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Comment on A Book of Coupons Reviews by M. Lehman "Irish Momma"

M. Lehman "Irish Momma" — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:33:37 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Loved It!, June 14, 2008

M. Lehman "Irish Momma" (Mitchellville IA) -

This review is from: A Book of Coupons (Paperback)

I was pleasantly surprised. I was just hoping for a book good enough to read and actually loved this book. Lots of tidbits of great lessons.

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Comment on A Book of Coupons Reviews by ddh

ddh — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:36:44 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Delightful read for young and old, January 5, 2011

ddh -

This review is from: A Book of Coupons (Hardcover)

My 9 year old raved about the book after reading it, then demanded (which she seldomly does) that I read it out loud to her siblings. The writing is polished. The content is warm and teaches life lessons. As I was invited to peek into the classroom of Monsieur Noel, I, too, could not put the book down and got choked up and teary as I read the last page. Had a great discussion with the kids afterward on "what coupons does your life give you?" and " what are you going to do with those coupons?". Great gift for anyone.

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Comment on A Book of Coupons Reviews by Alyssa A. Lappen

Alyssa A. Lappen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:57:15 +0000

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Coupons for living, February 17, 2002

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) -

This review is from: A Book of Coupons (Hardcover)

This book was first published in 1999 in French, under the title of Joker. The class returning to an unnamed grammar school for its final year were happy about finishing a French summer that grown boring, but found their new teacher, Hubert Noel, decidedly alarming.

He sat behind the desk like some unmovable tree trunk, and was so fat that Mohammed wondered if he were seeing double, or triple. He had so many wrinkles that some students thought he resembled "those pictures of God, with messy white hair and reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, not to mention the balloon potbelly." His voice sounded like it came from the bowels of the earth.

But most alarming of all were the first words he spoke. Not, "my name is," or "sit down please" but "I have a present for you." And then the monstrosity gave each student a wrapped package. Inside, the children each discovered a book of coupons. They were not the kind of coupons one could use in a store.

No, each book contained one coupon for activities usually forbidden by schools--sleeping late, skipping a day of school, being late to school, losing your homework, forgetting your books, not listening in class, sleeping in class, copying from your neighbor, not going when called to the blackboard, getting out of trouble, eating in class, making a lot of noise, singing at the top of your lungs when you like, dancing in class, taking a break, clowning around, telling a lie and giving the teacher a kiss.

The children were so startled by what they found that Benedicte, whom Mr. Noel appointed to read the coupons, had to stop, and Mohammed took over. He read six more coupons--one each for hugging whomever you like, taking your own sweet time, taking a never--ending recess, forgetting the books for your assignment, taking a longer vacation and the piece de resistance, one wild card coupon.

At first the students used lots of coupons, but as the year progressed, they found that it was more fun to come to school and use the coupons en masse. This made for some surprising capers.

Everything Mr. Noel offered them was some present. An assignment to read Charles Dickens, for example, began with their receipt of gift-wrapped copies of David Copperfield. Try as they might to avoid reading it, they rather enjoyed the--er, presents--that Mr. Noel had given them. Aside from the pleasant fact that the author had the same name, Charles found he could not put the book down, and stayed up all night reading, which led him to use his late-to-school coupon the next day.

Before long, Mr. Noel got himself into very hot water with the tyrannical school principal, Incarnation Perez. How he extracted himself from that difficulty is but one of the things that makes this book magical.

Another is the priceless lesson that Mr. Noel imparted. "When you're born, you get a whole bunch of coupons."

Which ones? Charles, Laurent, and Benedicte shouted, the coupons for life--for walking, speaking, learning to read, learning languages, learning geography biology and all the other `ologies,' for sports, the coupons for love.

Then the children did something very wild with their 26 collected wild card coupons. But you'll have to read this delightful tale to find out what. Alyssa A. Lappen

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Comment on Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) by tmint

tmint — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:59:48 +0000

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

Tips for installing the modem and getting stable coverage, June 30, 2010

tmint (midwest) -

This review is from: Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

We needed broadband at a seasonal home only part of the year in an area where the phone lines are not even good enough to get DSL. Satellite internet was another option but we found it to be too expensive for what we needed. Plus, it required a year long commitment which we were not willing to do. Also, our next door neighbor complains that his satellite internet goes out when it storms.

We have found Broadband2Go by VirginMobileUSA to be a "good enough" solution for what we need. We can get pretty consistent 3.1 Mbps per second speeds which is good enough for most things on the web short of streaming video.

What is not good is the documentation that comes with the modem. For the benefit of new users, we offer these tips we learned from trial and error:

PROBLEM: In some areas of the home where we thought the connection was strong, we found that when we would start to really draw data down the pipe, the connection would switch from EVDO (good) to 1XRTT (bad). We liken the latter to switching from your cell carrier to roaming. The speed would drop from 3.1 mbps to 153kbps (do the math -- an order of magnitude slower). We had a feeling it was partly due to the location in the house and partly due to interference from our laptop itself and other peripherals.

SOLUTION: We attached the modem to a USB extension cord. We now hang the modem lanyard from a hook next to the window and we use the computer a few feet away. No more lapses into "roaming."

PROBLEM: We have multiple desktops and laptops on which we wanted to install the software for the device (realizing that we can only use one device at a time, but that's ok). The drivers and the software autoinstalled on the first device and that was it. After that, lots of "you're screwed" sounds from Windows when trying to connect the modem, and "No Device Detected" from the Broadband2Go software even after the modem was being recognized as valid hardware. (I mean, how could the computer not detect the very device it just got the drivers and software from??)

SOLUTION: Insert the USB modem into a computer in which it already works well (in our case, the first installation computer). And make sure that AUTO-everything is checked (on): AUTOINSTALL, AUTOLAUNCH, AUTOCONNECT. Just keep digging through those Broadband2Go software menus to make sure you find everything that has "auto" in front of it and make sure it's checked (yes/on). That way, when you insert the modem into a new laptop or computer Windows won't try to take it over and mess it up. Just put it in, ignore all the fireworks on the screen for a few minutes, and let it do its thing.

(As a PS to the last solution, if you have already had a "partial" but unsuccessful install on one of your machines where say, the device is connected according to your Safely Remove Hardware icon, but the software still insists "No Device Detected," go into Device Manager and right click to "update" any drivers that appear as yellow question marks.)

After all of this hassle we can now use our little device for exactly what we needed it for: seasonal internet access that is faster than dialup and with no commitment such as with satellite.

Overall, we recommend it. We were even told that Verizon had a better signal than Sprint in our area, but we tried both and we found Sprint (VirginMobileUSA) to be more reliable.

(We are using PCs, all running XP.)

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Comment on Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) by D Jones "DP Jones"

D Jones "DP Jones" — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:25:36 +0000

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Recommended with Caveats., March 9, 2010

D Jones "DP Jones" (Alexandria, VA, USA) -

This review is from: Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Have been using this USB broadband modem for three weeks. We purchased the modem and a $20 top-up card to activate it. The modem automatically connects to Virgin's website each time it is plugged in, allowing top up via credit card. Even if your allocation has expired, it connects to the website...convenient in a pinch. You can buy top-up cards from Best Buy and other stores.

Installation was very problematic. We connected this modem to three laptop computers running Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3. None loaded everything required to get the modem working without some type of problem.

All software is loaded from the USB modem itself and cannot be downloaded from any website. One computer simply refused to load the software from the USB modem. Two computers loaded the software, however, the software failed to detect the modem when it was inserted into the USB port. All this after following installation instructions precisely, reviewing included troubleshooting procedures, and spending two hours on the phone with tech support.

In the end we got it all working after eight hours troubleshooting various configurations. The included software and drivers appeared to be very sensitive to other software running on our machines.

Once operational, we were impressed with the modem's capability to connect and stay connected. Upon insertion into the USB port, the modem took less than a minute to connect. We used the modem in a car, in a hotel, and in a private home along a route which ran down I-95 from Northern Virginia to South Florida and back. We had no problem connecting along our route. Download/upload speeds were typically slower than DSL but 4-5 times faster than dialup. The $20 top-up card allowed 30 days to download 250MB of data. For our week travelling, this was adequate for email and internet surfing. Heavy downloads, i.e., video and music will burn the 250MB allocation quickly. I've just received an email from Virgin upping allocation values on all their top-up cards. So a $20 card now buys 300MB of data. They still have a 30 day time limit on top-up cards after activation which I hope they extend to 60 days or more.

We recommend this modem if you have patience and knowledge to get it working should you have installation problems. Also recommended for occasional use when wifi isn't available while travelling. For us, this beats having to purchase a monthly contract. We use what we need, when we need it.

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Comment on Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) by Jackal24

Jackal24 — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:28:06 +0000

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

Fast and very easy to use, December 23, 2009

Jackal24 (Anchorage, AK) -

This review is from: Novatel Wireless Ovation MC760 Broadband2Go Prepaid USB Modem (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Pros: Easy to use, fast, small
Cons: Lack of plans that last more than 30 days, "built in usage meter" not really built in

I just purchased this and was very surprised how easy to use it is. I had it all set up in less than 5 minutes while sitting at the airport. One very clever thing that they have done is that the installation software is included on the USB stick, so there is no separate CD to deal with and lose. It walks you through everything. The connection I have is extremely fast for web browsing and even viewing youtube videos (just don't view too many and use up all your plan MB).

The unit is very small compared to many similar type modems I have seen. It is the just a little bit larger than most usb memory sticks.

There is an included lanyard, but I don't know what anyone would use it for, and I can't see where to attach it anyway.

On to the cons: None of the plans lasts more than 30 days and unused data does not rollover. They also claim on their packaging that a "Built-in usage meter lets you know how many megabytes you have left in your plan", but it is not really built in. You have to go to their website to see what you have left. There is a real-time meter in the software that shows you how much data you are using at any given time, but you would have to do some math to convert this to your plan, as well as knowing how much was in your plan at the beginning of the session.

Overall, this is a great product that I will use a lot.

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Comment on How to Save Money when Times are Tough Reviews by Merron Newton

Merron Newton — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:28:22 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Easy steps that helped me save Money!, November 7, 2011

Merron Newton -

This review is from: How to Save Money when Times are Tough (Kindle Edition)

I found this to be a really useful book. It's easy read and the ideas have helped me to save money every month. This booked provided 40 easy to follow tried and proven suggestions for keeping my money in my pocket - which is always a bonus! Most of the ideas are easy to implement, with just a few that required a lifestyle change, but I have found that it's worth the effort to make real money-saving changes. In particular, I like the tip of checking on youtube.com before buying DVD movies or TV shows. This tip alone has saved me many $'s. Excellent easy read. Highly recommended!

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Comment on How to Save Money when Times are Tough Reviews by R. A Gibson

R. A Gibson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:42:06 +0000

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Save Your Money, look elsewhere, August 13, 2011

R. A Gibson (San Antonio, TX USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: How to Save Money when Times are Tough (Kindle Edition)

Just a list of 40 items that will take you roughly TWO MINUTES to read... All easily found with a decent google search. So don't make my mistake, SAVE YOUR MONEY, and look elsewhere for something much more substantive.

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Comment on Orient Men’s CEM65002D ‘Blue Mako’ Automatic Dive Watch by Renlaan "Renlaan"

Renlaan "Renlaan" — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:38:53 +0000

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

My first system since PS1..., November 28, 2011

Renlaan "Renlaan" (st. louis, missouri) -

= Fun:

This review is from: Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle (Video Game)

I scored this at Target for the Black Friday deal of $199.00. Still worth it at $299.00 though. Easy to set up, has HDMI and WIFI, although I oppted to run my eithernet wire into the back of it via my router so my signle would always be strong.
Also a little trick the sales guy said was when installing, DON'T enter your 3 month XBOX LIVE code when prompted. The system itself comes with a 1 month trial, so you end up with 4 months of XBOX LIVE GOLD!! Enter the code after your 1 month expires.
Already played Call of Duty MW3 on it with 3 other friends, LOTS OF FUN!!! Havn't tried the 2 games that came with it yet.
The sound a picture is amazing when run through a sony 5.1 surround amplifer(HDMI)and played on a 46" Sony Bravia 240hz lcd. I was extremely happy after the hookup and downloads.

ron

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Comment on Orient Men’s CEM65002D ‘Blue Mako’ Automatic Dive Watch by wli_ilam

wli_ilam — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:16:52 +0000

125 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

A Great Purchase for First-Time Xbox 360 Owners, November 1, 2011

wli_ilam (New York City) -

= Fun:

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle (Video Game)

I own a PS3 and I am happy with it. I wasn't going to get a Xbox 360 until this bundle came along. I mostly got it for the included Halo Reach and the new Xbox 360 Slim console, which doesn't seem to have the overheating issue or Red Light of Death that older Xbox 360 consoles had.

Pros:
-Comes with a 250GB hard drive. This is necessary to play games smoothly. Installing the game to the hard drive makes the Xbox 360 run quieter and cooler.

- Built-in Wi-Fi. You no longer have to buy an adapter to connect wirelessly. It's built into the system.

- Built-in Kinect port. This Xbox 360 Slim has a special port just for the Kinect so you don't have to buy an adapter.

- 3 Free Months of Xbox Live Gold. Xbox Live is the reason to get the Xbox 360. Its extensive online service is more user-friendly than PSN, but you will have to pay $60 a year after your 3 months are up (Amazon has some deals to get a Xbox Live membership around $45-50) for it.

- Halo Reach (downloadable token). There is no physical disc. Instead, they give you a code that you download from the Xbox Marketplace to your hard drive.

- Fable 3. It's an RPG game. Not my kind of game, but if you enjoy role-playing, you might like it.

- Official Xbox headset. It's a mono headset, which means there's only one earpad to hear voice from. It works fairly well, but I have the Astro A40s so I don't use it.

Cons:
- Have to pay to play online.

- Does tend to get hot when playing from the disc.

- Fans run much louder than the PS3.

To summarize, this is a great bundle for someone who doesn't have a xbox 360 or would like to have both systems. If you already have a xbox 360, there's really no reason to get this one. Most Xbox 360 owners will probably already have Halo Reach and Fable 3 isn't really a console seller. Now, I can game with friends on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 with ease.

Also, I purchased the One-day shipping (which was $10 bucks for me) and it really did come the next day, just in case you were wondering about pushing your delivery date up.

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