Computer & Consumer Electronics Recommendations

I decided to start a recommendations page for folks that ask me which computer parts & consumer electronics to buy...

Why Gmail's Searches Suck & a Cheap Digital Camera

I was surprised to find that Gmail's search functionality is quite limited. For example:
I was searching for the term 'hangover' in my board game night messages, and Gmail will not find 'hangovers'. But when I input 'hangovers' - voila! The messages then appear. Even worse, 'hangover*' doesn't return 'hangovers' either.

My sweetie & I are preparing to buy our second digital camera. We purchased our first in 1999, a Kodak DC3200. We were early adopters. It sure will be nice not to have the slightest motion blur the shot. I talked with a salespeople at Best Buy & Costco, and they both agreed the Canon A520 was a sweet spot for price/value at $190 from Best Buy for the consumer market. 4x optical zoom, 4 megapixels(2272 x 1704). I'm still not sure how listing the "digital zoom" ability of a camera helps a consumer. It's akin to saying, "In my photo editing program I can zoom in and see individual pixels! Check it out!" Que ridí­culo.