So many topics, so little time

2 years and no posts?!?. So many topics and so little time.

To buy a house or not? The market has come down, but can we afford a house?
No.

To refinance or not? Rates are 2% lower than our current mortgage (or were before QE II).
Yes.

If we don't move, should we renovate the kitchen?
Yes.

I've wanted a second car for some time. Should we get one?
Yes.

Which one?
Used 2008 Acura MDX (whew, difficult decision. I love it.) Lousy gas mileage, but I don't drive far or often.

The Eye-fi Explore X2 8GB for pictures is great. I'm not sure the easy wifi component for uploading via numerous hotspots is working, but it is still a great convenience.

I'd like to get a computer for the kitchen. Not a full computer but something with a touchscreen than can do basic tasks like displaying webpages, recipes, the weather and slide show of pictures. I have lofty goals that it likely won't make it into this version. Things like a kitchen database and barcode scanner for making shopping lists for containers we throw away or what we have and what recipes can make.

A wine cellar database would be fun too. We tried Zagat Wines but weren't impressed with the selection in the case specials for the price. I'd rather go to Westchester Wine Warehouse and pick out my own mixed case.

An under-cabinet-mounted Android tablet probably makes the most sense for now. Set up in such a way that it can be replaced later with something else.

Coffeebeandirect.com is a great place to get coffee. We order 6 or 7 lbs every couple months for les sthan we could by in the stores.

Soda Stream is great for making carbonated water. The 110L tank lasts us about 8-9 months. The best part is not having to carry 1L bottles of seltzer home. We don't drink cola etc. so we don't spend money on syrups. We do like flavored seltzer and fortunately they sell flavoring for adding to the water. We save lot of money and headaches.

For the kitchen we decided on Jenn-Air appliances. Hope they are as good as I expect. I also want to get an under-sink water filter. ConsumerReports.org lists the Whirlpool WHED20 as a best buy. Unfortunately it is sold at Lowe's not at Home Depot, which is not close by. Purchasing it is not a big deal but it is the filters I worry about. I'll probably buy on Amazon.com anyway, where we have had a Prime account for the last year and find it very useful.

Recently I'm interested in options trading. Motley Fool sent me one of their offer emails and I took them up on it. They had an affiliate program with optionsXpress.com which has more "options" for my options trading than Sharebuilder.com has. They give you $250 for signing up and $250 after 20 trades, which washes out the (seemingly expensive) $500 price tag of the Motley Fool Options service.

IMEI ESN and MEID

Seems there is a new standard out there for identifying cellular aircards, WWAN cards, etc.

Perhaps not a new standard but one I have only recently run into when trying to activate a Verizon aircard inside a Lenovo ThinkPad X200.

Some background info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEID
http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/resources/esn/

Converters for MEID to ESN;

http://www.l4digital.com/convert.php
http://www.humpa.com/vzw/meid_to_esn.php

Skyfire

I've been trying the Skyfire browser on my Treo 700wx for a few weeks now. It definitely has some advantages over the built-in Internet Explorer for viewing pages that aren't formatted for small screens or that are are media rich in nature.

However it also has some drawbacks. It must connect back to the Skyfire servers as it loads - looks like they proxy everything for you and convert the page to an image and send to the handheld - which means opening the browser for a quick peek at a website is slow. It is still in beta and has already gotten better from the initial release I was given.

The image of the page is first presented zoomed out and allows you to move the pointer to an area of interest then zoom in. While zoomed in, moving around the screen looks similar to looking at Google maps in that the checkerboard is displayed or parts of the page that have not been downloaded, then a rough image, and finally a full resolution image.

I've set it as my default browser so when I click a link from an email it pops up in the Skyfire browser instead of IE. This helps me to use it in time when I might otherwise not, though I still have IE in the Start Menu just in case.

Weather Direct follow-up

To La Crosse's credit, I received an email from them about my warranty claim indicating they would ship out a new power supply. Assuming supplying my address is the only hoop to jump through, I'd say that's great service.

In the mean time I had cut the wires, stripped them down and twisted them together with a bit of electrical tape, just so I could get it working.

Registration was a snap and worked like the documentation. The website walks you through the process and the display starts receiving data right away.

Weather Direct

I've had thermometers inside and out for several years now. The wireless Thermometer/Hygrometer sits outside on the porch and transmits temperature and humidity to a battery-powered display inside. For the most part it works fine and the batteries last for years.

Recently a co-worker and I have been interested is using MRTG to see temperature trends. It started out as monitoring data center equipment and moved on to local weather.

Last week while browsing Circuit City, I found a new variation from La Crosse Technology called the 4 Day Weather Forecaster. What caught my eye was the RJ-45 jack on one piece in addition to the display unit and wireless thermometer. A networked weather gadget? That would be too cool.

I went home to look it up and see what it was all about. I won't rehash all the details since they are available on weatherdirect.com, but it got me interested. Not much other info out there since this is still very new (introduced at CES 2008, released to market in August 2008). There are supposedly several models and the one I found is a basic model. I went ahead and got it today and planned to set it up.

Unfortunately the packaging is worse than the dreaded clamshell plastic packaging; this one has the plastic sandwiched between paper and the plastic is heat sealed everywhere except where the devices are - according to wikipedia this is actually blister packaging, whereas I used to call clamshell packing blister pack. This makes opening very difficult! It is almost impossible to open without either hurting yourself or marring the devices (I did both). You can't simply cut around the edges, as with clamshell packages, you have to slice in the area right next to the device. It makes for sharp pieces of plastic that must be avoided as you try to pry the pieces out.

To further my frustration, just as I thought I was done, I noticed a section of the power cord that powers the wireless gateway was caught between the plastic and had been melted into place. Now I'm not sure if I should even turn it on for fear of the wires being shorted out.

I should contact La Crosse for warranty support but the thought of wasting that much time to replace a $60 item almost doesn't seem worth it. Also, one of the reasons for buying locally instead of ordering was so I wouldn't have to wait to use it. Bah!

What to do...

La Crosse should consider packaging their products in cardboard boxes like other respectable electronics manufactures do. They have some cool gadgets but package them like a cheap impulse item one might pickup on the way out of the store. At $60-$150 for the Weather Direct line, they are hardly an impulse item.