Products Tim has tried and found to be great! (and a few not so great)

All of us are consumers whether we like it or not. To live is to consume. It is often hard to know what the right choice is when buying a product. So here are some I've tried and can recommend (and a few to avoid). Please note that your mileage may vary.

• Cars
  • Honda, Subara, Toyota, Acura, Lexus - Just about all the cars these manufactures make are great but double check with Consumer Reports for current details.
• Computers
  • Macintosh notebooks and desktops, IBM Thinkpads, Dell desktops have all worked very well for me. (I've had mixed results with Dell notebooks, Sony notebooks, and Toshiba notebooks)
• Cordless Phones (900Mhz, 2.4Ghz)
  • Uniden - Every Uniden phone I've bought has worked great (I've used 6 different models so far). My luck with Panasonic (2 models) and Sony (3 models) has been just the opposite - none of these seemed to ever work right - they all had weird bugs. I also recommend 900Mhz over 2.4 and 5.2 Ghz -- much cheaper, work just as well, and do not interfere with wireless computer networks.
• Magazines
  • Consumer Reports - Honest & unbiased, they do fair and rigorous comparisons of products.
  • Consumers Checkbook - They evaluate products and services that are specific to certain regions of the US.
• Software
  • FileMaker Pro - I'm a database professional, yet FileMaker is my favorite database because it is relatively easy to use, powerful, and cleanly cross platform.
  • Acrobat - Sometimes confusing to use but an incredible product that helps you create and manipulate epaper. Emulating real paper is a really challenging task (regular paper is a very sophisticated and refined technology) but Acrobat does an amazing job.
  • Coach's Game Card - A program I wrote to help myself and other recreational soccer coachs track how much time each player has played in total and in each position.
• Swim Goggles
  • www.aquagoggles.com - Before getting a pair of these, I had tried a bunch of different prescription swim goggles most of which looked kind of goofy and worked just ok or not so ok. The ones from www.aquagoggle.com look sleek (like regular swim goggles), are inexpensive, are very adjustable (so that they will fit you), and just work.