What Could You Win?

We have three items up for grabs! You have the chance to win an autographed Tyson Ritter photo (look below). In addition to that, you could win a $100 Ticketmaster gift certificate and a $100 iTunes gift certificate.

Amazing, right? I know.

How Do You Enter?

Well, that part’s pretty easy. All you have to do is head on over to the Gillette Uncut YouTube page and take a look at some of the videos.

Then, come back and write a comment about whose video you liked most. The winning comment will be chosen at random, and I will email the winner for contact details. Make sure you enter the right email address, so that I can contact you!

The contest starts today and ends on March 6th at 11:59pm.  Good luck!

Images used with permission

Post from: EveryJoe

KIA Forte Contest

The new KIA Forte is their leading compact car and is targeted to a younger demographic. The car has a starting price of just $14,000 and comes in an array of available perks. Check out more on the 2009 KIA Forte.

Image: KIA.com

Post from: EveryJoe

(Image: Newscom)

You can enter the “Out Of The Ring And In To The World Contest”, here’s the basics of how you can enter.

• Your Community Project Video (Your short-video showing what your Community Project entailed) must be posted on BJPENN.COM no later than 12:00 am PST on Monday, May 18th, 2009. It must also be tagged “Community Project.”
• Remember: Your project must offer aid, help, comfort, and/or some kind of benefit or service to something or someone (or a group) in your own community.
• Your video should document the event and show your results; videos should be no longer than 10 minutes in duration (under 5 minutes is preferred).
• Go to THIS LINK (www.BJPENNCONTEST.SQUARESPACE.COM) for a more in-depth explanation and examples of acceptable community projects (and we even have a recorded tutorial and guidelines to help you, plus a phone number you can call if you need more assistance!).

Win or lose, you helped make a difference in a community and that should make you feel good about yourself and the people you helped. I mean, winning a trip to UFC 98 with expenses paid would be a great experience, but knowing that you helped your community is rewarding in a much bigger way.

For more details and the complete list of rulles go to BJPenn.com .

(Image: Newscom)

Post from: EveryJoe

The IT Confessional

I know, you’re all surprised and excited. I know I am. The second piece to this post is what you’re all want to hear. Who won the contest?

The winner of this particular contest is Kevin Potter for his awesome, “Is that a big or little zero?” story! I will be contacting Kevin (or better yet, if he wants to email me at jesse.middleton at b5media dot com) to get him his KB.

I want to thank everyone who posted and emailed in their stories, they were a great read and many of them will be used to form some, hopefully, entertaining posts at That Damn PC.

Keep checking back for me and sending your stories in.

Post from: EveryJoe

Post from: EveryJoe

We’re looking for the ugliest, saddest, happiest and all-around funniest stories from IT history. Things like my computer exploded while loading Windows to all of my pornography was copied by the local PC-tech are all great places to start while sharing your stories.

We would appreciate it if the stories we both true and awesome and I’m sure that you guys (and gals) can all help us out with that. For your help, we will be giving away a great prize, a Goldtouch keyboard from Key Ovation. This can help you with all of your carpal tunnel and cool keyboard needs. Beyond just the awesome factor, you can also “Wow” your friends by being a winner from That Damn PC! How cool is that?

So go ahead and submit your stories. Post them in the comments below or email jesse dot middleton at b5media.com (please make the subject “That Damn PC IT Confessional”) and you may be a winner. Many of the stories will be used by us to continue to get to the bottom of how the IT mind thinks and why they’re always so cranky before their seventeen cups of coffee.

The nitty gritty Info: This contest will run from June 17th at 8am (ET) to June 24th at 10pm (ET). Your stories must be submitted through the comment section below or via email during this time period. Any stories received before or after will be happily taken but will not be eligible for prizes.

All winners will be determined by a trained group of contest-winner-selectors-extraordinaries and will be notified as fast as humanly possible.

Post from: EveryJoe

Below are a few simple ways to make sure your computer stays safe and secure for that much longer (they all eventually get messed up, even you Mac):

• Run a software firewall (Windows XP comes with one built in, not too sure on the Mac OS front but I would imagine they have something).
• Keep anti-virus software installed and up-to-date (AVG is free for the PC and ClamXav is free for the Mac).
• Install a router. Make sure you are running a decent home router (at home) and a good commercial router (for businesses). They are insanely cheap today, so there’s no excuse not to run one. Belkin, Linksys and Netgear all make decent home routers.
• If you run wireless, secure it. Today, almost all wireless routers support WPA or WPA2, so use it. In fact, it’s easier to remember your WPA key than it is to remember WEP. I think that “my Awesomely Secure Pa55word” is much simpler to remember than “FF5C0B374FA81D2959C2578F65″.

These are only a few ways to help protect your PC and information. Losing your data is a pain. Identity theft is an even bigger problem. Don’t get caught in either one.

P.S. – Keep an eye out for the fun contest (which should be starting on Monday, right here at That Damn PC).

Post from: EveryJoe