AntSaint

Extend the life of razor blades

Just bought a new pack of razor blades for my Mach 3, and I've always been on the hunt for ways to make the expensive buggers last longer while still cutting cleanly. Here is a treasure trove of tips to make razor blades last longer. With rinsing and blotting dry the blade after each use — and having a goatee, so only cheeks and underside of my face to shave — my Mach 3 blades last about a month, but I'd like to see if I can get some more out of that $15 for a pack of 8:

Link: How To: Extend the Life of Your Razor Blades.

Extending life of razor blades leaves users dry -- chicagotribune.com

What are the Tools You Can't Live Without?

Ask The Readers: What are the Tools You Can't Live Without? - Lifehacker. Great question:

It's amazing how much we can get done using the various fantastic tools that are available to us free and clear on the web—which brings me to the point of this post.What are the tools that you can't live without? What online apps and services make you squeal with productive glee?

Here's my list of top tools:

• Firefox w/ Web Developer Toolbar
• Homesite
• Stylespread
• Google
• All online banking
• Bloglines
• Moleskine
• iTunes
• Benchmade pocketknife
• Cellphone
• iPod
• TypePad

Posts over the next few weeks: The "Cleaning out Bloglines" Round-up

A while back I posted about trying to clean out the nearly 800 posts saved in my Bloglines account. I've made... some... headway, but not much. So, for the next couple of weeks, there'll be a lot of round-up posts on here, on topics from writing to personal finance. I hope you find them useful, or at least can get a chuckle out of the sigh of relief Bloglines and I are sharing.

Brother HL-5250DN Laser Printer

Jodie and I have been wanting a new printer for a while.

Our requirements? Inexpensive, durable, fast... and laser. No inkjets allowed in this house.

I hate inkjet printers, and consider them one of the most ingenius and insidious consumer rackets ever created by the tech industry. Inkjets prey on getting people in for cheap on the hardware — then getting screwed royally on the ink cartridges until doomsday. But I digress.

A good laser printer, on the other hand, can now be bought pretty inexpensively. And while, yes, replacement toner costs more than ink, you also get a lot more use out of it (the cartridge that came with our new Brother HL-5250DN, for example, will last about 7,000 pages)

After much research (including reading all 109 customer reviews on Amazon), we ordered our Brother HL-5250DN laser printer from Provantage (due to price, which came to $203 with shipping, and was the best deal at the time of purchase).

We chose this model for its speed, Mac/PC/network compatibility, and for its auto-duplexing (printing on both sides without you having to manually change the paper). I set it up last night (its name is Unagi, after our favorite sushi), and initial results are favorable:

• Setup was fast and easy on both my iBook and my Windows XP laptop
• Adding it to our home wireless network was a snap
• Crikey this thing prints FAST! I printed some test pages, and they were both done before I'd even walked up to the printer

For more info on the Brother HL-5250DN, and where you can buy, see the links below:

• Amazon.com: Brother HL-5250DN Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex: Electronics
• $236.97
• PROVANTAGE: Brother HL-5250DN Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex 30PPM 32MB 1200DPI
• $159.79
• Brother International - Printers - HL-5250DN
• Brother HL-5250DN - Review by PC Magazine
• PC World - Brother HL-5250DN Review

Cleaning out my Bloglines

Info packrat. I'm such a damn packrat. Before computers it was — and still is — paper. Articles, printouts, things I'm convinced I'll need at some point and better file for future reference. Then, every now and again, I go back through the pile and alternate smacking myself on the head with throwing stuff away.

Bad blog habit. This is a habit I may never care enough about breaking to actually break, if only because it's saved my tail quite a few times. I just should have also realized that my info-hoarding habit would extend into the 32 blogs I currently monitor. Of those 32 blogs, and I've had a Bloglines account only for a few months, I've saved over 600 posts. 600.

Or, to put it another way, too damn many.

At this point, I could start on a bulleted list of the top 10 ways you can reduce your blog clutter. I could throw in some snappy pictures from flicker, er, flcker, er, oh feck it. I could start punching out snappy little bold headlines.

But I'm not. I'm just going to go through my Bloglines, and delete anything that doesn't make me pause over the delete key.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll not packrat so many of these damn articles from here on out. Maybe. But I doubt it.

Fuji - A Tale of Good Customer Service & a Repaired Digital Camera

A tale of a broken camera, an inspiring article, good customer service, a nice letter to a V.P. at FujiFilm U.S.A., and proof that big companies can do the right thing.

Death of a great camera. Back in April 2005, I bought a Fuji Finepix E550 digital camera, and used it to take many a photo — until, on Halloween 2006, it mysteriously died. An error message indicated that a gear in the zoom had crapped out. I showed it to my Eugene photographer friend Jon, who had recommended this camera in the first place. He said I may just be better off getting a new camera, than spending roughly the same money to get it repaired.

That didn't sit right with me though. I use my digital camera a fair bit, but certainly not enough to justify it dying after not even a year and a half of use. I wondered what I could do.

Quickie weather URL - Lifehacker

I love MyWay for their email, but I've always been a bit annoyed at them moving their weather info provider to Weatherbug. I remember once using Weatherbug, then deciding I couldn't be bothered. Anytime a piece of software tries to intimidate me into continuing to use it - I recall some schlock about how uninstalling could mean I'd miss out on life-saving weather information - it's definitely getting chucked.

And now, Lifehacker has posted a better, bookmarkable tip, that provides information from a source that won't use scarily worded j-script popups to try to keep you as a user:

Link: Quickie weather URL - Lifehacker.

Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router (F5D8230-4)

Here are a few reasons why I've gone with Belkin's Pre-N Wireless Router:

• Ease of setup (just a few minutes with CD, plus easy-to-follow web interface)
• Range and signal strength (walls, irrelevant; many reviews I saw noted that could get signal anywhere in their home or yard — even in the neighbor's yard)
• Range of security options, from WPA to MAC address (pretty standard stuff, but again, it's more that the options are there plus they're easy to choose and set up)
• Lifetime warranty
• Mac/PC compatibility and management

For more opinions, information, reviews, pricing and purchasing:

• Buy the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router (F5D8230-4) and other Computer Routers, Switches and Hubs at circuitcity.com
• Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless Pre-N Broadband Router (Belkin-F5D82304) -
  
• Buy.com - Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router - F5D8230-4
• Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router
• Amazon.com: Belkin F5D8230-4 Wireless 802.11x Pre-N Router: Electronics
• ZDNet Belkin Wireless Pre-N router Review & Comparison
• Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router review by PC Magazine
• Wireless Routers: Best Wireless Router Reviews
• Welcome to Belkin - Wireless Pre-N Router

Clearwire in Eugene

Clearwire wireless internet in Eugene
A Comcast Digital Cable customer for 2 years, yesterday I traded in my cable modem for Clearwire's wireless broadband internet. (and just in the interest of disclosure, I'm not getting paid for this post)

Link: Wireless Broadband Internet Service Provider: High Speed Wireless ISP.

Coburg Rd & Willakenzie
If you're in Eugene, they have an office at Coburg and Willakenzie. I'm trying out their mid-tier service plan.

Pre-coffee easy setup
This morning, as coffee brewed I set up the Clearwire modem (leased for $5 a month) in Jodie's alley apartment (our temporary HQ while we get the house in order). I wondered if this would be a challenge, since the location is a bit funky and building-surrounded.

It took about 5 minutes. The windowsill of her kitchen seems to work best so far, though I may also experiment with putting the modem on top of the kitchen cabinets, near the same window.

And then I shall make us a wireless network, by configuring my new Belkin Pre-N Wireless Router.

Hordes of geeky fun to come.

How to sharpen a knife

Knives have to be sharpened. I love my pocketknife, and it's been needing some touch-up on the edge. Here is a handy, simple, step-by-step guide for sharpening any knife - filet, paring, pocket, kitchen, whatever:

Link: Sharpening a Knife.