Finally, more margarine spreads without trans fats

Hey, you always learn new things all the time. Before this news story, I thought that Smart Balance and Canola Harvest spreads/margarines were the only ones without trans fats (hydrogenated oils).

Now comes word that Unilever, which makes half of the spreads in the United States will have all their spreads without trans fats by middle of next year. What I didn't know was that currently their Imperial margarine was free of trans fats. Brummel and Brown also is free of trans fats. The brands that will be added to their list of products free of trans fats will include the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and "Country Crock" brands.

Click here for the article on USA Today.

Just a reminder that the FDA allows product packaging to say "No Trans Fats" if the serving contains less than 0.5 grams of Trans Fats. The problem is that it becomes a math game in determining the serving size just right to qualify. It's always important to look at the ingredients for "hydrogenated" oils. If it is listed, then it is in the food.

Click here to read more about Trans Fats at the American Heart Association's website.

From Forbes.com: Stupid Debt Tricks

As previously stated, I'm still getting Forbes magazine for free. In the latest issue, there was an "Ideas and Opinions" look at what games states are playing to plug holes in their budgets. I found the same thing on the website. Here's a couple (see below for the link):

• How does California save $1.2 billion by changing the date on their salary checks from June 30 to July 1? It seems like it would be a one-time effect. It would catch up the following year (or so it seems).
• Michigan plans to charge a $250 license fee on strippers. It is important to note that this opinion reports that there are only 83 topless establishments. They may also take in California prisoners (where does that money come from? California?).
• New York will put ads on their garbage trucks and charge an 18 percent tax on sugary drinks.

Click here for more details.

PBS Show: Walking the Great Divide and websites on the CDT

Just finished watching around 2 hours on Channel 58.1 KLCS (http://www.klcs.org/) which is a local PBS station here in Southern California. Today it was from 2 PM to 4 PM. If you missed it, they will be showing it again (not sure which parts, not clear on website or on-line schedules) on Tuesday night, 7/28/09 at 9 PM and 8/1/09 at 2 AM!

It's a fascinating documentary following an approximately 6 month journey from the Mexican border through 3,100 miles of trails and ending at the Canadian border. There's also a "tri-continental" divide where from one point, the water flows to the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans.

You can purchase the expanded 2-disc DVD version from Flagler Films (http://www.flaglerfilms.com/).

Not sure if I have the stamina, energy, and time to do it all in one stretch. I might consider doing it in bits and pieces. The people he interviewed (most are fellow CDT hikers) all report the same things, mind over body, pain, etc.

Other sites that may be of interest:

• Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Divide_Trail)
• Continental Divide Trail Alliance (http://www.cdtrail.org/)
• Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (http://www.fs.fed.us/cdt/admin.htm)
  

Ways to help your monthly cash flow

I found this interesting article from Kiplinger and on Yahoo! Finance about 20 ways to waste (or not waste) your money.

I think the big ones for myself are Numbers 1, 5, 10, 12, and 18. We all could do better.

Click here to read the article and see if there are areas you can improve as well.

VW and Porsche saga finally winding down

Here's a nice summary of everything that has happened in the last four years. Click here for the Yahoo! Finance article. Porsche failed in its bid to take over VW (David and Goliath sort of deal) and now is ending up being merged into VW and will likely be one of the VW brands.

With increased Reward comes increased Risk. Market forces will drive them to balance each other out.

Using Variable Ratio/Variable Reward to encourage saving

I just read this interesting piece by Jason Zweig about a bank that is offering prizes (or raffles) just for opening a bank account.

We all know that variable ratio / variable reward is the best way to encourage behaviors. Think of gambling (don't know when you're going to win or how much you're going to win) or even other activities such as golf (don't know when the next good shot will come or how great it will be).

Of course, the rates are a little lower than current market and the differential is how the credit union pays for the "prizes." The article reports the following: "You are sort of betting, but there's no losing."

But in reality, there is losing because of the differential in return and losses to inflation. How you make it up is in the risk/reward ratio. If you contribute the minimum like the reported person who placed only $25 in their CD (Certificate of Deposit) and won $400, the ratio is more justified as compared with someone who opens their CD with $100,000 and wins $400, but misses out in $1,000 for every 1 percent interest rate differential.

60 minutes: Following the Trail of E-Waste

Alright. One of my friends brought reality back. Reminded me of this segment of 60 Minutes which airs on the CBS network. Of note, it's the only show (that I know of) that doesn't have a theme song other than a ticking stopwatch.

They ran a tragic and unfortunate segment following the trail of how e-Waste is supposed to be recycled and what really happens in some cases. You'll have to watch it yourself.

Click here to be taken there.

Update on Color Laser Printer deal from Staples

If you've been keeping up, you read about my purchase of a new Brother Color Laser Printer 4040CN from Staples on this previous post. To summarize, the final price was aroud $175 (plus taxes on the original price).

It arrived last Friday and I installed it today. Here's the predicament:

• The printer came with regular toner cartridges which should be good for 1,500 pages for color and 2,500 for black/white (typical yield). Based on prices on my original post, it would cost me about $293 to replace all 4 cartridges.

So what to do in 1 or 2 years (depending on actual usage), keeping in mind that I use my black and white all-in-one for greater than 98 percent of printing "jobs." Find another deal for a color laser similar to this at $175 for the printer with new cartridges or pay $293 to replace them over time?

If the "new" one is faster and better resolution and it is cheaper overall, the answer will likely be an easy one.

Here is my initial output review after printing three pages. I can tell it is 2400x600 dpi when looked at closely. I took it off of draft print (prints at 600x600 dpi) and put it on "Vivid" output. The baseline, normal settings are a little dull.

I haven't needed to gift or use the free digital camera. If anything comes up, I'll keep you posted.

Update on Porsche / VW Saga: Porsche loses...

I had previously posted about Porsche's Risk/Reward situation. Click here to read that. Now rumors are going around that instead of Porsche ending up controlling or taking over VW, it is going to be the other way around.

In this recent Reuters article on NYTimes.com Porsche's debt has climbed to more than 10 billion Euros. This Time.com article (from May 2009) reports that Porsche's sales were recently only 9.3 billion Euros. Porsche really leveraged themselves this time and are paying for it, especially in this contracting automobile market.

The price for Porsche is 11.28 billion Euros and the outgoing Porsche CEO may get more than 100 million Euros (for getting Porsche into this mess starting back in 2005).

Porsche took the risk for the reward, and this time it's not paying off. VW was 16 times the size or Porsche.

Forbes Editorial/Blog RE: Nuclear Power for Iran, but not the U.S.

In addition to Money Magazine, I'm also getting Forbes magazine for free. Looks like Forbes will be coming to my mailbox until May 2010 (if I read their label correctly).

In this blog entry by Rich Karlgaard (Forbes.com and Forbes magazine), he discusses how Obama supports Iran in its quest for Nuclear Power, but not many in the U.S. want increased nuclear power here. The U.S. gets only 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power vs. France's 50 percent.

I wonder what the energy "crisis" would look like if we had not stopped making nuclear power plants back in 1980.

Get the Palm Pre?

I briefly explored getting a Palm Pre. It has a lot of technical capabilities. Click here to see the comparison chart that was linked on this previous post comparing iPhone vs. Pre vs. Android.

One thing that needs further exploring is any minimum requirements for monthly service plans. At SprintPCS.com's site, you can view their information about the Palm Pre. There's a link that takes you to the current plans. Click here for that listing.

Right now, I don't think I need the "Simply Everything" plan at around $100 per month. I'd like to see if I could get the Everything Data 450 plan at $70. Add $30 for a second line (with shared minutes) with 1,000 messages per month and $15 for tethering (phone as modem).

If that was available, it would get me one step closer to making the jump.

Most mobile phones synchronize with Google Calendar

In this previous post, I briefly discussed the lack of a need to get an iPhone.

I noted a potential reason to get an iPhone is for the continuous synchronizing (if you subscribe to the MobileMe service). Several phones (including iPhone, but not the Centro...bummer) allows direct synchronizing with Google Calendar (which is currently free for Google accounts).

So for iPhone users, consider using Google Calendar to avoid MobileMe charges.

Click here to go to Google's site on synchronizing with mobile phones.

Another potential Staples deal - Here they go again...

Just yesterday, I wrote here about me ordering a Brother Color Laser Printer from Staples.

Here is this week's Staples "Sneak Peek" at this coming week's circular. I'm not sure if it's just back-to-school, the industry is hurting, or if Staples if trying to get a head start (or all of the above and more).

Here's the potential deal: Buy any Backpack and get 100% back in Staples Rewards. It applies to both in-store and on-line purchases. There are only 23 backpacks listed when searched on their website. I'm not sure how this compares with in-store inventory and selection options.

Example for discussion:

The best overall deal may be one of the Wenger backpacks (such as this one) but the sale price may expire by this Sunday when the next circular kicks in. Even though, buying the highest-priced backpack may get you the best deal from a monetary perspective, don't buy it just because it's a deal. Buy it because you need the item. You will still need to pay taxes on the purchase price.

You could look at ebay to see what the real "market" price for this item. It is actually around $65 (with free shipping).

Here's the theoretical breakdown:

• Buy a backpack for about $90. Pay about $9 in taxes.
• Receive the $90 in Staples Rewards in October.
• Staples Rewards is not a check that can be cashed, but needs to be spent at a Staples store or on-line (sort of like a gift card). You need to still spend $90 on something at Staples. I'm not sure what the markup is for an Office Supply store, but if we use 40 percent as an estimate, Staples would make a gross profit of about $36.

Bottom line, you would spend about $99 to get at least $189 in products, or you could pay $65 on ebay and just get that one item.

If you have kids and "need" a backpack, you may just end up getting one of the $24.99 models.

Oh, and they also have some offers for mechanical pencils, retractable gel pens, and highlighters, all free after rebates (still need to pay taxes).

Ordered my Color Laser Printer for $174.00 plus free camera - Here's how it went

Okay. Here's what I did. On this previous post, the Staples circular listed a color laser printer for $199.

I ordered it online and here the breakdown:

• Instant coupon so it was original price of $349 now down to $199. No rebate needed.
• Used Coupon 7671-3339-3847-2840 (without hyphens) to get an additional $25 off (purchases of $100 or more excluding computers)
• Used Coupon 71236 to get a free 3.1 MP camera
• Got free shipping or pickup at local Staples store
• Had to pay sales taxes on the $89.99 MSRP on the camera and $349 original price of the printer
• Also got 1% of purchase towards kids 529 accounts

Again, you have to "need" or really rationalize the cost:benefit of any purchase. Around $174 is a really good price for the features. I didn't think another $120 was worth Wi-Fi (the next model up).

Staples deal this weekend: $199 Color laser printer

Staples starts their school supply sale this weekend.

In the Staple's "Sneak Peek" at this weekend's circular there's the following deal that I am considering:

This Brother 4040CN laser printer will be only $199 down from regular price of $349. Prints up to 21 ppm in both Color and B&W (read draft mode, the better resolution is slower) and wait time is 17 second to first page printing. The cartridges are still what you really pay for and are listed at $65 to $76 depending on B&W (2,500 pages yield) or Color (1,500 pages yield).

If you prefer HP there's a reasonably priced "All-in-one" color laser with much slower technical specifications for only about $349. It prints only up to 12 ppm B&W and 8 ppm in Color. The cartridges are listed at around $72 for color to $77 for B&W.

Facebook update

Okay. It looks like I opened my Facebook account around end of May (5/24/09). Currently I have 196 friends (215 connections).

There is a learning curve on permissions, uploading pictures, limiting views of games, etc.

Couple of (cheaper) alternatives to Sonos

In an earlier post (click here to read), I discussed the features I would enjoy with the Sonos Multi-Room Music System.

Update: I forgot to mention that Sonos also scans all the free Internet Radio Channels and allows you to listen to them just like any files stored on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.

If you are not willing and/or able to acquire a Sonos system, here are a couple of cheaper alternatives. Unfortunately you'll need to weigh the costs, benefits and downsides for these options.

Option #1: One or more MP3 players.

For this example, I will use the iPod classics on Amazon.com. For around $249 retail ($229 on Amazon) and a memory capacity of 160GB, it would easily hold most music collections. There are other manufacturer and storage size options for MP3 players.

Benefits:

• You can take the iPod with you. Sonos stays at home.
• Cost. You can buy four iPods (not counting speakers) for the price of the entry package Sonos system which only gives you rooms.
• 160GB device holds more than 30,000 songs (per Apple's website).
• Can also hold pictures and video.
• Can use for portable storage of files.

Downsides:

• No Internet Radio Stations.
• Limited storage for music collections that aren't compressed and/or are very large.
• Need to purchase one iPod for each room you want to hear music.
• Need to purchase speakers (or equivalent) for each iPod.
• Unable to synchronize playback on all iPods like Sonos. Sonos can play a single MP3 in all rooms. Think of "piping" music throughout the whole house.

Option #2: vtech Wi-Fi Internet Radio
Initially I was very excited to hear about this device until I reviewed the features a little more closely. Click here to check it out. For retail $199 ($138 on Amazon.com), you get a radio that will connect via your wireless Wi-Fi internet connection and allow you to tune in to the free radio stations. It also has RCA and phono input jacks.
Benefits:

• Cost. $199 is cheap for a ton of radio stations (their website lists 11,000 stations). If radio is all you need (or want) then you could get five of these for the price of the Sonos entry-level system.
• Built-in FM tuner.
• Clock with alarm.
• Fairly small at around 6"x12"x3.5"
• Battery operated so that it can be moved around the house or outside. It still needs to be within range of the Wi-Fi connection
• Can plug in an external MP3 player.

Downsides:

• 2x3W speakers plus a 10W subwoofer may not satisfy some who want to pump up the volume.
• Cannot connect to an NAS device.
• Able to connect to files on a PC or Mac. This means that the computer needs to be left on for the files to be played (read: energy use).
• Not portable (beyond Wi-Fi). Sonos isn't either.

Option #3: MP3 player + vtech Internet Radio
This would mean purchasing one MP3 player and one vtech Internet Radio.
Key Benefits (look above too):

• Can take MP3 outside of the house.
• Device can store pictures and video.

Key Downsides (look above too):

• At about $450 or each combination, the cost for two (2) sets is very close to the Sonos entry-level set which also gives you the ability to play in two rooms.
• More electrical plugs and power cables (sometimes they seem to be everywhere!)
• 6W (3Wx2) + 10W subwoofer output is nothing compared to Sonos 110W (55Wx2) output.

Bottom line: it all comes down to weighing needs vs. wants and then costs for certain features.

Competitor to Sonos
Note also that Linksys by Cisco has a system very similar to Sonos called "Wireless Home Audio." You can read more by clicking here: Cisco Linksys Wireless Home Audio Executive Kit--Includes One Director with IR Remote and One Set of Speakers. Sonos had their product out first. Maybe for an upcoming post, I'll do a more direct comparison. The retail pricing is very similar to Sonos at $999 for a two room system.

Disclosure: at the time of this post, I did not directly control shares of Apple or Cisco.