Mark. If there is one thing that annoys me more than anything else in this trade, it's the never ending line of people who tell the customers want they want to hear whether its accurate or not. Reminds me of the service manager that told one old lady that the fog that she kept finding on the inside of her car windows was a small coolant leak and we simply had to tighten a hose clamp, instead of telling her that as the vinyl interior cures it will give off chemicals that can fog the glass and it will go away completely by the end of the summer all by itself. I think I saw that car in to get the windows cleaned every week all summer long. What the service manager did was tell her what she wanted to hear, that something got fixed. You wrote "I just fixed an intermittent electrical issue for customer that spent a small fortune with 3 different garages that failed to fix the problem. " It takes four things to be able to fix a car. The right person, the right tools, sufficient training, and a broken car. Intermittent by nature are a car that isn't broken all of the time. If it happens to not be broken at the time that any of the other three shops saw the car, then they had no chance. Now keeping in mind what I started off with, people in this trade wanting to tell the customers what they want to hear, instead of the way it really is, you can go right ahead and fault the shops as you did, and play the hero card here. The facts are the forces at work inside of this industry that you allude to are going to hurt the consumer until we all learn how to be professional. Quote" The flat economy has effectively forced many employment/income/savings/credit challenged people to become self sufficient electrical/emissions troubleshooters and/or forced them to use the services of unemployed/under-employed mechanics that work from home, or on-site" Side work is stealing, pure and simple. Someone doing side work has no insurance, which a shop has to pay in order to protect the customer as well as themselves. They don't pay taxes which short changes everyone else that does. They operate in the street, or in a garage not zoned for the business, the list goes on and on. It's the classic apples to oranges kind of a comparison. You cannot compare what happens in someones back yard to what a real shop does today. Quote "Having a little knowledge also helps prevent customers from being taken advantage of by dealerships, independents, tire/brake/inspection outfits etc" Now where does one get this knowledge? In some back alley? Here on the Internet? You can find videos of people unlocking a door on the Internet with a tennis ball that has a hole cut in it. Its fake, but people want to believe it. Your response is IMO another tennis ball trick that unfortunately I don't have all day to debunk. Plus I have the disadvantage of having to tell it like it really is, not the sugar coated version that people want to hear as you did. Yes it costs money, and sometimes you might consider it "big bucks" for something that may seem relatively easy. Did you see Jerry's response just now? Quote " and the Security fault. My truck is a basic model, manual windows and locks, no electronic security. The dealer shop was successful in getting the SES Icon off, and in applying two "silent" recalls (not happy I didn't get a notice), but the Security fault did not result in any action... I'm concerned it is a computer problem, expensive to repair. The problem may be that the Security fault isn't on all the time, so if I had a reader I could look when it is on. The reality of that paragraph is first that Jerry contradicts himself in saying that the vehicle has a Security issue, but at one point says that its a base model with no electronic security. Not blaming him of anything here, but in a way that's a classic perception, and not an uncommon description that a customer might give to a shop. The security issue is likely real, plus it's intermittent. Tell me Mark are you trained and equipped to service that system? If so what scan tool are you using? (brand and software updated to 20XX model year)?? Sadly this is going to end up rhetorical, because I have to give the answer to make my point. Real techs today, understand that the ONLY tool to service that system correctly is the GM tech II, and the shop has to have a subscription to SPS. What tool would you use if Jerry would happen to own a Ford with a similar reported problem? How about a Toyota; or a Mazda; a Honda, an Acura, a Lexus, a Nissan, an Infinity, a VW, a BMW, Mercedes, Kia, Hyundai? Or any one of the other manufacturers currently available in the US market? The reality is techs and shops need vehicle specific training, and specific O.E. tooling for each one of the manufacturers or else they are working with a handicap, and potentially will find themselves unable to actually complete a given repair without sending the car back to the dealer, or having a mobile diagnostic technician come to their shop, or in fact they could come to a shop like mine for about 90% of the most common vehicles on the road. I ask you Mark are you genuinely equipped and trained to service the security system on Jerrys Truck? Would you be for all of the other manufactures that the readers here are likely to own? By taking on that expense, uncommon in the industry, it impacts what a shop like mine has to charge for even the things that are indeed easy. You attempted to make that look as if it is dishonest with your response and I take extreme exception to that. Dealerships, by their franchise agreement, have to be equipped for, and employ techs who are capable and trained to service things like Jerry's Security system. Only shops and techs who "get it" in the aftermarket step up to the plate and make the required investment in the tools, training and equipment required to do the complete job. Customers who understand this, realize that there are many ways to undercut the real professionals, but understand doing so causes either the professionals to charge even more for what they do, or else they have to dial back the services for which they are going to be able to perform for the customers. Or worse yet, simply shut down and no-longer be a viable option for the public. Think that's an exaggeration? Look at how many dealers are being forcibly shut down. If your above average, your still not trained and equipped to fill the void caused by a dealer that closes. I can't do that simply because of the volume of work that could be displaced. (There are only so many hours in a day). Back yard Bob isn't going to do it, because he wont go to any updated schools, and he darn sure won't buy the tools. Auto repair isn't cheap, it's actually under priced for what it really takes to do it correctly, and armed with the knowledge that is based in reality, a customer has a chance to find a real shop that will repair their car. That's my goal here Mark, exactly what was yours?

Hubs and I each have a Kindle, and we both love them! We are both avid readers, so our Kindles get a lot of use. When we travel, we always take books with us, and the books that Hubs reads are generally hard-bound, so bringing three or four of his books along makes for a heavy and bulky carry-on bag. But our Kindles will hold at least 1,500 books (each) in a nifty device that weighs about 8 ounces. It's so easy and convenient to have the Kindle with you at all times. If you have to wait at the doctor's office, you aren't stuck reading really old magazines that aren't of any interest to you (sorry, but Field and Stream isn't on my "must read" list); if you're stuck waiting for the bridge (in Sacramento, we have the Tower Bridge, which goes up/down, and the I Street Bridge, which turns) to allow river boats to pass, you've got something with you to read to pass the time (waiting for the I Street Bridge is at least a 15-minute wait), etc. When you're reading a book, and you turn off the Kindle, when you turn it back on again, you're right where you left off. If you leave that book and go to another, when you return to the first book, you're right where you left off. You can add your own notes/annotations. You can subscribe to magazines and/or newspapers, and they'll be automatically downloaded to your Kindle. You get a free 14-day subscription to the newspapers and magazines, to see if you want to continue with a paid subscription. (You can even get international newspapers!) Now, I'd like to respond to a few things that were written above: "Yes, books cost the same as in store. if the book is available in paperback- paperback price."" Not exactly correct. To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the cost of Kindle books can vary widely. Some books actually do cost a little more in the Kindle edition than they do in a print version. But that's relatively rare. Most books are significantly less expensive in the Kindle version, and most of those are less expensive in the Kindle version than in the paperback version. There are a huge number of Kindle books that are $9.99, there are a lot that are more than that - depending on the cost of the print edition; and there are a whole lot that are less than that. Some Kindle books are free (all of the old classics are, but many new ones are, too); some are $1 or $2, some are in the $4 to $7 range, etc. I recently purchased the following: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $6.77 The Girl who Played with Fire - $7.59 The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - $9.99 By the way, those prices are the same for the Barnes & Noble Nook. "You can share books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or PC's. PC app is included." Yes, you can "share" books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or computers, but only if those other Kindles are registered to the same account. My husband and I each have a Kindle, but mine is registered to my Amazon account and my husband's is registered to his Amazon account. We cannot share books/magazines between our Kindles. The PC app isn't exactly "included" when you get a Kindle. You can download - for free - the Kindle application for your computer/laptop, BlackBerry, MAC, Android, iPad/iPhone; but, again, your content will only show up in your account so you can't transfer it to a Kindle registered to another account. But, I can take our laptop and read anything of my husband's just by going to his stuff on it. :-) If you read a few pages of any book on, say, your BlackBerry, then you go to the Kindle, the Kindle will be automatically set to where you left off reading on the BlackBerry. "Back-lit for easy reading, even in direct sunlight -- only reader with this feature." Yes, the Kindle can very easily be read in direct sunlight. Absolutely not correct that it is backlit. If you want to read your Kindle in the dark, you will need an accessory light for it. Regarding text-to-speech on the Kindle -- it is not available on all Kindle books. But, when you look at the description for any of Kindle books, it will tell you if the text-to-speech is enabled. So, if you have a book with the text-to-speech feature and you want to use it, you simply press the Aa key (this is the one you use when you want to change the font size). You will then get a window which, in addition to allowing you to change the font size as well as the screen orientation (portrait to landscape), allows you to turn the text-to-speech ON, and you can also select whether you want to use the default male voice, or the female voice. You can also accept the default speed, or make it faster or slower. There are little speakers built in (look at the bottom of the back of the Kindle), or you can plug headphones in (port is on the top). You can adjust the volume level by a toggle switch on the upper right side of the Kindle. When you are using the text-to-speech feature, the "pages" of the book are automatically turned. You can also load MP3 songs on your Kindle and listen to them, but I haven't done that because if I want to listen to music, I'll use my MP3 player...

Maybe look into getting photoshop elements instead. It will allow you to make posters and flyers with all the fancy fonts you have. It usually runs between $79-99 and you can buy it on the dvd at you local staples or office depot.

I have an original eink kindle with wifi and free 3g and still use it but they don't make those anymore. These days I use the kindle app on my Samsung 10 inch tablet. I have unlimited mobile hotspot on my phone so can connect the tablet that way if I need to download a book while traveling. Mostly every where you go these days there is free wifi available. I ditched my kindle tablet years ago. Had the defective model with the charging port issues. Amazon replaced it 4 times but I had enough and found regular tablets far superior. I would just get a good e-ink kindle with wifi for him. If he reads a lot the oasis is very nice and you can get it in a 32GB model to hold a lot of books. I played with the 2 at best buy a few months ago and thought the voyage very nice even though it was pricey. Mary