I have to put in an honest plug for the Jitterbug. The Jitterbug is an inexpensive phone with inexpensive plans . It isn’t compex to use, and I know someone, in fact, who has used one for a quite a while and likes it.

I quote her*:

The buttons are big, your fingers can easily dial them, the interface lights up brightly, and it molds to your ear so there’s no sound distortion. It recharges quickly. Twenty four seven I have an operator just for Jitterbug people, who can give roadside assistance. I really like it.

The Jitterbugs make great gifts for seniors, since they are a kind of idiot-proof phone with large numbers and a simple interface anyone can use

Senior cell phones need to be designed for people who may not be adept at the most complex phones available on the market. So these obviously make good gifts for senior citizens this time of year. Grandma doesn’t need an iPhone, but she needs some way to communicate if she needs help, and the Jitterbug is simple, attractive, and easy to use. I’ve held one, and I think it’s very nice, with a good weight to it — not too heavy, not too light. Seriously, this is the phone for your grandmother. Check it out.

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* I have to say, when I asked her, “What do you like the best about the Jitterbug,” she said, “The fact that it wasn’t in my generation.” We had to straighten the topic out first.

One often receives pesky, unwanted phone calls from who knows whom. Whence came this call? Who is 816-555-2222? I don’t want to pick up this call! Or perhaps you have a number, but not an address. Where does Amy live? I have her number but I forgot where she lives. (Such things occur.)

Reverse phone search sites are common on the internet, but the free services don’t include unlisted numbers and cell phone listings. A membership (with a guaranatee) at Nationbwide Phone Lookup can clear that problem right up.

I suppose the caveat might be that you would have to have a lot of friends whom you still call but whose address you have forgotten to make a mermbership driven site like this pay–though I have known such people–or possibly a private eye. Ah! to be a hardboiled gumshoe, cigarette hanging from one lip as I prowl cyberspace. I’ve got Joey the Fish’s digits . . . but where does he live . . .

I would be remiss in my coverage of webhosting services if I didn’t mention resources for the best Windows webhosts. The top five are at this windows web hosting page, with Powweb taking the lead. They are ordered by best value for cost of the service, determined by factors such as cost, uptime, customer service, and feedback. Mind you, I am a Mac user so I can’t speak from experience of use, but the prices on these services are pretty competitive, and the fact that consumers are reviewing them would set me at ease. Not only does webhostingreport.com rate the site, but they provide other useful information on the fine art of webhosting. We often forget that there are a lot of beginners out there, and more every day: when I first started looking for web hosts, I didn’t know boo about doing it, and most of the knowledge I picked up was hard-earned, I would have been grateful for even just a little elementary knowledge like this site can provide.

Printers use ink. Regrettable, but true. And only so much ink goes in a cartridge. So to make the best use of my money, I have to do two things. First, I have to make the most of the ink that’s already in the cartridge, and second, I have to find the most inexpensive replacement cartridges I can.

As to conservation, there’s different things I can do, as I’ve found on inkjetdeals.info. You can use the economy mode, you can use the printer correctly, and not turn it off in the middle of printing. You can use the all-black mode when you don’t need color. But all these strategies are just stopgaps. You will eventually run out of ink. Which means you have to buy more. But where do you find a resource of sites that will give steep discounts and offer inkjet coupons? Where can I find out if I can use generic or remanufactured cartridges on my printer? Inkjetdeals.info, again. The info is for information, and I’ve found some there. (Good tip: the generics, although less expensive, can’t generally get refilled, since refillers usually only refill units from the manufacturer. Do the math.)

For the DIY-minded, you can learn about things like do it yourself refill kits for Canon BC22E Photo printers. You can just browse the lists of sites that vend the ink you look for, or you can read up on your brand of printer. However you want to approach it, inkjetdeals.info is a good starting place for your search.

Back in the early days, late 1997 or early 1998, I was contemplating putting my comix online. I had, to be candid, absolutely no idea how to do it and in that era there were few resources the explain to the layman how to go about it, and fewer to let you know which hosts were best.

My first host was one of those “neighborhood” type places, with actual street names, and, lord help them, actual red doors . . . of course almost no information on how to utilize the few resouces the host provided.

I left this place soon enough and before long had a useful enough website. I got a reputation for knowing how to build websites, mostly undeserved. People would come to me and ask, How do I do this? How do I do that? And most especially, What web host do I use?

That was the most tricky question, because by answering I had to commit people to complex questions of time and money that I would feel bad if I led them the wrong way. At the time I didn’t have much of a place to direct them to get fair reviews and information, but now I do. You want to know about webhosting? Please don’t ask me anymore. Go to webhostingrating.com. You can find a broad list of the internet’s hosting providers, with details about their plans, costs, promotions, what have you. The bonus is that it isn’t information entirely controlled by the site, but provided to a great degree by the user reviews, the truest measure of a host’s worth. (Example, see their top rated host’s reviews.) Of further value is their articles section, covering such important info as the cost of ecommerce, a topic of interest to my wife these days, or about things like FrontPage support by hosts, something I never really understood. Webhostingrating provides you with one stop for all the information you need, in my opinion, to make an informed choice amongst the worlds hundreds of providers.

Don’t ask me anymore!