Internet

Around Christmas time, many middle aged adults talk about the fond memories they have of looking and searching through the Sears and Reobuck Christmas Catalog.  While some big department stores still put out the big Christmas editions, many have traded in the catalogs for websites and online stores.  Online stores have provided a practical solution for companies looking to expand their reach, without having to mail 200 page catalogs to every household in the nation.

Almost any product or service a person can think of can be ordered on the internet.  Pizza chains like Dominoes and Papa Johns have even started selling their pizzas for takeout on the internet.  Online stores include small home businesses selling personal greeting cards, to the big box stores like Target and Macy*s.  Along with those, are the internet only megastores like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and Buy.com.  These stores make it ultra convenient for the Christmas wish listers as well.  Rather than sit around and copy down the items from a catalog, kids can now add items to their Christmas or birthday wish list at the click of a button. [click to continue...]

This is the first ever Techsplosive Showdown.  Techsplosive will take a look at two competing services and decide on which one clearly comes out on top.  So here it is – Gmail v. Yahoo! Mail.

The Radicati Group reported in the year 2007 that an estimated 1.2 billion people use email. This number is expected to grow to 1.6 billion by 2011. Of these 1.2 billion email users it is estimated that 254.6 million of them use Yahoo mail, or a Yahoo owned mail system to accomplish their email needs. Only 91.6 million users have adopted Gmail as their email service provider. The mere fact that Yahoo enjoys almost three times the membership that Gmail possesses does not make it the better service. Yahoo is able to have 3 times the membership because they began their email services a few years prior to the launch of Gmail.

Google’s email service launched with much anticipation in the summer of 2004. Prior to the launch of Gmail, the most common email services were AOL, MSN (and its properties such as HotMail), and Yahoo. Users of these electronic mailing platforms were growing increasingly bored with the features and complexity of the user interfaces. In response to the consumers need, Google launched Gmail. Gmail has proven itself superior to all email programs including Yahoo mail during the past four short years of its existence. [click to continue...]

Since a good majority of our audience are techies, we decided to do a fun post of the best tech related t-shirts. Below you will find an assortment of t-shirts just for techies:

For Techie That Knows He God

Sometime you find yourself in a sea of n00bs and you need to remind them whose God

Error 404

Sometimes you just don’t want to be bothered, just return a 404 error with this t-shirt

Programming Mistakes

Programming relates to real life pretty often, sometimes when you don’t wait it to

I Survived Y2K

Remember 1999, when everyone expected every piece of technology to completely fail? Well it didn’t happen, so hears a t-shirt for it.

Got Root?

Show off those l33t h@x0r skillz with this nifty Got Root? t-shirt

I am not Anti-Social!

Tired of speaking to people and having them wonder “Whats this guys problem?” Well this is the shirt for you.

A Shirt For Your Kids

Show those other tech Dad’s how cool you really are

Input & Output

Show your technical understanding of the Human body

Try This!

Tired of those annoying computer/network questions? Let them ask you and just point to the shirt

Have A Zombie Issue?

We are all familiar with the Apple app commercial, here is a nifty t-shirt for those Zombie emergencies

The Real Internet

This shirt tells the truth about the people who are actually on the inter-webs

Don’t see a t-shirt that you like? Got a better idea for one? With the explosion of online t-shirt printing companies you now have the ability to make your own. Just choose your favorite slogan, user icon, or image and throw it on a shirt.

I read an article recently about how the current economic recession has created a new wave entrepreneurship.  While most notable entrepreneurship takes place among those who have a little bit more life experience (a nice way of saying they are older), there has been quite a revolution in entrepreneurship in the 14 – 22 year old crowd.  I fancy myself to be a bit of an entrepreneur, and as a result want to share my top 10 resources for all of the young and aspiring entrepreneurs who might be reading.

RetireAt21.com – Retire at 21 is a blog devoted to sharing advice and success skills to young and aspiring entrepreneurs.  Retire at 21 founder Michael Dunlop has had [click to continue...]

In a previous post, it was brought to my attention that product portability may not be such a great feature after all.  In the event of items getting lost or stolen, all of the data contained on the gadget is lost with the device.  I made the suggestion to routinely back up information so that, assuming it is very important, it remains safe even if the hardware doesn’t.

There are two basic ways to backup data.  Many people, in recent times, have chosen to use external hard drives to store information and backup their computers.  External hard drives are a great solution, but do pose a few different problems as well. [click to continue...]

Comics have become a part of the daily lives of many people.  Like most of the things that are findable content-wise on the internet, comics also found their initial success in print media.  The growing popularity of the internet brough many of us users to realize that not only can clever artists create comics, but clever graphic designers and flash developers can as well.

While some web comics are more niche focused, and resonate with smaller particular audiences, some have hit the big time and have turned into sustainable businesses (think homestarrunner.com).  Despite the varying success of the plethora of web comics on the internet, [click to continue...]

Flickr.com shouldn’t be new to the internet user who has used the web for more than a month.  Flickr is a photo sharing website that operates on much the same principles of Twitter.  A user uploads photos, and the photo stream is shared with followers, and in the public stream.

Flickr has done much more in its relatively short life than just spark the web 2.0 revolution of forgetting the last vowel in the suffix of the URL keyword.  Flickr has grown into much more than just a photo sharing website. [click to continue...]

The release of the iPod and other digital audio products spawned an uprising of home radio broadcasters (podcasters) much like blogging spawned a new generation of journalistic and topical experts.  In simple terms, a podcast is a regular audio or mutimedia recording that is syndicated and distributed over the internet.

Most podcasts are free and offer great information.  Podcasts can be found on any topic from Acting and Modeling Tips to How to Speak Russian.  The most popular, and organized place to find podcasts is through iTunes.  Some podcasters have already made a name for themselves through books they have written, or TV and radio shows that they have hosted.  However, the vast majority of podcasters are “regular” who are experts on a particular topic. [click to continue...]

Gone are the days of the traditional atlas.  For the consumer that either can’t, or just won’t buy a GPS online mapping services like Google Maps and MapQuest are ready to spit out some directions.  Simply type in the starting point and the ending point, and a convenient map appears with step by step driving directions.

Why did Techsplosive.com choose to highlight Google Maps over MapQuest?  One word – features.  MapQuest is fine if the traveler is content to simply print their directions and go, but if they are in need of a little extra clarification or need to  customize the route, the Google Maps is what the doctor ordered.  Google Maps allows users a choice between the route with the shortest travel time, or the route with the least mileage. [click to continue...]