Here's a way to save a ton of time and grief when dealing with merchants and other companies in your area. You can check the company you are considering doing business with at this great site and get a "Reliability Report" detailing complaints and how the company handled the issues.

You can also check reliability by retailer type. Foe example, say you're going shopping for a car -- you can check out all of your area automobile dealers in the advanced search section and weed out the bad guys right up front. Nice folks these Better Business Bureau watchdogs with the white hats.

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Here's a neat trick to get census data when you don't have the time to wade through forty pages to get the information you want.

"QuickFacts" reports have been prepared by the Census folks giving you summary profiles that show frequently requested data items from various Census Bureau programs. profiles at the national, state, and county level are available here with just one or two clicks. Simply pick a location and up comes a one day summary report with selected "QuickFacts" in three categories: People QuickFacts, Business QuickFacts and Geography QuickFacts.

Another great service from your friendly United States government.

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Ever get a hankerin' for some of the classic old time radio shows? Here's a great place for old timers to relive the days of yore or for teeny boppers to experience a touch of interesting and entertaining history.

These kind folks describe this fine effort as follows: "We do not sell the recordings or charge for access to our site. We are trying to bring the exciting world of Old Time Radio to a whole new generation of listeners using the new technology of the Internet."

They have digitized and archived hundreds of vintage radio shows that you can listen to online. These are the shows that families used to tune in to in their living rooms before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet. So settle back and enjoy Abbott and Costello, Superman, Groucho Marx, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, Benny Goodman, Benny Goodman, Al Jolson, Mr. Moto, George Burns, Bob Hope plus hundreds of other classics all in their prime -- and all complete even including those old time commercials. Nostalgia radio at its best.

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Here's a great place to check out house appreciation in your area. At this neat site created by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight

(OFHEO) you can also do a side by side comparison of up to three geographic areas lining up historic quarterly appreciation rates for each. Rates for some areas have been tracked and are reported over a 30 year span. Data for others ranges from15 years and up.

You can track trends and watch appreciation rates escalate and decline.  This is an interesting place to learn from history. Give this informative place a visit - it's on the house. You've already paid for it with your tax check.