We’ve got another free book for you: regularly $9.99, for one week you can get the PC Security Guide for FREE. Receive Your Complimentary eBook NOW! “PC Security Guide (eBook) – Limited Time Offer” Access Your Complimentary Copy Today. This $9.95 Value eBook Expires 12/6/2011. Each of us is now faced with the daunting task of protecting ourselves and our families in the virtual worlds we travel. To make the job a bit easier, the editors of the Windows Secrets Newsletter have compiled some of the best security stories from their archives. The PC Security Guide is a concise eBook that provides simple and straight forward advice for secure computing. It’s designed Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Never one to miss out on *any* chance to host a great sale, GamersGate is back with a 4-week Holiday Sale! Week One features a bunch of great deals including: Sid Meier’s Civilization V $7.49 Battlefield Bad Company 2 $5.99 Dark Void $2.99 Bioshock $4.99 Mirror’s Edge $5.99 Tropico 3 $2.49 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl $4.99 But it also does something else awesome – add four games to your cart and the cheapest one is free! Here are the details: Purchase 4 games and pay for 3. During the December Holiday GiftGuide GamersGate will offer one game for free if you purchase 4 titles in the same order. You will get the cheapest Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Two recalls just crossed my inbox; these may be products that you all own, so please check: The first item is the Mophie iPod Touch Rechargeable External Battery Case (shown above); it’s being recalled due to a burn hazard. If you have one of these, check to see if your serial number  has the first five alphanumeric characters of TR113 through TR120. Cases that fall in between those numbers are affected by the recall. WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It takes a certain type of laptop to stand up to certain jobs. Most laptops find comfort on a desk, in a padded bag, or possibly in the local coffee shop around the corner. Gammatech sent me a laptop suited perfectly for all those tasks and a whole lot more. Usually the worst that happens to most laptops is polished keys and touchpad, where your fingers have rubbed the finish off. Possibly it could fall victim of a flight off of your bed or the table after you happen to trip over your power cord. Luckily for those accident prone geeks and tech abusers we have companies like Gammatech that fill that void and produce… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Early this year I wrote about two separate incidents of gamers being banned from playing games based on comments made in separately housed gaming forums – the first was about someone banned for upsetting a forum moderator by asking “Have you (Bioware) sold your souls to the EA devil?”. At the time EA claimed it was an ‘error’: “Unfortunately, there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended a user’s entire account,” he told Ars. “Immediately upon learning of the glitch, EA took steps to restore the user’s macro account and apologized for the inconvenience.” My speculation that the ‘error’ was getting caught was verified a couple of weeks later as another Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’ve loved pork for a long time – waaay before the hipsters made bacon worship popular. One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon is to put a pork butt on the smoker first thing in the morning and watch college football all day while the meat soaks up the hickory goodness. Since you have to add new wood every hour or so, it pretty much guarantees that you have to stay on your couch all day and restoke the fire at halftime of each game. Sorry about those chores, sweetie. Can’t you see I’m working here? While there are probably lots of places in your town to pick up a pound of your bbq, occasionally it’s nice to be able to show off your grillsmanship and smoke your own butt or shoulder. Luckily, there is The Peg Leg Porker himself, Carey Bringle, is here to help you out. If you’ve ever had the chance to meet Carey, you’d discover that he’s one of the bbq circuit’s true characters. He’s the kind of guy whose business card reads: “Wars Fought — Stud Service — Revolutions Started — Tigers Tamed — Assassinations Plotted — Bars Emptied — Governments Run [...]

When I lived in San Angelo, I had a home that was almost 3,000 square feet including the garage apartment. My daughter and I were the only two people living there, and on more than one occasion I remarked that the only rooms we really needed were the kitchen, our bedrooms and my office – which also served as a den. When I moved to Eldorado, I finally had an opportunity to downsize. It takes a bit of discipline to weed through your belongings and live in a space that is more than half of what you were used to, but the benefits in so many areas become immediately evident: you have less room, so you own and store less “stuff”; heating and cooling bills are reduced; mortgage (or rent) payments are reduced; there is less area to keep clean; and with less space to sprawl out in, the space you do have is (hopefully) more efficiently used. Our current home is slightly under 1350 square feet. Since it is just my husband Kevin and I that are there full time, this is still even more room than we actually need. Our home only starts to feel truly “tight” on the holidays [...]

Given how accustomed we have become to pop music stars going anywhere and doing anything to practically beg us to buy their stuff, this announcement from ElvisCostello.com is certainly surprising. Here is the initial post from Elvis: “Let’s make things sparkling clear” We at www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend “The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.All our attempts to have this number revised have been fruitless so we are taking the following unusual step. If you want… His site followed up with a more elaborate explanation: If you should really want to buy something special for your loved Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Mice seem to be ubiquitous.  Everyone has one.  Not many people even consider buying one that didn’t come with their computer while some are fanatical about the mice they use.  I tend to be one of the former.  As long as it has a scroll wheel I am usually happy, but now I have a new favorite wired mouse in the Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse. What makes this mouse All Terrain?  Well anyone who has used an optical mouse and tried to use it on a glass surfaces knows that they usually will not work on glass table top or glass blotter like you find in a hotel room.   The Digital Innovations AllTerrain Wired 3-Button Mouse… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

This year Gear Diary’s CES base will be a suite at the MGM Grand. All of us will be bunking together which means we will be able to get even more writing done early in the morning or late at night. Of course that presumes we have the wireless connectivity to go online and post.  The suite comes with free internet connectivity. That SHOULD mean both wired and wireless connections will work, but we won’t really know until we get there. Add in the fact that during CES there is such a huge demand on wireless systems and… we need a Plan B. Meet CES Connectivity Plan B, the Belkin Wireless Dual-Band Continue reading on Gear Diary …

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Here are a few more great gift ideas. Keep your iPad safe with the Kensington SecureBack™ Security Case with 2-Way Stand & ClickSafe Lock Anyone who owns an iPad will appreciate extra peace of mind for his or her beloved tablet’s security. Surprise the iPad aficionado on your holiday shopping list with the easy to use SecureBack™ Security Case with 2-way stand & ClickSafe Lock to protect their tablet all year round. The thin, yet strong three-piece construction combines into a durable plastic case for iPad, while a 2-way extendable stand accommodates flexible iPad orientation for landscape or portrait viewing. An adjustable slider bar allows quick access Continue reading on Gear Diary …

When you look at the list of the greatest games ever made, somewhere high on that list is the brilliant Ultima VII. Along with the Wizardry and Might & Magic games, the Ultima franchise remains at the pinnacle of the role playing genre and possesses two of the greatest accomplishments in gaming: Ultima IV, which brought morality and true choice to gaming, and Ultima VII, with a vast branching story. The original Ultima VII: The Black Gatewas joined by three massive expansions and features loads of gaming – and Good Old Games has collected them all into “Ultima 7 The Complete Edition” and are selling it all for $5.99! Here are the details from… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

It has been two weeks since the Kindle Fire stormed on to the market, with loads of pre-orders fueling an extremely successful Holiday period for the product. I am still finishing up my review, and Dan has already sent his back … and last night Amazon released the first firmware update for the Fire. Here are the details from Amazon: We have a new, free software update available for Kindle Fire. This software upgrade provides improvements to the operation of your Kindle Fire. If you are not sure what software version you’re running, tap the Quick Settings icon, tap “More,” then tap “Device.” If your System Version begins with “Current version: 6.2,” Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I have always loved Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and introduced my kids to the book as well as the 1966 movie (free to stream on Netflix or Amazon with accounts). Now for the 50th anniversary of the classic novel, Bradbury has finally relented and allowed for an eBook release. From the LA Times: Simon & Schuster released an e-book edition of Ray Bradbury’s science fiction classic “Fahrenheit 451″ on Tuesday. First published in 1953, “Fahrenheit 451″ is a dystopia in which reading is banned and it is the job of firefighters to burn books. 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. The irony of releasing an Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Today’s Gear Deal brings us a 2011 Model Samsung 51″ 3D 600Hz Plasma HDTV. The Samsung PN51D550 51″ 3D 600Hz Plasma HDTV features 3D picture performance, Crystal Full HD Engine, Cinema Smooth, AllShare DLNA networking, ConnectShare Movie, 600Hz subfield motion technology, 4 HDMI inputs, and more. But our Gear Sponsor has found this deal to be even more amazing. You’ll not only get the TV but you will also get two (2) pair of Samsung 3D Glasses, a $100 Dell eGift Card and free shipping. The normal price for this would be $1,299.99 but after $402 in instant savings it is just $897.99. And remember, it comes bundled with a $100 eGift Card. Get the deal Continue reading on Gear Diary …