Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Worst Buy?

Imagine this...you go to Best Buy, buy a $1500 video camera, and when you get home, there is a jar of tomato sauce.

It apparently happened to this couple in the St. Louis area.

Video at CNN.Com

Monday, November 27, 2006

Annual Credit Reports

One of the more interesting things that you can now do is request a free copy of your credit report each year. I'm not talking about one of those ads that require you to sign up for something to get it free - Congress passed a bill that requires this. All members of the country can get one for free from each credit bureau each year.

It was always interesting to me to see what information showed up there. Another thing that I found when I first got my free one was that I had credit cards open that I didn't even know about (probably due to those free t-shirt offers or something).

Knowledge is power, and this site gives you access to what people who will lend you money will see when they decide how cheap of an interest rate to give you on a car loan or house loan.

annualcreditreport.com

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Cyber Monday

The Monday after Thanksgiving is sometimes known as "Cyber Monday" - some online stores are creating online only sales for Monday. For example, Staples has a few decent deals:

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/products/061126/merch008408/index.html

Friday, November 24, 2006

Black Friday!

I am currently enjoying popcorn from my new microwave as I use the Windows Update to update my under $500 laptop that came with a free color inkjet printer.

Add to that some free razors, DVD+R's, and some cheap DVD's, and I am happy! I had a lovely Black Friday, and I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Free Tacos for Life?

Taco Bell has made an offer that is interesting. If you are the first person to give them your PS3, you will get "free tacos for life".

This is limited to the first person to take them up on the deal. Very interesting.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4241&Itemid=2

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Nursing Scholarship

Here's another scholarship that has been passed around, for nursing students:

The Institute for Nursing through the New Jersey State Nurses Association has several scholarship available for students.

All applicants must be NJ residents currently enrolled in a diploma, associate, baccalaureate, or master's program, or a doctoral program in nursing or a related field. RN's must be members of the New Jersey State Nurses Association. Scholarships are based on financial need, grade point average, and leadership potential.

The application is available at the Institute for Nursing website at http://www.njsna.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=3. The application can be filled out and submitted online but you will still need to send the required documentation. Application deadline is December 19, 2006.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Wireless Keyboard/Mouse @ Office Depot

Office Depot has the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1.0 for a very nice price.

Go to this page and add the Wireless Desktop (with Price of $29.99) to your cart
View cart and add coupon 65736273 (this coupon will take 10% off your order)
Choose to pickup in-store to save on shipping.
There is a $10 rebate that you can submit to save you $10.00

Final Price is $16.99 After Rebate. Not bad at all!

(PS: I had the wrong link up before. This should work.)

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Web Registration

For those of you who are eligible, the Registrar's Office already let you know: they are piloting (testing) Web registration.

The following link will take you to the web registration instructions:
www.pccc.edu/PDF/Web_Registration_Instructions.pdf

They tell us over 50 students have registered for Spring 2007 classes via the Web.

If you have any questions, please contact the Registrar's Office or the Center for Student Success. They are the experts on this! :)

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Woot

One excellent web site that I've encountered is woot.com. Basically, it's a web site where every day, they sell something different. For example, today they are selling a 6 GB USB drive for $49.99!

I purchased a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse set for $19.99 one day, and that was a great deal.

It's very random. Today it's a USB drive...tomorrow it could be something completely random and unrelated. Definitely worth checking out and bookmarking!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally referred to as "Black Friday". There are a number of things that one can save money on, including electronics and computer components. The important part is to plan well.

There are quite a few web sites that have this sort of information on them. One of the best ones seems to be www.bfads.net. As of today (11/6), they have ads up for the following East Coast retailers:

  • Ace Hardware

  • EB Games

  • KB Toys

  • K-Mart

  • Office Max

  • Sears


Great for planning purposes!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Wikipedia for Government Intelligence

The government is apparently putting together an internal wiki...to keep track of information about all sorts of secrets.

The US Government is putting together their own version of Wikipedia, which they are calling Intellipedia, in which US spies can edit information about known enemies of the United States. The government plans to extend access to some allies, such as Great Britain, as well.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15503834/wid/11915829?GT1=8717

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Registration Time!

It's time to register for next semester!

You should see an advisor within your major. If you are a Computer Science or Information Technology student, you can feel free to visit myself or any of the other full time faculty members within our department. Registration starts Monday, so you should see an advisor ASAP! Note that this can also be done via email or over the phone in some cases (though I recommend doing it in person).

One other big change: if you register now, payment is not due until January 10th! I know some students hesitated to register early because it requires early payment, but now payment is not due until next semester. You can even go in and fill out payment plan forms now, for those of you paying yourself. Here's information from the bursar's email:

* Payment plans available to any student registered for 4 or more credits (provided they have not missed payments in the past).
* A $50 deposit by January 10th will hold the registration with the balance divided into 3 equal payments due – Jan 31, Feb 28 & Mar 30
* Payment plans set up online will avoid the $35 set-up fee.


For those of you interested in scheduling a class with me (or avoiding me!), here is my upper level class schedule:
CIS 106 01 (Introduction to Windows)
CIS 125 01 (Microcomputer Software I - prerequisite CIS 101)
CIS 127 E1 (Microcomputer Software III - prerequisite CIS 125)
CIS 152 01 (Fundamentals of the Internet - prerequisite CIS 101)
CIS 273 E1 (Web Graphics - prerequisite CIS 170)

Search for classes here.