First, let me say, if you haven’t heard about the HP Magic Giveaway contest yet… go look at it! HP is having 50 different bloggers around the world give away $6,000 worth of computer equipment. It is a pretty cool (and fun) contest. I have entered a few of the contests, though haven’t won yet. (We can all hope right?)

Really the best part of this contest for me has been discovering some new blogs. This has been probably my favorite discovery so far. As you will see by the name, and looking through the site, they are a “fire family.” The husband (called FireDad on the site) is a 26 year old career firefighter. The wife (aka FireMom) is a 27 year old freelance writer and mother of 2. So seeing similar ages, interests, blogging, and loving all things department related, perked my interest to the site right away.

They are starting their contest today: Stop, Drop, and Blog. Here is the post for the HP contest. (Each site has their own rules, so make sure to read the contest rules before commenting.)

Disclamer: this post counts as an additional entry to the contest… but I also thought it would be fun to share how winning (if chance likes me) would impact my family, friends, and readers.

First, I would replace our aging family laptop, but more importantly I would give one to my wife so she can finally have her own computer. (Neither is in the Christmas budget this year.)

Secondly, I would see if anything would be of use to my (fire) dept. – I am guessing the photosmart the guys would have a lot of fun with and actually use productively. (Well sometimes.)

Last, I would share online as well by having a contest of my own on supergeekblog.com – not only would it be a blast, bring a lot of new readers, but someone I don’t even know would have a better holiday season as well.

So winning would have a positive, lasting, impact on myself and others. I encourage everyone to head on over and check out the Stop, Drop, and Blog site. It is a blast

Cross Post from Olorinpc.com

Technorati Tags: HP Magic, Supergeekblog, Contest, Jake Barnard, Olorinpc

Post from: Supergeekblog

Stop, Drop, and Blog – HP Contest

Julie over at Gear Diary has a great post this morning on the reasons why upgrading your computer right now might not be the best idea.  Head on over and check it out.

Overall – she is right.  The deals right now, might not be what you really need and there are a lot of things one can do to increase performance on a PC or Laptop.  Scanning for malware, spyware, etc can increase performance right away.  (I couldn’t tell you guys how many times people have had me look at their PCs and just running Spybot fixed the majority of their issues.)

So if like a lot of people, you are toning down the Christmas list, Julie makes some really good points as to why a new computer might not need to be the top thing on your list.  (That being said… there is certainly a point when a PC is *not* worth fixing or upgrading.  Recently took a look at a Win98 machine and the only recommendation was to keep an eye out for a new one.)

Technorati Tags: Windows, Holiday Shopping, Troubleshooting, Upgrades

Post from: Supergeekblog

Reasons not to buy or upgrade your PC right now