Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

I got a very official looking email today telling me that my Domain is going to expire in two days and I have to renew immediately or lose revenue when people can’t find my website. The company claims to be Domain Services with an email address at hotmail. They offer immediate renewal at rates that are roughly 10 times what you would pay at any reputable domain registrar. They have obviously garnered a list of sites and are sending out mass emails to try and snare gullible domain owners into unnecessary renewals. My domain does not expire for another six years and even if it did expire my revue loss would be insignificant. This is another obvious and blatant Internet SCAM. I have reported the email address to Hotmail but who knows what they will do with it. There will be harried domain administrators who will succumb to panic and send this scam artist a grotesquely huge domain renewal fee. The snake oil salesman is alive and sadly well, one can only hope they will at some point reap wh...

I know enough already on printers. I guess I get interested in something and can’t let go. I mentioned in a past blog that one way to get rid of printer cables is to get a Bluetooth printer. That is easy to say and easy to find but most of us don’t have Bluetooth in our computers unless maybe we have a fairly new laptop. Well don’t despair, there is a solution. The USB Bluetooth adapter is alive and available from TrendNet. Now you can buy any Bluetooth enabled printer and stick it anywhere you want within 30 feet of your computer. No more cable clutter, no more noise beside your desk just a foot loose and fancy free printer across the room for only $24.58 at Amazon, plus free shipping if you can find something else to get over $25.00. This isn’t a paid blog but if you buy one from Amazon, I will get a commission, not enough to buy this myself unless way bunches of you buy one. TRENDnet's TBW-102UB Bluetooth USB Adapter allows you to make short-range wireless connect...

I recently fried one of my favorite toys. My 7” digital photo frame is now a perfectly good, electronic paper weight. I hadn’t changed the photos for awhile and I took the thing off the wall to put in a new SD card. I couldn’t get it to turn off so I just pulled out the SD card while it was running. The photo frame took severe umbrage to that and now displays lots of very colorful vertical lines instead of my photos. I know better, you shut down equipment before doing stuff like that. Sadly I ignored what I know and fried something which gives me a lot of pleasure. I will buy a new one and it will be better. Technology marches ahead and that frame was first generation. Still, I feel like a lost an old friend. I often found myself totally lost in watching the photos pop up. I reveled in the joy my grandchildren showed when they saw them selves on the screen. Yes, this is much ado about no big thing but I hate feeling stupid and that is what fried the frame. Take heed, learn from someone...

Sometimes your desk is just too crowded to stick your printer on it. Across the room there is plenty of space but it is such a pain in the butt running cables. There is a solution, trash your printer and buy a Bluetooth printer and add a Bluetooth card to your computer or continue to use your existing printer and add the Linksys WPSM54G Wireless-G USB Print Server. The Linksys Wireless-G Print Server with Multifunction Printer Support lets you connect a multifunction USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print sharing chores. Using a Print Server frees up your "print share PC" so you don''t have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work. The Print Server is compatible with most USB multifunction printers, and allows full access to printing, faxing, scanning, and copying functions. Like any print server, users on the network can print anytime. The other fun...

Do catchy or semi-humorous titles get more people to read the blog? That is a question. Likelihood of a comment is minimal. Anyway, sometimes it seems like you need a printer somewhere besides right next to the computer. After rebate this puppy is only $22.50 including shipping from Buy.com. This is not a paid blog. TRENDnet's TE100-P1U 10/100 Mini USB Print Server is an ideal network solution designed to transform virtually all conventional USB printer into a shared resource on your network. TE100-P1U has a 10/100Mbps auto-sensing RJ-45 port, which connects to either 10Mbps or 100Mbps network. With its "Automatic IP" feature, the Print Server will automatically configure its IP address, making installation quick and easy. For advanced management, you can configure the print server using the Windows-Based Wizard, Admin Software or Web Browser. Also, the TE100-P1U supports Internet Printing Protocol, so users can print remotely to the USB printer via the Internet. Compact ...

Being a technut, I love to see really cool stuff coming out. I have a PDA and it holds my books and I use it when traveling and when I am reading in any low light environment. The back lighting enables reading just about anywhere. If I didn’t already have a PDA, I am sure I would have a Kindle. Now Amazon has brought out the Kindle DX. It is way bigger and I am sure easier to read. If my 401k hadn’t turned into a 201k, I would consider buying it. As gadgets go it is a bit pricy at $489.00 but give it a couple of years and inevitably it will drop in price. Here are the specs. This is not a paid blog but if you buy one by clicking on the link below, I will get a commission. Not enough to buy a Kindle book, let alone a Kindle but every bit helps. Since I use any thing I make on my blogs or Amazon to buy more books, if you buy something from my site, you are supporting Literacy. So Support Literacy! Kindle DX: Amazon's New Addition To The Kindle Family Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, a...

I know, this is a tech blog and this isn't tech related in any way whatsoever. This is my first book in print so I am shouting from what ever roof top I can find. This is not your normal review since I am totally biased. This is not the first story I have written but it is the first I have gotten into main stream print. It is for sale at Amazon. I recently read a self described rant in the author discussion area at www.paperbackswap.com This author was miffed because he was expected to appear at a book signing with other authors, some of whom were self published. This particular author felt that only authors who have established a relationship with a “known” publishing house should have the right to consider themselves authors. He worked too hard to be lumped in with a bunch of neophytes. When I started my computer business in 1981, the local newspaper wrote a nice article on a young entrepreneur and his fledgling business. Later that week there was a letter to the editor demanding...

That mantra isn’t what you normally want to hear about your hard drive. But what about your old hard drive? Do you want your old tax return or that photo of you mooning the opposing football team available for the world to see? Most of us blithely assume that deleting files actually deletes them. Wrong! Deleting files merely drops the name from the index and the info is there until it is overwritten. Oh, then if I use a software package designed to overwrite all my files then my data is truly erased. Maybe! Why maybe? Commercial software such as Stellar Wipe, Master Shredder, Crisystec Sentry.30, DiskDeleter, Secure Folders XP or PowerWiper may successfully delete your data. Then other commercially available software such as NTFS Formatted Partition Data Recovery, Deleted Windows Partition Data Restore or R-Studio Data Recovery Software may be able to recover it. It seems like for every tool there is a counter tool. I have used Drive Savers Data Recovery services on hard drives I was ...

Sometimes I feel like I live in a cave in spite of the fact that I am online most of my waking hours. I watch TV through HULU on my TV. I email, yadda yadda yadda. So when one of my golfing buddies asked me what did I think of the MagicJack and I had to say, huh? I didn’t have a clue what the MagicJack was and what it did. Needless to say my tech know it all status was jeopardized. After my embarrassing admittance I came home and Goggeled new phone internet product since my questioner hadn’t remembered the name of the product. MagicJack came up and I went to their site. The product is very impressive, the site not so much. What MagicJack costs to purchase is under FAQs. The price is only $39.95 which is so reasonable, why do they bury it in the FAQs? I found that annoying but I was impressed with the product. So was PC Magazine which gave it the product of the year award. First you must have broadband to consider MagicJack. Then for $39.95 you get a little piece of hardware the size ...

I have been consistently happy with Acer products. This monitor is hard to beat. The Acer X193Wb 19” Wide Screen Monitor would be a great gift for Mom. I find myself watching as much TV on my computer through the Internet as I do through the traditional cable. This monitor makes it easier on the eye and will let you get back from your desk far enough to put up your feet. Not that anybodies Mother would be gauche enough to do that. Buy.com seems to have the best price at $99.00 including shipping. This is not a paid blog. Tech Specs Model Number: X193Wb Part Number: ST.CX3WP.002 UPC: 099802221027 Display Size: 19" Wide, 408 x 255mm Pixel Pitch: 0.284mm Color: Black Max. Resolution & Refresh Rate: 1440 x 900 @ 75Hz Glare (Y/N): N Response Time: 5ms Contrast Ratio: 2000:1 ACM Brightness: 300 cd/m2 Viewing Angle: 160 (H), 160 (V) Colors: 16.7 M Bit: 6 + HiFRC Color Situation: NTSC% Pixel Error Standard: B/D:3; D/D:4; Total:5 System Specs Input Sign...

For those of us who find allergies plaguing us year round, let alone you fortunate few who only suffer in the spring or fall there is some relief. No, pollen has not been abandon but I have found a major savings on my allergy meds. I’m sure any of you who actually pay your own bills have been totally outraged at the price of allergy medication. Even with medical insurance, allergy meds cost bundles of money. Imagine my surprise when I discovered, you can get otc (over the counter) meds from AMAZON . Right, who would have thought to buy their allergy meds from Amazon. I know I didn’t think of it. Ever since Zyrtec went over the counter, I have been using it with great success. (BTW, this is not medical advice and is merely my personal opinion, I have no idea if it will help you.) Anyway, Zyrtec is one of my weapons against sniffling, sneezing, wheezing, coughing, snorting and headaches. When generic Zyrtec (Cetirizine Hydrochloride) became available I shifted over and found no negatives...