  This information I post is generally geared towards installing it on Android/Motorola Droid/etc.  For me personally, I chose it as opposed to “rooting” my phone.  For the those uninitiated in what this means – it generally means illegally gaining core level operating system access to your phone.  Can it ruin your phone make it stop working all together? You bet.  So take the safe path unless you’re real daring, have money to waste, or a hardcore technie. 

A Company called JuneFabrics makes the experience pretty easy and tidy to use. Therefore…

1. Surf to: www.junefabrics.com
2. Choose your Operating System: Android, iPhone, Treo, Windows Mobile, Blackberry
3. Download and Install the PDAnet software on the laptop/pc you want to tether to your phone
4. Go to Android Market or the iPhone Apps market, etc and Download/Install PDAnet to your phone.
5. Note for Android Owners: You will need to enable USB debugging. Go to > Settings > Applications > Development > ENABLE USB Debugging
6. Reboot your PC and your Phone
7. Connect the Phone either via Bluetooth OR USB to the PC.  Try USB first – its often easiest.
8. Your devices will recognize each other.  If at this point it asks for drivers, approvals, firewall changes – Approve them and move on.
9. On the PDA/Smartphone/iPhone/Android device: Right Click on pdaNet Application on taskbar > Connect
10.  
11. Click ENABLE USB TETHER or ENABLE Bluetooth DUN
12. The devices should sync up and you should now have Internet Access off your laptop. CONGRATS!

This process took me approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.  Really great, fast, and reliable.  All in all, great product.  By the way, if you find this product useful then I suggest buying/donating to the software designer – they deserve it.  Depending on your plan and 3G status signal strength, you’ll get decent speed internet.  When you’re ready to stop surfing off the phone – go back to pdaNet application and turn off/disable the connection.

Some Warnings:

Bandwidth: One word – Bandwidth usage!  Sure, you can tether your phone. Does your carrier probably want you to?  Most likely not.  Do not give them a reason to cut your service.  If you’re surfing the web, checking email, stocks, etc well then I am sure the bandwidth usage will be pretty low and they will not care.  Thinking about downloading full movies off iTunes or using torrents?  Think again.  Just a word of advice that I’ve read amongst the many forums. 

Battery: You are using your phones internet, therefore you will drain the battery faster then usual.  Keep this in mind when using this method.

Maximum Battery Usage TIP! (Post Update)

A.J, a TftM reader, brought up a good point in the comments below and it relates to battery optimization.  If you want THE MOST BATTERY LIFE out of your MOBILE DEVICE then you should use USB TETHERING. 

The thought process?  USB tethering will keep your mobile device charged while it’s being the source of your internet. The Bluetooth method lacks a continual charge, plus, using Bluetooth itself will put some drain on the battery as well.

   USB = Fuel Efficient / Bluetooth = Super Nifty Gas Guzzler.

Conclusion:

For my part, I’ve only used tethering a couple of times and one of those times was during a road-trip.  In this case, it was a life-saver.  Sure, my Motorola Droid can do most everything for me – but I work quicker on full-screen/full keyboard laptop.  Plus, it brings up the maps and directions a lot larger! 

Was this tip helpful?  What other solutions do you all use?  Has anyone had any positive or negative experiences with PDAnet?  Any good alternatives?  Love to hear from you!

Ever had someone call you and explain their computer problems or the series of events that led to some kind of error?  Of course if you’re in IT support most problems are explained like this: “Nothing is working!”.  Kind of broad.  It’s time to put on our thinking caps TftM fans!  I recently came across a very simple to use website that you can use to help find out the specific problem on someone’s PC – as THEY see it.

So you aren’t sitting right next to them but you can still ask them, “Show me whats wrong” and they will be able to.  In my job I am often not able to sit in front of someone to watch for the error to pop up (or the series of events that lead to it).  Technicians will appreciate this tool because it adds a ton of insight into the “Nothing works!” user-diagnosis.  Lets jump in and see how it works.

“Show Me Whats Wrong!”

Step 1: Go to ShowMeWhatsWrong website tool

Step 2: They will ask for your name and email address.  Basically, you fill that out and hit GENERATE. 

Step 3: A website address will be assigned for you to send to your friends and family.  Copy this down and send it to whomever says “Nothing is working on the PC!”

Step 4: Great!  Your part is done.  Now when someone uses the link you sent via email it will bring them to the above screen.  They enter their name and click Start Recording.

User Interaction

What will happen is that it records everything on their screen including audio from their microphone (if they have one). The simple screen below will pop up and basically start recording. The user can then perform the series of events that led to the error and when done, just click STOP. 

Simple user interface!

Conclusion

It will process the video, upload, and send an email to you!  Pretty awesome right? I think this tool is a boon to anyone who likes helping out friends and family, right on down to the typical IT Technician who wants more clarity on a problem.  It’s a nice tool/favorite to keep in your browser so check out ShowMeWhatsWrong. 

You’ll get an email after they process the screen/mic capture like this

Obviously, this does not give you a hands-on way of fixing the problem but it can give you more information to research a problem before attempting to fix it.  If you want to do more hands-on remote support then I suggest checking out my article on Remote Access with LogMeIn.  What tools do you like to use to get to your pc remotely, help friends, or diagnose problems?

Today on Tech for the Masses we start the “Innovative Finance Series”, and we’ll jump into how to automate your personal finances.  If you’re like most people you probably live paycheck to paycheck with little concern on where it all goes.  When the money is gone, you have to stay in.  Using this method means there is often little thought for the future (savings goals, emergencies, down payments, gifts, vacations) and also means you’ll probably be using that high-interest credit card of yours.  That’s a huge problem.  Don’t worry – we have a solution and we’ll use technology to get it all done.

My Introduction to Personal Finance

Let’s face it, who wants to keep track of their money on a daily basis or god-forbid – Make a Budget!  Yuck, sound’s completely dull.  For the past year or so I’ve been inspired by the writings of several blogs, as well as personal finance guru’s such as Suze Orman and Dave Ramsay.  The daily finance blog I read is J.D. @ Get Rich Slowly.  I have to give JD a lot of credit because he’s pointed me in the right direction on many issues.  Lastly, The Simple Dollar is very informative and for the lazy, he put the basics of personal finance on the back of 5 business cards then expands it onto a 49 Page Free e-Book.  I’m sure everyone has time to read that one!  So if you haven’t gotten your finances in order and automated, wake up and smell the high-interest rates!

Online Banking Made Simple: ING Direct

For those who do not know, ING Direct is an online-bank.  Online banks usually higher savings account interest rates then brick-and-mortar banks which is why they are great.  ING is also FDIC insured so you don’t have to worry about the bank going under and losing everything.  I use ING for most things and it’s extremely simple to setup an account and I am impressed by their online security.  Pound for pound, I like it because they make it painless to login and even a chimp can use the interface.

Account Structure

As you can see from below, I’ve set up multiple savings accounts.  This is painless in ING and you can open as many as you want. The bank don’t care!  Plus there is no minimum fees or annual fees.  Basically, you open a savings account then give it a nickname, just as I have.  Now, my account balances aren’t anywhere near where I’d like them to be but it’s a start.  I highlighted the major money hits in my financial year, and created an account for each of them.

Christmas time has always been stressful for me, because like most people we never planned or saved for gifts.  It ends up going on a credit card and you make an empty promise to yourself that you’ll pay it.  Now as you can see I’ve created a savings account dedicated to these areas and will automatically fund it each month (See Below – ASP)

Why separate all your savings accounts when you can have just one?   The answer is simple. It’s difficult to keep track of your savings goals when they are jumbled all in one account.  You’ll easily lose track and spend the money unknowingly.

Automatic Saving Program

Now for the meat and potatoes part of the article.  Automatic Saving or Automating your Finances using ING DIRECT.  You saw earlier how I setup my accounts.  Below you’ll see ASP (Automatic Savings Plans) setup within ING DIRECT.  The ASP settings basically allow you to set monthly, weekly, yearly, etc rules for your accounts.  In my case, I have so much transferred each month to my Emergency Fund automatically, as well as the other areas.  All I have to do is make one bank transfer to my main checking account and the system does the rest for me.

Guess what?  When all that automated savings plans executive each month for me then I know I’ve met my goals – automatically.  Secondly, I know whatever is left in my bank account is all mine to spend as I like – guilt-free!  Furthermore, fast forward to Christmas and voila, a no-fuss no-muss Christmas gift fund is sitting there for me to spend on family and friends guilt-free.  Not only that, but I’ve made contributions to emergency, education, and vacation funds.  So when the time comes for a trip or even an emergency room visit (god forbid), there is money there.

I highly suggest you all try this approach.  This methodology I also use for funding investment and retirement accounts as well as bills.  The beauty of it is that everything is done hands-free and guilt-free.  The money you have left over each month (or week) is used for whatever your heart desires.

Joining ING – Free Money!

Now if the thought of automating your finances and having a guilt-free experience isn’t enough, then this should be it.  If you sign-up with ING Direct, they’ll give you $25 to start your account.  Crazy right?  The catch is you have to fund it with $250 and use an invite from an account holder.  If for some reason you aren’t comfortable doing it or getting $25, then still go to open an account directly at ING DIRECT – I am that passionate about ING Direct.

How it works

Basically, ING offers account holders a few limited $10 referral bonus for every person that we have create an account.  The new account holder is given $25 dollars after taking the referral.  That is a total of $35 ING is giving away just to have new customers! Amazing – It’s a WIN-WIN in my book and it’s how I got started with my account.

I have a few referral tickets left open, so if you are interested in depositing $250 to a new account and having ING give you $25 bonus for doing so then let me know. You can either leave your name and email address in a comment below or email: tech4themasses@gmail.com. I will send you the ING Referral and help you get started on your way.  It’s fast and easy – trust me.

Remember:  Sign up for Paperless Statements when you join-up! Save a tree!

Further Book Reading

Here are some books that I’ve read and highly recommend to everyone else.  I am not a guru in this area so I’ll tell you right off the back that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to read any of these books.  In fact, I’ve found most of them I can read through pretty easily and they even offer some humor to go along with it.  Here is my list of books and authors below.

Author	Book	Review
Dave Ramsay	The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness	This is a great foundation book. His claim to fame is the debt snowball, a method used for getting rid of credit card debt.
Ramit Sethi	I Will Teach You To Be Rich	Ramit offers a youthful, intelligent, yet humorous approach to personal finance for most beginners.  He’s also a lover of automation like myself.
Suze Orman	The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke & Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan	Unfortunately, I end up watching Oprah with my wife.  And anyone who watches it long enough already knows who Suze Orman is.  Yes she direct and in your face, but that’s actually what most people need.  I read both books and they are priceless – especially the one for young people.

Further Online Reading:

These are my top 4 favorite personal Finance blogs to read – Get Rich Slowly, ManvsDebt, MyLifeROI, and The Simple Dollar.

Conclusion

Like always, I look forward to other peoples thoughts and ideas on the topic – especially automating finances.  Let me know how your experiences have personally went.  Look forward to hearing from you through comments or email.

There always comes a time when you’re ready to switch to “new digs” in a new area, neighborhood, or city.  Personally, I find it as quite a task to go through a sea of rental websites then, another sea of neighborhood statistics sites as well.  Recently, I’ve been recommended to check out Rent Jungle online and take it for a test-drive to search for apartments.  Being that I may be in the market soon for an apartment of my own – it registered on my Tech Radar.

Rent Jungle is a pretty straight forward and well organized apartment search site that aggregates data from several popular apartment sites.  Searching is broken into straight forward city, state search box or by US State > City > Neighborhood (the neighborhood feature is very cool).  It has some distinct plusses that many other sites do not have such as price comparison, Facebook integration, and Neighborhood reports. 

Usability

While I was using it, I found the site to be well programmed and it ran very fast (I hope it stays that way as it gains in popularity).  For the average Tech for the Masses reader, I think its very user friendly and has a system that isn’t too confusing. If you want more then apartment search, they also offer an online community message board to share experiences or ask renting questions – very nice for first timers.

Tech Factor: Neighborhood & Rent Comparison

Once you get into the city/state of where you are searching a nifty little sidebar appears.  It offers information such as Neighborhood browsing, average rent in this area, Rent vs Own stats, median age, population, families with kids, and average commute times for that area.  The geek in me screams “very cool” on this information being so readily available.  So far, I’ve not seen this on other sites (at least not right in my face and easily viewable).

Another very tech smart tool is the Rent Price Comparison. They offer a nifty price comparison that aggregates data with other renters in your area or particular neighborhoods to see what everyone else is paying. For me being interested in finance as well as tech, this may give a few of us the upper hand in negotiating lower monthly rent.  Nice job RentJungle, Nice job.

Networking

This site relies heavily on networking and using many other established sites.  Now that isn’t entirely a bad thing because you can think of it as they’ve done all the web-surfing for you.  But you need to realize that they are providing a clean front-end that redirects to other websites for detailed property information.

RentJungle also has integrated Facebook/Twitter into their website which I think is a huge boon. Anyone creating sites now should give people the opportunity to share their findings and views with the Facebook or Twitter world.

Overview

RentJungle’s interface is clean and the experience is fast.  However it is not without the standard foray of ads like those of similiar sites.  In general, RentJungle puts a up a nice interface (or front-end) and pulls its data from several other well known sources – such as Aparments.com and Google (for mapping).  It’s apartment search and neighborhood research done easy with minimal invasion by ads.

The bottom line is the fact that it lets you compare rent, gives you neighborhood information/statistics, and displays apartment data from several sources in a well organized interface.  Because of this I will keep this functional website in my Favorites for apartment searches for quite awhile.

What their next step should be?  “HouseJungle.com” – and use the same interface (similiar to Zillow.com) to find available houses in the your desired area.  Did I just hear cha-ching?  Great, because it’s something to consider.

Check out Rent Jungle right here @ Rent Jungle Apartment Search

If anyone else has a review or would like to share their experience, please post your thoughts!

Let’s start by having you take a hold of your personal information and give yourself the power to tell Facebook who can see your photos, status updates, etc.

Step 1: Login to your Facebook.com account and Go to Settings > Privacy Settings

Step 2: You’ll see a of various privacy settings you can adjust. The two most important settings are Profile Information and Contact Information.  Try out Profile Information first…

Step 3: Your privacy settings are secured for “their” protection (notice the box to the right of About Me is grayed out)!  So Click Change Settings. It will ask to confirm password, go ahead and do that.

Step 4: Now the boxes are editable. So try clicking on the boxes to the right of About Me, Personal Info, etc and a drop-down menu will appear.  Choose who you want to be able to see this particular information.  I have most of all my boxes set to “Only Friends”.  Facebook will not be able to use my data or photos to show to Everyone then!

Step 5: When you’ve made all the changes in the list, go back to the Privacy Settings screen (step 1 for a reminder) and then choose Personal Info.  The system is the same as earlier, so go ahead and make the changes of who can view your information areas.  The system auto-saves your settings, so you won’t have to look for any Save Changes buttons.  If you want, click Preview My Profile to try out the new security settings.

You’re done!  That is about it.  If you want to know more PCWorld gives a break down of the changes Facebook made to privacy. But you should be all set if you followed the above steps! Have any other Facebook security tips? Feel free to comment below and share with the rest of the web. 

So let’s make this easy shall we?  There has to be some way to make the interface more user friendly – and there is.  It’s a rather simple solution as well.

UBitMenu for Microsoft Office 2007 / 2010 – this software is free and will enable the option of using 2003 menu system you were accustomed to.

You can download the installation file here (English):

http://www.ubit.ch/fileadmin/UBitMenu/UBitMenuSetupUK.exe

For more information regarding this freeware, visit this page: http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

If this suggestion helps at least one person and increase productivity, then it’s totally worth it.  Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you!  Furthermore, if you LOVE the app, please donate to the programmer.

Good afternoon bloggers!  Things have been pretty busy on my end with work, and congruently, I been trying to plan for some much needed time off.  This is where my article leads into: Planning your Best Vegas Trip ever!  With the decline of the economy, deals for Las Vegas seem to be at an all time low.  Vendors and hotels are begging for business and their packages can be exceptional currently!  Heck, even during good times packages to Vegas always appeared reasonable.  The trick is that they hope to entice you with low airfare and lodging – in return to you giving it all away at the tables!  For me, gambling isn’t much of an issue though and sorry to say, you won’t hear much for gambling tips here.  What I will do is give you tips on how to use the Internet to plan your Vegas trip.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I plan to the point of obsession (a bonus if you’re an IT person) and I love to shop for deals!  So I’ll try to pass on what I’ve learned, recommendations, information, and deals that I’ve taken advantage of recently.  This is our first trip to Vegas and we’ve taken quite a bit of time planning things out and trying to get the most bang for our buck.

I know you are interested, so…

Best Times to Travel and Visit

As I’ve read many other places, they say Las Vegas never has a low season!  But sure enough, they do have slower then normal seasons – if you want to ever call Vegas slow. 

RULE #1 – PLAN YOUR VEGAS TRIP EARLY – You’ll have better chance at cheaper rates, cheaper show tickets, better seating, and better rooms!

TIP #1 – Travel between June-August – It turns out to be quite cheaper then any other time.

TIP #2 – Find out when the Conventions are in town or huge events.  I also highly suggest you read The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2009 (Unofficial Guides).  They have lists of the many conventions scheduled each year and the higher and lower seasons.  When conventions are in town, it’s harder to get reservations, upgrades, and comps.

TIP #3 – Try to book your flights MID-WEEK meaning Tues, Wed, or Thursday.  Travelling on Friday or Weekends is significantly more expensive because Vegas has a large weekend party crowd who fly in just to cut-loose for 2 days.  It also stands to reason that hotel prices are more expensive on the weekend – which is why we booked our trip from a Thursday to another Thursday, avoiding an extra weekend and the packed flights.

Hotel and Airfare

There is probably a hundred different ways to book your vacation online.  I do not suggest that you book directly from the hotel website and then the airline website.  Modern computing and bulk-buying from vendors like Expedia, Kayak, and Travelocity give you the option of saving some money while making a “vacation package”.

TIP #1 – We used Travelocity and really like it but HotWire is also very good. You plug in your airports, choose where you’d like to stay, then they give you your total price – upfront.  Many others add on fees only during checkout!  Travelocity is great for being upfront. 

TIP #2 – You save some money when you book your flight and hotel together, online.

TIP #3 – Do not book directly from the airline or hotel website.  If you do, compare prices with Travelocity too!

TIP #4 – If you skipped it earlier, you’ll save more money by planning to come to Vegas before Friday and leaving after Monday

TIP #5 – Got a rewards card?  Use it on this trip because you’ll most likely rack up a lot of points by charging on Travelocity, Car Rentals, etc.  Sometimes those rewards can pile up enough to give you discount tickets while you’re there.

TIP #6 – Be wary of adding in the “Activities” on your Travelocity package.  I made a rule to just have the flight and hotel together.  The activities to me seemed overpriced.  Plus, as Ill mention later, you can custom pick some better deals and quality trips if you buy them ala carte later.  Buying from the activities section lands you a pretty good chance of being piled into a “tour bus” with no elbow room while you’re off on a 5 hour trip to the Grand Canyon!

Theatre and Show Tickets

Almost anyone will tell you that going to a Las Vegas Show is a must.  Cirque du Soleil has taken Vegas by storm and there are several shows, so you should try to go see them.  There are also a lot of magician shows, hypnosis shows, comedy shows, headline shows, and musicals as well.

TIP #1 – Right now, Cirque is offering steeply discounted tickets – Check it out here: Celebrate 25 Years of Cirque and Bring a Friend for $25

TIP #2 – Do not overstress or overpay for the theatre tickets.  The theatre isn’t the size of a football stadium, most are small and you’ll find you may of saved yourself 50$ compared to a guy who is one row ahead of you sometimes.

TIP #3 – Book well in advance! I can not stress this enough for saving money.

TIP #4 – You can use Ticketmaster for quite a few shows – but you won’t find much price differences for shows online.  Going directly to the vendor site will work out just fine and you can print your tickets right there.

TIP #5 – There are a lot of shows, but the main ones that sparked our interest were: Jubilee!, Mystere, The Lion King Musical.

TIP #6 – Got your tickets paid for?  Now, a lot of times they wont send them to you or let you print them out. Make sure to read the instructions cause you’ll most likely have to show up a day in advance to the hotel that is hosting the show at the Box Office, to pick up your tickets. Make time for that!

TIP #7 – Already at Vegas and want a show? Check out the many Tix4Tonight locations – where you can probably find discount tickets for a show THAT night.  Of course, expect it to be harder during the weekends.

SHAKE YOU BON-BON: Vegas VIP Club & Bar Passes

If you like clubs and bars, Las Vegas probably has one for every night of the year.  However, the biggest, hottest, and coolest clubs are right on The Strip.  To name a few that seemed interesting to us: Moon, Tryst, Ghost Bar, LAX, Studio 54, Christian Audigier, The Bank, and Tao.  Vegas features pool parties as well during the day with DJ’s that sound like a blast.

The problem isn’t the fact that there’s too much variety – it’s how much it will effect your wallet!  Most clubs charge about 40$ for Men and 30$ for women.  For the average person, this leaves out club hopping on a tight budget.  Also remember, if you do want to club hop you’ll probably have to prepare yourself to wait in long lines!  I’ve read many reviews stating that even then, you may not get in or you’ll get suckered into “Bottle Service” – fancy name for giving you a personal booth, bouncer, cute waitress, and a $400-$700 bottle of Grey Goose Vodka.

RULE #1 – Do not buy your tickets from the vendors directly online!  They are overpriced and also at the door!

Want to skip some lines, get higher end service, club hop and do it all for a reasonable price?  You have to check out my buddy at Las Vegas Passes.  I all but gave up on our dream of having a club hopping experience until I found him online.  He has great packages online – for example, the one we bought for approx 30$ that’s called “$2500 VIP Club Passes Pack for 2”, which included 2 passes each for:

• Audigier Nightclub
• The Bank
• Body English
• Coyote Ugly
• JET
• LAX
• Moon
• Pussycat Dolls Lounge
• Prive
• Pure
• RAIN
• Revolution
• Tabu
• Tao
• Treasures
• Sapphires
• Tryst – Thursday
• Tryst – Friday
• Godskitchen
• Voodoo Lounge
• & a fat coupon book with all kinds of savings!

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? – You’re asking yourself.  I know it.  But you can believe it.  This is how my boy explained it on the site:

“These passes are distributed by the promoters to help bring more people to the club”

It’s great to have this kind of service plus it should keep them promoters happy by filling up the clubs!  If that isn’t enough, his EBay site has been up for years and he has wonderful reviews from all the customers he’s hooked up.  I also personally had a great experience with the site owner as he answered all my questions. 

Check out both his sites – I do not think you’ll regret it!

Final Tip – If you don’t want them sent to your home you can opt to have them delivered right to the hotel you’re checking it. VERY neat!

Great Tours

When it comes to tours, two really stand out – Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.  Some others are Bryce and Valley of Fire.  Make sure you do your research ahead of time and make sure you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck.

TIP #1 – Vegas can get hectic and busy on the weekends with the crowds. To avoid this, we planned our tours on the weekends since they take up most the day.  We get to avoid the city and get some fresh air.

TIP #2 – If you can help it, make sure your tours include food and water!  These tours can run long and if the price appears cheap, its probably cause they aren’t feeding you and relying on you overspending at a rest-stop.

Who we are going with for our Grand Canyon Tour:  Grand Adventures Tour Company – They came highly rate from TripAdvisor users.  My experience with emailing customer service (or CJay) was top-notch.  BTW – If you don’t know TripAdvisor, make sure you learn.  Because it has people like you and me reviewing everything from room cleanliness at hotels to tours around the world. 

Who we are going with for our Hoover Dam Tour: Best Las Vegas Tours – They were offering the cheapest rate at the time and included food on the trip.  For the price, it couldn’t compare anywhere else.  Of course we’ll find out how nice it is and look forward to updating our review when we return.

Who we are going with for our Las Vegas Strip Tour: Look Tours Double Decker Bus Tour – Basically this looks like your typical Double Decker major city bus tour.  One thing extra though, Celebrity impersonators are the tour operators!

“It’s Time To Eat” with Coupons Galore!

Another things Vegas is so well known for is the FOOD!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I can pack in the groceries and am not ashamed of it at all!  In most places eating out would be expensive, but not so in Las Vegas.  There are so many choices for food and buffets, that it will make your head spin.  Seafood Buffets, Steak Buffets, Mid-Eastern Buffets, etc. 

As for restaurants, you name it – and most run till late at night.  Feel like Italian, Mexican, American, fine dining, 1$ for 1 foot long hot dog, or 99 cent Mega Shrimp Cocktails?  Vegas is sure to have it.

The prices are already pretty reasonable, but not enough for me.  I want to find the best deals in town and intend on getting the most for my money.  So guess what?  I go coupon crazy.  That’s right – I’ve searched out coupons for just about everywhere and printed them out.  We are going to put them in envelopes and label them by cuisine.  So it’ll go like this every night:

Me – Honey, where would you like to eat tonight?

<I throw all our envelopes on our Vegas hotel room bed>

My wife – Well lets see we have coupons for… Italian 2-for-1 meal up to 30$ value.. or wait how about that great Mexican Cantina? No no, Seafood.  There’s so many choices!

TIP #1 – Just go to Google and type in “las vegas coupons” and scour all the sites.  It’s pretty easy.  You’ll find a ton of them for dining (the rest for shows, etc tend to be advertisements).  Just print out as many as you want, though you’ll be quite limited.  This will get you started.

TIP #2 – Get an Entertainment Annual Book.  For anyone that doesn’t know what this is – it is a book/site that offers tons and tons of legitimate coupons based on the US top cities.  What city can top Las Vegas? (I hear New York screaming in my head, but I’ll silence it for now).  Anyway, order the book – there’s a bunch of 2-for-1 lunches and dinners at great restaurants.  The book is 25$ approximately – you’ll get your money back in the first meal. 

TIP #3 – Get and Entertainment.com Monthly Account – Want to get digital Entertainment coupons?  Then sign up for a monthly membership for 5$!  The trick?  You have to use the printed coupon within 14 days of printing it.  That’s fine, I can deal with that.  Then when I get back from Vegas, I cancel my account.  Or not – With the online account, you can print coupons from almost any major cities that are in the US – so maybe you’ll want to hold onto it.

TIP #4 – Go buy the American Casino Guide for this year.  This is highly coveted for it’s great match-play, buffet, and food coupons.  It is totally worth it so make sure you get a copy. 

Before you Go

Ok so you followed my recommendations.  Are you done?  Not Yet.

TIP #1 – Call your hotel, confirm your reservation dates, and then make them aware of your check-in times. 

TIP #2 – When calling the hotel – now is also the time to mention that you like smoking/non-smoking room, a King size instead of two doubles, that you want to be close to the elevator, that you want to be on a  higher floor, or that you don’t want to be in the room above the huge disco in the hotel!

TIP #3 – In some cases, confirm your show tickets and tours if needed.

TIP #4 – Print out all your coupons!

TIP #5 – Don’t forget the camera, passport, tickets, & sunscreen!  Bring an extra legal ID or drivers license if possible – Vegas has a law that everyone must carry ID at all times.

When you Arrive

TIP #1 – Don’t be shy – when all else fails, ASK.

TIP #2 – Don’t be afraid to tip for great service.

TIP #3 – The Internet is your friend.  You can find a bunch of resources from coupons to reviews.

TIP #4 – A smile goes a long way.

TIP #5 – Want a room upgrade when you check-in?  Try the $20 Dollar Trick out.  Apparently, it works often enough in Vegas and may be worth it to you to try – if you can pull it off.

TIP #6 – Enjoy the time you have cause it will probably go by fast!

When you get back Home

Post your experiences right here on the website! Contact tech4themasses@gmail.com or leave a comment.  We’d love to hear from you.

Reading Material to Keep you Hyped!

We will continue to update this article as needed – and follow-up after our trip!  We’d love to hear your tips also!

However, this can be used easily by just about anyone to connect to their home pc (or work PC) from anywhere in the world.  Please note, your systems administrator may not allow you to install this on your work PC though for security reasons.  But for your home PC, its invaluable.  Heck, nowadays you can pretty much get to your home PC from your iPhone or Blackberry!

Interested in Remote Access? Well…

Who should use this

Business: As an IT Professional, I use this profusely to monitor several servers in different places.  I also use it to access my own home computer.  If you do not want to use clunky VPN setups and configurations in business, just to get access to a server – then use LogMeIn.  Besides, it’s free anyways even if you use it for business.  Although the business packages aren’t expensive and have some nice features.

Personal: For you addicted at-homers, you too can use LogMeIn.  If you’re away and want to check your computer, you can do so with LogMeIn pretty easily.  It’s pretty painless even for newbie’s.

Tech Support:  I’ve seen several people add quite a few pcs to their account in an attempt to provide dirt-cheap remote desktop support.  This does work.  Personally. I have my friends and parents computers on my account, so I can fix any annoying problems from time to time.  Being in the Caribbean makes it difficult to fix family and friends computers back in the US!

Why it’s so great!

Hands down – Number 1: It’s easy to use!

The 2nd reason:  Easy Setup – It blasts through all firewalls and network configurations by using LogMeIn servers as an intermediary.  No more port-forwarding or making special rules in your router to accommodate for this software.  Most remote access software is a pain because of intricate network configurations – LogMeIn solves that by using their secure servers as a middle-man and both the client and host computers meet right in the middle.  Pretty awesome huh?

Number 3:  Yes it is secure.  They use 256bit encryption when sending any data back and forth not to mention SSL.  For those of you that don’t know what that means – it mean’s its a good thing! Entirely unlikely any hacker could be snooping your business.

Like it?  Go Sign-Up

Again, it’s free. What can it hurt? And you can access your servers or PC’s from anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection.  Check out their site.

http://www.logmein.com

Tutorial of LogMeIn

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea5snGizfCs

Tech Blog PCMech posted a nice YouTube video on the basics of LogMeIn.  You should definitely check it out.

Have you used LogMeIn? Have an alternative or easier solution? Let us know

Related Blog’s on the Topic: GoToMyPc vs LogMeIn – LogMeIn coming to Blackberry Storm – AskTheAdmin – Review on LogMeIn

Big Love to Microsoft for this hidden yet interactive feature they built-in into Windows Live Messenger.  Basically, by changing your display name in MSN you can donate to a charity of your choice for each message you send.  Sounds great doesn’t it?  And it doesn’t cost you a penny but you can still feel less guilty about spending hours chatting with your friends.

Sound cool and want to sign up?  Read On…

How it works – from the Microsoft Site:

The i’m Initiative from Microsoft® makes helping social causes easy. Every time you use Windows Live™ Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail®, our free webmail service, we’ll share a portion of our advertising revenue with the cause you choose from among our partner social cause organizations. Exactly how much will we share with our partner causes? Well, that’s up to you and the growing masses of i’m Initiative users. The more messages you send, the more we give.

The charities currently offered are:

• The American Red Cross
• National AIDS Fund
• NineMillion – UN Refugee Agency
• Sierra Club
• StopGlobalWarming.org
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
• The Humane Society
• National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• UNICEF
• Susan G Komen for the Breast Cancer Cure

How to Sign-Up:

Get started by checking out: http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/ then go to their “How to Join” section and follow the instructions.

It’s really really easy, trust me!

How I cheated but who cares – It’s good anyway right?

Anyone that has me on Messenger sees my name like this:

Most people set it up to only show one IM in their name.  Guess what?  Microsoft doesn’t apparently limit the amount of organizations you want to donate to!  So go ahead and add more!  Add them all if you want to.

My settings look like this under display name:

*sierra James *komen

Doing so enables me to have two activated. Great stuff!  Anyway, now that you all know about it – go ahead and change your display name.

Start giving something back other than giving yourself carpal tunnel from all that IMing you have been doing!

- James

Related Blog’s on the Topic:  A – B – C