Brief backstory: I have an Alphasmart 3000, a somewhat goofy PlaySkool-looking AA battery-operated, bare bones portable word-processor that I bought prior to our Africa honeymoon trip in 2005 because I wanted something rugged and durable and cheap ($200) that, given our locations in the Rwandan countyside, the Serengeti (pictured at right tapping away on it …
The satellite radio scene got bumped to a bigger blip on the radar in large part because of the announcement this week that the Justice Department’s anti-trust busters have given the proposed $4.6-billion merger of Sirius and XM corporations a hearty thumbs-up. Chances are this doesn’t mean much to most people who receive their radiowaves …
I have one of those Swiss Army knives, the kind that has I don’t know how many blades and tools and such. Among it all there’s a pair of scissors, tweezers… even a little magnifying glass for starting fires should you require such functionality. As a result of attempting to use it (not to start …
It’s certainly not every day that I need 34 CR2032 3V lithium cell batteries, and staring at the stacks of packages in front of me on my desk that I ordered Monday and that arrived last night, I don’t really need that many. At least not all at once. But eventually I will, given that …
While I was in Orlando last week, I was provided with a company laptop to use. It was a Hell Dell Latitude, which more appropriately or subliminally should be called L’attitude –French for “the attitude” — because one crucial and malignant aspect of it was continually and predominately a freakin’ pain in the ass and …
Earlier in the week I posted about the third cheapass decanter for our three-month-old coffeemaker to break while in the simple act of cleaning it, and how entirely fed up I decided to write and demand the fine folks at Mr. Coffee send me a free replacement or lose me as a consumer forever. Surprise: …
Argh! I bought a Mr. Coffee FT Series coffeemaker in July at Costco after our Gevalia maker finally kicked the basket after three long years. In that quarter year with Mr. Coffee, I have gone through three decanters… the third one breaking this morning while cleaning it. With a sponge. Crrrrrack! Fuck!! Of course in …