Nuts and Bolts: A Holiday Tradition
One of the traditional activates that happens around our house during the Holiday Season is to make a big batch of homemade Nuts and Bolts. For those of you not familiar with the delicious snack you take a couple of different kinds of cereal (in our case it’s definitely Cheerios and Rice Chex), mix in some pretzels and nuts and add some salt, olive oil and garlic power. You bake this for two hours on low turning every half an hour. I thought this month, in keeping with our family tradition I would offer you a, well, digital version of Nuts And Bolts – some lighter reading/viewing to maybe take your mind off the stress of the Season.
Do You Recycle? Make Sure to Recycle Your Electronics Too
I live in the Vancouver Lower Mainland area of British Columbia. One thing that really sets this are apart from some others is our drive toward sustainability and recycling. Practically everything is recycled here – even electronics. A friend of mine sent me the following YouTube video that shows what happens to your recycled computers, laptops and othe computer hardware.
Shredding Broken Laptops and Computer Parts for Gold Recycling
There are a # of outfits recycling computer hardware. Check out, for example, the Electronic Recycling Association for Drop-off Depots across Canada
What Every Kid Wants This Year For Christmas
According to most of the trend watchers out there the big gift that every one, both big and small, wants this Christmas is a tablet. If you’re acting Santa and looking to find the right tablet for someone special, I found an easy to follow chart of the major brands comparing them to each other. You might want to check it out.
Ars Technica: The Ultimate Tablet Comparison Chart
Who Loves the Internet?
Turns out British Columbians love their Internet. Apparently 86% of all homes in BC have Internet access, the highest percentage in Canada. Here’s a short article about it:
Tech Vibes: BC Has Canada’s Highest Percentage of Households with Internet Access, StatsCan Says
Bitcoin: The World’s Newest Currency
Watch for this term as it progressively gains popularity: “BitCoin”. The financial world is finally starting to take notice of this new form of digital currency. Many companies will now accept BitCoin as payment for purchases, and if the SEC approves it, a new trust venture will soon launch, allowing regular market investors to trade on the value of Bitcoin.
Since its inception BitCoin has been on a valuation rollercoaster. As of this writing they are worth over $1000. They started out at valued at mere pennies, rose up once, fell back down and are rising again. Experts believe the drastic rises and falls are mostly due to the emerging awareness of the currency, and lately the seeming recognition and acceptance of the currency by governments and the big financial players.
To this end, a story arose recently about a man who mistakenly threw out a hard drive which still contained some BitCoins he had purchased for a pittance in 2009 which were worth quite a lot of money based on the market price today. You can read the story in the link below. The article includes some great information about what BitCoin is and how the currency works:
CTV News: What You Need to Know About Bitcoins
And there you have your digital service of Nuts and Bolts. Not quite as tasty as the real thing but a lot less calories – and we all know how many of those we have to watch out for this time of year. To all of you who regularly follow my blog posts and to new readers as well, I wish you a safe and happy Holiday Season. We’ll see you again in the New Year!
Got a question or an idea for a topic you would like to see covered in one of my upcoming posts? Write to support@skywaywest.com and sound off. I’ll do what I can to address your questions or concerns either personally in a reply email or on the blog. Until next month, take care.
–Wes