Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

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.