BUH Blog

Australian Outbackers… THIS is for you!

Aardvark Electronics, the manufacturer of VanSat is a campers dream, in my case, a reluctant campers dream…since camping is not exactly my favorite thing to do. Instead of sitting outside and being eaten by bugs, Aardvark allows me to stay inside and watch all my favorite t.v. shows, making camping a lot more easier for people venturing out into the wild, and life a little more fun for those who live in rural areas.

An Australian company Aardvark Electronics caters to every possible need a camper may need or want. Located in Mackey, Australia, they make it their business to know what campers need for their entertainment on the road. Brand new they are not, this is not a fly by night company. It has been well established in the community and in business for 11 years, starting as a electronics and design company and then branching into the satellite industry as the need grew. They know Australia, they are themselves Australians, and they know what Australians are looking for in the camping industry.

On the VanSat site, you can view the satellite channels for both satellite radio and television, before you invest in or buy a thing. You don’t just order only to be left on your own to figure it all out. They have on-line instruction videos and on-line software upgrades to make it a whole lot easier. They also sell all the “extras”, everything from LCD T.V.’s to Digital Compasses. Or if you are in the neighborhood, you can just stop right in, and they will personally teach you how to use your system.

The site is easy to maneuver, and is extremely customer friendly. The front page has pictures and comments of recent and past purchasers, along with testimonials of people who are extremely happy with their systems. And If you have some extra time, take a factory tour and see how the systems are put together and shipped out to you.

Constructive Criticism: None

This is the best put together website I have seen for Australian Satellite systems, and that is because they are really consumer oriented, it feels as though you are visiting a family website instead of a business. They take the time to make this extremely easy for you to understand before you spend a dime. It’s very smart to have so many testimonials of past and present customers, making it a whole lot easier to make that purchase.

Visit the site, take the tour, ask the questions, Aardvark Electronics and it’s VanSat system will make it all a pleasant experience for you.

Mozy - Windows Backups

I can’t remember how I found it - but I stumbled on a nice service/software that I have needed for a long time. Mozy is a remote backup service. You download some software (yes, win-blows only), which runs in the background, and select the files you want backed up. Well, that is where the W A I T I N G begins - it is really slow the first time through. Why? Because it is packing up the files you selected and then shooting them over the internet to the Mozy servers. That took a couple of days. It will slow down transmission while you are working on your computer - but it is still apparent something is running. When you leave the PC alone - it is pretty quick - maxing out your bandwidth.

I forgot to mention - it is FREE for the first 2 GB - cool, huh? I went for the paid version, which is $4.95 a month - but you get 30 GB of backup storage. The biggest amount of data I have (not on any of my servers - on my Windoze PC) is my email files. That alone is like 3 GB of data, so I wanted to make sure I got that. Yeah, I could throw it on a CD… No, actually I can’t! It won’t fit - even with compression. And I don’t have a DVD burning in my PC. Backing up big files like that are a pain. After the initial slow backing up of files - now it seems to be doing DIFFs of the files and only making backups of the differences. Very nice.

Now, I have not tried to reconstitute any files yet - I guess I had better at some point in the near future. I may have a false sense of security, but so far Mozy seems to be a nice little service.

Rain Gauges

Rain gauges are wonderful purchases for anyone who is an outdoors fan. For instance, if you have a luscious garden and want to know how well your flowers are doing, a sun rain gauge is perfect, as it tells you how much rain is benefiting your plants. If you prefer something more decorative, most rain gauges come in hundreds of themes and colors. With choices from sailboats, to horses and pigs, these are fun filled items to purchase on any rainy day. Fortunately, they are extremely affordable, as most only cost $16.95

Auto Insurance Coverage Choices

Auto insurance is a way for automobile users to protect themselves financially for losses incurred as a result of car related accidents. Auto insurance can also be purchased for trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles. Auto insurance is sometimes referred to as car insurance or motor insurance. In some parts of the world, auto insurance is mandatory if you wish to drive on public roads. The reason for this is that auto insurance will not only protect the driver of the car, it will also protect third parties that suffer from loss, injuries or damage as a result of the driver’s actions.

Fashion Passion at Urban Minx

The fashion designers that UrbanMinx offers are Kenzie (Kenziegirl), BCBG (BCBGirl) and Juicy Couture. There’s always a huge variety of premium denim including, Paige, J and Company, Gold Sign, Grass, ODYN, Sacred Blue, People for Peace, Antik, Born in California, Chip and Pepper, Genetic and Yanuk. For those of you looking for comfort UrbanMinx.com offer designer sweats from Juicy Couture, Twisted Heart and ANHK Designer sweats. Of course, with an English owner there is always a selection of English designers including English Laundry, Ben Sherman, Fred Perry and Ted Baker and you can count on finding your BASICS from Michael Stars, Bordeaux, and Splendid at UrbanMinx.com.

Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test

The GAMSAT (Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test) is a selection tool used by medical schools for graduate entry medical degrees. The Griffiths GAMSAT Review at www.gamsatreview.com is a complete preparation guide for the test containing winning strategies, tips and study aids to maximize your GAMSAT score.

Attention Bloggers - Win $250!

BlogParty is a new network of sites that help leverage your blog, but we need help getting the message out there. How about some motivation? How about the chance to win $250 for writting an entry in your blog about BlogParty with a link back to www.blogparty.net?

Easy enough?

Make a post to your blog about BlogParty with a link back to www.BlogParty.net. Verbose or short - sweet or critical - wordy or terse - it makes no difference - it is your blog and you post with your normal style. Only one entry per blog! However, as many entries as you have blogs - as long as it is only one entry per blog.

Add a comment to the BlogParty Network Blog and enter your post’s PermaLink. Use the email you wish us to contact you with when submitting the comment. Also, don’t forget to opt-in to the BlogParty newsletter. Of course you are not obligated, but heck - we are here to help you and your blog, so why not?

Wait till March 15, 2006. On that date, we will select ONE blog that still has the link active and that we are able to contact via email (If you give us a bad email - how are we going to let you know you won??). The selected blog’s owner will be the winner of $250 paid via PayPal.

Goodbye RegisterFly

After many (too too many) years of suffering with RegisterFly, I am finally getting rid of them. I have almost all my domains with them and they finally blew it by erasing all my DNS information this morning at 10:00 - effectively turning off several of my live web sites.

So, I looked around and it seems that GoDaddy is doing a pretty good job. I am transfering several domains over there and will see how that works out.

Many years ago I recommened RegisterFly to everyone and anyone, but I can no longer recommend them.

Help Andrea go to college

Andrea has a blog - It’s Just a Dollar - Help Me Pay for College - where she is trying to get donations to help her continue her college education. Granted - this is has been done before - many time before, but what the heck - send a dollar her way if you get a chance.

PS - Andrea has another blog -> Planet Andrea