There are several VoIP services on the market, but most of them only offer a single line, and then when you want to add on features, including more lines, your cost starts to skyrocket. This happened to us when we opened up the office, and I wish we would have done more research first.

I came across a really great business VoIP service today that I wanted to share with you, so you don’t make the same mistake we did. They offer what is called a Packet8 Virtual Office, which includes many great features.

• Virtual Attendant
• Unlimited Extension
• Unlimited Extension PLUS
• Metered Extension
• Metered Extension PLUS
• Fax Metered Extension
• Fax Metered Extension PLUS
• Global Extension
• Global Extension PLUS
• Virtual Extension
• Switchboard Software Application
• Overhead Paging
• Business 2000
• Softalk Office

And the list goes on and on, each with their own distinct function. So check them out and you just might be amazed at how affordable it is. As a business owner, you can get back to what you do best, running your business and making money, without having to deal with phones all day long.

business VoIP, VoIP packages

And here I thought I was in love with my 24″ wide screen monitor. Well if money were no object I’d be cheating on it right now with this 82-inch LCD Monitor. 82 inches! Man I wonder what my blog would look like on that thing, and where the hell would I put it?

monitors, 82 inch LCD monitor, Samsung

I always tell Michael that I want to learn Spanish, so I can talk with some of his relatives. He’s got books that I have tried to read, but they get boring, and hard to understand at times. I came across a really neat flash based site for Free: Learn Spanish with audio and transliterations. The site has 40 topics, along with over 1,400 Spanish words and phrases that you can practice with.

The site is very plain and simple, and I think it’s just perfect. There isn’t a bunch of stuff to distract you, and just the flash app in the middle of the page where you can choose which category you want to learn, and then the words show up. Make sure to have your volume on because if you click on the word you get the pronunciation of it also.

It is much easier to use than a book, and I love hearing the words instead of just reading them. And the best part of this simple and easy website is that it is totally free. Great site!

learn Spanish, read Spanish, speak Spanish, online Spanish learning

My mom is currently reading some book where the mother and daughter are into the role-playing game EverQuest, so she asked me about it this morning in an email. I have never played it, but I told her it was a lot like World of Warcraft, and she knew what that was because she saw the kids playing it while she was here.

I was searching around online for information about it for her, and I came across this slideshow on The New York Times website. It’s people’s real pictures side-by-side with their online characters. Some of them are really funny, but this one is my favorite!

You can see more of the avatar comparisions on the NY Times slide show.

EverQuest, World of Warcraft, role-playing games, online games

So what does a CIA agent do when he gets fired? He becomes a private investigator, and that is exactly what agent Michael Western (Jeffrey Donovan) does on the new show Burn Notice, starting on the USA Network June 28th. USA Network’s Burn Notice takes place in Miami after Michael is suddenly terminated from his job as a spy. He’s not able to talk to his usual contacts and needs to stay incognito in order to start his private investigators job.

The show looks pretty good as it has some action in it along with comedy. Like him talking about his skills that he will put on his resume. “Works well with other’s.” “Can kill a man with his thumbs.” LOL! Not big qualifications needed in the typical work force.

So how is one fired from a CIA job? He must have done something pretty bad. Maybe all his spying turned him into a real life peeping tom, ehr Michael, in this case. Maybe hiding out and spying on people all day turned him into a pervert who spies on women in the shower. That would definitely be just cause for termination. I guess we’ll just need to tune into USA’s Network’s Burn Notice on June 28th to find out.

Burn Notice, USA Network, television

Are you constantly trying to remember your passwords for certain things, or are you one of those people that use the same password for every single thing? OOPS! I found this cool gadget today, Mandylion Password Manager, that will store all your passwords for you, and even generate new ones when you want to be more creative.

The cradle connects to a USB port, and the password device has a keyring to put on your key chain. Sorry MAC users, it’s not compatible.

gadgets, passwords, password storage

My kids have tons of video games. They tend to get really tired of them quickly and we usually take them to the local gaming store to trade them in for store credit, on new games. And yes, they get tired of those also, so the cycle starts all over again. The DVD’s and the CD’s usually get cycled through their friends, and we never see them again.

I saw a neat social website today called SwitchPlanet.com where you can exchange your used DVDs, CDs, video games, and books. All you need to do is set up your free account and list the things you want to trade. You need to also include your trading preferences like what movies, games, and music you listen to. This will allow you to easily search for the types of media that you are interested in.

You can also choose to make donations with your trades to the following charities that they have chosen.

• American Red Cross – www.RedCross.org
• Boys and Girls Clubs of America – www.BGCA.org
• The Nature Conservancy – www.Nature.org
• American Cancer Society – www.Cancer.org
• Child’s Play Charity - www.ChildsPlayCharity.org

They have a forum you can visit, along with a blog where you can keep up to date on the daily happenings of SwitchPlanet.

trade video games, trade DVD’s, trade CD’s, media trading

Damn Microsoft. They went and got all sneaky on me doing a Windows update while I slept, then rebooting when it was finished of course. I’ve sat her for a couple hours not even realizing my Trillian wasn’t running.

But I think it did something to my drivers for my wide screen monitor, because I cannot get it to go any higher than a 1024 X 768 resolution. In fact that isn’t even a wide screen resolution, right? Did anyone else run into this today?

After doing some digging around on Google I realized I wasn’t the only one. The update just blew out the video drivers, so I had to go to the Dell website, download the new drivers and install them. That didn’t seem to work, in fact, it made it worse. It’s telling me that my laptop is 2, and the wide screen monitor is 1 (dual monitors). BOOO! That’s not how I like it.

Oh well, I just disabled the monitor for now, and I will be working with one screen today. I’ll try to look at it more tonight. It’s awful. I hate computers. I wish I didn’t depend on them as much as I do

Windows Updates, video drivers

Look what I found in my email just now. RedOrbit.com chose UtterlyGeek.com as the Red Hot Blogs of the Day! Sweet! What did I win you ask? Well they gave me this nifty little banner that I can proudly display, and I got linked on a PR7 website. Niiiiiiiice.

RedOrbit.com, blog of the day

There’s a lot of buzz going on about the new Police CD on the web. I may be a geek, but I’m a music lover first. I actually got the 2-CD compilation in the mail the other day for writing about it on my other blog. That was pretty cool, and I opened it up today for the first time. Great tuneage is coming through my speakers right now. Don’t you wish you were here?

My favorite song on the scrambled list below would have to be Message In A Bottle. I think I was around 15, and it was a very popular song amongst my classmates and me. We jammed Reggatta de Blanc many times in the school cafeteria on our boom boxes.

I think it’s time to have a little fun with this so here is a list of new songs that are on the Police CD, that you get to unscramble. I’ll give you a chance first, and then I will do it, but don’t scroll down too far and cheat by looking at my answers. Copy and paste these into the comments section and see if you can do it.

For clues, go to The Police website, and you can see all the songs listed on the CD. That should make this a little easier.

1. ualtofl
2. ouon ttxey
3. oylselno
4. nnebhg ttrhigoni
5. e etvekruaeyrhta boy
6. ycirysotnicn
7. irs a kut tnepwyonoifglos
8. as poidi sit larhitletrmernw
9. c rtdeleganbat a
10. esblnvisiun i

Okay, stop right there and enter in your guesses in my comments. If you keep scrolling you’ll see the answers. LOL!

By clicking on the image you can enter to win a New York fly-away to see The Police live.

1. Fall Out
2. Next To You
3. So Lonely
4. Message In A Bottle
5. Every Breath You Take
6. Synchronicity
7. Walking In Your Footsteps
8. Spirits In The Material World
9. Reggatta de Blanc
10. Invisible Sun

The Police, music, Sting, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland, Police CD