Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

More than just some assembly required.  This castle looked perfect for a grandson who already has two castles and this fits right in with the theme.   (BTW he has a 4'x16' foam board castle in my garage with an 8' tower and a original 4'x8' painting of a dragon storming a castle on one wall.)   So it is obvious there is a strong fantasy theme prevailing. Finished product, more than 60 minutes.  My initial reaction when I opened the box and discovered it was a DIY was not positive.  However my subsequent thoughts were that for an industrious 5 year old who enjoys puzzles this was actually better.   I would note that the 60 minute time frame suggested for assembly would be for an adult with no oversight by a 5 year old.   Maintaining focus for complete assembly could be problematic.  The quality is good and typical of my experience with the brand.   I was personally disappointed in the dragon, whic...

I recently read an article in Popular Mechanics discussing the disgusting things the author had run into while crawling through a crawlspace in an old house. An easy to relate to article for my former techs who had to pull cat5e cable through some particularly hazardous crawl spaces. One week they might be pulling cable through the crawlspace in a 200 year old farmhouse with spiders the size of computer mice and the next they were on 30 foot ladders hanging onto steel beams for dear life. If you are going to do diy cabling plan ahead. If you have walkie talkies break them out. The headset variety are very handy since they keep your hands free. We experimented with the g.i. joe version years back. Do your best to keep your cat5e cable away from a.c. cables and most definitely try not to run them over fluorescent light fixtures. Get a good, bright lantern or flashlight in order to see the skin puncturing obstacles in your way. Wiring one business we found we had to go above three old cei...

DIY The video blew on my son’s computer. He asked if he should replace the computer. After we discussed it and he weighed a new computer against a $30 video card and free labor, the choice was simple. Best price I found on a new AGP card is at Buy.com. They have a 128mb gfx5200 for $29.00 including shipping. http://www.buy.com/prod/evga-geforce-fx5200-128mb-agp-8x-video-card/q/loc/101/202902698.html .buy.com/prod/evga-geforce-fx5200-128mb-agp-8x-video-card/q/loc/101/202902698.html I looked around on eBay and other places for a cheap AGP but this was the winner. I am gradually replacing my son’s computer piece by piece. His use is modest, he doesn’t need to buy some mammoth Vista machine and what he has is substantially better than the $399.00 discount house machines. Too many people get wrapped up in the “must have the newest, fastest, slickest machine” trap. When selling computers I often lost a sale because I tried talking someone out of buying new just for the sake of being new. Loo...