I think the last of the candy seeking hordes are gone. All said and done, we had roughly 350-400 kids.

It was a lot of fun, but they didn't leave much candy for me!

 Sound advice from FiveCentNickel.

Instead of buying warranty after warranty, why not create an "extended warranty fund." In other words, whenever a retailer offers you an extended warranty, simply transfer that amount of money into a dedicated savings account.

If/when problems arise, you can simply pay for the repairs (or replacement) out of your warranty fund. And once the fund builds up to a sufficiently healthy size, you can back off on your contributions.

There are two main benefits to self-insuring in this way. First, you'll get to earn interest on the money as it accrues. Second, you'll be the one that gets to keep the cash when your stuff doesn't break.

You know when you decide to pull that mean prank on your brother at christmas? You know, when you put the pair of socks you bought him inside a series of duct tape wrapped boxes reminiscant of Matryoshka dolls?

Apparently someone at HP does too. After setting the world record for excessive packaging back in july for shipping a huge box, which then contained sixteen smaller boxes, each holding two pages of foam wrapped paper.

HP wasn't happy though. They had to go bigger. Better. They had to ensure that those sissies at Dell or IBM or, heaven forbid, Apple didn't oneup them. They've fine tuned their carbon footprint enlargement program , by shipping a ten foot AC power cord from Shanghai-- in a giant, empty box strapped to a 10kg pallet.

  Way to go, boys. Keep up the good work.

Earlier, I posted about Sony's new eBook readers.

 Since then, they've made it official by adding the new readers to their website (for preorder.) I've spent a lot of time since then debating whether to get the Touch or Pocket version.

 Sony's PRS-300After much consideration and internal debate, I've decided on the Reader Pocket (PRS-300) It's petite size, and attractive price tag lured me over. I figure, if it's smaller, it'll be easier to carry around, and the gadget that you have with you is the one you use.

I agonized about the color selection for a while, but honestly, when your choices are between an ugly pink (pink was out anyway) and the dark navy blue -- which did tempt me. Classic silver won out in the end.

Office wars have been fought with paperclips, elastic bands and nerf guns since the first cubicle was erected over four thousand years ago. Here's the equivilant of the atomic bomb, 'cause once you bring one of these out, nobody else is going to attack you.