Last July, we did a total revamp of my tech site, OCIA.net… with the exception of the forums. We received a ton of praise about the new design and spent the better half of last year fine-tuning everything.

Now, with the main site set, we focused our attention to the forums. We switched to a new forum software and also totally reworked the layout to better match the main page.

So now, it’s time to celebrate, and what better way to do that than to give away a ton of free stuff to you, our readers?!! We have teamed up with several of our sponsors and put together a prize package worth over $1,300 !!

What are you waiting for - head over and get your entry in today!!

“NEW YORK (CNN) — Airborne - the herbal supplement company that once claimed to help fight off colds - will pay $23.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against the company for false advertising, according to one of the groups that joined the suit.

“There’s no credible evidence that what’s in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment,” said CSPI Senior nutritionist David Schardt. “Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that’s been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed.“”

Courtesy CNN.com

If you purchased Airborne and would like to sign up for a refund, you can do so by going to this website. You can claim up to six product refunds without showing any proof of purchase.

I dunno about you, but this seems like a HUGE mistake for Airborne. I can’t even begin to imagine how many people, most of whom have never even used the product, will claim six refunds.

I used Airbone during our trip to CES, but since Josh purchased it and not me, I will leave it to him to claim the refund.

Have you ever used Airbone, and will you be claiming a refund (or six)?

Cooler Master has teamed up with AMD and is running a Free Game of the Week promotion on their website. I just found out about this a few minutes ago, so details are sparse, but I do know that there is no “catch” - you simply go to Cooler Master’s North American website and on the bottom right, you will see a scrolling ad for their CSX cases. Wait a moment for this to pass, then you will see the Free Game ad. Simply click it to start downloading.

These are full version games, not demos, and change on a weekly basis. I’ve never heard of this week’s game, but then again, I’m not a huge gamer either. Either way, it’s free and changes weekly, so be sure to check back often if this is something you might be interested in

It’s been about five months since I posted my last installment of Show Us Your OCIA.net Shirt. Why the delay?

Well I really didn’t get the results I had hoped with the project. I sent out a ton of t-shirts (free of charge) to bloggers and some of my local friends. The goal of the project was to have these people pose in the shirt, snap some photos, then post them on their blog. This would generate traffic to my blog, and they would get a free shirt.

Overall I had a pretty good turnaround rate. I can only think of about four people that didn’t make good on their promise, which is to be expected.

Sooo… last week, I was chatting with Derek on AIM and we got on the subject of t-shirts. Turns out, I had a spare shirt in his size so I sent it his way.

Derek made good on his promise and made a nice blog post with a few photos and some nice linkage for OCIA.net. Thanks to Derek for the great post!

Wondering who else around the net has their very own OCIA.net t-shirt?

Bob from BobBuskirk.com and ThinkComputers.org

Thomas from Thomas De Maesschalck DOT COM and DH Hardware

Ed from the.[ED]ition, Stephen from Stephen Fun DOT NET and Future Looks and John from John Chow DOT COM and The Tech Zone

Ashley from This Complicated Life

Some pretty good company, if I do say so myself!

I am still running my t-shirt promotion! If you purchase a shirt, take a picture of yourself wearing it and post it on your blog, I will give you a FREE link back and also send you $5 via Paypal to help cover the expenses (shirts are only $12.99 each)! So, you get a cool t-shirt and a free link back all for just $7.99 !

I want to take a moment and thank everyone for their participation in my recent Giveaway. Thanks to the giveaway, this blog gained 28 new RSS by E-mail readers - not too bad at all!

So, everyone wants to know… who won?

1st Selection - Alex S. - CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller

2nd Selection - Gary S. - Imation 1 GB Flash Drive

3rd Selection - Tyler Ingram - Cooler Master 512 MB Flash Drive

Thanks again to everyone who entered. I will be starting up a brand new giveaway over in the OCIA.net Forums once the renovations are complete!

Besides computers and technology, one of my other main passions in life is photography. I have always been somewhat interested in taking pictures, but I didn’t really get “serious” about it until January of 2006 when I purchased my first DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera, a Nikon D50. The main reason I bought this camera was for taking pictures of review products, but I soon found myself shooting more for pleasure than work.

The awesome thing about most DSLR cameras is that you don’t have to be a photography whiz to operate it; simply using the Automatic settings can net you some good results. Once you feel comfortable with your camera, you can start experimenting with some of the manual settings. Your camera’s user manual is a great place to start, but you can also find tutorials and guides online to further help you understand some of your camera settings, or even take some photography classes.

Once you have a good collection of photos, it’s time to start marketing them. There are several “stock” photo sites that will host your images and help you sell them. Stock photos are a bit different than most photos you will probably shoot and have several demanding requirements that must be met. These are pictures that can be licensed for specific uses and must be “generic” in form. They cannot contain any business logos or copyrighted material. If you have a person / people in your photo(s) that is recognizable, you must have them sign a model release waiver. Also, if you photos are not absolutely perfect, many of these sites will not accept them. Some of the more popular ones include iStockphoto, Big Stock Photo and fotolia.

If you are not interested in stock photos, you can elect to try and sell photos on your own. There are many ways to market your own photos, many of which are absolutely free!

Social networking sites are a great place to start. Sites like Myspace and Facebook allow users to create free photo albums. You can host your photos here and detail your pricing information in the photo description area and on your main profile page. Both of these sites also have user groups that you can join, where you can meet like-minded people and help share your pictures.

Photo hosting sites like Photobucket, Flickr and Webshots are other options that you can take advantage of when trying to sell your photos. Sites such as these allow you to label your pictures with descriptive “tags”, which will other users locate your images when searching for specific topics. As with the social networking sites, simply list your contact info. and prices in your profile.

Regardless of which method(s) you select, it is imperative that you put some kind of watermark or identifying text on your images. This prevents people from “stealing” your images and also is a great way to advertise your website or blog for free! I use a watermark on all of my online images (Flickr, Myspace, Facebook), either linking to my tech site, OCIA.net (before I started this blog) or directly to my blog.

Have any of you ever sold pictures online? I’d love to hear about what worked best for you…

There are only five more days left to enter our First Blog Giveaway of 2008.

If you remember, I am giving away some goodies that I snagged at CES: CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller, a Cooler Master 512 MB Flash Drive and an Imation 1 GB Flash Drive.

To enter, simply submit your email address to my RSS by Email Subscription box on the top right side of my blog.

Things have been going pretty well and we are currently at 83 RSS readers. I’d sure like to hit 100 by the end of this contest, so I have decided to spice things up a bit!

If the blog hits at least 100 RSS readers by the end of the giveaway (Feb. 19), then I will give the first selected winner an additional $25.00 via Paypal on top of their choice of prize!

So, if you haven’t entered already, please do so for a chance to win some pretty cool prizes… and free COLD HARD CASH!

For those of you that have already entered, thanks! And also, be sure to verify your subscription by clicking the link in the activation email.

As you may already know, OCIA.net received a total overhaul last July, which included a new look as well as a custom-designed back end. Unfortunately, the OCIA.net Forums were not part of this upgrade and are still using the old software and layout.

I had planned to remedy this sooner, but finances have been tight lately so that has not been possible. But, with your help, this might soon become a reality!

It just so happens that my pal Derek Semmler is holding a contest where the winner will take home $106.34… which would go a long way to help get the new forums up and running.

So, I simply ask that you hit the front page of OCIA.net and click the square ad on the right side of the page that takes you to his blog. You would be doing a great favor for the site and who knows, you may even like his blog enough to bookmark it!

It’s been a while since we had our last giveaway, and since I just came back from CES with a good bit of freebies, I figure why not give some away?

Up for grabs is a CoolIT USB Beverage chiller and two USB flash drives.

The top drive was given to me by Cooler Master and is 512 MB in size. The bottom drive is an Imation 1 GB drive given to me by MTECH. Both drives contained press kits, but have since been formatted and are ready to use!

To enter, simply submit your email address to my RSS by Email Subscription box on the top right side of my blog. This contest will run for three weeks, ending on February 19 at 8 p.m. At the end of the giveaway, I will randomly select three names as the winners. I will contact the first person to give them their preference of prize, then the second… and the last person gets what is left.

Good luck!

Keith, Airica and I attended The Tech Zone Media CES Kickoff Party held at the Absolute Suite in Caesars Palace on Sunday night. The party is hosted by John Chow every year and is a great way to kick off the week.

This party was co-hosted by Bob Buskirk from ThinkComputers.org and Stephen Fung from FutureLooks.com.

We arrived a few hours after the party but there were still a good bit of people when we came in.

There were plenty of drinks to go around, thanks to the open bar… and from the looks of it, everyone made good use of it! Below are a few more random pictures from the party. Enjoy!

Bob, Ashley and I.

John and I.

Justin and I

Stephen and I.

From left to right, Justin, Bob, John, Me, Ramsom from Thermaltake.com and Mikie.