TIVO is cool, but costly - it's not really an answer for folks trying to reduce entertainment budgets while the economy is trying to stay afloat. I noticed, today, that TiVo has a relatively new digital video recorder that can be used with cable and antenna inputs. Sweet! I thought. I can tune in those free off the air channels with awesome video quality, AND I can have those great DVR features too. Then I read the fine print. TiVo wants me to pay a subscription fee or the box won't work. Granted, it's cheaper than cable or satellite, but...

Why would we want to pay for television programs when we can get high definition programming free and with crystal clear picture? Trapped in a cable/satellite contract conundrum? Me too. When I lost my full time job to the economic crisis, I had to look for new ways to save money. My satellite HDTV service was an easy mark. Over the years the cost of this service has become a huge drain on the budget, but television in our home is considered a necessity. With just a little research, I re-discovered the Winegard venerable plain old antenna. It turns out that...

Is it myth or fact that MIT and other top school offer free tech classes and other college courses online? Can you round out your education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology or learn how to write effectively at Northwestern without paying tuition. Yes you can. College degrees for $100. Do you get those emails too? Well, I heard that some of the world's best real educational resources are free AND legitimate. A few weeks ago, after searching for training web sites and being disappointed at the quality and cost of what I was finding, I came across the OpenCourseWare consortium. OpenCourseWare...

Google’s web browser, Chrome, didn’t impress me much the first time I tried it. But that was a year or two ago and as I recall, Chrome was in beta. The current Chrome release  is 1.0 and I have to admit, I like it. We all use browsers everyday and it's important to have good tools for accessing the internet. Usually, the first thing I do when  setting up a new installation of Internet Explorer (IE) or Firefox is turn off as many of the menus and toolbars as I can, leaving only the bare essentials like navigation buttons – I...

A new report called Aging joints? Aging boomers getting new ones may not seem like big news, but it's packed with info you might find worthwhile, especially if you suffer from chronic knee or hip pain. The Herald Tribune's writer WALKER MEADE updates us on how these surgical replacement have changed. Joint replacements are easier to get, easier to live with and more helpful than ever before. Meade tells us: "Everyone knows someone who has had it done. Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton got her new hip when she was 37. William Shatner got his in February 2008. Martha Stewart got...