Happy Feet

Spring is here! Time to get something new for your feet -- like shiny new sneakers...

30% Off Footlocker


30% Off Champs


30% Off FootAction

Free Photo Paper

Staples has Fuji Photo Paper (4x6 or 8.5x11) Free after Rebate. And the "Staples East Rebate" allows you to just log onto StaplesRebates.com and enter the Rebate Offer # and the Rebate Receipt ID # printed on the Rebate Form that you get when you buy it at the store -- and that's it. No cutting UPC codes, no photocopying, no mailing, etc. And you can get 10 of these for free. That's almost 1/2 a ream of photo paper, totally free. Nice, huh?

We love "FREE after Rebate"

PC Connection has the Belkin Wireless Cable DSL 802.11b Gateway Router, FREE after mail-in rebate right now.

Can't beat Free!

Mr. Clean really cleans!

Wal-Mart is giving away a free sample of Mr Clean Magic Erasor Duo and Mr. Clean MagicReach. If you haven't seen this product, you really need to NOW. It works. The Magic Eraser somehow takes things off the wall that you never thought you could remove without just re-painting the wall. It's pretty cool.

Something is actually free from Microsoft

Here's something that everyone should have just in case -- Microsoft Office Service Packs on CD-ROM. Especially handy if you have multiple PC's, so you don't have to download and do the Office Update function for each one. Or when you have to do a complete re-install or re-formatting of your HD...sure it'll never happen...but it's good to be safe, right?

And for once a "free" item is really free. They don't charge shipping or handling on it either. >>Of course, if MS Office didn't have bugs and security vulnerabilities, we'd never be talking about this in the first place.

Get your own copy now.

Gmail

Gmail is old news to most, but if you are one of the few that don't have an invite, let me know and I'll send one to you.

And some still don't know but a neat way to use up all 1 Gig that you get is to install a virtual drive and use your Gmail account as a back-up/travel/extra drive.

How much do you love Google?

Not very well known, but you can get a lot of GoogleWear and other odd things that you have no idea how and why they'd slap the Google logo upon at the GoogleStore (and no, it's not in Beta like all their other services).

They have items like a WiFi Hotspot Finder

Or Google Goo...what do you do with that??????

Or who would pay for this marble maze toy?

And in the "cute" & gimmicky category is how they even sell the

Google Toolbar for FREE!

Just makes you scream, Yahoooo! What a deal! :-)

Leave a message at the beep......>BEEEEEP<

So I finally found a CHEAP voicemail box service. And in my research, I found that of course, the internet is cheaper than offline. I called about a dozen companies found in the Yellow Pages under Answering Service and Voicemail, however, they wanted contracts, they wanted set-up fees, they wanted a lot of money.

On the net, there are a bunch of companies that offered voicemail. But not that many that are offering you a choice of local area code / prefixes without surcharges or "premium" accounts. But I quickly found one voicemail company that really did fit the bill and then some.

Enter Innoport. This company gave us a voicemail box with a local number for $7.95/month -- I believe it's called their "Omni Package". And it had some neat features included: You can check your voicemail by logging into Innport.com or you can call your own number and enter your PIN#, etc (although the latter option will actually cost you $0.03/minute to check). This voicemail set-up will also allow you to designate an email address so that it will email you a voice clip attachment of the voicemail as soon as it comes in (this is free). I had this email my cell phone and my email account so that I knew immediately that a message came in and then I could check. Much better than constantly checking to see if you got messages. The emails also give caller-ID info if available which is nice. All these voicemail services for only 8 bucks a month. Not bad.

Plus they have a no-risk first free month promo. The way it works is that you have to deposit $20 initially, and a credit of $7.95 hits your account at start-up. So your balance starts at $27.95. Then it deducts $7.95 for the first month so you balance is back at $20. Then each month, it bills you for the next + the "premium services" time (like checking your voicemail by phone).

It's a great service. Here's some promo/referral codes you can use if you want to try them out:

Referral Code: MI825XP353
Referral Code: BD087GK020
Referral Code: KI529VM896
Referral Code: TO142BA646
Referral Code: XM494VO408


Expiration Date: 4/3/2005
Please be advised that these Referral Code will expire after the first use, so if they don't work, just email me and I'll generate some more.

It's great when the Wall Street Journal backs you up

So I'm reading the Wall Street Journal today and it just so happens that they printed a story about digital prints at the warehouse stores and how cheap they are for digital prints (kind of like my post a couple of days ago!). And how these warehouse clubs are trying to compete with the HP's of the world selling in-home digital printer solutions. And the article of course goes on to talk about how cheap COSTCO is and it's rivalry with Wal*Mart. Apparently, they are both going to the 17 cents/print level. I believe it was BJ's that is doing 15 cents/print.



In addition, I just got an email from Sony ImageStation and they just hooked up with CVS to do the upload-and-pick-up-at-the-store solution for 19 cents/print as well. Since CVS is much closer, it's worth the 2 cents difference.

I can't believe that Snapfish, Ofoto and the other guys are still trying to get away with 29 cents/print (plus S&H!)

Don't you just love competition?

Gas Guzzlers Unite!

So, here's where the internet is really powerful. Since gas isn't getting cheaper anytime soon, you can surf the web and find the cheapest prices locally. And being the good neighbor that you are, you can quickly post the price for regular gas at a local gas station so others can benefit.

Right by my home, the spread is between $1.93-$1.81/gallon within 0.5 miles (that's a big spread!). But you'd never know if you didn't drive just 1 block off the main road. But guess what? If you're checking the web, you won't be paying that top dollar anymore! :-)

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it Snow.

So we're officially entering the 2nd half of March today and we *STILL* have snow on the ground!!! At least some of it was "packable" so we had >some<

Family + Happy Dog

Say Cheeeese!

Costco is awesome. Here's another reason why.

I finally took my Memory Stick with some digital photos to Costco and had them print them out. Perfecto! Only $0.19 cents per 4x6 print! And an 8x10 glossy was only $1.99!?!?! Can't beat that! Supposedly by end of May they will have a feature where you can upload the digital photo files from home and the go to pick them up at the store vs. waiting around (supposedly 1 hr, but I got mine in 20 minutes) for the prints or coming back a 2nd time. They had options to put a white border on the print and glossy or matte prints. I like I like I like.

Locally, Shoprite has this feature, and it's cool...They use FujiFilm processing. I just upload a digital pic at ShopRite.com and I can even convert the photo to B/W or Sepia Tone and then within 2 business days, it's ready for pick-up at the store. I believe it's $0.29/print there, which seems to be the going rate for digitial print printouts (like at CVS, Target, etc).

2 Free Audio Books

If you spend your time commuting anywhere, you should really try listening to an audiobook. I tried it recently with The Millionaire Next Door and was plesantly surprised. There's tons of content out there and you can download it in various formats to stream over the net, to play on your desktop, to burn to CD, or even your MP3 player. They have books, magazines, and newspapers (daily editions read aloud various article picks from each section). For example, you can take in the daily Wall Street Journal while going to work or when you're at the gym.

Audible.com is now offering 2 free audio books from their entire collection. Not bad. And supposedly their plug-in allows you to download directly into iTunes, but I cannot figure out how to make that happen. I've downloaded the patch, but I have no clue how to get my Audiobook from my Audible.com "My Library" straight into my iTunes app/catalog without going through the Audible Download Manager. I guess I"ll get to it at some point. It's easy to point to the downloaded audiobook file in iTune, so it's not a biggie.

In anycase, it's worth a try, and you can't really beat "free"!

12% OFF ? ? ?

Don't ask my how Staples came up with this amount, but they did. Staples gives customers 12% off this coming week. So enjoy.

Don't forget that if you're a "Staples Rewards Customer", then you are eligible for Free Shipping on anything with NO minimum purchase requirement from Staples.com. "Normal" customers need to order $50 for Free Shipping off Staples.com. But "Rewards" customers can order a 49 cent pen and have it shipped free. Again, don't ask me why, but they shipped me a 49 cent plastic tape dispenser via UPS this past week for free. There is NO WAY they could have made money on that sale, but I guess someone believes in Lifetime Value concepts over there, right?

Managing Multiple Identities

So, if you IM, then you need to get Trillian. Why?

1) It's free.
2) It allows you to IM on all platforms at once.
3) It's free.
4) You can even have multiple ID's logged on at once for a given platform.
5) It's free.
6) You don't have to have mulitple IM client applications hog up your PC's brain.
7) Did I mention, it's free?

I have no clue what the paid version gets you, but I'm sure it's probably worth it if you do IM alot, of if you use it for work.


STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF --

If you use AIM, then try adding these neat user id's to your buddy list:

-- AOLBuddy
-- AOLYellowPages
-- RecipeBuddie
-- SmarterChild
-- ZolaOnAOL

They are all automated chat buddies to IM with different skillsets. You can ask for weather info, sports scores, news, recipes, directions, movie times, etc.

2005 Resolution - Get Outlook to loose weight

So it's a little known fact that Outlook has a file size limitation. The old system gets into trouble when your .PST file hits 1.8 Gigs or so. Usually Outlook starts to give error messages when it approaches 1.4-1.5 Gigs. When you upgrade to Outlook2003, it supposedly has no file size limitations (great, just like America, where everyone thinks fatter is better!) but there's a little hitch -- you can't import or use an older PST file. You have to use the newer format 2003 PST file. And there's no included file conversion utility either. But anyone that's upgrading to Outlook2003 is of course using a PST from their older Outlook version, right? Thanks Microsoft for telling us about this problem! So what do you?

Here's the solution that's worked for me:

1) Open a new "personal folder" with the newer file Outlook 2003 file format and name it something different so you don't get confused (like Personal Folders 2005).
2) Then drag folders from the "old" folder tree to the new Personal Folders 2005 that you just set-up.
3) Kill the old Personal Folders file.


Separately, when my file got too big and Outlook started to refuse to save calendar events or move items from folder to folder, I went in and tried to figure out what I could delete. I found out that I had tons of duplicate entries. Hmmm...how did this happen? Who knows. Let's not dwell on the past, but look to the solution. So I did some digging and found this great tool: MAPILab's Duplicate Email Remover

I did some searches and found a 10% coupond code and bought it and voila! It found over 15,000 duplicate emails that I could delete! For $13.50, it's a charm.

The only downside to this app is that it's limited to emails. If you have dupes in Contacts, Notes, Calendar, etc, then you're out of luck. You have to purchase their other Duplicate Remover program. (why not just bundle them together MAPI? C'mon!). Of course, I have dupes in my Calendar folder, etc, so I'll have to fork over the cash, but hopefully the final result is a leaner, thinner PST file that can handle anything you throw it!

Better Late Than Never...

So, the web is no different than offline life -- it lends itself easily to distractions. This blog is no exception. But 2005 *is* the Year of the Blog, right? So here goes:


Treo 650

• Cingular Wireless finally has the Treo 650. But it's a little too much -- they're asking $449 and give a measily $50 rebate.
• AdviceOnWireless.com has it for $349
• Amazon.com of course saves you real cash -- $319 after rebates.

I'm about to order the device. Although Amazon for some reason doesn't offer any data options for the Treo on their website...wierd.