Lee.org

I’m thinking of getting a cloud drive (NAS drive…) and want some advice. I want use a Macbook and PC to access my huge photo collection while at home and on the road. Can I set up a cloud drive to “just work” as a network drive both when I’m home and away? Like, can I view photos on the cloud drive through iTunes? Suggestions?

Thanks!

Turbotax saved my family $5,000 this week, I’m very happy! If you want to try it, here’s a $10 referral bonus/coupon.

http://share.turbotax.intuit.com/s/lee05

If you need to take out loans for school, a good place to borrow from is your own Roth IRA! You can take out as much money as you’ve put in without any penalties!

For instance, if you put $5000 into your Roth IRA a few years back and now there is $7000 in the account, you can withdraw up to $5000 scott free if it’s for school. When you do it, make sure you note it on your taxes or the IRS will think you had 1) an early withdrawal and a penalty, 2)additional income for the year. It’s important to note that a regular IRA doesn’t have this magical tax advantage.

Turbotax caught this detail and my (rather expensive) tax preparer missed it, despite me reminding him about it. After amending our returns for the last two years, Megan and I now have >$5k in refund checks coming!

(In Turbotax, in the section “Traditional and Roth IRA Contributions” there is a section that starts out “Withdraw from Lee’s Roth IRA Before 2016?”. You say “yes” and go from there. Of course, this means you have to figure out exactly how much you’ve contributed vs how much is in the account, which is a complete PITA. But it’s taxes, of course it’s a PITA!)

Here’s an article that talks about taking money out of your Roth IRA for education.

In addition, if you are planning on saving for your kids college with a 529 plan, that article and a few others I saw say that it’s better to use a Roth IRA instead! The trouble is, if you put money into a 529 plan and your kid doesn’t go to college, you are S.O.L.! But that’s not an issue with a Roth IRA. We haven’t started saving for Abigail’s college in earnest yet but 2018 is the year!

I sell my old books on Amazon. For the latest book, I noticed that Amazon took a 44% cut from my $20 book. That’s pretty steep! I wrote to support and they said, “Yup, a 44% fee sounds about right. Suck it.”

A few years ago, fees were more like 15%. I somehow doubt that the internet is getting more expensive.

Bah! where else can I sell used books?

I’ve been using Boomerang for Gmail for the last 5 years (previously) and it is still the most useful part of my email. It’s my auxiliary brain. What do I do with it?

• It sends me a reminder for messages that don’t get a response within a certain time: “Hey, we were chatting last week and I never heard back from you about…”
• I can write a message now and deliver it later: Written Saturday 2:16am but delivered Monday 8:55am, “Don’t forget Joe, we’re doing that thing at 11!”

I welcome you to try it. You get 10 free “boomerangs” which will give you a feel for whether you’ll like it or not. Here is a referral link for a small discount for us both. The $50/year is money very well spent. http://www.boomeranggmail.com/referral_download.html?ref=v9hwu

(UPDATE 4-1-21: follow this recipe instead! It works way better: Hard Boiled Eggs in a Pressure Cooker — WIN!)

Finally, hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel every time!

It drives me crazy that hard boiled eggs are sometimes  easy to peel and sometimes it’s a horrible mess. I’ve tried several methods with spotty success but I think Jenny Chang at BuzzFeed figured it out using the scientific method in her article I Tested Out Popular Tricks To Make Hard-Boiled Eggs Easier To Peel! I’ve used this method 3 times with excellent success. Read her article! Short form:

• Don’t worry about how old your eggs are
• Add 1 tbsp of vinegar to about 4 cups of water
• add eggs to boiling water and cook for 14 minutes
• chill immediately (I refill the pot with cold water twice)
• peel as soon as cool

Dipping fried egg in a tiny bit of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing tastes JUST LIKE hollandaise sauce! Yum!

Megan is very fond of her Miyako ceramic chefs knife. It has dulled over time. I’m having trouble finding someone that can sharpen a ceramic knife. I found a place in Marin but I don’t visit there often. Blah. I wrote Miyako for sharpening advice and they offered me a discount on a new knife and also said that Kyocera makes a home sharpener “…but we found it inconsistent”. Blah. Too much trouble. I’ll stick with steel knives and my Accusharp sharpener.

My friend Zee runs a project that is focused on connecting makers to people with disabilities to create open-source assistive technologies. They are putting plans online so anyone can 3D print their own AT devices! One of their flagship devices is an inexpensive, open-source, mouth controlled input device to operate a touchscreen device. Check out their website with many open-source designs: http://www.makersmakingchange.com/.

Are you a maker that wants to help people with disabilities? Sign up at http://www.makersmakingchange.com/, connect, and build useful stuff!

Last year I bought 6 Cree “True White” LED light bulbs. Over the last few months, 4 of them have burned out: not so good for something with a 5 year warranty. I wrote to them and they sent me upgraded replacements. Hurray for Cree!

That’s better than the 10-year warranty Calphalon pans I tried to return. They required that I mail them back. The $60 postage for UPS ground (and maybe $30 for USPS but I didn’t bother checking) would have cost more than the pans :-( So out on the street they went.