Category Archives: Consumer Electronics

Jack Of Too Many Trades is live

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Since the early days of the Pandemic, I’ve pondered a review-focused site. It’s a way to share some of the gadgets and useful items I’ve acquired, recommend interesting products to my readers, and maybe make a little bit of money when people buy through my affiliate links.

I invited a friend to take a lightly-paid role contributing reviews. He never got around to taking me up on it, because of various reasons, and I never got around to starting it.

Until now.

Welcome to Jack Of Too Many Trades, or jotmt for short.

JOTMT already has four pre-loaded reviews, and I’ll be adding more over the coming months. Readers of this blog will not be surprised to find I acquire and talk about a lot of tech gadgets, and one of the first four posts is about a tech gadget (or three, to be more accurate). But I’ll be covering other things. There’s already a $60 deodorant, a flashlight with a Splunk connection of sorts, and a DC-powered pellet smoker.

My goal is to write about interesting things, and give perspectives on things that might entice you to try something you didn’t know you needed. I have a box of Thunderbolt 4 cables in my home office that largely aren’t worth a blog post, for example. But the one with a built in power meter, or the one that coils up like a well-trained snake for desktop storage? Those might be worth reading about. A silicone ice tray probably isn’t as interesting as an icemaker.

Start out with the welcome post, “It’s a website with reviews, comparisons, and projects,” over at jotmt.com. And stay tuned for more reviews, and some larger goals that may incorporate a few things, like a solar battery project or a mini-PC cluster.

What’s it like to write a thousand reviews in a year?

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Can you imagine writing a thousand online reviews in one year? Well, I couldn’t have imagined it a year ago, but I’m well on my way to that number for 2023, thanks to the Amazon Vine program.

 

What’s this Vine program about?

The official explanation of the invite-only Vine program is here on Amazon’s site, and pictured above; in short, Amazon invites prolific writers of useful reviews to join the program. I believe it’s over 15 years old, based on some Reddit traffic. I was invited to join in August 2022, eleven months ago as of this writing. 

In return for writing honest, detailed, and insightful reviews, you get your choice of an enormous assortment of products at no upfront cost. You do receive a 1099-NEC at tax time for the fair market value of your items at the time they were ordered, so it’s not entirely “free” but depending on your tax situation they can be considered dramatically discounted. 

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Some enticing Prime Day 2023 deals for your consideration

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It’s Prime Days again, for Amazon Prime subscribers who are prone to impulse deals, or who planned ahead for special offers.

I’m here to share a few suggestions I found in the deals today. You’ll also see them today on my Twitter feed.

As a reminder, I do participate in the Amazon Affiliate Program, which means I may receive a commission on purchases made through my links. But I’m not recommending anything I wouldn’t buy myself (if I haven’t already bought it).

Not a Prime member? Check out the benefits and sign up here: https://amzn.to/44D2Z6m

There’s always a Rocketbook notebook in my laptop bag (actually four at the moment). Erasable with water, reusable indefinitely, with organizational features and syncing to cloud services and email with OCR. Save 30% with Prime on Prime Day today.

amzn.to/3pRiJDP

Still rocking that first gen Apple Watch from 2015? Maybe it’s time to grab a new Series 8 at up to 30% off for Prime Day. Lots of colors, sizes, bands, etc. And remember that your old bands are probably compatible.

amzn.to/3PS7pBV

Need a second monitor on the road? Testing hardware with no room for a full-size screen? Just need more screen real estate? Check out this 2560×1600 external monitor for 26% off today. The 4k version is available for a bit more.

amzn.to/46M1Bjq

Samsung storage at up to 55% off for Prime Day. Whether you want NVMe, 2.5″ SATA, or external storage, there’s something for everyone.

amzn.to/3XKR4kq

Not the kind of ASICS I usually deal with, but get some new running shoes for 43-52% off today.

amzn.to/3XKSiMy

I retired my Nespresso VertuoPlus earlier this year in favor of a Vertuo Next, but the Plus is still great for anything but the Alto/Pour-Over capsules. And it’s up to 35% off (as low as $111) today.

amzn.to/3XKSR9o

Got a Nespresso Original machine, but need to get your capsules out of that bowl on the counter? Here’s a good basic drawer to hold 50 originaline capsules and get your machine off the counter. Add a mouse pad to reduce vibration and noise. (Machine not included at this price, of course)

amzn.to/3NMcGsi

Get a Kindle Unlimited membership for 6, 12, or 24 months and save a few bucks.

https://amzn.to/3D8IWkc

Not ready to pay up front? Get a free trial with https://amzn.to/3PMQeC0

Did you find any great deals for Prime Day? Feel free to share them in the comments. I’ll be back soon with some less mercenary content, including a Chia update and probably a mini PC review or two.

My 2021 Amazon order highlights

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As usual, I’ve reused and recycled way too many Amazon Prime packages this year. I’m going to #thread my top 10 purchases in 2021.

These are items I have actually purchased with my own money during 2021. Photos are of the actual items in my possession (I may go back and add obvious stock photos later for the items I didn’t catch in action). .

No seller or manufacturer has asked for a review, provided any incentives, or otherwise interfered with these orders or this post. If you buy through my links here, I may receive a commission.

In no particular order….

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It’s the most cable-tastic time of the year: Review some accounts you may be able to improve on

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Today’s post comes with apologies to my international readers, especially my esteemed non-US Tech Field Day colleagues, who may or may not benefit from today’s quick take that ended up not being so quick again.

As my American readers will know, there are monthly expenditures that are painful and rarely decrease over time.

Some, like apartment rent and self storage, are downright predatory by design–try getting the advertised new tenant rate when you’ve lived in an apartment for a year or more. If you’re lucky, they’ll let you move into a different apartment, pay overlapping rent during the move, put a new deposit down and wait a month or two for the old one to be returned, and then get something close to the advertised rates. And in a recent self-storage experience, I was given two choices on upgrading a storage space: Pay full price (and expect a rent hike within 2-3 months of course), or get the advertised price for the new space as long as I paid full price for the old (soon-to-be-empty) space for three full months.

It’s not all bad though

But you can find unexpected opportunities to save, especially (in my experience) with cable companies, who have a suboptimal reputation when it comes to customer service. Some cellular providers can also work this way, although it can be a bit rougher.

It helps to do some homework first, so here’s what I’d suggest you do.

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