Valentines Day, Moving Day, and The Transporter

Yes, I feel a little bit like Jason Statham this evening, from The Transporter. To clarify the reference, it’s been 48 hours of non-stop mind-wrenching, finance crunching, body-bashing, mind-numbing exhaustion. Quite honestly I should be in bed already but I’ve wanted to catch up with all of you who read the blog so I’m using this time to unwind, after which I plan on very unceremoniously planting myself face first into my pillow and recuperating until sunrise.

How to Survive the New Facebook Change

If you are reading this on facebook, please click this link to view it live on the blog.

I would like to suggest to the administrative staff of Facebook that all future upgrades to the facebook.com interface be issued with 30 days advance notice, large full-color McDonald’s-style picture menu instructions, two free valium capsules for all users over the age of 35, and clear instructions on how to create your own “I Hate The New Facebook” group of your choice, available in all of Baskin Robbins’ 31 delicious flavors.

In all seriousness, some of you out there seem to have trouble learning how to navigate the new system, so I thought I’d share some of the basics with you.

News Feeds: Top News vs Most Recent

There has been another change to news feeds on Facebook. Really it’s nothing more than the change they issued with the last update, but it still seems to confuse some people, so I’ll attempt to make it clearer. The picture above shows the middle section of your default facebook page when you login. There are two ways to view your “newsfeed” now on facebook, depending on the view you prefer. You toggle between these two views using the links shown in the upper right corner of your front page news section.

Top News:

Top News is customized for each user. Of your friends list on facebook, this shows the most active, most clicked on, and most-read articles in your newsfeed. It’s not necessarily the most up-to-date information, but instead the most popular news, based on what your friends group has been reading. If a friend made a post a month ago, but that comment just got lots of comments from other friends you might very well see a month-old post appear in top news. It’s not new, but it’s had lots of interaction from others in your friends list and facebook thinks you might want to know about it too.

Think of Top News like that guy who always beats you to reading the morning paper at the office, then tells you all about it as you’re trying to read it. If you enjoy the highlights, just listen attentively, but if you want to just make him shut up and read it yourself, click Most Recent instead and go through the news yourself as it occurred.

Most Recent:

Most recent news is what most of you are used to. This view is a live streaming play-by-play of what’s going on with all your friends in the order it occurs. Most of you like this version of news better, so it’s very simple to just click on it. Posts, messages, comments, pictures, videos and other news are listed in the order they occur, update live on your screen every couple of minutes.

Setting the Default News Style:

You can choose your default news feed style very easily. If you prefer to always see “most recent” instead of “top news” when you login, simply click on the Most recent link, then close your browser.

You’ll notice when you come back to facebook again, the news is set however you left it. If you change to Top news and log out it will retain that setting instead.

Broken or non-functional news pages

Some of you might have seen the errors with the news pages lately that manifest by your news section being blank. Relax! Your friends haven’t all been taken up in the pre-apocalyptic rapture and you have not been transferred without your knowledge to a parallel universe in which you are the only user on facebook, a fate worse than hell for some of you I understand.

The news system was just upgraded and released yesterday to 250 million users. There are a few glitches they couldn’t possibly discover in testing and they’re finding them and fixing them now. You will be returned to your regularly scheduled peeping-tom view of everyone’s life soon. In the meantime, go have a cookie. If you’re desperate, you can usually close the browser and re-open it and it will work fine. It’s a glitch. They’re fixing it.

Hiding Stuff You Don’t Want to See

There are lots of complaints from people who say they are tired of seeing certain things like games and application when all they really want to see is what their friends are saying. You CAN do this, you just have to click the button to do it. Facebook allows you to choose almost every kind of thing that can appear on your wall and newsfeed. If it was a message posted by an application, you can hide that application from ever showing up on your wall again. Here’s how:

See the sample newsfeed from my screen, taken a few moments ago.

My friend Frankie plays a game cal led Island Paradise. This application puts information on his wall to try to get his friends to play the game too. Well, I want to read his news, but don’t necessarily care to hear about the Island Paradise game.

See that hide button over there? Click it!

 

When you click Hide, a message screen similar to this one pops up and asks you want you want to hide.

My options are to hide Frankie totally, which would take his news off my wall altogether from now on, or to just hide the game. I clicked hide Island Paradise because I really don’t care about that game but I want to be able to read Frankie’ news still. From now on, the game Island Paradise won’t ever again show up in any of my friends’ news feeds on my wall.

Tip

If you are new to facebook, you’ll have to do this a LOT at first to be able to actually see what your friend are saying instead of just seeing all these application updates. Be diligent for a few days and you’d be surprised that your wall actually starts showing real news you want to see instead of all these application updates.

The New Notifications Menu

The notifications screen has changed around a little bit. While I wasn’t at first impressed, I’ve decided I like it for a couple reasons; it’s faster loading now and takes up less screen real-estate, and it’s off the right side of my browser.

If you get a new message, new comments, or just about new ANYTHING related to your postings, you can click on the small round icons in the top left of your facebook screen, right beside the Facebook logo that takes you back to your homepage. The three icons mean To inform you of new messages, facebook uses a red identifier over the appropriate indicator. Once you click on the indicator to view the message, the red identifier will go away but you can still see your messages there by clicking the appropriate icon again.

For clarification, these are the icons and what they mean:

	You have new messages waiting. Click to read them.
	You have no new messages waiting.
	You have new notifications waiting. Click to read them.
	You have no new notifications waiting.
	Friend Requests

 

Logging out of Facebook

One of my friends commented on this so I thought I’d add it. If you need to logout/change accounts, or just want to get out of Facebook before your boss catches you goofing off on the clock, the logout button has moved.

To log out of facebook, click on the Account tab on the upper-right corner of Facebook and then click Logout from the drop-down menu.

 

 

 

I hope you’ve found this Guide to Facebook useful. If you have questions, comments, or would like clarification on something not mentioned here, let me know and I’ll see if I can add it to this post.

And remember, if me or my company can assist with your IT needs, you can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com

Final note: If you like this guide, please comment below and say so!

A few other guides to the new facebook I’ve found:

• RocketPop Media
• ITechInfo

Slow morning

Well, it’s 9:30 and I should be working but I figure since I started working at 7:15 instead I’m entitled to a few minutes of down-time to write on the blog.

Life here has been up and down lately, busy then slow, then back to generally hectic. Work is going ok these last ten days or so. We’re not screaming busy or anything but we’ve had a run of days where we’re doing $300-$500 days back to back. We need that to crawl our way slowly out of this last two months of incredible slowness. I can’t wait until life straightens out a little and I can stop avoiding calls from creditors. It’s hard to stay motivated some days when it’s a constant barrage of Child-Support, Car Payment, and Landlord juggling. Those are the three bills that eat up most of my income each month and I always make enough to pay two out of three, plus all the other stuff like power and phone, but never enough for all three. Juggling these three bills has become a way of life I’d just as soon put behind me. God I miss the days when I made two-grand a week…lol.

My free time is still just that, free. You can’t work twenty-four hours out of the day, even if you want to. There always comes a point at which I have to stop and wait on someone, wait on business hours to reopen, etc..

There’s not much going on with my free time lately. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the puppy trying to get her trained. Today was the first day she didn’t pee and poop on my hardwood floor. She peed on the pad and went outside for the other…. whoever thought I could be so happy about mundane things. You can’t appreciate the perspective until you’ve spent every day cleaning pee off the carpet, rugs, and hardwood eight to nine times a day.

Facebook:

In typical fashion Facebook has changed their format yet again, instigating yet another round of people creating “I want the old facebook back” groups or voicing their gripes through status updates. It’s amusing to watch. For some reason this social network has inundated itself into people’s lives very deeply.

Unfortunately for some people, things do change. Facebook will never stop evolving. It’s not a deep-seated desire to make your life confusing, but rather their way of staying the world’s most popular social network. The net evolves, technology evolves, so yes… technology based on the net has to evolve. Just accept it and deal with it.

Maybe I’ll go write a post about How-To on Facebook.

Not eBay I swear!

No, I’m not turning my blog into another eBay auction house. If you’ve seen some of the recent few posts you might be wondering. A and I have both been sitting on a bunch of material that needs to get sold.. guns, computer parts, old wedding dress, books, etc.

While I do have an eBay account, and one with absolute perfect feedback for the last six years, I’m lately finding it difficult to get the motivation to want to list anything at all on eBay. Between the increased seller fees, paypal fees, credit card fees, and endless amount of consumers wanting everything for nothing, I’ve become disillusioned by the whole process. As a buyer I use it all the time, but as a seller I just find it too bothersome any more unless you have a real niche market or want to spend six months trying to sell that five dollar item.

So, in a sort of quasi-socialistic-marketing approach I decided to list my items for sale on my blog and see what happened. Will people be interested? Will anyone visit the items? Will selling through my blog work? I have no idea. It’s just a new idea and I want to see if it will work. After all, if I sell through here I have no reason to screw anyone on shipping to cover fees, and have no hassles getting the product out the door. All the items are ready to ship and the sooner they do, the sooner I’ll have my office-space back.

Wish me luck!

Ducks Unlimited 12 ga 75th Anniversary Franchi Shotgun NEVER FIRED– FOR SALE

The gun was purchased 9/07 at a Ducks Unlimited banquet for $1,675.00.  It is a Duck's Unlimited 75th Anniversary Special Edition Over-Under 12ga break action shotgun made by Franchi.  The gun has never been fired and has rarely been out of the case.  Beautiful gold leaf detailing on both sides of the action.  A very nice over-under specimen.  The pictures say it all. Serious gun dealers know these only increase in value, especially since it’s never been fired.

Amy wants to sell it. She has quite enough guns of her own and this one, as you can see, has never been fired. She’s asking $1450.00 for it. If you have questions about purchasing the gun, or need more info about it, leave a comment and one of us will get back to you.

Here are some pictures of the gun I took last night:

 

 

  

You can see in this photo, there is absolutely no trace of a shell ever being fired through this barrel.

Dell U1223 SMART Li-Ion Battery

I have one of these batteries available.

Retail Price: 109.99 from LaptopPartsWorld.com

My Price: $30.00 + $6.00 shipping anywhere in the contiguous US.

Specs are as follows:

Product Description:
This is a Dell Original Lithium-Ion Laptop Battery.
Compatible Notebook Models:
Inspiron: 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, 5160
Latitude: 100L.
Dell Part Numbers: 310-5205, 310-5206, 312-0079, 312-0296, 9T686, BATDWOOL, F0590, J2328, U1223, 6T473, 6T475, 8T273, 8Y849, 7T670,
Product Specifications:
Rating: 14.8V
Capacity: 96 Wh
Size: 16.16" x 4.75" x .80"
Color: Grey
Technology: Lithium-Ion
Dell Part Number(s): 310-5205 • 310-5206 • 312-0079 • 312-0296 • 6T473 • 6T475 • 7T670 • 8T273 • 8Y849 • 9T686 • BATDWOOL •F0590 • J2328 • U1223

High-Tech Bargain Bin Items:

   If you are wondering why this item is for sale: I own an IT company in Greenville, North Carolina named Twisted Networx. You can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com.

Throughout the year we accumulate a LOT of extra inventory that we have no use for, especially laptop parts and accessories. From time to time each year I try to clean out the closet of all our parts and accessories and get rid of them on eBay, Amazon, or through private sale on my web site and blog. If you’d like to check our our eBay rating, you can visit my ebay profile at:http://myworld.ebay.com/twnetworx/

These are NOT stolen, not illegal, and have no other shady past attached to them. Sometimes customers decide they don’t want to get an item repaired and they assume we enjoy storing lots of parts we don’t need. Other times we get them in bulk when we only really need one specific part.  I can’t store an endless supply of materials and therefore, here it is…

 

 

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

HP F1472A OMNIBOOK FLOPPY DRIVE (2 Available)

I have two of these drives available. This drive fits the Omnibook Laptop series 900, 4100, and 4150.  See pictures below:

Retail Price: $30.00 used to $75.00 new.

My Price: $15.00 plus $6.00 shipping inside the contiguous United States. (each)

First Drive:

Second Drive:

High-Tech Bargain Bin Items:

   If you are wondering why this item is for sale: I own an IT company in Greenville, North Carolina named Twisted Networx. You can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com.

Throughout the year we accumulate a LOT of extra inventory that we have no use for, especially laptop parts and accessories. From time to time each year I try to clean out the closet of all our parts and accessories and get rid of them on eBay, Amazon, or through private sale on my web site and blog. If you’d like to check our our eBay rating, you can visit my ebay profile at:http://myworld.ebay.com/twnetworx/

These are NOT stolen, not illegal, and have no other shady past attached to them. Sometimes customers decide they don’t want to get an item repaired and they assume we enjoy storing lots of parts we don’t need. Other times we get them in bulk when we only really need one specific part.  I can’t store an endless supply of materials and therefore, here it is…

 

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

Del 24X CD-RW/DVD Module (2 Available)

I have two of these drives available. Specs and details are below:

Retail Price: $129.99

My Price: $30.00 (each) + $6.00 to ship anywhere in the contiguous US.

Specifications:

Dell 6P811-A00 24x CD-RW & 8x DVD-ROM Notebook IDE Drive

General Features:

• 24x maximum write speed (CD-R)
• 24x maximum rewrite speed (CD-RW)
• 24x maximum read speed (CD)
• 8x maximum read speed (DVD)
• 2 MB buffer
• 110 ms CD access time
• 120 ms DVD access time
• Connects to your notebook's CD-ROM/RW IDE connector

Front Panel Features:

• Eject button
• LED indicator light
• Emergency eject hole

Supported Disc Formats:

• CD-ROM
• CD-ROM XA
• CD-R
• CD-RW
• Photo CD
• CD-I
• Video CD
• CD-Plus
• DVD-ROM
• DVD±RW

Writing Methods:

• Track at Once (TAO)
• Disc at Once (DAO)
• Session at Once (SAO)
• Multi-Session
• Packet Writing

First One:

Second One:

High-Tech Bargain Bin Items:

   If you are wondering why this item is for sale: I own an IT company in Greenville, North Carolina named Twisted Networx. You can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com.

Throughout the year we accumulate a LOT of extra inventory that we have no use for, especially laptop parts and accessories. From time to time each year I try to clean out the closet of all our parts and accessories and get rid of them on eBay, Amazon, or through private sale on my web site and blog. If you’d like to check our our eBay rating, you can visit my ebay profile at:http://myworld.ebay.com/twnetworx/

These are NOT stolen, not illegal, and have no other shady past attached to them. Sometimes customers decide they don’t want to get an item repaired and they assume we enjoy storing lots of parts we don’t need. Other times we get them in bulk when we only really need one specific part.  I can’t store an endless supply of materials and therefore, here it is…

 

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

Dell 5044D 24X CD-ROM Module (2 Available)

I’m selling a CD-Rom module, part number 5044D. I have two of these drives available, so check the comments to see if one has already been purchased.

The product description is:

Dell Part: 313-4142, 5044D A02,
Supports the following:
Inspiron Models:
2100, 2200, 2500, 3700, 3800, 4000, 4100, 4150.
Latitude Models:
CP, CPi, CPiA, CPt, CPtc, CPtS, CPtV, CPx, CPxH, CPxJ, CS, C400, C500, C600, C610, C640, C800, C810, C840.
Precision Models: M40, M50.
Reads CD ROM & DVD ROM. Combination CDRW Burner + DVD ROM drive.Burns CD-Recordable and CD-ReWritable disks

---

Compatible Models:
Dell Inspiron 2100, Dell Inspiron 2200, Dell Inspiron 2500, Dell Inspiron 3700, Dell Inspiron 3800, Dell Inspiron 4000, Dell Inspiron 4100, Dell Inspiron 4150, Dell Latitude CPi, Dell Latitude C400, Dell Latitude C500, Dell Latitude C600, Dell Latitude C610, Dell Latitude C640, Dell Latitude C800, Dell Latitude C810, Dell Latitude C840, Dell Latitude CP, Dell Latitude CPiA, Dell Latitude CPt, Dell Latitude CPtc, Dell Latitude CPtS, Dell Latitude CPtV, Dell Latitude CPx, Dell Latitude CPxH, Dell Latitude CPxJ, Dell Latitude CS, Dell Precision M40, Dell Precision M50

Part Numbers:
313-4142 • 5044D • 5044D A02

Original Product

Retail price from Dell: $129.00
Check it out at LaptopPartsWorld if you want to see for yourself

http://www.laptoppartsworld.com/products/28798.html

My Price: $40.00 (seriously, do you really want to spend a hundred bucks on a CD-Rom drive in this day and age??) + $6.00 to ship anywhere in the US.

The first one:

The Second one:

High-Tech Bargain Bin Items:

   If you are wondering why this item is for sale: I own an IT company in Greenville, North Carolina named Twisted Networx. You can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com.

Throughout the year we accumulate a LOT of extra inventory that we have no use for, especially laptop parts and accessories. From time to time each year I try to clean out the closet of all our parts and accessories and get rid of them on eBay, Amazon, or through private sale on my web site and blog. If you’d like to check our our eBay rating, you can visit my ebay profile at:http://myworld.ebay.com/twnetworx/

These are NOT stolen, not illegal, and have no other shady past attached to them. Sometimes customers decide they don’t want to get an item repaired and they assume we enjoy storing lots of parts we don’t need. Other times we get them in bulk when we only really need one specific part.  I can’t store an endless supply of materials and therefore, here it is…

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

C1295 Dell OEM 312-0068 Lithium Ion Laptop Battery

As the title says, this is the battery for a Dell Laptop. The battery specs are as follows:

• Fits Dell Inspiron 500M 600M Latitude D600, D500, and D505 Laptop Notebook
• Specifications: Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery11.1V 4700mAh 53Whr
• Dell LBL Part Number: G2053 A01
• Alternate Part Numbers :312-0068, 312-0085, 312-4347, 312-4482, 312-0191, 310-5195, 07W999 or equivalent.

This battery was pulled from a laptop we have in the shop for spare parts. We have surplus parts and therefore I’m trying to sell it here.

Retail Price from Dell: $89.00

My Price: $35.00 + $6.00 to ship anywhere in the US via USPS/UPS.

High-Tech Bargain Bin Items:

   If you are wondering why this item is for sale: I own an IT company in Greenville, North Carolina named Twisted Networx. You can visit us online at www.twistednetworx.com.

Throughout the year we accumulate a LOT of extra inventory that we have no use for, especially laptop parts and accessories. From time to time each year I try to clean out the closet of all our parts and accessories and get rid of them on eBay, Amazon, or through private sale on my web site and blog. If you’d like to check our our eBay rating, you can visit my eBay profile at:http://myworld.ebay.com/twnetworx/

These are NOT stolen, not illegal, and have no other shady past attached to them. Sometimes customers decide they don’t want to get an item repaired and they assume we enjoy storing lots of parts we don’t need. Other times we get them in bulk when we only really need one specific part.  I can’t store an endless supply of materials and therefore, here it is…

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

GARMIN LI-ION BATTERY FOR RINO 520/530

This is a Lithium Ion battery for a Garmin Rino 520 or 539 series. My Garmin was stolen out of my truck a few months back and so I have no use for it. Works great. We always carried two batteries us for each of our radios, so this one was in the house and the thieves didn’t get it.
Retail Price: 79.99
Selling Price: $40.00 plus 6.00 to ship anywhere in the US via USPS or UPS.
 
 
If you would like to see the full specs on this item, you can see it at: http://www.gpsnow.com/garmin_010-10569-00.htm

Payment Terms

Payment for items I sell on my web site or blog are accepted through the following means:

• PayPal: Items shipped with PayPal are shipped within 24 hours of payment, unless it’s a weekend, in which case I will ship the next business day. I will generate an official PayPal invoice and send it to the email of your choice so you will have receipt for  your records. Do not try to send me money without receiving an invoice first. While I am happy to have the money, I want to be sure not to get orders confused.
• Personal/Business Checks: Items paid for by check will be shipped the day after payment clears. Will I accept a check? Yes. For details about paying by check, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me about where to send payment.
• Money Orders: Items purchased via money order will be shipped next day, or the following business day if it is a weekend.
• Credit Card: Credit card orders can be paid through PayPal, whether or not you have a PayPal account. See PayPal above for further details.

Sale Conditions:

All sales are final. End of story. Do not ask questions. If you need to ask questions, don’t. The equipment I sell on my personal web site or blog is traditionally used/refurbished gear and I don’t have the time to test every piece. If I know something is wrong with it, I will let you know in the post. Otherwise, expect it to work as well as any other piece of equipment. No warranties are expressed, implied, hinted about, or considered valid if you decide later that you thought they existed…. they don't.

Photos

All photos, unless specifically described otherwise, are of the ACTUAL EXACT ITEM I am selling. I do not use stock photography for sale items as I want you to see exactly what you are purchasing before committing to the purchase.

Questions about an Item:

If you have questions about an individual item, please post a comment on that item’s page. I will answer any questions openly on the blog for all to see to assist them if they have similar questions.

How To: Improve Blog Traffic

Now that I’m back on a kick to monetize my blog without sacrificing my content to a bunch of wasted junk none of my viewers care to read about the thought occurred to me that some of you might want to have a few tips on how to get the best out of your blog without spending money to do it. Here are a few tricks I can share from my own experience:

How to: Redirect a Google Website to Google Blog

There are a LOT of people out there who aren’t able to figure this out, and I was one of them for a few hours tonight. Since I figured out the fix, I thought I’d share it here in the techni-section of the blog.

Problem: I want my Google-purchased web site to point to my blog.

(Not to be confused with “I want my blog to point to my web site.”) that’s an entirely  different problem.

Solution: Create a CNAME record in your Google DNS settings.

if you can’t find your DNS settings then unfortunately I can’t help you, quite simply because that’s more effort than I want to expend on this informational post. Assuming you know what DNS is and you purchased a domain through Google, you can at least Google the answer and find the appropriate place to go to do that.

Once you’re there, assuming you are editing your Google based DNS through Enom, it’s very simple.

Click on the image below to it full sized if you need clarification of the instructions I’m about to give you.

I wanted two redirects to point my Google web site to my Google blog, but didn’t want to have to lose ALL my website functionality because i might want to take advantage of some of the other things Google sites offer in the future.

• 
  Login to your DNS management within Google Apps by going to Domain Settings, then clicking Domain Names on the sub toolbar beneath the main toobar, then click the link for Advanced DNS Settings. This page will also show you your Enom username and password so write that down. You’ll need it on the following page as soon as you click the link.
• Once  you have logged into Enom, scroll down to where it says Host Records. On the bottom of this section, click on Edit.
• On the bottom of the screen now you will see an Add New option. Click this to add a new row to your CNAME settings.
• I added two rows to my domain name. I wanted to redirect the main site http://caffieneworkshop.com and also http://blog.caffieneworkshop.com to the google blog. To do this, simply enter the CNAME (the part before the domain name in your browser’s address field) in the first field. I chose “blog”. Be sure you choose the Record Type “URL Redirect” on the right side menu. Then type your blogger web address in the middle field. Leave out the http://. All you need is the nameofyourblog.blogspot.com
• When you’re done, press save.
• Test this by typing the new address in a new browser window. The effect should be immediate.

I spent two hours trying to figure this out and then it just clicked in my head what to do. I hope someone out there finds this useful. If it needs clarification, please let me know and I’ll work to make sure it’s easy to understand.

If you find this article helpful, please be kind enough to leave a comment or share the URL with others.

Thanks!

Coffee Guy

This blasted weather…

It’s 6:30 on Friday night and I’m waiting for Amy to get back home. I got home tonight around 5 pm and was given just enough time to kiss Amy hello before she had to leave on an emergency call to put a horse to sleep. She had thawed steaks for dinner, but that’s on hold for now until she gets home.

The drive from Greenville this afternoon that should have taken three and a half hours instead took a little over five thanks to the impact that bad weather has on driver’s good sense. I don’t know what it is about a traffic accident that causes people to slow down so much that they backup for over five miles on a four lane freeway just to rubberneck at some other individual’s misfortune. After sitting in the traffic for most of an hour I decided to use some of those cool toys I have to make a break for it and find another route. Thanks to the help of the GPS in my iPhone I was able to get out of the worst of it, but it took over five miles of back road to get past it. I tried coming back near the interstate intermittently now and again, only to see signs of further congestion on other streets as well, so I just found alternate routes one after another paralleling highway 40/64 until I finally dumped out one mile ahead of my exit, so all in all it worked out nicely.

Forty miles later I just about got sideswiped out of existence thanks to a eighteen-wheel dumptruck that decided my lane looked more appealing than his. I’m just glad to be home! Amy called and I could tell she was worried my mood was shot to pieces and wondered if I’d get home grumpy and ill, but one look at her smiling face put my perspective back where it needed to be. Then of course she had to go.

A fresh look

It’s currently 12:43 AM as I sit here and compose this before bed. Those of you who are returning will notice the blog looks quite different. Some of you will like the changes and others might not. Some have commented that it “feels more like me” while others have argued just the opposite.

While I’m not sure yet of my thoughts on the matter, I am quite certain the time had come for a change.

Links to other blogs

I got the blogroll re-added after being removed for a couple of hours while I did some design work on the blog structure. I have a few friends who have been linking to me for years and I’d like to reciprocate the favor. If you aren’t aware, one of the best ways to generate search engine relevance is through link back popularity; the more people who have links to your site, the better search engines like Google grant you relevance in the blogosphere. With that in mind, if you would like a link back to my blog I would certainly appreciate it and will reciprocate in kind if you let me know you did it.

While rebuilding the blogroll listing on my own blog I decided to go with alphabetical since people might get the impression that they are more or less important to me if I listed them in the order

Leftovers

Today is another day where I look at the title line of my blog and simply watch the cursor blink impatiently for me to give it direction. I don’t have anything important to say today, however I’m trying to revive my love of writing and the only way to nurture a thing to life is to give it your attention. So the keyboard is going to get my attention whether it wants it or not.

It’s been a semi-slow week this week at work. Tim has been sick since he returned home from skiing last week and I’ve been working remotely for most of the week because most of my work has been keyboard labor; fixing computers remotely, correcting email issues, setting up new accounts and the like. It gets claustrophobic sometimes but there is also something to be said for working all day in the comfort of pajamas with the coffee pot three feet away, especially on these cold, rainy, miserable days we’ve had lately.