Monday, December 29, 2008

GPs tracking

As with every new technology we've yet to work out the socially acceptable uses of GPS tracking. It's just like, say, cell phones. Sure, they're great to use but it's taken a decade since they became common for us to work out when it is or is not acceptable to use them. My local bar for example very much frowns on people using them inside. You want to take a call, go outside.

Very much the same thing will happen with GPS tracking: we haven't done it yet because the technology and the questions it throws up are all too new for us. Obviously it's great that truck owners can keep an eye on their fleet. That Fed Ex knows where drivers are. We can also see that GPS tracking can be used to keep track of the teenager's car. But that last one, we're not sure yet whether it's going to become entirely socially acceptable.

I'd say that it might, that it simply becomes commonplace, as normal as aiding the teenager in learning to drive. But it might not.

But where will the boundaries be? Will GPS tracking become common amongst people who think their parter is cheating on them? I'm sure that some people will try it, it's just that I'm wondering whether they will be thought to be odd or normal?

One thing I am sure of. Asthe technology matures it will be possible to do it to people, not just vehicles. And that won't become socially acceptable.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Those keyless locks

This is one of the bright new ideas that's come up in recent years, a keyless lock. Well, actually, there have beena number of different technologies used over the years to try and give us a keyless lock. Like, for example, the one that uses a plastic card to open the lock. But that isn't when you really think about it, a keyless lock at all. All we've done is replace the metal key and tumblers with a digital key and digital tumblers.

Now the technology has taken the next step and we really do have a keyless lock. You need nothing at all to open it but just yourself, extremely useful for those like me who continually forget keys (whether of metal or cards!).

What happens is that you record your fingerprint and it becomes your fingerprint placed upon the sensor that opens the lock.

It's the sort of thing which is undoubtedly going to become much more common....although I do wonder just a touch about whether this is going to lead to a spate of thieves cutting off fingers?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Repairing your credit

One of the things we all need to know is how to manage credit repair. OK, well, maybe not all of us, there might be a few lucky souls who get through the next couple of years without needing credit repair help but I don't think it's likely to be me or you.

Even in the good times it's easy enough to get carried away with the spending....when the bad times arrive of course we don't have the income we thought we would have and the debt burden can become crushing. But it's still not necessary to despair!

There are things you can do to help yourself deal with these problems. The first and most obvious is to make sure that any spare cash you do have is used to pay down the highest interest rate debt first. That means that when you've managed to pay off that one debt then you've got more to pay off others...

But of course there's much more to it all than just that so I would suggest that you have a look at what a credit repair company can do to help you. Just click through the link to get there.

Rural houses and the mail

As regular readers will know we've been sorting out a house down here for some time now. We've got most of one side of it done, my new office is just being completed as I write and then we've got one more bit to go before we're done.

But one of the things about being out here in the sticks is that we don't get a mail delivery to the house. Of course. So we need to find ourselves a mail box (or is it mailbox?).

Now, where should I go to try and find one of those? Out where we are there isn't going to be a store that sells them, that's for sure. Aha! onto the Web and look for mailboxes. And what do you think I've found? Yes, a site dedicated to all the different sorts of mail boxes I could possibly desire. And all at the best prices and ready for fast delivery.

If I could just say thanks to Sir Tim Berners Leee here for making this possible?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Auto Insurance

OK, so we all know that we've got to have auto insurance before we go out driving on hte roads, right? Even if we're in a State that says you don't in fact have to have it there's no point in trying to be stupid about it and driving without at least third party insurance. But whre is it that you can go find out about California auto insurance quotes? Where can you get a look at a standard California auto insurance policy?

Well, actually, if you click through those links you'll find a great deal more information on both of those things. Plus qwhat the standard California auto insurance coverage is.

Well worth doing in fact for those are the three things you really need....well, if you're looking to buy auto insurance in California of course. That's pretty much the starting point of it all. But assume that you are. Then you want to know what are the general and specific terms of coverage, what's going to be in hte policy and then where you can get quotes for such insurance.

All of which is available through those links.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Entrepreneurship

There's always a certain confusion about exactly what is entrepreneurship and what is an entrepreneur.

To an economist the answer is easy enough, even if the answer has only recently been arrived at. There used to be thought to be only three factors of production. Land, labour and capital. These would in some mysterious manner organise themselves so as to be efficient in their production.

The way we now think of it is that there is a fourth factor of production. That's the entrepreneur. The dreamer, thinker, risk taker, who roganises the other three and thus makes them more efficient....if he's to be successful and he'll be unsuccessful if he makes them less productive.

Now if you want to know more about all of these things, in detail rather than the rather broad brush approach I've used, might I suggest you click through any of the links, to learn more about how to be a young entrepreneur and young entrepreneurship in general as well?

Sunday, December 07, 2008

To catch a falling knife

It's been said that trying to call the bottom of a financial market is to try catching a falling knife. Terribly impressive if you can do it but highly likely to cause great damage.

However, there are times when we might want to try doing this: like now. Are we at the beginning of a recession? In which case financial assets are absurdly cheap. Or are we at the beginning of a depression, in which case they might be about the right price? No one really knows as yet....however, there is something we do know about how we should approach investing if and when we think the time is right.

We should be using a online broker to do our stock trading. The thing that usually kills the efforts of the individual investor is not lack of knowledge: the professionals don't often pay for themselves. No, rather, what really kills is the costs of moving in and out of a position. That's what online trading allows you to cut, the costs of doing that, of buying and or selling a specific stock or bond.

So, remember, when you decide you do want to try catching that falling knife, do it online.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Honda Accord

Okay, so we know that there's a new Honda Accord out there. There must be. For it is 2008 so there's almost certainly going to be a 2008 Honda Accord, yes?

But how do we find out about it it? Sure, we could simply wait until the local newspaper does a review of it but that's pretty hit and miss. Or we could go down to hte Honda dealer but that's not really known as a source of unbiased information now, is it?

What we'd really like is a site full of Honda Accord reviews. So that we know we're getting both unbiased views and also a lot of them. You know, on the basis that having more peoples' opinions is a better thing than having only a few.

Excellent, well, we're in luck then, for there is a site devoted to 2008 Honda Accord reviews. If you want to know more about the car then that's where I recommend you go.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Get Your Tickets Here!

Yes, it's that season upon us again. The time when we all want to go off and see the great holiday season shows. What would Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, be, without the long lived tradition of going to see such shows? It all started with the British tradition of pantomime of course, but it;s been taken a great deal further in our own dear land.

Well, here's some advice. There's one really good place where you can get the tickets to these spectaculars, these extravaganzas. For example, here's where to get your Radio City Music Hall tickets. Here for your Citi Field tickets. And here for your Ringling Brothers Circus tickets.

An easy site to use, great choices of times and dates and of course some of the lowest available prices. What more could you ask for: time to start booking the seats for you and the kids already, isn't it?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Car repair costs

Now this is an excellent little idea for a site. Serioulsy very good indeed.

So, when something goes wrong with your car you don't know how much it is going to cost to repair it, do you? I certainly don't have a clue about such things. However, now there is a site that will tell you hte likely cost of your car repair. You tell them what make you have, what's wrong with it, and they give you free car repair estimates. So, when you go shopping to actually get them done you know what would be about the right price for you to be paying.

But that's not all. They'll also tell you where your local auto repair shops are, along with ratings and reviews for them.

Of course this works even better when it's a well known problem like brakes, pads replacement and so on.

I think this is a really great idea and I recommend that you try it out.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Wrestling Trophies

This is one of those things that you never really think about until you actually have to. So, there's all sorts of sporting competitions going on all the time. Huge numbers of them in fact, at schools and colleges all over the country. And I'm sure that there are many more which aren't connected with any part of academia.

OK, so there's all these competitions...but where do they get he trophies from then? Like, say, the wrestling trophies? Until this thought popped into y head I'd never actually though about it. Now it has, I did think about it and off to Mr. Google. Yes, there is indeed a company that makes trophies for just about everything.

Like swimming trophies and cheerleading trophies and just about every other sport that you can imagine.

OK, no, I know that it's not very important. But I do love the way the modern world allows me to scratch these informational itches so easily.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Putting the Lights On

OK, so we're fast appraoching the end of our adventure in trying to get this house here sorted out. And of course one of the last stages of that is putting the lights on. In both sense of the phrase.

Of course, we're going to be doing our shopping online. Who would trapise around all the stores when you can see açç the different light fixtures in just one place. And, of course, have a drink in your hand while you do so?

But being able to see all of them, instead of just the small selection available in a bricks and mortar store, does rather leave us with an embarrassment of riches.

Do we want chandeliers? Ceiling light fixtures? Or the more general home lighting?

Excuse me, I'm going to take my own advice and go get a drink while I ponder these choices.

Slainte!

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Poker Referrals

Aren't you so grateful to those loverly law makers who decided that because they thought that playing poker on the internet was a bad idea that you ought to be banned from doing so?

Yes, I thought so too....which is why I rather support those who carry on and enable you to play as you might wish.

I also support those who make it cheaper or better for you to entertain yourself in your own time. For example, by providing the Full Tilt referral code, or the PokerStars bonus code or, if you prefer, the PokerStars marketing code.

It's your time, your money, it's your life to live as you wish. If you want to spend it playing poker then by all means, as far as I'm concerned, you go right ahead....and those links there will make it that little bit cheaper for you to do so.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gluten Free Foods

I've got several friends who are gluten intolerant so I'm always interested to see when there's people making more foods availablefor them. I also like to have them around as well, like most of us do with our friends, and it's a right paid trying to cook for people who can't take gluten. You never know when a little flour from something else might just drift into whatever you're preparing.

So I've been looking around to see if we can't do better. Get some prepared foods which are indeed gluten free so that we can all eat from the same meal without that sort of worry.

Fortunately, I've found a site that does indeed do gluten free foods. This gluten free organic chili looks good for example. It's the right sort of price and combining that with say Nut Thin crackers makes a reasonable approximation to a taco, no? Or maybe serve it over thin rice noodles to approximate a Cincinnatti style chili?

This also looks fascinating, quinoia macaroons. I've heard of quinoia of course, just never actually had it. Excuse me while I get ordering, will you?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Modern Furniture

As all you regular readers will know we've been sorting out this little house of ours and have managed to get to the stage where it's actually secure from the elements and worthy of living in. We've still got the old furniture but now the actual building expense is behind us, perhaps time to think about replacing it.

So I've been looking around and come across this site of modern furniture. While we've got an old house it has been entirely gutted and redone, meaning that contemporary furniture won't be out of place: far from it, with newly white walls and tiled floors, it should fit right in. In fact, there's a definite thought that Italian furniture, given the layout and style of the rooms, would be appropriate.

So excuse, me, having found this site I'm off to have a closer look at their designer furniture. I need to make sure that I can actually afford it all (it's very well priced, but you haven't seen the other half when she's in full buying frenzy) before I tell the wife about it.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Shopping for Video Games

Yes, OK, we know there's a myriad of different computer games systems out there. We also know that there's any number of people willing to try and sell you one, or a game for one, online. That's great, but how do we find one central point to give us all the information we need to work out which one to buy? And at what price, who is going to give us the deal?

That's where ShopWiki comes in. Instead of putting at the top (like so many shopping guides do) those who pay for inclusion in the index, they spider out across the web and thus pick up all of the offers. So you're getting all of the information.

On top of that, and this is the cool bit, they also provide guides to each sector of the market. For examples, here's their video games guide. So to start with you've got a decent overview of all of the different available systems. You can then drill down into the sectors that most interest you. Say, Playstation 3 games, classic console games, or perhaps you're more interested in the Game Wave?

Each further sector gives you another guide and then further refinement under that. And then when you've found what you're looking for, you then get the shopping guide as to who is offering that at the best deal.

And excellent system and one you really do want to try if you're shopping online.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Education, Education, Education

I think we're all pretty clear now that the way forward for each of us as an individual is through education? That to progress we need to get to college and stay there long enough to graduate?

Good, although that now brings us to hte problem of how to pay for it all. Fortunately, there's something that college usually does for us: graduating means that we earn more money in hte future. We can therefore borrow now and pay back the money out of those increased earnings in the future.

There's many different kinds of student loans. There's the Federal government ones, but those can be limited in hte amount you can borrow and also by the income of the rest of your family. Or there are private student loans.

If your circumstances change then there are also possibilities for student loan consolidation, where you bundle up all of your loans in to one. This can lower your monthly payments as when you do this you can extend the repayment terms.

All in all the offers and availability are such that no one needs to skip college simply because they can't afford it. Which is a good thing, opening up the opportunities of education for all leads to a fairer and richer society.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Bruce Germinsky

Are you looking for New Jersey Shore real estate? Commercial, retail or high-end residential real state in New Jersey?

OK, if you are, might be a good idea for you to click through one of the links in this post to the Bruce Germinsky office, specialists in New Jersey Shore property.

They cover the area for professional and medical class A property, for ocean front luxury condos and waterfront homes, they're the experts in the area and marketplace.

It's worth remembering that when you go looking for property there's only three things that matter: location, location and location. So when you do go looking you want to make sure that you hook up with experts who know the area, know the locations.

And that's just what Bruce Germinsky has as their expertise: the experts in the New Jersey Shore real estate market.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Getting Life Insurance.

If you've got dependents, wife, husband, children, whatever, one of the things you need to make sure about is that they'll be taken care of if something awful should happen to you. A disease or an accident taking you away permanently, for example.

We're talking of course about life insurance. At heart there are two types of this sort of insurance. There's with profits, which is a form of savings plan plus life insurance. Now if you've already got your savings sorted out, perhaps an occupational pension, or a decent 401(k) for example, then you really don't need this. What you do need is term life insurance.

Click through any of those links to see a great little site which will help you find the best deal you can for this product. There's more than 140 compaies in the comparison engine, so you can be assued that you'll be getting the insurance you need, the protection for your family that you want, at the best possible price.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Return of Premium Insurance

Now this is clever idea, something called return of permium insurance. It's a way of dealing with the most common complaint about term life insurance: that sure, you get your insurance, but at the end of it that's all you've got. You've spent all that cash and it's gone.

The essential idea is that the end of the term of the life insurance, all the premiums you have paid are returned to you: and no, this isn't little fly by night companies, this is all from the giants of the industry. So if, during the term, you do pop your clogs, you get the insurance payout (or your heirs do rather) but you also get your money back.

Actually, the way to think of this is like a hybrid between pure term insurance and with profits life insurance. And the price is going to be somewhere between the two as well. It just depends what you want....all three give you life insurance, the last type, with profits, acts as a method of saving as well, and the return of premium type means that you get the insurance but you also get your money back (but with no interest: that's what actually pays for the insurance).

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Credit Repair

One thing that is vatially important in a modern economy is to keep your credit rating in good shape. So much of what you can do comes from whether you are able to borrow as and when you want or need to that if you do end up with problems here you really will need to pay attention of the various methods of bad credit repair.

One of the simplest and most obvious methods of credit repair is to actually borrow more money but to make sure that you do indeed pay it all back on time. But even that can be difficult if you don't know how or where to get that further loan. There are also other possibilities in negotiation with lenders, in consolidation of laons and so on, but the possibilities are so many, each with their own catch or trick, that you really rather need expert guidance.

Fortunately that sort of guidance is available through this credit repair service: if you think you need help on this it might be a good idea to click through the link and see what they have to offer.

Monday, April 14, 2008

List Marketing

The most important thing that any business does is markets its goods and or services. Sadly, it really isn't true that if you invent a better mousetrap that the world will beat a path to your door.

You have to make them aware that you have indeed invented that better mousetrap.

The most effective way of doing this is to use a marketing list. Say, for example, your service will appeal to lawyers: and only lawyers. You thus will want to get in contact with list brokers and get a list of lawyers from them. No point in spending any money on advertising or trying to sell to anyone else, is there?

Or if your product is of wider appeal, you might want some consumer mailing lists.

Whichever it is that you need, worth clicking through any of those links to see what The List Company can do for you: they've got 300 million Americans and more than 14 million businesses on their databases.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

UK Mortgages

This is a time of turmoil in the financial markets, as we all know far too well. It's also a time when it's getting harder to get a good deal on a mortgage. As, again, all too many of us know.

But that just means that you need to do more research into mortgages to find the best deal, the one that best suits you. The UK mortgage market isn't as appealing as it was, many fixed interest deals are being withdrawn and so on, so where can you turn for details of the mortgage quotes that are available?

Fortunately those nice folks over at Motley Fool have a section addressing exactly this problem. Just what are the mortgage deals available at any one time? Click through any of the links to find out.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Relocation Services

As someone who has moved around the world too many times (yes, I'm very bored of it now) I really do wish that when I was movoing I'd known about these relocation services experts. Reliance Relocation (for that is their name) seem to take care of everything for you: something that I would really love to have had done for me.

The deal with moving services, of course. Supplying the material to pack into, theycan do the actualy packing, they'll do the actual moving itself, of course, store what you need to be stored and so on. It's all so much easier when you've got professionals doing all of these things for you.

They even offer moving deals, coupons which you simply print off and present to the movers when they're at your place.

I'm not intending to move again any time soon, but if I do I'm going to be calling hese guys.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Those Ring Tones

So, you've got yourself the cool new phone, the best pricing plan, and now, well, you've just gotta customise it, don't you? So how about a few free ring tones? Although I'm resolutely non-technical, even I know that you can set it up so that different incoming callers have different ring tones, meaning that more than one is these days pretty much a necessity.

Have a look over here, they've got country ringtones, and rock ringtones: actually, and pretty much every other musical style as well. Dave Matthews Band, Fall Out Boy, I mean, why not?

However, I think I'm goingfor somthing very different indeed. How about the Because I Got High ringtone? Rather suits my position in life, don't you think?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Online Bingo

This looks interesting, a new (to me) site where you can play online bingo. I have a feeling that their business is probably surging at the moment as the idiot rules that stop you smoking in a bingo hall continue to bite at the trade out there in meatspace.

They play an awful lot of different bingo games in there as well, there's everything from constant games to big events where prizes climb up to as much as £5,000. And as those who understand the rules of bingo know (which must be just about everyone, isn't it?) that prize will be won by someone each and every time.

Yup, I'd say that if you like a little bit of a flutter, are into playing bingo, then PartyBingo looks like a decent place to do it.