It is a good idea to get in a nice workout prior to the meal as well. This is a great way to get your metabolism running at full speed and burn off some calories that you'll surely be adding right back up. I recommend a large amount of cardio exercise preferably running, biking or swimming....

It is acceptable to go around slow diners as long as there is room on the other side and you will not be needing to reach back towards the skipped individual. A powerful technique here can be the "accidental" elbow bump in order to encourage them to move on. It is also important to steel yourself from others use of this maneuver....

I try to allot a large portion of my meal to high cost items, while sampling things that look tasty and also making sure that I get to those items that I know and love....

You'll want to be sure that you have to further commitments for at least 3 hours and preferably the remainder of the day....

Are you an all you can eat aficionado? What tactics and etiquettes do you follow to get the most out of your smorgasboard?

The All-Inclusive All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Guide [Eating The Road] (Photo: Bryan Maleszyk)

No, I'm not being sarcastic. This is legitimately good chicken wing eating technique. Enjoy.

[via BuzzFeed]

"8 Signs You Should Not Buy a House" may be a tough list to absorb if you've been turning a blind eye to immediate financial issues like credit card debt and savings accounts, but following this advice will put you in a much safer position for a new home. Once you've made sure it's the right time to buy, "8 Home Buying Blunders" has some tips that should help protect you from unanticipated problems at closing or after you've moved in.

"8 Signs You Should Not Buy a House" [Morningstar]
"8 Home Buying Blunders" [Morningstar]
(Photo: Smath.)

Flexo writes:

Step 1. When you purchase an item, make note of the cost of the extended warranty. Don't buy it.

Step 2. Transfer this amount to a special savings account that you will not touch until one of your "protected" items needs to be repaired. ING Direct lets you create sub-accounts, one of which you can name "My Extended Warranties" or "Warranty Fund."

Step 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all products you buy that might break or are associated with an extended warranty. This will build up a sizable Warranty Fund in your own name at your own bank earning interest for you.

Step 4. When one of your self-insured products breaks or otherwise needs repairs, dip into your Warranty Fund. Try to avoid using your Emergency Fund unless the Warranty Fund doesn't cover the full expense and the product must be fixed or replaced.

Online banks ING Direct and Emigrant Direct both offer savings accounts with 1.3 percent APR. Wells Fargo, by comparison, generously gives you a whopping 0.16 percent interest on savings.

How to Create Your Own Extended Warranty [Consumerism Commentary]
(Photo: pashasha)

The Wall Street Journal has a handy guide to buying a foreclosure, and the tips boil down to some practical and simple concepts:

1. Shop around. Most foreclosures aren't listed in traditional places like Realtor.com or local MLS listings — at least not with the word "foreclosure" plastered all over the ads. And many of the companies that track foreclosures, like RealtyTrac and Foreclosures.com charge as much as $50 a month. One free source: Bank web sites, some of which list properties they're offering.

2. Get an inspection. Well, yeah. But getting a foreclosure inspected is a little trickier than your run-of-the-mill house. After all, there's that vandalism thing. As WSJ points out:

"We have all heard the stories of people ripping the copper pipe and wiring out. People have literally gone to the light switch, disconnected the wire from the switch box and have pulled the wire through the drywall," [home inspector Dan] Steward says. Some have ripped out toilets and kicked in walls or left faucets running before vacating the house, often out of anger.

3. Be Prepared. Right, another one from the traditional home-buyer's playbook (not to mention the Boy Scouts). But, again, things get a little trickier in foreclosures. For one thing, don't expect the bank to cut the price because of problems with the home; that's already been factored into the price (yeah, even the missing toilets and wires).

So, is it worth all the work? Maybe; foreclosures can hit the market at 30% below their market rate, so if you find one that's actually worth buying, it could be a sweet deal. Just watch out for those missing floorboards before you move your furniture in.

How to Land a Foreclosure House [WSJ.com]

(Photo: jetsetpress)

Webmonkey notes that data portability has become an increasingly salient problem as more and more people store their data with various online services. Unfortunately, no open standards have emerged yet, which is why Google decided to put together a team that could at least address its own services.

The name might be a bit of a joke, but the idea is not. The Data Liberation Front wants to make it easier for you to get your data out of Google services and take it wherever you please. In other words, Google wants you to use their services because you like them, not because you're trapped in them.

You might want to bookmark the DLF home page for future reference if you have Google accounts, because they list all of Google's services there with links to how to get your data out of each one of them. That's the "do no evil" good news; the bad news is not every Google product or service makes the process easy—which, to its credit, the DLF openly admits.

The organization also offers some really good advice that we should apply to any online service before signing up:

People usually don't look to see if they can get their data out of a product until they decide one day that they want to leave For this reason, we always encourage people to ask these three questions before starting to use a product that will store their data:

1. Can I get my data out at all?

2. How much is it going to cost to get my data out?

3. How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?

The ideal answers to these questions are:

1. Yes.

2. Nothing more than I'm already paying.

3. As little as possible.

There shouldn't be an additional charge to export your data. Beyond that, if it takes you many hours to get your data out, it's almost as bad as not being able to get your data out at all.

"Data Liberation Front" [Google]
"Google's ‘Data Liberation Front' Aims to Make Your Data Portable" [Webmonkey]

"23 Powerful Tips and Tools to Eliminate Debt" [Dough Roller] (Photo: mskogly)

He writes:

I'm been having a battle with HP over getting my laptop fixed. I have one of those dv6000 models that are totally junk.

It broke down, I sent it back. The day I got it back the laptop was still broken, so I haggled with HP. Finally they sent me a box to send it back.

They said the board has water damage and refuse to replace it. I've filed a complaint with the B.B.B. but so far this has gotten me no where. Could you recommend a good lawyer? Do a google search on the dv6000 and you'll see how many people are being taken advantage of over these models. I'm stumped at how a company can get away with ripping off its customers like HP is doing to me. I am considering a class action lawsuit if I can get enough dv6000 owners on board.

Filing a BBB complaint is good, because it helps build a record of customer dissatisfation with a company. The BBB is in no way a regulatory power, however, and can't force a company to do anything.

If you really want to try to assemble a class action lawsuit against HP over this, we suggest you contact a lawyer in your town and ask for a consultation. Maybe she can point you in the right direction. Remember, though, that frequently class action settlements benefit the legal firm more than the aggrieved parties, and barely nick the company. At least that's our take on it after posting so many stories about stupidly low class action settlements.

That's why we think small claims court is where it's at for things like this. It's cheap, you don't need a lawyer, and it's the one place in our court system where the odds are frequently in the little guy's favor.

Here's a post about a guy who took HP to small claims court an won. It's probably a good place to start.

And here is a post by a Real Live Lawyer on how to take your case to small claims court.

If you're really in an info-gathering mood, just do a search for in the box at the top of the page for the term small claims, which will provide a list of inspiring stories and tips on how to make it work for you.

And of course, if you go through with this and win, please email us all the details so we can pass them along to future HP customers. Good luck!

(Photo: kate.gardiner)

The advice ranges from sneaky (place your phone into roam mode to trick the cell phone company into thinking your contract is more trouble than it's worth) to the outrageous (move to a blackout area). Other hints include finding a friend to take over your plan and whining incessantly to customer service. Of course, there's also the ever-popular pastime of watching for materially adverse changes to your cellphone contract and using them as an excuse to rip up your service agreement. Watch and learn!

How to Get Out of Your Cell Phone Contract for Free [SpendLess TV, via Bargain Babe]
(Photo: FastFords)

"Disputing a debit card overcharge in a hurry" [Examiner] (Thanks to Mary!)
(Photo: noraxx)

The biggest tip-off, of course, is that there's not a 100% clear disclosure of the group's beginnings and location. The Center for Media and Democracy says you should look for physical addresses, and cross-reference them on their astroturfing wiki, SourceWatch.org. (If the address is in D.C., alarms should be going off.) Real grassroots will usually prominently list their chief personnel (but cross-reference those, too) and source of funding.

Other signs can be found in the name and language they use. For example, front groups often seem to be making arguments about a topic completely unrelated to some other issue, and yet they eventually focus on that "secondary" issue. (Their example: "casting the secondhand smoke [issue] as an issue of property rights.") Front groups will also frequently use "feel-good" names that, upon closer inspection, seem to be diametrically opposed to their cause:

...such as the National Wetlands Coalition, which opposed policies to protect U.S. wetlands, or Citizens for a Free Kuwait, which purported to represent U.S. citizens but was actually funded almost entirely by the royal family of Kuwait. Sometimes the name of a front group might seem to suggest academic or political neutrality ("Consumers' Research," "American Policy Center"), while in fact it consistently turns out opinions, research, surveys, reports, polls and other declarations that benefit the interests of a company, industry or political candidate.

Most important, if you discover something about a front group you should share it on the SourceWatch wiki where it can be verified and indexed with other info, so that consumers have a reference guide they can use to unmask corporations.

"Attack of the Living Front Groups: PRWatch Offers Help to Unmask Corporate Tricksters" [PR Watch / Center for Media and Democracy via MichiganTelephone]
"Astroturf: Exposing the Fake Grassroots" [Free Press]
RELATED
SourceWatch.org
(Photo: Free Press)

"Use Firefox to Fix the Web's Biggest Annoyances" [Lifehacker]

When you're shopping for an insurance company, check the insurer's complaint record — especially if it's a small insurer that's offering a good rate, but you haven't heard much about its reputation. Saving a few dollars per year in premiums can backfire if the insurer hassles you at claim time.

To access this information, go to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Consumer Information Source. Type in the name of the company, the state where you live and the type of insurance. (Under "statement type" and "business type," click on "property/casualty" for home and auto insurance or "life, accident and health.") The site then provides the insurer's national complaint statistics.

We tested it with a sample health insurer:

Ohh, you got busted United HealthCare! Hmm... somehow that doesn't actually make me feel triumphant.

"How to Check an Insurer's Complaint Record" [Kiplinger]
NAIC Consumer Information Source
(Photo of cat: Pink Sherbet Photography)

Ryan found a discussion on the Nokia Support forum regarding Verizon/Intrigue issues, which made him suspect it wasn't necessarily a lone defect in just his phone. He then brought his phone to Verizon to fix the problem. This is what happened:

I headed down to my Verizon Wireless store and consulted one of their technical guys. What I was told was that Verizon has never heard of this error. I told the tech about the accounts of this same error I found on the net, and even explained as he worked on the phone what would happen with what he tried to do, based on others accounts. When he gave up on the phone he told me he could have a new Intrigue sent to me by Tuesday, and I told him that this would not be a fix as it was not a hardware defect. This was disregarded, so I asked him what would have to be done to switch this phone out for a different model. He said that I would have to pay full retail. In the face of that, I asked what would happen if the replacement model suffers the same error, and this is what I was told.

"To follow our procedure, we will have to be certain this is an issue from our end, so you might have to go through two or three replacements before we could consider switching you over to a different model phone."

The Nokia discussion we mentioned actually has a solution posted to it by other Intrigue customers. We don't know if the solution was there when Ryan first checked it out, but it shouldn't matter; Ryan should be provided a bare minimum level of technical support from the company providing the phone and service. In fact, I do have a lot of technical skillz when it comes to consumer electronics, and I have run into the same dullheadedness from support techs when I'm forced to escalate a troubleshooting issue to them.

This is a great example of one of the biggest failings in technical support today, which is that many tech support centers wall themselves off from the hivemind of the Internet where people are constantly discovering and sharing solutions. There is no reason the Verizon rep who "assisted" Ryan shouldn't have known about the IMEI-registration fix—that's what internal memos and emails are for. Or if he was really just a sales rep, why was he offering technical support in the first place?

If Verizon had known about the workaround listed on the Nokia user forum, they could have fixed Ryan's phone in 20 minutes and sent him on his way, and he likely would have credited Verizon with having some competence on phone-related issues. Instead, they failed a customer who came to them with a severe problem, and the only solution they offered was a drastic one that would have cost Ryan lots of money.

It just makes no sense, when the information was out there. Tech-savvy consumers already know that official tech support is usually the middle-to-last line of attack when troubleshooting. But not everyone has that skill set or interest level in consumer electronics—and you'd expect the company selling you the phone and phone service would be able to offer expertise at least as good as random forum postings, considering they can access those postings as easily as we just did when typing this up.

Okay, end of rant against impotent, overly formal technical support departments. Ryan, if you've got a second phone and can do the IMEI registration trick yourself, we suggest you do that. If not, try printing out the instructions from that Nokia forum board (we've reprinted them below) to bring with you when you return to Verizon.

Here is the workaround for Nokia Intrigue owners, from Nokia Support Discussions:

My 7205 started experiencing this continuous reset loop on 8/19. I brought it into a Verizon store the next morning to exchange for a new one. First bad sign: the greeter at the door seemed to anticipate my problem once he saw what phone I had. Of course, as soon as my # was connected to the new Intrigue, same problem. I decided to research the problem myself online and came across this forum. Seemed straightforward:</p

1. Assign my phone # to a different device using its EIN.
2. Startup the other phone and make sure all text messages & other undelivered stuff is picked up by the other phone.
3. Turn the other phone off, reassign my # to my 7205 Intrigue, and start it up. Problem solved! (Yes, it was!)

Some key points:

- you can do this yourself on Verizon online—if you have another operable device to switch to; otherwise, you can go into a Verizon store and have them switch to a test phone for you. Obviously, the other phone cannot be a 7205 Intrigue.

- after switching your # to this new device, you MUST wait SEVERAL MINUTES and confirm that all the msgs floating around in the system while your Intrigue has been malfunctioning are delivered to the new phone. The Verizon rep who first tried to help me in the store switched back and forth too quickly and the problem was NOT solved.

At one point during this ordeal I called Verizon customer support. The (snotty and completely unhelpful) technician told me that Nokia is aware of this problem and sent a bulletin on 7/30 stating that the bug will be addressed in the next software release for this phone (no target date specified, but the technician said it will presumably be "soon". By asking pointed questions, I also found out from her that Intrigue owners will not receive any notification when this software release is available, and that you will have to bring your phone to Verizon to have them load the update.

My advice, if your phone has this problem, is to do one of 2 things:

I. Unless you're attached to the Intrigue like me, exchange your phone for a different model and avoid this headache! (That is, of course, if you kept the original packaging which Verizon requires for exchanges of even faulty, nonfunctional equipment—don't let me get started.)

or

II. Call verizon, and see if the software update has been released.

a. If so, go get it installed on your phone. Problem should be fixed forever, we presume.

b. If not, do the EIN switch. If the problem happens again, go back to step II.

Hope this helps others out there.

-smlynev

"Re: 7205 Intrigue" [Nokia Support Discussions]

"Hotel Survival - with George Egg" [YouTube via whill]

• Uninvited Visits: Good contractors don't have time to go door-to-door to gin up business. They have offices and appointments, and rely on recommendations and advertising.
• Evasive Answers: Make sure the contractor directly answers all of your questions and concerns. Also be very wary if the contractor wants you to make a check out to him, not a company.
• Out Of State Vehicles: Have some hometown pride and use a local contractor. Verify the contractor's name, company, address, and phone number.
• Pushy Timelines: "Come-ons like "we're in the neighborhood only this week" or "our prices are good for only two days" are just that, come-ons. Good contractors don't cut special deals; they don't need to. They don't offer discounts if you promise to recommend them to your friends and neighbors either."
• Favored References: Ask to talk to the contractor's last three customers, not his favorites. Ask detailed questions to get a good sense of the contractor's workmanship.
• Lapsed Licenses: Look up the contractor's Better Business Bureau rating. Call the local building inspector's office to make sure your contractor is licensed, and call their carrier to make sure they have insurance.
• Verbal Contracts: "Every verbal promise should be included in the contract, as should the three-day notice of cancellation required by federal law for contracts signed in the home."
• Blank Contracts: You wouldn't hand over a blank check, so don't sign a blank contract. Make sure every space is filled in or crossed out.
• Shady Financing: Don't let the contractor deal with the financing until you do your own homework. "You could be agreeing to pay rates and fees that are exorbitant. Or worse, you could be placing your entire house at risk if you can't make the payments."
• Demands For Full Payment: Withholding payment is the best way to prod a lazy contractor into action. Don't pay the full bill until you are satisfied with the completed project.

Sports drink recipe from "Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook"
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 1/2 cups cold water

In a quart pitcher, dissolve the sugar and salt in the hot water. Add the remaining ingredients and the cold water. The drink contains about 50 calories and 110 mg of sodium per 8 ounces, approximately the same as for most sports drinks.

The Times warns that sports drinks aren't designed to quench couch potato exertions like reaching for the remote and the pretzels, but "are only appropriate in the context of sports, and I mean serious sports."

Phys Ed: Are Sports Drinks Actually Good for Kids? [The New York Times]
(Photo: Welvis Tarn)

We've covered executive email carpet bombs (EECBs) plenty of times before, and we try to publish unlisted numbers to helpful offices when we get them. We've also talked a lot about how the chargeback is your friend. But EECBs and chargebacks are both pretty severe actions, and we figured there had to be some middle-ground you could try first, so we asked an AT&T representative what you should try if the CSR keeps refusing to help you.

We'll admit, this isn't some silver bullet that will solve your problems. However, it does provide you with a couple of "official" routes to try when the front line of customer service fails.

Our reps are trained that escalation is part of the process, and they are explicitly instructed to escalate every time it's requested.

Each time you call, make note of the rep's name and the time and date you call. If you ask to be connected to a supervisor and you are not connected, hang up and call back in, THEN IMMEDIATELY ask to speak to a supervisor. We want to know when our protocol isn't followed, and we want to resolve your issue.

Alternately, customers can log into their AT&T On-line Wireless Account and click on "Contact Us." Then there is a box titled "Customer Service" where you can select "Click Here to Email Us." After answering some questions via the drop-down box, you can then describe the issue and request contact from a manager. [emphasis ours]

(Photo: ッ Zach Hoeken ッ)

Is this a substitute for carriers removing the extraneous instructions? No, of course not, but it's a worthwhile stopgap until the carriers act on their own.

If you're a Sprint customer, you can cut out the annoying greeting altogether with these instructions:

Access your voice mail box. Press 3, for personal options.
Press 2, for greetings.
Press 1, to change your personal greeting.
Press 3, to add or remove the caller instructions. Follow the prompts to turn instructions on or off.

If you haven't already, tell your carrier how you feel about wasteful voicemail instructions:

• Verizon: http://bit.ly/FJncH
• AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com.
• Sprint: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
• T-Mobile: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ

Take Back The Beep, Part II [The New York Times]
(Photo: Ninja M.)

David Pogue, who is trying to start a crusade to do away with these long messages which are only designed to rack up illegitimate profits, says the trick is:

STEP ONE. Press 1. If it's Sprint, you get the beep, and you're done. If you hear an error recording, go on:

STEP TWO. Press *. If it's Verizon, you get the beep. If not:

STEP THREE: Push #. You get the beep for T-Mobile or Cingular.

You have to pause after each one, and you have to keep listening. But it's one small way to fight back. Remember: One Star Pound.

These long messages are no accident. Cellphone companies have entire conferences devoted to getting you to spend more time on the cellphone, and these really long messages are one of their favorite tricks. Another way to fight back is to send in piles of complaints to these locations:

* Verizon: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com.
* Sprint: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
* T-Mobile: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u

RELATED:
The Mandatory 15-Second Voicemail Instructions [NYT]
How to Bypass Stupid Voicemail Instructions[NYT]
The Cellphone Industry Strikes Back [NYT]
Verizon Wireless CEO responds to David Pogue's article on the American mobile industry [IntoMobile]
The Irksome Cellphone Industry [NYT]

(Photo: blueoneiam)

From WiseBread:

Minutes later in the gift shop, I saw a stack of "15 minutes Free Wi-Fi" coupons from Boingo. Boingo provides Wi-Fi at over 500 airports, 17,000 hotels (Marriotts & Hiltons, etc) and 9,000 McDonald's.

Hmm. The clerk gave me a Boingo card and I sat down to log on for free minutes.

The promotional code did not work, but I called the tech support number and the Boingo customer rep offered me a complimentary code that would get me online while I was waiting for my flight.

That did the trick. My flight was called and I had no need for the free pass.

How to Get Free Wi-Fi at Airports that Charge for Internet Connections [WiseBread]
(Photo: mastermaq)

Pretreater:

Save pieces and leftover slivers of bar soaps and collect in a jar. Those little hotel soaps are ideal for this too (cut them down to small pieces).

When jar is filled half way with soap chunks, add boiling water. Mix soap bits and water until soap is melted.

Once cooled this will make a soap jelly. Use to pretreat laundry.

Stain remover:

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide

Mix ingredients then store in spray bottles. Spot treat stains then soak overnight.

The recipes couldn't be easier, but we're sure you have a few of your own. Share your own stain fighting secrets in the comments.

Homemade Laundry Stain Pretreater Recipes [Tipnut via Lifehacker]
(Photo: Yogi)

"2009 Consumer Action Handbook" [ConsumerAction]

First of all, don't believe the old fogeys who pour haterade all over ebooks whenever Amazon does something stupid with the Kindle. Yes, Amazon just flipped a giant, cloud-computed middle finger at its customers, and wiped away any sense of trust that the company either knows what it's doing or respects the privacy of customers—but that doesn't mean ebooks are a bad idea. The ability to carry a virtual library of titles in a single book-sized device (or on a phone or netbook) carries all sorts of benefits that traditional print does not.

The Kindle, however, is proving to be a rotten deal for customers. Not only do you lose the right of first sale, but it turns out even the idea that your license gives you the promised "permanent" access is false. Last week's Orwell stunt by Amazon is almost certainly not the last time the company will swoop in and manipulate your content, regardless of any promises it churns out in an attempt at damage control.

Here, then, is the best and easiest way to get non-Amazon, public domain ebooks on your Kindle:

Feedbooks: the open source alternative to the Amazon Kindle Store

If you don't already use Feedbooks, you're denying yourself access to what amounts to the free, open-source version of the Amazon Kindle store. On the down side, it won't have the Twilight books; but on the plus side, it won't have those Twilight books. To participate, go to Feedbooks (feedbooks.com/help/kindle) and download the Kindle-formatted catalogue. You do this directly on the device via the built-in browser or you can download it to your PC and copy it over via USB cable.

Now you're ready to "shop" for free, legal copies of ebooks. Make sure your wireless is turned on, then open the catalog like you would any ebook and browse through the available titles. When you find something you want, select it; you'll be taken to a download page on the device's built-in browser, and if you accept the download, the book will automatically be loaded onto your Kindle. See? It's just like using the Amazon store, only free!

A lot of public domain works are also available on the Amazon Store, some even offered by Amazon for free. But when you download from Feedbooks you get a copy that will always be yours. When you download those books from Amazon you're just purchasing a license that can (obviously) be revoked without warning. We recommend you use Feedbooks.

If you can't find it on Feedbooks, try Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org). Any file offered in MOBI or Plain Text is a perfect format for the Kindle; other formats—HTML, for example—will require conversion first (see below). Unfortunately, unlike Feedbooks you'll have to download the files first to your PC and then copy them over to the Kindle via USB cable.

(As a bonus, you can read books from these sites on pretty much any device, including mobile phones and netbooks.)

Converting incompatible formats to Kindle-friendly formats

What if you have digital copies of books that you want to read on the Kindle, but they won't display in their current format? Try installing Calibre (calibre.kovidgoyal.net) or Stanza (www.lexcycle.com) on your PC/Mac. Calibre is the golden child right now, but I've also had success with conversions using the desktop version of Stanza in the past. You should know, however, that Amazon now owns Stanza—so if you're looking to go Amazon-free stick with Calibre, which remains independent as of July 2009.

Futureproofing your purchases

"But what about the books I bought from Amazon?" you ask. "How do I make sure Amazon doesn't remove any in the future?" Technically, you can't. You don't have the rights to protect yourself under Amazon's licensing agreement, congratulations.

Speaking practically, though, you've got two options. The first is an illegal hack to remove DRM. The second option is this:

1. Every time you buy a book from Amazon, download it to your PC and save it as a backup copy. You're allowed to do this. You should also be backing up the text file on your device that stores all of your notes and highlights, just in case.

Now if Amazon removes a title in the future, you still have a backup copy. You should always do this with anything stored in the cloud anyway. You can't seriously believe that cloud storage is a secure, permanent solution for your backup needs—it isn't, and it will come back to haunt you if you don't protect yourself with your own backups in multiple locations.

2. Keep your Kindle's wireless connection turned off unless you need it.

This will somewhat reduce your participation in Amazon's cloud storage system, and increase the odds that should Amazon do something stupid in the future, you'll have some advance warning from other users' tweets and posts if not from Amazon itself.

Remember, though, that thanks to Amazon's DRM implementation, any backup copy will only work on that single Kindle device. When you stop using that particular device, you lose access to that file too if it's no longer stored on Amazon's servers. Your only route at that point will be to resort to something illegal, or to start over and buy a new license.

Is it really likely that Amazon is going to go all 1984 on other books in your Kindle library? No, but that doesn't mean you can't look beyond Amazon for your ebook fix. Over the past few months, Amazon has shown an increasing inability or unwillingness to have a transparent, fair licensing agreement for the ebooks it sells licenses to. If you've already invested money in a Kindle and want to make good use of the device, these are some ideas for how to look beyond Amazon when building your digital library.

RELATED
"Amazon Deletes Your Books, Has Always Been At War With Eastasia"
(Photo: EricaJoy)

So what's the real difference between regular shaving and wet shaving?

A: Wetshaving is just what the term implies – keeping your face (or for women, their legs) wet with plenty of hot water before, and during, the entire shave. In fact, you should always shave after a hot shower, not before (if you need to shave without taking a shower, washing your face with hot water for a few minutes will suffice). With a layer of hot water between your skin and the lather, the blade skims the surface instead of dragging on it, which is the main cause of irritation, redness, and "shave bumps".

Wetshaving gives you more effective shaves and better looking skin. The hot water opens the pores of your skin and relaxes your facial muscles, and it softens your whiskers for more effective cutting. Believe it or not, but your whiskers are tougher than the edge of a razor blade, and shaving "dry", or mostly dry as with the vast majority of shaving creams, foams, and gels on the market, means you're literally tugging on each and every hair on your face instead of neatly slicing it at the skin's surface and moving on without irritating your skin. The key to proper wetshaving is keeping your face as wet as possible at all times during the shave. Even if you keep your current tools and routine, you'll marvel at how much closer and more comfortable shaving can be when you keep your face hydrated at all times with lots of hot (not scalding) water.

Here's what the whole thing looks like in action:

Shave Like your Grandpa Did [Painless Frugality via Lifehacker]
RELATED: How to get that perfect shave [MSNBC]
(Photo: mthomps00)

Part of the problem is that AT&T and Apple's systems are not hooked up. The other part is fraud prevention, I suppose. That this helps suppress the number of successful cancellation is probably just like an unexpected bonus for AT&T. It wasn't a big deal, though, as I was able to push past this—mocking them for previously telling me I would get an automatic email letting me know my service was cancelled after Apple got the phone I mailed back to them did the trick somehow—and get them to just let me fax in the return receipt without ever having to leave my blog cave (thank you, faxzero.com).

"How to Understand Food Expiration Dates at the Grocery Store" [YouTube via Minyanville]

RELATED
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Expiration Dates*" [Minyanville]

Here are her tips on how to "be your own regulator":

• Take advantage of existing government advice from sites like www.ftc.gov/credit, the FDIC's consumer alerts page, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors calculators and tools.
   
  
• "Read everything, the junkier it looks, the better." We've all trained ourselves to skim or throw out anything that looks like junk mail. During the next few years especially, as less forthright banks and lenders try to sneak fee increases or changes to their terms past customers, you should constantly watch for anything that might be a notice in disguise.
   
  
• "Keep cushions everywhere." At first we thought she meant decorate your home like this guy we knew when we first moved up here to NYC—he had so many pillows around his apartment it looked like the inside of Jeannie's bottle on "I Dream of Jeannie". It turns out, that's not what she means at all:
  

  Even with money tight, try to keep a little extra in all of your accounts; it keeps the bankers from pouncing. Keep an extra $100 in your checking account and forget about it; you're less likely to bang into punitive overdraft fees when you use your debit card. Use less than the full borrowing power of your credit card; you'll avoid over-limit fees. Pay your bills a day or two early, to avoid late fee traps. Consider all of this a form of self-insurance.

• Apply for new credit cards using snail mail and letters, not online or over the phone. Stipulate exactly the terms under which you want the card, so that you cover any details that they might be leaving out that will bite you in the ass later.
   
  
• Complain. (Hey, have you heard of something called an EECB?)
   
  
• "Learn to like vanilla." Her point here is that old-fashioned products have "fewer nooks and crannies... where fees and other traps can hide."

"Personal Finance: Don't wait for Congress, be your own regulator" [Reuters]

RELATED
www.ftc.gov/credit
Consumer Alerts [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]
Consumer Info [Federal Reserve Board of Governors]
(Photo: Consumerist)

The couple behind the blog are also authors of "The Urban Homestead," which gives beginner advice on how to do things like keep bees while living in an apartment and make hair conditioner from old dogs' droppings. (Okay, we made up that last one.) If you've been wanting to try out aspects of an off-the-grid lifestyle while still living smack dab in the middle of the grid, these are probably your people.

homegrownevolution.com
"Urban self-sufficiency: Homegrown Evolution" [Cool Tools]

If you recall, I wrote a confessions regarding RadioShack's sales practices back in 2008. I feel an update is now in order. It may also have something to do with me going to college soon and no longer needing a job that requires deceiving the customer daily to pay the bills—but I digress.

Should you go to RadioShack for a purchase, here's some tips to remember.

#1 — ALWAYS, ALWAYS, open the box and check the merchandise in store if possible.

RadioShack stores sell returned merchandise all the time. Sometimes it's cordless phones that have sold and come back to the store 4 times, or it's an antenna that's missing a remote (not that the staff will tell you), or it's a cell phone that a manager wants sold.

The main reason RadioShack hocks used merchandise as new is due to how the returned merchandise is sent to the RS refurb center. The returning store receives no credit if the product is damaged or missing an included part. Sending in distressed merchandise results in the loss being charged against the manager's quarterly bonus—so a situation exists where store management has incentive to resell used products as new.

So, open the box and test the product in store before leaving. Be sure to check the bubble-packed product for taped corners or stapled ends.

#2 — Cell phone deals.

RadioShack has a price match policy for its corporate stores. Here's the fine print, so when the manager/salesman tries to dodge the rebate you'll be ready.

The actual ad must be present,and on paper. No photocopies or duplicates.

No mail in rebates can apply, although instant ones do.

Don't be afraid to bring in several favorable ads. You can only use one per phone, but this way if one flier is disqualified you can still use "the backup."

The way modern phone programming works, there's no reason why the cell phone you just bought shouldn't be making calls before you leave the store. While it's normal for data programs to take longer to work, if your new phone isn't making calls before you leave, ask why. Don't buy the salesman's stock line of 1-4 hours provisioning time. Phones I sold that didn't work the day I sold them generally stayed broken until the customers returned them the next day.

Sometimes there are network outages, but confirm this by asking for the store's Sprint/ATT demo to see.

#3 — Keep the receipt.

RS's customer research system sucks. Plain and simple. Unless you bought a service plan (and I sure hope you didn't fall for that hustle) or agreed to sign up for email registry with a name and address, the ticket is essentially lost after 90 days. Plan accordingly when filing the receipt.

---

And here's some new sales hustles to watch for:

RSAP card

You don't want a credit card with a 23% APR, do ya? And no, it's really not free for 90 days or a year with purchase-that lovely APR is still charged against the balance,and if you're one millisecond past 90 days or a year all that accrued interest charged over that timeframe is added to the balance.

Personal Data

A lot of stores are catching heat for not meeting credit metrics, so any request for your name, drivers license, or SS# should be qeuried immediately. Some stores have lied and ran customers credit info illegally to keep corporate off their back,so be aware.

E-mail capture

Pretty harmless, just make sure you use a spam box so you can get the occasional coupon for $10 off a purchase over $40.

Wireless Pitches

DO NOT HAND OVER YOUR PHONE. Headquarters was getting real crafty teaching psychology via a method about asking a question about your cell phone battery, and using that to twist the conversation into a cell phone discussion. If an associate asks about how your cordless phone,or cell phone battery works make it clear right there you're not buying a phone from them. That'll kill the pitch, and the look on the salesman's face will be well worth the trip to the Rat Shack.

Service Plans

Very simple. MFR warranty on everything in the store usually lasts a year except on Apple products. It's not smart to pay RadioShack an extra $3.99+ for something that came with the product. Even headphones are better off replaced at the mfr level than at RadioShack, because all the store does is send the broken product to.. drum roll please... the MFR! All the service plan pays for is the right to use RS's glacially slow repair process.

DTV Antennas

Before going into the shack to buy an antenna, verify whether your old antenna works well first with the box. I've found that the indoor antennae sold by the shack with 'amplifiers' and 'multi-gain' switches suck so badly a set of 1982 era rabbit ears get better reception. Steer clear of indoor antennae period, and search elsewhere if your current set are broken. Outdoor antennae have worked a lot better, but again make sure to have your current set re-aimed to your DTV broadcast antennae in whatever major city is near you before spending $$ on new equipment.

---

Last tip—if you're buying a big-ticket item, be sure to ask for the store's district office direct line. If something goes sideways and the manager won't fix the situation, asking for it then will tip the manager off that you mean business, so they'll obviously play damage control—which won't be in your favor. So request the number at the counter before there's a problem, and if you run into problems call it directly. This will catch the moronic store staff off-guard, so there will be no time for lies or damage control on the part of the store staff.

This should help save some Consumerist readers any headaches on dealing with the rat shack. I'm glad that after more than a year I'm finally free of the joint.

We asked D. how you can identify whether a store is corporate owned or not:

Check the top of the receipt. A corporate store will have a store number printed at the top in 01-6XXX format,although the 6 can be a different number too. Products sold from corporate stores can be returned/exchanged at franchise side locations,and vice versa.

RELATED
"6 Confessions Of A Former RadioShack Employee"
(Photo: strangelv)

A reader IM'd me to say was able to get HP to fix his problem by making a new Twitter profile, hpdoesntcare, and then following every single HP-related profile he could find. Then he began tweeting every phone call he made to HP and tweeting every phone number he dialed. It worked, he said, and his final tweet was "Thanks HP. It is finally over. For real. :)".

The IM came while I was away and the direct messaging isn't enabled for his account so I couldn't follow up and find out more info, like if he @replied or direct messaged some of the profiles to get their attention. Also, he deleted all the tweets except for the final one, I suppose some sort of gracious bury-the-hatchet gesture, so we can't see the backstory.

In any event, a novel and potentially very effective tool to add to The Consumerist arsenal. Let's recap:

1. Normal attempts to contact the company and seek resolution fail
2. Make new Twitter profile.
3. Follow every person on Twitter associated with the company that you can.
4. Tweet every phone call and every phone number. Put @thenameofsomeofthecompanypeopleyouarefollowing in some of your tweets.
5. Wait for someone to get embarrassed enough to reach out.

(Photo: frankieleon)

1. Graduating from college
2. Getting your first job
3. Getting married
4. Birth of a child
5. Buying your first home
6. Sending your child to college
7. Changing jobs
8. Working at home
9. Selling your home
10. Buying a second home
11. Getting hit with a major illness or injury
12. Getting divorced
13. Retiring
14. Death of a spouse

(Photo: tjean314)

So which sunscreens work well? Consumer Reports recommends:

• Walgreens Continuous Spray Sport SPF 50
• Coppertone Water Babies SPF 50 (lotion)
• Up & Up Sport Continuous Spray SPF 30

• Blue Lizard Regular Australian SPF 30+
• Mustella Bébé/Enfant High Protection SPF 50
• Lancôme Paris Sôleil Ultra Expert Sun Care for Sensitive Skin SPF 50
• Fallene Cotz SPF 58

CR poll: Who's using sunscreen? [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: mtoz)

For a bracelet, you'll need a credit card (of course), scissors, wire jump rings, a clasp, needle-nose pliers, and an electric drill with a narrow bit. You can probably scavenge some of these from broken pieces of jewelry you already have.

The site's commentary on credit card use is particularly amusing:

Credit cards are based on the obsolete premise that in the future you'll have more money than you have today. In the current economy, using credit cards to rack up high-interest debt is the world's dumbest idea. The time has come to throw that credit card away...

...Or turn it into something else entirely!

How to Make a Credit-Card Bracelet [Scavenging]

• Use The Right Detergent: Your dishes will come out cleaner if you use powder detergent over liquid or tablet detergent.
• Load Dishes Properly: Put glasses along the side of the top rack, and saucers and cups in the middle. The durable stuff belongs on the bottom rack.
• Avoid Clogs: Wash the spray arm once in a while to remove any clogs.
• Use The Normal Cycle: Consumer Reports tests dishwashers using the normal cycle. Dishwasher makers know this and make it the most efficient cycle. Skip past pots and pans.
• Flash Dry Your Dishes: Quickly dry your dishes by opening the dishwasher immediately after it shuts off. The hot dishes will quickly give up water moisture and should dry within ten minutes.

The Dish on Dishwashers [The New York Times]
(Photo: NJ Tech Teacher)

Okay, we're being a little dramatic there, but Classmates.com is part of the cesspool of the Internet, a faux-legit site that uses any shady tactic it can to acquire and keep members, regardless of any genuine interest they may have in the service. We don't know if you can truly successfully unsubscribe from their junk emails because we're not sure they'd ever honor such a request, but here are two other options.

1. Cancel your membership completely.
Recommended. This PC Mag article says you'll have to call them, go through a quick menu tree, and then you'll get a live operator.

That still may not remove you entirely from their system, so your other option is to

2. Set up a filter so that you never see another email from Classmates.com again.
Also recommended. Of course, you can set up a filter in most email accounts so that any communication from the classmates.com domain can be caught and removed before you ever have to see it. (Make sure you check out the email addresses on some recent messages from them to verify the domain name they're using.) We also suggest changing your email address in your account settings at Classmates.com before you cancel the account, so that you can create a more robust filter that will catch anything they send regardless of which domain they use.

(Thanks to Amanda!)
(Illustration: Lentini)

Combine:
1 cup Flour
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Salt
2 tablespoon Cream of tartar
1 tablespoon Oil

Cook until ingredients start to clump together. Turn out onto a plate or piece of wax paper, and knead in food coloring if you wish.

If the mix starts drying out, knead in a splash of water or whip up a new batch. Once you've made your doughy ball of fun, give your kids a few miscellaneous kitchen tools like cookie cutters, a rolling pin, or that mellon baller you got for a wedding gift but never use.

There are plenty of alternate recipes that use varying amounts of the above ingredients, and the kids don't have an exclusive claim on the fun. Some of your older friends may want to come over and get their hands dirty while enjoying a cheap bottle of whatever.

Creating your own play dough kit [Frugal Village]
(Photo: chanchan222)

She writes:

My husband is from England. In researching fares for a possible surprise family visit in a month or so, I had commented to him that Virgin had some good fares in the $800 range - better than I would have expected for his nearly-summer time frame (when fares nomally skyrocket).

Being the industrious guy that he is, however, he checked cheaptickets.com. I've used the site before, but haven't found a deal better through it than I have through Virgin (or BA's) website. Normally, any cheaper fares involve one or two stops or are on carriers I don't prefer over VA/BA and the price difference isn't huge anyway.

Imagine my shock when my husband pointed out what he found (see attached screen captures). I had always noticed that the VA flight I routinely take to and from the UK is cross-listed as a Continental Airlines flight, but I never imagined VA would allow such a price difference. Is this a taxes thing? What gives?

The Continental flight costs $551 all-in. The VA flight? $845 all-in. (And having looked at the VA site's price matrix, there was nothing around those dates approaching $551 on offer from Virgin.)

Go to England, everyone!

Or am I missing some fine print?

There's no fine print, but if anything goes wrong, you'll need to deal with the airline issuing the tickets, not the one flying the plane.

So how do you find codeshares? First, find your desired flight number and punch it into a flight tracking service like Flight Stats. Look for a section breaking out specific codeshares and the flight numbers associated with the other airlines. Then, go to each airline listed and search for the codeshared flight number to compare the price. Once you've found the lowest fare, book it and start packing!

(Photo: So Cal Metro)

I've gone through the website unsubscribe process at least a couple of times, I've sent ‘UNSUBSCRIBE' emails twice to the address they've listed, and I've even spoken on the phone with a Hilton CSR whom assured me that it would be ‘taken care of'.

I'm at my wits end here, Consumerist. How do I make it stop???

You could always send them a written letter with your request, and point out that they're in violation of the law—"When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address"—and that they can be subject to "fines of up to $11,000" per violation. We have zero faith that the FTC will actually pursue Hilton, of course, but maybe by including this information, you can get their attention and prove to them that you're serious about wanting them to stop.

But the faster, more permanent solution is to take the power away from Hilton and make it so that you never see another communication from them unless you want to.

If you don't already have a free Gmail account, set up one, then log into your Hilton account and change your email address to a "Gmail + alias" like so:

Now you can set up a custom filter in Gmail to immediately trash all future Hilton spam, and it's entirely under your control, and to hell with Hilton's broken spam compliance implementation.

Mark is probably rolling his eyes at this point, because he already knows this, but we're sharing it with the rest of our readers too. Just add a plus sign and whatever you want after your real email handle and it will still be routed to your default Gmail inbox, where you can then filter it out using regular old filter rules.

If you use a + alias for each commercial entity where you have an account, you can easily route annoying businesses to the trash folder without needing their cooperation at all—and you can turn on access again whenever you want.

Note: Several readers w/more tech experience than I have pointed out that the + alias trick isn't unique to Gmail; lots of email providers allow for this.

(Photo: SDCDeaCerte)