tuf ghost

I want to poop back and forth

2009-01-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

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Denpa Shonen - Nasubi: Does My Beard Tickle You?

2008-12-31T17:51:00.000-08:00

Screen cap from that Japanese game show where the guy has to survive on prizes fromo radio and magazine contests. Watch it on Hulu here.

Pavlov

2008-12-16T23:21:00.001-08:00

Santa Gives More to Rich Kids than Poor Kids

2008-12-16T23:08:00.001-08:00

"stop lying to your children about santa clause"

'I Jack Off On Titties..."

2008-11-22T16:59:00.001-08:00

I'm a Mac/PC - Obama vs. Bush

2008-11-10T19:18:00.000-08:00

Palin

2008-11-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Meth

2008-11-02T22:16:00.001-08:00

The Truth

2008-11-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Nine Inch Nails - FAIL BSOD

2008-11-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

NIN - BSOD FAIL

Tweety

2008-11-02T22:03:00.003-08:00

violins

2008-11-02T21:58:00.001-08:00

Cereal Killer

2008-11-02T21:55:00.001-08:00

The 8 Ball Problem

2008-10-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

FirstClassThoughts.co.uk has posted a fun thought experiment logic problem. Thought I'd share it here:

The problem is quite simple. You are given 8 identical-looking balls, one of which is heavier than the other 7 (all of which weigh the same). Using an old-fashioned mechanical set of scales you must identify the heavier ball using the scale as few times as possible. The scale is constructed using two bowls and an arm enabling the bowls to either balance or have one bowl rising while the other (and heavier bowl) falling. You can't just add one ball at a time thinking its one weighing, however, you may put any number of balls in each bowl... All you need to solve the puzzle is to use a bit of common sense.

Click here for the solution. Hint: it's not 3!

Twins?!

2008-10-22T02:35:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.voicingopinions.com

10 Epic Web Failures

2008-10-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

David Towers over at GoodWebPractices.com has a great top ten of the 10 most epic web venture failures. Great article:

These outstanding web failures did not require a $700 billion government bail out but they did manage to burn a hole in someone's pocket!

1. Myspace
The idea: Social networking site aimed at 13 year olds.

Spent: Rupert Murdoch paid $327 million for MySpace in July 2005 (more info).

Highlights: More than 100 million users. Users can add friends, customise their profiles, add comments to profile pages and embed music. Myspace was Voted #1 worst website by PCWorld.

What went wrong? Myspace let users personalise their pages making the majority of profiles look horrific and illegible.

2. HavenWorks.com
The idea: News portal

Spent: $120 per year for past 9 years (Hosting cost!)

Highlights: Homepage is over 800k! Over 3600 diggs for HavenWorks being the worst designed website on the net. Received over 70,000 visitors in March (according to Compete).

What went wrong? What didn't? How this site has been online over 9 years defeats imagination. HavenWorks looks more like a pack of sweets than a news website.

3. Pets.com
The idea: Sell pet accessories and supplies direct to consumers.

Spent: $82.5 million in 2 years.

Highlights: Most trafficked online pet store at the time. Created a famous sock puppet which appeared on TV ads (watch a medley of Pets.com TV ads here). Ran a Super Bowl ad which cost $1.2 million.

What went wrong? Unsustainable business model. Who wants to wait 2 days for your cat litter to arrive when your cat has already pooped all over the kitchen floor.

4. Webvan
The idea: Online grocer, sold and delivered groceries within the US.

Spent: $1billion in 18 months.

Highlights: Went from a $1.2bn company with 4,500 employees to bust in less than two years. Share price went from $30 to 6 cents in a few months.

What went wrong? They built an infrastructure that cost over a billion dollars before they had made serious profit. The directors didn't understand the importance of cash flow!

5. Kozmo.com
The idea: Free one-hour delivery of any items above $10 (like DVD rentals or Starbucks coffee) within their service area.

Spent: Over $280 million in 3 years.

Highlights: Amazon invested $60m in Kozmo. Expanded to 7 US cities. Over 1100 employees. Advertised on TV. Documentary film made which portrays the fate of the company (e-Dreams, 2001).

What went wrong? How did they expect to cover the huge start up costs delivering DVD rentals and a pack of gum for free?

6. Flooz.com
The idea: Create an online currency. Can you lend me a Flooz?

Spent: $50 million in 3 years.

Highlights: Promoted by comic actress Whoopi Goldberg. Flooz lasted two and a half years. Russian mafia used Flooz for money laundering!

What went wrong? Who wants to use pay for products using an online currency when they could just use a credit card! What were they thinking?

7. eToys.com
The idea: Sell toys online.

Spent: $166 million in 4 years.

Highlights: Stock went from a high of $84 per share in October 1999 to a low of just 9 cents per share in February 2001.

What went wrong? Classic boom-to-bust, spending outweighed the company's income.

8. Kibu.com
The idea: Online community for teenage girls: "fashion, music, and boys"

Spent: $22 million in less than a year.

Highlights: Backed by a number of big Silicon Valley names including Jim Clark. Ran out of money and closed the site 46 days after the launch party!

What went wrong? A spectacular failure. Boom to bust to under a year. Some say Kibu.com was a victim of the fall in the financial markets as a result of the dot com bust.

9. Boo.com
The idea: Sell expensive branded fashion apparel.

Spent: $135 million in 6 months.

Highlights: When Boo.com went bust, they owed over $21million to creditors. Boo.com's software and technology purchased at $70 million, were sold off for $250k.

What went wrong? They built a site using JavaScript and Flash in the days of 56k modems so users had to wait ages to load the site, they also employed 400 people when they only needed 30.

10. Microsoft live search
The idea: Create a search service that people will actually use.

Spent: Several billion dollars!

Highlights: Multiple attempts to buy out Yahoo. Launched two programs to entice users to use Live: Cashback and SearchPerks. Cashback was launched in May 2008 and didn't have a significant effect on traffic numbers. SearchPerks was launched on the 1st October and probably won't do much either.

What went wrong? Live's search results are so poor, users can't even be bribed to use it! Live search has less than 10% of the search market.

Full article

McCain's Tongue

2008-10-22T01:45:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.blogforum.nl

Sarah Palin's High School Report Card

2008-10-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hey! I could be Vice President!

This is floating around the internet. Some think its fake, but could be real. The social security number matches up; what do you think?

I Already Have You

2008-09-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Pacman

2008-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, it IS me.

2008-09-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Broken Consumer Electronics

2008-09-19T18:56:00.001-07:00

clipped from blog.putplace.com

Smashed up shit!

DIY Ghost

2008-09-19T18:41:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.upcool.com

Feeding The Homeless Hack

2008-09-19T18:28:00.001-07:00

25 Must-Have Thumb Drive Apps

2008-09-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

TrueCrypt – encrypt your thumb drive to protect your information

ToDoList – A tak management tool that allows you to repeatedly sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces whilst still presen¡ting a clean and intuitive user experience. (Windows Only)

Portable Firefox – Leaves no personal information behind on the machine - you can take along your browser/extensions/bookmarks anywhere

Pidgin Portable – All-in-one instant messaging (supports AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, G-Chat, etc)

WS FTP32 – ftp client

FileZilla – yet another ftp client

Notepad2 – a fast light-weight advanced text editor with syntax highlighting

Notepad++ - this is one of my favorite text editors – now made portable

Color Cop – this is one of my favorite freeware apps – includes an eyedropper you can drag over any window to grab the color value. It then offers a palette of 42 complimentary colors to the one you've picked.

Ifranview – a light little graphics viewer/editor that packs a big punch. You can use it to work with screen captures, create slideshows and more

GIMP – the popular open source image editor packaged as a portable app – very robust

7-Zip Portable – handles zip, gzip, tar, rar etc

Allway Sync – syncs files between your thumb drive and PC

Unknown Devices – helps you find out what the unknown devices in the device manager are

TestDisk – data recovery software that can recover lost partitions or make drives bootable again

UTorrent – my preferred bit torrent client – I love having this with me wherever I go

Roeder's .NET Reflector – recently purchased by Red Gate, this still-free app can be used to explore .NET assemblies, understand relationships between classes and methods, find where types are instantiated and exposed or check that code has been correctly obfuscated before release. There are also over 30 add-ins available.

Process Explorer – formerly Filemon and Regmon, this is an invaluable sleuthing tool

TightVNC – based on the popular VNC remote control software, this version can live on a thumb drive

WinMerge – compares differences between files and merges changes. It has the same features as the desktop version

Text2Html – a text to HTML converter – converts text files into HTML format

Portable Apps Suite – this is the mac-daddy of them all – it includes Firefox, Thunderbird(email), Sunbird(calendar),ClamWin (antivirus), Pidgin(see above), Sumatra PDF Readable, KeePass Password Safe, OpenOffice, CoolPlayer (audio Player) and even a couple of games

Restoration – Recover accidentally deleted files – even after they were deleted from the recycle bin

Infra Recorder Portable – cd and dvd burning

RockXP – allows you to recover windows passwords or keys, change keys, display system password, and more – sneaky!

Reverse Graffiti

2008-09-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

From: Inhabitat:

"A number of street artists around the world have taken to expressing themselves through an innovative practice known as Reverse Graffiti. Taking a cue from the “Wash Me” messages scrawled on the back of delivery trucks, they seek out soot covered surfaces and inscribe them with images, tags, and even advertising slogans using scrub brushes, scrapers and pressure hoses."

Pie Chart

2008-09-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

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Anti-Theft Lunch Bag

2008-09-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

httpvtinyurl.com/5pznkm">

Email the designer to buy these when their available.
Site
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5 Tips To Great Web Design

2008-09-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

If you're building your very own website it will really serve you in the long run to pay special attention to website design from the outset. Sure you can go back and fix things at a later date, but a lot of damage can already have been done to your online credibility by that point - and that credibility may take a very long time to build back up again, so why take the risk?

Here are five do's and don'ts to ensure that any Website you design lives up to a basic level of good usability from a visitor's perspective.

1) Splash pages are not a good idea

What's a splash page? It's the first page you see when you arrive at a Website. The specific ones that are bad are those that say something like 'Welcome!' and then have you waiting for several minutes while some audio or video presentation loads - not a good idea. Remember, your Website visitors will typically have a very short attention span.

Your site is competing with millions of others and making your visitors wait around will only make them want to hit the back button in their browser and go visit somewhere else. The first page, the 'Home' page, of your Website should be a genuine content page with a fast load time, i.e. not excessive in the graphic department, where all of the other pages and sections of your site are easily accessible from.

2) Don't overdo it with the banner adverts

Excessive use of banner adverts will tend to give your Web pages a slow load time and, particularly if they flash and pulse in a kaleidoscope of color, will irritate and annoy your visitors rather more than they'll entertain them. But they'll make you money, I hear you say? Will they? Most experienced Webmasters will tell you that the days of successful banner advertising are pretty much in the past.

Most Web surfers these days have learned that banners are advertising and obvious advertising tends to get tuned out. You can get away with one or two banners per page that look in context with the general look and feel of your Web pages but overdoing it will only make you look like an amateur. Banner farms are so old hat and don't impress anyone these days, if they ever did.

3) Make your site's navigation menu simple and easy to understand

How many Websites have you found that left you completely bewildered when it came to finding your way around and locating the information that they appeared to promise and that you were looking for? Probably more than you care to remember, sadly. And how many of them did you choose to revisit after having been bamboozled first time around? Not many, right? Well, learn from your own experience here and make sure that you put a lot of time and effort into planning your site's navigation menu so that it is logical and easy to understand. It's a good idea to test it on a few friends to see if they can find what they're looking for without any help from you. If they can't, it's back to the drawing board.

4) Choose your Website color schemes wisely

If you give your visitors a headache when they're at your site they'll a) leave quickly and b) not come back. One of the best ways to achieve those two undesirable effects is to choose some sort of garish color scheme that even your Website's Mother would not be able to love. Pay particular attention in this regard to text. Make sure that your text is of a size that makes it comfortably readable and that it stands out clearly from its background. This is best ensured by sticking with normal black text on a white background.

5) Get rid of that annoying muzak

You don't have cheesy 'tunes' playing in the background on your Website do you? If you do, please get rid of them. It really won't do you any favors, you'll just come across as a complete amateur who really doesn't care about annoying their visitors, and if you want a successful Website, that's not something you should be going out of your way to do. That's not to say that audio and, indeed, video don't have a place on a successful Website.

With the ever-increasing use of broadband Internet connections it is perfectly possible to integrate informative and entertaining audio and video presentations into Web pages that might even be more acceptable to your target audience than plain old text on its own. Just make sure that the audio and video you provide can be turned on and off by your Website visitor and has easily-adjustable volume.

It's really very tempting to just jump right in and start building your Website without much planning but it really is more sensible to spend a reasonable amount of time working things out on paper first. Doing this will almost certainly save you time in the long run by minimizing the number of mistakes you'll have to correct that jumping in with both feet without thinking will inevitable lead to.

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Choosing A File Manager To Use

2008-09-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Most computer users today are spoiled by the richness of the graphical user interfaces or GUI. In Linux, we have dozens of desktop environments that compete against each other for dominance. Right now, GNOME seems to be winning. However, accessing servers remotely using the same desktop environment puts a heavy demand on the network connection. This is one of the reasons why mastering the command-line interface (CLI) is an added ammo in a system administrator's arsenal. Frankly, it is a must-have in my book.

Anyway, using the CLI does not necessarily have to be too tedious specially when dealing with file management, e.g. moving files from one subdirectory to another, etc. The task is made simpler by a file manager named Midnight Commander (after the popular DOS utility, Norton Commander).

Installation is as simple as invoking "sudo apt-get install mc". It should not take that long to download and install. PolishLinux.org has a short walk-through of what you can do with Midnight Commander.

Also, it is useful especially for new Linux users or those who are simply not comfortable using the command-line interface (CLI).

Since I am a CLI-user, I find that Midnight Commander, a Norton Commander look-alike, useful especially when deleting selected files or transferring selected files from one subdirectory to another.

The choice of File Manager is really a personal issue. The selection of a file manager is a highly personal decision. For most users, Midnight Commander is probably the command-line choice that is quickest to learn. Few users will want to use one of the generic file managers unless they are already familiar with it from another Unix-like operating system. Of the modern file managers, Konqueror the most satisfactory, so much so that otherwise dedicated GNOME users have been known to install KDE mainly so that they can use it.

However, for those who have always relied on file managers, the first choice has to be Krusader. Combining the centralized functionality of earlier generations with the look and feel of modern applications, Krusader is by far the most complete of the file managers I've mentioned.

Depending on your priorities, you might settle on another choice, but it's worth taking the time to explore your options. For many users, the choice of a file manager remains nearly as important as the choice of an editor is to a developer. A file manager can't force you to organize your files, but the right one can help you keep them that way.

Local News Footage of The Killdozer

2008-09-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

From Cracked:

"It was during that six months that Heemeyer built a death machine, a Komatsu D335A bulldozer outfitted with armor plating over the cabin and engine.
The armor in some places was over a foot thick and had concrete between sheets of steel, making it pretty much unstoppable. The tank was also outfitted with onboard cameras and monitors in the cabin so Heemeyer could see where he was going. The inside was made nearly airtight to resist a potential gas attack and had air conditioning, food, water and life support. Once he got in Heemeyer had no plans to actually leave the bulldozer."
Here's the full article

This is some great footage of the Killdozer in action.

'Killdozer' on YouTube

Teen Allegedly Delivers LSD Cookies to Police in Texas

2008-09-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

A 18 year old, Texas man was arrested for giving cops LSD cookies. He delivered the cookies while working for MADD.

From MyFoxDFW Reports:

"Police on Tuesday arrested a teen they said delivered LSD-laced cookies to police departments across North Texas.

They said Christian Phillips of Watauga made a delivery on Monday -- stopping by the Blue Mound Police Department to drop off a batch. The 18-year-old said he also planned to deliver cookies to Lake Worth Police Department, police said."

Read the full story here.

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Serial Killers, A Pie Chart

2008-09-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

Banksy Tours The South (A Collection of Photos)

2008-09-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of photos of Banksy's new pieces he's been doing in the South.

My First Cavity Search

2008-09-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Psycho Weatherman Fan Won't Go Away

2008-09-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Fear Makes the Wolf Look Bigger

2008-09-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Crayon Carvings

2008-09-02T12:13:00.001-07:00

Yin Yang Egg

2008-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Your Chance of Getting Out Alive

2008-09-02T10:12:00.001-07:00

Sucker Punch

2008-08-31T11:48:00.001-07:00

Fox News Strikes Again

2008-08-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

"Fire Box Traps Pranksters"

2008-08-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

Beijing Olympics, One World, One Dream…

2008-08-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

Democratic Convention: Live Audio of Denver Police

2008-08-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

ScanAmerica.us is streaming police scanner communications live from the Democratic National Convention. Check out what's going on in the streets of Denver, here.

John McCain - POW Bros

2008-08-27T07:31:00.001-07:00

Sewer Art

2008-08-26T19:23:00.001-07:00

I Am Legend/Home Alone Trailer Remix

2008-08-26T19:06:00.001-07:00

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene

2008-08-26T19:01:00.001-07:00

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

Foam Hand Monster

2008-08-25T17:20:00.001-07:00

Samsung Attempt To Trump iPhone With Packaging

2008-08-25T00:26:00.001-07:00

via videosift.com

World Guitar Speed Record

2008-08-24T22:22:00.001-07:00

starts out fairly fast then progressively gets faster and faster up to an insane 320 bpm.

http://view.break.com/543621 - Watch more free videos

15 Unbelievable Photo-realistic Vector Illustrations

2008-08-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not all of these images are 100% vector.

How To Live Within Your Means

2008-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

Planning and goal setting are critical to your success if you want to become wealthy. The two key traits of people who do not become wealthy are, firstly, they tend to spend all of the money they have and, secondly, they do not know what they spend their money on. The lack of goals is the main culprit. Ric Edelman, author of The Truth About Money and Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth, calls this "spending unconsciously". He says the reason why people spend without giving it much thought is they have no goals. Without goals, we live unconsciously from moment to moment, we never plan for the future, we spend all of our money, and as a result, we are unlikely to ever become wealthy.

"Unconscious spending" is more prevalent in our society than we realise. I would estimate approximately 80% to 90% of the population do it. With the exception of one or two people, the vast majority of my clients had no idea what they spent their money on until I asked them to prepare a list of their total expenditure and outgoings before our first session. In fact, many were too frightened to do the initial exercise and waited until they arrived at my office, so I could help them through the ordeal. Money matters simply scare people. They are terrified to know how out of control their finances are. Yet, this is precisely what needs to be done before we can start working on a solution.

Whilst it is important to become relaxed and carefree with our financial matters, this does not mean careless. We become carefree with money when we know that it is not a scarce resource, we work on increasing our income, we invest a little time on a regular basis to plan and review our finances, and we systemically set aside part of our earnings regularly to build our savings and investments for the future. We are careless with money when we don't keep track of what we are spending and squander money on things that are wasteful, extravagant and not needed.

I often compare money to water, another important commodity in our lives. Both are essential and critical to our survival, however, we rarely worry about water in the same way we do about money. We systematically set aside water when it rains in dams and reservoirs to provide us with water 'on tap' when we need it. We are careful not to waste water, however, at the same time we can relax and not have to worry about it on a day to day basis. When we apply the same reasoning to managing money we are well on the way to becoming wealthy.

After we resolve our beliefs about money and realise that becoming wealthy is within our possibilities, the next step is to put aside a little time to set goals and do some planning. Planning does not have to be an arduous affair. It takes approximately one to two hours upfront to prepare your plan and, thereafter, an hour a month to review or revise it.

The first part of your plan is to set some goals. For example, accumulating $500,000 in income-producing assets in 15 years is not a difficult goal to achieve. If you save $170 a week into investments returning an average of 15% per annum for 15 years, you will have your half a million dollars. Goals will help you focus on the future and increase your willpower to prevent overspending. The more concrete you make your goals, the more committed you will be to achieving them. Set timeframes and break them down into manageable steps, as in the example above, to make your goals more realistic and attainable.

Along the way, however, we also need to manage our day-to-day spending to ensure that we set aside the required savings to achieve our goals. There is a simple, effective formula that everyone can apply to easily manage their finances. I call this the 40%-30%-20%-10% rule. This formula is used to measure your expenditure and cash outflows. You divide your expenditure into four categories and calculate the total of each category as a percentage of your net (after tax) income. The four categories are Fixed Costs, Variable Costs, Discretionary Costs and Savings.

Fixed Costs are your essential costs that are known and have to be paid on a regular basis. For example, mortgage or rental payments, personal loans and credit card repayments, insurance, council rates, and school fees. These costs are usually determined by your lifestyle choices, the size and cost of your house, cars and major possessions, and therefore difficult to change without making major adjustments to the way you live.

However, because fixed costs are comprised of debt and committed payments, they are critical in determining your ability to create wealth, as well as your capacity to lead a stable financial lifestyle. If your fixed costs are too high, you will probably be living from payday to payday worrying about the next large bill that arrives. If your fixed costs take up too much of your weekly pay packet, there will be less to spend on other essential costs, and often little for luxuries - unless you go further into debt.

Variable Costs include our essential living expenses, which can vary from week to week, yet you have some control over what you spend. These will include food, clothing, groceries, mobile phone expenses, medical and motor vehicle running costs, such as petrol and repairs.

The previous two categories relate to essential costs that we cannot live without. Some are controllable (variable costs) and some are set (fixed costs). Discretionary costs are expenses that are non-essential and highly variable. These costs are very much in your control and where most choice is possible about how much is saved each month. For example, entertainment, dining-out, presents, holidays and all luxury items that we love but can live without. I affectionately call this part of our budget, our 'play money'. The problem with most budgets is they often exclude this significant element and this is why most people fail. We all need a little play money and a few luxuries in life.

Whilst working with this formula with my clients, I found that people who live within their means tend to spend their money roughly within the 40%-30%-20% rule. That is, their fixed costs are roughly 40%, their variable costs 30% and discretionary 20% of their net income. The more I worked with this formula the more I realised it was an excellent way to achieve two things. First, it provides you with a simple effective method for planning and allocating your finances, and secondly, it is the perfect method for getting you out of debt and into wealth.

The most critical category is fixed costs. The fixed costs of people who are living comfortably within their means are generally around 40% of their income. People with fixed costs above this percentage, tend to lead lifestyles that cost them more than they can afford. The size and quality of their homes, cars, furniture and other items that they have borrowed for, have forced them into excessive debt. Because fixed costs are comprised of debt and committed payments, they are crucial in determining your ability to create wealth. If you want to be wealthy, you have to be committed to dropping these costs below 40%.

When clients first come to me, their fixed costs are often 50%, 60% or even 70% of their net income. The aim is to reduce that percentage to 40% or less, over time. Creating wealth is about building strong financial foundations that cannot be shattered regardless of what we may be faced with in the future. Regrettable, strong foundations take a little time to build.

People in severe financial hardship usually have fixed costs that are greater than 65% or 70% of their net income. This is usually due to excessive debt or insufficient income. People who are in financial crisis, where they tend to live from payday to payday and seem to be going from one financial problem to the next, tend to have fixed costs between 45% to 60% of their income. If their fixed costs are approximately 40% of their income, they are living comfortably within their means, and if their fixed costs are below 40%, they usually have excess money that could easily be channelled into additional savings and investments. So the key to good financial management is managing and controlling your fixed costs.

Remember, it is all done by measuring your fixed costs: if your fixed costs are 40%, you are living within your means, if your fixed costs are above 40% you will be putting yourself under financial strain, and if they are below 40% you will be in a surplus position. Therefore, if you want to accelerate your wealth, keep your fixed costs well below the 40% mark and invest the surplus.

If excessive debt is keeping your fixed costs high, formulate a debt free plan and do not go deeper into debt. Learn to live with cash. It is far more finite and when the cash runs out, you know you definitely cannot afford to buy those extra purchases. If low income is your problem, consider all alternatives to increasing your income. These may include: part-time work, turning hobbies or crafts into cash or investing in additional training to further your career prospects.

Also, to decrease your fixed costs you may have to make some difficult decisions about the way you live. Is the house you are living in far too costly for you? Are you running two cars when one could suffice? Can you downsize anything now, which is costing you far too much money? Are you trying to live well above your present means buying clothing, accessories or electronic gadgets that you cannot afford? Are you a shop-oholic, and can never resist a bargain - regardless of whether you need it or not? Are your credit cards always to the maximum limit and you cannot afford to pay the balance? These are often difficult choices to make, but well worth it in the long run.

Remind yourself that you can have the bigger house, cars, toys, etc - later, when you can better afford them. If you get a bigger mortgage to upgrade your house or borrow for a better car, you will increase your fixed costs. By keeping your fixed costs as low as possible, you will accelerate your progress to becoming wealthy. Your plan should always aim at decreasing your fixed costs below 40% by either increasing your income or decreasing your debt, or both. Once you have achieved this, use the extra money to add to your savings and investments. This is the guaranteed way to accelerate your path to wealth.

Understanding How GPS Works

2008-08-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

GPS is very common place today, yet many of us don't even understand how it works. In fact, a lot of people don't even know what GPS stands for, all they know is how to use it. The term GPS refers to a technology that is also known as Global Positioning System. GPS has become more and more refined over the years, providing consumers with the ability to get from point A to point B much more easily than they had in the past. In fact, paper maps are quickly becoming obsolete.

The Way GPS Works

All GPS units work using the same technology. GPS units get all of their data from orbiting satellites and information about time and position is transmitted from these satellites to the GPS unit. These satellites can communicate with units on the land, in the air, and on the sea. These units are able to calculate where they are located at any one time based on the information that they receive from the satellites. Theoretically, GPS systems can work all around the world.

Of course, for the GPS unit to work as accurately as possible the unit must be able to have a direct line of sight to at least three satellites in the sky. Many people have found that if they are camping, hiking, or driving in an area where they are in deep canyons or surrounded by rock that it becomes very difficult to get a signal, and so the GPS unit may not work at all or it may not work as well as one would think. On the flip side, if you are in the line of sight of more than three satellites the GPS unit will be very accurate, often able to place you within 15 to 20 feet of your actual location!

Many people believe that to make the most of the GPS technology they have to buy the most expensive unit on the market, but this is not necessarily true. All of the units use the same technology, the more expensive units usually just have more bells and whistles such as more user friendly interfaces and touch screen displays. You can buy a very basic GPS unit that will get you around town and on your short trips without a hitch, but if you need a GPS unit that will help you with complicated routes you may want to go with something more costly.

A World Of Warcraft Leveling Guide, For That Extra Help Towards The End Game

2008-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Some people just can t wait. In all things that happens in their lives they want to see the end result as quick as possible. so it is not that strange that those same people would like to finish World of Warcraft sooner then most other players. They start with the game and their only goal is to get to the finish. These people really need a leveling guide. They show them the right strategies they should use, so a game that would normally take months or years would take them only weeks. Before they know it they are playing with the champions in the Horde and Alliance. All this just to get to the end game as quick as possible.

Should I Grind or should I Quest

You could achieve your goal faster when you start with defeating enormous amounts of enemies in player versus environment play, this is called grinding. There are leveling guides that will point out the enemies that will give you the best leveling results and talking to people who have used these kinds of guides they all said this was the easiest of the mentioned two ways. Most guides split up grinding in many layers, this way you are always going against enemies that will, as quick as possible, help you level up in a very fast way.

Another way of leveling up is by questing. There are many, many quests in World of Warcraft and those can keep you busy for a lot of hours and you would never see the end game and still be happy playing World of Warcraft. Because there are so many different quests in the game some will give you a better leveling then others. So the leveling guides that use questing as a way of gaining a better level in a faster way will show you which quests are the ones you should choose. Maybe you should use both methods and create a bit of variety in your game play. It doesn t matter which type of leveling guide you choose in the end both will help you reach the end game much faster then you would with regular game play.

So if you are one of those people who want to go to the finish in the fastest way possible then you should definitely have a leveling guide by your keyboard when you play World of Warcraft. On the other hand you could question your self if the fun of playing the game wouldn t be better if you were to discover all these things by yourself. It is your choice. One thing is for sure, sometimes when your really stuck in the game and don t seem to get any further then a sneak peak i very tempting. Maybe asking your question in a World of Warcraft forum would be better then to reach out for a leveling guide.

In the end it is up to you. Play the game the way you want to play it. It s your money and your time you know best how to spend it.

Reading Your Cell Phone Bill knowing Your Minutes

2008-08-22T18:59:00.002-07:00

Many people complain that they are paying too much for their cell phone. After an original cell phone service plan of approximately $50, some people are paying extra money every month and have no idea why. Most admit that they do not understand their cell phone minutes as they are listed on the bill, so these people just pay the amount due on the account every month. If you are one of these people, Understanding your minutes can go along way to saving you money.

On a typical cell phone bill, the first section listed is your Calling Summary. This area breaks down the kind of minutes that you used and the number of minutes used during the billing cycle. To understand this section of your bill, you must first understand the different kinds of minutes.

There are Anytime minutes. These are calls that are placed at peak times, usually Mondays through Fridays between 7 a. m. to 9 p.m. These minutes are the basis of your whole cell phone plan. If you have gone over your allotted amount of these minutes, the additional costs can be great, considering some cell phone companies charge as much as $.45 per minute for every minute that you have gone over. Most companies also count anything less than a minute as a whole one, so if you use 20 seconds to check your messages the company will count it as one minute. If you notice that every month you are exceeding your Anytime minutes, you should consider upgrading your cell phone plan. The additional cost to do this will save you money in the end.

Next on your bill there may be Off peak minutes. These minutes are the same as Nights and Weekends and refer to calls made at slower business times, usually in the evenings from 9 p. m. to 11 p. m. and weekend hours. Many companies offer these minutes free, but you should always keep track of what time you are making the calls. If you start a call at 8:58 p. m., the call is costing you Anytime minutes. You should also be aware that if you are traveling, your Off peak minutes start at the designated time in the time zone in which you are in, not the time zone in which you live in. So if you are from Arizona but are traveling in New York, your night and weekend minutes will begin at 9 p. m. Eastern Standard Time.

Next on your bill are In carrier minutes. These are more commonly known as mobile to mobile minutes. These minutes are calls that are made between two cell phones. Many cell phone service providers offer special plans (such as MyCircle from Alltell) to the people that you call the most. You can just register the people and their phone numbers with your cell phone service provider and the company will not charge for any calls made to those particular numbers. These plans may be a good idea if you call the same people numerous times during the week. Even if you do not have one of these plans, some service providers will offer discounts if you and the person you are calling use the same provider.

Understanding the different cell phone minutes and the method used to bill you for them can help you cut down your monthly bill. By knowing which types of minutes that you are receiving extra charges for can help you choose a new plan with your service operator to ensure that your cell phone bill remains affordable.

eBay Data and Research - How Important Is It?

2008-08-22T18:59:00.001-07:00

eBay is a business irrespective of anyway you might want to look at it. Sure, it is a great deal of fun for both the buyers and sellers, but when you look at it from another view point, you will see that it is a business from the seller's point of view, the buyer's point of view, and eBay's point of view. Up to 40 million dollars a day travels through eBay. Being able to sell numerous items on eBay successfully is an art, and eBay offers many different forms of Data and Research to ensure that you are selling the right items, to the right people, in the right way.

Some of the data and research is not free, but much of it is. The available resources include hot items by category, eBay Pulse, merchandising calendar, sales reports, marketplace research, buyer behavioural report, and the eBay solutions directory. These tools are quite easy to use, and the information that can be gleaned from them is extremely valuable.

The Data and Research tools are all accessible through your sellers account, by clicking on the 'Advance Selling' link. Learn to use those tools, and get your piece of that $40 million eBay revenue each day.

eBay Gift Certificates - The Gift Solution Suitable for Everyone

We all know one. There is at least one in every family, and one in every circle of friends. There is even one in every office! There is always that one person that you know who is absolutely impossible to buy a gift for! These people either have everything, or want nothing. They do not drop hints at all, and when asked, they simply say that they do not know, they do not care, or they do not want anything.

Well, now you can buy a gift for that person. The solution lies in an eBay gift certificate! This will allow your loved one to essentially buy anything that they want, in a very exciting way. eBay gift certificates can easily be purchased through PayPal, in varying amounts.

There are things that you should point out to the gift recipient, however. For instance, eBay gift certificates do expire. eBay gift certificates will not be accepted for all auctions either - they can only be redeemed for those auctions that accept Paypal as a form of payment. Other than that, your loved one should not have any problems redeeming their eBay gift certificate!

Who Will Eventually Win The War Firefox or IE?

2008-08-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

There has been so much speculation and controversy surrounding both of the browsers, that it is quite hard to tell which one will actually end up winning the war, both have there benefits and both have there target markets. But lets just take a closer look.

If I went up to say my sister or my aunty and asked them do you what Firefox is? I would probably get a reply of something like is it a firework. If I then asked the same question and said do you know what internet explorer is I would get a reply of, yes its a browser on which you use to surf the internet. Maybe even if they didn't know they would probably be able to guess by the actual name of the browser. There are two aspects that have made internet explorer the leader in the market. Firstly is the name as mentioned earlier, everyone knows what internet explorer is for and what it is meant to do. Secondly is the fact that most household personal computers come installed with Microsoft windows, which automatically has internet explorer preloaded.

Now lets take a look at Mozilla Firefox, this browser has been growing tremendously, especially with webmasters of all natures. The reason for its unprecedented growth I believe is due to its fast loading times and the option to add a variety of different plug-ins. We all know that the user generated niche is at an all time high, just look at sites such as Digg, Reddit and Myspace they are all global successes and that is exactly what Firefox does. Just look at the growth of face book the reason they have grown so much is simple, they allow users to have total control over every aspect, they can choose who views there profiles who there friends are and most importantly it gives developers the opportunity to develop unique bespoke applications.

All in all I don't think firefox will outrun internet explorer in the near coming future, the reason for saying this is because Internet explorer is still a major brand application and normal users, by that I mean non technical users will not just go and download firefox because they are happy with IE. It gives them exactly what they want the ability to surf and view sites. Until firefox targets the non technical users I believe they will be struggling behind Microsoft for along time.

Where's the tanks?

2008-08-22T18:35:00.001-07:00

click for large version.

Giant LEGO Boulder - Video

2008-08-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

Harmonics - Salt on a vibrating table

2008-08-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

Like, Stop Saying "Like"

2008-08-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Solar Prius

2008-08-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

"The solar panels, which will be made by Kyocera, will likely only produce 1 kW of electricity, so the drivetrain will continue to be powered by the gas-electric hybrid motor while the air conditioning unit the primary beneficiary of the new power source. While this is definitely more of a symbolic gesture — and has even been characterized as such by an anonymous Toyota insider – it’s definitely good to see a company taking the lead in innovation and pushing the limits of what’s possible."
From ecotechdaily.com

Geriatric Fencing

2008-08-12T10:43:00.001-07:00

Lucky Bastard

2008-08-11T22:25:00.001-07:00

Here's an image from the San Diego fires that seems to be too amazing to be real, but is actually totally genuine. It's circulating around with the caption 'lucky bastard.' The photo appears to have been taken in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood of San Diego, though I could be wrong about that. According to the navy website from which the picture comes, the photo was taken from a Sea King helicopter by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Michael J. Pusnik, Jr.

Cash Inside Glass Advertisment

2008-08-11T22:17:00.001-07:00

Beautiful Suicide

2008-08-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.

Awesome Japanese Matchbooks

2008-08-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

These matches have animal faces on the match tips. Wish I could find a pack of these!

DIY Super Bright Cop Flashlight For Under $10

2008-07-28T02:17:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.veoh.com

"Make a $100 super bright cop Flashlight for less than $10. Brighter than SureFire! Easy to do!"

I am going to try this out. The end result looks amazing.

Jesus is Lord of the Rings

2008-07-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Found in Fremont, CA on a street light pole.

Get a Belt!

2008-07-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

The Flint, Michigan police are going to start cracking down on people with saggy jeans. The above graphic is not a joke, its to illustrate whats allowed and what isn’t. If your pants are too low you get charged with disorderly conduct or indecent exposure, both misdemeanors punishable by 93 days to a year in jail and/or fines up to $500. The Flint police force has moved from crime to fashion.

Moss Graffiti - Environmental Vandalism.

2008-07-13T01:48:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.instructables.com

Horticulturist's of the past came up with a brilliant recipe to encourage the growth of moss to age and add interest to their garden designs, this recipe can be used as an an environmentally friendly alternative to spray paint.

Recently, I've taken an interest in "environmental graffiti" and guerrilla gardening. Instructables' has a guide to making moss graffiti. I'm going to try this out for myself.