Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

This is an excellent price for any laser printer.   I sold some Samsung lasers when I had my computer business and they worked just fine.   This price is excellent but keep in mind what you are getting.    It will give great print quality but no color.   The toner cartridge is $59 at buy.com and $63.95 at Staples and yields 1500 pages.    A typical black ink cartridge for a typical inkjet printer yields 400 pages   for a $20.00 cartridge.    Do the math, roughly $80.00 for 1600 pages   vs. $60 for 1500 pages.   Keep in mind that page yield is often considered 5% coverage which is a bit ludicrous.    So in spite of the fact that a laser printer at $56 is a crazy price it may not be a good fit for you.    I did not find any compatible toner cartridges for the Samsung (there may be some, I just didn’t find one.) and I use compatible cartridges for my inkjet printer that cut the ink cost by 50%.  ...

  McAfee Site Advisor says it isn’t dangerous and said downloads were free of adware etc.    I downloaded it today and it tried to put all kinds of crapware on my computer.   It asks if you want it and even when I said no to everything but the compression software it still added an extra program to the download.   As soon as download was complete I uninstalled 7 Zip and it blew out my desktop and I had to manually reboot.   I then uninstalled Net Assistant for Firefox which it had added to my download.   So regardless of what McAfee says, I would be cautious with this program, it may or may not be insidious but it will do it’s best to install software that you did not ask for nor want.   Sadly it was on the site called addictivetips that had a program for synching Google Calendar with Windows 7.    Windows Live Calendar Gadget may be a fine program but since 7 Zip was on the same page I am now gun shy of anything I would get on...

Ignore the 1gb designation, this is  the memory-less unit. This is a must have for anyone who does power point presentations.  If you are a gadget freak you are going to love this pointer.  It has a nice matte black finish that feels very comfortable in the hand and it is very light.  The receiver on their other units is also a usb flash drive in addition to being a receiver for the unit.   This unit does not have the flash drive.    I would recommend the 2gb unit as it is actually several dollars cheaper than this unit.   (K72336US) The laser is green and astoundingly vivid.   It was bright and precise at 100 feet in normal lighting.    In a dimly lit room I am sure it would be useable even further away.    In essence you could put a rather large presentation on the flash drive and only carry 1 piece of equipment with you besides the computer.  Kensington did this right.  It even comes with a v...

I posted a critical review of Etonic golf shoes on July 10th.   I was unhappy with my shoes but particularly unhappy with my customer service experience. On October 15th I received an email from the CEO of Etonic World Wide.  He expressed his dismay over my experience with his company's shoes and asked for my phone number so he could call me to discuss it.   On Monday October 17th Tom Elwell and I conversed for 45 minutes and were on a first name basis at the end of the call.  Tom Elwell is a CEO who truly believes in his company.  One of my complaints was there was no phone number for customer support on the web site.  There is one now.  Tom also told me he had contacted an employee, who was on vacation, to find out why there had never been any response to my emails.  Here is a CEO who is working for his paycheck.  He didn't hand off handling a concern to an underling, he communicated to me himself.  Tom beli...

Once again I diverge from my title of Money Saving Tech Tips.    Eggs are not too technical.    I am a big fan of breakfast.   (some may say I am just a big fan of food)   I am not a big fan of lots of dishes and clean up.    This new product from Pillsbury appeared in the frozen breakfast section of my local supermarket.    Always willing to sample new breakfast items, ok willing to try practically any new food item, I bought a couple. The package is a microwave in the bag type.    I like those, one less dish to clean and it is kind of green in you are getting a dual purpose use out of the packaging.   I suppose if you are living in a frat house you could up that to a tri-purpose thing and eat right out of the bag saving both cooking and serving dishes.    The pricing was better than the Jimmy Dean Delights I often eat.    The calories were slightly higher, 300 vs Jimmy’s 260.  ...

This water jet form Interplak is a vast improvement over their model WJ6RW.  I liked the sonic aspect although I am not sure exactly what that might be.  It felt like it accelerated the pulse of the water jet but regardless it felt cleansing.  The little drawer under the motor was also a nice feature.  All the little attachments could easily get lost without that convenient storage.  I felt it worked as well as my WaterPik which is what I went to after my disappointing experience with the WJ6RW.  The pause switch worked better than the one on my WaterPik.   This unit performed to my expectations and I would recommend it.  I am always amazed at what comes out of my teeth after I have flossed and brushed and then finally used a water jet.   So I recommend using a water jet and I think you would be pleased with this one. With that said, I would recommend they add an additional standard water jet tip.  The aforementioned WJ...

This is a guest post by Mariana Ashley with some very good information.   Thank you Mariana who guest posts for links, seems like a fair trade when the posts are this good.   Small business owners and entrepreneurs, aside from having ambition, typically have one thing in common—limited capital to launch their endeavors. Maybe that's why so many are constantly trying to find ways to cut costs by ordering less office supplies and hiring non-paid interns.   But where you shouldn't cheat yourself on is with technology—it has the power to help your business flourish. Thankfully there are some free resources you can use to help run your business and help you keep a few extra bucks in your pocket. Consumers looking to save can use these resources too. That said, continue reading to check out these 3 money-saving tech resources. 1. Free Software —In order to keep organized, writes letters, formulate invoices and monitor inventory, you'll need good spreadsheet and w...

I recently found the snipping tool in my accessories on Windows 7.   I put it on my tasklbar and started using it.    It allows you to clip anything you can see off of your screen.    The resulting image can be saved as HTML, jpeg, gif of png.    I found the clarity every bit as good as the pre-captured screen.   PDF995 is the software that I have installed that lets me print anything and save it as a pdf.   I use it to store invoices, make labels etc.    It works fine but I have noticed that there is a clarity differential   between the screen that is captured as a pdf and the original screen.    Compared side by side I see an appreciable difference in clarity with the MS Snipping tool over PDF995.    MS Snipping tool comes with Windows 7 and is in a rationalized thought thusly free.   PDF995 cost me $10.00.    Free is good and in this case it is not “gooder” it is better. ...