Matt Black vs Computer Speakers

I often get asked the question, what are the best speakers for my laptop. My first response usually starts with, is this for in your car use? The reason behind that is if it is for use in your car, look for an audio input on your stereo. This is usually a standard 3.5mm input that lets you connect external devices to be heard through your stereo speakers. With the growth of I pods, this is coming to be more common in car audio systems. All it takes is cable that has a 3.5mm jack on each end (Usually about 10 bucks via Walmart, Radioshak..etc). Connect one to your headphone jack on your laptop, and the other to the input on the car stereo. Change your input selection to the audio in jack. Then all audio played through your computer will be heard through your stereo speakers.

If you are just looking for external computer speakers then there are several things to consider. Standard speakers on a laptop are usually less than optimal. Due to power and size restraints, a lot of people purchase external speakers to help with laptop sound. You’ll find 2.1-channel speakers starting around $20. But these won’t be the most powerful speakers available. You’ll need to spend more to get better ones. You want powered speakers. These plug into a wall outlet. Or, purchase a pair that connects to your computer via USB. Both sound and power will be delivered over the USB connection. You’ll want to pay attention to watts when buying speakers. The more watts, the more powerful the speakers and remember a speaker system is labeled with its ENTIRE wattage. Dig a little deeper into the specs. You’ll see the watts for each speaker, or channel. Now, you may be perfectly fine with a 9-watt system. Or, you may need something much more powerful. It just depends on how you will use the speakers. Maybe you just want to listen to music while you surf the Web. Or, you could just use them to hear feedback from your computer. You don’t need particularly powerful speakers for these tasks. But you might want to use your computer to watch movies. You could also want to use your computer as a stereo. In either case, opt for more powerful speakers. I don’t recommend buying speakers online. That is, unless you know exactly the model you want. Rather, head to an electronics store. Test the speakers out individually so you will know what wattage you may be looking for, then shop for that wattage of speaker. After all, personal preference comes into play when buying speakers. You might also consider surround sound speakers. You’ll find 5.1-, 6.1- and 7.1-channel systems. But your computer must support surround sound. This probably won’t be the case with a laptop. Check with the manufacturer and if your computer doesn’t support surround sound, you can always add a sound card. This can attach to your computer via a USB port. Or, look at ones that fit into a PC Card or Express Card slot.

How about wireless speakers? You’ll find wireless options that use Bluetooth. That’s a wireless networking standard. It is most commonly used for cellular headsets. But it can do much more. You can stream music in stereo over a Bluetooth connection. Both the source and the speakers or headphones must support the A2DP profile (don’t worry about understand A2DP technology unless you are really serious about wireless connections) Implementing Bluetooth speakers shouldn’t be terribly difficult. However, your laptop may not have built-in Bluetooth or the built-in Bluetooth may not support A2DP. In either case, you can purchase a Bluetooth dongle (about 20 bucks). Bluetooth speakers or headphones will support A2DP. A2DP will work with stereo speakers. There are also 2.1-channel Bluetooth speakers. But you won’t find Bluetooth surround sound speakers. You’ll need a wired connection for surround sound.
Now you can also use a media hub. You would attach it to your stereo or home theater. It also connects to your network to stream music and other content. There are wired and wireless media hubs. They’re great for listening to music or watching videos. But they won’t work for playing system sounds, but maybe something fun to play with!

Matt Black and Everyday Heroes

Super Heroes are everywhere, just look around.

Have you ever really thought about what makes us do good? I am a firm believer that we are all born equal and are all Good people. Then comes life. Life experiences, geography, peers, family, are all things that mold the person you become. But the core is good. Everyone still has that inside of them. Some find it earlier than others and some tend to pack it away in the back somewhere until something else pushes it out.

Lets take a look at numbers….In almost any profession you work from them. Just think about it….Statistically speaking if the majority of the people like a certain item, then it will sell. If the majority of people feel someone is guilty in a jury trial, then the defendant is found guilty. I feel the same goes for living for God and trying to do the right things. If you try your hardest to do right, the most you can… then opportunities will open for you.

Have you ever noticed that bad people usually avoid being around good people? They don’t like us because they feel like we are judging them. When truthfully we are not even thinking anything about them. We just live to help others, and deep inside would love to help anyone!

It doesn’t take a cape or a mask to be a superhero, but it does take wanting to do the right things and help people with nothing in reward. I challenge you to do the right things and to help fight evil in what ever capacity that you can.

Challenge yourself with this task and see what happens… Look at the people You come into contact with throughout your daily activities and see how they are radiating good. A smile at a drive thru window. A thank you for holding a door. A nod of a head when walking by a stranger. A tip of the hat to a fellow hat wearer, a wave to another motorcycle rider. What good can you produce today? Live your life to the fullest and remember good will prevail! The more good, the less space evil has.

Join in my quest to rename superhero to everydayhero. Because that is what every single one of us can and desire to be. Somewhere in that scar ridden heart is good. Harness it, embrace it and lets tell evil his days are numbered.

God Bless us all friends…..Blacks out!

Matt Black vs Top 25 Super Heros

Found this article, and I agree with a lot. Jury still out on what power I would Choose…

http://list25.com/the-25-most-powerful-superheroes-of-all-time/

what do you think?

Matt Black vs Bad things happening to good people

Life is a book

I often ask myself, Why does bad things happen to good people? I was recently reading a post where a guy was questioning God and how he felt like he had turned his back on God because there was never a reason why all these bad things were happening to him. It was a very sad story which I will not sit here and retell in my own words, but it did make me thing to do this next blog entry.

Have you ever asked yourself Why me? I think we all have and if you tell yourself that you have not then you probably are just lying to yourself. I probably have done this a thousand times. I seem to be the kind of guy that tries to do the right things in life, but sometimes things back fire. So like usual, I try to pray about my problems and look for scripture in the Bible about how. Right off there were several verses that discuss not understand God plans, and to walk with faith and to try and not question Gods will. There were verses on compassion and caring and love. I didnt find one verse that I just had to talk about, but I did find a couple that help me make sense of things.

The first being John 16:33 “You will have suffering in this world” hmm, I don’t see a may have or possibly have or even a might. He says it is going to happen. So knowing it is going to happen how can we get our minds around horrible events like mass shootings in schools or illness and death to children. Or maybe even personal questions like Why did I loose my job, or why did my family abandon me. It is all very complex and easy to ask out. I don’t think I can stand in anyone elses shoes and give a complete answer to any of those questions, as no one else can either. We dont have Gods mind, we dont see with Gods eyes. Which brings me to my second verse Corinthians 13:12 says “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God no knows me completely” Pretty deep huh? I think so.

So in a nut shell I think God is telling us, we will never know the answer to that questions and to try not to question it. Just have faith that he will deliver us from the pain and suffering and one day when we are in Heaven we may understand things more clearly. I read a story when I was researching this and thought to myself it made since.

God is Love. We have all heard this, and through his faith we find love. The more we seek it, the more it comes around. I find that the more I do out of my true heart and emotions without being fake or trying to impress others, the better outcome in everything associated with it. If we were programed to say I love you, then would it really be love? Almost like that creepy doll every kid has that you pull a string and it says “I love you” Do those dolls love you? Of course not. It was programmed to say those words. To really experience love,that doll would need to have been able to choose love, to see hurt and pain and understand what they are. It would also need to feel those different emotions to understand it. So in order for us to experience love, God gave us free will.

Our life experiences show us good, and unfortunately bad. We know the difference and it builds our hearts stronger to live for God and to do the right things. Generally speaking if you try to live your life right, you will feel better about yourself.

I try to think of life as a book. If you pick up a book and read a chapter, or a few pages from the middle, there is no way you would understand it. To read it from start to finish, then there comes understanding. How do we know our entire story, until it is complete? We dont and wont. God is still writing it. If you live your life with love and compassion and glory to God, I feel your book maybe easier to get through than others, but trust me bad things will happen. There is no answer for that on this world, but remember to do the things that make those bad issues easier. Love God. Pray and pray often. There will always be bad parts to a book, but living your life for God will bring more good.

Matt Blacks APP of the week! Contact Clean

I’m calling this one a great app for you apple and IOS users. You will have to drop .99 cents on it but I promise if you have ever had any contact/address book issues, that 99 cents is worth it! This app will scan all your contacts and pull up problem entry’s. such as duplicates, single names, multiple numbers! Takes just a second to analyze and gives u options of what to do with problems! If you have multiple I devices with iCloud and contact share, this may be nice to have if you have any problems

Matt Blacks APP of the week! January #1

This weeks app of the week is a little known, ok not really little…but it’s sounded good ..note taking app that is a free download called Evernote. A lot of you May be familiar with note taking apps like Springpad where you can create folders and sub folders for your notes, but Evernote takes home the prize. Over the years I always used Springpad and was happy with it, until I tried Evernote for the first time. The smooth multi platform app makes for a very cool experience.

Evernote is available for all mobile operating systems as well as a downloadable client for your desktop or laptop. A cool feature for your PC is the option to save web pages you are browsing into Evernote with one click. Evernote also has an email feature where you can forward or send an email and tell it to put it inside whatever folder you wish. You can also mark notes with #hashags for easy searches later!

Evernote is free, so what are you waiting for!

The Startling Surprise Ending to Amazing Spider-Man #700!

It all comes to an end… or a new beginning.

Henchman-4-Hire

Warning! There will be SPOILERS in this post! So read at your own peril!

The big, epic, glorious Amazing Spider-Man #700 came out this week, the one Marvel and writer Dan Slott have been hyping for months now. It’s the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man, leading into the brand new Superior Spider-Man next month! So what was the big dramatic change that Dan Slott was promising? Does he really have to hide in a bunker from all the fan anger?

Well, does he?

Not as far as I’m concerned. He doesn’t even have to buy a big hat.

Short answer, I’m disappointed and disinterested.

I’m not angry or filled with a burning need for geeky revenge against Slott. He’s the writer of Spider-Man. He gets to come up with the stories and tell whatever tale he wants. I don’t think he’s ruined Spider-Man forever. But at the same time…

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2013 the New Start

2013 Resolution! That is funny in two different ways, or maybe three. First for the simple fact that I cannot believe it is actually 2013 , second because I laugh at myself when every year I say I am going to loose weight and third is that I know every blogger across the World is coming up with their New Years posts.

I am assuming this is the spot where I need to tell you what I want to do this year. With my Top 5 things I want to accomplish in 2013! Why top 5? Well maybe because I can think of 4 things but I really need to stay with loosing weight so that would be 5. Not in any particular order though. Might be more of a 5 things not a top 5. i really will work on these equally everyday

5. Loose Weight (had to say it). But as I type it maybe I should just say it different. How about live a healthier life style. I have been on multiple diets, but I think I want to start with doing a few things less dramatic. My main problem is when I say I’m going to do something and then going over dramatic with it. So lets start by just trying to be healthier.

4. Reach out to others more. Lets show people that we do care! I hate to think sometimes that I get so caught up with things that I forget what God has given in. I am not speaking of material things, I mean the gift of knowing others. I have a lot of friends. A lot of good hearted, kind people that I rarely even say hi to anymore. And on another note, I have the opportunity to meet people daily and show them Gods love and care for them. I want to do that more without taking advantage of the most important part of showing my family I love them unconditionally. I want to be the best dad, step dad and husband I can be. That whole thing sounds like what I have been trying to do, I just want to make an effort to do it more!

3. Pray more. I have gotten a little cocky as of late in thinking that I can handle all my own problems and getting away from what I know is right and that is my faith. I am going to get on my knees more and ask for help with my weaknesses and also ask for more help for others. We take to much for granted, and I want to be able to reach out to people in ways that are good. Witnessing to others in my own way. So cliche, but so true when I say life is to short to live it wrong.

2. Read more history. I read a lot of things that are cool, but not very historical. I can tell you the whole new 52 story line but can’t tell you details about the Declaration of Independence. I am going to start with a small project to post to Wikipedia about. I have a few ideas I am tossing around and will talk more about them later. Just know that I will continue to be the master of useless information, but also be a little more resourceful and beneficial in showing others that I can do other things. All for the good of mankind ( told you I was dramatic!)

1. And finally to the part that I am starting on today! Develop my Matt Black page to be more informative with useful links and ways to help people. I have a whole funny story behind this. But will save it for another blog

Come join hands with the Black…lets see what kind of difference we can make!