Well it’s time for our first giveaway. I will be giving away 5 packs of AA Energizer Advanced Lithium Batteries to one lucky winner. With 4 batteries per pack, that’s a total of 20 free AA batteries. Every nerd needs batteries. These batteries are pretty awesome. I’ve been using them in my Wiimote. They are lighter than normal batteries which makes the Wiimote noticeably lighter in my hand. They are supposed to last a lot longer than typical batteries too.  So how do you win? Here’s the deal.

First of all, I’m sorry I’ve been kinda MIA lately. I’m the only one writing here and life has kept me incredibly busy. I’ve had plenty of thoughts and things I wanted to write about. I just haven’t had plenty of time.

So here’s what you came for, the giveaway rules. There are two ways to enter the drawing. You can use both methods to enter a total of two times but only one entry per method will be allowed. The first way to enter is to leave a comment on this post with your full name and a valid email address. (You don’t need to put your email address in the comment, just in the email address field.)  I am not collecting email addresses and they will not be shared with anyone or used for anything other than contacting the winner. I need a valid email address in order to contact you and tell you that you’ve won. You will need to email me back with a mailing address so I can send you the prize.

The second way to enter is to go to twitter and send the following tweet:

Check out the giveaway going on now. #jetthenerd http://jetthenerd.com/2009/02/the-giveaway/

Use copy and paste to make it easy. If you change the tweet, it must contain the link and #jetthenerd and clearly state that there is a giveaway going on over here. Url shorteners are permitted as long as they still link to that page. Otherwise your entry will not be counted. If the winner is a twitter user, they will be notified by DM on twitter.

By the way, thanks for visiting. While you’re here grab my RSS feed. Follow me on twitter too @ http://twitter.com/jetthenerd. I may be looking for new writers soon to contribute stories. If you have an interest in anything tech and want to write about it, hit me up with a DM on twitter and we can talk about it.

A couple more rules. The winner must be located in the US or Canada only. Sorry we can’t ship anywhere else. Multiple entries are only permitted if one is done by leaving a comment and one is done via twitter. My family can’t enter (sorry bro). The rules are subject to change if I find anyone is cheating or remember something that I forgot. The contest will end on Monday, February 23, 2009 at 12:01 am Eastern. No new entries will accepted after that time. I will announce the winner by that following Sunday, March 1, 2009. The winner and a runner up will be selected completely at random. The winner will be given 7 days to respond and claim the prize. If the winner has not responded within 7 days, the runner up will become the winner. ANY crude or profane remarks in your comment or tweet will void your entry. I reserve the right to deny anyone’s entry for any reason I see fit. Just play nice and everything will be fine.  If this goes well, look for more giveaways in the future.

-Jet

Added 2/9/08:

One more thing, tell me where you heard about the giveaway in your comment. No extra credit so you don’t have to but it would be cool to know. It might help me make more successful giveaways in the future.

REMEMBER: Mobile Phone Numbers Went Public 1/30/09

All mobile phone numbers have been released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls.

…. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your mobile phone: 888-382-1222 or you can register online at https://www.donotcall.gov/ .

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the mobile phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number. It takes about 20 seconds.

Energizer is excited about the release of their new Energizer Advanced Lithium batteries. They are so excited that they want to giveaway 5 packs of the new batteries on my site. So we’re gonna have a contest soon to give those batteries away. I still have to come up with the contest idea but I just wanted to give my readers (all 6 of you) a heads up about it.

If you have any ideas please share them in the comment section. Otherwise, keep on the lookout for the announcement.

Welcome and Happy New Year!

2008 was a great year in many ways. The tech world is always moving and always changing. I’m excited to see what will come out of the next couple years. With the world’s economies struggling, how will thing move forward? It should be fun to watch.

Here are my tips to kick-off 2009.

Be careful out there. I’ve seen an uprising of viruses and spyware (they’re practically the same these days). I’ve cleaned a lot of systems, made a lot of recommendations, and read lots of reports. The “bad guys” keep working on new ways to trick you, so you must try harder to keep yourself safe online. Your first defense is NOT your anti-virus program. Your first defense is YOU. Be careful. Don’t click on links in emails ever. Don’t forward emails that are forwarded to you. If you aren’t using an anti-virus program or you’ve let your subscription expire (which is the same as not using one) please consider using AVG Free. It will stay up to date and you never have to worry about forgetting to renew your subscription. You may also consider setting up a network gateway UTM (Unified Threat Management). I’ve used both Untangle and Astaro. Both are free for home users and Untangle is free for businesses. Both are great quality and very effective. If you are interested in either of them, email me and I can help you.

Use Firefox (version 3), it’s much much safer than Internet Explorer. Remember that Internet Explorer version 6 is not safe to use. Today you can get a virus just by simply going to a website. That’s all you need to do. That’s why you should take steps to make yourself safer. Also, Firefox version 2 will soon be unsupported so if you haven’t yet upgraded, now is the time.

Switch to Linux. I did! It’s great. I love it. I’m using Ubuntu 8.10 right now. Windows isn’t safe. Sorry, it’s not. Macs are becoming less safe as they grow in popularity. Linux is safe for two reasons. One is simply because it’s not worth the time of the “hacker” to write a virus for an operating system that is used by so few people. The second is because Linux is written in a way that makes it safer by default. When a user logs in to use Linux, they don’t automatically have “administrator authority” like most Windows users do.

I don’t really have any goals set for this site in 2009. I do still plan on writing some reviews on Android applications. I just haven’t had time and I don’t know when I will. I have a few things in the works that will be taking up a lot of my time. Also, sometime in the next month I plan to migrate my main desktop computer from XP to Ubuntu. I can still run XP in VirtualBox when I need it. I’m also thinking (if money allows, which it probably never will) about building a Mythbuntu box, which is an OS that combines MythTV and Ubuntu.

Happy New Year (yeah I know I’m a few days late). I hope it’s a good one for all of you. Hey, if you like anything you read here or have something to add, please feel free to leave a comment.

I just got an email from one of the companies I represent. It said “GREAT NEWS! You now have the ability to change your password on (our company website). Changing your password on a regular basis helps keep your agency data secure, plus it’s easy to do!”
Really?? We NOW have the ability? This comes from the company that previously set up my user name and password as the exact same thing. So not only was I unable to change my password but my password was also my username. This isn’t GREAT NEWS, this is shocking to me. Do they get it? Maybe the people that didn’t get it were fired. I’d put money on it that user accounts were getting hacked.