I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida where PCMech is based out of, but I’m not a Florida native. I originally hail from the state of Connecticut in the northeastern portion of the United States known as New England. That region typically has harsh winters; everyone there is very familiar with what a Nor’easter is.

When the cold comes (even well before the snow hits), most people will sit in front of their computers for much longer than usual because it’s nice and toasty warm inside.

My suggestion to anyone who does this is to use this extended time on the computer being more productive rather than wasting it and listening to your ass grow.

Productive things you can do with your computer at home

This is just a short list to give you a few ideas.

Clean out your closet/garage/whatever and sell the stuff you don’t need anymore on Craigslist, eBay or both.

If you do this now it will save you the trouble of trying to sell your old stuff after the snow comes. Everybody appreciates a few extra bucks, so inventory what you have, get the ads out and start selling.

Craigslist is free. eBay, as everyone knows, isn’t.

Create an end-of-year to-do list and stick to it (or at least try to)

2009 is coming fast. You’ve officially got just over two months before 2008 is over. This is a good span of time to finish all your unfinished projects (within reason of course).

Use your computer to type up a document of all your unfinished stuff, print it out if need be and start finishing stuff up.

If you’re married and/or have kids, print out multiple copies and hand them to all the family members. Better yet, have them participate in creating the list before printing it. Everybody will probably have something to contribute.

Start scanning online retailers now for holiday season purchases

Personally speaking, I think Black Friday is worst time to shop but there are probably more than a few of you out there that shop on that day.

My suggestion is to make a list of the stuff you intend to buy, the search for the item on BizRate. That site searches many different retailers for the best price and also provides customer satisfaction ratings on the vendor (important).

Print out a list of the stuff with prices.

If you dare go shopping on Black Friday, bring the list with you. If you can make it thru the frenzy you can compare store prices to your list. Some will be higher while others lower.

It’s like the old saying goes – never pay full price. Follow this saying because it’s true.

If there is stuff you want to buy for yourself, wait until January 2009

Post holiday sales are the stuff dreams are made of as far as purchasing is concerned. Granted, in-stock items are sparse but the prices are usually rock-bottom due to overstock if you look hard enough.

From the list you made of the purchases you want, note the ones where you say to yourself "Yeah, I want [this], but I can wait." The wait ends in January. If in January it’s out of stock, it will be back in stock February and the price will still be just as good.

Learn Linux

Go grab yourself a cheap computer box from somewhere and install a distro of Linux on it. To be on the safe side, the box should be a minimum 2.4GHz single core with 1GB RAM and a 128MB video card so it doesn’t crawl as far as speed is concerned.

Knowledge is power. If you’ve got the time to spare and are forced to stay inside, learn something new.

Create a Photo Book of autumn and (the upcoming) snow scenes

If you’re like the rest of the computery types that read PCMech you’ve most likely got a digital camera.

The Autumn and Winter seasons are some of the best times of the year to take photos because the scenery is almost completely "automatic".

I’ll explain:

Right now there are more overcast days compared to bright sun. This creates a light known as flat light (not to be confused with whiteout).

Flat light is the absolute best shooting condition you could hope for even if you completely suck at photography. Colors will be vibrant, there will be no harsh shadows and everything is lit evenly (keyword there).

When there’s snow on the ground you obviously know that snow reflects light. One would think this is bad for shooting photos but it isn’t. Rather it’s the exact opposite because the snow itself is acting as a light source. Combined with a snowy overcast day, everything is evenly lit.

So charge up your digital camera and/or replace the batteries and start shooting photos. I can guarantee upon review of the photos you take you’ll say "Wow.. these look way better than my Summer photos."

You can thank a flatly lit environment for that.

ALSO..

Take your photos and make a photo book. Use Lulu or CafePress. If not a photo book, make a calendar. Set a price and send the link to all your friends and family members. Odds are a few will buy it and you’ll make a few bucks on the side.

Got more suggestions?

If you have any computer-related (even loosely) suggestions for staying productive during the cold, feel free to chime in.

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