Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421

Got a Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 on ebay not too long ago. I was skeptical at first; not just the monitor, but also the seller because I don't think he really tested the items before ship. Anyway, it arrived and it's in good appearance, but I got panicked after I connected it with my laptop. The monitor shows some lines with colors, so I thought maybe it's faulty. Then I started googling and found out sometimes the problem could be an under-powered port, but it was still a no go after I used it with a USB Y-cable. Luckily, I have many cables, and after many tries, one of them worked. So far, I'm please with this external monitor. It doesn't have a high resolution, but it is intended for road warriors to have an extra screen to be productive. One thing to keep in mind if you want to buy one of these, it gets laggy when it shows something graphically intensive.

Pro: Convenience. No need for external power.
Con: Not good with video.

Group Coupons

For the rest of you who don't know how group coupon/discount works will find that out in the following sentences. Merchants often like to increase sales, reduce inventory, or attract new customers by offering discounts or specials. Group coupon is one of the methods. In order to get the special offers by the merchant, certain number of people have to sign-up. The most popular one is Groupon . They have offers for most of the cities. There are some smaller ones like livingsocial, HomeRun, TIPPR, and yipit. These smaller ones only offer specials in big cities, so you may have to find out if the city you live in is on their lists.

Getting a visa from Chinese Consulate in Chicago

Learned a very valuable lesson today. I had to get visas for my kids from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. I didn't know they required to see the old passport before they could issue you a new visa. My cousin was in front of me, and she was told that she has to get a copy of her nephew's old passport before 11:30 in order to get it back today in a very unfriendly way. I was surprised and gave that lady both of my kids passports after my cousin stepped aside. My daughter didn't have any recent photos, so she took one there. The Chinese lady wasn't very happy that she can't find my daughter's picture and told me to step aside, so she could process the next person. (I use "process" because she's not helping at all) Of course, I asked her what am I suppose to do, then she said she doesn't know how my daughter looks like. Then I told my daughter to come over, she was standing with my mom like 15 feet away, while she was walking towards me, the lady told me to step aside again. After she processed the next person, she said she can't find the picture, and I could tell she felt very annoyed by me at that point. I don't even want to go into the rest of details. Before you go, just do your homework, try to be nice, try to be quick or they will hurry you, and good luck.

Is it online storage or cloud storage?

Many companies are out there offering online storage. Usually give 1 or 2 free GB to lure potential customers. Dropbox and ZumoDrive both offer 2GB for free, and of course, you could get more storage if you are willing to pay. Before you could access your files from them, you have to install their application first. They support not only Windows, but Mac, Linux, and the popular mobile OS's. The most free storage you could get is from Microsoft's SkyDrive. In order to get that 25GB free storage, all you need is an Microsoft's Windows Live account. For regular personal usage, I can't think of anything better than this.