Black Friday Sites – Updated 2009

 

 

 

I published this entry last year and now I’m updating with new sites that I’ve f ound:

Thre are so many “official black friday sites” , I leave it to you  to pick and choose. Many sites will have the same sales, so you have to pick and choose. I made the mistake a few years ago of going to Best Buy to stand in the dark and cold for 2 hours at 1:00 AM in the morning and coming home empty handed. That was the end of my shopping on black Friday.

With my finances being the way they are,  I won’t be doing much shopping this year. Unless of course lightning strikes and I win the Mega Millions Lottery!

Some of the tricks to Black Friday Success. Not in any order of success percentages:

• Divide and Conquer: Once you decide on a specific item to purchase, divide up amongst your family/friends, the store coverage. Never a good idea for everyone to go to one store trying to race into the store to pick up the same item. Guaranteed failure.
• Look On-Line First – Many times you will find better deals on-line as opposed to the bricks and mortar approach. Many stores are now offering Black Friday deals the Night Before or even up to a week before Black Friday!
• Create a list of items – Make a specific list of target items.. Do not expect to be able to make this list while on the huge wait lines or crammed into the stores. Been there done that!
• Be prepared for Shopping Failure Even if you do all of the above, the success on Black Friday is all about timing and being in the right place at the right time. In my case, I end up getting the “scraps” or “discards” that others have picked up and discarded.. Hey sometimes, even with this, you will get a gem of an item that someone wanted and then changed their Mind.

Below are some sites that I’ve been looking at.  As I always say, look and Ye shall find a bargain!

Top Ten Black Friday Sites – Go here First

Black Friday Ads

Black Friday Info

Top Ten Black Friday – As reviewed by PC Magazine

If you have any unique site that you would like to share with us, feel free to post it here as part of your comment or you can email me and I will update this entry.

Till then,  Happy Black Friday!

 

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Below is my posting from 2008 as an FYI:

Not really in the mood to write this with what is going on in Mumbai, but publishing for future reference.

So tomorrow is “Black Friday“. I was looking at some of the sales and because of the current state of the economy and my financial situation, I wasn’t enthusiastic.

Perhaps next year will be better and I’m publishing some sites which give some some excellent ideas on some bargains:

Black Friday Ads – Official Site for Black Friday Site
Info – Black Friday Information
Gotta Deal

Good luck and happy shopping!

ASM

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

Mumbai Terrorism – My thoughts

I started to write this posting thinking about posting some Black Friday information, but there’s something that I need to talk about. The horrible terrorist attacks that are going on in Mumbai, India. As many of my readers know, I was born in Mumbai and still consider it to be my home away from home.

Watching the terrorists take over this city was not only horrifying to me, it was a personal assault on my city, My Bombay, which even after almost 40 years of not living there, I still consider to be my second home town.

I’ve been glued to CNN for the last 24 hours and watching as the city that I love and still consider to be my second home is under attack by terrorists. The pictures, videos that are coming out truly depict the horror and tragedy that is going on in Mumbai as I write this.

In June of 2007, my older daughter and I were in Mumbai, and we spent quite a few days in the posh area that these attacks are taking place.We walked through the Taj admiring the beauty of this hotel. We walked the Coloba Causeway looking for bargains to bring home. We ate lunch at the Leopold Cafe, and we took a train from the train station that was attacked. Not in my wildest dreams did I think that this area referred to as “South Mumbai” could be attacked in this manner.

Hearing of these attacks, hit the very core of my being. I felt personally violated that these “animals” and I’m being kind to these wretched humans that take lives of innocents for no reason at all. I hope each of them burn in hell for this attack on my city.

As an American, I was aghast at the scenes of terror that I was seeing. The area that I considered to be heaven has turned into a non-stop hell for the visitors to this wonderful area. The bloodshed, the fires, the hijacked police vehicle. How could this happen? It’ll take many weeks and months to find the answer to this question.

Mumbai has been subjected to acts of terrorism in the past, but never to this level of ongoing crisis. I just cannot believe that the government and police department of this great city, were so unprepared to handle this kind of assault. I’m hearing of delays in reacting, where were the police, army, the armed forces to prevent this kind of assault?

I could go on and on, but I just needed this forum to speak out my thoughts..

Let’s all pray for the well being of everyone in Mumbai…

ASM

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

Howcast – An How to video Site

So if you are like me, you are constantly googling to figure thing out or to figure out how to do things. I found Howcast to be an excellent video site for the how-to junkie.

Now you are probably wondering how did you find Howcast? I found how cast because I was reading time magazines top 50 sites.. Another one of my favorites..

Bonus of the day: Howcast is a free APP for your iPhone via iTunes

Second bonus of the day: A new Apple site which has just launched – “Iphone for you life“.. Guaranteed to be a major time waster for me… 🙂

My next goal is to see the video on how I can publicize this Blog better!

As I always say.. Seek and you shall find.

ASM

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

Video Streaming: TV, Movies and Free on the Web

I am going to post this disclaimer on this post.
My Disclaimer: I am not endorsing any sites listed on this post. I am only providing these link as pure entertainment and examples of Web 2.0 that you can check out at your own risk. If you do go to this site, make sure you use Firefox as your browser with the no-script addon. With the problems that I’ve had with IE7 Security, I will not recommend you use this browser for this purpose.

Are you looking for a site which allows you to see TV shows and movies streamed to your screen. If so, check out AllUC. There are many sites on the web which allow you to see movies, but I found that this site was the best.

I once went to this site to see a TV show I had missed, but you can see almost every type of TV show that you want to see.

Here’s a disclaimer from the AllUC site which you MUST read very carefully.

Below are some more video aggregation sites that I’ve gathered from various sources which have videos and streaming…

Additional Online Streaming Sites – Not in any order of preference
You Tube
Yahoo! Video
AOL Video
Blip TV
Stickam
Jumpcut
Clipshack
Crackle
Metacafe
Revver

If you have any sites you want to add, feel free to post your comments.

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

Video Streaming: TV, Movies and Free on the Web

I am going to post this disclaimer on this post.
My Disclaimer: I am not endorsing any sites listed on this post. I am only providing these link as pure entertainment and examples of Web 2.0 that you can check out at your own risk. If you do go to this site, make sure you use Firefox as your browser with the no-script addon. With the problems that I’ve had with IE7 Security, I will not recommend you use this browser for this purpose.

Are you looking for a site which allows you to see TV shows and movies streamed to your screen. If so, check out AllUC. There are many sites on the web which allow you to see movies, but I found that this site was the best.

I once went to this site to see a TV show I had missed, but you can see almost every type of TV show that you want to see.

Here’s a disclaimer from the AllUC site which you MUST read very carefully.

Below are some more video aggregation sites that I’ve gathered from various sources which have videos and streaming…

Additoinal Online Streaming Sites – Not in any order of preference
You Tube
Yahoo! Video
AOL Video
Blip TV
Stickam
Jumpcut
Clipshack
Crackle
Metacafe
Revver

If you have any sites you want to add, feel free to post your comments.

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

iPhone Tips and Tricks Continued

So now I have 2 iPhones that I use as an iPod and a iTouch (with many many applications).

I’m a total addict. Fortunately, all the applications i’ve installed are free.

My fav: Pandora Radio. Using wireless and the pandora application, you can set up favorites for songs as well as artists. This application is as far as I’m concerned hands down my favorite application. What’s yours? Let me know with your feedback.

One of my friends at work has set up a board (click on pda/smartphone lounge) where he posts his reviews of cool applications, tips and tricks to get the most out of your iPhone!

I’ve talked about Bharatbeat before, and my friend and I are working to expand this mega Indian portal to the masses. Check it out. The forums on Bharatbeat contain a plethera (that’s a multi-point scrabble word) of interesting articles and blogs.

You can also go to the Apple iphone site as well for more information on the iPhone. On the right of the screen you’ll see top applications that are paid as well as free. If you want iPhone tips and tricks, from Apple, there are so many… !

Here’s another blog for iphone secrets,tips and tricks.

go on.. I know you want to check it out…

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

Viruses and Malware Attack and Resolution

Over the past week, I’ve been busy trying to clean up a nasty virus/malware that one of my machines picked up on the Web. I certainly learned some valuable lessons from this experience and I’m going to share them with you.

It took me over 24 hours to get rid of the nasty bug I had on my main computer. I’m still trying to get my machine back in good shape. I know, it’s my own fault for not being more consistent in the way I protectmy primary machine, but fortunately for me, I “think” I survived.

1. Never ever make your default profile an “Administrator” profile. Every user on your computer should have their profile as “regular user”. Only on administrator. With this, you reduce substantially, the probability of a virus latching on to your machine.
2. This is regardless whether you use XP or Vista. Even with multiple layers of Antivirus/HW and Software Firewall/Anti Spyware Protection, a nasty “Antivirus Pro 2009” spyware was able to penatrate my defensive line and get access to my machine.
3. Stop using IE 7 as your primary browser! Use Firefox as your primary and only browser. If you use Firefox, make sure you have Script Blocker and Add Block Plus installed as Add on’s.
4. If you do get a virus, immediatley power down and if you have a seconday machine, Google the symptoms. In my case I quickly found out that the site bleepingcomputer had the latest posting on the virus/malware that I had gotten.
5. Follow the directions that the site gives you exactly to work on virus removal.
6. If you have do download anything, make sure you download it to an accessible drive on YOUR computer so when you are in “safe” mode, you can work on the virus removal.
7. When you are working on virus removal, ALWAYS, ALWAYS work in safe mode (this is a restricted mode of your computer). This is the mode when you press “F8” while rebooting your computer.
8. Once you have cleared your virus/trojan/malware, Make sure you have an up to date Software Firewall (Get a free one if you don’t have a paid one). Make sure you have real-time spyware protection on your computer.
9. Remember that you must have multiple layers of protection on your machine. Just as we are trying to protect our machine, others are thinking of ways to hack into our machines.

In the above scenario, I utilized the following software/Tools to clear out my virus:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – Primary solution for my Virus. FREE
• Spybot Search & Detroy – Make sure you have immunization and do a detail scan. FREE
• Ad-Aware – Ad-aware the home edition. Free
• Google

TTYL

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites

iPhone Rocks

I haven’t had a chance to blog much over the past few weeks as I’ve been busy with my normal Dad’s Taxi stuff.. Driving Kids, hiking, Tennis, Blah Blah..

A few days ago I found the best thing sliced cheese that the rest of the world already knew about.

The iPhone from Apple. This device is absolutely the best device that you can have even if you don’t have AT&T service (Which I don’t). You can use this device as an iTouch/iPod with a few tricks.

Once you visit the iPhone Hack site, you can CAREFULLY figure out how to utilize the inherent power of the iPhone to utilize wi-fi and use it’s amazing features (games, applications, iPod, etc).. Of course I recommend you do all your research before you do anything and I am not advocating the usage of this site. Reader beware.

The number of applications and games that are available via iTunes is amazing. I also suggest you go to You Tube and search on iPhone to get a better idea on the iPhone.

I am hooked on my new toy and I hope you check it out too.

Dad’s Taxi and Favorites