Eliminate the waste of Yellow Pages and White Pages

I don't know about you but I can count on one hand minus a few fingers how many times I've used the Yellow Pages and White Pages in the last year. So when I saw this post on Lifehacker about eliminating the delivery of Yellow Pages I thought I would pass it on in case you don't happen to read Lifehacker. Also to save you a click here is the link to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org site that Lifehacker brought to light. Then once on Yellowpagesgoesgreen click on Sign Up which lets you opt out of both the Yellow Pages and White Pages. My question is will this get rid of all the various versions of the Yellow and White Pages I receive these days. For instance I happen to live in SBC now AT&T territory but for some reason I just recently received a Verizon combo half Yellow half White pages directory and in the past various other phone companies have sent me their version of the Yellow Pages or White pages. Hopefully this opt out service will eliminate all of the paper directories the phone companies deliver, but only time will tell. Also please note Yellowpagesgoesgreen is currently only setup for US households and business even though numerous other countries have Yellow Pages and I'm sure various White Pages.

So now your looking for online directories here is a link to Yellow Pages and White Pages but even better in my opinion is Google's free directory assistance(411) service. Give it a try by calling 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). Also at your option Google's 411 service will place the call to the business it finds for free.

So join the movement at home to eliminate the waste of paper the Yellow Pages and White Pages represent for many households these days. Also Yellowpagesgoesgreen is suppose to work at the office and then if you feel so inclined save your employer money by having your Telecom group redirect your companies 411 calls to Google's service. Believe me having seen first hand what the phone companies charge for 411 service this could win you some big points at the office.

How used is that PC

Another thought crossed my mind as I'm considering picking up a used PC and that is how used is it. After you get past the general specs that are acceptable for the used PC you are looking to buy wouldn't it be nice to know what shape the system is in. Well the best idea I have been able to come up with so far is using anyone of a number of tools that check the S.M.A.R.T stats on the Hard Drive. In particular S.M.A.R.T. tracks the power on hours for a hard drive. So far HDDlife which has a free and Pro version fits the bill. Here is a sample of the information that HDDlife provides, it's particularly nice for the purpose of determining how used a PC is because it does the calculation of converting the S.M.A.R.T. attribute for power on hours into days, weeks, months and years.



In addition you can see that S.M.A.R.T. tracks a number of aspects on the hard drive and a tool like HDDlife can tell you about the overall health of the hard drive. So this doesn't answer everything you would like to know about how used a PC is but it gives you a decent idea. Now for a system you buy from a local reseller this works fine but I wonder if any of the online refurbished PC sellers would run this tool for you on the systems they have in stock.

In case you are wanting to learn more about S.M.A.R.T. the Wikipedia entry on this subject contains a lot of details. Also the Wikipedia entry has links to a number of other hard drive utilities for both PC's and Mac's that process S.M.A.R.T. attributes.

If you have other tools you use to check out used PC's or Mac's let me know. What has your experience been buying used systems? Do you have a favorite online reseller of refurbished systems and if so why? Maybe we could develop a previously owned certification process for systems. Please share your thoughts and ideas it would really help provide needed information for those who for whatever reason are considering buying a refurbished system.

Getting Windows XP before or after June 30

Here is a follow up from my post about Vista SP1 performance and in particular grabbing a copy of Windows XP so you can delay your move to Vista. So assuming your thinking about getting a copy of Windows XP before June 30 checkout this great article by Scott Dunn at WindowsSecrets from last week on various options and considerations when buying a new PC with XP or downgrading a new Vista PC to XP. In addition there is a follow up at WindowsSecrets this week which gives another option to extend your time for getting Windows XP beyond June 30 and that is buying a refurbished PC with a valid XP license. You may not be aware of this but many PC manufactures sell refurbished systems with warranties. Following are some links to sites with refurbished PC -

HP
Dell - currently they only have Vista on there inventory of refurbished systems.
IBM
TigerDirect - lots of options here from a number of PC manufactures, check to make sure the system includes an OS since some of there systems come without.

You should also check the specs on these systems many of these are very low end by todays standards fine for email and browsing the Internet but obviously not up to running the latest PC games. Also if your thinking of transferring the XP license off of a refurbished system that can present a number of challenges especially for systems with OEM licenses. In the case of a Windows OEM license the licenses is tied to the motherboard and according to Microsoft can not be transferred. So if you want to have flexibility with your Windows license and the hardware you run it on then you need to get a retail/boxed version.

One last thought if a refurbished PC does fit your needs give yourself a pat on the back for helping the environment by recycling. On that same note when you do permanently retire a PC make sure you dispose of it properly.