Cyber Monday - Tell windows to alway prefer wired over wireless.

Windows usually does an alright job about pushing things through the wired connection if you're connected. However, sometimes it mucks up and here's how to tell it to always prefer wired connections.

For windows 7 (possibly older/newer versions this works as well, I haven't tested.) Go to run and type in ncpa.cpl or in my case, I searched for it. 

Once here, you'll want to navigate to the advanced tab on the top and go to Advanced Settings...

A new window will open and you'll want to be on "Adapters and Bindings" tab and move your "Local Area Connection" to the top of the list as shown here.

And that's it. Now you're computer will always prefer the wired connections of the wireless.

Any tips you're looking for specifically?  Let us know!

Cheers!

Net Debt - April 2013

Student loans: -$81,237.47 ($885.92)
Car loan: $0
Revolving Credit card debt: $0.
Mortgage: -$133,902.35 ($849.81)
Total Debt: -$215,139.82
Debt Jan 1, 2013:  -$216,875.08 ($1,735.26)

Paying down debt is a daunting task, that is for sure, especially seeing these numbers. It has been 4 complete months since the new year has started and so far we have paid off $1,735.26 or about $433 each month.

While we are sticking to the plan and paying down debt, it has its challenges. We put $418 towards one student loan, and $100 towards another each month.  Soon, hopefully next month, we'll have the federal subsidized interest of one of the student loans paid off, and then we'll make a little more progress paying down the unsubsidized portion.  Note: I really hate how loan companies set up the payment scheme, especially when making extra payments. They always set it up to pay equally across everything and not put it all towards the one that will make you pay it off the fastest.  gah!

Due to the student loans we're trying to pay off, we've settled for only paying $250/month to the IRA. The plan is to gradually increase the payment each year until we max out 2 complete IRA's.

On another note, my final exams are now complete and in a few more days my wife will have finished her 6 month probation period at work. These two things make me very happy.  ^_^

Our trip to Germany has been booked and is approaching faster than we thought. It will be a great trip, but we still have to make arrangements for someone to take care the kitties. Our trip to NY has been postponed to a little later than desired but still in the plan.

Also, we recently purchased an exercise bike from a friend, which has been a lot of fun.  The past few days while I had off from work to study and work on my final exams, I would get up, drop off the wife at work, and come back and bike for 25 minutes or about 6.25 miles. During that time, I'd be checking my other blogs, IM'ing with the wife, etc. very efficient use of time.  :-)

Cyber Monday - Cell phone plans - a comparison

Previously, my wife and I were on a prepaid plan with AT&T which we used very sparingly to save as much money as possible.  However, as my wife began her job and we purchased a home, and adopted another kitty, our cell phones became increasingly important to call other businesses, schedule appointments and in general coordinate our lives. For the past 6 months or so, I was seriously looking at providers to see who has the best deal. I looked at family plans, individual plans, and other prepaid plans for us. I know that our usage would increase if we had unlimited so I primarily focus on that since so many things are unlimited now anyway.  However, I did look at how much we would realistically talk as well, and many of these other lower priced plans came with too few minutes.  Also, since I recently upgraded to a smart phone, I looked at data plans for myself and installed an app to track how much data I was using over WiFi. Below are my results:

From my calculations we were spending about $979.68/yr ($81.64/month) on our cell phones plus another $143 on our skype plan, totaling $1122 ($93.53/month) a year between the two of them. If we are able to save anything less than that, we would be saving. So after much searching, GoSmart started their business, and we signed up. I am paying for their $35 plan and my wife is paying for their $30 plan + $10 international calling and texting. Our savings: $130.08 per year (after tax). Also a perk of this new plan is that calling quality is much better than Skype because it no longer depends on internet connection and we have unlimited everything. The internet is fast enough for my phone as I don't stream any video (internet radio is crystal clear) and email/IM is perfectly fine on 2G. Everyone is happier and my wallet is a little bit heavier, which is great.  Feel free to check out gosmart plan and check to see if it is right for you.

DISCLAIMER: I am not collecting any incentives by gosmart by endorsing them. We are just really happy we decided to switch plans :)

Cyber Monday - How to check your car fuse....

Technology can be finicky at times, and sometimes fuses blow, cars are no exception. So here's a quick lesson on how to change them out.

There are lots of different types of fuses out there and sometimes when you're having car troubles, the fuse is the easiest and sometimes the right option especially when you're having electrical problems. But lets start from the beginning...

Fuses for cars are usually color coded and with each fuse a number is written across the top. These numbers represent the amperage for the fuse. Amperage, for those a little rusty on their physics or electrical engineering, is strength of electrical current. One way to think about it is akin to water flowing out of a hose. Water itself might be voltage, but how much water flows out or the force at which it comes out, is the amperage. Fuses can blow because parts are malfunctioning, a component got wet when it shouldn't have, or sometimes by a random power surge. It's important that the fuses are not blown for the car to operate normally, and when they are, are replaced with the proper fuse which really means proper amperage and size.

There are two main fuse boxes also known as relay boxes, one inside the car, the other, under the hood.  Both of these boxes can usually be found under the dash on the drivers side of the car or next to where the door opens and, from my experience, on the right side of the car under the hood (shown on the images to the left).  When you open the fuse box up, you should see a diagram for the fuses indicated what amperage is needed for that specific position along with what each fuse is tied to. It's like a map for the fuses, it shows you what fuse belongs to what part of the car and what type of fuse is needed. So when your radio randomly doesn't work, find it on the diagram or map, pop it out and check the fuse.   :-)

Usually checking to see if a fuse is blown is pretty obvious, there might be a burn mark along with part of the wire missing if it is a tubular fuse or if they are like a fuse shown above, part of the 'U' might be missing. Typically removing a fuse is a pretty simple act of just pulling it out, although some cars can be tough and actually provide little fuse tweezers.

First make sure that the car is turned off and the accessories are off as well.  Next, be sure to take out the fuse, if it is blown - trash it, and gently insert the new fuse in its place. Be sure that the new fuse is of the same color and rating as the old one. If you get confused, like my mom did once, don't start pulling them out and swapping them around by accident.  Look at the "map" of fuses on the cover and make sure you put the fuses in the correct spot. I usually try to find a spot that is easy to find on the map and on the fuse box and from there make sure it was the right spot. An example might be where a row of fuses goes from 4 in a row to 3 or 2 in a row, then according to that spot, find where it belongs. Once complete, you can turn the battery on and check that the piece of equipment works again. If so, then congrats! You've just changed your fuse! And no need for a mechanic either!  ;-)

Cyber Monday - How to speed up your old (or slow) Android Cell phone

Back in September I upgraded  my cell phone to an Android phone (the Pantech crossover P8000), however, as I soon realized, my phone lacked a lot of horsepower and was essentially slow as dirt.  So recently, I took it upon myself to investigate how to speed this little guy up and boy did it pay off!  This is what I did....

First: move as many apps as you can onto your SD card so you can free up as much space as possible on your actual phone.  While it is possible to do this manually by going to Settings then Applications then Manage Applications.  From here, you can select each application (which I'm sure there are a LOT of them) and tell them to move to your SD card, or you can just use an app called AppMgr III (App 2 SD).  This app will search out all of your apps, then tell you which ones are movable, which are on the SD card already, and offer to clear app cache. At the bottom of the screen it'll let you know how much space you have and what is available on your phone.

Next, because my phone is older and a little slower, I wanted to watch out for apps that aren't working properly. Watchdog Task Manager Lite watches how much CPU is being used in the background and make sure none of your apps are hogging too much of it, if an app is misbehaving, then it'll alert you and ask if you want to kill it or wait. This little guy will also let you know how much CPU and memory in real time each app is using.

After that, for the real speed up, I changed my desktop.  My phone gives me 4 default screens and no options on changing them. To my surprise, I was able to change how many screens I have and the whole feel of the "desktop" by using LauncherPro. LauncherPro allows you to change how many screens you have, I picked 2, it also modified the buttons at the bottom of the screen into a much more usable form along with an overhaul of the apps menu which I really enjoyed. This app alone improved the performance of my cell  phone the greatest.  Once installed, my tiny phone became much more reasonable, it no longer locked up from too many apps running and since then, it hasn't frozen and randomly restarted either. Plus I now don't have to charge my phone every day!

Lastly, I did my last overhaul on the widgets. Widgetsoid let me get rid of all of my old widgets and use only widgets that I would fully use. So at the top of my phone, I have one widget, that I use every button, force update, network settings, auto update, battery % indicator, cellular data on/off, brightness, and airplane mode, of course, yours can be different. I also switched the weather app with one I actually use and much more prefer, weather underground app.

So while the first few steps weren't absolutely vital, they are a good check for the phone and save a little bit of time, which is always helpful. For everyone though, I highly recommend checking out Launcher Pro and widgetsoid, absolutely amazing apps for the cell phone.