Brendan’s Blog

I recently purchased a professional repair manual for my 1999 Acura TL. I am not a mechanic, but the car is long out of warranty, and there are no nearby Acura dealerships. This isn’t one of the cheap repair manuals available at auto parts stores.  This is the same book the dealership service technicians use.  Within a month the book (~$70) paid for itself several times over.

1. The first repair I performed using the manual was a replacement of my faulty ignition switch. The dealership wanted $350 for the repair. The part was $85. I replaced it myself in under 20 minutes.
2. The second repair was to fix an automatic door lock that didn’t automatically do anything. The dealership wanted $250 to replace the actuator. The part was $45. I replaced it in under an hour (most of the time was wasted by me not following directions in the book.)
3. Most recently I changed my transmission fluid for under $30 in under an hour using all OEM parts and fluid (including replacing the metal washers that I otherwise would have easily overlooked.)

If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty on occasion, I highly recommend you purchase a services manual for your aging automobile from Helm, Inc. They carry publications for many manufacturers including Ford, GM, and Honda.

Why Buy Original OEM? Why Helm Publications?

• Helm only sells manuals written by the manufacturer (Original OEM), designed specifically for your vehicle or equipment.
• Original OEM Manuals are more accurate and complete than any other service information available. OEM Manuals contain thousands of pages of diagnostic and repair information!
• These are the same manuals your dealer service center uses so you know you’re getting the technical information needed to service and maintain your vehicle or equipment.
• Many OEM Manuals include diagramed repair and replacement procedures, electrical diagrams and training information. More about Helm publications, click here.

An ISO image file is a duplicate copy of a complete CD or DVD disc saved in an industry standard format. Storing frequently used CD/DVD discs as ISO image files on your hard disk is an effective way to keep your most important software organized and easily accessible.

I create ISO files of every computer CD and DVD that comes across my desk. Driver discs and software discs alike are stored on my desktop PC’s large hard disk. Whenever I need to reinstall software, or simply reinstall a driver, it is easier for me to find the correct ISO file than it would be to find a physical disc.

ISO Recorder is a free add-on to Windows XP and Windows Vista. It will allow you to create ISO image files from CDs you already have. It will also write an ISO file to a blank CDR. Note that ISO Recorder is not designed to make image files of protected disks, like games or movies, which incorporate copy protection techniques. There are utilities that offer that capability for a fee such as CloneCD.

ISO files are even more useful when combined with an ISO mounting utility like Virtual CloneDrive. Virtual CloneDrive allows you to mount an ISO image file as if it were inserted into a virtual DVD drive. Virtual CloneDrive can mount ISO image files of either CD or DVD discs.

The combination of ISO Recorder and Virtual CloneDrive is very useful and best of all — free!

Mozy is an on-line data backup tool. It runs in the background on your PC and transmits encrypted & compressed backups of your data files to a secure remote data center. This allows you to recover deleted or corrupted files without having to worry about traditional daily/weekly backups to disk.

The service is free if you have less than 2GB of data to back up. For $4.95 a month, you can backup up as much data as you can fit on one Windows PC (and fit through your Internet pipe.)

I have been using the paid version since I read a review in the Wall Street Journal last December.

Features include

• Open/locked file support
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption
• 128-bit SSL encryption
• Automatic or scheduled backups
• New and changed file detection
• Block level incremental backups
• Bandwidth throttling
• File versioning
• Public or private key encryption

I like to stay informed, and Bloglines is a great way to monitor blogs and websites for updates. Bloglines is a web-based RSS reader. Web sites without RSS feeds can usually be monitored using a custom feed creater such as FeedYes. Mobile versions are available for BlackBerries, iPhones, and generic mobile browsers too.

I really like the fact that if I view an article on my Blackberry I don’t have to view it again on my Desktop PC. Bloglines keeps track what you have read, so you don’t have to read it again (unless you want to.)

You can see a list of what I subscribe to here.

Key Features of Bloglines:

• All-in-one Blog and news feed search, online subscriptions, news reader, blog publishing and social sharing tools
• Available in 10 languages
• Mobile version optimized for handheld computers and cell phones
• Email subscriptions help manage your e-newsletter traffic
• Package Tracking (UPS, USPS & FedEx)
• Custom weather forecasts
• Quick Pick Subscriptions get new users started quickly and easily
• Personalized recommendations to find new subscriptions
• Bookmarklet for single-click subscriptions to any source
• Notifiers for all browser types to remind you when new articles have arrived
• Bloglines Saved Searches deliver future articles matching your key words and phrases
• Most Popular lists show the days hot topics and which blogs are getting the most noticed
• Handy add-on tools for bloggers such as automated blogrolls, subscription buttons

My desktop mouse is a wireless Logitech MX Revolution. I like this mouse because it has a built-in rechargable battery and a very nice scroll wheel.

Smarter, faster, and fully loaded. Take command with powerful new controls that let you fly through large documents at hyper-speed, or navigate lists, slides, and image collections with click-to-click precision. Toggle effortlessly between open applications. Perform instant web searches with the click of a button.

MicroGear™ Precision Scroll Wheel

A new concept in PC navigation, this revolutionary alloy scroll wheel operates in two distinct modes: Free-spin Mode for hyper-fast, nearly frictionless scrolling, or Click-to-click Mode for detailed navigation using an ultra-precise ratchet-scrolling mechanism. Fly through hundreds of pages — or move line-by-line — with more precision than ever before.