http://blogs.toolworks.com/ Walt's Technical and Shopping Tips en-us Nucleus CMS v3.51 � Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://blogs.toolworks.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://blogs.toolworks.com/ http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=87 If you've had Comcast cable internet for a while, chances are that you have their Performance level service. It just went up two bucks to $44.95 a month (assuming you have another service with them).

A few years back, cable internet ran at 2 or 3 million bits a second. Comcast's Performance service goes up to 12 million bits a second. Most people don't need that speed, unless they download huge files a lot.

So call Comcast and tell them to switch you over to Economy Internet Service. You'll save $18 a month and I bet you'll never notice the difference. If you do, just tell them to switch you back - there's no charge and no delay.

Another way to save is to stop paying Comcast $5 a month to rent that internet cable modem. ust buy your own. For example, Newegg is selling one as of this writing (8/24/10) for $53. You'll make that back in less than a year.

If you still don't like your bill, call Comcast and gripe. When the billing rep couldn't help me, he transferred me to the "retention" people. They gave me two promotions that will reduce my monthly bill by $25 for the next year. That's $300 for one phone call. Your mileage may vary.

There aren't many good choices for high speed internet, but you don't have to accept the choices that Comcast defaults you to. Be a Curmudgeon and save!]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=87 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:03:39 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=85 A hundred years ago, the penny was worth about as much as today's quarter, and people got along just fine. In fact, the penny has been the smallest U.S. coin since 1858, and has long outlived its usefulness.

When we travel in Europe, we never see euro one cent coins, except perhaps in super markets. In most countries, small coins are unnecessary because almost everywhere but the U.S., tax is included in the marked purchase price. If the price tag or menu says 15 euro, then that's what you pay. Imagine how foreign visitors feel here, when they find the marked price has been boosted by 5 or 10 percent! And then, in restaurants, a tip on top of that!

Certainly sales tax should be included in listed prices. But even without that, pennies and nickels are far more annoying than they are useful. Many stores just leave a dish of pennies out so people don't have to carry them around.

Clearly, prices and taxes should be calculated in tenths of a dollar, and cents abolished entirely.

And the remaining coins wouldn't have to be changed, because they don't even mention cents! The dime says "One Dime", and our quarter dollar and half dollar coins say just that. (And that must drive foreigners nuts too! Imagine how you would get along in a country where you don't speak the language, and none of the coins have their value marked in numbers. It's a wonder any of them still visit us!)

So there's my proposition. Eliminate cents entirely, and penny and nickel coins. Make the dime the smallest coin and calculate sales tax to the nearest tenth of a dollar. Then maybe we can start using dollar coins and get our wallets down to a manageable thickness.
]]> General http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=85 Wed, 4 Aug 2010 09:56:12 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=83
For truly scuzzy manipulation, look no further than the State of California.
Last year, our slimy legislators took time off from writing bad checks (they called them "warrants") to enact yet another nasty piece of fiscal sleight-of-hand. This time the bastards are borrowing from me, the taxpayer.

Like many Californians, I have to make quarterly estimated income tax payments. And this year the state has legislated that I am their payday loan shop. To grab more of my cash in this fiscal year, by June 15, 45% of the way through 2010, California demands 70% of my 2010 taxes. And on this involuntary loan, I receive, of course, no interest at all.

But it gets worse. Thanks to some late information forms, I underestimated my April 15 payment. So for failing to make the state an interest-free loan, I will be charged interest - at an exorbitant rate, of course.

I've been mugged - by own my elected representatives, no less. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "Cosa Nostra".
]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=83 Wed, 5 May 2010 10:50:45 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=81 yacht club. When we held our annual salmon derby (back when there were salmon), they always contributed one of the prizes. They knew us and took care of us.

Well, all that's changed.
The local store no longer has the authority to support local groups. So my latest request for some small prizes for a club event was referred to West Marin Corporate, and the huge multi-page application form on their web site.

Since time was short, I phoned instead, and was passed on to a marketing person's voice mail. Three working days later, I still haven't gotten a call back.

But does this deserve a whack of the cane? Well, yesterday I spent over $100 at West Marine for some dinky filters and stuff that was priced double what it costs on line. So maybe the cane whack should be on me, for being a dummy and supporting a "local" store that's been taken over by the bean counters.

Next time, West Marine, I'm buying from some anonymous online merchant. They can't be any more anonymous than your marketing department.]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=81 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:25:42 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=78
Too bad it's so eager to take an unnecessary $30 out of your pocket that it misrepresents its features.
No sooner had I cranked up Turbo Tax 2009 Deluxe and let it peek at my 2008 return than it noticed my stock transactions and tried to sell me the Premier version for $30 more:



Extra help with my investments? Might be useful. So I clicked "Tell Me More":

Tell Me More

Hey! I need the two features that I've highlighted above - carrying over my capital gains and downloading all those messy 1099 forms from my brokerage accounts.

But I thought Turbo Tax Deluxe did all of that. At least, it did last year. Better check with an online Turbo Tax agent:

Online Chat

Yes, according to the helpful Dinesh Raj, if I have "capital investments [I] have to go with the turbo tax premier product," because Deluxe will not download my investment information from financial partners.

Problem is, Dinesh was talking through his turban. Turbo Tax Deluxe does a perfectly fine job of carrying over my investment information and downloading all those pesky Form 1099s from every one of my financial partners.

So here's one way to save with Turbo Tax Deluxe: Ignore the false and misleading information given by the program and the online agents, and save $30 by not upgrading to Premier.]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=78 Thu, 8 Apr 2010 18:53:05 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=74 The Smarter Shop LightJust about every home handyman has a shop light. It's a useful extension cord and throws light right where it's needed.

Shop lights have two drawbacks - heat and bulb life. The light bulb can heat up a tight workspace, and it's easy to brush against it and get burned. And because the light is subject to knocks and vibration, the bulb's filament has a short life and often burns out right in the middle of a job.

The fix is to use a compact fluorescent bulb instead. It's cool to the touch, and vibration won't hurt it. Voila - a smarter shop light.]]> General http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=74 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:44:18 -0700 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=72
Ginas?

The tanks are filled with a variety of wine that was prone to spoil during the rough voyage to England, until 18th century merchants learned to preserve it by adding brandy.

What's the wine, and in what valley and country are these ginas? If you know, leave a comment below.]]> General http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=72 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:45:09 -0800 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=65 Yes, just in the past week, the local papers have started to wrap those irritating half-width advertising pages around the front section of the paper. It was bad enough once a week around the Sunday funnies. But now it's almost daily.

So in order to read the morning news, I have to peel away the trash page, and then figure out where to put it. All this while I'm waiting for the first gulp of coffee to reach my cerebellum.

I don't remember much at that hour of the morning. But I do remember that the main offending advertiser is CVS. A whack of the Curmudgeon's cane to you, CVS.

And another one for playing fast and loose with personal privacy. When you sign up on line for their Extra Care Card, the form includes a checkbox reading "Based on the Privacy Agreement below, do you wish to receive valuable coupons and offers by mail?"

Check yes, and you get CVS junk mail.

Check no, and it tells you that you need to agree to their Privacy Agreement.

Another whack of the Curmudgeon's cane to you, CVS.]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=65 Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:27:36 -0800 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=62
Today's digital photos are easier than ever to take. Yet so many of them languish as piles of JPEGs on hard drives.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Here are some ways you can enjoy your memories every day - including a hot bargain!
The bargain is a digital picture frame on sale at Newegg for $42, including shipping. It's an 8" diagonal screen with decent 800x600 resolution, and takes an SD card or thumb drive with the photos. As of this writing, it's $47 with shipping, less $5 if you apply promo code EMCLMLS64 on checkout.

This frame only shows photos in order, not randomized, and has few bells and whistles. But at the price, it's a reasonable way to get your memories off the hard drive and onto your desk or wall.

If even that price is too high, one zero cost approach is to rotate your photos as your Windows desktop background. But that doesn't work if your screen is as cluttered as mine. You could make them a screen saver, but it's better to be green and let your idle computer go into sleep mode. My desktop runs in sleep mode at less than 20% power consumption, and wakes up in a few seconds when I need it.

A better solution, in my view, is to hang your photos on the wall. And not tacking up just one or two - hang hundreds or thousands. Here's how.

Have you upgraded to a new wide screen monitor? Is the old flat panel display lying around? Many new computers have a second monitor output.

So remove the base from that spare flat panel, hang it on the wall behind your computer, and run a slide show of your photos on it. I use a program called My Slide Show. The latest version can display the show on your second monitor.

Use My Slide Show to create an executable file. Then make the show run automatically on bootup, by putting a shortcut to the executable in the Startup folder on your All Programs menu.

For years, I've been displaying a stand-alone slide show on a larger flat panel on our dining room wall. It runs off a mini-ITX computer that only draws 20 watts. If you have an old laptop sitting around, here's a use for it. Plug that spare flat panel into it (or spring for a big new display), hang the panel on the wall, and run a slide show of your best photos.

Now if you're like me, you worry about the monitor being on all the time. So I only run it when someone's in the room. Here's how - with thanks to Rube Goldberg.

Hanging near the entrance to our dining room is an inexpensive X-10 motion sensor. When someone enters the room, the sensor sends a wireless signal to an X-10 switch, turns on the monitor, and leaves it on for an hour. This saves power and prolongs the monitor's life.

So don't let your photographic memories moulder on your hard drive. Enjoy them every day, as we do.]]> Consumers http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=62 Tue, 5 Jan 2010 09:09:54 -0800 http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=59
Wear the Fox Hat

I admit to shamelessly borrowing both the concept and the title from two good friends at our club. Rick had the idea of a photographic travel quiz, and Ian introduced me to a bit of British humor, of which the punch line was "Wear the fox hat."

The questions: What is the name of the department store with this beautiful roof, and in what European capital is it located?
Answer: This stunning glass dome was erected in 1912 in the flagship store of the French department store chain Galeries Lafayette, located near the Paris Opera.

Galeries Lafayette]]> General http://blogs.toolworks.com/index.php?itemid=59 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:35:37 -0800