Check this out.

The company in China that produces many of the parts found in today’s Apple iPod and other electronics felt enough pressure from it’s employees that it needs to start paying a decent salary.  Recent events at Foxconn’s   Shenzhen, China plant have forced some changes.  A second pay raise has been given to it’s employees after numerous suicides at the plant.

How many times have we all driven ourselves crazy trying to think of the name of a song we're hearing?  Well, iPhone users despair no more - download the Shazam app!  With Shazam, you can click "Tag" and the app will take a sample of the music you're hearing, send it to it's database, and return the song's info (unless, of course, it's unrecognizable).  The results it displays includes the song name and artist, along with lots more:  links to buy it, share on Facebook and Twitter, send a postcard, YouTube videos, etc.  The app is free, but there are also premium versions that let you launch a Pandora or last.fm station from your Tag results.

We've used the app while doing things like shopping in stores and waiting for a table in a restaurant, most of the time with songs correctly identified.   Songs from less well known artists and smaller labels do have a greater chance of not being identified, simply due to a greater chance of not being in the database.

I don't remember how I found Leo Laporte, but I've become addicted to his podcasts and radio shows about all things Tech.   He has audio and video podcasts about Windows, Macs,  Home Audio/Video and many other topics.

One thing that he always says is that if you only have one copy of an important document or file, then you don't really have a backup.  He recommends two or more back up copies of a file. I've come to believe he is right.  I've seen more than one person who has lost their entire company's records when their computer crashed.  I've even lost all the pictures that I had of my son when he was a baby when I reformatted my hard drive.

When I want to make sure that I am up to date with the latest in Geek News, I have several web sites that I make sure to visit.  Some of which, I've been using since the late 90s. 

1. Digg  - visitors list the latest and unique news found on the Internet. 
   www.digg.com
   
   
2. Reddit - similar topics to those found on Digg, but covers a much wider range of topics and websites.
   www.reddit.com
   
   
3. SlashDot - a centrallized place to find the latest technically related news topic
   www.slashdot.org
   
   
4. LifeHacker - a running blog about the latest in time-saving tips as well as technological approaches to saving time and effort.
   www.lifehacker.com
   
   
5.  ThinkGeek - an online store featuring All Things Geek.
   www.thinkgeek.com

I usually leave the more tech-heavy advice to Kelly since hardware isn't my thing, but this video provides some helpful guidance for those brave enough to try to repair their own computer.  

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8LYvrCF8B8]