Amazon

Brother MFC-7840W Wireless Laser Printer, and Amazon Amzn.com Short URLs

by

Brother MFC-7840W Wireless Laser Printer
Bought a Brother MFC-7840W All-In-One Wireless Laser Printer from NewEgg today for $219, no tax, free shipping. I feel it is a pretty good deal. I have been looking around for an All-In-One printer for some time. This one has a laser printer, a copier, a scanner, a fax; and has both wireless and ethernet networking capabilities.
Brother MFC-7840W – $219 on NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113303
Brother MFC-7840W Wireless Laser Printer - click to enlarge (177 kb).
Image Courtesy: www.brother-usa.com
I had a basic HP inkjet printer but the ink always seemed to dry up before I could use the whole cartridge. And I have often felt the need to scan or print something at home. I don’t think I will be using the fax option that much though.
The printer is available for $249 at Amazon – http://amazon.com/dp/B0016ZQ566/. It has pretty good reviews there.

Amazon Amzn.com Short URLs
Speaking about Amazon, I figured out a way to find the shortest possible Amazon URLs for a product. Of course, I can use tinyurl.com or bit.ly, but this is the shortest URL I could find using an official Amazon website.
In the example above, the original link was:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-7840W-Multifunction-Wireless-Interfaces/dp/B0016ZQ566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1265863094&sr=8-1
The standard shortened link is:
http://amazon.com/dp/B0016ZQ566/
However, it can be made even shorter by using the amzn.com domain name. The trick is to append the product id (in this case – “B0016ZQ566“) after “amzn.com/“.
http://amzn.com/B0016ZQ566/
More info about the amzn.com short URL service:
– http://www.geek.com/articles/news/amazon-introduces-amzncom-short-url-service-20090511/
– http://www.conceptualist.com/2009/05/08/smart-branding-amazon-short-url-broadcasts-its-own-brand/

 

How to use gift cards on Amazon.com

by

Amazon.com does not allow you to use two payment options when paying for an item. But often, we wish to pay for part of a purchase using a gift card. The workaround is to use an Amazon online gift card for one part of the purchase.
Option [1] Buy an Amazon online gift card for the balance amount with your credit card (Amazon recommended method)

– Item price: $125
– Amazon online gift card: $25 (purchased using credit card)
——————————————
– Pay balance with gift card: $100

Example: Gift card: $100. Item price: $125. Buy a $25 Amazon online gift card using your credit card. Add the Amazon online gift card to your Amazon account. During checkout, the $25 Amazon gift card balance will be automatically deducted. $125 item price – $25 Amazon gift card balance = $100 balance. Make the final payment with your $100 gift card. This option is recommended by Amazon – see email at the bottom of this post for details.
Option [2] Buy an Amazon online gift card with your gift card

– Item price: $125
– Amazon online gift card: $100 (purchased using gift card)
——————————————
– Pay balance with credit card: $25

Example: Gift card: $100. Item price: $125. Buy a $100 Amazon online gift card using your gift card. Add the Amazon online gift card to your Amazon account. During checkout, the $100 Amazon gift card balance will be automatically deducted. $125 item price – $100 Amazon gift card balance = $100 balance. Make the final payment ($25) with your credit card.
Important Note:
Make sure you register your gift card so that you can use it for online shopping. Most gift cards will have a website listed on the back of the card which will provide additional information.
Email from Amazon customer service recommending option [1] above:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Amazon.com Customer Service
Date: Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 11:12 PM
Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry
To: Bobby Maisnam
Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.
From your message, I understand that you want to use more than one payment method to pay for the item you want to purchase.
We cannot accept more than one payment method for an order on Amazon.com. Because gift cards issued by the major credit card companies also work exactly like credit cards, this restriction applies to those payment methods as well.
You can, however, combine Amazon Gift Cards with a credit, debit, or gift card issued by a major credit card company to complete your order.
If you wish, use your credit card to purchase an Amazon Gift Card for the amount that your credit card gift card balance will not cover and have it e-mailed to yourself. Then you can designate your credit card gift card as the payment method on the order and enter the Amazon Gift Card number in the Gift Card field of the order form.
We recommend that you do not use your credit card gift card to purchase an Amazon.com Gift Card. The authorization for the Amazon Gift Card purchase will actually decrease the amount immediately available for your order by $1.
We appreciate your business and look forward to your next visit to our store.
—- Original message: —-
—————
04/06/09 18:59:54
Your Name:Bobby Maisnam
Comments:Hi,
I have $157.99 in my cart ($119.70 + $25.20 + $13.09). I have a $100 visa debit gift card (Simon giftcard). How do I pay for the items in the cart using the gift card to pay $100 and pay the balance $57.99 with a debit/credit card?
Thanks,
Maisnam
—————

Roku Netflix Player

by

2/4/2009: The Roku Netflix Digital Video Player is a $99 device which can be used to stream movies directly from Netflix to your TV. Netflix has 12,000+ movies available for watching online, or stream via Roku. I have tried the Netflix online streaming of movies and it works great. The only drawback is that the collection of movies available online is limited and there are not a lot of new releases. But I feel it is still a good deal because it has a flat fee ($8.99 per month for 1 DVD by mail and unlimited movies online) for unlimited online movies and does not have a per movie fee like Amazon Unbox and Blockbuster Online.
www.roku.com/netflixplayer/
www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices

“Streams Netflix Watch Now titles to your TV; affordable $100 price tag; unlimited viewing with no additional charge beyond standard ($8.95 or higher) monthly Netflix fee; PC-free movie watching; simple setup; includes built-in wired and 802.11g Wi-Fi networking; works with all TVs; upgradeable firmware allows for new features, interface improvements, and bug fixes.”
Courtesy: CNET

D-Link DWL G-122 Wireless USB Adapter

by

I just bought the D-Link DWL G-122. It is not true plug and play for Windows. Windows Xp asked me for the driver when I plugged it in. But as soon as I inserted the CD, it installed nicely and started working. Great speed (802.11g – 54 mbps) and it instantly caught my wireless network. So far so good.
D-Link DWL G-122 Wireless USB Adapter - click to enlarge (9 kb).
I would definitely recommend it for desktops (I am using it for my desktop which is not in the same room as the router and I did not want to run a long ethernet cable) and for laptops (if your existing wireless card does not catch signals properly).
I got it for $10.94 from Buy.com with free shipping (after $10 mail in rebate and $10 instant rebate for using Google checkout). The list price is $59.99.
– Buy.com ($10.94 as of 11/13/2006)
– Amazon ($19.99 after rebate)
– D-Link product page

First Friday

by

Today is the first friday of the month. This week was crazy and very very hectic. Had three deadlines today! Everything went well and am a bit relaxed now. Will try to chill off, rest today and get back to work from tomorrow.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
p.s. One movie I am looking forward to is “The Da Vinci Code“. It will be released on May 19 2006. The trailer is really cool. Have not read the book yet. It’s still on my To-Read list.

The first .com domain name

by

The first .com domain name was symbolics.com. It was registered on March 15 1985, more than 20 years back!
The first domain name to be registered was nordu.net which was registered on January 01 1985.
A list of the first 100 .com domain names is available here | cached copy.
I have also compiled a list of the domain names of the major tech and media companies to see which ones were registered when. IBM.com seems to be the first one in the list (March 19, 1986). Interestingly, both Adobe.com and AMD.com were registered on the same day (17 Nov, 1986).
ibm.com 1986-03-19
intel.com 1986-03-25
att.com 1986-04-25
adobe.com 1986-11-17
amd.com 1986-11-17
cisco.com 1987-05-14
dell.com 1988-11-22
oracle.com 1988-12-02
sony.com 1989-07-07
bbc.com 1989-07-15
microsoft.com 1991-05-02
infosys.com 1992-07-17
macromedia.com 1993-05-13
cnn.com 1993-09-22
timewarner.com 1994-04-28
amazon.com 1994-11-01
yahoo.com 1995-01-18
aol.com 1995-06-22
ebay.com 1995-08-04
google.com 1997-09-15

The Motorcycle Diaries

by

I first read about the movie in TIME magazine (Aug 2004) (view article: online | cached). The movie was released on Sep 24, 2004 and the DVD was released on Feb 15, 2005. But there were only four copies in the local Blockbuster store here and they always seemed to be out. Finally, I was able to get hold on one of them.
The movie is entirely in Spanish with English subtitles. The Spanish (and original) title of the movie is “Diarios de motocicleta”. The movie talks about the journey of 23-year old medical student Ernesto “Che” Guevera and Alberto Granada on a 1959 Norton 500cc motorcycle across South America in the early 1950s. They start from Argentina and travel to Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venuezela, a distance of over 12,000 miles. Their destination: a leper colony in San Pablo (Peru) where they had volunteered to work. It is a true story and based upon an actual journal written by Che Guevera.
Motorcycle Diaries - click to enlarge (71 kb). Categories Amazon, Movies 1 Comment

L for Love – Richard Clayderman

by

I had first heard this song (piano music actually) some time back in a friend’s car and I instantly loved it. Today, I decided to find the song. But the problem was that I just knew the artist’s name and nothing else. I asked my friend about the song, googled and amazoned a bit and finally found the links. Here they are 🙂
Tip: Play at a low volume. Let the soft music soothe your ears :).
Song: “A Comme Amour (L For Love)”
Artist: Richard Clayderman
Album: A Comme Amour, All By Myself
Hear song: clayderman.co.uk (Real, 03:19)
Song Page: View
Official Site: www.clayderman.co.uk
Extra notes: Paul de Senneville (Composer)
Song: “L For Love”
Artist: George Davidson
Album: For The Love Of Music
Download song: amazon | cached (MP3, 03:30, 2.4mb)
Song Page: View
Official Site: www.georgedavidson.com
Notes: It seems that the same song – “L For Love” – has been performed by two artists – Clayderman and Davidson

Song: “Mariage d’Amour”
Artist: George Davidson
Album: My Heart Will Go On
Download song: amazon | cached (MP3, 04:26, 3.1 mb)
Song Page: View
Official Site: www.georgedavidson.com
Notes: This song is also very nice and initially, my friend thought that this was the song I was looking for.

EPIC 2014 – GoogleZon, Google Grid

by

EPIC 2014 - click to enlarge (8 kb).If you have not watched it already, go ahead and watch it. The story is definitely “fascinating, amusing and unnerving”. Have a look.
– http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/
– Pick a random mirror

“In the year 2014,The New York Times has gone offline. The Fourth Estate’s fortunes have waned. What happened to the news? And what is EPIC?”

The ‘Evolving Personalized Information Construct’ (EPIC) is a look at how the media industry might be like in 2014. It is an 8 minute flash presentation by the Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson.
It also talks about GoogleZon (the alliance of Google and Amazon in 2008) and the Google Grid.
Related Links:
– News.com article

Lexar 8 gb CompactFlash card

by

Came across an article on PcWorld about Lexar’s 8 gb flash card . It’s official price is $5,499.99 (!!!) but currently (10/14/2004) sells on Lexar.com for $2,730.00. It seems to be targeted towards professional photographers.
The 4gb version currently costs $399.88 on Amazon. Now, THAT sounds pretty reasonable! 🙂
And as the article said –
“what do you do if you misplace your $4K memory card?”
🙂
More info:
– Dpreview.com (02/12/2004)
– Lexar.com