My guy has been looking for a TB drive, and I'd jump on that one, but it's only that price because of a rebate, and rebates are not real sales. No, thanks.

I guess you have to put the rebate ripoffs in the list, but I wish you didn't.

@speedwell, avatar of snark: The same drive is available at $130 on newegg, with a $20 mail in rebate, meaning you risk losing less money.

I wonder what the "green" rationale is. DansData.com just reviewed an internal Samsung drive (called "EcoGreen) which apparently uses less power by spinning at 5400 RPM and instead using platter density so it can read enough data to almost max out the interface at a somewhat low speed. Dan was pretty happy with it, from the sound of the review, but he didn't exactly think a more energy efficient drive is that big a deal.

If you don't want/need external, NewEgg has plenty of cheaper internal 1TB drives. If your motherboard doesn't have eSATA, that means you get faster speed and get to save some space if you have a desktop.

@speedwell, avatar of snark: 2nd the Newegg.com suggestion. They have plenty of TB drives, I think I saw one yesterday (not sure on the specs) for $104.

I like the "truth in advertising" re: Rachael Ray.

Also, check out Woot.com. The item is a $10 1GB MP3 player, sadly sold out, but that's not what I think it cool (although I wish I could have bought one for my sister...). Looks like they saw the post about the worst apartment ever on Craigslist...

@speedwell, avatar of snark: I just bought a 1.5TB external for 149.99. It had autobackup software already installed. It was a Seagate Freeagent. Best Buy was the store that had it on sale.

@TVarmy: Just be cautious buying fragile, pricey things like hard drives, monitors, and motherboards from Newegg. I've been burned twice by them recently, and my confidence in Newegg is severely lacking right now.

1. Bought a motherboard that was DOA (Dead On Arrival). I ended up getting a different board at Fry's because I didn't want to deal with waiting for a replacement. It's pretty ridiculous that I had to pay return shipping, but then I also was charged a retarded "restocking fee" for a return. A quick chat with an online CSR got the restocking fee refunded, but I was still pretty peeved that Newegg can't afford return shipping for defective items...

2. Bought an LCD monitor that arrived with a dead pixel. Yeah, it was just one, but it's still annoying and a defective product. It must have been some sort of clearance item, because the item has been discontinued, and Newegg offers NO RETURNS on the item, only for dead pixels apparently. What's Newegg's dead pixel return policy? At least 8 freaking pixels, or nothing. Asus, the manufacturer, has a just as archaic and illogical replacement plan for dead pixels: 5 "bright" dots or 3 "dark" dots. WTF? What does it matter what color they are, the panel is still defective? Absolutely unacceptable. This isn't 1998. LCD panels don't outright fail by the truck load anymore. The school I work for buys Macs and PCs by the gross; I can't recall one single dead pixel in the nearly two years I have worked there. I have yet to contact Newegg about my options, but I would guess I'll hit a brick wall.

My advice:

1. Newegg WILL NOT cover return shipping of an item to them, broken or not.

2. If you're not asking for a replacement, Newegg will try to charge a restocking fee for the item. Contact customer service immediately to get the fee refunded. Feigning ignorance about the existence of the fee is a good start.

3. Read, understand, and print a copy of the warranty options for a product BEFORE purchasing it. You never know if the item will be mysteriously discontinued.

I, too am looking for a larger hard drive right now, and Newegg will still be one of my options. However, I'll be damned if I have a bait & switch or any other scheme pulled on me by this company again.

Don't switch your dog's food a lot. It'll make 'em sick.

@BlackMage is doing the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!!: I think you're just unlucky with your purchases. I buy a LOT from NewEgg and I had one component arrive DOA. The ratio of good purchases to bad is very positive.

You are correct with your statements regarding their return policies however.

I bought a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB drive on NewEgg for $119. Originally $129 with a $10 instant rebate. The final cost is a little higher than some of these mail-in rebate drives, but I don't trust them too much so the extra $20 was worth it. I think it was a pretty good deal if you're looking for one.

Is the Rachael Ray dog food intended to make the dog taste better, or is it just to feed the dog?

The HD-DVD's at Borders are on back order, they will cancel them from your order. However they offer free shipping on orders for over $25. Not to condone ripping borders off for shipping costs, but if your HD-DVD's take you over the threshold, free shipping on an order ultimately under $25.

Rachael Ray dog food - or an earlier version of it - was the one that contained onions. Onions are poisonous to dogs.

@Ash78: Add some EVOO to make your dog de-lisch.

@whitecat: Cats, too.

@whitecat: Are you sure? I remember hearing it was a recipe she printed for her dog's food(and you could cook as well) that contained onions, not the dog food itself. I doubt a manufacturer would manufacture a food which contains a poison in the list of ingredients[unlike China which includes the poison, but doesn't list it :( ].

@BlackMage is doing the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!!: If you ask nicely and have a good reputation with the company, they will pay for return shipping. I've done a decent amount of business with them since 2003 and have had 3 RMAs in that time. Each time they paid for return shipping - and 2 of those returns were defective monitors and shipping cost over $20 each time.

@McRib_GitEmSteveDave: "Come here, Sammy. Come on, Sammy! Gooood Boooyyyy!"

@Diet-Orange-Soda: Not necessarily. In fact, I always make a point of alternating brands and flavors of dog food, and throwing in a good amount of human food as well. Sometimes, a dog who has only been given one type of food will have issues at first, but they adapt very quickly. The lack of variety seems to cause the intolerance.

BTW, I don't know if it was you guys or someone else, but PLEASE DO NOT POST anything from CoolSavings.com. I started to sign up thinking, 'hey free stuff.' They started with my email then with started asking for my address and more personal info and I abandoned the process. But damage done, they got my email address, and no matter how many times I logged in and unsubscribed I still received emails. I finally had to email their holding company qinteractive.com and threaten to click on their google ads every day until my email address was removed from their list. Of course this worked and they emailed me back immediately.

It's true. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

@whitecat: Not to mention that RachaelRaySpeak like "nutrish" and "delish" is poisonous to humans.

@DeanOfAllTrades: many of these kinds of sites do this. There is, indeed, no such thing as a free lunch. Unless, you live on a tropical island and the trees give you coconuts and dates - even then you have to crack open the nut so it still involves a modicum of work in order to eat.

Hmmmmm.

Can someone please explain the appeal of Rachel Ray? She can barely cook (and can't bake at all) and she has a grating personality that just makes you want to go ECW on her.

@spanky: ...And if they're a really good, good boy, an occasional fluffy kitten!
(Only writing this b/c my cat & kitten's don't start reading over my shoulder until their 2nd cup of coffee)

If you're going to buy that Iphone From ATT, use the live.com cashback which is currently at 25%!

@Diet-Orange-Soda: Just transition them slowly and they'll be all right, provided they don't have any food allergies.

@McRib_GitEmSteveDave: It was arecipe she printed. it had onions and wine, both terrible for dogs.

Just a heads up, but the Rachael Ray dog food is pretty crappy. The ingredients list includes a ton of filler (any ____ meal, plus it has corn which is terrible filler). But pet foods like that are marketed to the owner, not to the health of the animal.

If anyone wants quality dog food, writing to Innova, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, and any of the good dog food manufacturers DOES yield samples. even a simple e-mail can get you quite a few, or failing that a stack of coupons. They're always interested in your pets eating better and getting a happy customer.

I did this a few years ago to see what my rats liked (it supplements their diet) and wound up with probably a few pounds of dog food plus coupons for 10 pounds more, care of less than 10 e-mails.

@gaya2081: There's a bit of a caveat with external drives that big and larger. The 1.5 TB drives are more expensive to make than smaller drives because they are using cutting edge data density on the platters. Seagate has a 1.5 TB internal drive at a good price, so I think this is an exception, but some manufacturers will instead put two hard drives that add up to 1.5 TB (most likely two slow 750 GB drives or 1 TB drives for 2 TB externals) or higher to keep costs down while the technology improves, and a RAID or JBOD system adds the capacity together. That's fine, in theory, and may even offer a performance boost, but if one of those drives die, depending on the RAID style, all the data would be lost. JBOD systems, which are probably more common as they need less processing, would have the files that were on the surviving disk, but the enclosure might need to be taken apart to recover the data and it would be somewhat advanced.

That's a bit complicated. The basic upshot is that the really big external drives, at the moment, are likely less reliable than 1TB drives. Plus, 1TB drives are the best value right now.

@SabreDC: I have the same feelings about NewEgg. They're the cheapest, and I've never gotten a bad shipment from them. They pack their stuff pretty well, putting OEM hard drives (the only type I ever buy) in foam enclosures and surrounding them with more packing peanuts than anyone could ever need. If anything, they're overcautious in their packing. However, I live just a few hours away from their warehouse, so since the package spends less time in the postal system, it probably gets less abuse.

Those two items sound like problems from the manufacturer. It is a shame to pay return shipping, but at the same time, I'm willing to take a risk for the savings. Even with sales tax, it's significantly cheaper than other stores I feel comfortable using, and NewEgg seems to have more responsive customer service. I also like that there are a lot of reviews for each product, so I know which one is most likely to have a DOA.

Still, at the end of the day, I think I save more money and time with NewEgg despite the RMA policy, thanks to how things average out. Low price and shipping plus fast service mean I'm usually saving time and money compared to other retailers. And the rare dud component only sets me back a bit in terms of time and money.

@battra92: Her cooking show is very beginner level. She used to annoy me a little bit, too, but her approach really does seem to be effective for her audience.

I once looked at some online comments on her shows, and her audience seems to mostly be people who are completely inexperienced. Her recipes are simple and unambitious, but for her audience, It's an improvement. Most of them seem to have really poor eating habits and little in the way of cooking skills. I saw one discussion there where the viewers were trying to make some hamburger based recipe taste more like a Big Mac. They were actually aspiring to McDonalds' quality cooking.

So whether her show is a transition step, or whether they just raise their standards to that point, she's providing a valuable service, and I wish her godspeed.

@Trai_Dep: As the proud and loving guardian of two sixteen year old cats, I am HORRIFIED at your suggestion.

Any real cat lover could tell you that they're very tough and almost inedibly gamey.

@battra92: she's a step up from what her large demographic was eating--TGI Fridays and Chili's.

And certainly a step above Sandra Lee.

But other than that, for those of us who already knew how to cook, she's pretty worthless. my hope is the people who learn from Rachael move on to better things like say Moulton, or batali, or Alton Brown.

@Ratty: So are lightbulbs, but my dog ate 8 of them.

@McRib_GitEmSteveDave: Unless you served them up to him on a plate and wrote about it being a good feeding idea in a magazine that sells millions of copies, not quite to scale.

Dogs sure will eat anything though.

@Ratty: Gee, that's a great idea. I have a Maine Coon Cat who's starting to get a little iffy in the digestion, and I cured another cat of it by giving him better-quality food, but this cat is weird about his food preferences. I didn't think about writing the "organic/natural" companies for samples, thanks!

The free dog food offer is wonderful for the currently unemployed, as they can sample the type of food they'll be eating soon.

@Ratty: Oh don't get me started on Sandra Lee. Let's just spread peanut butter on an Eggo and call it homemade. WTF?

I could understand if it was "beginning to cook with Rachel Ray" or something like that but why the talk show, watch Rachel eat (and get sloshed) on $40 and the crappy overpriced pans etc.

Emeril is the only other one to get on my nerves but it's not so much him as his live audience. I understand cooking shows require personality but why do we need people cheering because he added wine to a sauce?

Ok, my FoodTV rant is over and I will go back to reading Alton Brown's baking book.

@battra92: Don't worry, I'm totally behind you on this. The most baffling thing I've found is I can cook quite well, and I've tried a half dozen of her recipes to the letter out of morbid curiosity. Every one was poorly balanced in terms of pretty much everything. And she has zero knack for seasoning. But I'm sure there were a number of bad cook parents out there that make kids think she's haut cuisine.

The FHM photo shoot didn't hurt either.