Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Grandchildren demand lots of batteries not just in their toys but in my cameras. I have two digital cameras that seem to suck the life out of whatever type of battery I install. I have myriad rechargeable batteries. Nicad and NiMh neither of which have been satisfying. I have tried brand name batteries and no name batteries. I have tried the expensive lithium disposable batteries but the disposable aspect offends me. Charge them up, pop them in the camera and they work just fine but they don’t hold a charge for any length of time. If I am lucky they still work 24 hours later but generally they need to be recharged on a daily basis. I read about the Eneloop batteries and liked the idea but I have 16 AA NiMh that work, poorly but they work. Then my Lenmar SpeedCharger died. Luckily it died just within warranty, although Lenmar honored the warranty they did charge me $10.00 shipping and handling or 33% of replacing it. The death of my SpeedCharger forced me to take a look at chargers and ...

Recently I had a TV dying and decided to upgrade to current technology. I am one of those stubborn souls that feels if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I am going to live with my low resolution tube TVs until they die. Well considering I won the aforementioned dying TV in 1985 in a sales contest I think it served me well. Shopping for a TV is an interesting experience. I blogged on my Best Buy experience on February 9th. They would have had a sale except for the surly twit that drove me out of the store. Target had a Magnavox 1080p, 42” that was priced at $699.00 which was a good deal, except they didn’t actually have it in stock. Kmart had a good deal too except they too didn’t have it in stock. Hmm, you can put anything you want on sale for a great price if you don’t actually have to deliver something. I went to a local retailer and they were $200.00 more than my $699.00 target price. I talked to one of the owners and she said she would find me one. I told her she could exceed my targete...

Despair is the most common reaction when I have to call anyone’s customer service. My recent experience with US Air customer service was abysmal. I called Comcast Customer Service regarding a commercial for upgrading service and two different representatives had no clue what they were advertising on TV. So imagine my delight when I assembled a Sauder TV stand and had a pleasant and fulfilling experience with customer service. The unit assembled easily with good directions but one of the two door pulls was defective. I emailed customer service regarding the problem, they promptly emailed me back requesting my address and said the part would be shipped immediately at no charge. Wow, what a delight! Kudos go to Jessica Stuckey at Sauder Woodworking in Internet Support. Thank you for doing your job when so many are not. On a side note, the tv stand was well made, good quality at a terrific price of $70.00 at Target. This is not a paid blog and I have no financial connection besides being a...

Did you know that an HD TV doesn’t provide HD unless you have an HD source? If I am now insulting you, well stop reading. It appears that many folks don’t know that an HD (high definition) TV doesn’t give any better picture that any other TV if you don’t have a HD source. I happened to be in close proximity to folks buying TVs recently and (believe it or not, suffered in silence) listened to sales people and buyers ignoring the reality of HD. If you don’t have HD coming in from your cable, your satellite dish or over the air, you aren’t going to get HD TV with the incredible quality. Incidentally you do not, I repeat you do not need to have a special antenna as long your TV has a HD tuner which if it is an HD TV, it should. Digital and HD are not synonymous. Digital will give you an overall better picture and will be your only choice in June now instead of February. The only problem with over the air digital is that fringe areas that are not close to a broadcast source will get no pi...

No, not boat anchors, wall anchors, those little plastic doodads that hold things in or on drywall. I suspect that you have bent one or two, as I have, when trying to pound one of those plastic screw like sleeves into a hole you have drilled in the wall. They hold ok but in my experience, I always have to have a few spare for the ones I bend. Technology has listened and there are now some very interesting alternatives. The Wall-Dog is easy to use and holds well. They look durable and go in fairly easy. Popular Mechanics tested them and were pleased with their performance. The WallClaw is more complicated and take more vigor to install. They tested very well and held some serious weight. I have just spackled over some holes left by removing molly bolts, these seem like much better solutions. Check out the October 2007 issue of Popular Mechanics for more complete test results. This was not a paid blog.

Last October Popular Mechanics had a blurb on the $99.00 computer with a monthly fee of $13.00 per month. I looked up Zonbu today to see how they were faring. They appear to be operating under a bit different scenario now. Zonbu is both an operating system and a concept. You can get Zonbu (a linux OS) for free along with upto 250mb of online storage. You can download it to your computer and run their online (cloud) applications. Their premier service gives you 50GB of online service for $15.00 per month. They provide the OS, the applications and the storage. They claim you now avoid all the hassles of upgrading (which can be a trial). They claim you can avoid viruses which target Windows OS. You have online data storage which is supposedly impervious to data loss. You can access your data from any online source. It is an interesting concept. You can buy computers from them with the OS preinstalled. I have reservations but you may want to check out their site, it makes for interesting r...

There are a wealth of places to buy an LCD TV. Why would you ever buy from a store whose employee’s act as if they are condescending to do a HUGE favor by talking to you? That succinctly describes my experience at Best Buy. I chose the TV I wanted on their web site. I read reviews from several sources that said the Insignia was a very good value for the money. It was their store brand and it was priced very aggressively. $699.00 plus tax for a 1080p, 42” LCD TV is a good price. I first looked at the displays and immediately discovered that they were not displaying their own store brand. That cast some doubt as to how it would compare to the other brands. Of course their store brand was priced considerably cheaper than their name brand products so maybe they didn’t want you to see how good it was, instead of how bad it was, who knows since I never saw it. I finally, after much looking, tracked down a surly little twit who begrudgingly asked me if he could help me. I find it quite intere...

If you do a search on US Airways Sucks you will find an enormous number of disgruntled travelers. I have joined the club. It is not over a large amount of money, it is primarily a principle. On a recent flight, during web check in I noticed my wife and I were not seated together so I chose "Choice" seats and paid $10.00 each for them. On the diagram they appeared to be exit seats, thusly more leg room. I received the email confirmation of payment for the "Choice" seats. Upon being seated in the aircraft, I noticed that the seats were in no way choice, the flight attendant agreed that they could see no way they were choice seats. They were not on a bulkhead, aisle or exit row and there was NO extra leg room. Again, I asked the flight attendants and they agreed, they were not "Choice" seats and was advised to see the “help” desk in the Terminal. The people at the desk said they couldn't help me and gave me a 866-523-5333 number that no one answers. The r...

Kmart has a Sylvania 32” LCD TV for $369.00. It is new, not a refurb and a major bang for the buck. It is 720p that for most of us is all we need. 720p translates into 720 progressive scan which simply means a screen resolution to satisfy all but the major geeks. This TV is $399.00 plus shipping at Amazon and even higher elsewhere. It is not the top of the line, it appears to be a good solid “main street” choice. Here are the specs. A 32” is an appropriate size for viewing from 3’ to 8’ distance, perfect for the home office, bedroom and den. Size does matter and for the family room you probably want to go bigger. Again for the price, this is a very good value. This is not a paid blog and I got no financial reward for writing it, however if anyone from Sylvania would like to send me this TV for a prolonged in house evaluation, I am more than willing to do a follow up blog. Model# LC320SS9 Product Overview: Item Weight: 24.3 lbs. TV Type:LCD HDTV:Yes Screen Size (by diagonal measure):3...