RicDef's techy, geeky and sometimes funny blog

PriceCanada.com and PriceProtectr.com

2007-11-03T07:45:00.001-04:00

Just thought I would share the following news, new contest from PriceCanada.com, a great canadian website is celebrating their 2nd anniversary. Great way to find the best price for your next desired gadget. They are giving away an iPod touch. Happy Anniversary PriceCanada.com!

Using this site, alongside Price Protectr, is sure to save you some money. There are lots of stores out there that offer price protection policies -- when the price drops on an item you've purchased, they'll refund you the difference. But there's a catch... it's up to you to watch prices. Price Protectr makes it simple to keep track of your purchases and get your money back. It's free. It's easy. It's free and easy money. How often do you get that offer?

Geeks are sexy... and win prizes

2007-10-16T20:44:00.000-04:00

The tech blog Geeks Are Sexy is hosting a contest to celebrate its fast-approaching 2-year anniversary. See details here, to try your chance at winning some very cool blog-oriented prizes, as well as very cool Mimobot USB Flash Drive.

Well, actually, this contest from one of my favorite news sites convinced me to kickstart my own blogging efforts, so why don't you wait until their third year-anniversary to participate, mokay?

I already have a few ideas, and will be posting them shortly.

Update (November 2nd): In the end, I ran out of time, since my beautiful daughter was born 3 weeks early. Between changing diapers and typing up blog posts, it seems obvious that the contest would become a much lower priority. I still intend to write up some more posts shortly.

First post!

2007-10-15T21:06:00.000-04:00

Good morning or evening,

I guess, as a first post, I should introduce myself. My name is Éric Desfonds.

There done... So, as a first post, let's talk about...

You want more? Really? With all the gazillions of blogs out there, you really, truly want to hear more about me... Okay...

Well, I live in Canada. No... don't leave yet... I am a French Canadian. OK, hope you are seriously still there. So you might detect a slight French-accent in my writing, but I hope this exercise helps me further improve my writing skills.

I am an electrical engineer by training, and I have always tinkered with technology in general, at a very young age. I still remember fondly toying around with my father's BETA tape recorder, and I remember even more how I broke some of the push-buttons and knobs trying to fine-tune the reception of some of my kid shows... You would hope those monsters would never break, they weighted a ton, no?

Even as a young lad, I always spent a lot of time reading, all of my free time almost. I always wanted to learn everything I could. I have also tinkered in computers, starting with my first PC, a used Texas Instrument PC TI-99A, from which you could save your programs onto tape cassettes (lots of fun to slip these in my sister's Walkman... think about a fax machine sound on full blast).

I have done many Nowadays, I am doing some R&D on solar cells, and having a blast. Yet, I keep a finger in computing/networking since I remain the IT guy for my company and my family and friends.

I used to have a blog, where I share pictures of my son with our family (this was pre-Flickr or PicasaWeb, a pre web-2.0 experience)... Still, everyday I find new things I can do to help me at work, or at home, and I might be able to teach you a trick or two. Stick, around, you might be impressed...