Here are my requirements for a good cell phone:

Must have features

• Make and receive calls

Most of my phone calls on my cell phone are relatively short and to the point. It’s not my only phone, as I will use a landline if one is available. However with the long distance deals and nighttime minutes, I occasionally use it to talk to far-flung relatives.

• Storing phone numbers

I don’t have a million contacts; I’m not a salesman nor a socialite. I have anywhere from 30-60 names of friends, family, and co-workers along with their phone numbers programmed into my phone.

• Clock

I don’t wear a watch, so when I need to know the time of day, I look at my phone.

Optional features

• Bluetooth

It would be nice to have this capability to make a connection to my computer to transfer files or edit my contacts. However, my commute is only about 20 minutes, so a bluetooth headset isn’t very practical. Since bluetooth has more capabilities and seems more widely supported now than infrared, bluetooth would be a nice to have for my cell phone.

• Text messaging

I rarely send text messages; I average 5 to 10 text messages per year, mostly replying to text messages from my little brother. However, I have sent a couple messages surreptitiously during long meetings mainly to relieve boredom or to tease another coworker who is stuck in the same meeting.

• Camera

This is a very optional feature for me, but camera phones are ubiquitous now. I have very little occasion to take pictures with my cell phone — I have a regular camera for that. However, if I were in or witnessed a car wreck, a camera would be nice to have. If I were shopping for a house or car without my wife and wanted some pictures to show her when I got back, a camera would be nice to have. Unfortunately, the reasons for having a camera on my cell phone aren’t very compelling, so it would be a feature I’d be willing to lose, especially since the camera features tend to require extra buttons, size, and weight.

Useless Features

• Video Camera

I don’t need to take crappy 15 second video clips with my phone; I can’t even imagine a time where having that capability would come in handy.

• Music player

I don’t need my phone to play mp3s; I have an iPod for my music. Taking out the music play means you can remove the flash memory cards — who needs 512MB cards for holding additional contacts? The internal memory will already hold 1000, 950 of which I don’t need.

• Videos and Games

I don’t need to have video highlights downloaded to my phone; I have a TV for that. I don’t need gaming on my phone; I have an xbox for that. I would appreciate having that bandwidth to improve the call quality instead.

A phone that met this criteria would work for me. Removing all of the useless features that so many of today’s phones include would leave a phone that was just the right size for my pocket, had great battery life.

So, which phone did I choose? The Motorola E815 — probably the most feature bloated phone in existence. But, it was free. If my ideal phone exists, I haven’t seen it yet. Do you know of an ideal phone for me? What is your ideal cell phone?

After much research, we purchased the Canon PowerShot A610. We read the in-depth reviews of the camera at DPreveiw.com and many of the customer comments at Amazon.com. We considered purchasing it at AbesOfMaine.com (which had great prices on digital cameras), but ended up buying it at Costco.com because of their unbeatable return policy — which was especially important since my wife has a propensity to drop expensive electronics on hard tile floors.

So far, it has met and exceeded all of our expectations. The photos we have taken so far with the new camera have been bright, clear, and crisp. The USB 2.0 connection to the camera makes transferring the larger image files quick and easy. We haven’t used the included software yet, but why would you when Picasa is incredibly useful and totally free? The My Colors mode is fun to play around with, but isn’t very practical otherwise, and the movie mode is great for quick little clips to email to Grandma.

With our older camera, we were constantly annoyed by all of the delays; taking the picture, viewing and zooming, and downloading all had built-in delays. With the Canon PowerShot A610 we haven’t noticed any delays at all — all functions are lightning fast, we haven’t had to wait for anything. I have been very impressed with the overall performance of the camera. Even the battery life has been impressive: we got the camera just before Christmas and used it heavily all through the holidays without replacing the standard alkaline batteries that came in the box.

Just as a disclaimer, I’m not a professional photographer, I’m not even a shutterbug or hobbyist. I simply want to take good picures and have solid performance and use some neat features every once in a while. Given my requirements, I can’t recommend the Canon PowerShot A610 highly enough; it’s a great piece of hardware.

Whether it is a software demo, a PowerPoint presentation, or an online meeting, there are several guidelines to follow:

1. Set up early

Nothing will erase credibility faster than watching someone struggle setting up for a presentation. “If he can’t figure out how to hook up a projector, how is he an expert on [Insert Topic Here]?” Arrive early (probably 20-30 minutes early if you’re unfamiliar with the equipment) and be ready to go when the first person arrives.

2. Avoid distractions

The audience will be tempted enough, so don’t provide any additional distractions. Here are a few common distractions which can totally kill (the bad way) a presentation:

• Email

Outlook 2003 has a desktop alert activated by default which pops up the subject and the first few lines of each message you receive. I was in a meeting once where I spent most of my time being distracted by the emails the presenter was receiving. At one point, one with a very personal subject line popped up and I had to hold back my laughter. Be safe and simply turn off your email during the presentation — it can wait.

• Power settings

Laptops usually have default timers to shut off the screen or go to standby mode after a period of inactivity. Make sure you change those setting on your laptop when leading a presentation. In the same meeting with the email snafus, the presenter had several open discussions with the group. During each conversation, his laptop went to standby mode. (Yes, that meeting inspired this article)

• Messaging clients

Having an IM client running during a presentation is just asking for trouble. Any friend or family member may decide to send you an instant message on any number of embarrassing (and potentially career-threatening) topics. Be safe and make sure to turn off any instant messaging programs.

• Other

Simply be aware of the things that may be displayed during your presentation. If you accidentally minimize the main window, should the group really see the picture of you in your bathing suit from your last vacation? Do you have a shortcut to your Death Rock Music folder on your desktop? Do you have any other programs which occasionally send pop-up notifications? Clean up and turn anything off that you don’t want shown on the projector screen.

3. Use dual screen

Although this is a little more advanced and doesn’t apply to all types of presentations, using the projector as a second monitor can be a very useful technique. Windows XP supports dual monitors by default, but you may have to tweak your video card settings to pull this off right. If properly done, this technique can really help your presentation.

Following these simple guidelines won’t make you a great presenter. You will need to master your message, voice characteristics, body language and many other factors to deliver a polished presentation, but at least you won’t look like a total rookie.

Even though most of us know the Second Law of Thermodynamics (few have it memorized, but most understand it intuitively), somehow we still fail to perform one of the most basic and essential tasks in computing: the all-important backup.

We’re now in the digital age, photos are no longer stored in shoeboxes, songs aren’t on CDs, recorded TV shows aren’t on videotape, journals aren’t written by pen on paper and hidden under a pillow — they are all stored on your hard drive. As digital media proliferates, computer users still back up as much as they always have — rarely, if ever.

Having a complete and comprehensive backup solution takes a lot of work. However, a few simple steps can prevent major disasters. Here are three basic recommendations everyone should be following:

1. Indentify the data (pictures, emails, address book, Quicken files) you can’t lose. Make this step easier by separating your data from all of your program files and operating system. Windows XP does this by default (for most files) by storing them in your My Documents folder. Beware of other user profiles on that machine and the location of their important files if the computer has more than one user. This is the data you will be backing up.

2. Put the data (from step 1) on removable media. Almost all computers these days come with a burner. CD and DVD media are very inexpensive and should have plenty of room to store your most important data.

3. Repeat Steps 1 & 2 at regular intervals. It won’t do you much good to have a backup from a year ago. You need to get into the habit of backing up your files. The frequency is really up to you, but I would suggest at least monthly.

These three steps should make losing a hard drive an inconvenience instead of a total disaster. Sure you will still need to install an operating system and all of your program files, but most people keep the original install discs around. Restoring the OS and the programs is the easy part — it’s the loss of those personal files and data that hurts. Performing these three steps will prevent much pain and heartache when the Second Law of Thermodynamics pays an unexpected visit.

Without a router, your computer is connected directly to the Internet. Or a better way to think of it is that the Internet has a direct connection to your computer.

With a router, your computer is on a separate network from the Internet (but still has access to the Internet). The router doesn’t let anything into the home network that doesn’t belong there. Specifically, a computer on your network must ask for information from the Internet for your router to allow information from the Internet to enter your home network.

The techology routers use to help share an Internet connection also adds a security layer to thwart worms, malware, and other internet-based attacks. This techology called NAT (which stands for Network Address Translation), essentially creates two separate networks.

Here is how it works: let’s say you request to access yahoo.com. Your request first goes to the router, which notes that you are making a request to yahoo.com, and forwards the request to yahoo.com. When a response comes back from yahoo.com, the router forwards the response back to the computer that issued the original request. If traffic comes in from Evil-Internet-Worm.com unsolicited, the router knows that no computer on the network has requested information from that site and blocks it. Evil-Internet-Worm cannot get through and infect your computer.

Routers are not terribly expensive, plain wired routers are around $30 and the increasingly popular wireless routers can be had for less than $100 and even cheaper on sale. Wireless routers need to be set up properly to make them secure, but offer the same separation from the Internet using NAT as wired routers do.

If you have broadband and you don’t yet have a router, you’re just asking for trouble.

This little piece of equipment is the real deal. The click wheel is an incredibly easy and intuitive interface. The battery life is good and the sound quality is great. The storage space is immense; my iPod contains several audiobooks, a couple podcasts, and neary a thousand songs and I still have 15 gigs left. You could spend your fortune just purchasing add-ons and accessories for the iPod — FM transmitters, skins, headphones, clips, armbands, car adapters, stereo speakers, you name it.

One of the unintended consequences of the iPod is the new phenomenon called podcasting. Unlike a radio broadcast, the podcast is a saved audio program can be replayed at the listener’s discretion. KSL offers podcasts of its shows; I’ve heard rumors that Rush Limbaugh is getting into the game. Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) called podcasts “Wayne’s World for radio” but the future version of iTunes is going to support podcasting, so it is only going to grow. iPodder is free software that can help you subscribe and manage podcasts until iTunes gets in there. More about podcasting can be found at wikipedia.

If any of you find any podcasts worth listening to, please post them in the comments for this article — I still have plenty of space to fill on my iPod.

I stumbled upon Knoppix, a Linux bootable CD. I had tried Knoppix several years ago when I was first trying to learn Linux, and was unimpressed. However, I was facing several days without a hard drive, and I still needed to use my laptop, so I decided to give Knoppix a try again to see what it would do.

I got a copy of the CD (it’s a free download), plugged it in, and turned on my laptop. I was interested to see what it would do without a hard drive. To my surprise, it booted right up and started recognizing my hardware. Even though I didn’t have a hard drive, Knoppix didn’t skip a beat. I was soon looking at a nice and clean interface.

Knoppix is full of programs you wouldn’t think would fit on a single CD. It has a great web browser (Mozilla Firefox), a full office suite (OpenOffice) that is compatible with Microsoft Office, and even a high-end graphics editor (GIMP). I was able to use all of these programs (plus literally hundreds of others) with no problems. Knoppix even created a virtual hard drive that I could use to save documents and files. As long as I didn’t turn off my laptop, I could reopen files, edit them and save as though I actually had a hard drive. Pretty slick.

Overall, I was surprised at how far Knoppix had come. I would definitely recommend Knoppix to anyone who wants to mess around with Linux and see what it has to offer as far as programs go. Oh, and by the way, it also works great if you have no hard drive and are waiting to get one back from the manufacturer.