Fat Wallet

I have been a frequent user of a site called FatWallet.com recently. It is a community-driven site to get good deals on almost everything. I tend to watch here as that is where the "Hot Deals" are found.

Some recent deals I found:

96oz of Pure Genuine Maple Syrup for $25 at Amazon.com after coupon code
2x2Gb Kingston U3 USB 2.0 Jump drives for a profit of $13 after 2 rebates
Taxcut Federal+State for $6.40 profit after 9 rebates ;) (all but 2 have come through so far)
Ultra Computer Case for free after $40 rebate
IO Gear Mobil Office Kit (usb mouse, usb hub, Cat5 cable, POTS cable) for $0.00 after $32.05 in 3 rebates

Take a look and let me know what deals you find.

I am in!

This week I got notified by email that I am a beta tester for MS Windows Home Server or WHS as it is called. I really can't say much more than that because they don't want me to. I haven't installed it yet but when I do I think I can post some screen shots of it in action.

Here are some links telling more about it:

PressPass Press Release

ZDnet blog

Paul Thurrott

New Website

MatthewLeffler.net

A while back I decided I would like to try out the Office Live free website. The big draw was the free domain name that came with it. You have to use a credit card to get the free site so that they can make sure you only get one site per credit card. Also, you can't use the sign up form from a Vista computer or from Firefox on any OS. Only IE6/7 from XP. I am sure they will fix that soon.

The sign up process is easy. About 8 steps and you can have a honest to goodness website in 15 minutes. It is a very controlled website and if you want the code you aren't going to get there. You can't beat it for their target market, though.

Take a look at mine, here.

USPS Rant

Here it comes:

<mode rant="rant">
The Post Office in our town is not my favorite shipping provider if it every was.
</mode>


<mode logical="logical">
On Friday I, with high hopes, was waiting with baited breath for my parcel as noted here. Carl, our mailman, came and went without leaving me a package. However, in the mail was a notice that there was a parcel at the post office for me. That's great but guess what today is? A federal holiday. Translation: Post Office closed! So, I will not get my book until 15 days after I ordered it!

Now the real killer is that I bought it from Caiman through ABEbooks so that I could save $4! Only $4 and all this hassle! I could have had it a week and half or more ago if I had spent the $4. I must need to reread the Law of Diminishing Returns. . .

</mode>

Maybe, I can post a recording if I ever get the book.

Abebooks/Caiman books/USPS priority mail/Oxford Book of Wedding Music: Delayed

Ten days ago I ordered an organ book through Abebooks.com. I like abebooks: they are a great place to find used books at moderately good prices. Their selection is amazing! If they don't have it, well you better try the Library of Congress. Abebooks doesn't actually sell any books themselves. They just act a marketplace for a whole lot of used and new bookstores.

Anyway, so I ordered this book ten days ago and it still hasn't come. That is the bad part about getting a used book from one of these used book stores. They are as slow as all get-out! Last fall I got some photography books. I didn't have them in hand for 4 or 5 weeks! They came media mail and I guess that is why they took so long. I specified that this book come USPS priority mail. That is suppose to be 2-3 days. So even supposing that they took 2-3 days to get it out the door after they said it shipped it should have been here at latest Wednesday. Now it is Friday and it isn't here.

We did have a heap big snow and did not get any mail that day. That might account for another day, maybe, so Thursday. That was yesterday and it didn't come yesterday.

I hope it comes today. I am looking forward to playing the songs in it. It is called The Oxford Book of Wedding Music. The main song that I want is Coronation March from Crown Imperial by William Walton. It is a very exciting piece. The book has 29 other pieces most of which sound interesting. There is a complete list here. You can listen to snippets from some of the songs here.

If it comes today I will post an update to that affect. If not I will rant some more!

A flipping picture

Impressed? Windows Vista's 3-D Flip. I find it useful although severely limited by my poor graphics card. It likes to have 128mb of ram; mine has 64mb. Another thing I like is that the desktop is one of the "programs" meaning that you can alt-tab to the desktop. As opposed to having to find the "Show Desktop" button which was never in a convenient place.

3-D Flip is accessed by + key sequence. You can then or + through the pages as the cycle like a Rolodex or a slide tray. Also, you can click on the image of the window you want to go to and it snaps to the foreground. If you have video playing it will keep playing in 3-D form. That is really cool!

All-in-all some very snazzy eye candy in the latest offering's from Redmond!

Is there a typo on Googe?

Google.com*

Is that a typo? Or is the strawberry stem meant to be a L? Googe.com - "this domain is parked courtesy of GoDaddy.com." Ha!

*That link will only show the Valentines day image until midnight of Valentines.