Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

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...