Category: General

This is a guest post by Michelle. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guest post guidelines.

Technology has made dramatic improvements over the past six years. Electronics is one of the main beneficiaries of this dramatic improvement. Electronics is one of the most popular items being sold to automobile owners today. Let’s take a look at the top ten electronics for your car.

Car Alarm
The car alarm is probably the most important thing to have for your automobile. It can prevent thieves from stealing your prized vehicle.

Remote Vehicle Starters
One does not have to be present within their car or truck in order to crank up their vehicle. A remote vehicle starter gives one the luxury of cranking up their automobile without being in it. This ingenious electronic item is great during the colder months of the year.

CD Player
A CD Player is essential for anyone who enjoys listening to music while driving. One can easily listen to his or her favorite recording artists while traveling down the road.

Amplifiers
Amplifiers can help enhance the musical sound that travels through the speakers. Quality sound is produced once the amplifier is connected to the CD player.

Radar and Laser Detectors
Radar and laser detectors are exceptional for drivers who have a habit of being heavy on the pedal. Radar and laser detectors have the capability of detecting speed traps established by law enforcement agencies. Radar and laser detectors can minimize the chances of one getting a speeding ticket.

Satellite Radio Receiver
Satellite Radio has been gaining more popularity within the past three years. Satellite Radio is ideal for anyone who enjoys continuous music throughout the day.

High Definition Radios
High Definition Radios are great for drivers who prefer high quality music without noise distortion that normally comes with conventional radios.

GPS Tracker
A GPS Tracker can provide accurate directions for travel destinations.

Rear View Cameras
Rear View Cameras allows one to see all activity that is taking place behind his or her vehicle. This is wonderful for anyone who is concerned about being followed or trailed at night.

DVD Player
A DVD Player is excellent for long trips. Passengers can watch their favorite movies while on the highway.

The top ten electronics for your car listed above can help make your life easier and more exciting.

Bio: Michelle specializes in the automotive industry, and is very interested in electronics. On the side Michelle works for Cash, for cars the #1cash for cars company.

This is a guest post by Cathy Pierce. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Open-Source software is more popular than ever because many Open-Source programs are now on-par with purchased software. To get even more bang for your buck (so to speak, since all of these Open-Source programs cost only a few clicks of your mouse) here are some of the top Open-Source programs that have a variety of uses.

• Open Office — Probably the best free Open-Source alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite, Open Office includes Writer (a word processor), Calc (an Excel-like spreadsheet program), Impress (a Powerpoint-like presentation program), Base (an Access-like database program) and more. In addition to having its own native file formats, Open Office also can recognize and open any MS Office file format.

• Notepad++ — Created as the souped-up programmer-targeted alternative to Microsoft Windows’ Notepad program, Notepad++ is great for editing source code, creating Cascading Style Sheets, or typing out the occasional good old .txt file.

• Miranda — Miranda is a an all-in-one instant messenger application that lets you combine contact lists from all of your other IM applications, even Facebook, and IM them through the Miranda interface. It’s a small and efficient program that saves your chat history to your hard drive for added security and can be customized with skins.

• Audacity — A great audio editing and recording program. Audacity lets you record live audio, convert cassette tapes and records into MP3 format, change the speed and pitch of recordings, blend sections of different recordings together to make your own sound mixes, edit numerous file types including MP3, WAV and AIFF and more.

• GIMP and GIMPshop — GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a powerful image-editing, painting, drawing and photo-manipulation program that boasts the same kind of power as Photoshop. In fact, if you download the add-on, GIMPshop, the menus will rearrange and some features will rename themselves so that those comfortable with Photoshop can effortlessly convert right to GIMPshop.

• NetBeans IDE — An Integrated Development Environment for programming in numerous languages, including Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C, C++, CSS and more. An excellent tool for web and software development, and useful for editing existing web pages and Cascading Style Sheets as well. NetBeansIDE is split into modules for each program so you only install the module for the language you want to program in.

• TightVNC — TightVNC allows you to view and remotely control another person’s computer through yours. You see their desktop as if it belongs to your computer and can move the mouse and use the keyboard to make changes that affect that computer even though it’s far away from you. TightVNC is great for tech support, administration, accessing your home computer’s software from another location and more.

• Cabos —A free alternative to Limewire, Cabos allows for peer-to-peer file sharing. It uses the Gnutella network and enables fast downloading. Use it to get the latest music or movies out.

• GnuCash —Keep track of where your money is going with GnuCash. It’s free accounting software that implements a double-entry bookkeeping system. Use it for large or small business, or even personal, accounting needs.

• AssaultCube – All work and no play isn’t the way to live. Escape the daily grind with this multi-player first-person shooter game. Turn your home office into an arcade for a few minutes.
These are just a glimpse of the hundreds of free Open-Source programs out there for you to download and make good use of. While these programs are useful for a variety of things each, there are also many great programs aimed at doing one particular task well. Since Open-Source is free, you’ve got the power to try as many different programs as you like until you find the one that works best for you

Cathy Pierce is a business professional turned stay-at-home mom. She loves her kids, good TV and the Web. Follow her on Twitter @mrscathypierce.

This is a guest post by Jessy Troy. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

For many of us shopping is a bit of an addiction. With so many sales and chances to get new products online, it can become more like a mania. Of course, this means we suffer the empty checking account or high credit card bills in silence, promising ourselves that next month we will stick to budget. But what if you could shop and also make a little bit of that cash back? Yes, I am talking about making money while you shop, and without any of those mystery shopper scams.

This isn’t some kind of far off dream, and it has been proven to work again and again. This is because developers in the retail world have put increasing focus on better ways to shop online, as ecommerce becomes a regular part of the average consumer’s life. An entire industry has been created around making money as a shopping incentive to stimulate the web-based economy, and you can take advantage of that fact. Try these three tips to get you going.

Earn by Reviewing

Do you like reviewing products, or maybe just trying new products to see how they work for your own purposes? There are some sites out there that will actually pay you to write up a review about what you were already using anyway. These are not writing-specific, so don’t worry if you aren’t a world class author. They want opinions from real consumers trying real products right now.

Sadly, you have to be careful when finding these websites, as some are scams. But one good one to try is Epinions, which is a popular site approved by consumer protection agencies. They work by promoting certain products with your reviews, based on your opinions. Then, when sales are made, they distribute a percentage of that into a payment pool, which is paid out to the people who made reviews. Once you have $10 (within the U.S only) you can request to be paid. For those outside of the U.S, the amount is $100.

Sell Your Gift Cards for Cash

It has happened to all of us: you are at yet another ridiculous white elephant daytime office party and you are handed an envelope. Without even opening it you know that it will be a gift card, and almost certainly to a place you never shop at or visit. Most of those cards sit at the bottom of a drawer and are never used. But what if you could sell it to get a bit of extra cash?

There are some sites that will sell your gift card for a percentage of the price, usually between 60% and 90%. Gift Card Granny is a great example of a site that buy and sell gift cards. Ebay is another great option, as they have gift card sections where you can get up to the full price for it. Some sites also offer a way to trade yours in for a store you actually like.

Answer Questions, Get Paid

Product answering sites are becoming all the rage. The idea is a wonderfully simple one. You sign up, answer questions about products and if your answer is selected as the best you will be paid for it. Once it adds up to a certain amount you will be able to request a payout, which will  be sent to an online payment third party, like PayPal.

There aren’t the many legitimate sites that work this way. So far, the best I have found is IMShopping. The only downside to this site is the amount that has to acquire before you are paid is higher than some sites, but still lower than others like Inbox Dollars. You also have to wait if you go over $40 until the next pay cycle.

Bonus!

Still want more? Try a paid survey site, such as MySurvey, or Inbox Dollars.

This is a guest post by Jessy Troy, whose online passion is collecting DIY gadgets.

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

When the printer seems to be drinking ink instead of efficiently printing documents, there are some steps that can be taken to optimize ink usage. Older printer models use more ink than newer models so consider replacing printers that have been in use for more than three years. New models of printers allow more control over print settings. Spend some time walking through this logical series of steps to evaluate the settings and lower the consumption of ink and toner.

1. Reset the automated cleaning function – When the printer performs an automated cleaning of the print heads, ink is wasted instead of used for printing. While the process is necessary for the printer to function correctly, the frequency of these cleanings can be reset to reduce the ink consumption. Refer to the user manual for instructions. The printer that is used daily will only need the print heads cleaned weekly.

2. Use “draft” printing mode – Within the printer properties, set the default printer to print every document in “draft” mode. Documents that are going to reside in a file that is opened only occasionally can be of lesser quality. When the printed document will be presented to a customer, the print quality setting can be changed for the one print job. Since the default is set to “draft” the next document will be printed in draft mode.

3. Print in monochrome – Set the default color setting to “grayscale” or “monochrome” to use only the black ink. Black ink is much less expensive than color ink. Most text documents are entirely black and white. When draft copies are needed for a color document, the black ink can be used until the final copy is printed.

4. Choose a finer font – Some fonts consume a great deal of ink because each line is thicker. Choose a font that has very fine lines and a narrower footprint within the print line. The research to find a better default font may require the use of some ink, but the long-term benefit will be evident.

5. Use cartridge completely – Never change an ink cartridge before it is completely empty. Wait until the print quality has been directly impacted before removing the old cartridge and inserting a new one. While a little bit of ink in one cartridge may not seem like much, over time the habit of removing a cartridge with usable ink remaining will cost money.

6. Send digital pictures to print service – Printing one picture with a reduced resolution consumes an acceptable quantity of ink. When multiple high-resolution photographs are printed, an entire ink cartridge can be consumed. Save money and use the expertise of a photo printing service for printing photographs.

7. Evaluate compatible or remanufactured cartridges – Out of pocket costs may appear to be lower when choosing to use less expensive compatible ink cartridges. While some remanufactured cartridges may deliver comparable quantities of printed pages, most consumers are disappointed with the cheaper versions. Just for proof, purchase one full set of the compatible cartridges and track the number of printed pages. Then decide which printer cartridge is best for use in your printer.

8. Outsource high-volume print jobs – When a very large document is to be printed, contact the local copy shop and inquire about the cost of their services. The cost of paper, ink, and employee time will be more than working a deal with a copy center. Set a certain threshold for the number of pages that can be printed on the office printer and send all larger documents out to be printed.

9. Refill cartridges – Some printer cartridges can be refilled by a service or refilled in house to save substantial funds on ink and replacement cartridges. Toner cartridges must be refilled by a service, but this can save a great deal of money over the course of a year. Find a reputable refill service and ask if they have deals for frequent ink refills. Monitor the number of pages printed from a refilled cartridge and determine which approach is the most cost effective for printer.

10. Recycle spent cartridges – Many retailers have started to offer money-saving coupons in exchange for spend printer cartridges. Those cartridges are sold to a refill service instead of being thrown into the landfill. Use the coupon to purchase the new printer cartridge and save money on your print costs.

Print quality is important for some documents, but most of the printed pages produced are for internal use and do not require excessive use of ink. When looking for ways to save money on the ink cartridges in the printer, know what the printer is currently doing to consume ink. Familiarize yourself with the settings that can be improved. Reset one and then see how the print quality is changed. Reduce the number of automated operations the printer performs that consume ink. Evaluate business practices that consume unnecessary ink. Reward employees that come up with creative ways to reduce the amount of printed material produced each month. Choose the best practices to prevent being penny wise and pound foolish.

Also give the latest HP Photosmart Ink b110 Cartridges a try without fail, and let us know what you think in the comment section.

James works as part of the team of writers at CartridgeSave.co.uk who analyse and review Pitney Bowes supplies and printer accessories. If you would like to read more of his work, you can visit their website.