Disasters happen when people least expect them. Fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes to name a few. They disorient people and separate love ones from communication. This separation can be as emotional as the disaster itself. People reach for some kind of device to communicate with the people they know to confirm they are safe and that everything close to them is still okay.

One of the most common devices used in a disaster is the telephone. People expect to pick up the phone, dial a number, and be connected instantly. Cell phones are known for failing to work after an earthquake or other natural disaster. If the towers are not destroyed, they are swamped with more calls than they can handle.

Text messages and email usually can handle more volume, but are still not totally mainstream with cellphones. For someone to send a message to a number of people requires composing each message individually.

New services have sprouted to help distribute messages to groups of people you know. Enter an email address or cellphone number into a group list before the disaster, and you can send one message to the whole group like a mailing list.

Mobile devices can also send updates to news outlets to let them know how widespread damage in their area is. Emailing photos allows viewers of newscasts and websites see the devastation and become involved in the effort to help those affected by the disaster. Emergency services can utilize this information as well to send personnel to the affected areas.

If the only device you have is a mobile phone, you can receive safety alerts that can tell you where you should go or what you should do next. Panic causes people to do unexpected actions and by being given centralized instructions, both themselves and others will be led to a safe resolution of the disaster.

Why is it that a programmer never properly documents code? Many programmers are so concentrated on coding and making sure the code runs correctly and efficiently that they don’t consider others or themselves coming back to the code to review (or worse yet, troubleshoot and fix bugs) in the future.

When one thinks about who they are documenting code for, other programmers come to mind. Commenting helps to understand what a block of code does. If it is a function, what data do you pass in, and what does it return. Basically, it’s the answer to ‘What can this do for me?’ A programmer never thinks they document code for themselves (a non-selfish programmer, wow).

There could be a mentality that any good programmer will be able to read the code and understand what it does. If you can’t read someone else’s code (regardless of clarity), how can one expect you to come in and fix code that is buggy and outdated.

If we forgive the less experienced programmers (who can become just as knowledgeable), we could focus on the programmer that writes the code. There’s the programmer that is left to write a block of code and is the only one who comes back to it to maintain and fix it. Do you remember why you wrote something the way you did? All the issues that you anticipated and tried to prevent.

Very well if you do, since you’re probably not working on enough code day after day. If you don’t remember the things mentioned above, do yourself a favor and comment the code you write. It doesn’t take much time, during and after writing small bits at a time. If you wait until you’re done with all the code, you may be intimidated with the amount of documenting you have to do. There’s a high probability that you will be distracted with other tasks that are not related to this code and will never get to document it. You’ll wish you did when you come back to it.

The Internet brought us shopping in a new method. Instead of going to the store, calling a toll-free number, or sending a mail-order form by mail, you can view and buy almost anything that can be shipped (legally and illegally) to you.

Amazon has an extensive amount of inventory that you can browse and order from. They offer free shipping on numerous items and no tax. Government officials have been looking at ways to tax Internet purchases to make a few more cents. It’s been bothering them for many years.

Free shipping and no taxes has motivated many people to buy something online. You don’t have to leave the house and spend money on gas. You don’t have to figure out if a store has the item in stock, where it is in the store, and then wait in line to buy it.

Not considering the fact the system becomes more complex with some states being taxed and others not, is the additional income that much to counter the inconvenience factor? Or is there a point being made that no person or company can avoid paying taxes on a purchase they make.

If the only motive to buy something online is because you save money and time compared to buying it at a brick and mortar store, there is no advantage if the price breaks even or is more. If you spend the same amount, do you want to wait a week before you get the item at your doorstep? Amazon and others will have to compensate for the additional cost in taxes added to their products if they are to remain competitive.

Finding a song that you heard the lyrics of but have no idea who sang it or what the song is called is so much easier to determine with the Internet at your fingertips. Search Google or YouTube with the words you hear, and you’re on the way to that great song.

Search YouTube and you can play the video of the song to verify if it is the right song by tone, not just the lyrics. Use Amazon or Apple’s iTunes store to purchase just the song and download it instantly for use on your MP3 player. Want more tracks in the album? Many websites display the other songs on the CD and give samplers as well.

To determine the song in the past when there was no Internet easily accessible, or even the web video to verify and watch the song being played is unimaginable for younger audiences. You can even download the song on your cellphone and have it as a ring tone in no time.

No need to visit your local library or music store hoping the song is popular enough that a librarian will be able identify your mangled lyrics. With search engines helping to correct your mistaken spelling, the mangled lyrics you heard isn’t an issue.

And this method even works when another artist sings the same lyrics for a soundtrack for a motion picture. Include the movie’s title in the lyrics search and the search results will return both the original soundtrack and the modified track.

Finally, you can find other music that has the same tempo and characteristics by entering the song details into a personal radio player online that will search for similar music. But you won’t have to wonder what song is playing, since those services provide you with the title, artist, and links to purchase it.

Gift certificates used to be very simple. You went to the store and paid any amount for a paper certificate that entitled the holder to visit the store and decrease the amount due by said amount. The merchant kept a record in a binder and waited for them to be redeemed (hopefully collecting a little interest on the amount). Any change that was left from a purchase was usually cashed out. Everything was handwritten and just like cash. If you lost the certificate, you lost the money.

Then came the plastic cards that had a set amount. They survived the wash or other destructible event that paper didn’t survive. Some merchants offered online access to check your balance. After a purchase, the remaining balance would remain on the card. Only after spending the full amount of the card would you regain the balance. Merchants preferred not to cash out the cards.

Today, you probably have a number of gift cards that you’re waiting to spend on something you need. You also have those cards with balances of less than a dollar and no way to cash out and only one place to spend it. Nowadays you can register these gift cards online to protect the balance should you lose it.

If you buy a certificate from an online merchant, you may never see a paper certificate or plastic card. They will email the recipient a code that can be entered into a field during the checkout process. So much for a material object like cash.

There are options to refill the cards and keep them alive. Add value to them and send them off as a present to someone else. The ultimate regift.

Watch out for those pesky fees that deduct small amounts after a period of inactivity. To keep the record of how much the card is worth will cost you.