http://theshoppingnazi.com Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://theshoppingnazi.com/netflix-amazon-or-someone-else/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/netflix-amazon-or-someone-else/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/netflix-amazon-or-someone-else/ The coach potatoes and movie addicts have won. They have gotten more reasons to lay on the couch and spend all weekend watching movies. There is a greater selection of mind numbing entertainment than ever. Now there is no need to pay $75 to $100 for a monthly subscription. The cost of all television shows and movies can now be streamed to the home TV for a fraction of the cost of what it has been. Oh has the cost really dropped? Considering all the options that are available who want to go to a big screen theater? Why would I waste my money on gas by driving to the local cinema multiplex. I can’t really afford paying for admissions into the theater along with over priced soda, popcorn and candy. The idea of  watching a movie sitting next to this guy who makes strange noises while drinking his soda is enough to make me stay home. Free over the air television means I have to adjust my schedule to watch my favorite programs. Why hasn’t anyone come up with a way I can record NCIS Los Angles while I am at work? On the weekend, the local stations only show really old [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/netflix-amazon-or-someone-else/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/passwords-and-logins/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/passwords-and-logins/#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/passwords-and-logins/ Just the other day, I had to reset my password to my Amazon.com. It had been sometime since I bought anything there. Normally, my web browser would automatically log me into the checkout section of the website. The reason it would not let me login was because I changed computers since the last time I logged into Amazon.com. It took me five extra minutes to reset my password. The password reset for Amazon.com was much easier than if I were to reset the password for my bank. My bank makes me jump through a several hoops to do a password reset. They even make me jump through other hoops if I try to access my bank account from a different computer. I have to verify who I am via text message or phone call to tell them it is okay to access my bank account from a different computer. Why am I writing about user names and passwords? Well, time is money. The time and energy just resetting  a forgotten passwords can be extremely frustrating. The time and frustration can take away other things we can do that is more productive. In this world technology, and identity thieves we are bound [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/passwords-and-logins/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/protect-my-tech/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/protect-my-tech/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:00:28 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7588 We are definitely living in the 21st century. Everyday we have less and less paper. We are dependent more and more on our tech and the digital media we can store in it. It wasn’t that long ago when we had a list of phone numbers written on sheet of paper sitting next to the telephone in the living room. Another list of phone numbers were on the refrigerator held up by a magnet was quite common. Today, we carry around our phones, with phone numbers in our hands. I hear many people joke about not knowing family phone numbers. They just press the contact name on their phone, and the phone magically dials the number for them. I must admit I only know one phone number besides my own. It is my brother. The only reason for that is he has had the same phone number for at least fifteen years. There was a time when news of world events where either read in the local newspaper, or heard over the air waves through a large box called a radio. Today, get news and special news alerts on our cell phones, tablets, and desktop computers. Quite some time back movies were only seen [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/protect-my-tech/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-canon-printer/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-canon-printer/#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:00:07 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7322 I had to say good-by to my old HP Officejet 6110. I paid $5 for it three years ago. I said hello to my new Canon PIXMA MX410. The old HP Officejet printer finally died after three years of dependable faithful use. No matter how hard I tried I could not revive it to print one more page. So for the last couple of weeks I have been putting off getting a replacement printer for the best printer I have ever had. I have been waiting for Idaho’s Largest Garage Sale. Since it is another six weeks away, I could not wait any longer. We had discussed what we our family needs would be for a printer. We put together the following requirements. Wireless - Since all the computer in our home is connected via WiFi to the internet. We decided it would be nice to get a WiFi printer. That way we could all print from our computers, tablets, and cell phones to the one printer without wires. Color as Well as Back n White - I could of have gone with getting just a black and white printers, because we rarely need to print anything in color. Still there is [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/shopping-for-a-canon-printer/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-tech/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-tech/#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:00:49 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7422 Yes, we need tools for our tech too. It does not matter if it is a cell phone or a 55″ LCD television. There are certain things we all should have to extend the life of our tech toys and tech tools. I am not talking about repair and upgrading hardware. In this post I will be sharing with you some basic tools we all need to keep our tech stuff in top notch shape. So many times I come across people who have the impression all they have to do is look at their cell phone or computer and it will do exactly what they want. All they have to do is keep it connected to a power source, and pay the data connection bill. This is so wrong! I cannot see these people treating their pets the same way. If these people treat their pets like they treat their tech, then they should be arrested for animal abuse. For abusing their pets, and maybe for abusing their tech. Battery Backup -  The average household will experience sags, surges, spikes, brown outs, and power outages over the course of a year from their electric company. Most of the time we do [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/tools-for-tech/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/choosing-security-software/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/choosing-security-software/#comments Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/choosing-security-software/ In my opinion choosing computer security software is like choosing car insurance. The riskier the driver, the more you are going to pay for protection. Last week when I wrote The Cost of Online Security, In that post, I wrote about simple practices you and I could do to protect ourselves. Threats like having our identity stolen is very real. Just as real as having our computer taken over from an outside source without us knowing about it. In the world we live those basic simple practices is like locking our front door. They are not enough. To keep hackers out we need to do more. We need to lock the back door. We need to lock the garage door. In addition we need to put security sensors on all the windows and doors in the house. Computer security software does the job. It puts locks on all the possible places we can get attacked. Then it puts sensors in those places to warn us if something is about to break through. There are three level of security software that is available for your computer. The first is free. The second cost in the range of $30 to a $100 [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/choosing-security-software/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/the-cost-of-online-security/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/the-cost-of-online-security/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:00:16 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7258 I am constantly hearing  people verbalize their concerns about internet security and online privacy over the internet. This is a very real concern, because lost of certain personal information can cost you a lot of money. On the other hand you can spend a lot of money for minimal protection.  Like most everything else, it is not how much you spend, but where you spend it. The Tech Guy, Leo Laporte says, If you have information on the internet, it is to be considered open to the public. This is so true. If you put anything on the internet consider it can be read by everyone who has internet access. Now there are certain things we don’t want out on the internet for everyone to have access too. I am talking about things like your Social Security card number, bank account numbers, and passwords. This stuff should be guard in every way possible. I hear people constantly saying, “Free is Good”. Free can be good when it comes to protecting your self from identity theft. Free can be good when it comes to protecting yourself from losing control of your computer. The most basic of things you can do to protect yourself is free. [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/the-cost-of-online-security/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/singing-the-blues-over-bluetooth/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/singing-the-blues-over-bluetooth/#comments Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:00:50 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7256 Back in the late 1990′s, I was when I first heard about Bluetooth. This guy who was telling me about the technology. He told me it got name from a pirate who had one tooth and liked to eat blueberries. Thus, his nickname was Bluetooth. Since then I have not found any truth to that story. In reality Bluetooth was borrowed from the 10th century, Denmark King, King Harald Bluetooth. He was famous for uniting Scandinavia. The original idea behind the Bluetooth technology was to connect personal computers to cellular devices. The over the air transmission would be a short range wireless link. According to Wikipedia, “Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400-2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Created by telecoms vendor Ericsson in 1994…” There is a Bluetooth Special Interest Group which manages the use of the technology. You can find out about them at either Bluetooth.com or Bluetooth.org.  which has more than 15,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics. The main limitations to Bluetooth is its range of no more than 30 feet. In addition, don’t consider it a [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/singing-the-blues-over-bluetooth/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/thrive-or-tab/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/thrive-or-tab/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:33 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7228 I was sitting at the breakfast table reading the local newspaper. Inside the paper were sales ads for the upcoming President’s Day weekend sales. The Samsung Galaxy Tab and The Toshiba Thrive popped up in a couple of places. There were some several stores like Shopko and Wal Mart offering sub $200 tablets. Then when went to get behind my computer, I had got several emails from places like Geeks.com, who were offering me sub $100 tablets. I have found even the sub $200 tablets come with several short falls. One, they are all from off brands like ViewSonic, Pandigital, Lepan, and others. Two, they are so under powered. In many cases they are equal or less in processing power than the Amazon Kindle Fire. Still after examining my wants and needs I find a high powered eReader will not fill make me happy. I don’t want to have to put out $500 plus to get an iPad. My comfortable budget tops out at $400. So what do I get? A tablet with a dual core process, 16 Gigabyte of internal memory, camera and a 10″ screen seems to the ideal tablet. Dual core processor for the ability to multitask. [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/thrive-or-tab/feed/ 0 http://theshoppingnazi.com/touch-screen-desktop-computers/ http://theshoppingnazi.com/touch-screen-desktop-computers/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:00:41 +0000 The Shopping Nazi http://theshoppingnazi.com/?p=7079 I first saw touch screens computers in the food processing industry back in the late 90′s. Since then the technology and the price has been slowly been dropping. As a result we now see more cell phones with touch screens than without. The overall adoption of a touch screen desktop computer has been slow mostly because of the cost. We are seeing the price going under the $1,000 mark. This makes the all-in-one computer with touch screen in the same price range as the more traditional desktops. HP and DELL are the two major desktop computer manufactures who are pushing the desktop computers with a touch screens. HP with its HP TouchSmart 320-1030 is being sold for $699, and the DELL has its Inspiron One 2320 with Optional Touch Screen are just samples of what is in the market. The HP has a 20″ screen as compared to the DELL has 23″ screen. The DELL touch screen was selling from $800 to $1,300. The HP can be found in the $700 range.  The reviews from PCMag.com and Cnet.com left me turned off  for a touch screen desktop computer. Then I asked myself why would I ever buy a touch screen desktop computer? The idea of manipulating images with my figures [...]]]> http://theshoppingnazi.com/touch-screen-desktop-computers/feed/ 0