Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Avery Postcards For Laser or InkJet Printer, 5.5 x 4.25 Inches, White, 200 Per Box (05689) Price:   $10.99 at Amazon I've used Avery products for years.  This sheet of postcards printed just fine in my Canon inkjet printer.  The stock has a decent weight to it and does not feel overly flimsy.  It is not as stiff as the traditional drug store post card but it has a heavier feel than I expected.   I used the Avery site avery.com/print for my printing test.   The online software can be accessed with a simple sign up.  There were a surprising number of designs to choose from and a simple to use editor.  The post cards turned out well and I only had to trash one page as I turned it wrong to print the back.   These would be fine for sending out announcements regarding events or whatever, assuming you still use snail mail.  They would also work as tent cards for table placement or trade shows.   ...

This is cool and it really might get younger  people interested in golf! If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

This hub works with my printer, my cooling pad and my keyboard.  It does not work with the Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse 3000.  I don't know why but since the hub has freed up the rest of my usb ports, it doesn't really matter.  The cable to connect the hub to the USB port is too short.  It measures .75 inches without stressing it's connection to the hub.  That length would be insufficient even if my laptop was sitting on the desk rather than on a cooling  pad.   The cooling pad adds enough height that the connection from the hub to the computer is stressed due to the shortness of the cable.   I have to prop the hub up so that the USB connector stays securely plugged into it's port. Otherwise this hub works  well. If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

I used this cleaner on a 25 year old leather chair.   Over the years where the back of the legs hit the leather, the off white leather was yellow.  I used this pad on that yellow and was pleasantly surprised that the soiled yellow area is now nearly off-white again.  The cleaner worked very well.   I then used it on sunscreen marks on the black leather of my car interior.  Those marks came off without  a trace.   My only suggestion for the vendor would be to seal each pad in it's own air tight pouch.  The last leather cleaner I purchased was in the form of much thinner wipes and they dried out long before I used the whole container.   These are pad, much thicker than wipes and they handled the pressure I exerted when I scrubbed the chair.  I do wonder though how quickly they will dry out even when stored in the sealed jar in which they were packaged. From the vendor: ·      ...

This is a product I have used for several years.  My lawn guy recommended it for my flower beds.  It seems to work well, not perfectly but well.   Frankly anything that keeps me from bending over in pulling weeds is worth buying.  ·                         Garden weed preventer plus plant food in shaker top bottle ·                         It prevents weeds and feeds plants in one easy step ·                         Balanced fertilizer promotes abundant blooms, increased yields and strong root development ·                ...

This is definitely one of the cooler flashlights I have seen.  The flashlight aspect is very bright without a lot of spread.  I got decent visibility even at 100 feet distance.  Within 10 feet it was very bright.   The lantern aspect also worked very well.   I was impressed with that as well.   The flashing red led’s are excellent for a road side situation or to signal distress.  The magnet on the base will hold the flashlight to a metal surface but only in the vertical position.  I tried a variety of metal surfaces, stove, fridge, car fender and the magnet is not strong enough to hold the flash horizontally despite their photo showing it horizontal on a car.   I don’t feel that is a drawback to the light.  It would be a nice additional feature but not necessary.   This flashlight will replace the current light in my car’s glove compartment. (does anyone actually keep gloves in there?)  I recom...

An aside that has nothing to do with the performance of this unit, the box was wrapped with approximately 32' of twelve inch plastic wrap.  I don't know if that is an indication of Bose's quality commitment or an anal packer.   Regardless it was moderately impressive.  I am sitting here listening to Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" and the sound is excellent.  I plugged in the optical cable and turned on the unit and had very high quality sound, frankly impressive sound.   I am surprised that the unit does not have Bluetooth as that is pretty much common in TV sound systems today.  The last three I have had were Bluetooth enabled.  I can't ding Bose on that as they do not infer or advertise the presence of Bluetooth so you know you aren't getting it when you buy the unit.   The remote is also somewhat impressive.  It is a universal remote that will allow one remote for DVD, X-Box, cable box, TV and two auxiliar...

Preliminary report is mixed and has nothing to do with the performance of the software.  My desktop machine exceeds all specifications for the hardware.  I have RAM, processor and storage in gross excess of all specifications.  I am running Windows 8.1.   The software would not install.  I rebooted my system and still no install.  I disabled my antivirus and spyware protection and still no install.   I then tried the software on a Windows 8.1 laptop of less capability and was able to get the software to install.   I make every effort to maintain software parity on both machines.  I want to be able to go from one to the other seamlessly and have the same software installed on both machines.  I back up to the laptop multiple times each day so it should be as close as possible to the same installed software with the minute differences in hardware.   I don't know why the software will not install on ...

This is a rather encompassing software package.   I was able to immediately edit photos, capture video and edit the video.   This looks like this drastically simplifies the steps needed to create a video trailer for one of my books.   The red eye removal in the photo section worked easily and well.   The interface is reasonably intuitive.   I was able to do everything I tried without resorting to (gasp) reading any help files.   It is not a speed demon.  My only criticism is that things load slowly.   The video template was so slow I thought it wasn't working.   Outside of that, it seems like a very good Swiss army knife type of program that will enable the average user to do a multitude of tasks.   I don't see this as a professional grade program but it is user friendly enough and sophisticated enough to appeal to the average user in need of graphic tools.  It is a lot of progr...