The Computer Next Door

iFrightening! When Lightning Strikes...

If your horizon looks like this, get off your mobile device!

There used to be a song we were sung to as kids.  "Who's afraid of thunder, thunder's just a lot of noise." True enough.  But lightning's another matter all together.  This being the season of thunderstorms it seems a good time to pass on information.

Your iPod can turn out to be iFrightening in a storm.  And it's not just your iPod, it could be your cellphone, PDA, iPhone or other electronic device.  Being struck by lightning when carrying or using these devices can result in considerable injury.  Not to mention one heck of a jolt.

You know why you put a spoon into the glass before you pour the hot water?  That's right, because the spoon's metal conducts the heat.  It's much the same with  the metal in a device that you're wearing. Energy that would have passed outside your body can travel through the metal and into your body. It's what can happen when you combine skin, sweat and metal.

Lightning kills nearly 75 people a year in the U.S.  Many people think that if you aren't being rained on there's no danger of getting struck.  Unfortunately, the fact is that lightning can hit before the rain ever appears.

So what do you do?

1. When you hear thunder take it seriously.  Look for a safe place to weather the storm.  Indoors is best. If not head for your (non-convertible) car.   

Think twice about going into your parked car if you're near power lines or trees. Keep the car windows closed and of course, don't touch anything metal.

If you're stuck outside cover your ears, and lay low.   Again, stay away from all metal (fences, poles, etc), water, trees and elevations. And don't use your mobile device in an electric storm.

2. Indoors don't use your appliances, or phones.  Also it's wise to avoid your windows, doors and water.

And you thought it was only the volume on your iPod that could be bad for you!

With thanks to www.Snopes.com.

Major Appliances , Big Headaches

Linda's new kitchen looks great - but getting there was quite an experience

How often do you buy a major appliance?  I just bought my second refrigerator ever. That's not counting the wine fridge, or my dorm mini fridge.

If you haven't bought one of the new energy efficient refrigerators it could be costing you hundreds of wasted  dollars a year in electricity.  Not to mention how politically incorrect wasting energy is these days.  Current standards were inaugurated in 1990 with updates in 1993 and 2001.

We  just replaced a Sharp Carousel microwave, a Magic Chef gas range, GE refrigerator and Kitchen Aid dishwasher.  The newest appliance was 9 years old and the rest were twice that vintage.

This is the saga of our online purchases.  I always check Consumer Reports before I make a big purchase.  I subscribe to their online service www.consumerreports.org Their advice was to purchase from P.C. Richard or a mom and pop shop for the best prices.

I wanted to stay local so I opted for the mom and pop.  Or in this case a pop and pop. We decided on a Viking over the range microwave, a Viking French Door refrigerator, a Miele Optima dishwasher and a Bertazzoni gas range.

Bertazzoni's an Italian brand newly introduced into the U.S. market.  The range is a looker. Comes in colors.  Costs half the price of a comparable Viking Stove.  Perfect.

That is until I went online at 4:00AM to www.bertazzoni-italia.com.  After downloading the installation instructions I discovered what I'd feared to be true. This beautiful stove was unsuitable for our retrofit.  The range needed a clearance of at least 6 inches from a wall.  We barely have two inches.   A later call to their customer service confirmed that an installation without sufficient clearance could be a fire hazard.

We cancelled with pop and pop.  And decided to do more research before the next buy. Our new choice of range was a Jenn-Air pro style.  It had most of the good looks of their top of the line appliance AND it had the consumer features I craved such as self-cleaning, convection and electronic timers.  I kid you not.  We could have spent twice the money for their all stainless model and had none of the aforementioned features.  Then again the Bertazzoni has none of those features either, it was just beautiful and I was  previously seduced.

So where did we shop now?  I went online to Bloom and Krup.  Won't give you their site because they're no longer in business.  That's right.  They went out of business AFTER we'd given them a deposit.  Great website though.  It was the most informative I'd found which is why we gave them our business.

Good news.  The third time was the charm.  Len Harris, Inc. was a recommendation from my very satisfied friend Claire.  The mortar and brick store's located in Flushing, Queens.  But for those not seeking a field trip you can call 718-591-6557 or go online to www.lenharris.com.  They carry 9,000 appliances.  They were prompt, efficient, competitively priced and hassle free.  Considering our experience with the other stores (2 credit card disputes to get our deposits back) this was heaven.

Speaking of credit cards.  Both American Express and our Mastercard offer extended warranties and buyer protection.Specific details of the coverage vary from card to card.

Try www.chowhound.com if you want to know what foodies think of the appliances you're considering.  By the way, our Viking Microwave is actually a Sharp Carousel made especially for Viking.  The Viking refrigerator is nearly identical to the Jenn-Air counterpart, but offers a better warranty with its higher pricetag.  We chose the Miele, even though Consumer Reports ranks the Bosch as its first choice.  The Miele's unbelievably quiet.  Like the Bosch and most European brands it has a long and efficient cycle.

Before you spend big bucks, check out a big box store. It pays to "kick the tires" with purchases as large as these.  Then buy what's right and where it's right for you.

eBooks and the Virtual Libary

There is a Second Annual World eBook Fair happening  as I write this (it is running through August 4).  Sponsored by Project Gutenberg, The World Public Library, and a handful of forward-looking publishers, the World eBook Fair's Website offers a vast panorama of downloadable titles free to the public.

All in the name of getting people reading more, which is unquestionably a noble goal. eBooks - which are simply electronic copies of books - have been around for some time but are beginning to gain momentum as a force on the Web. For consumers, eBooks have a number of benefits. The principal benefit is that you can keep an entire library on a  laptop or other portable device. So, you go on a vacation and you don't need to drag all your hardcovers or softcovers along with you - they're all on your laptop (or Palm, or whatever).

If you really want to live on the edge, you can also read them in the dark, since you're reading them on some form of device with its own, bright screen.  Therefore, presumably, you don't disturb your partner who's snoozing away innocently next to you.

There are a variety of formats available, each format requiring its own reader for the device at hand (whether Mac, PC, Palm, Smartphone, Blackberry, etc.).  A common one is the PDF-type eBook.  These can obviously be opened from Adobe Acrobat Reader, but there are other, simpler readers available, as well.

Digital Editions has appealing "bookshelves" for your books

I am experimenting with Adobe's Digital Editions reader, which is available for a number of operating systems.  It is advertised as being simpler and more streamlined than Acrobat for reading eBooks.  This is a fact - it has only a few features relating to building your eBook library or viewing your electronic books.  Otherwise, the experience is very similar to Acrobat.

Reading an eBook isn't so bad - on a PC, at least

Other readers include: Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket Reader (a multi-device mobile reader) and eReader from Palm. Additionally, some sites offer online reading of their eBooks - basically Web pages.  This latter experience does defeat one of the "mobile" purposes of packing up eBooks on your laptop or device, though, it seems to me.

Sony also has a specialized hardware reader for about $300 (sounds like a lot, although they are currently offering to package about $150 worth of eBooks with the reader).  The Sony reader looks much more like paper-and-ink than other devices. Note that I have never seen anyone actually using a Sony reader - most travelers who are interested in eBooks seem to be using either their laptops or multi-purpose mobile devices to fulfill this task.

The downside to eBooks is that they take the tactile pleasure out of reading. After acquiring a few eBooks, I found I didn't really do much with them.  They sat, unexplored in the deepest reaches of my computer's directory system.

Another problem I found was on my Palm Treo's eReader software.  It drives me crazy that the Palm continually turns off after a few minutes (unless you keep touching the screen), so reading an eBook is a non-intuitive, not-very-fun thing to do on a train or hotel room or wherever.  I still bring books with me, in other words.

Finally, some eBooks feel terribly overpriced for what you get. I can understand paying close to $20 for a book because of printing and distribution costs, but electronic books cost very little to distribute in comparison.  I think they should cut consumers a break.

Luckily, there are many sources for free eBooks which you can find in the collections of the World Public Library.  They have so many interesting titles available, in fact, I may find my paper-and-ink book collection will get a run for its money after all.