Total Customer Reviews: 4

My large main dog, Libby, is about 85 pounds, and as strong as an ox. I've taken her to obedience school, but I clearly haven't worked with her enough to distraction-proof her. She'll walk on a loose leash very nicely when there are no distractions, but when there's something that she wants to go see, or a person or another dog that she wants to go say hi to, she'll about pull your arm off lunging on the leash.

Enter the prong collar. These collars are actually safer and more humane than the older choke chains that used to be used for training. The collar spreads out the pressure across a greater surface area, and is designed so that it absolutely cannot choke the dog in the way the old choker collars could. Yet they are extremely effective. Some people call the prong collar "power steering for dogs."

When Libby's wearing the prong collar, she walks calmly on the leash and simply does not tug or pull, period.

Last Thanksgiving, we took Libby when we visited some friends on Captiva Island. One night, we all went for a walk on the beach to see the ghost crabs. I had not brought Libby's prong collar, and she nearly pulled me off my feet several times trying to get to the crabs. I finally had to hand her off to my husband, who later told me, "We're never taking Libby anywhere again without that prong collar."

I made sure I ordered the Herm Sprenger brand stainless steel collar. It's made of high-quality stainless and won't rust or deteriorate. I also specifically wanted the snap-on kind. The regular kind requires that you "squeeze" the prong links to interlock them to put the collar on the dog. The first one I bought was that style, and the large links are just too hard to squeeze sufficiently to get the collar on and off easily. For a smaller dog, where you're using a collar with smaller links, that would probably be fine, but for the larger collars with large links, the snap-on style is much easier to use.

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Total Customer Reviews: 3

My new All-Clad stainless steel cookware set is by far the best cookware I've ever owned, bar none. It cooks evenly and cleans up easily, and the 14-piece set includes pretty near all the pots and pans I'll ever need. Two frying pans (one of them is gigantic!), two saute pans (one of them is gigantic!), two sauce pans, a stock pot, and a chef's pan. Plus lids.

I've always made do with inexpensive cookware from Wal-Mart or Target, but now that I've used my All-Clad stainless, I'll never go back to that cheap stuff. It almost makes cooking fun. I particularly like the large chef's pan. It's great for so many uses, and it's large enough to hold plenty of food.

The high-quality stainless steel ensures even cooking, and is perfect for my induction cooktop. All-Clad incorporates a three-ply bonded design: an aluminum center core clad in stainless inner and outer layers. This produces very good heat distribution, with the durability and safety of stainless on the outside.

This is the kind of cookware that will last forever and can be passed along for generations. As soon as I can afford it, I'll probably get a set for my daughter, and years from now, my set can go to a grandchild. I don't want my daughter to have to wait until I die to have her own set of All-Clad. Yes, this cookware is that good.

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Total Customer Reviews: 5

I've been using dual monitors for many years -- since around 1990 or so. My need for screen real estate has continually increased, to the point that I recently went to a dual 22" system. I have two 22" Acer widescreen monitors on my desktop right now, and I frequently find myself wishing for even more.

I had been a die-hard Viewsonic user for a long time. Prior to my current set-up, I had a 19" Viewsonic CRT alongside a 19" Viewsonic LCD. But the old CRT was fading away, and my husband wanted my 19" flat-panel LCD, so I went looking for replacement monitors.

I was astounded at how much the LCDs have come down in price for big 22" widescreen flatpanels, and I realized I could have 2 of those babies for a reasonable price. So I went for it.

They include software with the monitors, but like most things with my Mac, it was a simple plug-and-play to hook them up. I did a little fiddling with the monitor calibration in my system settings to get the brightness and color the way I like them. There are also controls on the monitor itself to adjust the color balance, etc., and they were easy enough to figure out.

One of the first things you notice is that the display is bright! So bright that, for the first time in my entire life, I have the brightness set below its maximum setting. I like bright, so this is a good thing for me, but people who don't like their monitors so bright can adjust the brightness down a few notches.

About the only thing I don't like about it is that base isn't adjustable. That's not a big problem; I just stick a couple of books underneath to raise the monitor to the correct height.

Neither of my Acers has any dead pixels, which is an important point. Most warranties don't cover dead pixels unless you have several of them, and whenever I order a new monitor I always hold my breath and hope for the best. A single dead pixel down in a lower corner wouldn't bother me, but a couple of dead pixels smack-dab in the middle of the screen would bother me a lot. I've been lucky so far with these Acers and with the Viewsonics I've had previously.

The 22 inches of screen real estate is fantastic, especially for the price. At any given time I'm likely to have a lot of windows open in a lot of different programs: My main mail window plus one or two individual emails, at least 2 or 3 browser windows, my text editor, images in Photoshop, Finder directory windows, Skype, various utilities such as Yojimbo, my FTP program, my calendar and address book, a couple of Terminal windows, and frequently Windows™ windows (via Parallels on my Mac). So I need lots of screen real estate, and these 2 22-inch monitors give me what I need (most of the time, anyway).

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Total Customer Reviews: 104

I love my Cuisinart coffeemaker! I used to love my Braun, until it had a meltdown and nearly set my house on fire. It turned out to be under a recall from Braun, but their solution was to have me send it back, and they would repair or replace it and return it to me. Now, anyone who is serious enough about their coffee to have a Braun is serious enough that they will not be willing to be without their coffeemaker during the time between sending it in and getting it back.

So I went shopping for another coffeemaker. This time, it would be ABB (Anything But Braun). I settled on the Cuisinart DCC-2600. I love that it will make 14 cups at a time. I love that it has an auto-off feature with a user-selectable time setting. I love the charcoal filtration. Mostly, I love the great coffee it makes.

It has a timer, which I would use if I got up at the same time every morning, and if my husband didn't always get up before me and start the coffee.

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Total Customer Reviews: 81

When the zoom feature on my old digital camera started malfunctioning, I decided to buy myself a new one. On my previous camera, I had an optical zoom up to 7x, but because the lens needs to be bigger for that amount of zoom, the camera was on the large and bulky side.

I found that I often didn't have the camera with me when I needed it, because it was so large and heavy to tote around. So this time I went in the other direction, and began looking at the ultra-compact digital point-and-shoot cameras.

I ended up purchasing the Panasonic Lumix FS15. It's a very compact, lightweight little camera that packs a big punch. It can create high-resolution 12-megapixel photos that look great at full size on my 22" monitor. Yet the camera is small enough to slip into my pocket, and I'm barely even aware that it's there.

With an optical zoom of up to 5x (and digital zoom even higher), I can get up-close shots even when I can't physically get close to the subject.

There are multiple "scenes" you can choose from, which automatically set the optimum settings for things like nighttime, party, beach, portrait, sports, etc. It's easy to select a specific scene with a couple of button pushes, but the iA (intelligent auto) feature works so well on its own that I rarely bother with scenes.

I really like this camera, and I don't for one minute regret my choice.

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Total Customer Reviews: 4

My husband and I recently went to the Peace River Arts Festival. It's held in Laishley Park downtown, where dogs are welcome, so we brought both of our dogs. I realized I really needed a small daypack-style backpack that I can use instead of a purse to haul along all the things that women always need to haul. I wanted something smallish and lightweight; I wasn't looking for something to go hiking with in the mountains, just something to substitute for my purse when a purse isn't convenient.

I looked at both the Jansport Right Pack and the High Sierra Impact. Both are reasonably priced, and it was a toss-up which one would work better for me. I ended up choosing the High Sierra Impact for several reasons:

• It has a front zipper section with organizer pockets for pens and other small items
• It has a side mesh pocket for water bottles
• It has a pocket on one of the shoulder straps for a cell phone
• It has padded shoulder straps and a padded back panel, so that things inside won't poke me uncomfortably in the back
• The shoulder straps are contoured, not straight-cut, so it feels more comfortable on my shoulders

I probably would have been happy with the Jansport Right Pack, but I do like the little extras that the High Sierra Impact has, and the Impact was actually less expensive. For a small, lightweight, inexpensive daypack, the Impact will serve me well.

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Total Customer Reviews: 2

This little one-quart Emerilware saucier is a good product for the price. It has thinner sides than the more expensive All-Clad Stainless, but it has a thick bottom, a comfortable handle, and pour spouts, and it works just fine for sauces, soups, and such. I found it a little small for some of the sauces I make, and I'll probably buy a larger saucier soon, but for small amounts that will fit easily in a one-quart pan, this one is perfect.

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