Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

TRENDnet TEW-631BRP Wired: IEEE 802.3 (10Base-T), IEEE 802.3u (100Base-TX) Wireless: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft) Wireless N-Draft Firewall Router – Retail $79.99. www.newegg.com has it for $69.99 with a $30 rebate and free shipping. Consumer search ranked it as #3 in best routers for the money and it has a 3 year warranty to boot. I’ve used TRENDnet products and found them as good as any other company. This price is very good for a “N” wireless router. The following overview is from the newegg website. TRENDnet TEW-631BRP wireless router lets you create a secure wireless network using the latest Draft 802.11n wireless technologies offering greater range and data speeds than the older 802.11b/g standards, (when used with compatible Draft 802.11n wireless adapters) while still being fully backwards compatible with them—perfect for mixed-mode environments. The router's MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology also makes it a natural choice fo...

My dad was born on this date. RIP Happy Birthday Dad! We miss you!

I received a hard back book today from Elizabeth Brown Books and Collectibles in San Diego, CA. She is a member of the www.abebooks.com group of independent seller. I mention her because the book I got today was in pristine condition and packed extremely professionally. You may ask, "why is that unusual?" If you ask that, you probably don't buy a lot of books online. I buy a lot of books, I generally buy them from either abebooks.com or half.com. I attempt to avoid the usury shipping charges by going over the complete inventory of a seller after I find the book I am looking to buy. Generally the 2nd and ensuing books are less expensive to ship than the first. When you buy a book for a dollar, you usually end up paying a couple of bucks for shipping which is a not so sneaky way of getting more money out of you since media mail is never as expensive as what is charged. But I digress, reasonably priced books are to be had at either site. What is unusu...

Renting a car seems so similar to playing the slot machine. You are hoping to hit the ultimate combination and be a winner. Your odds of success on car rental may be similar to your slot machine odds. Wanting to rent a car I went to Expedia and did a search. I input the airport, the dates and followed the prompts. I got several companies that ranged widely and wildly in price. I went to Priceline and Advantage had the best price. I went to epinons.com and found a wealth of opinions suggesting you would be a complete idiot to rent from Advantage. Since Advantage was on Pricelines list I felt that if I tried their name your own price I would get stuck with Advantage since they were already substantially lower than everyone else. (I have successfully used Pricelines’ the name your own price before but Advantage was not available in that location so I didn’t have to worry about getting them.) I went to AARP’s site and their best price with their AARP discount was from Alamo...

Recently an acquaintance of mine committed suicide. The despair and lack of hope that lead to suicide must be overwhelming. Alcoholism was a contributing factor to the suicide. A perceived monumental personal life disappointment combined with a final DUI seems to be what triggered the suicide. Facing the loss of freedom and probable loss of employment seemed insurmountable and that appears to be the cause of death. It all seems so unnecessary. There were people who would have responded to a cry for help. There are institutions who would have intervened. Sadly neither happened. A lack of hope and a disconnection from any type of support system is a terrible, terrible thing. It’s easy to say, “I would have done something if I had known.” It is much harder to actually do things. I guess the bottom line is that you must accept the responsibility to ask for help and much as you have to accept the responsibility for your actions. I have to contrast this with a c...

My guess is that you, too, have found that the medical community has a lack of concern for your time. I am sure the medical community in general does not like the idea of being lumped with the insurance industry but face it if we are lucky enough to have medical insurance we are almost guaranteed to hate the way we are treated. My insurance company will bill me for a 60 day supply of meds and send me a 90 day supply if I use their mail order pharmacy. That is what they say. What they do is erratically and loosely follow that theoretical policy. The excuses for not fulfilling their obligation vary, generally they blame it on the Doctor’s office. Of course the Doctor’s office feels the insurance company is the root of all evil. Which, on most days, I am inclined to agree. So not only does this cost me money, it sucks up enormous amounts of time trying to get what I have paid for in my insurance premiums, which are astronomical anyway. My time appears to be their time to...

I am cognizant that broadband access is not necessary for life. Nevertheless it certainly missed when you don’t have it. An admitted information junkie, I found my self twitching when I was unable to jump online and verify something I heard on the news or look up further information on something I found while reading. In addition the daily nature of email and instant messaging left me feeling surrealistically disconnected. Anyway, now home with broadband I feel complete, a bit nerdish but complete. Reconnecting should increase the productivity of my blog. Should?!