Daily Cup of Tech

I recently switched my home wireless access over to ethernet over power (EOP).  Some of my geek friends thought that it was rather foolish of me because it means that I have really limited myself to where I can work and do my thing.  While they may have a valid point, I still think the pros outweigh the cons.  So, here is why I now have several PowerLine HD Network Starter Kit (DHP-301) units in my house.

Better Speed

While the ethernet over power units brag a 200 MBPS transfer rate, I find that a 100 MBPS full duplex is more reasonable.  This is better than the projected 108 MBPS that my wireless N network was providing for me.

Better Security

I find that the security model seems to be better, at least for the time being.  If you want to hack into my WiFi connection, all you need to do is connect to my wireless signal and get cracking.  It may take you some time but anyone who is proficient at wardriving could get into my home WiFi network with little effort.

With EOP, not only is there no way for someone to know that I am running a network like a WiFi connection, they would need to be physically connected to my home wiring via an external power plug and a EOP module that is configured for my home.  Not only would I notice someone with a computer plugged into my home, I control the power to my external plugs from a switch inside my house that is always off.

Hacking my network has just become significantly more difficult.

Reduced Hardware and Increased Flexibility

I have also been able to cut down on some of my hardware.  I can use the EOP devices to work like a patch cable (one to one) or a switch (many to many) so I have eliminated a number of the switches that are available on the network.  I can also use them to segment my network so that I can give a “guest” not to visitors so that they can surf the Internet but they can’t access my home network.

More Info

If you are interested, here is some more info from the D-Link website:

• Web Demo
• Main Website
• High Res Diagram
• Data Sheet

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/17/why-i-switched-to-ethernet-over-power/trackback/

People will often ask me why I use two different products for remotely accessing computers. My response is simple.  It all depends on whether I am performing remote control or remote support functions.

I use remote control when I am in complete control over a computer.  For example, I remote control my home computers from work.  In general, there is usually nobody around who can do things for me at the other computer so I need to make sure that I can do whatever I need from the other side.  My preferred remote control product is LogMeIn since it allows me to remotely access my system from anywhere, regardless of who is on the other computer.

Remote support, on the other hand, is something I usually perform on a computer that is controlled by someone else and that other person is available to help.  I usually use remote support when I am helping someone fix their computer or when they want me to show them how to do something on their system.  I generally will use CrossLoop for remote support of computer systems.  It keeps the computer owner in control and gives them the security of knowing that I cannot just connect in to their system whenever I want but it allows them to give me access when they need help.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/10/remote-control-vs-remote-support/trackback/

When you purchase a lot of technical components like me, it is critical to get the best bang for your buck. One of the tactics that I use is the price matching guarantee.

If you are unfamiliar with the price matching guarantee, it goes something like this:

Retailer A will sell an item, lets call it a WiggleDo. The WiggleDo goes for $100. And they gave a price matching guarantee that states they will beat all other retail prices by 10%.

Now, Retailer B is selling the WiggleDo for $90. You can go to Retailer A and get the WiggleDo for less that $90.

But, it is never that easy. Just yesterday, I went to get a price match at a common retailer and instead of gladly giving me my price match as indicated in their policy, I was told that I was not eligible for the price match. I needed to really push the manager who was on yesterday until I got my price match. This prompted me to write this post to arm you with as much information as possible so that you are successful in your price match.

Just so everyone knows, I price matched on a PowerLine HD Network Starter Kit (DHP-301). I found it online at DirectCanada for $114.59 plus $9.99 next day shipping (total of $124.58). Staples was selling the same product for $149.99. Once they applied my discount (competitor’s price minus 10% of the difference), I got the unit for $122.04. I ended up saving $27.95 plus taxes.

Tip 1: Do Your Homework

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is going in thinking that they will just hand over the product. You are going to be challenged every step of the way so you had better be prepared to make your case.

Tip 2: Know Their Policy Better Than They Do

This is where they tried to get me yesterday. I went in and told them that I needed a price adjustment. I was promptly told that they no longer price match with online retailers. I asked to speak with a manager and he indicated the same thing, that they only price match for authorized retailers and that the online retailer that I was price matching against was not authorized. I asked him to provide me with either a list of authorized retailers that they would price match against or the documentation that showed the criteria for determining an authorized retailer.

After some time, he came back and gave me the price match. I later discovered that while he was away, he was busy reading the policy. It appears that he did not even know the policy and that he was just accustomed to bullying his way out of the situation.

So, the moral of the story is this: know the policy of the company that you are going to be requesting the discount from like the back of your hand and ensure that you are truly within the policy and deserve the discount.

Here are the price match policies of some common retail stores for your convenience (If you know of any others, add them to the comments and I’ll add them in):

• Staples - Canada, US
• Best Buy - Canada, US
• Futureshop - Canada
• Office Depot - Canada, US
• Circuit City - US

Tip 3: Have Your Documentation Ready

Whenever I find myself in a price match situation, I come it with all of the documentation ready. This includes:

• A printout of the product if found online, a copy of the sales flier if found in an advertisement, or a photo of the product and the price if found in a store (a camera phone is very handy for this)
• A print out of the store price matching policy in case when you are challenged

Tip 4: Make It Easy For Them

A store will be less likely to give you a price reduction if they have to do all of the work. You can make things easier for them by:

• Highlighting important information on your documentation such as make & model number, price, shipping price, website address, store location, store name, phone number, date of advertisement, etc.
• Get the product off the shelf and indicate to the sales person that you are looking for a price adjustment as soon as possible so that they can page their manager right away

Tip 5: Be Polite But Firm

Most of you have heard the old saying, “You will attract more flies with honey than vinegar!” You will get nowhere if you come across arrogant, angry, or demanding. Remember, this is a win-win situation. You are getting a deal on a product, they are getting free research on that product.

But, do not back down just because the manager is gruff or rude. This is their policy that they voluntarily implemented. They do not have the right to take it out on you.

Tip 6: Do Your Math

When you are studying the price match policy, make sure that you know exactly how to calculate your reduced price. By doing the math ahead of time, you will remove the chance that there will be a math mistake that is not in your favor.

To help do the math, I have created an Excel spreadsheet that does most of the work for you. This sheet assumes a typical 110% guarantee calculation that is typical of places like Staples and Best Buy and also takes into consideration next day shipping which is often required by many retailers when calculating price matching.

You can download the worksheet here.

Tip 7: Have A Backup

Sometimes, you do make a mistake. You could have your math wrong or you may misunderstand their policy. If this is the case, have another price ready to take advantage of. The more options you have, the greater the chance that you will get a discount.

Tip 8: Maximize Your Discount

It may seem a bit backward at first, but you want to go to the store that has the highest price. This will generate the greatest discount and give you the lowest price in the end. Use the Price Matching Worksheet to help you determine this location.

Tip 9: Keep Shopping After You Have Bought a Product

A lot of retailers will give you money back, even after you have purchased a product. Keep “shopping” for your product until the price match policy is no longer in effect.

Price Canada has a great tool that will monitor a product for you and then send you an e-mail if it finds a lower price.

Miscellaneous Other Helpful Hints

• Go when it is busy. Sales people and managers are less likely to argue with you if there are a long line-up of people waiting to spend money or (better yet) walking out.
• Don’t rush. I know that this is an uncomfortable situation for most people but if you rush, you will make mistakes.
• Don’t let the manager walk away. This is a common tactic. If they do walk away, get another manager.

Price Comparison Websites

Here is a list of price comparison websites that I have run into. If you know of others, please leave them in the comments so that I can update the list.

• Price Canada
• ShopBot (Canada)
• PriceGrabber (Canada or US)
• PriceProtectr (US)

Some Gotchas That Can Break The Deal

• Limit quantities sold to an individual. If you want to get three of a product, you will probably have to go back three times and talk to three different managers because they will limit you to only a single quantity of the item.
• “Limited quantities”, “while supplies last”, “clearance”, “close-outs”, “bankruptcies” or special events should send up alarm bells. Be prepared for them to not match on these items (but don’t let it stop you from trying)
• Typos. This just makes sense. If a competitor incorrectly types 10¢ inctead of $10, don’t expect the competition to match it.
• Calculate in next day shipping for online items. This can often add as much as $20 to an item. Once you take this into consideration, it may not be worth it.
• Make sure it is in stock. If the product is not in stock at the competitor’s store, they will not price match.
• Make sure it is in local currency. This is less of an issue now with the Canadian and American dollar so close but there have been a number of times I got pretty excited only to realize it was in US, not Canadian dollars.
• Is it worth your time? I have to admit that I’m often in it just for the fun of it. You need to make sure that the savings are worth the time you put into it.

Your Turn

Let everyone in the comments know about the wonderful deal you made through a price match and don’t hesitate to name names as others may want to get in on the action. Also, help me to expand my list of price matching companies and their policies. And more price comparison websites are also welcome.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/07/howto-price-match-successfully/trackback/

I am not the originator of this (see here) but it was worth putting on!

1. Learn a Card Trick
2. Play Solitaire
3. Learn How to Touch Type
4. Go Swimming
5. Tidy Up Your Room
6. Rename Your Collection of 10,000 Photos
7. Defragment Your Hard Drive
8. Go to the Gym
9. Go Jogging
10. Bake Fudge Brownies
11. Have a Picnic
12. Watch a Movie
13. Have a Nap
14. Mess Around With Photoshop
15. Update Your Address Book
16. Organize Your Documents
17. Lie in the Grass and Watch the Clouds
18. Write in a Journal
19. Drink 8 Cups of Water
20. Learn How to Cook
21. Learn How to Dance
22. Read a Book
23. Visit a Graveyard
24. Get in Touch With Old Friends
25. Look Through Your Old Yearbooks
26. Give Out Free Hugs
27. Figure Out the Meaning of Life
28. Watch TV
29. Organize Your Bookmarks
30. Arrange Your Library Using the Dewey Decimal System
31. Clean All the Monitors Around Your House
32. Play Some Sports
33. Count From 1 to a Million
34. Just Lay Back and Chill
35. Go to the Beach
36. Meditate
37. Walk Around Town
38. Get in Your Car and Keep Driving Till You Run Out of Gas
39. Clean Up Your Garage
40. Wash Your Car
41. Study For an Upcoming Exam
42. Learn How to Make an HTML Webpage
43. Make an HTML Webpage
44. Uninstall Useless Programs Taking Up Valuable Space
45. Play Racing Games and Lose the Race on Purpose, Every Time
46. Go to a Zoo
47. Go Outside and Take Pictures of Random People
48. Mow the Lawn
49. Open a Dictionary and Learn 100 New Words
50. Make a Prank Call
51. Type “bush hid the facts” in Notepad and Try Not to Act Amazed When it Disappears
52. Try Renaming a Folder Into “con”
53. Keep Trying…
54. Call a Friend and Ask Him What to Do
55. Find Out What All the Buttons on Your Keyboard Do
56. Open the Registry and Delete All the Entries Starting With the Letter “a”
57. Re-Install Windows Vista After You’ve Messed it Up
58. Slap Yourself For Using Vista in the First Place
59. Blame Politics and Global Warming
60. Open “about:robots” With Firefox and Press the “Try Again” Button
61. Press the “Please Do not press this button again.” Button
62. Ask Yourself Why It Disappears and Nothing Happens
63. Take a Shower
64. Eat Something
65. Treat Yourself to a Fancy Dinner
66. Play the Pre-Installed Games on Your Mobile
67. Count the Number of Cars That Pass by Your Window Each Minute
68. Arrange Your TV Channels
69. Comb Your Hair
70. Take Something Apart
71. Put it Back Together
72. Read Your Computer’s User Guide, For the First Time
73. Call Your Internet Provider
74. Ask them What’s Wrong With Your Connection
75. Understand All the Network Jargon They’re Saying
76. Dismiss Everything They’re Saying as Gibberish
77. Play a Board Game
78. Invite Friends Over
79. Read a Newspaper
80. Watch the News
81. Look in the Mirror and Try to Act Cool
82. Write an eBook
83. Do Your Homework
84. Buy a Metro Pass and Keep Going Back and Forth All Day Long
85. Smile at a Random Person on the Street
86. Watch Titanic For the 15th Time
87. Hide Behind Bushes and Scare People
88. Go to a Mall and Sit on a Bench While Staring at a Fixed Point for the Whole Day
89. Teach Your Old Dog New Tricks
90. Roast Marshmallows
91. Create Your Own Black Book
92. List All Your Friends and Family Members in it
93. Accidentally “Lose” the Book at School/Work
94. Ask Yourself Why You Didn’t Just Go to an Internet Cafe
95. Rearrange Your Desktop Icons
96. Synchronize All the Watches You Have
97. Think up a Clever List of Comebacks For Your Teacher/Boss
98. Open a Blank Page in Your Browser and Repeatedly Press F5
99. Cry Desperately
100. Open Videos and Images Using Notepad
101. Write a List of 101 Things to Do When You Have No Internet

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/03/101-things-to-do-when-you-have-no-internet/trackback/

I recently bought my wife an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1295 Notebook PC for school. This little unit was really cheap and runs a weird version of Linux called Linpus.

Of course, I needed to mess around with it before I let her use it and, of course, I royally messed it up. I wasn’t too worried because it came with a recovery DVD that I could use to get it back to factory.

Unfortunately, when I went to build the recovery USB device, it failed. Now what?

Well, after some research and effort, I was able to build a new bootable USB device that allowed me to get the system back up and running.

Since I pieced the information and process together from a number of different sources and even used some new techniques myself, I figured that I should document the process and let everyone else know how I did this.

Step 1: Get Your Tools

In order to do this properly, you will need to download come tools from the Internet. You will need:

1. 7-Zip (download)
2. SelfImage (download)
3. MD5 verification software (e.g. WinMD5Sum)

Download and install these applications.

You will also be needing a USB drive. I recommend something 4GB or larger.

Step 2: Download The Image

Next, you will have to download the drive image. It is available from here or you can get the torrent. Be aware that this is a very large file and is 958MB in size so it may take some time to download.

Also, download the MD5 hash file to confirm that the drive image has downloaded properly.

Step 3: Verify the Drive Image File

Once you have downloaded the drive image, make sure that the MD5 hash that you downloaded matches the one that you generated.

Step 4: Extract the Raw Image

Using 7-Zip, extract the raw image from the drive image that you downloaded.

Step 5: Write the Drive Image to the USB Drive

Using SelfImage, write the drive image to the USB drive. In order for this to work, you need to make sure that you are driving to the USB device, not the partition on the device. If you write to the partition, it will not work.

Wait for the process to finish prior to removing the USB drive.

Note: You will probably get a warning that the image was not made for the specific device. This is not a problem and you can continue to image the drive.

Step 6: Boot Aspire One from USB Device

On your Aspire One, put the newly created USB device into one of the USB ports. When it boots up to the BIOS, press F12 and select the USB device to boot from. This will then take you into the setup process where you can then work you way through rebuilding your Aspire One from scratch.

I hope that his has been a helpful tutorial and gets your Aspire One up and running again.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/09/02/diy-acer-aspire-one-recovery-usb-device/trackback/