Bloggy Carnival Giveaway!

Today Emma turned two-and-a-half. To commemorate this momentous occasion we decided to hold a giveaway in her honor. Since I am a big fan of automation, efficiency, and cycle-time reduction, I want to hear what software products or web-based services you use to get things done. You wanna know what you’re playing for? (Can you tell I love Survivor). Then take a look at the official rules below:

Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival Button

What is the prize:
$25 Target Gift Card

How you can win:
Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite tech tip (i.e. any tools or web services you use that make you more efficient and productive). For an example of such services click here.

Who is eligible:
You must have a US mailing address. You don’t have to be a blogger to win, just supply a valid e-mail address (don’t forget to include this or I won’t be able to contact you if you are the winner).

When the giveaway ends:
Friday, April 25. I’ll e-mail the winner on the 26th. If the winner doesn’t respond within four business days, a new winner will be drawn.

Comments

  1. I use http://www.recipezaar.com a lot around here. Good useful recipes that have continually gotten thumbs up from my family.
    Gotta keep that picture of Emma, it’s one of those that you show at the wedding!

  2. I wish I had a good tech tip…We love our Iphone and it keeps me organized…thats about it!

  3. I’m a techno idiot, but I do love Kodak Picture Gallery. I has awesome editing tools for those who don’t want to mess with Photoshop.
    caivanofamily[at]earthlink[dot]net

  4. The only tech tip I have is: GET A SMARTPHONE! Unless I can actually take my little “mini computer” with me, it does me no good. I can set up all the email reminders I want at home, but if it doesn’t notify me IN MY POCKET I can’t stay on top of things.

    Thank you for doing this giveaway.
    Tiffany Rosson
    tiffanyannrosson AT yahoo DOT com

  5. I use my computer to store my recipes. Anytime I find a recipe I like I put into my recipe Word document. Then I can just look it up there instead of having to remember which cookbook it’s in, or trying to find the scrap of paper it’s written on.

  6. I would definitely say that bloglines saves me time. Love me some RSS feed reader.

  7. I use iCal constantly (I love the alerts, especially since I don’t have to be online to get them). Also the google search box in my address bar. It makes searching so much faster.

  8. Bridget Dell says

    I think right now, it would be my google reader, cause I can keep up with all the money saving blogs that I found truly helpful. Thanks so much for sharing with us.
    sweetpea023 at gmail dot com

  9. Wonderful giveaway, thank you. I am not very “Tech” and my advice may not be worth following. However, I inherited my daughter’s older Laptop, and because it is more difficult to use, she bought me a “Wireless Mouse”. I can’t do without it.

  10. My favorite tech rpogram? typepad, of course.

    If my blog doesn’t count, Then I’d nominate Walgreems photo service online. I can upload my pictures, and only have to go to the store once to pick them up (or even have them shipped, but I’m a kind of I-want-it-now person) Plus, then they are available for me to look at anytime I’m online

  11. I’m in love with Google. With Reader I’ve been able to keep up on three or four times as many blogs as I did before. And their Calendar is an easy way for me to keep my life in order. My husband and I both use that one, and share our calendars with each other so we can make plans around each other’s schedules.

  12. I also am not sure if this is a tech thing but I love the website HOWFASTTHEYGROW.COM it is the home of the 7 minute scrapbook page. It has made it so easy to keep up with my 3 boys Scrapbooks.

  13. I love Photoshop, blurb.com, Picassa…and many, many others.

    Thanks for the gift card giveaway. Your daughter is such a cutie!

  14. I love paying bills online through our online banking at Bank of America. Makes my life so much easier.

  15. I love Microsoft Out look. It has a calendar, reminder service, to do list, I love it. It’s my bread and butter!

  16. I use mealsmatter.org to store recipes and create shopping lists! Thanks for the chance to win!

  17. I’ve been a Quicken user since I graduated from college – it really helps me stay on top of the bills and cash flow.

  18. GREAT giveaway!

    We use Microsoft Money in conjunction w/our online banking system. Makes getting bills paid a snap. I am really digging using the new Google Talk application. You can talk to anybody on your contact list and the window sits on top of whatever page you are currently working on. So I can trouble shoot issues and chat w/my developer at the same time and not have to toggle.

    Hey, if you have a chance, please stop by and visit my contest page too!
    http://weirdstuffinmydesk.com/?p=41

    my email is:
    racoo.smith at gmail dot com

    Thanks and have a lovely day!

  19. I believe my favorite online tool, without a doubt, has to be http://www.shutterfly.com. I’ve used Shutterfly for about 6 years now and find it very easy to share photos with my family versus trying to send them hardcopies. They can view the photos on Shutterfly and order what they want!

  20. The one thing that saves me the most time online is Google Reader. I can quickly see what new posts are up on my favorite blogs without having to go to them all, then I only need to actually go to the ones I want to comment on. It took me so much longer to do my blogging before I started using it, now I have more time for other things.

  21. Definitely Google, they have the best free services and are very easy to use when you aren’t extremely computer savvy =)
    Plus they have awesome April Fool’s Jokes =P

  22. My favorite tech thing is bookmark organizing on my favorites. It helps me stay organized and have one place for certain types of websites. Thanks!

  23. I just started using ToodleDo…it’s an online To Do list and I love it. It allows me to assign tasks to specific days, make them recurring, assign them to different categories.

    And it’s free!

  24. I’m not much of a tech person but I guess I recommend getting the Yahoo Anti-Spy web tool. It’s free and cleans up your computer pretty good.

  25. Dan Smith says

    I use Google Calendar to keep track of all of our activities

  26. Susan Smith says

    Shutterfly.com for my pictures

  27. I love Google Reader b/c it makes my blog stocking so much easier 🙂

  28. I love Bloglines. Saves me so much time checking all of the blogs I regularly read.

    I also LOVE target!

  29. She is so cute!!!
    That is a great picture.
    I use the Google calendar and Flickr Pro. I really like them. So easy!

  30. Google Reader has been a life saver. Ok, maybe just a time saver.
    But Entourage has been a life saver. You have to have a mac to use it though.

    Thanks!

  31. Love the picture, and *want* the giftcard 🙂

  32. Happy Birthday EMMA!!!!
    My favorites are Flickr, Yahoo and Yahoo mail.
    Thanks for the opportunity.
    Christy

  33. Picaso is my favorite!

  34. Emptying my internet temp files freguently makes my computer run faster especially after my boys are on my laptop.
    scrtsbpal@yahoo.com
    Hope Emma had a happy 1/2 birthday. lol

  35. Wow, she is a cutie! I have several favorites that make my life easier – RoboForm, Google Reader and Blogarithm are the ones that immediately come to mind. Cool giveaway! Thanks.:)

    If you get a chance, stop by my blog and join in the fun with my giveaway – http://threepsinapod.blogspot.com/2008/04/bloggy-giveaway-time.html#links

    Thanks!

    Alyson @ 3 P’s

  36. I absolutely love the whole suite from Serif! They have everything! I am using their Serifwebplus (which they have for free – older version, but what the heck!) to make my blog!
    Thanks! Happy Bday Emma!

  37. I love the Mouse Gestures available for Firefox. It’s such a time saver! Your daughter is adorable!

  38. Adobe Photoshop is fantastic for re-sizing and editing pictures. 🙂

  39. I just use the Outlook calendar, so I can remember things…but I’m happy to read about a bunch of other tips here that I might have to explore now!

    Thanks for the giveaway.

  40. Big fan of Picasa!

  41. I love google reader!

  42. http://www.bighugelabs.com has some fun (mostly photo) applications. I use it to make mosaics to smoosh (very technical term there) my pictures together for better posting.

  43. Firefox as a browser and Bloglines as a feedreader are just about the BEST!

    I’m having FIVE GIVEAWAYS on my blogS as well. Hope you’ll stop by.

    http://abookwormsdiary.blogspot.com/

    http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/

    Thanks!
    callmeabookworm at gmail.com

  44. With my husband’s schedule (and mine, too) being so crazy, the only way we don’t schedule over each other is by using Google Calendar. I love that you can color code it by person….it’s easy to just glance and see what’s open. I also love that it sends email reminders!!

    Thanks for the great giveaway! ( meg.wilson@gmail.com )

  45. Google, Google, Google… reader, calendar you name it, I love it. Great giveaway!

  46. I’m not very technologically inclined when it comes to software, but I found this neat shareware program called ScreenShot Captor. I can take a screenshot of something of interest and save it. Better than a bookmark when I’m saving something that is more visual, like a room painted a color I like. And I don’t have to worry about the info being taken down from the site. I have a perfect “screenshot”, frozen in time.

    Thanks for the opportunity to enter your giveaway.

  47. Google mail + my tiny tiny cheap laptop makes it possible from me to work or do school work virtually anywhere!!

    I am running my own bloggy carnival over at Seven Dogs and a Baby in honor of Connor’s first birthday. There is over $530 in prizes! Go check it out!
    http://www.sevendogsandababy.com

  48. I love Photoshop! (and I love that picture on this post!)

    Thanks for a chance to win!

    fossam78@yahoo.com

  49. I love bloglines. Thanks for the opportunity to win.

  50. google calendar rocks!

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