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Slickdeals.net

Slickdeals.net has become one of my frequently visited sites. If you haven't been there check it out. It is one of the most frequently updated and complete deal sites on the web. Along with the deals posted is an extensive list of coupons for use on many popular online stores.

I recently purchased this 1TB hard drive from newegg for $79 with a $30 rebate. This looked like a pretty sweet deal to me and came in handy as I am prepping to create my own media center PC.

Ooma Phone System Review

I recently decided to purchase the Ooma VoIP home phone system when looking for ways to cut monthly expenses. Ooma offers the core system (main hub and a scout) for around $200 , and comes with caller ID, voicemail, free long distance, and several other features with NO MONTHLY FEE.

UPDATE: After a little over a month of using Ooma, there have been no problems what so ever with the system. The sound quality is great, it's never been down, and I love the stylish hub.

My current home phone, provided by my cable company, costs me $22 a month. So in approximately 9 months (7 months after I sell the scout on ebay) the Ooma system will have paid for it self and then it's free phone for as long as Ooma is around!

Advantages:
  • Price - Depending on what you currently pay for home phone service, Ooma will pay for it self well within a year, in my case 7 months.
  • Features - Ooma offers many things that you have to pay extra for with other phone companies, like caller ID, free calls to any US number, and call waiting.
  • Online Control Panel - Listen to voicemail and control preferences online in the ooma lounge.
  • Ability to keep current number - One time fee of $39.99
  • Do Not Disturb - There is a do not disturb feature that sends all calls straight to voice mail.

Disadvantages:
  • Ooma's existence - It's been around for about 2 years now, but who knows how long it will last. Their is a risk that you could buy the system and then Ooma folds soon after. But all the reviews and articles I've read make it seem like Ooma is here to stay. As long as you hit the break even point, then you at least won't do any worse than what you would with your current phone company.
  • 911 service - If you're using Ooma without a backup landline, then you will be using E911(where regionally supported). This means calls will be routed over the internet, if your internet is down, then you will have to call using a cell phone.

For more info, visit Ooma's FAQ page.

Auto Login to Windows

Here's a handy hack to use to bypass the login screen if you don't like logging in every time you fire your computer up.

There are 2 ways to accomplish this:

Download TweakUI Powertoy from Microsoft

With TweakUI you can configure your system to login with a particular user every time automatically. Not only can you configure the login, but there are quite a few other things you can configure as well.

After you download it, just go to the "Logon" portion --> Autologon. From there you can enter the username and password you'd like to login with.




Configure User Accounts Manually

Type in "control userpasswords2" in the run box.



On the users accounts screen appears, uncheck the "users must enter a user name and password" box. After you apply the settings it will prompt you for the username and password you would like to use for the auto login.









There you have it, 2 different methods to accomplish this task. I would recommend downloading TweakUI simply because of the other settings it also offers.

Changing back to old iGoogle

I know many people are frustrated with the new iGoogle layout, which they conveniently don't let you change.

Personally, I'm indifferent about it, there are things I like better in both the old and the new layout.

Here is a quick hack to get your old iGoogle layout back:
Place this url in the address bar: http://www.google.com/ig?gl=all now save the page as your home page.

Now everytime you open a new window you should see the old layout. If you want to switch back to the new iGoogle layout, just change your homepage back to http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en