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Showing posts from December, 2015

Happy New Year From Money Saving Tech Tips

Invicta Women's 21397 Pro Diver Analog Display Quartz Gold Watch

The watch is beautiful.  The three things my wife didn't like are it is too heavy.  It is too hard to get on and off and too big.  The size makes her think it looks like a man's watch.   In fairness that may be age related as the younger women do seem to wear much bigger watches.  This is the second Invicta watch I have reviewed.  Both of them should have had a diagram on how to use the watch band.  Keep in mind I'm a technut and can get a hard drive out of a laptop and not destroy anything.   I note that because having issues with how to make a watch band work sounds ludicrous but both bands were difficult to figure out.   The hard off and on didn't bother me once I figured it out but this watch fastens in a manner which and I quote my bride, "will ruin my nails!" The watch was easy to set and the manual did have a clear diagram on that.   So you have a very attractive watch that needs better documentation and a fastener that doesn't ru

Merry Christmas from Money Saving Tech Tips

Thank you for reading and best wishes for a wonderful holiday!

Invicta Men's 21474 Pro Diver Analog Display Swiss Quartz Black Watch

This watch looks great.  It is striking in appearance and looks quite manly.  It feels heavy on the arm.  Just for yucks I weighed it and it is 4.1 oz compared to my dress watch at 3.2 oz.  It felt like it weighed a lot more than my very slim/sleek dress watch.  I think that is due to the size.  2 1/8 " from the 9 to the tip of the middle stem vs. 1. 1/4" on my dress watch.  With all that said, if you are looking for a diver looking watch this looks the part.  It is water resistant not water proof so it is really a diver looking watch.  The two extra large buttons are for quick correction of date and quick correction of the 24 hour second time zone.  That allows you to fix those without pulling out the stem (crown).   The day and the date are pretty much irrelevant to any one with normal vision.  I guess you  have to have extraordinary vision to use them.  Even with my bifocals, I had to lift them and squint to see the day or time.  If you are looking for a smart l

FREE eBooks From Author William G. Bentrim

Merry Christmas! Free eBooks! 19 of my eBooks will be listed as FREE on Amazon December 22-December 24, 2015 as my gift to my friends and readers. (Often the same people.)  All of my eBooks would have been free but apparently Amazon has some limit as to how many I can give away over the same time period.  Please share with anyone,  any or all of your friends! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Link to my author page and the books:

CAILLER Dark Chocolate Selection, Large Box Assortment, 7.9oz

It is entirely possible this is famous chocolate but I was not familiar with it. I have not eaten the entire box yet but aside from sharing with my bride, this will not be offered to others. It's that good! I know selfish is wrong but this is really tasty stuff and everyone KNOWS dark chocolate is good for you so how can you go wrong. It is good, I don't know what it cost which is probably just as well. It had nice packaging and would make a very nice unisex gift. Who doesn't like chocolate? BTW I did find the price after I wrote the above and at $35 that makes this about $70/pound. It is good but I've had better at half the price.   If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

Lucien Piccard Men's LP-40052M-02S Trevi Analog Display Mechanical Hand Wind Black Watch

This is an attractive watch.  It is hard to find a watch without all the buttons, features and gimmicks.  I'm not a diver and I don't need a watch to be waterproof to 300m.  This is just a watch, no calendar, nothing but the time.  The skeleton style is very popular at the moment.  It is fun to watch a watch.  Overall it is a good looking watch that keeps good time. The negatives are not a big deal.   First I am guessing but I don't imagine many millenniums have seen a watch that winds.  I haven't had a watch that you needed to wine since my 1964 Bulova.  There was nothing in the instruction manual that showed how to wind the watch nor how to set it.  Pictographs are not always insulting.  A couple showing how to wind the watch and set the time would be nice.  In the interest of accuracy I did call the customer support number and found that the watch wound exactly how I thought it should.  However the 1964 watch had you turn the stem clockwise then counter cloc

Kidde AccessPoint 001166 KeySafe 3-Key Portable Push Button Key Safe Box, Titanium Gray

This is a good solution for relatives or cleaning people or really anyone you want to get in but don't to give out a lot of keys.   It set up easily and works easily.   The combination setting is simplistic and as long as you input the correct numbers they do NOT have to be in the correct order.  That isn't really an issue as your average burglar is going to break the window so you really are only deterring relatively honest people. Portable push-button combination lock locking box; padlock stores up to 3 keys on doorknob Key lock box allows for easy key-access in real estate, construction, and general security applications The key lock safe has a push button combination for quick entrance into the box and to retrieving your keys Set your own combination with 1,000 combinations available; keep doors locked for optimal security and allow keyless entry for those you want in The door knob key locker ships in Certified Fru

Harmony Ergonomics Air Chair, Black

I had initial reservations about this chair as it looked suspiciously like a lawn chair.  It isn't a lawn chair and the straps feel more like elastic than the vinyl straps used on lawn chairs.   I like the open weave as it allows for air flow.  When you are parked in front of your computer with the same frequency as I, you can really crave air flow.   The chair is comfortable and has lumbar support.  The head rest is fine but frankly I don't lean back like that while at my desk.   The reclining feature is equally fine but again, not something too useable for me.   The chair comes unassembled.  The good news is they even include a couple of extra bolts and all the tools needed for assembly.   There is bad news though, the assembly instructions are marginal.   The illustrations need to be much larger and or more detailed.  They are to unclear to be much help.  The assembly is fairly intuitive but I suspect there will be some issues with assembly for those who are not pati

Woods 041453 6-Outlet Home/Office Surge Protector with 4-Foot Cord, 1000 Joules of Protection

The right angle ac plug is nice.  The surge suppressor has mounting slots on the back.  It appears to have a fair level of protection.  I'm not equipped to generate a surge to truly test that aspect.  The downside is there is no consideration for the myriad types of power plugs currently out there.  Entirely too many devices still come with odd shaped power adapters and this surge has no way of plugging in an odd shape without covering another outlet.  The price is $11.00 on Amazon at that price range I didn't see more than a couple of surges that had one outlet located far enough from the others to be used with a larger adapter.  This will be fine as long as you are aware of it's limitations regarding plug usage. A few of the types of power adapters. Note there is only room for one odd shaped power adapter.  There seems pretty limiting.  From the vendor: 1000 Joules of protection, 6-outlet, cord length is 4-Feet Ideal solution for computers, pri

FIOS Bait And Switch

It's a good thing I am retired.  I spent close to 3 hours on the phone or on an Internet chat with FIOS representatives today.  I haven't been jerked around that much since the roller coaster at Hershey Park this summer.  Cable in general and in this case FIOS in particular needs some oversight.  A seat mate from France on a flight this summer was highly amused that we pay so much for our "triple plays".  He pays less than $50.00 American for TV, phone and Internet and his Internet is running at more than double the speed of mine.  I was quoted a price in September when I called to complain about the increased lease cost of the "adapter" boxes.  I was told my bill would be reduced if I signed up for a new contract.  The agent told me to ignore the next bill but the following bill would show a $40.00 a month discount.  It didn't! I called and got another rep who denied finding any notes on my file regarding the discount.  I called again the