The Savvy Boomer

The day Kyle Stanley became a part of speech.

2012-01-30T15:55:17-08:00

The biggest choke ever in a PGA tournament will become a trivia question in a few years but for now the words "choke" and "Kyle Stanley" are interchangeable.

Verb: "He almost won but then he Kyle Stanlied."

Noun: "Kyle Stanley is not how anyone wants to be known."

Adjective: "Nice Kyle Stanley finish."

Gerund: "Kyle Stanleying the breakaway, he missed the empty net."

Adverb: "He was about to win but then played Kyle Standlishly."

Here's what he almost got but was quickly discarded when he Kyle Stanlied the 18th hole.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T15:38:41-08:00

CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO PLAY

I guess to be politically correct I should say Happy Holidays but when you get to be my age, old habits die hard. Whatever your beliefs or non-beliefs, best wishes.

Can your downloading history can be tracked?

2011-12-22T09:26:01-08:00

Someone asked me a few weeks ago if they downloaded something from a torrent if it could be tracked. Well it seems it can and if you want to see what your internet provider can see, go to http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/ and the landing page will tell you if you've been naughty or nice, Here is a snip of what it said when I went there.

The sight is a bit of a joke but there are some concerns that if they can do this, what else is going on? Take a look at their privacy policy-that's good advice on how to approach everything you do on the internet.

Privacy Policy

You're checking the privacy policy on a site like this? We'll do our best to make the policy entertaining.

For visitors

Baby, this is the Internet. There is no such a thing as privacy around here. You are sitting in the privacy of your own house, clicking links, reading stuff, watching movies — it seems like you are pretty much alone. But smart nerds are watching you. They watch your every move. You are not human to them. You are a target — a consumer. And, most importantly — a potential consumer!
This magic word opens a hunt on you.

You try to avoid the nerds radars by using proxy, VPN, anonymizers, maybe you even hook up to your neighbors WiFi because they left it open. Nerds know all those tricks. And this site is an example. Whatever you do on this site will be recorded. Whatever technical trick we can use — we’ll use it. I cannot promise you that we will use all of our tricks because that would be expensive. But any (legal) trick you can imagine — consider it being used on this site.

OK, don’t be scared. Torrent tracker is the only thing here. The site itself just shows what we have collected. It doesn’t do anything spooky — Or does it?

For copyright holders

Common! You are supposed to be a predator. Why did you click on the "Privacy Policy" link? Don’t you have the same on your website? Isn’t it full of lawyer language stuffed with technical terms to make sure nobody understands it? We do whatever you do... maybe more. We are nice guys so we’ll give it to you straight and simple. We set cookies on your browser; we drop third party cookies, LSO (that’s from flash), Silverlight, super cookies and so on.

Some days we’re too lazy for such stuff. We get tired of our huge database and erase all the records from it — but not today. Check out the page tomorrow. Maybe we’ll do it tomorrow.

Canadian You Tube videos of the year

2011-12-21T11:01:42-08:00

I know, there are lots of others out there but these are my favourites.

World's greatest golfer-dead!

2011-12-20T12:20:54-08:00

No, it's not Arnie, Jack or Tiger that has passed on to that Pebble Beach in the sky. It's Kim Jong Il, the dear leader of North Korea. It took his death for the news of his round in 1994 to surface. He shot a 38 under par 34 with 11 holes in one. What makes it more incredible was that it was his first and last game.

While the golf world mourns his passing, no one will miss him more than Hennessey who sold him an average of $700,000 of cognac every year. That, and some other interesting facts about this amazing man (he never defecated!!??) are reported by the Australian Herald Sun.

Google continues free North American calls thru 2012 on GMail

2011-12-19T05:54:00-08:00

I'm surprised how many people (maybe it's just my age group) don't know about Gmail's North America's free voice calling feature. I've been using it for a couple of years now and every December they seem to extend the free calling period-actually I'm sure it's always going to be free, it's just an excuse to advertise it by extending it every year. I use it regularly and while the line isn't always clear, I'd say it registers as good or better at about 70% of the time and really is an excellent alternative to long distance charges. I usually use it when I am calling a number where I know I'm going to be on hold a while. It frees up your land line or cell for incoming calls during that waiting period.

Of course, you need a GMail account to make it work but I personally believe GMail is the best web based mail out there so if you don't already have it, this feature alone makes it worth trying out.

Get it from Google

BOWL GAME SCHEDULE

2011-12-14T14:35:41-08:00

I do this more for myself so I have quick access to the schedule. The complete 2011-2012 college football bowl schedule is below. Interesting that there are no games scheduled Jan 1st so the NFL can rule the airwaves that day. I still say it should be Oklahoma State in the BCS game against LSU, not Alabama.

DEC. 17

Gildan New Mexico Bowl -- Albuquerque, NM
Wyoming vs. Temple
2 p.m. ET, ESPN

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl -- Boise, ID
Ohio vs. Utah State
5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl -- New Orleans, LA
San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 20

Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl -- St. Petersberg, FL
Florida International vs. Marshall
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 21

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl -- San Diego, CA
TCU vs. Louisiana Tech
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 22

MAACO Bowl Las Vegas -- Las Vegas, NV
Boise State vs. Arizona State
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 24

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl -- Honolulu, HI
Southern Mississippi vs. Nevada
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 26

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl -- Shreveport, LA
North Carolina vs. Missouri
5 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 27

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl -- Detroit, MI
Purdue vs. Western Michigan
4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Belk Bowl -- Charlotte, NC
North Carolina State vs. Louisville
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 28

Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman -- Washington, D.C.
Toledo vs. Air Force
4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl -- San Diego, CA
California (U.C. Berkeley) vs. Texas
8 p.m. ET ESPN

DEC. 29

Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State vs. Notre Dame -- Orlando, FL
5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Valero Alamo Bowl -- San Antonio, TX
Baylor vs. Washington
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 30

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl -- Dallas, TX
BYU vs. Tulsa
12 p.m. ET, ESPN

New Era Pinstripe Bowl -- New York, NY
Iowa State vs. Rutgers
3:20 p.m. ET, ESPN

Franklin Am. Mortgage Music City Bowl -- Nashville, TN
Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest
6:40 p.m. ET, ESPN

Insight Bowl -- Tempe, AZ
Iowa vs. Oklahoma
10 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 31

AutoZone Liberty Bowl -- Memphis, Tenn.
Vanderbilt vs. Cincinnati
3:30 p.m. ET, ABC

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl -- San Francisco, CA
Illinois vs. UCLA
3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Chick-fil-A Bowl -- Atlanta, GA
Virginia vs. Auburn
7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl -- Houston, TX
Texas A&M vs. Northwestern
12 p.m. ET, ESPN

Hyundai Sun Bowl -- El Paso, TX
Georgia Tech vs. Utah
2 p.m. ET, CBS

JAN. 2

TicketCity Bowl -- Dallas, TX
Penn State vs. Houston
12 p.m. ET, ESPNU

Outback Bowl -- Tampa, FL
Michigan St. vs. Georgia
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl -- Jacksonville, FL
Florida vs. Ohio State
1 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Capital One Bowl -- Orlando, FL
South Carolina vs. Nebraska
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO -- Pasadena, CA
Wisconsin vs. Oregon
5 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl -- Glendale, AZ
Oklahoma State vs. Stanford
8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 3

Allstate Sugar Bowl -- New Orleans, LA
Michigan vs. Virginia Tech
8: 30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 4

Discover Orange Bowl -- Miami, FL
Clemson vs. West Virginia
8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 6

AT&T Cotton Bowl -- Arlington, TX
Arkansas vs. Kansas St.
8 p.m. ET, Fox

JAN. 7

BBVA Compass Bowl -- Birmingham, AL
Pittsburgh vs. SMU
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 8
GoDaddy.com Bowl -- Mobile, AL
Northern Illinois vs. Arkansas State
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 9

Allstate BCS National Championship Game -- New Orleans, LA
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama
8:30 p.m., ESPN

Is "Free Shipping" really free?

2011-12-07T09:35:45-08:00

Is free shipping really free when stores place difficult-to-meet restrictions on consumer purchases? While "Free Shipping" banners and ads are everywhere this year, so are the minimums required by many merchants.

The increase pushes many shoppers to spend more and that's exactly what happened last year. For the week ending Dec. 5, 2010, transactions using free shipping averaged $125.20, or 45-percent higher than those with paid shipping, according to ComScore.com.

Although some 93 percent of e-retailers plan to offer free shipping deals this year -- up from 85 percent last year -- free shipping will come to a cost for consumers.

Here are a few tips to help consumers find the REAL free shipping deals.

Read the fine print. Free shipping may only be offered on select items or a minimum order value must be met to qualify for free delivery.
Check exchange and return policies. Some e-Retailers will charge for returns and won't accept in-store exchanges.
Seek alternative shipping. Opt for free site-to-store delivery offered among top online stores like Walmart and Best Buy.
Look for free shipping codes. Sites like FreeShipping.org aggregate free shipping codes from thousands of merchants, or check a e-Retailer's Twitter/Facebook for exclusive delivery discounts.
Register for trial memberships. ShopRunner has a 30-day trial membership with free 2-day delivery from thousands of top stores. Amazon Prime offers a trial membership with a similar shipping deal.
Shop Free Shipping Day. Scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16, consumers can enjoy free shipping from over 2,000 online stores with delivery by Christmas Eve. Some merchants will offer free shipping with no minimums, while others may reduce their typical minimum for the one-day event. Check FreeShippingDay.com for participating retailers.
Send gifts directly to recipients. Avoid double shipping charges or extra luggage fees for traveling with presents.
Shop securely. Avoid shopping on public networks found at libraries, airports and coffee shops where hackers can easily steal your information. Look for the "s" in "https" and pay with a credit card when possible as it offers more consumer protection when disputing fraudulent charges.

This post was written by Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert for Kinoli Inc. As a nationally recognized media source, Andrea has been featured among top news outlets such as Good Morning America, NBC's Today, MSNBC, New York Times, Kiplinger Personal Finance, CNNMoney and many more. To view recent interviews or for more savings tips visit AndreaWoroch.com or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.