:: Intrepid Spaniel ::

Those who know me know I am a big fan of Canon cameras, and have advised many of my friends and relatives to get one.

If you have a really old or broken Canon camera laying around this might be a way to upgrade it less expensively.

Customer Loyalty Program’s direct number is 866-443-8002.
You can call, find out what they offer, and call back later after you have decided.
This deal has been going on since 2006.

Note: Plus tax and $10 for 2 days shipping.

S45, S50, S100, S230, S300, S400, S500, SD110, SD200, SD400, SD600, SD1000, S1-IS, S2-IS trade for:
SD850 IS - $150
G9 - $250
Rebel XT Silver with 18-55 mm lens - $275

A40, A60, A75, A80, A610 trade for:
A560 - $89
S1000 - $100
SX100 IS - $125

SUN VALLEY, ID. – Starting now and running through the end of Sun Valley’s 2007-08 ski season, all college students and faculty with current I.D. can ski for only $29 per day.

To receive the discount, college students and faculty must show current identification when purchasing ticket.

For more information, go to sunvalley.com

Some of you may not know that I’m a ski and snowboard instructor, I am, I’ve been teaching at Pebble Creek for about 15 years.

In my drive to improve my teaching and provide student-centered ski and snowboard lessons, I’m missing a piece of the puzzle as the end of the season approaches. Students!

Now maybe you are thinking about golf, or gardening, or numerous other hobbies, but the snow is still great, here’s my attempt to encourage you to get out and enjoy it before it is gone.

To remedy this shortage of students this time of year, I’ve decided to offer you a completely FREE half hour ski or snowboard lesson at Pebble Creek. (subject to fitting it into my schedule). This short lesson would be ideal for an intermediate or advanced skier or rider that feels like they are at a plateau. Due to safety concerns, I’ll ask that you have skiied or snowboarded before, I won’t have time to get you safely down in a half-hour your first time, there is just too much to cover!

Combine this with twilight skiing at Pebble Creek, and you have an incredible deal. (though there are only a couple days left for 2007-2008, plan on it for next year) I plan on keeping this offer open indefinitely unless it becomes too hard to schedule or impacts paying customers.

How do you claim your magnificent prize? (Read more…)

Join us for twilight skiing at Pebble Creek, the Aspen (beginner) lift is free from 3:00-5:30pm. If you want to ski the whole mountain for the same time, tickets are only $10.

Extended due to great snow, open April 4th, 5th, and 6th. Join us this weekend the weather looks like it will be nice.

What a great time to learn to ski or snowboard, or a cheap way to try it again. Sunny, warm, afternoons and great snow! Even though the snow is melting in the valley, we still have great the hill but hurry because it won’t last long. Rentals are also at a reduced rate, so it can be one of the cheapest times to learn.

If you would like to schedule a lesson with a AASI/PSIA/ACE certified ski and snowboard instructor in this time period, please contact me at learn.to.snowboard@gmail.com or call the Pebble Creek office and ask about a lesson with Ben. (tell them to call me, and I’ll schedule it with you)

Check the snow report and the base area weather online

Those who know me know I’ve been a big fan of Canon’s A series digital cameras. They offer a nice mix of size, point and click functionality and they take standard AA batteries so you don’t have to replace the $40 battery pack down the road when you get an new camera and want to give this one to a relative.

For those of you looking to upgrade your aging Canon A series camera for a great price this looks like a good deal. the Canon A560, which has Canon’s new, improved DIGIC III image processor, for $130. The deal might not last, but my recommendation for the camera will until next spring when something better comes along. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204230694 The A560 would be a great camera if you want to mostly point and click, If you are a more experienced photographer, or want to add more features like optical image stabilization, read on for my recommendations for upgrades. With the prices coming down and and an A570 available for less than $160, I’d recommend the upgrade (Read more…)

Nextstudent.com recommends 10 top web tools to save you time as a college student.

From todo lists (MyNoteIt, TaDaList), chat/IM(Meebo), writing bibilographies (ottobib), collaborating on documents (Google Docs), to keeping up on news plus more (Google Reader), there are some good free tools there.

I like Del.icio.us as well for social bookmarking.. to see what I’ve bookmarked, look here.

http://www.nextstudent.com/NextPath/nextPath-Online/Top-Web-Tools-for-College-Students.asp

For searching for ISBN #’s and finding great deals on textbooks I’ve used campusi.com and textbookland as well

The antenna, that relic of the pre-cable age, gets an afterlife thanks to high-definition TV.
This a great thread with pics and a bunch of different designs to build your own DIY HDTV antenna on the cheap. Stick this baby in the attic and away you go. http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9613&st=0
Good tutorial, you don’t need a lot of technical expertise to build one.

(Read more…)

About 1.5 years ago, I bought a used 1996 GMC Sierra pickup truck from Courtesy Ford in Pocatello. That transaction went fine, and I felt like I was treated fairly and got a good deal, they even threw in a free first oil change. That was uneventful. Since I bought the vehicle cheaply, I did compromise on knowing the full service history of the vehicle so I wanted to have it looked at to see what recommended service should be done. I even budgeted a little extra into the loan to take care of some service so I thought I’d see how the local GMC dealer was for service. Sounds reasonable, right? Read on to see how they did.
(Read more…)

Today I came across this great article by Patrick McFarland, the well-known Free Software Magazine author, going into great detail on CD/DVD media. McFarland covers the history of these media from CDs through recordable DVDs, explaining the various formats and their strengths and drawbacks. The heart of the article is an essay on the DVD-R vs. DVD+R recording standards, leading to McFarland’s recommendation for which media he buys for archival storage. Spoiler: (Read more…)

An Elemental Fascination
This interactive periodic table showcases 93 element samples from the collection of PopSci contributing editor Theodore Gray, who spent four years assembling and photographing them.

The periodic table is cool, I’ve always been fascinated with how similarities on the atomic level influence the characteristics of the elements.