Reports by Consumers

One has to read this one and wonder how many other products might interfere with breathing if caught in windpipe.

Other products they carries are accessories and gifts like books, bags, CDs, hair bow, pom pom, jewelry , megaphones, videos & DVD’s and megaphones. The bags and jewelry can be some nice gifts ideas to your nieces , friend’s teenage daughters.

OK I was also there to buy a printer and they are 30% cheaper here – so maybe the day evened out – not sure. But I buy a lot more tomatoes, avocadoes, oranges and diesel fuel than HP printers. ;-(

But Christmas has become a commercial enterprise. Hell, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was just a marketing ploy for Montgomery Ward. And Santa has been coopted into shilling Coke, Norelco razors and dozens of other products.

An interesting thing happened to me the other day. Someone emailed me asking that I blog about their product. I’m not going to get into what the product is, but it’s something I’m not so comfortable touting here in my blog. Yet it brought up a whole bunch of questions and thoughts that I wanted to share.

Before embarking on this review, I need to lay out the facts. Every screen protector that was tested was used by me for a week long period. When applying each screen protector, I thoroughly cleaned the PSP surface to remove dust. I applied each screen protector with whatever tools that were given to me with the product only. I did not purchase any of the screen protectors, every one was kindly given to me for the purposes of this review.

Now the stringy stuff. If I could find a way to market this, I would be rich. I had this hanging off my waterfalls. Now that my water hyacinths have grown and cover the top of my falls, they take out the nutrients from my water before they get into my pond. Before this, I had to remove the algae with a bottle or toilet brush. I just twirl the brush around the algae and it removes this offensive plant. Algae is a living plant. It needs sunlight to grow. Keeping your water cover 60% to 65% with plants will help shade your pond or you can use a water dye. Using a dye during the winter will darken your water and keep the winter and early spring sun from giving you an early growth of algae. The dye will dissipate by spring. There is a product produced by Interpet in England that is available in the US known as Pond Balance. The pink crystals are dissolved in water and added to the pond in the early spring. This and other products can be purchased but most only work in the spring when water temperature is below 55�. If you don’t like to remove this string algae you can use a UV sterilizer to kill it.

Young remembers begging Wal-Mart for relief. "They said, 'No way,' " says Young. "We said we'll increase the price"--even $3.49 would have helped tremendously--"and they said, 'If you do that, all the other products of yours we buy, we'll stop buying.' It was a clear threat." Hunn recalls things a little differently, if just as ominously: "They said, 'We want the $2.97 gallon of pickles. If you don't do it, we'll see if someone else might.' I knew our competitors were saying to Wal-Mart, 'We'll do the $2.97 gallons if you give us your other business.' " Wal-Mart's business was so indispensable to Vlasic, and the gallon so central to the Wal-Mart relationship, that decisions about the future of the gallon were made at the CEO level.

Cellartracker is an extensive online cellar management system, with the main differentiator between this and other products being that you share alot of information with other users of the system. So if someone else writes a tasting note on a wine that you own, you are able to see their opinion and rating on your cellar listing.

Capture ISBN/UPC Codes - When I am out in meatspace shopping in "brick and mortars" or "metal and styrofoams" I like to use my picture phone to snap shots of ISBN numbers(books) or UPC codes(other products) for things I want to price compare online.

Smart marketers of all types should be watching the developments in home cleaning and maintenance technologies. Time, effort and money saved by increased home care efficiencies can be redirected into other products, services or experiences.

The even better news is that Kurzweil is now turning his amazing inventive mind to other products for the disabled, including -- you guessed it -- captioning systems for the hearing impaired. According to FSB, "By 2010, he envisions pocket-sized reading machines as well as tiny gadgets that that will translate spoken words to text for the hearing impaired -- essentially providing subtitiles for the world." You can bet that if Kurzweil gets a hand-held real-time captioning system to the market by 2010, he won't be able to resist...

Much praise to Harry Eagar at the Maui News for this excellent article on the gasoline market in Hawaii. Maybe it will be enough to coax a few more people to testify at the PUC hearings on the gasoline price cap as they happen across Maui this week, maybe not.

Buying an inkjet printer these days is no big deal. A reliable printer can be acquired very easily through a store or online for as little as $50. Some suppliers are even giving away inkjet printers on promotions or as free incentives when buying other products. On the face of it, it seems like too good an opportunity to pass by - a worthwhile investment you might say.

I personally buy the majority of my produce at Just Food. They simply have the best produce selection around. We also buy Ice Cream, Juices, Milk, Yogurts, Cheeses and various other products there. I’ve also found Just Foods to be a wonderful source of Low-fat/Low-sodium foods for my Grandmother - such as Amy’s Soups and A.C. LaRocco Pizza, both are very good! I enjoy shopping at Just Foods. It is always clean and the staff is always very friendly. Thanks Just Food!

"But walking is free, natural and we all know how to do it, so why pay thousands for a Segway?" he says. "And if you don't want to walk why not get a bike, again it's much cheaper. The Segway doesn't seem to have massive practical benefits over other products or our own legs.

Anyway, the combination of these two influences has convinced me to try organic meat, and maybe other products as well. I don’t really like meat much and wouldn’t eat it at all if I had to cook it. But my husband is willing to cook it–he’d be a carnivore I think if we let him. But I shy away from buying meat because of the high prices. Now that I know a bit more about where it comes from as well…I think I’ll have an even harder time buying it at Pick ‘n’ Save or Festival.

Last night on TV it was shown how many on EBay are selling bad products. Some people bought some Addidas articles, and of those five items only one was real. This is not right! Many will point out people “borrow” because music and other products are overpriced. Well, there is a simple answer, DON’T BUY IT! If you do not want to support “the man", then buy from smaller lesser known companies. By doing that you will support capitalism, a free market economy, and create jobs! By buying from lesser known companies and artists you are supporting innovation! Stealing, or “borrowing” only fuels the arguments from larger companies for more draconian DRM and other protection schemes.

The electronics retailer's new Vex Robotics Design Systems is actually more than just a neato $299 robotics kit for hobbyists. It's intended to fill a gap seen at Segway Inventor Dean Kamen's hugely popular FIRST national high-school science competition. For the uninitiated, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a now 16-year-old program that not only encourages high-school students to learn about science, technology, engineering, and robotics but engages them in regional, national, and even international robotics competitions that resemble major sporting events more closely than science fairs

Denise Bruner, MD, MPH, FASBP is a specialist in weight loss, and a fellow in the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. She shares one of the major reasons that weight loss scams flourish today: “We live in a society today that wants immediate gratification. This is reflected in our willingness to buy from those that promise ‘instant results’”.

The increasing obesity in our society, and hopes that weight loss can be achieved without lifestyle changes fuels the growth of frauds. Bruner states, “In the U.S., currently 61% of the population is overweight, and the numbers are going up. There’s a huge market out there for weight loss products. After all, it appeals to us to find out that you can ‘Lose 30 pounds in 30 days.’ We don’t want to have to deprive ourselves of our favorite foods, and want something that will ‘magically’ absorb the calories.”

Mariquita's original posting on this topic still remains the standard in my mind: a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and blue dawn dishwasher detergent will remove red wine stains miraculously and permanently. (I am sad to report the number of times that we've relied on this tip in our household this past year.)

But I heard another suggestion this week on this same topic from a very reliable source, a professional chef -- apparently white wine removes red wine stains. But in case you want to tempt fate and the unlikely...not the reverse!

Odors associated with bowling traditionally include smelly feet, cigarette smoke and beer. But what about grape, amaretto and cherry? One bowling ball manufacturer — Storm Products Inc. — is putting fruit and other popular scents into its mid- to high-end bowling balls, resulting in a steady increase in sales.

More than half the bowlers on the Professional Bowlers Association tour last year used them, including four-time PBA champion Ryan Shafer.

Shafer, who has a contract with Storm, said he may have won a match two years ago in Kansas City because an opponent was distracted by his black licorice-scented ball.

We purchased a Canon i860 printer over the weekend. We have a Brother HL-760 laser that's been a good performer for many years, but we've been wanting to do some color printing. Mainly color graphics, but also some photo printing. We narrowed it down to the HP Deskjet 5650 and the i860.

Once again, it's that special time of year where we use the power of Internet search engines to figure out what the lucky celebrities will be carting home from the Oscars. After a few complaints last year that I included too many items that were not in the Official Academy Awards Presenters and Performers Gift Basket, my list this time only includes those items that specifically claim inclusion from a news source or press release. Thus, it's shorter than before ...

Very soon, cell phones and other small objects will be able to make credit card payments using RFID technology, simply by being held close to a payment terminal.

Often called "contactless payments," the technology involves swiping an enabled cell phone, key ring or other small item near a point-of-sale terminal. The capabilities, which use RFID-like near-field wireless technology, are starting to gain momentum in Japan and are undergoing tests in the U.S. and Europe. Credit card companies have endorsed the technology.

McDonald's restaurants are expected to adopt the system in North America this year.

Over at SpamBlogging, Eric refers us to the press release where Consumer Reports takes on spam. Eric says:

Here's to hoping that Consumer Reports (and the many other increases in spam awareness coverage in the media) are helping consumers be more educated and aware of how to not make these common sense mistakes.