Free International Text Messaging **UPDATE AT END**

Ever want to text your best friend across the world but the costs are crazy-stupid? There are a slew of sites claiming free texts, but its never true and who wants to pay mobile companies those crazy fee's for each text. I found a successful and VERY easy way to do this, but the only catch is, you can only select one person at a time to text unless you don't need privacy.

Here is what you do (do the very same for both accounts).

1. Set up a free www.twitter.com account and have your long distance buddy do the same. If you already tweet on twitter, create another account just for this purpose.

2. Set yourself to follow your friend and have them do the same for you.

3. Go in settings and select Protect My Updates, so your messages wont be available to the rest of the world.

4. Select the link Add Device from the home page to add your mobile phone (follow directions on page to get your mobile set up and verified) Make sure Notifications is set to "On"

5. Both of you each click on the link "Following" and where your friend's name is, select "On" for Notifications

6. You can label the code twitter gives you in your phone directory as "Twitter" Now, every time you send any text message to Twitter in your phone, you are actually uploading to twitter that you have set to be a private account, and only your friend will have access. Since your friend has notifications setup as you do, he/she gets the posting as a text message.

Now either of you can send or receive from the Web or your Phone's text messaging.

The end result is, instant free messages from one place in the world to another for free on your phone. Of course, if you don't have a text plan, your personal text messaging rates will apply, but even in that case, its the local rate, not an international rate.

If you are curious, I use it, it's instant, looks like a text, acts like a text, and guess what, its a text! Thanks Twitter!!!
**UPDATE Nov, 2008. The cost of text access for some UK providers has now made this technique no longer work. I, for one, had a good run of it for about a year. We'll see what the future holds**

The Great PC vs. Apple Debate

Welcome to my first ever blog! Although I haven't a single subscriber of yet, I will explain some basic differences between the old common PC and Apple computers for the home or office.

I have been working with computers since I was a kid and took my Atari, then Commodore computers apart, programmed them, experimented and took them to the limits. I was there when the first Apple computer hit the market, then the first 286 Intel PC's with mind-blowing DOS as an operating system. As easy as it is to go down the nostalgic path, talking computer history, my main goal on this blog is to get people up to speed for today's world.

Although it's a PC world, for the most part, let us not forget Apple was the first to pave the way for the Personal Computer to get in the homes of the average person. Just as Ford didn't invent the car, he created the means of making it feasible to have one with the assembly line.

Its amazing how people become brand loyal. Although the PC is not a brand, Microsoft that pretty much owns the PC software market can be considered a "brand" as a whole. You have PC on one side, and Apple's Mac (iMac Macbook etc) on the other. Like a Chevy pickup owner somewhere in Oklahoma proudly driving around never even thinking about being caught in a Ford and vise-versa, there are simply many PC owners that can't ever think of buying a Mac. What goes without saying, Mac owners are probably the most brand-loyal of all. Once Apple has you, you're in a sacred club. They like that some people just don't get them. Afterall, PC's are a better deal right?

Here is where I will draw some comparisons, and explain why in some situations you might consider a Mac over a PC. Many tech's or geeks may agree or disagree, but my point is to share my experience and knowledge with those who are a bit confused by it all.

Although I have my personal opinions on the practices of Microsoft, I think overall, they have done much more good than bad, so I wont get into either praising or bashing any company in this blog, but rather stick to the fundamental point of usage and usability.

Find your needs. If you have specific needs, like, lets say you are a film editor in training. Then you probably know, the majority of good software in that field is written for the Mac, so first thing is identify your needs for a computer. If you are like most people who use a computer for home such as basic web browsing, email, chat, picture organization etc, I would give the Mac the edge. The ease of use to me offsets the problems that can arise in the Windows environment. The fact that Microsoft will stop creating upgrades to XP worries some, as for most people, XP is simply a better OS than Vista. Windows is becoming old, and since they have to support so many manufactures PC's and peripherals, it seems a daunting task to keep up. I personally have a scanner and few pieces of software that is still not supported under Vista, and its enough to keep my XP desktop system as my main system in my home office. There has been a recent cry out to Microsoft to keep XP alive, and everyone withing eye-shot of this blog should help in the cry. Vista has not done what Microsoft envisioned and expected when released, so until there is a resurrection of XP, I don't know that I , and I'm sure many others, will feel as warm and fuzzy about Microsoft since as back in the day when Windows 95 hit the streets (hallelujah Mr. Gates, what a fine product!)

Now its 2008 and as Microsoft is twirling their thumbs saying "what do we do now, what do we do?" We all have to wonder if all they have left is to gobble up companies for the long run (like their bid for Yahoo).

Getting back on track here, there are instances where I would still recommend a PC. That is for most office environments, the PC is overwhelmingly supported by large and small software companies, and introducing MAC's into that environment can prove frustrating. This, of course, excludes Mac ready business types that do not rely on specific PC only software.

To sum it up, at home, I recommend going Mac. For most office environments, I recommend PC.

If you are happy with your PC at home ( as I am ) then stay tuned to my blogs, and I will make sure you know how to keep your system running smoothly and, for the most part, all with free software. If you do decide to move to Mac, transferring your data might be easier than you think. Things like photos, documents, spreadsheets and even Qucken / Quickbooks data can be easily transfered.

In future blogs, I will address: When is the right time to replace your computer(s). Sometimes they are not worth putting money into, other times, a few dollars will go a long way.

See ya next time.... (((UPDATE JULY 4th 2008, I've switched to MAC for home. iMac and MacBook. Happy as a clam)))