Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

I recently read about Lookout Mobile Security and decided to check it out.    I went to their web site and read all their features.    I then went to Android Market Place and downloaded it. It installed quickly and easily.    I get a truly lousy Verizon signal at my home.   Verizon, please note, it is truly a lousy, lousy, abysmally weak signal.    If my phone didn’t have WiFi I would never download anything.    Setting up the Ap was very easy.    I did a back up and then went to the web site and verified my contacts had been backed up.    If you upgrade to Premium you can back up your pictures and music too.    ($2.99/month) In addition to backup you have antivirus protection.    Another feature available in the free version is the ability to find your phone from your computer.    You need to have your GPS turned on for this feature to work.    Initially it ...

Kids love 3D TV I recently watched Blu-Ray “Tangled” on a 3D television.   It was pretty darn cool.   I got an email from Diamond Case’s Steve Hartfelder that provides a very good and informative overview of 3D TV.   Steve is one of the two most knowledge people in the home theater industry.  Amusingly enough his brother Dave is the other one.   Rather than rehash it here, I have linked to Steve’s Simple answers to the 14 most commonly asked questions about 3D HDTV.    Diamond Case sold a 3D TV and the furniture to display it to one of my family.  The TV and the cabinet are beautiful and he is a very satisfied customer.    BTW I do NOT have any financial relationship to Diamond Case and I receive no compensation for linking to them  or mentioning them on my blogs.

Google recently provided a $280 million dollar grant to SolarCity to provide residential solar panels.   SolarCity can determine if your roof is properly situated and feasible for solar panels.    They will install the panels at no charge and the homeowner signs a lease for the panels.   The home owner pays the lease, the solar panels cut the homeowner’s electric bill by up to 60% (average) and we (nation) decrease our dependency on foreign energy sources.    Wow, what a great idea, except in Pennsylvania where the utility companies have successfully prevented SolarCity from providing the zero down lease for installation.   Perhaps in other states there is also a strong enough utility lobby to prevent this too, I don’t know about other states but since I live in Pennsylvania I am a bit peeved.    SolarCity can do the installation for $10,000.00 up front as a fully prepaid lease.   This is about...

Ok, perhaps I am nitpicking again but why put a contact email on a website and then ignore contacts? I emailed Etonic multiple times about their defective golf shoes and got no response.    This time the email to Speidel was to tell them that the watchband I purchased would not fit the watch.    Considering I bought the exact same watch band as last time in the exact same size for the exact same watch, I just assumed it would fit.    Wrong! The pin was too large and I had to take the pin out of the old band to use with the new band.    I had to tear the leather on both of them to get the pins out.    No big deal and on a $9.99 item I wasn’t particularly bothered.    However having been in business for 35 years I know I would want to know if I was selling a defective product.    I emailed them the details with the appropriate stock numbers for their edification.    I didn’t expect anything but a t...

My Thanks to Microsoft Clip Art for the above.  My apologies if any of it says something besides Thank You! Thank you, who ever you are.    For some reason my visitor count is up dramatically on all three of my blogs.    More important is that quite a few of you are return visitors.      Please note, I do not try and capture any info or place any cookies, I just get attendance numbers not ip addresses.   Thanks for visiting and please comment when you visit.   Feedback is crucial to know what I am doing right or wrong as far as posts.    As far as my life, well that boat has sailed, critiquing that is probably futile. Thank you again!

Many of you are probably familiar with that email forward that's been going around regarding refueling tips to help consumers get the most out of their gas money. While Snopes found that a mixture of that advice is both false and true, there's still something to be said about the importance of being conscious about your gasoline consumption and how the maintenance of your vehicle will affect your fuel efficiency, and ultimately, your savings. Twice a year, before summer and winter, I try to do a routine checkup of my car; I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to do this on my own without having to pay a lot of money to some mechanic. Here's my summer vehicle checkup routine; hopefully, these five tips will be just as useful to you as they were to me in making sure my car is in the best fuel-saving shape possible for the summer heat. Check Your Radiator and Coolant Level In the summer, perhaps the most important part of your car's engine is ...

This is an excellent software package for the amateur genealogist.   I started with the 2005 of this software package due to the fact that the keeper of my family tree was using it.    She sent me the data and I was able to easily import it into my copy of the program.  Yesterday I was able to import the data from the 2005 version into the new program very easily.    It is nice when new versions accept the old versions data seamlessly.   Sadly that is not always the case.    If you are into genealogy, this is a great program and relatively inexpensive.     I won’t bore you with all the details, if you are interested just go to this link for the program and read all the details you want.    http://www.familytreemaker.com/ This product was provided by Amazon for evaluation. 

Spring time brings allergies and little ants to my home.    I am no entomologist so I have no clue what kind of ants they are but I can clearly state they are annoying.    I have young grandchildren so I am not really comfortable spraying a lot of the over the counter insecticides.     They work but they are not good for anyone to have contact with and especially not good for kids.  Although this spray does not say it is specifically for ants, it works quite well.    I liked the idea that is not using harmful chemicals.    It is allowed for use in organic gardening and to me that indicates that it is about as benign as I can get for an insecticide.    I have also found that it works with stink bugs as they have been among the carcasses that I have vacuumed up.     We are all concerned about safer food, this spray should allow some insect control and still remain organic.   Here is ...

I opted into ie9 the other day.  When, oh when will I learn?   I installed it.  It has a slightly different interface which I can live with but don’t much like.   What I can’t deal with it the fact that it periodically blanks the screen.   I don’t know why and frankly I don’t care why.   My screen wasn’t doing that in ie8 so why would it in ie9.   It doesn’t do it in any other program. I booted up FireFox and SURPRISE,  it runs smoothly and no screen blanking out.   Somehow I suspect that Microsoft’s pockets are a bit deeper than Mozillas.   Why, oh why can’t I ever upgrade a MS product without wondering why I ever used it in the first place?

I have had this product for more than 5 years.   I will pull the battery when it dies and replace the battery because I really love this inflator.  In addition to blowing up toys, I use it to keep the proper inflation in my tires.  It also has a cigarette lighter function that lets me bring my hands free cell phone unit in and charge it over night.   I am impressed with the durability and the usefulness.   I have used both the Ryobi and Black and Decker equivalents and this is superior.   It is advertised here as the Kwik Goal Portable Inflator for soccer enthusiasts but it is way more useful than that. Product Features     Inflates up to 180 balls with one charge     Cordless with rechargeable 12-volt power pack     Plugs into cigarette lighter or household socket     Includes pressure gauge, hose and air fitting adaptor     Weighs 10 lbs ...

After my post regarding recognizing our young people in the armed services every day and not just on Memorial Day, I got several posts on my Facebook page thanking me for my post.    Today I got this from a retired Navy Lt. Commander.    I think it is worth passing on to all.    It really doesn’t matter if you agree with where and why our troops are being sent, what matters is that they are all our children and they are going in harm’s way.    They deserve our support and our respect.     The Sack Lunch I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. ...

Graphic attributed to http://tinyurl.com/3eadgj3 I recently played golf on a military base.  Before you express your outrage at taxpayer money paying for golf course on a military base, there is no tax payer money involved in military base golf courses.  After golf we went to the base exchange got some gas and then had dinner. The prices at the exchange and at the gas station were not any better in some cases were worse than outside the base.  Frankly that is really disturbing.  Members of our military services do not get paid commensurate with the duty or the dangers they face.  If we can't get the government to pay them what they deserve at least we should give them more bang for their buck on their bases. As I write this I am watching the news.   There was just a feature on the difficulties military people face with their many moves and the fact that they have mortgages. Military people have very little say as to where they are poste...