Reducing Cable Costs without Cutting the Cord

So after a call with Comcast I have found out that they have started encrypting even basic TV channels that you used to be able to get with just a digital TV.  Until now ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and a few others that you could get with an antenna you could get on your TV without renting one of their boxes.  Now you must have a box from them or a cable card ready system of some sort.  They are very quick to blame the government mandated transition to digital TV for this inconvenience.

Let me be very clear.  This has nothing to do with the digital transition.  The digital transition only covered antenna transmissions, and those affected could either get a converter box for free or purchase a digital tv.  Cable companies were not actually part of this.  There was only one governmental regulation on cable companies that has a direct affect on us as customers, and it's actually a positive.  It's called cable card.

Now Comcast does not readily tell you about cable card.  In fact they fought the standard for a few years and dragged their feet implementing it.  Consumer groups realized that with all the encryption and standard shifts cable companies were doing that caused standard TVs to stop working without special boxes and associated fees consumers were getting screwed.  So they petitioned the government to put a standard into effect that had a universal gateway.  This way people could buy a cable box of their own and only have to get a free part (called a cable card!) from their cable company that would allow their own equipment to work.

Now a lot of us already own our own cable modem to avoid rental fees.  Imagine how much money you could save if you owned your own cable box!  fees range from $10 - $24 a month per tv.  If you have more than one TV this could get very expensive.  These new multi room box setups start at $30 a month and go up quickly. 

After a bit of experimentation I have come up with a great setup that not only enables you to use every screen in your home including your tablets, tv's, computers, etc to watch TV it will also allow allow you DVR functionality to record shows in one spot in your home and watch it anywhere.  To begin with you will need a network cable card tuner.  Two that I recommend are the Silicon Dust 3 tuner and the Ceton 6 Infinitv ethernet box.  These attach to your home wifi router and to your cable company coax. Once this box is installed you just need a cable card from your provider.  Comcast provides the first for free.  Make sure you get a M-card cable card.  This means the card supports multiple tuners.  

This puts your cable service on your home network.  Any device on that network can access the tuners with the right program.  Add a windows pc into this mix and you get DVR functionality with Windows Media Center.  Most Windows 7 versions included this program.  Windows 8 has it as an option that you have to pay $10 for.  It is a descent DVR if you're not someone who is technically inclined.  You can watch TV on the pc, and any other xbox 360 you have in your home.  It basically acts as a multi room DVR without the monthly cost.  There is one issue with this setup.  Most DVR's today will record an entire show from the beginning even if you hit the record button half way through.  WMC won't do this.  It will record from the point you hit record.  Otherwise all other functions are the same.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/windows-media-center

Now if you are a bit more technically inclined check out XBMC.  You can install it on any system (Mac, linux, Windows) and use many different end points as clients (Ouya, tablets, ipads, apple tvs, Rokus).  It has all DVR functionality included. 

http://lifehacker.com/5981757/how-to-watch-and-record-live-tv-on-your-xbmc-media-center

The one really nice thing about this is other than saving fees is that you can eliminate a lot of splitters from your home.  If you've ever noticed that some TV's in your home have a better picture than others you're seeing the effects of over splitting.  When you shift to this system you can eliminate all splitters except one.  You just need a two way splitter on the incoming feed from the cable company.  One line goes to your cable modem, the other to the network cable tuner.  Every TV in your home will now have the same picture.

Cutting the Cord

Thankfully the current government shutdown has come to an end and people who are reliant on a functioning government for their paycheck are now getting paid once again.  Unfortunately many republican senators have expressed their desire to repeat this idiotic crap again in January.  Many people I know started running around wondering how they would pay their bills and keep the lights on.  Others were scrambling to trim back services to their bare minimum level to keep expenses down.  These same people are shocked at what little I pay monthly yet I keep up with all of my shows and carry around a smart phone.  Despite all of this my monthly expenditure is half if not a quarter than what others spend for the same services.  The trick is to use some pre-planning and a very old fiscally conservative trick.  Spending a little more up front for long term savings.

Budgeting

First off I'm not an accountant.  I'm not going to run through how you can make a household budget.  I'm assuming you know how to take your monthly income and subtract off your bare necessities of food, shelter, clothing, and utilities (Heat, electricity, water, etc) to determine what you have to work with.  If you can't quite frankly stop reading this article and Google how to create a budget.  

Now I'm going to cover four main areas where you can massively cut your monthly "Communications" bills.  These would be Internet, Television, Cellular, and your Plain Old Telephone Service (aka POTS).  I've found over the years people are massively over paying for all of these services because they are not aware of alternatives.  Some of these alternatives are new and different than what we are used to, but once you do get to know them you probably find you enjoy them more than the older alternative.

Internet

The backbone of everything we are going to discuss here today is all reliant on you having a solid Internet connection.  For the remainder of this article I will assume you live in a community where you have either Cable, DSL, or are a really lucky person and you have fiber to your door.  If you're someone who has chosen to live out in an extremely rural without these options I wish you luck here.  I intend to do an article in the future on how your community can install and maintain their own infrastructure in the near future. 

The first thing you will need for this process is a high speed Internet connection.  These are not all created equally.  I suggest looking into them in the following order.  Fiber, then Cable, the phone company's DSL, finally a cellular data connection.  Fiber is your best possible connection, but unfortunately it is not everywhere.  Google and Verizon are the only two major carriers for it in the US.  If you live in one of the limited number of areas that have these as options look here first!  Google has Internet only package that has an installation cost and then is free after that.  Cable is your second best choice.  While it is a shared connection, there is plenty of bandwidth on a cable loop to keep everyone in your neighborhood purring along on the Internet quite nicely.  Finally if neither Fiber or Cable is available to you then consider DSL.  DSL is considered a high speed Internet link, but truthfully it does not hold a candle to the other two.  While the phone company has tried to retool their infrastructure to help speed this up, they still do not offer the bandwidth of even cable.  Truthfully only use a phone company's high speed Internet service as a negotiating block to get a better price from your local Cable company.  A cellular data connection is great if you're a road warrior and travel constantly, but the monthly costs are quite high for unlimited data.  That and if you want to stream to more than one device at a time would limit your experience.

Now lets talk price.  Honestly $30 - $50 a month is a good range for a high speed Internet connection.  You want something that has at least 15Mbps.  More is always better, but balance this out with the price.  Also ask if there are any deals in your area for recently moving, or switching from another service.  I've been at $30 a month for a cable internet service who's list price is $60.  I keep it that low because I keep calling up and negotiating a 6 month deal.  I only negotiate a price on my Internet service and I make a point to NEVER BUNDLE!  While bundling sounds like a great deal you usually get stuck with a typical "triple bundle" package of your home phone, Internet, and television.  This price usually comes in around $100 - $250+.  As you add basic features to your home phone and television packages that make them usable (like caller ID, or DVR functionality) you quickly increase the price of your monthly bill.  For now stick to your guns and stay with only an Internet connection.  The rest will come later.

Finally don't let your provider give you a modem or router for your connection.  The rental cost per month is usually $10 and it's completely avoidable.  A modem will usually run you about $80, and a router can run anywhere from $10 - $150.  A good home router is usually about $30 and can be cheaper if you catch a sale.  In about a year the savings on your monthly bill pays for your equipment.  Maintaining this is also quite easy.  Setup is a one time thing, then in the future you may have to do minor things like restart the equipment by turning it off then on again.  Don't let anyone talk you out of this for fear of future compatibility.  The stuff your cable company rents out is anywhere from 1 to 10 years old.  What you buy today will be more future proof than what they hand to you.

Television

Maybe you've heard about this major movement that is freaking out the cable and phone companies called "Cutting the cord".  Basically this means you pay for only an Internet connection and using a variety of devices you get all of your programming over streaming services.  I know this sounds like a huge expense but really it isn't.  In fact you may already have everything you need to cut the cord and may not even realize it.

Now if you have a video game system such as the Wii, WiiU, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3 or 4 you already have a device that can handle streaming.  Also included would be any TV with built in Internet apps, blueray players with Internet apps, Roku, an Apple TV, or any number of other devices.  Another option is if you had a spare PC lying around you could re-purpose it as a home theater PC.  

If you don't have any of the above devices first off I'm somewhat shocked.  It's rather difficult to dodge buying equipment without built in streaming apps.  I usually recommend people buy what they are familiar with.  If you have an iphone, ipod, ipad, Macintosh, or another apple device I would suggest Apple TV's at each TV in your home.  If you're a gamer pick up a game console.  If you're not all that technical, you're not a Apple product owner, and you don't like to game I would suggest a Roku.  Finally if you know your way around a PC, and have a few of them in your garage I suggest building a HTPC.  Now if you're someone who is starting off needing a new television I suggest buying one with Internet applications built in.   

Ok, before we go any further I want you do do a little homework.  Grab a pen and pencil and write down every show you're interested in seeing.  Now head to hulu.com and netflix.com and start searching.  You may find everything you want to watch is available on these two services.  If not head to amazon and itunes and see if the show is there.  Now lets say the worst case scenario is that you need Hulu, Netflix, and either Amazon or Itunes to watch everything you want to see.  Hulu and Netflix are about $8 a month for the streaming service each.  So that's $16 a month.  Now lets say you're watching a couple of shows that you don't want to wait to hit hulu or netflix such as a Showtime, HBO, or an AMC show.  These are usually around $42 - $60 per season or $3 per episode.  If you wind up buying all of your season passes in one shot this adds up to a high one time bill, but extremely cheap costs the rest of the season.  Where as the cost of cable is constant plus the cost of equipment.  

Ok lets run a comparison.  Lets take a typical home that has 2 televisions and no additional equipment.  In both cases we will need to either purchase or rent equipment.  Also for cable TV we will need a package that includes HBO, Showtime, and DVR's for both rooms.  This is usually $99 a month.  On top of that you need to add equipment and taxes.  For this example I'll ignore tax.  For the other example I'll use a typical price for a streaming box which is about $100, and in month one we'll buy three season passes for $45 each.

Equipment / Month	Cut the Cord	Cable / Phone
Equipment Cost	$200 One time cost	$30 Monthly
1	$151	$130
2	$16	$130
3	$16	$130
4	$16	$130
5	$16	$130
6	$16	$130
7	$16	$130
8	$16	$130
9	$16	$130
10	$16	$130
11	$16	$130
12	$16	$130
Total	$527	$1,560

Big difference huh? We've only tackled one of the three big bills that haunt most people.  Let me show you what more we can do...

Cellular Phone

There are a lot of options for cell phone service.  Most of these are over priced.  Severely over priced.  This is due to the practice of subsidization the price of the phone usually giving it away for free or a low price and making that cost up over the life of the contract with a healthy margin.  You can cut your bill by combining your plan with family members, but that only goes so far.  If you buy your own phone ahead of time, or hang onto an old phone you can switch to a pay as you go service.  If you're willing to fore-go traditional support you can save even more.

For this  section we will be looking at unlimited talk, text, and data plans.  Also month one will include the initial equipment cost.  I will be comparing three services.  Your typical provider AT&T, MetroPCS, and a relative newbie called Republic Cellular that functions on a combination of the Sprint network and your home wifi.  Republic wireless  cuts costs by offering no phone support line.  Support comes from their website only.  To cut down costs of airtime the company encourages you to use your home wifi for data and it can use any wifi to make calls instead of using the Sprint network.  This savings is passed on to you.  The only thing is you give up MMS messages (aka picture messages).  Instead of sending or receiving picture messages Republic wireless recommends emailing these items.  They may add MMS later.

	AT&T (not truly unlimited)	MetroPCS	Republic Cellular
Equipment Cost	$1.00	$399	$299
1	$95	$50	$19
2	$95	$50	$19
3	$95	$50	$19
4	$95	$50	$19
5	$95	$50	$19
6	$95	$50	$19
7	$95	$50	$19
8	$95	$50	$19
9	$95	$50	$19
10	$95	$50	$19
11	$95	$50	$19
12	$95	$50	$19
Total	$1,141	$999	$527

So by giving up a little in terms of services provided you can save half your annual bill, and a hell of a lot monthly.  Also there is no weird addition when you want to add additional lines for a family plan.  It's just $19 a month per line, or if you don't leave home much you can spend $5 a month for a wifi only line.

Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS!)

If you are someone who wants to have a old style phone line for your home because you want to fax, you have poor cell phone reception in the area, or you just like having one this section is for you.  For years a POTS line was our only way of communicating over distance.  You used to pay one provider for local calls and one for long distance.  Local calls were essentially free, but the per minute cost on long distance was expensive.  Now unlimited nation wide calling plans can be hand from AT&T for $44 a month. Now they are overpriced.  Many less expensive options for adding a line to your home exist.  The only advantage a POTS line offers over other methods is that in the case of a power outage your phone line is guaranteed to work.  With these other options if the power goes out, even if you have a battery backup or generator you may not have a home phone, but the cost savings may be worth this.  

For this comparison I'll include four options.  AT&T, Vonage, Ooma, and a more DIY setup with Google Voice and a box called an Obihai 202.  In all cases I will list the equipment costs upfront and include it in the first month cost.  All services include common phone features such as caller id, call waiting, and unlimited local / long distance. Taxes are not included, but in the case of the Ooma the per month cost of service is $0 + local taxes.  As these vary based on your location I will not be including them.  Also Vonage offers a price break for the first three months of your contract if you sign up for 1 year.  I'll use these figures in my pricing. 

	AT&T	Vonage	Ooma	Obihai 202 + Google Voice
Equipment	$0	$0	$130	$70
1	$45	$9.95	$0+tax	$0
2	$45	$9.95	$0+tax	$0
3	$45	$9.95	$0+tax	$0
4	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
5	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
6	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
7	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
8	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
9	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
10	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
11	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
12	$45	$24.95	$0+tax	$0
Total	$540	$254.40	$130 + 12 months tax	$70

The pricing of a standard phone line does include the security of tech support and a line that will work in the even of a power outage.  Vonage and Ooma may not work in a power outage (it might if you have a battery backup hooked up to it, your router, and your modem and your provider has power) and still include tech support.  The Obihai with Google Voice does not have tech support.  Again if your ISP has backup power, and you have a battery backup hooked to the Obihai, your router, and your cable modem it may work in the case of a power outage.  The question is would the security of a guaranteed working phone line be worth $540 annually?  Remember that equipment costs are sunk and you will own that equipment for the life of the service.  So 2 years of an AT&T line is $1,080 while the Ooma is still $130 + 24 months of taxes.  The Obihai 202 only costs you the initial $70.  

The Best Case Scenario

Lets say you decide to upend all of your service providers and switch to something far more affordable.  While your first month may be costly as you may need to buy a lot of equipment your monthly costs will be greatly reduced.  Using my numbers above I'll compile a best case scenario.  Remember this isn't a one size fits all as you may have game systems to stream TV with, you may already own an unlocked phone, etc.  I'm including the costs for Internet, Television, Phone, and Cellular service below.

	Best Case
Equipment	$569
1	$205
2	$65
3	$65
4	$65
5	$65
6	$65
7	$65
8	$65
9	$65
10	$65
11	$65
12	$65
Total	$1,489

With a little creative cord cutting your monthly bill can be less than just the bill for your phone bill.  By investing upfront in your own equipment you reap the savings.

Shaving costs

As with many men I shave on a daily basis.  Over the years I've had a few razors.  My first was a Sensor Excel.  A fairly basic razor by todays standards, but it was very serviceable and I have used it as my travel razor until three years ago.  Since that time I've had multiple other razors.  Some were free samples mailed to me (a Mach 3 razor).  Others were gifts friends or family gave to me over time (a Fusion mPower, a standard Fusion, and a few others I disliked so much I stopped using after two shaves).  Over time I've defaulted to using my two Fusion razors as my primary blades.  One for travel, one for home.  In this way I had hoped to keep my cartridge costs down.

Dull blades can pull, cut, or even cause issues such as ingrown hairs.  It's very important to swap out your cartridge as soon as you start noticing these issues.  Usually for me I was getting a solid 7-14 days before the blades started to dull on my Fusion.  A few weeks ago I realized I was on my last cartridge and would need to pick up some refills.  Considering I've gotten a few good years out of this handle I decided to set it aside for now and see what my options for a change would be.  I was unimpressed with most options out there, but I did see a new store brand razor from Kroger that was essentially a Fusion, but with blade replacement costs one quarter that which Gillette charges.  Unfortunately the refills will not work with the Mach 5 handle.  As I would be buying a new whole new razor I decided to keep looking.

While at the mall I ran across the "Art of Shaving".  I was impressed with the interior and decided to browse a bit.  I found their stock to consist of Straight razors, Double Edge safety razors, and custom Fusion razors.  A number of years ago I had considered a DE safety razor as a replacement for my aging Sensor excel, but I was intimidated at the time.  After trying out straight razor shaves at my barber and noticing how much better my skin was when I did I decided to give it another go.

Now the Art of Shaving store is a wonderful place.  The staff is patient and more than willing to explain the almost lost art of shaving using a Safety razor, brush, and soap instead of a aerosol foam and razor.  The only thing is that the prices they charge are astronomical.  Many of the Safety razors they sell are in the $70 - $200 range.  Considering they sell a custom finish Gillette Fusion razor for $200 - $300 where as the standard Fusion can be had for $11 pointed out to me that a more affordable Safety razor handle could be located.  So off to Amazon I went and quickly found a $17 Lords Safety razor kit with a small random selection of blades so I could try a few options out.  As I was going completely old school I purchased a kit with a soap dish, shaving soap, and a brush for $9.  So for what I would have spent on 4 to 8 Fusion refills I got a shaving kit with 16 razors.  I did buy a Alum (Styptic) pen from the art of shaving store as the girl working there spent so much time with me, but I do have to admit $14 for one was way over priced as you can get Styptic pens for $2.

Here is all you need for a starter pack:

You will also want a shave lotion that does not contain alcohol.  I like this one:



Once you run out of the inital soap (which took me about 6 months...) try these:

Coming from the cartridge razor world I was rather stunned to find out that all Safety razors were essentially compatible.  As such you could buy razors from any manufacturer with any number of different materials and coatings until you found a combination you liked.  Once you lock in that brand you can buy blades in bulk packs of 10 or 100.  10 blades tend to cost $2, while 100 cost $10.  This alone made it worth the attempt to shift to this new (old?) shaving system.  

I've been using the new system for a week now and have noticed the following benefits:

1)  I do get a closer shave than I did with even the 5 blade Fusion.  The "more blades are better" slogan is complete BS.  I will say it has taken a little practice to get that close shave.  The Fusion would give me consistent results without skill or effort.  The Safety razor takes practice and effort to give a great shave.  The first few times I used it I am afraid I had massive patches where it looked like I didn't shave since I held the blade at the wrong angle.

2)  My skin is clear.  I've had issues with ingrown hairs and zits since I started shaving.  Since switching to this old system my skin has been free of this.  I'm not sure it's due to the new razor, or due to switching to a non alcohol based shaving soap from my old shaving cream.

3)  Shaving takes longer, but it is satisfying.  I found this weird.  I genuinely hated shaving.  I would grow my beard just to avoid this chore.  Since switching I find myself happily shaving daily.  It's almost as if by simplifying the process so much we took away the joy. 

4)  I do cut myself.  Usually a small knick or two on my neck.  My Fusion would bite me once in a while.  When it did it hurt like hell.  Probably due to 3 more razors passing over the cut.  When the Safety razor bites I usually don't feel it at all.  I only know I am bleeding because I look in the mirror after I'm done.  This is where the Styptic pen comes in.  Just a touch and the bleeding stops.  Screw using little toilet paper squares!

All in all I have found the move worth while.  If you're tired of burning a ton of money on increasingly overpriced and gimmicky cartridge razors you should give this old style razor a try.  Just be aware you may need to wait a week or two for shipping unless you have a store that sells common Safety razors for a appropriate price.

Raspberry Pi!

I love tech.  A giant server with massive storage?  Oh yea.  A small netbook that I can use on a plane for 6 hours continuously?  Set that right down here!  So when I heard of a computer that can do 1080P video, fit in the palm of your hand, and cost only $25 I already had my wallet in my hand!  

The group over at http://www.raspberrypi.org/ have built a computer platform based around a broadcom ARM processor.  The reason for their work was to build a inexpensive high quality computer that will allow school children direct access to hardware.  The old 8 bit computers of the 1980's were understandable by most hobbyists.  These computers have been kept up and working because they were easily maintainable, and modifiable.  People like you and I created interface cards in our spare time to get new functions in these machines on shoe string budgets.  And if we damaged something, in the back of most of the manuals we had the full system schematic for the boards and necessary parts lists.  Usually you could fix these pc's with nothing more than a soldering iron, a chip puller, and a screw driver. 

Modern PC's with high speed buses are not as easily modified.  Understanding the base hardware at a chip level is almost impossible, and you won't find many home made pci-express cards.  That and who wants to risk frying their $500+ home computer with a home made part or two?  Especially since these machines really are not user serviceable.  You fry a chip, you replace the whole motherboard.  

The problem is that this type of tinkering is exactly how you learn!  Kids today don't have access to the wonderful rough and tumble machines I had when I was a kid.  That's the point of the raspberry pi.  It's a very simple computer system that is immanently hackable.  It gives a user very low level access so you can start coding even in BASIC right off the bat of turning it on, works with equipment you probably already have, and  costs next to nothing.  If you do wind up frying this little guy while trying to create something awesome, you can just get another one.  

All in all this is a great achievement.  Currently these little guys are not yet for sale, but will be soon.  You can bet I'll have on in my hands shortly there after and I'll post a full review!

Rechargeable Batteries: What you need to know

Almost all of us out there have gadgets that run on batteries.  Whether it be a wireless mouse, a flashlight, a radio, or something else.  While a lot of our battery operated tech now use proprietary lithium ion blocks that only fit that device there are still a lot of electronic gizmo's out there which still take good old AAA, AA, C, or D cells.  Alkaline batteries have fallen in price to the point where you can buy a big block of them for $10, but with the whole green push we're all starting to feel it's worth taking a look at rechargeable batteries.

Now I know what most people think about rechargeable batteries.  I recently decided to give them another shot due to all the batteries I'm buying for my game system controllers, remotes, toothbrush, and wireless mouse.  I had held out until now to switch from cheap alkaline because back in college I tried the Rechargeable Alkaline.  While I did get enough uses out of each battery to make them more cost efficient than standard batteries at the time the reliability was terrible.  I felt like I was charging the cells every other day and barely getting any time out of them.  On top of that if the batteries were exposed to freezing temperatures even fully charged batteries would die, and die permanently.  Even new batteries if frozen would be permanently dead and could not be recharged.  Needless to say this technology did not remain on the market long here in Michigan.


Now rechargeable batteries are making a big comeback.  We already use them in our phones and various other devices, we just don't seem to think about them for devices that take traditional batteries.  Well we sort of do.  Case in point anyone who has a Wii or a Xbox 360 knows that the controllers use batteries.  Many of us buy an additional play and charge kit or proprietary rechargeable battery to use with the remote.  These are handy, but for the price you could buy a traditional battery charger and rechargeable AA's.  Not only will you have a charged controller, but you'll have batteries that can be used in anything and you don't have to hunt down special batteries to work with your charger later as you add controllers (People who've added a 3rd or 4th controller to a Wii should know this pain).

So after my last experience I decided to do some research before going out and investing into any particular battery technology.  Here are the types of rechargeable on the market right now.

1. Rechargeable Alkaline:  Yes these are still on the market.  Rayovac gave these a try in the 90's, and after having them fail on the market wisely decided to kill the line.  The draw of these is that they deliver a higher voltage than most other rechargeable battery technologies out there and will work in devices that specify not to use rechargeable batteries.  The only thing here is that there are very few devices on that market now that specify this.  Flashlights and camera flashes are pretty much the only devices that benefit from a higher cell voltage.  For these devices there are better technologies on the market.
• Pro:  Higher cell voltage
• Con:  Limited life cycles.  50-500 charges per battery depending on how you treat them.  The total storage does decrease over time per charge rather quickly.  Current batteries may have overcome the temperature short comes of earlier models, but I personally won't invest in the tech to test them out.  
• Suggestion:  If you really need a higher cell voltage for a device that says it won't work with a rechargeable battery look at the NiZn battery technology.
2. NiCad:  Not going to say much here.  One of the earliest rechargeable battery technologies out there for small cells.  Does develop a memory effect if you don't use the total capacity of the battery.  Useful in the 80's, now there are much better technologies out there.
• Pro: erm... Many chargers that can charge NiCad are able to charge NiMh?
• Cons:  Too numerous to list.  I don't care if someone gives you a set of these.  Recycle them and go straight to a NiMh formula.  Check if the charger they give you is universal before you recycle it though...
• Recommendation:  Skip
3. Lithium Ion:  One of the two major techs you've probably heard of now.  Currently used in all portable electronics, cars, etc.  The formula is excellent, but expensive and difficult to find in traditional size forms.  For a standard battery you're better off currently going with Hybrid NiMh.
• Pros:  High capacity, high voltage, excellent life
• Cons:  Difficult to find.  Requires special charger.  Expensive.
• Recommendation:  For traditional battery sizes you're better off with Hybrid  NiMh.
4. NiZn:  One of the newer battery chemistries.  These provide the higher voltage of Alkaline batteries, but they provide the constant voltage over time associated with NiMh batteries.  They have a very low internal resistance meaning they charge quickly and can be used in high power applications like professional camera flashes.  
• Pros:  All the benefits of a Alkaline battery's voltage with the power curve of a NiMh.
• Cons:  Only available in AA size.  
• Recommendation:  These are great for the 5% of devices that absolutely require a Alkaline battery.  
5. NiMh:  One of the two major techs you've probably heard of now.  The other being Lithium Ion.  NiMh came about in the 90's and was widely used in Laptops, phones, cars (the EV1 used NiMh batteries, the Prius still does), and many other locations.  The technology is still around and new capacities are coming out all the time.  A Quick note:  When you get a Wii / Xbox 360 controller rechargeable battery pack this is the kind of battery in it.  Usually these are not the largest batteries on the market so loose rechargeable AA's should last longer than the pack.
• Pros:  Available in all common sizes including 9V squares (honestly who still uses these outside of clocks and smoke detectors?  Don't use these in your smoke detector!).  Sizes are ever increasing and due to the way they produce voltage over time they have far more available voltage to your device than a standard disposable battery.  
• Cons:  Self discharge.  You know how people say that they always find their devices with rechargeable batteries are in need of a charge?  Things like remotes, flashlights, radios, etc you leave in a drawer until needed and when you turn them on they're almost dead?  This is the culprit.  These batteries loose 25% of their charge over a month just sitting there.  
• Recommendation:  Don't write NiMh off just yet.  I wouldn't buy new standard NiMh cells, but if you have a charger hold onto it!  Look at the new LSD (Low Self Discharge) NiMh cells!
6. LSD NiMh:  A new twist on NiMh batteries.  These work just like the old NiMh batteries without the huge loss of charge over time.  The neat thing about these is that they use standard NiMh chargers.  So if you already have a NiMh charger you only need the new batteries.  You loose a little total charge storage vs a standard NiMh, but the difference is minimal.  They still provide more usable voltage than a disposable cell.
• Pros:  Basically these are the perfect replacement for disposable batteries for 95% of your power hungry devices.  Rayovac has a great package with 2 AA, 2AAA, and a over night charger for $10 you can get to try these out for yourself.  If you like the technology pick up a bulk pack of the Tenergy LSD batteries and a larger quick charger.
• Cons:  All the common battery companies have different names for this technology making it hard to purchase in stores.  Honestly what is the problem in standardizing this?  Yes calling them LSD NiMh might wind up causing some druggie idiots buying them up in bulk for a while but for the standard consumer it would be a real boon.  
• Recommendation:  Definitely pick these up.  Far cheaper than even disposable batteries over the long run.  Bulk packs are pretty competitive with disposables and the life cycles are in the 1000's of charges per cell.  Spend a little more now and you'll not need new batteries for years.  When looking for this type of battery you need to know the brand names.  Rayovac and Duracel call these 'Precharged Rechargeables' while Tenergy uses 'LSD'.  I recommend the Rayovac charger if you want to try these out, and then the Tenergy charger and batteries if you decide you want to stick with it.  A quick note about cheap chargers.  Small quick chargers are fine as long as you remember to unplug them.  Most don't have 'Smart' charging functionality where they stop charging when the battery is full.  Do look for small chargers with this function!  It's worth the extra money for one.  The rayovac charger below does not have this, but it's essentially a $4 charger.  If you decide you like your batteries get the Tenergy station and keep the Rayovac charger for when you're on the road!

As for chargers, you will need one.  NiZn is unique enough I would recommend buying the charger that comes with the batteries.  While the universal charger I recommend may charge NiZn, it's more of an "At your own risk" scenario.

For NiCad, Lithium, and NiMh batteries I've switched completely over to a Foxnovo 4S.  It not only charges various types of batteries, it does so uniquely to each battery.  Unlike other chargers where you may have to pair individual cells this intelligently charges each cell independent of the rest, and does not over charge a cell.  Once done it beeps to let you know when each cell is finished.

  

So here are my recommended technologies:

For Hybrid NiMh:

For NiZn:


For a Charger:

How to Buy a Computer for the Tech Newbie: How to get Software

Today I would like to cover how to get software for your new computer. In the last article I covered how to buy a computer. I also told you to avoid basing your computer purchase decision based on what software is on the computer. Now I'm going to cover why.

Now that you have a working machine in your home you need the software to make it useful. Most of you will probably be nervous thinking about how you should have gotten Microsoft Office and Antivirus when you bought your machine. The reason I recommend buying them seperate is that the markup on installed software is absurd.  Lets break down some of the common programs that people need with their computer right off the bat.

1)  Antivirus:

Antivirus programs are too numerous to count, and truthfully there are only two I'd consider. Microsoft Security Essentials which is free from Microsoft's website and NOD 32 which is about $50 a year.
  The reason I recommend these two specific programs is that they don't continually bother you with pop up messages asking you to upgrade or buy additional services like some of their competition do.  Also since they are not the two largest antivirus programs on the block most software is not targeted to defeat them.  Much like how all Viruses are written for Windows and almost none exist for the Mac most Windows viruses are written to attack Norton and Macafee as soon as they are on your system.  Finally I've found Microsoft Security Essentials protects me as well enough from stuff floating around on the Internet that I can rely on my computer not garbaging out.





2)  Microsoft Office:

Back when I was in college I used to sell computers at two of the big box retailers.  I can't tell you how many people would come in and immediately wanted to only look at computers that have Office on them.  They wouldn't even look at a computer without Office even if it saved them hundreds of dollars.  I'm going to tell you now what I used to tell them.  Office is a program you can purchase separate from a PC.  Also you will most likely get a better bundle of office apps.  Microsoft Office consists of multiple programs that make up the suite.  These are Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Project, OneNote, and a few less known apps.  Most computers that are bundled with Office only have Word and maybe Excel.  Forget Powerpoint which is actually more expensive on it's own than buying the best version of office that has it included!  While full retail pricing for Office is usually more expensive than buying it as an option on a computer, you can get Office for a reduced price or even for free legally depending on your situation!

• Students in college, and in some cases high school are able to get the full Office Suite directly from Microsoft for about $70 (this price changes by the year).  This year it was called the 'Ultimate Steal'.  Google 'Ultimate Steal Microsoft Office' to find it.
• Teachers can get special pricing on Office a number of ways.  Contact your school office to find out what deal your district has.  If nothing exists (this is very rare!) you can contact Microsoft directly.
• Office workers for many companies may not be aware that Microsoft Office, and various other Microsoft products are available to them at greatly reduced costs.  Contact your HR department and or your IT department and ask them what deals you have available to you.  In my current company I can get the full version of Office for $10!  
• Various Internet bargain sites have the Office OEM edition available for dirt cheap.  Newegg.com and Amazon offer Office for a far reduced price than you can buy it in retail.  The Home and Student version includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote which are all the apps a home user is likely to need.

Now this covers most all people who are reading this blog.  If you still find you cannot get Office because you can't afford it or don't qualify for a discount then here are some very viable alternatives.

• Openoffice.org:  This is a open source application suite developed originally by Sun Microsystems as a competitive package to Microsoft Office.  I use this on my own computer as I don't need the latest and greatest version of Office to type up a simple document or look at the occasional presentation or spreadsheet.  Now it can open Office documents (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) with about 90% accuracy and save back to Office formats that you can send to others.  There is nothing wrong with trying this out on your new computer before you spend money on Microsoft Office.  Try it out.  If it fulfills your needs then don't spend the extra money.  If not then grab office.
• Google Docs:  If you have a gmail email account you might have noticed the 'Documents' link in the upper left.  Google has their own online only office suite that can do most basic tasks of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.  Documents are stored on your google account so even if you have your computer die in front of you your data is still out there and can be accessed anywhere.  Just be careful not to give out your user name and password!  You can export Microsoft Office docs to email for work or friends straight out of Google.

3)  Money Management Software (Quicken)

This is one of those fluff packages that was included with PC's when I was selling them.  You either had Quicken or MS Money.  Truth be told these are both more or less dead despite Quicken doing a good business still.  For managing home finances I recommend a web based service called Mint.com.  It's been purchased by Quicken because they were loosing business to Mint.  The UI is very clean, easy to use, and friendly.  It's available from your computer and it will even run on your smart phone!  All for the low cost of free!

4)  Various other utilities

There are a ton of other programs available to you.  PC manufacturers would load up various junk programs that were either free or ad supported and sell them as a feature.  Most of these have far better quality free alternatives available to you online.  The best place to start exploring is Ninite.com.  When you open their site you're presented with a sorted checklist of open source / free applications with brief descriptions of what they do.  After you check what you're interested in you can download a small program to your computer.  When you run the program it starts installing all the programs you selected saving you hours of downloading and installing individual programs.  I recommend going to their site as soon as you get your PC.  You can get your Microsoft Security Essentials AV, Openoffice.org, and many others installed this way without any effort!

All in all business software and productivity software have been done to death.  Most boxed software on the shelf have free alternatives online that are of better quality done by groups of programmers who like to share their work.  It's all free and legal.  Just use google to search for the type of software you're looking for, or use osalt to type in the name of the retail software you need to find a free alternative.

How to Buy a Computer for the Tech Newbie

Please note that this article is severely out of date.  I'm leaving it up for reference purposes, but a new one exists on the site.  Please head to 1g1k.com and take a look!

Here I am planning out the articles I am going to publish to my blog and trying to decide what comes first.  As I'm looking at the various options a para-pro in the local school district calls me up and makes up my mind for me.  She's someone who's grown children would come home from school with their computers and she would get cable high speed internet only during the summer for them.  She's now found that she needs to learn how to use a PC for her job, and the only hardware she has is a old broken down PC her youngest built and abandoned at her place full of viruses.  She suddenly finds that she needs a computer and gives me a call.

Ok, so here is the low down on buying a computer.  Back in 1999 -2002 this was a major decision.  Computers were priced anywhere from $850 on up and you sill needed to add on the monitor and printer minimally if you were buying off the shelf.  The computer would be rated in terms of the processor, speed, amount of ram, hard drive space, other hardware features, and included software.  You would have to gauge whether the software you wanted would run on the hardware you chose by comparing the specs on the software to the specs on the box.  Not only that but after a year everything changed so much that by the next release of your operating system you might need a whole new computer to run it.

Now this really is not the case.  For the last three years or so hardware has become such a commodity that what came out three years ago is still on the market.  If you're looking to get a computer that can get online, type papers, edit video, and watch shows most anything out there will fill the need.  Truthfully unless you have a special need for a computer such as a home theater pc or a heavy duty gaming pc you can skip most of the specs you used to have to torture yourself with.  The trick now is knowing what you want the computer for, what your skill level is, and whether you want a desktop or a laptop.

Here is the dirt simple set of rules for buying a new computer:

1) NEVER BUY A USED COMPUTER!
I'm starting off with this one because the woman from the start of this story did just this, and I see many teachers do the same thing.  Basically they are looking to save money and figure the same wisdom that serves them well while buying a car will do the same in buying a computer.  The only problem here is that you really can't map the two.  Buying a used car is something most people understand.  There are many books out there a lay person can rely upon for assistance, and pricing guides such as the Kelly Blue Book to ensure you're not being cheated.  Unfortunately no such guide exists for computers.

Most used computers are from the time before hardware became such a commodity.  As such you might wind up overpaying for something that can't run most modern software.  Especially any computer that comes with Windows XP installed.  The biggest annoyance with used computers is that most of the time the seller never gives you the original software that came with the machine.  You'll get a computer that turns on and runs, but if the thing ever goes down from viruses or drive failure you have nothing to restore to.  The cost of a new hard drive and a copy of windows 7 as well as office is easily as much as a new basic computer if not far more.

Add to it that you don't get tech support from the original company and you quickly see why most used tech is either donated to schools who have technology departments to handle this type of thing or is simply recycled.

2)  What are you trying to do?
There are few tasks that need specialized hardware.  If you're not looking to use your new computer to knock someone's socks off in Call of Duty 4, or recreate your own version of Jurassic Park from scratch almost any hardware will do.  The main questions you need to answer are:

• Are you going to be using your computer to talk with family in chat?  If so you should look for something with a webcam and microphone.
• Are you buying this computer to work with anything special for work?  If so check with your IT person to find out what they require.  Take notes!
• Do you listen to alot of music or watch a lot of videos?  You'll want really good speakers.  Speakers really are not optional anymore but are still sold separately.  Never trust a built in speaker in a monitor as they usually sound rather tinny. Always buy self powered units and remember you get what you pay for.  Good speakers usually cost $50-$300.  Just remember that unlike computer technology speakers have not changed much in the last 10 years so what you buy now will still work years from now.
• Who is this computer for?  If you are buying a computer for a parent or grandparent who wants something to view photos of you or your kids with you might want to get something really simple to use like a Mac or a Ipad instead of a pc.

3)  Laptop or Desktop?

This is a simple question.  Are you looking for something you can take with you or something that you want to live at home and use in one location.  There isn't much of a difference between the two now anymore other than a desktop costs a bit less, and that it's easier to have a much bigger screen.  If you're looking for something you can throw in your bag and go you can go with a laptop or the new formfactors of a netbook or tablet.  Netbooks are laptops with a smaller screen, longer battery life, and no DVD drive.  Great for papers and internet surfing but lousy as media machines.  Tablets are a new type of device out there.  More of a consumption device like a kindle.  You can view photos, read books, surf the web, and read email, but creating things like documents is limited because you have no real input device other than the screen.

4)  Mac or PC?

Seriously this question is still around, but it's a more interesting one than it used to be.  10 years ago only the most die hard mac fans really wanted the platform because you were limited in the amount of software it could run..  The Ipod has changed this pulling the Mac along for the ride.  Now Macintosh computers can run their happy virus free OS alongside Microsoft Windows.  Meaning you can run anything you can buy.  I will usually recommend a Mac to people who are afraid of catching a computer virus and to anyone who wants a computer that just works without having to learn the ins and outs of a pc.    You will be paying a premium for a Mac desktop or Laptop.  The same PC hardware will cost anywhere from 50% to 25% the cost of a Mac, but for some the lack of frustration is worth it.  Now a Mac won't protect you from user stupidity.  You still need to remember to not give out your usernames and passwords when someone asks you for them.

5)  Software
I'm going to go in depth with software in my next article, but for now I'll give you the brief you need.  Don't limit your PC choice by the included software!  Most of the stuff that the manufacturers put on their machines is junk.  They'll include the microsft works pack with a year of antivirus and various other junk you don't need or want.  Most of the time you will be removing that software and replacing it with more functional alternatives.  Antivirus is one of the biggest ones!  You don't want a PC with Norton or Macafee.  My own experience with these two has been terrible.  Not knocking or slandering their products, but the problem is that they are so well known and popular that they are the targets to beat for virus writers.  You're better off with a free alternative such as Microsoft's Security Essentials or if you want to pay for a product NOD 32 is the best pay AV out there.

Here are some simple recommendations:  

If you want a desktop PC that will do the basics check out the EEE PC from Asus.  It's a solid piece of hardware that is inexpensive and covers all the bases.  I've included a monitor link below because this does not include a screen.

If you're looking for something desktop based that's all in one, check out the Asus EEETop PC line.  The monitor, PC, speakers, microphone, and webcam are all built into one unit.  This makes setup a breeze and a very friendly PC for everyone.













If you're looking for a full fledged laptop you can't beat what Asus has put out in the N61jv-x2.  Good power, good performance, built in webcam again and all in all a descent powerhouse.













If you're looking for a more price consious laptop look at the EEE PC netbook series.  The only thing to remember here is they do not have a optical drive.  As such they're better suited for web surfing, email, and college papers.



Finally if you're leaning towards a Mac option I recommend either a iMac for a desktop, or a iBook for a laptop.  The screen size for the iMac has two options, 21.5" and 27".  The iBook you will need to go to Apple directly to look at.




This concludes our little jaunt into purchasing a new computer.  Next time I'll cover software options in depth and how you can save major money here by exploring your alternatives!

Addendium!

In the months since I first published this article a new laptop has come out that more or less blows away my recomendations here.  If you're looking for a laptop that has the battery life and weight of a netbook, but the screensize, keyboard, webcam, and DVD drive of a laptop this is the ultimate machine for the general public:

This machine is based off of AMD's Zacate platform.  It was placed to blow intel's Atom out of the water in terms of price and performance and with this machine AMD has done it! I've purchased one for a friend and loved it so much I'm replacing other laptops in my home with it as they go out.