• Don’t groan when the credit card bills roll in from the holiday shopping. You know it was money well spent. Of course, when shopping, always look for the best deals, and coupons. Try to stay away from “impulse buying”, as well. Plan your budget, make a list of who to buy for and ideas for them, and be done with it.
• Remember to keep track of who gave you what – especially if you are going to re-gift certain items.
• Don’t focus your resolutions only on yourself. Dedicate at least one to doing something to make the world better, and KEEP doing it throughout the year.
• Shake the hand of any man or woman you meet who works in a life-saving occupation, including law enforcement, health care personnel, and military members. Let them know how much what they do is appreciated.
• Remember… love, joy and friendship isn’t only about the holidays. Keep them going all year long.
• Random acts of kindness can go a long way to making this world a much better place.

Remember the true spirit of the season, and don’t get all caught up in the commercialism!  Enjoy your holiday, and remember to stay cool!

The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.

Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls and emails from children. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa’s whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

Stumped for gifts to give the geeks in your family? Put a little something digital in their stockings this year.

From a sleek and stylish MP3 player to a completely silly USB device, any of these five gifts will bring a smile to somebody’s lips this holiday season.

1. Clip On Your Tunes

Smaller than a box of wooden matches yet capable of holding 15 hours of music, SanDisk’s Sansa Clip truly is a small wonder. As the name implies, you simply attach the sub-1-ounce player to your pocket, shirt collar, or even your hat using its spring-loaded clip. The Sansa Clip plays MP3s, secure and DRM-free WMA files, and Audible books; it’s also compatible with Napster to Go, and sports an FM tuner and a voice recorder. A tiny (but impressively bright) LCD shows either the artist and song title or a very cool-looking equalizer animation. About $40 buys you a 1GB black Sansa Clip that can store approximately 250 MP3s. Add $20, and you double the capacity–and you get to choose from ice blue, hot pink, or candy-apple red models. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more agreeable exercise partner.

2. Solving the USB Puzzle

Here’s what I hate about USB hubs: My Flash drives are always just a little too wide, so I can’t plug them in next to each other. The USB 180° Revolving Hub, however, is an ingenious solution. The multicolored dingus looks like a string of children’s blocks, with one USB 2.0 port in each of the first four cubes. Cubes #1 and  #2 each rotate 180 degrees, so you can plug superwide USB dongles into the top and back, leaving the last two ports free for less outsize connectors. AC and USB power connectors in the fifth cube complete the puzzle. The Revolving Hub is available from Hong Kong-based gadget-meister Brando Workshop for $16.

3. Mighty Ducks Mouse

When is a mouse more than a mouse? When it’s also a duck, of course. Uncommon Goods’ Rubber Ducky Optical Mouse features the familiar yellow waterfowl bobbing in an aqua-colored pond at the base of the 4.5-inch unit. The $30 pointing device is perfect for the youthful computer genius in your household. And if the mere sight of the thing causes the song “Rubber Ducky, You’re So Fine” to play endlessly in your brain, as it does for me, you can select other alter-mice designs, such as a Lady Bug, Doggie, or Kitty.

4. Wi-Fi on the Fly

Wonder which of your neighbors has Wi-Fi? Forget wardriving. Put on Think Geek’s stylish black Wi-Fi Detector T-shirt ($30), and you can warwalk. Electric blue bars on the front light up when you encounter a wireless network; the more bars that light, the stronger the signal. (But it won’t tell you whether the network is secure–sorry.) When it’s laundry time, you can remove the detector, which draws power from three AAA batteries housed in a compartment that slips into an interior pocket. Wow your friends, impress your neighbors, and convince your spouse that marrying you really was a terrible mistake.

5. Holiday on Ice

You can keep your digital cameras, flash drives, media players, mice, keyboards, LED lights, and desk fans. I’ve finally found something truly useful to plug into my USB port: a personal refrigerator. The $33 USB Mini Fridge draws just enough power to chill one 12-ounce can of soda (or perhaps another beverage of your choice) to about 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8.5 Celsius). Better yet, when you open the door of this 8-inch-tall fridge, an LED light comes on. Gadgets just don’t get much cooler–literally.
via Five Cool Tech Stocking Stuffers (Not Your Usual Holiday Gifts!) – PC World.

The Component AV Cable connects to your iPod or Universal Dock via the 30-pin dock connector and to your TV, home theater receiver, or stereo receiver via the component (Y, Pb, and Pr) video and red/white analog audio ports. The cable also features a USB connector that you can plug into a power source, such as a computer or the included USB Power Adapter.

The connection is fast and easy and the results are awesome. Here is Chris Pirillo with his take on the Cables. $49.00 at AT&T stores, Apple Online Store or other venues may seem a bit pricey for cables but the effects are worth ut.

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

ClassesandCareers.com aka College Life, is challenging its users to submit their funniest Christmas video for a chance to win a PlayStation 3, a Nintendo DS Lite or an Amazon.com Gift Card. The contest has been announced after the success in College Life’s previous contests, featuring scary stories and student scavenging techniques.

College Life is looking for parodies of Christmas classic movies and carols or even original funny Christmas videos. The highest rated video at the end of the contest will be awarded with a PlayStation 3 and second place will win a Nintendo DS Lite. For those who don’t have the means to produce a video, comments and tweets about the contest will enter them into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card.

According to Chris Kirkham, a producer for College Life:

The videos don’t need to be elaborate or costly, just funny. We don’t care if you do it with a web cam or a blackberry or a RED camera. We just want them to be funny

Participants must be 18 or older, the original creator of all content, and must keep all entries family-friendly. To enter the contest, participants should upload a video to YouTube and place the link in the official contest post on College Life (http://www.classesandcareers.com/collegelife/christmas-comedy-contest-2009/). Videos must be shorter than 5 minutes. Entries will be closed after Dec. 12th. The top 8 videos will be entered into a playoff competition that will determine the winners of the competition based on votes. Voting will close on Dec 19th and the winners will be announced on the 20th.

ClassesandCareers.com (http://www.classesandcareers.com) is a leading online portal providing information and resources to prospective students looking to begin or to finish their college education. Currently, ClassesandCareers.com represents dozens of colleges and universities, offering over 1,000 accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees, diplomas, and certificates. ClassesandCareers.com is dedicated to bringing schools and students together and helping individuals make education decisions to meet their professional goals.

To see press release go to http://myprgenie.com/3166

I was attempting to video tape my initial use of this great app but here is a video found on youtube that demonstrates the fine points:

It Looks like latecomer and controversial as of late, The Nook, ereader from Barnes and Noble might edge out the competition this Christmas. Obvious competetors for the Kindle, Sony Daily is not being shipped until the 18th of December and proports to not be out in the stores or guaranteed delivered until January, the mystical Apple iTablet is just speculated to be released by January or February and the Kindle itself is losing points in revues.

Electronic versions of books, magazines, and newspapers can be downloaded wirelessly to the Nook using AT&T’s 3G network. Nook also has a built-in Wi-Fi feature to supplement the 3G connection.

The Nook can store about 1,500 magazines and books in the internal memory.  There’s also an extra memory slot for more books.

Unique to the  Nook is the feature that allows users to loan books, one at a time, to friends for 14 days.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the New Yorker will all be on sale in late November.Users are also making pitches for MacWorld, Consumer Reports and ‘Good Old Boat.’

Here is a list of available emagazines and enewspapers which will be available throught the Barnes and Noble eBook Store  for Nook and other ereaders.

The Nook retails for $259 matching  the Kindle.  Note that  subscriptions purchased on a Kindle cannot be transferred to the Nook.

Pre-order the device by December 7th from Nook.com or Barnes and Noble and get it by Christmas with free shipping.

The site loads like Santa on the rooftops “quick, quick ,quick”, and you can create up to five elves(I chose our five original Tech Talk Team members) and you can choose to make them dance in various styles such as hip-hop. country, and disco (my personal favorite for the elves).

it seemed as if the uploading of the photos used for the elf faces and the manipulating of the faces to fit the elf body was much easier. The ordering, downloading and sharing is faster but to download it costs $4.99 which can be charged to a card or paypal. A disclaimer says that it may take 24 to 48 hours to confirm and enable a download but mine was ready in about 30 minutes.

If you need a little Christmas, right this very minute… head on over to Elf Yourself and prepare yourself for a merry time.

Check our little video out:

For the mobile among us,  channel will also be available as an iPhone app which it also hopes will promote the site. ITN will also support its Christmas Channell with ads centered around the videos.

Mark Browning, Commercial Director of ITN  said about the project:

This collaboration illustrates how organisations like Jerusalem Productions can engage audiences directly in the digital space by partnering with ITN On

With their support we can try out a whole host of exciting new video ideas developed by our in-house team of creatives. Through our relationship with YouTube and our success with existing iPhone apps, we look forward to generating millions of views from this set of originally commissioned content this Christmas.

This Season, YouTube and Target have partnered to launch a custom channel that is themed just for the holidays. YouTube Holiday Solutions includes videos on everything from home and party ideas to recipes, gift giving tips, and  specific holiday videos and naturally, a Target gift guide and a shopping link to Target.
They even recruited Alton Brown, Food Network chef, to help spread the cheer. His job is to answer  questions about  Thanksgiving recipes.  They  plan to add a video series including his question and answers by  next week.

The site is very attractive, clean  and user-friendly. All that seems to be missing is Christmas music playing in the background.
here is a fun Target video from the site.(Note : there is only one target video at the present on the site):

What do you think? Are the folks at T3 doing us all a service or are they in deep “doodoo” with the manufacturers of the items they say just aren’t worth the cost?

Find more videos like this on Cosmic Videos