Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

A good stocking stuffer! I am anal about protecting my electronics from power problems. I always carry a single outlet surge with my laptop. As so many do, on a trip I left my single outlet surge in the wall socket. It was a Tripplite and it was tiny. It took up very little room in my notebook case. I ordered this unit without checking dimensions, primarily because of the low price ($5.88) and Belkin’s reputation. I have no reason to believe the Belkin isn’t satisfactory as a surge protector. I do take umbrage with the fact that it just doesn’t pack well. My Sanyo battery charger has fold down prongs for the outlet. That enables it to fit quite nicely in the laptop case pocket. The surge however doubles it’s thickness due to the outlet prongs. Since this purchase I have found two that have folding prongs. One is the  Fellowes 9904701 3-Outlet Surge Suppressor with a convenient little night light for $14.99 at Buy.com and $17.00 at Amazon. The other is Belk...

Power fluctuations both brown outs and blackouts are the biggest culprit in damaging your computers. Frankly brown outs are more insidious since you may be blithely unaware of their occurrence. CSN approached me and asked if I would pick out a product to review from one of their stores. Since I had 4 short blackouts that very day, I decided to order a battery backup unit. These units are often referred to as UPSs. (uninterruptible power supplies) The unit I ordered was from American Power Conversion. (APC) I wanted one strong enough to keep the computer running when a blackout occurs. My intent is not to continue running during a blackout but to protect the computer from a crash when the power goes out. When a blackout occurs, a UPS gives you time to orderly close up your computer and thusly maintain your data integrity. I hate when I lose a file that I spent any time on, let alone any appreciable time. I’ve copied the specs of the unit from the APC site and listed them below. S...