Under Federal law, we’re entitled to three free credits per year, one from each of the major credit reporting agencies. Do not use the site freecreditreport.com…in order to get your credit reports (which you might never get), they require a membership in whatever it is they sell. There’s a NY Times article on this unsavory outfit here.

The only place to go is AnnualCreditReport.com. No strings, you can collect your 3 free credit reports all at once, or space them out as you wish.

Meanwhile, it’s not a bad idea to know your FICO score, especially if you’re planning on a major purchase like a car or a house (if consumer credit becomes available again). When you get a free credit report, you’re offered the option of buying your credit score, which I usually do for around $8. I don’t know how long this will last, but Equifax, one of the major credit reporting agencies (the other two are TransUnion and Experian) is offering a free credit score and not in conjunction with your annual free credit report. To get it, follow this link.

[[Update: Sorry, the free FICO score was limited to 10000 people and they’ve already fufilled that so the offer has expired.]]

One place I shop for violin things is Johnson String Instrument in Newton, Mass. Good prices, extraordinarily helpful people who answer the phone and a fine selection. Plus, they have interesting little articles that string players might find interesting.

They also have monthly web coupons which I found useful when I bought a new case today. The coupons are on the inside cover of their catalog. In case you don’t already have a catalog, here’ are the coupon codes:

You can visit their website, or call 800-359-9351.

Sorry if you came by looking for the rest of our Death Valley pictures. I got sidetracked today by the task of finishing my taxes. I promise I’ll have ‘em up sometime tomorrow.

		The number of ways to file your taxes online grows every year, but old fogey that I am, I’m used to using TurboTax. If you are too, it might interest you to know you can use TurboTax Online Deluxe if you have an online savings account with State Farm Bank. You don’t have to keep much money in there to use that feature.

Roombas may not the best vacuums or floor washers in the world, but they are entertaining. The world’s most successful robot, it’s kind of amazing to watch them running around in circles, not falling off of steps and, finally, just how much dirt they suck up.

There are a bunch of Roomba owners will pre-clean their rooms (known as roomba-rizing), seeing them almost like family pets. We’re not quite at the level of fan-dom, but we do manage to run our Roomba and Scooba a couple of times per week.

So it was kind of cool to find that a kid-started, family-run company is making Roomba costumes:

Here’s what one looks like, ahem, unclothed:

Check out the Roomba costumes at myRoomBud.com

Unbelievable. You know Airborne…a teacher invented it…out of the blue people have told me to take it … fergashsakes, Costco sells it! Sorry to burst your bubble, but Airbusted is more like it. You can get all the sorry details at the Consumerist, linked below, along with info on how to claim your piece of the class-action pie. (I have to say though, it does kind of taste good, what with the ginger flavor and all.)

 False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit: How To Get Your Airborne Refund

Recycling paper…easy! Recycling plastic….piece of cake! Recycling glass…been doing it for years!

Well, what about computers, cell phones, televisions, other old electronics? This can be the most problematic. It’s very bad to send them to the landfill. They’ll never decompose and there are a lot of toxic chemicals in them whose effects will last for generations.

(more…)

ecost.com is a gadget/electronics/technology store. Their front page is visually noisy, but once you get past it, there are excellent prices on a good selection of items. This site doesn’t show up in Froogle/Google Products/Google Shopping or whatever they’re calling it these days, so I always make a trip here to check their prices. For window shopping, the countdown bargains pages are entertaining.

e c o s t . c o m

This is a truly fun Hong Kong gadget-y kind of website. All kinds of  funny/interesting/useful things priced cheaply and with free shipping, no less!

d e a l e x t r e m e . c o m

Ah, the granddaddy of internet shopping. Ecommerce site may come and go, but there will always be Amazon. There’s a reason, rather there are millions of reasons why this one endures. I can find just about anything there at a reasonable price and from a company I’ve grown to trust. And even if I don’t wind up buying it there, it’s great for researching products.

a m a z o n . c o m

Making reservations at smaller or boutique hotels in Southeast Asia can be very frustrating. Part of the reason is that a lot of these properties don’t belong to an international conglomerate and don’t exist on the the big travel booking systems.

more after the jump