Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Smart Phone Rationalization Hey is all that money you got for gifts burning a hole in your pocket?  If so for those of you who have difficulty justifying the purchase of a smart phone I have a few suggestions. A GPS with a 4.3” screen is generally at least $100.00 and you usually have to buy updates. Many smart phones have a GPS app built in and you do NOT have to purchase updates. A tiny 8 megapixel digital camera will cost you at least $75.00. Many smart phones have an 8 megapixel camera today. An iPod or other digital music player can cost over $200.00. Most smart phones can download and play your music and allow you to download movies too. You can get an app for reading bar codes on your smart phone and then compare that barcode with online prices and save a bundle on many purchases. You can check the market and the ball game scores where ever you may be. I don’t sell smart phones but they do bring new meaning to want vs. need. Bottom line is if you wa...

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I looked at Amazon Wireless recently. I considered upgrading my phone through them. The phone was $299.00 with a hundred dollar rebate through Verizon but it was $119.00 through Amazon. I went as far as adding it to my cart, verifying my address and then they asked for my Social Security number. The Social Security number was never intended to be used as a national identity card but it often is used as such. In today’s world though, it is paramount to asking to have your identity stolen by blithely handing out your social security number. What, pray tell, are the people at Amazon Wireless thinking when they ask for your social security number? I did not upgrade my phone there specifically because they asked for my social security#. I do not give that out to anyone and neither should you.

Zwilling JA Henckels International Fine Edge Synergy 13 Piece Block Cutlery Set - 15705-000 SKU #: JAH1456 at CNSstores You can only be married so many years before you need to replace your knives. We have done this piece meal until now. After looking at the mishmash of knives I had to bite the bullet and go for a new set. I researched knives and found this set. It isn’t the cheapest nor is it anywhere near the most expensive. It had good and bad reviews. The biggest complaint seemed to be that it is recommended that you hand wash the knives and they may rust if you don’t dry them. Since I saw that concern on practically every decent knife set, I discounted those factors. The knives are as advertised. They look good and the block isn’t enormous which is crucial for counter space. They cut the way they are suppose to cut and since I am hand washing and drying after each use I see no other issues. If I see an issue I will do an update 6 months down the road. At this point, I think...

How many times have you been in the middle of your grilling when the flames sputter and go out? It usually happens when you have a pool full of people and 20 burgers on the grill, the kids screaming for their food and you are busting your knuckles trying to get the new propane tank hooked up. I finally broke down and researched propane tank gauges and found this one. It was more expensive them some and less expensive than others. It got some good reviews. It installed easily and has clear instructions on how to check for leaks. I do use the Teflon tape designed for gas connections. That has worked great. I have yet to have a leak using that tape. The gauge is simplistic but it gives you an idea of how much gas you have available. I have never been good at gauging how much gas by picking up the tank. This is not precise but it will provide you with an early warning. The instructions say you should shelter the gauge from rain fall. I molded an aluminum foil bread pan over the enti...

A New Giveaway Thrall a new heroic fantasy novel by Steven L. Shrewsbury Inter-Galatic First prize is a copy of the book, a poster and Thrall T-Shirt! (Shipping is restricted to the known universe and this dimension  only, alternate worlds and  universes need not enter.) See Details and Enter At Azure Dwarf !

As much as I love the swivel screen on my Canon PowerShot A95, the camera is getting a bit long in the tooth. 5 mega pixels was a big deal, once. Now it is so so but I would keep on using it for that delightful swivel screen except that is getting a bit squirrelly. Not good squirrelly either. Sometimes the first picture or so isn’t even seen on screen and it doesn’t come out either. So I did some research and found a great price and a camera that is just enough smaller that it fits into my jeans or my shirt pocket. Convenience size was my first consideration. The 14 megapixel and the 5X optical were nice bonuses. It has some very nice features that I will seldom use but are nice anyway. It has 22 scene settings for specific types of photos. Realistically I will leave it on auto most of the time but I liked both the scene settings and manual settings. I’ve only taken a couple hundred photos so far but I have been satisfied with the quality. Overall this is a darn good bang for the ...

A good stocking stuffer! I am anal about protecting my electronics from power problems. I always carry a single outlet surge with my laptop. As so many do, on a trip I left my single outlet surge in the wall socket. It was a Tripplite and it was tiny. It took up very little room in my notebook case. I ordered this unit without checking dimensions, primarily because of the low price ($5.88) and Belkin’s reputation. I have no reason to believe the Belkin isn’t satisfactory as a surge protector. I do take umbrage with the fact that it just doesn’t pack well. My Sanyo battery charger has fold down prongs for the outlet. That enables it to fit quite nicely in the laptop case pocket. The surge however doubles it’s thickness due to the outlet prongs. Since this purchase I have found two that have folding prongs. One is the  Fellowes 9904701 3-Outlet Surge Suppressor with a convenient little night light for $14.99 at Buy.com and $17.00 at Amazon. The other is Belk...

A New Giveaway Thrall a new heroic fantasy novel by Steven L. Shrewsbury Inter-Galatic First prize is a copy of the book, a poster and Thrall T-Shirt! Go to Azure Dwarf’s Horde of SciFi and Fantasy for details.

Sparky the Skunk reviews The Christmas Knot A wonderful children's book by Author William G. Bentrim on YouTube

This is a surprisingly nice piece of furniture for the price. $261.25 got this delivered to the door. Dynamic Home Décor offers free shipping and has been running a 5% off sale on orders over $249.00. The color of this is much more red than the online photos showed. Assembly was astoundingly easy. The entire base comes assembled and is shipped folded. All you need to do is attach the top with the four screws provided and put a knob on the glass door. BTW you may want to put the knob on before you put the top on, in spite of what the directions say. Once the top is on, if you haven’t already put the door pull on the door, you may have difficulty getting the door open to put on the pull knob. It did provide me with a self depreciating laugh as I leaned over the back of the unit and pushed the door open by sticking a yard stick through the cable holes and pushing the door open from the back. I suspect I would not have been as amused at my self if I had missed the door frame and punched...

Are your servers safe? APC provides a white paper that explains the use and function of IT generators. I am not promoting APC or their generators but if you have an IT facility and are not protected you should read their white paper for general information. It is pretty good. BTW I do use a couple of APC products and have been satisfied but this is not a paid blog and I got no compensation for writing it.

Have you noticed how many grey, white, silver and black cars there are on the dealer lots? I’m guessing dealers find those colors safe. They are bland, inoffensive and then hopefully easier to sell. My reaction to that is blahhh! The only cars on dealer lots that seem to have exciting colors are the little midget cars for people under 5’4” and the muscle cars. I don’t want a weenie car and I don’t want a motor head gas guzzler, I want a sedan but I don’t want a sedate sedan. Is there some Detroit mind set that assumes that consumers are fond of blahhh? I have a suggestion. In a world of on demand manufacturing and printing why is it impossible to order exactly what you want in a car? For all I know it may still be possible but every time I have asked a car salesman if I can order I car they tell me they can locate me a car. That is car talk for,“ I don’t want to wait months for the factory to ship me a car so I will find one close to what you want and maybe you will take i...

Not being fond of cleaning in general, I wasn’t overly thrilled to shampoo the carpets recently. I have never tried any competing products but this one worked just fine. I have seen it referred to as a steam cleaner. I don’t think that is accurate. It has a built in heater but the water is definitely not steaming when applied to the carpet. It is easy to use and not heavy which would be important to a lot of folks. I found it easy to clean and easy to empty the dirty water and refill. It is about as noisy as my Eureka vac. It does seem to leave drops of water if you leave it sit in one spot too long. The water was dirty when I emptied it so I am guessing my carpets are cleaner. For $199.00 it is decidedly cheaper than professional cleaning. The cleaner concentrate was $14.99 at Ace hardware. It doesn’t seem to go through it very quickly so a 24oz bottle should last you awhile. This unit has bad reviews at Amazon and great reviews at Target. My experience was positive and I feel it ...

This is a surprisingly cool product. If you are old enough, you may remember when we all had TV antennas on the roof and if you had a few bucks you had a electric rotor to turn it. Then came cable and satellite and Fios and suddenly the idea of getting your TV signal off of the air seemed archaic. Digital conversion drove the final nail in the over the air TV signal or so the cable type people would like you to believe. Digital signals mean that if you have the appropriate TV or a digital conversion box and an antenna designed to pick up digital signals you can get a GREAT picture for FREE! Obviously Comcast, Verizon and the satellite folks would prefer you did not know this. You are led to believe that the only way to get a good TV picture is to pay someone to deliver it. Keep in mind the broadcast signal is now digital so if you don’t have a fairly new TV equipped to receive a digital signal you will still need a conversion box. If you got one of the $40.00 off federal cou...

Who wouldn't trust this face? The guys at Diamond Case have put together a comprehensive guide to purchasing a Blu-Ray DVD player. If you are in the market, it is worth checking out. In fact their web site is a wealth of Home Theatre information so it is worth checking out regardless of your need for a Blu-Ray DVD player.

They have an amazing selection of things that seems to increase every time I log on to their site.    I saw a nice drop leaf table as I surfed as well as other assorted items.  I sometimes just seem to fall down the rabbit hole when I start surfing. My plans are to review cordless phones , HDTV antennas , outdoor solar lights , a tire swing , pruning tools , sled, a lego set and an air compressor . Of course that may change if I see something else I would rather review. CSN is providing all of the items to review but the choices are mine and they have made no attempt to influence what I write. I will continue to try and post monthly.   I hope to have the HDTV antenna review up soon.  

Shellie's Very Cool Header Don't forget to comment on the Half-Made World  contest to enter and don't forget that Layers of Thought is giving a copy away too. 

Barnes and Noble have announced a color Nook for $249.00. ZDnet did a first look report . The color nook sounds cool but if you recall my post on the Augen reader at $90.00 with a color screen and browsing ability, there is still a huge price differential. In addition, the Augen page turning is quite fast, no lag and that has been a complaint about the Nook. B&N claim that has been remedied in the color Nook but still a $160.00 differential is pretty dramatic. Then you take into consideration the Vtech V.Reader has a color screen and nifty features for $59.95 and it seems like B&N might want to reevaluate their price point. I know the V.Reader is for kids but the technology is sophisticated so I think it is fair to compare. Bottom line, B&N should take a look at their price point if they plan on selling many of the color Nooks.

I was asked recently if I would look at a Dell laptop that was not recognizing a new battery. The new battery looked well made, fit perfectly in the Dell but was not recognized. I put the old battery in and got a message stating that the battery is at the end of it’s life cycle and buy a new battery. Here comes the gotcha! If you buy a Dell brand battery it is three times as expensive as the off brand. Now I didn’t have a new Dell battery to test but my guess is that the Dell brand battery will be recognized by the Dell laptop. The 3rd party vendor insists the battery will work if you follow their instructions which involve updating the bios, the CMOS, yadda yadda. Dell support simply said it isn’t our battery. Tsk Tsk. Third party people provided a bunch of busy work that did nothing. I also found it interesting that the Dell bios upgrade could not be done with the third party battery installed. I had to put the old battery in before it would update the bios. Interesting...

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I’ve never had much issue with dirt, the soil type anyway. Political dirt is another story. It must work or why would they all use it. I have strong doubts about its efficiency. In my own little straw poll I have determined that 99% of us are sick to our stomach over the attack ads. I say 99% because I am sure some demented soul must love the attack strategy. It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation might be, as Flower put so succinctly, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”. It is a darn shame that so few people running for office have any inkling on how to present them selves. They seem dreadfully adept at vilifying their opponent and have so little to say about their own goals. The demagogues start throwing their lies about and in a downward, self replicating spiral the opponents respond and we have a continuous storm of defecation. The health care bill is a good example. How many emails have you gotten that assure you with 100% confidence the healt...

Shellie's Very Cool Header Don't forget to comment on the Half-Made World  contest to enter and don't forget that Layers of Thought is giving a copy away too. 

A month or so ago I suggested the inevitability of the $29.99 eReader in an eReader discussion at BookBlogs. I said I thought that a price point at that level would entice parents into buying them for their kids. A reader took offense to my suggestion with the inference that I am nuts. The nuts part may or may not be true, opinions on that are mixed. However Vtech has just lowered the bar to $59.99 for an eReader. Vtech’s offering has animated stories with interactive games and learning tools. Featuring a color touch screen and a full qwerty keyboard their V.Reader also has both a USB port and an SD port. All of this for $59.99! The down side is that you are going to be limited to what they offer to read which is the case from some of the main stream adult eReaders as well. The stories are $19.99 each which as grotesque as that seems is on a par with some of the best sellers coming out in eBooks. I think the price is too steep but compared to DS or Gameboy offerings they are ...

First I am not a diver, have never been a diver and am not even sure that scuba is spelled correctly. Second if you think this is some kind of kinky thing, think again, it is a 3mm wet suit, scuba type, nothing kinky. If I am not a diver, why you may wonder would I buy a wet suit? Well age plays a part. I am a tad bit older than when I first put in my pool and I am retired. The older part means that my tolerance for ice water has slipped a bit. The retired part means no income. No income means that when my pool heater died, I decided that $3,000.00 for a new heater and $1,500.00/season for propane was an expense I could avoid. Initially this meant that I wasn’t swimming early or late in the season. Then one of my buddies jokingly suggested that he needed a wet suit for my pool because it was so cold. He has also suggested he has to break through the ice to get in and I vehemently deny that. I questioned him on wet suits and discovered that they can keep you warm. Who knew? ...

I’m always looking for things to review. This isn’t techy but it is kinda of cool. Someone close to me is a major purple fan. I tracked down purple golf tees on Amazon. They were Wilson brand and priced reasonably. Well, who knew a brand name golf tee would be so worthless. Great color, lousy tee! They broke with one swing. This is on a decent golfer, not a hacker like me. She blew threw two bags and was highly disappointed in the quality, loved the color though. I found  Golf USA Manhattan and they had purple tees. My initial concern was Manhattan. I’ve had very mixed results buying from NYC companies. (Sorry you good ones but it is what it is.) Turns out the company is in Manhattan Kansas. Who knew there was a Manhattan in Kansas? Turns out Kansas State’s color is purple and Golf USA Manhattan sells purple tees that do not have Kansas State printed on them. Even more surprising was they were priced $3.99 per bag of 65 tees. It cost $4.95 for shipping and handling....

I have mentioned before that CSN Stores have provided products to review. They do not dictate what products I chose or what I say in my review. I’m still pretty amazed at a company with that level of confidence in their products and service. I ran across console tables in my browsing of their site. My first thought was they were encouraging shop lifting. You have to click on the link to see what I mean.   They have an amazing selection of things that seems to increase every time I log on to their site. My plans are to review cordless phones , HDTV antennas , outdoor solar lights , a tire swing , pruning tools , sled, a lego set and an air compressor . Of course that may change if I see something else I would rather review. CSN is providing all of the items to review but the choices are mine and they have made no attempt to influence what I write. I will try and post monthly.   This should be fun!

Domestic violence is despicable. It is dismaying to contemplate anyone subjected to violence let alone the horrific aspect of having someone you love and trust hurting you. The Pixel Project is sponsoring a project called Paint it Purple. I’ve recorded a YouTube video as per their program to show support for the end of domestic violence. If someone you know is abused or abusing, they can find help at NOVA . NOVA stands for the Network of Victim Assistance and although they are local to Bucks County Pennsylvania, they do not limit their toll free help line to local residents. If you are in trouble, afraid for yourself or others, find help. NOVA 24 hours a day hotline #800-675-6900  

A Serial Saga Of the Horrifying Complexity of Purchasing A Plasma TV As I leaned back intending to savor one more glass of fine wine, George called the Video and Audio Center to cancel and they were very obliging. They told him they would contact Manna to see if they could get an explanation. They called back and said that they didn’t get a convincing explanation from Manna and had planned to ship George one from California using another shipper but they were out of stock on the LG. They offered to refund the shipping costs if George wanted to cancel but if he agreed to take the TV that was lost somewhere in NJ they would credit his Visa a substantial refund. (He did not divulge that amount no matter how much Cabernet I poured him.) He said the substantial amount made him feel better and he agreed to accept the TV lost in NJ. I immediately smashed the Cabernet box on the table and tried to beat him with the broken box to no avail. (At least I thought about doing that. ) Friday rol...

A Serial Saga Of the Horrifying Complexity of Purchasing A Plasma TV Buy local and avoid reading the rest of this tremulous tale of woe! The next day George got a call from Manna who said they were the white glove delivery service for his TV vendor. (hah!) Turns out the actual seller of the TV was not Amazon but one of their third party vendors, Video and Audio Center in California. Manna scheduled a delivery and George asked me to come over to help set it up. I blocked off the day since I knew we would kill some time setting it up with his new home theater sound system and then drinking some Cabernet to celebrate. (Author’s note, neither George or myself are known to have a drinking disorder, we have no problem whatsoever drinking! Luckily walking between our domiciles can be accomplished with moderate effort.) Now it gets entertaining! (again my word, not his) Manna calls the Monday night to say they have to reschedule the Tuesday delivery to Wednesday. George says ok and cal...

A Slightly Fictionalized Serial Saga Of the Horrifying Complexity of Purchasing A Plasma TV This is going to be posted over three posts as I don’t want to make anyone suffer through reading the grotesque length of this dismaying tale of how I love my buddy but hate his masochism. It all started on a sun drenched day with a promise of being one of those low humidity, slightly warm fall days you wait for all year. When suddenly the phone rang, a little voice said, “don’t answer, don’t answer,” but much to my eventual dismay, I did. George wanted my advice. An astute individual with a good heart and low technical skills, George always seeks my advice regarding any tech purchases. He even reads this blog! I’ll save you a lot of reading right now. If you are considering purchasing a big screen TV on the web, you may wish to reconsider unless you have severe masochistic tendencies. There is no need to read the tawdry tale that follows unless you too, are masochistic. My buddy Geo...

I know this a tech blog mostly, but I still have to shout out something about Banned Books Week September 25−October 2, 2010 First, I went out and bought 8 books for my grandchildren today. None of them are banned. They were innocuous children’s books but it was my own little support of the book industry. My stomach literally roils when I think of book banning. My first thoughts are of the Spanish Inquisition. Telling people don’t read that is akin to saying don’t look down when you are climbing. The first thing you do is look down. If the narrow minded idiots who seek to ban books really want to succeed, they should make whatever book they are trying to suppress required reading in the schools. This would curb the enthusiasm of the teens for whatever they are striving to ban. My own recollection of restricted, not banned but restricted, books was in the town library. Children under 16 were not allowed to read books in the adult section. Of course that meant they must be ...