2006 December

So what is it about sheds? In many cases, it simply comes down to this … folks get to a point in their lives where everything no longer fits in the house. The closets are overflowing, the garage is packed, the basement’s full, and the attic’s bulging. Over the years, you’ve accumulated a ton of […]

It’s down to the wire and you’re out of gift wrap. There’s not a store open and even if there were, they’d likely be sold out of everything but the ugliest roll of overpriced wrapping paper.
Don’t despair!
There’s a good chance you have all that you need to get those last minute presents wrapped. This little […]

It should come as no surprise that the Business Software Alliance (BSA) takes software piracy seriously. How seriously, you ask? How about six figure seriously. The industry organization “will continue to offer cash rewards of up to $200,000 for qualifying software piracy reports in the U.S. through December 31, 2006.”
The BSA Rewards Program, which was […]

A wild report on gift cards hit the wire this weekend - one that’s sure to raise your blood pressure.
It seems that a great many folks forget about their gift cards. They get tucked in a drawer, lost in a wallet or purse, or what have you … The end result? Those big retailers make […]

How many times have you been stuck without enough gift wrap at the very last minute. Or almost as bad, stuck with the ugliest gift wrap in the world, because everyone else in the house used the good stuff? So you take a run out to the store, only to find that the only stuff […]

I bought a new camcorder this week at the big box store. It’s an inexpensive JVC DV unit that’s equipped with Firewire, USB, and a SD slot. The salesman was very helpful, but he missed one important detail. I made a point of asking, “is everything in the box, short of tapes and the memory […]

I was straightening up the ranch today and for my efforts, uncovered a whopping five toner cartridges that need to be recycled. That’s money in the bank! The boxes sure piled up after I wrote about toner cartridge recycling last fall. There were two cartridges next to the desk, another packed in a […]

I want a Nintendo Wii!
I never thought I’d say this. I thought I was done with video game consoles. I thought I’d just grown up.
It wasn’t always this way, of course. We started out with the Atari 2600, many many moons ago. My wife and I spent more on Atari game cartridges than we did […]

I stumbled into a great deal on power supplies this weekend. Necessity might be the mother of invention, but it’s also the cattle prod to end procrastination. While I’ve written about my noisy PC at length (and for years now), I’ve never really gotten off my duff and done something about it. I […]

I never thought I’d see the day my wife would be combing the circulars for a cheap notebook computer. I was always the resident geek, the one who would get the evil eye for spending too much time on the PC. Then one day I woke up, the fourth wheel in a three computer household. […]

I finally bit the bullet and picked up a new cell phone about a month ago. It was long overdue. I went cold turkey after my Sidekick kicked the bucket, going sans cell phone for an entire year. No doubt some folks will be aghast that anyone could live without a cell phone, in this […]

Want to save a few bucks on that new HDTV television or Playstation 3 install? How about more than a few? You just need to plan ahead.
Don’t buy your HDMI cables at the big box store. Buy them online, instead.
Your wallet will thank you.
No doubt about it, those Monster Cables sure look nice, but they […]