Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

This is a surprisingly cool product. If you are old enough, you may remember when we all had TV antennas on the roof and if you had a few bucks you had a electric rotor to turn it. Then came cable and satellite and Fios and suddenly the idea of getting your TV signal off of the air seemed archaic. Digital conversion drove the final nail in the over the air TV signal or so the cable type people would like you to believe. Digital signals mean that if you have the appropriate TV or a digital conversion box and an antenna designed to pick up digital signals you can get a GREAT picture for FREE! Obviously Comcast, Verizon and the satellite folks would prefer you did not know this. You are led to believe that the only way to get a good TV picture is to pay someone to deliver it. Keep in mind the broadcast signal is now digital so if you don’t have a fairly new TV equipped to receive a digital signal you will still need a conversion box. If you got one of the $40.00 off federal cou...

Do catchy or semi-humorous titles get more people to read the blog? That is a question. Likelihood of a comment is minimal. Anyway, sometimes it seems like you need a printer somewhere besides right next to the computer. After rebate this puppy is only $22.50 including shipping from Buy.com. This is not a paid blog. TRENDnet's TE100-P1U 10/100 Mini USB Print Server is an ideal network solution designed to transform virtually all conventional USB printer into a shared resource on your network. TE100-P1U has a 10/100Mbps auto-sensing RJ-45 port, which connects to either 10Mbps or 100Mbps network. With its "Automatic IP" feature, the Print Server will automatically configure its IP address, making installation quick and easy. For advanced management, you can configure the print server using the Windows-Based Wizard, Admin Software or Web Browser. Also, the TE100-P1U supports Internet Printing Protocol, so users can print remotely to the USB printer via the Internet. Compact ...

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...