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April, 2002 Diablo Blue Page 3 |
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Firewire, or USB 2, version — that would certainly overcome the narrow-band restrictions. One suggested use for Extigy is for people who want to upgrade their laptop’s sound performance. The price is a bit steep at $149 list, but the street price may be a bit lower. Unless you have a large “foolish fund”, it might be financially prudent to wait till a USB 2 version comes out. Just in case you are tempted, the Extigy was seen at our local CompUSA. |
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Last month I described my experience spending over $150 to save about $4 on vitamins I bought on the Internet. This column takes care of the other side of the story: Tips on tackling the problems of Internet buying. Fighting the Free Syndrome How much do you make an hour? If you're clocking more than, say, $5 an hour, don't waste your time hunting for discounts that come and go. The worst ones to try finding are free shipping or $10 off with your first order. A better strategy? If you bump into an offer from Half.com, say, and you're in the market for a bunch of used books, it's a slam-dunk. Otherwise, don't bother tracking them down. Factor in Shipping Paying attention to shipping costs may seem obvious, but there are variables to consider. You might think you'll save on shipping by choosing a site that charges a flat fee for shipping no matter how many items you purchase. That's likely true unless the site's products are inflated to cover the shipping costs. With some items — vitamins, for instance — that's not such a big deal as most sites charge a flat $4.95 for standard shipping. (One exception, though, is AdvanceRX; they charge a flat fee of $3 for the entire order, and the product pricing is lower than other drug sites.) Listen to Users The wealth of opinions on the Net is overwhelming and you need to tap into it before making any major purchase. There are two spots I listen in on, are useful in its own way. First try the newsgroups and do it using the Google.com search engine. When I was interested in a camcorder, I typed “Panasonic Camcorder” into the Google search field and clicked on Groups. Goggle will provide a list of groups that contain the two words. It's a little daunting from here because you'll face at least 10 groups. Choose the one that's closest to your search. For instance, "Humanities" (Fine art, literature, philosophy) and "Misc" (Employment, health) won't fit while "Comp" (Hardware, software, consumer info) sure will. You'll then see a dozen or more sub-groups belonging to Comp, each with a green bar showing the likely hits in the groups. Type “Panasonic Camcorder” into the field again and choose “Search only in comp.” The dilemma, as you'll soon find out, is there's a lot to sort through in order to find the recommendations and discussion you're looking to read. The other spot I really like is Epinions.com. It's filled with people like us providing their observations and experiences with products. Don't be put off by thinking these are just willy-nilly opinions. Granted, some are, but most people are careful and thorough in their reports, |