Saturday, April 18, 2015

Converting Those Pesky PNG images to JPEG




For some reason, images e-mailed from my iPhone or other smart phones sometimes (but not always) come into my MS PC’s as PNG or other format and are not compatible with my photo editing programs such as Picasa and ArcSoft Photo Studio 6.  This has been aggravating me for years, and I finally found a solution.  See website above.

1.     you upload the offending photo to this site (easy to find it, provided it is saved in a file on your PC, as all mine are
2.     it converts the PNG or other format to JPEG (the more standard format) and you then download it to your PC as a corrected photo, ready for printing or photo editing

Perhaps there is another way, but I haven’t found it.  This is a one photo at a time solution, but, for me, it is a solution. Used it twice yesterday.

Your comments and ideas welcome, please hit the comment icon.



Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Car Radio Repair



I have an older car, and the cassette player is broken.  And another car where the CD player (6 CD changer) is not working.  Car dealers for both cars have told me they do not do that kind of work.  See an audio shop.  I have, and they have not been helpful.  They sell replacement aftermarket radios, but don’t care to fix broken ones. The ones they sell look like jukeboxes to me, and would not be my choice of a car radio. They are expensive as well. 

So, I discovered this website  http://www.carradiorepair.com/  they do mail-in repairs. They give instructions on how to remove your radio (based on make and model) and you mail the radio to them, and they fix it, and mail it back.  You put it back in yourself.   I am going to give it a try, I filled out the paperwork for an estimate on-line today.

A local audio shop told me they would remove my radio for $10 and put it back for $10.  That suits me, as I am not keen on doing my own removal and reinstall.  If anyone has tried this system, please comment.  Or if you have another suggestion on a fix, please comment.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

New Thinking on Sinus Infections



From Wall Street Journal April 7, 2015 

Being a sinus, or pollen allergy-prone person, I thought this was an interesting article.  The main takeaways for me were: 

1.     about 20% of all antibiotics prescribed are for sinusitis
2.     that is probably not a good thing since only a small percent of sinusitis is bacterial
3.     treating with antibiotics reduces a persons ability, longer term to benefit from antibiotics in critical situations (i.e. immunity sets in).
4.     netti pot (or alternative device) can be quite effective in sinus cases

Although I have known about netti pot saline (sinus rinse) cleansing concept for years, I had never tried it until my dentist encouraged me to do this once a day.  And, I purchased the Neilmed  sinus rinse kit.  See this link:


It is incredibly well thought out, easy to use, and also recommended for CPAP patients. Needs distilled water, and microwave to move the distilled water a little above room temperature.  The sinus rinse product is pre-measured in tear off packs. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Affirm – A New Way To Pay




PayPal co-founder Max Levchin has launched a new money system called “Affirm”  A recent article described this new method of borrowing money (and replaying it) as best suited for young adults ages 18 to 34. This age group doesn’t like borrowing small amounts of money from banks, and who are normally considered high risk customers for banks. And credit card interest is quite high, so that’s not really acceptable either.  Nonetheless these age folks need mattresses, TV’s, and beds, and are willing to pay for them in monthly payments to spread out the impact cost. But they don’t want to open up store accounts or use high interest credit cards, or pay hidden fees. 

Enter Affirm.  You pay much like Apple Pay, only you can select the number of payments you make, and get reasonable interest (10% ?) and can see the total interest cost you will pay based on the loan terms you select at the point of sale.

A big catch is, the store must be an Affirm Participant.  But otherwise, it appears (on the website) to be a very slick and easy way to pay for a big ticket purchase with a micro-loan and a few payments over time.  

Similar to some micro-lending system I have read about overseas, this one has some simplicity advantages and doesn’t require a co-signer. I could see this as a workable way for some segment of the population to get things they need, and pay for them over time as they “use the product”.  Certainly this beats pay-day loans, and credit card interest rates.  Maybe its day has come.