Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Acer Aspire AX1301-U1302 Compact Desktop PC, AMD Athlon II X2 215 2.70GHz, 4GB, 750GB HDD, Gigabit LAN, Windows 7 Home Premium x64 Computer runs just fine. Sorry to say Windows 7 is blowing much of my fun software out of the water. The Aspire is a nice size footprint. 14x11x4” It fits in a spot that would have never accommodated my previous minitower. It has 9 USB ports which is a nice feature as well. It is dramatically quieter and cooler than my old box. It was pretty much the same specs as one I found at Dell with a 750gb hard drive instead of a 160gb hard drive on the Dell and 4GB of Ram instead of 2GB on the Dell for the same money. We had great experience with the Acer line when I owned the computer business so it was an easy decision for me. I did add an extended warranty from SquareTrade. Now that I don’t have my own tech and have to do repairs myself, I decided to cover my fanny with an extended warranty. $38.00 for an additional two years seemed reas...

This is the worse model water jet I have ever owned. The company replaced the first one that worked intermittently within 30 days. The second one is no better. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. Even when I can get it to work, it often needs to be turned off and on multiple times. Sometimes the water tank needs removed and put back on several times to get the unit to function. In addition it is flimsy, you need to push it against the wall to get it to hold still so you can turn it on. Their previous model worked fine but sprung pin hole leaks in the water feed tube. Since that is not replaceable, I patched it numerous times with epoxy, which did get me an additional 6 months use out of it. I was here, on Amazon, searching for a replacement when I noticed this unit for sale. This is a poorly designed and poorly manufactured piece of equipment, I strongly advise that you look to another brand. The company representative I spoke with was very good but good custome...

Back a couple of blog posts, I talked about the inkjet cartridges folks using the razor blade vendor’s marketing strategy. Give away the razor and sock it to them with the blades. Visiting Staples today, I checked to see if there was a Staples brand compatible cartridge for my Canon Pixma ip2600. The Staples guy told me they were being forced to discontinue their store brand inkjet cartridges by the printer manufacturers. He stated that Staples was told to remove the compatible cartridges or “they” the manufactures would discontinue stocking their printers at Staples. Hmm, that sounds like it could be true. It also sounds like coercion. Federal Trade Commission take note, this sounds like a restriction of competition through coercion. Sure sounds like racketeering to me or at least price fixing. Restricting a reseller from offering a competitive product that provides a substantial cost benefit to the end user hardly seems to be offering a stimulus to the American publi...

This is a pretty cool site that has the ability to find garage sales. You put in your zip code and they tell you about the garage sales in your area within the miles you designate. In addition they can tell you how many consignment shops or flea markets are in your area within the miles you designate. I had no clue how many were within 10 miles of my zip code. This is valuable information in these tough economic times. You ought to check them out at Garage Sales Tracker. This is not a paid blog, no remuneration of any type was received to post this information.

Being retired I do a lot of baby sitting.  What my kids spend on day care, diapers, formula etc. is outrageous.  Amazon sent out this link and it does look like it saves money.   In addition, the convenience factor is huge.  Working parents have NO time so having essentials delivered can be a major time saver.  Amazon offers new parents the easiest way to buy baby essentials and save with: Free 2-Day Shipping on all diapers, wipes, and formula sold by Amazon An additional 15% savings through Subscribe & Save, our auto-delivery program Favorite brands like Pampers, Seventh Generation, Huggies, and Similac. Here is the link to the site.

If you have a network and have tried to interface a Windows 7 machine with your XP and VISTA machines, you have probably had a problem. Windows 7 does not play nicely with others. I put my printer on my new Windows 7 machine because it is now my main machine and it is on almost constantly. My XP machines and VISTA machines would not print to the printer. They would see it and then ignore it. I tried the printer on an XP machine and a VISTA machine and both would see each other and print to each other but the Windows 7 machine just ignored where ever I put the printer regardless of where it was physically connected. I considered trying the printer Virtual PC but since I am a home user and I only have Windows 7 Home Premium and not Windows 7 Professional, Microsoft won’t allow me to install virtual PC. Of course all of their corporate clients would have gone stark raving bonkers if they hadn’t come up with a way to run all their XP compatible expensive software on their n...

Do not take the on-line version of the AARP driver’s safety course and expect any consideration from your auto insurance company. The Hartford auto insurance denied any discount with the on-line version of the course. They will only offer a discount if you take the in person course. This is totally denying the viability of on-line education. The assumption the on-line course is not worthwhile is entirely bogus. The on-line course is more convenient and easier for people to squeeze into a busy life. Of course this would mean more people would take it and then Hartford would be forced to provide more discounts. See any correlation here? More people taking a course to improve their driving leading to more discounts on insurance policies would mean a decrease in profits. Hartford Auto Insurance claims they want people to improve their driving skills so they can give them a discount. Get real, they want to pay lip service to the program without being forced to give up t...