Aside from the obvious adjustments we had to make, securing my home now that I am no longer there is a primary concern.
We inquired if there were any additional discounts we qualified for which could lower our rates and save us money. The first one she mentioned was an alarm system. Alarms deter theft of items from inside the house as well as minimizing any damage someone might. Both of these cost insurance agencies money, so they will offer discounts to homeowner to take steps to prevent these problems, enter the alarm system.
I immediately Googled “home alarm systems do it yourself” and got a ton of results.
I wanted to find a system that had the least expensive monthly maintenance fee, with no maintenance being the best option.
One system which really caught my eye is the Skylink SC-1000 (on Amazon.com). Skylink Home Security also has this unit on their site, but Amazon is less expensive and has several customer reviews of the product.
The biggest benefit of the Skylink SC-1000 is there are NO MAINTENANCE FEES. Instead of paying a company to maintain a contact center full of people sitting and answering phones, this system has an automated dialer which contains a pre-recorded message that is sent if the alarm is ever triggered. The following is from the manufacturer:
The emergency dialer (AD433S) is your own monitoring center without any monitoring fees. If any sensors are triggered the siren will sound and call for help at the same time. Program up to 9 numbers including your own cellular phone, relatives, friends, neighbors, etc. Once they pick up the phone, the emergency dialer will play your pre-recorded message.
Weighing in at a mere $159.99 with Free Super Saver Shipping this unit seems more than worth the money. Depending on the insurance savings, which should easily exceed the price tag of the SC-1000, I am certain we will be utilizing a unit similar to this.
The next bit of research I need to do is verify that Auto-Dialing alarm systems are permitted in the state of Missouri and Joint Communications of Columbia will respond to these calls. Preliminary research showed a few other cities discussing the cost and liability on the individual who has a false alarm sending auto-dialing system. This leads me to believe most municipalities can handle these products.
UPDATE: State Farm in Columbia Missouri just confirmed that a stand alone unit that operates independnetly of a central monitoring service (exactly like the Skylink unit) is acceptable to qualify for a home insurance discount.
If you installed your own alarm system, have an alarm now, or are thinking about getting one please weigh in via a comment.
Several very good blog posts came through my Google Reader today regarding starting a business, and here I pass them on.
"I’d love to start a company / become a great programmer / write an awesome blog, but there’s just not enough time in the day!" Bull****. There’s always enough time, you’re just not spending it right.
Their closing line is one to be remembered and recited:
It’s entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come through.
The most important points from this post are:
Four of the best articles so far are:
This is one of the best restorations of a 60′s model Chevy I’ve ever seen. At the time of posting, the top bid was round $50,000. This is a gorgeous truck.
Stacey David did all of the work on this truck on his TV show Trucks! before leaving the show. The paint is custom mixed and one of a kind, named after the truck, Copperhead.
So if you can muster the up cash, give it a shot. Gold is a great investment, and this truck is golden!
Webdesigner Depot just posted a wonderfully nostalgic article Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009.
My earliest OS recollection was Mac OS System 1.0 (released in 1984 – the year I was born). Our first machine was a Macintosh.
And the photo that made me smile the most is the good old chess board inside Microsoft paint which I put at the top of this post.
Ahh, memories.
It’s not January 1st, but I’ve got a weight loss goal. I think the title makes it pretty obvious.
My best friend Doug Baker is getting married on that day, and it will be the second time he and I stand side by side in tuxedos.
Unfortunately, the first time we were photographed in tuxes was at my wedding, and I weighed in at a whaling 260 pounds!
That was a year and a half ago. Today I am a much healthier 220. However, that is not good enough.
I’ve still got a stomach paunch, even if it is no longer an overhang.
The next pictures of me in a tuxedo will be much better!
I weighed in last night on my “official” gym scale, like the ones doctor’s offices use, at an even 220 pounds. I want to be 200 pounds by June 20th, which is the date of Doug’s wedding, and my tuxedo debut. If I averaged losing 2 pounds per week, that would put me at 200 in just 5 weeks, which makes my June goal very easy. However, it’s still cold and rainy making bicycling, my favorite workout, either miserable or impossible.
For now I have a standard workout regiment that I maintain at the gym.
I do all of my exercises in 3 sets of 15 repetitions, alternating between an arm and ab exercise. I don’t know all the technical names for the workouts that I do, so don’t make fun of my explanations below.
I think that covers everything.
Obviously bicycling is my cardio workout, which I will start doing once it warms up.
Eating right and going to the gym to do the above exercises Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings should get me there.
I hope to post pictures in the near future.
Good Luck with your weight loss!
It is absolutely about time I upgraded! Sheesh!
I have been running on 2.3 since I first launched my blog oh so long ago.
Well, if you have not used WordPress 2.7 then you absolutely must. It’s a wonderful improvement.
Please bear with me as in WP 2.3 there was no image uploader or gallery function so all of my images are hot linked from a download directory on my web host. I will be trudging through the site to find all of the broken images, but with 173 posts, it will take some time. Please leave a comment in this post if you find a broken link or image so I can fix it.
That’s all for this post. God Bless!
Slashdot showed the TechnologyReview.com Presto article talking about this new Linux operating system.
After looking at Presto’s website it’s tough to tell this is a Linux distribution. A free version will be available after Marth 16th, with a for-pay OEM version is available now.
The retail version of Presto will be available as a free Beta download on March 16, 2009.
Click here to try the beta version and send us your feedback!The OEM version of Presto is available now. Please contact oem@prestomypc.com for more information on how to get Presto customized for your product.
As someone who has been frustrated with Window’s long boot times, and who has recently become frustrated with Linux’s even longer boot times, Presto sounds like an interesting distribution.
Why Presto your PC?
The “inexpensively” makes me nervous.
One of the main reasons I have been attempting to make the switch from Windows to Linux is the big FREE price.
If you sign up for a Beta and are brave enough to install this O.S. please let us know what you think.
“Please speak up. I’m taping this entire conversation.“
No, this is not Court TV, or one of my favorite TV shows, Shark. This is a statement I would like to be making to every individual I converse with in the near future.
You see, I have a HUGE problem with gossiping and would like to see it eradicated.
In the February issued of Wired Magazine a man turned on GPS in his life, and shared his location constantly.
I would like to share the conversations in my life.
Now, is anyone going to talk to me after the microphones are turned on?
I don’t know.
Would you?
It’s well thought of that in each Greek hamlet every resident voted on issues concerning the populus.
Archeologists have uncovered many of the meeting areas these votes were thought to be cast at.
However, with an American population of over 305 million people, spanning 2.3 billion acres that’s not tough, it’s impossible.
In this, our digital world of online social networking, would it then not be possible to have every citizen vote on nearly everything concerning us through one such social network?
I understand the legitimacy and security issues. The website could be hacked, etc.
BUT: it could be possible.
Instead of this Representational Democracy Government we have, where lobbyist have jobs at all and we hear screaming about special interests groups daily, let every person vote, on everything.
Thoughts?