The Way of the Johnny

I was driving to my mom's place yesterday and saw an accident almost happen. I was on a 4 lane road and was in the left lane on my side when the person in front of me decided to switch to the right lane. However, there was a car in the right lane about a car length behind, but the car in front of me didn't see it and started switching. Fortunately, that car that was in the right lane honked their horn and the car in front of me swerved back to their lane. It was pretty obvious the car in front of me couldn't see the other car because it was in their blind spot. This made me think, how could this situation be avoided? There are all kinds of things you can do, including actually turning your head to check the lane or buying some supplemental wide angle mirrors you can stick on you side mirrors. But there's one solution I found that eliminates the blind spot forever: adjust the side mirrors. For the past 5 years I've had my side mirrors adjusted as described by t...

Buying or getting a new computer is great, and it's even better if you get it at an incredible deal. But the deal can quickly be ruined by one thing, and that's software . Yes, software usually comes with a computer and it's necessary to make the computer useful. But, depending on what software you need, things can quickly get very expensive very quickly. If you plan on doing music recording or movie editing and you don't want to get an Apple Mac, be prepared to spend hundreds of dollars on software alone. And we all know Microsoft Office is the standard in productivity software, but it also costs an arm and a leg. I've set up quite a few computers for friends, for my mom, and I've set up virtual machines on my Mac, all needing software to meet various needs. Thankfully, there are a lot of free software alternatives our there that can meet most, if not all, of the average user's needs. Here's my list of software I think will give most users al...

I love my DSLR , which is a Canon EOS Rebel XT . It is the reason I've become an amateur photographer . But I also really enjoy using my smaller point-and-shoot camera, which is a Canon Powershot A590IS. The Powershot is not as fast or as flexible as the Rebel, but it has some real advantages over the Rebel. Namely, the Powershot is portable and light. The technical picture quality from the Powershot is not as high as the Rebel, which isn't surprising. But great pictures are still possible with the Powershot and with any small point-and-shoot camera. Here is a list of things you can do to greatly improve the photos from any point-and-shoot camera (with examples): 1. Don't use automatic mode. Automatic mode will only provide good pictures in lots of light and all the pictures will look the same. Instead, use the "scene" modes, which use camera settings optimal for the situation or environment. Use portrait mode if you're taking pictu...