Netbook Is The New Laptop

I've finally got myself a mini laptop. I've been looking for a netbook for the last few weeks and every one that I saw didn't suit my needs. Basically, I wanted something light that I can carry during my travels, mainly for email and light work.

As far as features are concerned, I wanted a full keyboard and an optical drive. It so turns out that there is no netbook out there with a DVD drive. Not even the Mac Air Book. As for the full keyboard, most netbooks have an no more than 81 keys.

When it comes to using the netbook, I would rank keyboard usability as top priority. Not only do I want a spacious keyboard but I want as many keys as possible. If you look at most netbooks, they don't seem to have the Home, End, PageUp and PageDown keys. And with the small screen, is nothing more frustrating than trying to maneuver through more than one screen length pages or documents.

Then on Friday, I came across a netbook that had 85 keys including the keys that I wanted. Even without the optical drive, I decided to buy the Toshiba mini NB 205-N311 that goes for $399 plus tax. The netbook was released last week and there is hardly any review online. Going by the previous version's review, I still decided to take the rbuy it. So far, so good. I haven't tried anything on it other than the internet browser but the keyboard meets my expectation. My only wish is that they should make the trackball standard in all laptops.

I must admit the 10.2 inch screen is small considering everything in America comes super sized. However, the F11 function comes in handy as I'm able to increase the screen area by switching to the full screen mode. With 9 hours of battery power, I should not have to worry about charging it when I travel and it's 2.5 lbs weight makes sore shoulders a thing of the past.

All that remains is installing most of the softwares that I use. I haven't really figured how I'll do this and I might just have to buy an external CD drive because I don't think I know how to network the Netbook to my other computers at home.

The Power Of The Internet

Several events in the last few months are beginning to define the internet as the most powerful force on planet earth. As millions of people are getting connected to the internet, the power of the web has morphed into something that can never be contained.

I think the turning point of the internet was the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of America. Although previously, we had experienced the stock market almost being brought to it's knee's prior to the presidential election, the full force of communication never brought the US economy to it's knees like in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Were it not for the internet,Obama would never have been elected president. From his fund raising efforts to his YouTube videos, including the Obama girl music video, Obama's team harnessed the power of the internet to overcome racial stereotypes that America has failed to put behind it.

And then this past Thursday, the demise of the king of pop,Michael Jackson almost brought the world wide web to a standstill. Because news outlets were wary of reporting the unconfirmed rumours of Michael Jackson's death, the world turned to the internet in search of the truth. Even the mighty Google thought that its servers were under attack from automated request from a virus. It turned out that people turned onto their mobile browsers in search of news.

And now that Cisco Systems Inc, the largest networking and communications technology company, is determined to connect every human being whenever they may be, I can't imagine when what will happen when that day comes.

At this rate, I suspect that we are not far away from a time when future wars will be fought over the web rather than through military combat.

Rent Or Buy?

For the last several years, I've been renting out a commercial carpet cleaner from Home Depot for cleaning our carpets. Every 2 to 3 months, I go to Home Depot, usually on a Friday evening and rent out the cleaner for the minimum duration, 4 hours. Because they close at 9 pm, they let me keep the cleaner overnight till 9 am the following day.

When we first bought our house, the plan was to replace all the carpet with either laminate flooring or ceramic tiles. The people previously living in the house had carpeted the entire house with the exception of the kitchen and the adjoining breakfast area. With kids in the house, it is no joke trying to clean 2,000 square feet of carpet.

Over time we have replaced the carpet in the bathrooms, family, dining and the living rooms, all which were the most trafficked areas in the house. With the exception of the stairs leading to the basement and upstairs, the bedrooms and the play area in the basement are okay with the carpet.

Back then, I thought we will replace all the carpet but this has not been the case 5 years later and it doesn't look like we will replace any more carpet.

When I first rented out the commercial cleaner, I considered buying one from Home Depot but I put off the idea. Instead, I have been paying around $20 for the 4 hour minimum rental. Multiply this amount by the 4 to 6 times I have rented it out per year and it works out to around $100 for year. The commercial carpet cleaners that I usually rent, retails for around $800 but Home Depot sells used ones for around $400. Instead of buying one, we bought a small carpet cleaner for handling minor spills and relied on the rental for major carpet cleaning.

The last time I rented one in March this year, I decided to reconsider buying a carpet cleaner once and for all. And when the time came for cleaning the carpet this month I started researching online on the various carpet cleaners. My quest for a carpet cleaner took me to Sears and with the help of the associate I was able to identify a suitable one going for $239 plus tax. Rather than buy it immediately, I decided to compare its price in the other stores.

The carpet cleaner was not available in Wal-Mart but I found it at Best Buy retailing for $199 plus tax. And when I went to check its reviews online, I found that it was on sale for $175. With a printout of the internet price, I went to Best Buy and bought the cleaner for the lower price.

I have since used the carpet cleaner and I must say that I regret not buying one earlier because I have spent more than $500 since I first started renting a carpet cleaner. Unlike with the rental unit that forces me to do all the carpet cleaning at once, with the new unit I can do one area at a time.

I was fearing that it will not be as good as the commercial carpet cleaners but it has done a good job so far. My fear is that the carpet cleaner has too many plastic parts which makes it prone to breakages. And from reading the complaints online, the parts don't come cheap. I could have paid another $50 for the extended warranty but I am hoping that by the time it conks out it will have paid for itself and there will be better models.

Coupon Crazy

If there is one thing that I like about all the junk I receive through the postal mail, then it has to be the discount coupons. For a country that prides itself in consumerism, discount coupons are the norm rather than exception when it comes to advertising.

While most of the coupons I receive are unwanted, there are several types of coupons that I have come to rely on.

The first one is the hair cut coupon. When I was a student, getting a hair cut was a no brainer because we used to take turns with other friends in cutting each others hair. After I graduated, the luxury of free hair cuts was taken away from me. And because I like to cut my hair every two weeks, getting a hair cut at the regular price has become an expensive affair. For this reason, I rely on coupons to subsidize my hair cut costs.

Pizza coupons have got to be the second most treasured coupons. While I have been forced to pay the full price for a hair cut, I don't think I have ever bought a pizza without a coupon. This is because we get at least 2 pizza coupons every weekend. Fortunately, we only eat pizza once a month, usually the 3rd weekend of the month.

Oil change is certainly something that I am yet to pay the full price for. Thanks to Jiffy Lube's aggressive marketing, I always get at least a $8 discount every time I take my car for routine service. However, if you are not familiar with Jiffy Lube you will get ripped off as their plan is to get you to their shop and then pressure you into buying other services such as tire rotation, radiator clean-up just to name a few.

For the hard core discount shoppers, you can buy a coupon wallet to carry and organize all your coupons as it can be a hectic affair trying to collect coupons. I'm not sure whether shoppers save a lot of money as I think the coupons at times make shoppers buy household stuff that they don't need in the name of getting a bargain.

Kenya Budget Speech Word Cloud

Development seems to be the only meaningful recurring theme. Overall, the reception has been positive going by reactions from Ka-Investor's live blogging.

Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta's 2009/10 Budget Speech via Wordle.

DVD Rental Wars

I was in one of my local supermarkets this weekend when I noticed a Blockbuster DVD/BlueRay rental vending machine. For the last 2 years, I have mostly rented movies from the Redbox vending machines machines also found in some of the supermarkets.

Instead of paying $5 for unlimited DVD rentals, I normally rent the DVDs for up to 2 days for $1 per day. I usually select my movies online and pick them up on my way home from work. We watch the movies either on Friday night or Saturday afternoon and then drop it back in the evening.

On the blockbuster website, there is no mention of the rental kiosks. Which means that you can't select the movies online unlike Redbox. I like the online feature, because I first select the movie that we want to watch and then pick it up from one of the many locations nearby. Owing to the limited availability of movies in the vending kiosks, the online feature makes the service convenient to use.I'm not sure why Blockbuster is coming up with this service because next door to the supermarket there is a Blockbuster store. I would rather they instituted this service in their stores instead of investing in the kiosks.

I would gladly pay half of what they charge for a 2 day rental instead of paying $5 for unlimited movie rentals. In most cases, we watch the movies once before returning them. If I like the movie enough to watch it again, I buy the DVD. In essence, the $1 deal allows me to screen movies before we buy them.

I'm yet to try the Blockbuster kiosk but I will probably give it a try next weekend. I hope that they have a better selection of movies than Redbox, if not I'll stick to Redbox because of the convenience of selecting the movie online.

State Of The American Union

On the surface, there is a feeling that everything is alright with the American economy. The headlines have turned away from doom and gloom and it would take a lot of digging to find out how the economy is fairing.

GM finally throwing in the towel and filing for bankruptcy is to me a confirmation that the economy is still in a decline. Housing, the genesis of this recession, is still in a fall and foreclosures seem to be the order of the day.

Recently I drove through one of the major thoroughfares in my town with the sole purpose of checking the strip malls. The said road runs for almost 20 miles with shops and businesses on both sides of the roads. From what I could see, a lot of the premises were vacant. Probably 60 - 70% occupancy on average with some blocks more affected than others. And in the free standing Big box retailers, like Home Depot, Best Buy and Kohl's, the car parks were not as crowded as you would expect during the weekend.

Traffic on the other hand was heavy but not jammed as it used to be the case a few years ago when we used to have weekend traffic jams caused by shoppers.

From what I see, it looks like we have adapted our lifestyles to suit the declining economic situation and thus the reason for reduced fears and increased optimism for the future. The worst may be behind us but we still have a while before we emerge from the tough economic environment.