FirstSearch Blue

AWS Console login page is down

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:30:09 GMT

seems no one can log into the console https://console.aws.amazon.com/console/home

We're seeing: 504 Gateway Time-out

Comment if you learn why or hear an update

Their status page claims all is up..

Best Caprese Salad Recipe

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:18:21 GMT

We call it the Leaning tower of Caprese

Caprese salads can be made in many ways. Manipulations of the three key ingredients (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil) will result in different varieties of the salad - all being delicious. Here is my favourite version of the Caprese - it’s not really a leaning tower so much as one that has fallen over. Read the recipe and try your own take on it by changing its geometry or adding your own secret ingredients.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - I prefer the Kumata brand with roughly 4-5 small sized tomatoes
Mozzarella - A large ball of fresh fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella
Basil - Buy it fresh and with full leaves
Olive oil - I like Italian or Greek olive oil that has a slight burning sensation when you taste a teaspoon of it
Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Wash and dry the tomatoes and basil. If the basil leaves are still on the stem, remove and discard the stems. Tear the leaves into small pieces.
Pour out the brine solution in the mozzarella packaging.
Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella in about equal sized pieces. Cut one more tomato slice than mozzarella. This will make sure that you have two tomato ends to help hold the shape together.
Alternate tomato and mozzarella slices in a row. Use the tomatoes for structural integrity and position the end pieces to steady the whole salad.
Sprinkle the basil leaves on top of the row. For me, it’s the more basil, the better.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

We also like to drizzle the salad with a bit of good balsamic vinegar.

For a hot version, I created a twist on a recipe I enjoyed at Mario Batali’s Osteria Mozza restaurant in Los Angeles. Roast cherry tomatoes with minced garlic, basil, olive oil and seasonings in the oven at 375 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes. Slice the mozzarella and place it on top of toasted baguette pieces. Top with the tomatoes and the cheese will melt slightly, making it the best version of bruschetta you will ever have.

Find the Perfect Rental Unit | How To

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:11:43 GMT

Searching for a rental unit can be tough, time-consuming, and stressful. Whether you're desperate to move now or even looking well in advance, some tricks and tips can help ease the process so you can relax in your new home as soon as possible.

1. Know your limits and must-haves

These limits should incorporate all requirements for your new home. For most, the main limit is the budget. Work within a minimum and maximum window. Some don't think to set a minimum, but choosing a minimum monthly rent can actually help eliminate units way below your standards and save you hours of search time. For example, if you are looking to spend $1500 on a 1 bedroom apartment, a good budget window is $1250 - $1750. The lower limit still allows for some larger bachelor or studio units worth looking at and the upper limit may include add-on's such as a den, parking, etc..

Do you want to be close to work or school and have regional boundaries? Select a grid from which you will map the available units and try not to deviate far from the outermost streets you set. If you want to walk to work in under 20 minutes, make sure that these boundaries abide by that rule. You don't want to regret moving 10 blocks further away to save $100/month in rent if it requires you to spend even more on public transit each day.

What is your move-in date? Do you need parking? A storage locker? An apartment or condo with gym and pool access? These are all things to consider.

2. Search multiple online resources

By far, the easiest way to sift through thousands of rentals is online. Take advantage of websites such as Craigslist, Kijiji, MapLiv, Realtor.ca, and Padmapper, which allow you to peruse the latest rentals and quickly contact home owners, realtors, and landlords. In some markets, units can be signed away within hours. It is best to keep up-to-date on the current listings if you're serious about finding your perfect new home.

3. Be picky about viewings

Initially, it may be best for you to take a look at a ton of units in your desired area so you can get a feel for what it is you want. This also helps you to figure out the size or layout you like and distinguish between what is a good unit and a good photographer. Once you are able to make judgement calls based on provided photographs or descriptions, you can cut down the viewings by about half. Only go see the units you would seriously consider leasing. It is not worth your time or effort to check out a basement apartment if your main requirements include floor-to-ceiling windows. By selectively setting up viewings for only the best rentals, you can spend your searching time more effectively with fewer disappointing results.

4. Check out the neighborhood

You have found the perfect rental unit. It fits your budget, general location, and size requirements. Before signing the lease, take a look around. This is easiest to do on the way to the viewing or immediately after. Do you feel safe walking the surrounding streets alone? Are there grocery stores nearby? Pharmacies? Coffee shops? Think about your daily (and nightly) activities and make sure this neighbourhood can offer you most of what you want. It's not necessary for it to have everything on your wishlist, just know that it will create a positive atmosphere. If you want to be close to the nightlife, you may be happier with a 5 minute walk than a $20 cab ride to the hottest bars and clubs.

These tips can still apply when working with a realtor or looking to purchase a home. Now that you know some key concepts involved with the house hunt, you can spend less time searching under stress and more time enjoying your new pad.

Installing Software on Ubuntu Server 14.04

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 13:42:57 GMT

Install Oracle Java 7 on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-set-default

Install Glashfish 4 on Ubuntu:

#Download Glassfish 4
wget download.java.net/glassfish/4.0/release/glassfish-4.0.zip
#install the unzip program
apt-get install unzip
#unzip the glassfish zip to you /opt directory
unzip glassfish-4.0.zip -d /opt
#start glassfish app server
/opt/glassfish4/bin/asadmin start-domain
#change the admin password (the current/default is blank):
/opt/glassfish4/bin/asadmin change-admin-password
#enable remote access to the admin console
/opt/glassfish4/bin/asadmin enable-secure-admin
#restart the domain
/opt/glassfish4/bin/asadmin restart-domain

Ignore Foreign Key Constraints During Truncate or Drop

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 20:35:54 GMT

If you are trying to drop/delete or empty/truncate a mysql table and you keep getting an error that you are violating a foreign key constraint, you may want to temporarily ignore that constraint. The code below demonstrates how you can tell mysql to ignore foreign key checks, delete/truncate the tables you need to, then re-enable foreign key checks

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;
TRUNCATE MY_TABLE;
DROP HIS_TABLE;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;

Create new MySQL user and allow them to connect from any IP

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 03:36:55 GMT

If you are getting the error: user is not allowed to connect to this MySQL serverConnection closed by foreign host

Or : Access denied for user 'root'@'somehost.com' (using password: YES))

Then you probably have not created your user properly in MySQL
Here is how to create a new MySQL user and give him access to connect to the database from any location (local host or remote host).

Execute the following 4 queries - probably easiest to just run them from within the SQL section of phpMyAdmin (use the same username and password in queries 2 and 4 - these are the username and password you want to give to the new user you are creating)

CREATE USER 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'username'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
CREATE USER 'username'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'username'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;

(note, make sure you have told MySQL to listen for connections from all hosts and not just localhost)

MySQL See all columns and tables that foreign key to a table or column

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 16:35:17 GMT

If you're trying to understand how an existing database has been setup it can be very useful to see all of the tables/columns that foreign key into some other table/column.

use INFORMATION_SCHEMA;
select TABLE_NAME,COLUMN_NAME,CONSTRAINT_NAME,
REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME,REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME from KEY_COLUMN_USAGE where
REFERENCED_TABLE_NAME = 'your_table_name'
AND REFERENCED_COLUMN_NAME = 'your_column_name'

Ruby MySQL Transaction Example

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:29:04 GMT

Here is a simple tutorial showing how to implement transactions in Ruby with MySQL.

The code uses The MySQL2 Gem. We are showing the insert of 2 records into the customers table of a database. If either insert fails, both will be rolled back.

require "mysql2"
client_mysql = Mysql2::Client.new(:host =>; "localhost", :username =>; "my_user", :password =>; "my_password")
client_mysql.query('begin')
begin
mysql_query_insert_customer1 = 'INSERT INTO MyDatabase.CustomersTable (name, phoneNumber, address) VALUES ("FSB", "888-555-5555", "322 Firstsearch Way")'
result_insert_mysql = client_mysql.query mysql_query_insert_customer1
mysql_query_insert_customer2 = 'INSERT INTO MyDatabase.CustomersTable (name, phoneNumber, address) VALUES ("FSG", "887-555-5555", "322 Firstsearch Road")'
result_insert_mysql = client_mysql.query mysql_query_insert_customer2
rescue Exception => e
puts "+++++++ DB ERROR - ROLLING BACK ++++++++"
puts e #print the MySQL Error
client_mysql.query('rollback') #rollback both of our insert statements
exit #exit the script/app (you might want a softer touch)
end
client_mysql.query('commit') #commit the changes to the DB
client_mysql.close

Setup a new GIT repository

Sun, 23 Mar 2014 17:20:48 GMT

Here is a quick reminder of how to setup a new git repository on your git server and check it out on your client machine.

On The Server

cd /opt/git
mkdir newproject.git
cd newproject.git
git --bare init

On the Client

cd /home/user/projects
git clone git@gitserver:/opt/git/newproject.git
cd newproject
vim README
git add .
git commit -m 'added new README'
git push origin master

Medical Alert Systems for 2013

Sat, 20 Jul 2013 00:58:14 GMT

As our loved ones age, their safety becomes of real concern to us, especially when they are living alone or have a disability or illness. These days, we all lead extremely busy lives and we don’t always have the time to call around and check in on our elderly friends and relatives as much as we would like. Which means having the ability to keep track of, and monitor their safety from a distance becomes more and more necessary.

For years, countless manufacturers have tried and failed to come up with an innovative medical alarm system that both looks attractive and inconspicuous and works, no matter where the wearer might be. Unfortunately all of these designs have been, large, cumbersome and unsightly and most seniors refuse to wear them. Coupled with the fact that all of these medical alert systems only work within the confines of the wearers own home, it is no surprise that their success has been fleeting.

This has all changed however with the launch of the new medical alert system from Amulyte (www.amulyte.com) Also known as a Mobile Personal Emergency Response System (MPERS) the Amulyte is attractive, discreet and most importantly incredibly functional.

As a wearer, the Amulyte Personal Emergency Response System keeps you within constant reach of your loved ones and caregivers. Simply press the button on your Amulyte Alert System and they will be notified immediately; allowing you the freedom to do as you please when you please. No longer are you required to stay within range of the home base station that other medical alert systems require. Using the same technology a cell phone, the Amulyte medical alarm system eliminates the need for a base station, giving you the freedom and security to go anywhere you please.

As a friend, relative or carer you can have complete peace of mind knowing that your loved one is always safe. The activity tracking facility allows you to monitor any changes in their level activity and learn when something changes. You can rest assured knowing that should your loved one require attention you can be notified immediately via text message, phone call, email or online via the Amulyte web portal. Amulyte is also fitted with an automatic fail-safe system should your loved one fall or become incapacitated and unable to activate the personal alarm manually.

Key Features of the Amulyte Medical Alert System

Help Button - An easy to press help button that will automatically connect your loved one to you if they need assistance.
Works Anywhere - Whether going for a walk or running errands, the pendant works anywhere, both inside and outside the home.
Easy to Wear - Can be worn as a necklace or a belt clip, designed to look good and be comfortable.
Waterproof - Can be worn in the shower, in a pool, or out in the rain.
Real Time Alerts - Get notified instantly if something isn't right via text, phone call, email and online notification.
Status Update - Get a daily recap of a senior's activity level, keeping you informed and letting you know that everything is OK.
Activity Tracking - Tracks when your loved one is moving, and the level of activity.
Lifestyle insights - Discover activity patterns, average activity level and learn when something changes.
Peace of Mind - If help is needed you will be the first to know, rest assured knowing your loved one is safe.

Give yourself and your loved one peace of mind by giving an Amulyte.

For further information visit the Amulyte website www.amulyte.com

Atmel SAM-ICE Debug Error

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 09:53:48 GMT

Failed to launch program

Error: reading arm chip id failed

This error is caused when the JTAG interface is selected in the Tool section of the Project settings.

To fix the the issue, select SWD from the drop down.

We initially thought that the SAM-ICE was only a JTAG debugger and didn't work with Serial Wire Debug. Turns out it only works on SWD.

More info here: http://www.arm.com/products/system-ip/debug-trace/coresight-soc-components/serial-wire-debug.php

Share Large Files (up to 1GB) On Your Android Device With Kik & Putlocker

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 01:06:47 GMT

Want to send BIG files to your friends on kik? Well now theres a new way to do it! Its easy for all android users.

Download the Putlocker Android App You can get it on Google Play or check out the Pulocker Android Website.
Sign Up a new account If you don't already have a putlocker account then press the register button(shown below) to set one up. This account will also be accessible from your desktop for easy file sharing between those devices. Otherwise, if you have an account, enter your credentials and select Log In to get access to your files.
Click the upload button Choose your file either from your gallery or from a directory on the your Android device:
Wait for the upload to complete The status bar will let you know when the file is in the Putlocker cloud and ready to share. You can minimize the application and the upload will continue in the background!
Select the options menu and click share
Click the file that was uploaded, and then click share on Kik

RLSLOG.net, atdhenet.tv and torrenthound.com All Down After Hosting Raid

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:41:47 GMT

Police raided the Swedish hosting company PRQ today bringing down dozens of file sharing and torrent sites including torrenthound.com, atdhenet.tv, RLSLOG.net, tankafetast.nu, linkomanija.net and hahasport.com. The hosting firm was started by two Piratebay co-founders and has been as a reliable "no questions asked" hosting service that has been raided by the police at least twice before in 2006 and 2010.

At this time, we don't know exactly what they were looking for, only that it was a set of servers belonging to PRQ and as such, we don't know if the affected websites will be back up. It seems pretty clear at this point the police were there on the grounds that PRQ was hosting sites with IP violations but which sites were targeted is not clear yet.

The Piratebay is also down at this time but the two incidences are unrelated as they moved their hosting from PRQ in 2006 after the first raid. Its down for technical reasons and should be back some time soon.

We'll keep you updated as more information becomes available.

5 easy tips for making your YouTube videos as shareable as possible

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:48:50 GMT

People love to watch videos online, and luckily YouTube, the biggest name in the video hosting space, makes sharing this type of content a breeze. But you can’t just upload anything and expect it to become the next viral sensation. In order to increase the viral potential, you need to make your YouTube videos as easy to share as possible.

1. Make Sharing Your Call to Action

Some of the most successful YouTube videos blew up because they contained a strong call to action. Kony 2012 was a prime example. Although the purpose of the campaign was to make Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony famous enough to be recognized and subsequently apprehended by international authorities, it asked viewers to take specific actions as well. Those actions were ordering action kits containing media designed to help spread the word, and bringing the crimes of Joseph Kony to the attention of their local government. In this case, you want viewers to share and sometimes, it isn’t a bad idea to come out and say just that.

2. Educate on Sharing

YouTube makes sharing content incredibly easy. It also allows users to do so in a variety of ways. For example, they can do so by linking to the video, embedding it on a third-party site, or directly sharing it on a social media channel like Facebook or Twitter. However, despite being a rather straightforward process, not everyone is aware how to do this. So if creating a viral effect is your goal, use the description space to clearly explain how viewers can share your videos in their social networking spots and beyond.

3. Encourage Sharing Through Social

The cool thing about Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks is that they offer pretty strong support for YouTube. This is great news for video marketers. Your content can be shared from YouTube, or directly on one of these sites. The key, of course, is convincing users to take the initiative. Again, it wouldn’t hurt to be straightforward by letting your social fans and followers know that you want them to share your video content.

4. Add Sharing Buttons in Your Emails

Email marketing and social media have proven to be an excellent match over the past couple of years. There are plenty of ways to integrate these two channels, but one of the easiest is adding social sharing buttons in your email campaigns. This also happens to be an effective way to make your videos shareable. If your subscribers are already familiar with this functionality, all it will take is some compelling content to get them to clicking.

5. Create Quality Videos

And finally we have reached the biggest point of all – the importance of creating quality videos. People do not share content just because it’s an easy process. If it does not interest them, don’t even worry about them sharing it, because chances are, they won’t even watch it.

YouTube is powerful stuff, but your videos will just sit there if you don’t take the effort to make them the best they can be. Put these tips to use, and you can be on your way to better exposure.

Author Bio: Chiko Noguchi is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services.

How to Find a Good Roommate on Craigslist

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:39:28 GMT

Although it's not ideal to live with a stranger, sometimes it's necessary. If you've moved to a new city and don't know anyone, for instance, you might need to share a living space with a stranger to cut costs. Or if your former roommate moved out, and you need someone to move in with you fast, you might need to live with a stranger. One of the most popular places to find roommates online is craigslist. Generally, craigslist works out for those seeking roommates. Sometimes, however, things go awry. People pretend to be someone they're not on craigslist or end up being unsavory roommates. If you've decided to go the craigslist route for your roommate search, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of finding a good roommate. Here's what you should consider doing:

Create an ad

If you already have a living space, and you're looking for a roommate to move in with you, you should post an ad that indicates you're seeking a roommate. You can do this on the "rooms & shares" page on craigslist. In the ad, you should mention how much rent will cost, where you live, and what kind of roommate you're looking for. If you don't want to live with a smoker, for instance, you could mention that in your ad. You may also want to write a little bit about yourself, perhaps that you're a student or work in the medical field or that you enjoy living in a quiet, calm space.

Check out who's looking for a place to live

The "housing wanted" section on craigslist is full of postings from people looking for roommates to move in with. Browse this section and search for roommates you think you might be compatible with. If you find some who seem like they could be good fits, send them emails and arrange dates and times to meet.

Screen potential roommates

Once you've communicated with a few people who are interested in moving in with you, you can begin to screen potential roommates and ultimately find the right person to live with. It's generally best to meet with people you've communicated with on craigslist in a public place. So, arrange some times to meet up with prospective roommates at a coffee shop or restaurant. Spend some time talking with them and determine who you think you'd get along with the best.

Conduct a background check before you agree to anything

Someone can be, by all appearances, nice and emotionally stable. However, you never know someone's true colors until you actually move in with them. It's generally a good idea to run a background check on the prospective roommate you think you'd like to move in with. You can do this online, or you can ask your prospective roommate to send you a copy of a background check he or she obtained. If your potential roomie doesn't have a questionable past, it's probably safe to move forward and set up a living situation agreement.

Watch out for scammers and people who aren't telling you the whole truth. Trust your gut, and pick the roommate you think you'll get along with best. Your living situation matters. So, do your homework, consider the tips above, and find a good roommate!

Jane Smith's informative blog posts can help you make sense of any personal history situation. Whether you are pursuing a tenant background check or pulling an employee's criminal record, feel free to email her at janesmith161@gmail.com.

Patent Suggests that Apple is Considering a Flexible Screen Component

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 12:13:38 GMT

According to Mashable, Apple submitted a patent application revealing a possible integration of flexible OLEDs (organic light emitting diode) that could bend with the existing Apple Smart Cover.

The Ultra-Cool Concept

The patent sketches serve up possibilities that make Microsoft’s Surface Tablet seem dull. The Apple Smart cover is a flexible cover that protects the iPad screen. It is also supposed to fold to support the tablet, though the product has fallen short in that regard.

A flexible screen attachment, according to the sketches, would not be completely connected to the Apple Smart Cover, but would be its own element. This means that the Smart Cover could be used to stabilize the iPad, while the OLED could be spread flat as a keyboard. (Take that Surface Tablet!) This feature would appeal to the iPad’s existing fan base of college students and could possibly spur tablet technology to overtake laptops as the choice for mobile devices.

The OLED screen could also be used as a drawing surface, message board or a second screen. The flexibility of the screen could also allow it to be folded into a stabilizer for easier media viewing. Although it’s just a patented idea, not a full-fledged commitment, the concept definitely gives us something to think about in terms of the future of screen technology.

Unfolding a Vision of the Future

I first saw the flexible screen display during the Las Vegas Tech Convention earlier this year, but Samsung announced in 2011 that it would begin shipping flexible screens in 2012, saying that it had already amassed large orders. (I have yet to see it in the U.S.)

Samsung and Apple have worked together in the past for screen technology, and this patent definitely hints at future collaboration. Though Nokia announced a phone prototype with a bendable screen last year, it seems that the tablet will be the starting point for this trend to unfold. (Unless the iPhone 5 comes with a big surprise! A flexible screen would solve the phone’s durability problems.)

Flexible screens could have a variety of uses, melding paper and computer uses such as displaying information of a hospital patient’s armband. Bendable wrist computers for military use are also in development. In the next era of technology, any surface can be a computer – even the sides of buildings.

Although flexible screens seem to be the next big wave of the future, there is still plenty of time before the market adjusts to these new concepts. We may be waiting another 3 years before any product actually hits the mass market, but I’m keeping my eyes and ears open.

Katheryn Rivas is a regular contributor to Online University. Like the name suggests, the online universities blog focuses on higher education and trends. She welcomes your comments at katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

Top 10 Obstacles You Must Overcome to Create a Successful Internet Weight Loss Business

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:54:34 GMT

Obesity has become a major health issue over the last two decades and over fifty per cent of adults say they want to lose their spare pounds. However, if you want to establish an internet weight-loss business you need to be aware of the most common obstacles.Capital

Setting up an internet weight-loss business does not have to involve a large amount of capital. It can be a venture that can be brought to market without spending much. With so much competition in this sector, however, it must have value-added features such as e-books, one-to-one online coaching and fitness products to encourage exercise.Getting on the Web

It is a common misconception that getting a web presence is costly and difficult to do. It is easy and cheap to register a domain and it is not necessary to spend vast sums of money on the design of the site. You can use a template to create web pages at little or no cost.Attracting Customers

A successful internet business depends on building up a large client base and there are several ways to do this. Having incentives on the site, such as free diet plans, encourages people to tell their friends, family and colleagues. Use key words and phrases for search engine optimisation or invest in pay-per-click advertising to increase visitor numbers.Taking Action

Even if you have an idea for a great diet and exercise website it is easy to procrastinate. Preparation is important and you need to have a good long-term business plan but you should also have weekly and day-to-day schedules with clear goals, such as target number of clients signing up, writing motivational emails and updating social media.No Room

One advantage of setting up an internet weight-loss site is that it can be home based but this can cause a problem with space being a premium for many home workers. However, dongles can be used for remote access to the web, making the home office entirely portable. Entrepreneurs can literally work from anywhere.Lack of Motivation

Starting an internet business requires the same discipline as losing weight. You need to stick to the business plan in the same way that a dieter keeps to their diet. Even if immediate success isn't achieved, persistence will usually pay off.Being Complacent

Losing weight takes time and it is imperative to maintain the clients' interest in continuing to subscribe to the website. Offering inducements such as free dongles can encourage dieters to log on to the site, whether they are at home, in the office or even on holiday. Although this is a cost to the business, it can be a worthwhile investment.Marketing

Social-networking sites have become a very influential marketing tool and there is little or no cost involved. You can use Facebook to create a profile for your business and a place for clients to discuss their diet successes. Twitter can be used for succinct messages to potential and existing customers and can you can also use it to send daily messages of encouragement.Retaining Customers

Dieting by its very nature is an ongoing process and this should be at the heart of an online weight-loss business. Enabling a healthier lifestyle is key to retaining customers and an imaginative maintenance programme that allows the dieter to keep to their target weight over months and years is vital. Always remember that it is easier to retain existing customers than to attract new ones.The Law

It is vital that an online weight-loss business stays within the law with regard to any of the products that it sells. You must make sure that none of the supplements contain any ingredients that are banned and that no exaggerated claims about possible weight loss are made. A successful business will be ethical and stay within the law.An online weight-loss business is a fantastic way to become your own boss. It can be cheap to set up and fairly simple to operate. The number of potential customers is vast. Self-belief and hard work are paramount and you should recognise that each achievement, however small, is one step nearer to success.

AUTHOR BIO

Eva K is a diet guru and fitness consultant. She often uses dongles to go online and finds them indispensable for anyone running an internet business.

2.8GB of Scientology Emails Leaked by Anonymous Australia

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:02:14 GMT

The Australian branch of the amorphous hacktavist group Anonymous leaked more than 2.8 GB of emails today. The pludered data is a pretty complete catalogue of all the external and internal communications of members of the Church of Scientology in Australia. The contents of the leaked emails is seedy at best, as there are some communications between 'higher ranked' officials from the church discussing sensitive matters.

The information has been separated into 5 files ranging from 299MB to 1.5GB. They have been uploaded to multiple file lockers and can be downloaded by anyone. The adresses to the download links can be found on the original Pastebin publication from Anonymous Australia. You can also read a sample of the communications in two lists on PWNY.biz here and here.

From the few that we've read, many are in German so get ready ready for alot of Google translator copy-pasting. Several are PGP encrypted communications so they will probably never be publicly legible. Otherwise there is lots of incredibly poorly written English emails with plenty of jargon and of little interest. We'll keep digging and let you know if we can come up with anything cool. If you find anything interesting, please let us know in the comments!

Android Applications: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:20:11 GMT

Android and Apple are undoubtedly two big giants of mobile applications world. There’s no second opinion to their credibility. Some of the other platforms like Windows 7, Nokia and BlackBerry also have applications, but are not as much popular as them. Android market has a large volume of applications to offer its users. The number of Android applications is impressive, but sometimes, Android apps let down users’ expectations and satisfaction. There are quite a lot of quality applications, but there are also some creations having missing or incomplete features. Here is a critical review of Android applications that fail to make any huge impression over the users, as they need improvements in several areas: Facebook Yes, Facebook’s Android app fails to make its place in the list of best android applications. This is because it lacks a lot of features that it should have. There is no way to edit your profile, delete a wall post, and tag people in your photos. Even, if you take a look at its Android market page, you will find a huge number of complaints and suggestions. There is not even a single positive comment. Here is a comment directly from Android market page for Facebook:

"Notifications faulty. News feed screen unresponsive. App has become so horrid that I no longer use FB."

You can clearly see the frustration. Facebook really needs to pay attention to these problems and come up with solutions that address users’ complaints. Or else, it will face a huge downfall. Netflix Netflix finally launched its Android application a few months back, but it couldn’t make it to become a part of best Android apps list. The main problem with this movie streaming app is that it currently only supports nine Android mobiles. It also has a limited choice of titles. You cannot manage your DVD queue and the movie recommendation engine works very poorly. A lot of favorite and popular movies and TV shows that a lot of people would want to watch aren simply not there. Skype Similar to Facebook, Skype failed to make any impact on its Android users, although its launch was heavily anticipated. Despite of its promising looks and layout, it’s heavy in size. And, if you don’t have a SD card, you may face memory shortage problems with it. Another disappointment is that you cannot make video calls. How could that not be included in Skype’s Android application? Last but not the least, it doesn’t support some of the phones; Galaxy S type of phones. This all makes it one of the weird android applications. Google Calendar Google Calendar Android application has some really good features, it allows you to keep a track of your meetings, places you would want to visit and schedules that you need to follow in daily routine. But, it surely isn’t perfect. Inside the application, you see a long view of the whole month and it makes it difficult for you to see your appointments. The agenda view is mixed-up and unclear. These are some of lackluster issues that need to be taken care of. What’s you think? An article is written by Sara Carter who likes social networks, google android, registry mechanic and psychology.

Capital One Website Down

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:33:33 GMT

Today (March 8, 2012) The Capital One Canada website has been going up and down..

At 8:30am the site (http://capitalone.ca) was totally inaccessible. Currently the member online banking area is down:

10:00am: things seem to have stabalized

Just host is down - March 5 2012

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:14:22 GMT

All of our sites hosts with justhost.com have gone down. Anyone else seeing similar behaviour with their sites hosted with justhost?

We also cannot login to the just host user's section.. We'll keep you posted as things progress. No news on the justhost blog yet. http://www.justhost.com/blog/

Anonymous Attacks Facebook (not actually)

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:54:34 GMT

The hacktavist group Anonymous is said to be currently attacking Facebook. This is part of the response to the shuttering of Megaupload, the webs most popular file locker, on January 17 2012. Anonymous has been on a Denial of Service spree these last few days, causing service outages for a number of worldwide government agencies, companies and organizations that were implicated or condoned the Megaupload raids. The validity of the reports are questionable though.

So far the attack (if its actually happening) has yielded few results, Facebook was reported to be running slowly by a few twitter users. Some of the Facebook applications and games were also either slow or inaccesible. The DDoS attempt will probably be unsuccessful on a site of this size, as Facebook has numerous counter-measure to this type of harassment.

Because of the amorphous structure of Anonymous, it's not certain that the attack is actually taking place. Some members or subgroups may be acting alone or may not have been able to drum up enough support from other members. Some anonymous mouthpieces on Twitter are claiming Facebook is under attack while others (like the one pictures below) are denying it.

Facebook's connection to the Megaupload raids is not immediately clear, and some question why it is a target. The motivation is mostly to spread awareness about the harm of censorship and the ACTA bills. The anons posit that the recent pro copyright holder legislation that has been put forward around the world is not being met with enough public backlash and that they need a "wakeup call".

Update 9:15PM EST
It looks like it was not Anonymous that caused the outage after all. Trolled indeed.

FileSonic closes filesharing | FileSonic Megaupload Alternatives

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:37:59 GMT

This afternoon FileSonic, one of the most popular internet file lockers, disabled it's file sharing functionality. That is, you will no longer be able to access files uploaded by other users or upload new files to be publicly accessed. Individuals who have uploaded files to FileSonic can still access their own files but have to be logged into their FileSonic account to do so.

This is in response the recent shutdown of Megaupload, a competing file locker, by the FBI earlier this week. FileSonic shares many of the same characteristics of Megaupload; it had lots of copyrighted material, it only complied with the DCMA regulations on the surface, and links to files that they host frequently turn up on websites that act as linked directories of copyrighted files (ie Filestube).

Many internet users are now concerned that many other file sharing utilities may also have to take feature limiting defensive moves in order to be allowed to continue to operate. Drop Box, one of the most use full and widely used methods of sharing files, is often cited as another prime target. We don't think that it is any danger as it's business model is far different from most of the file lockers. First of all, if a file is downloaded too many times it is removed from of Drop Box where ass on the less scrupulous file lockers it's encouraged. Secondly, Drop Box monetizes the file uploader, not the downloader reducing the incentive of sharing copyright materials.

That said, there are many other file lockers who do share the same business model as Megaupload and FileSonic who will certainly have to adapt in order to stay online.

Update
FileServe has followed FileSonic in closing it's file links to the public. There will most certainly be more casualties in the file sharing ecosystem in the near future.

You can check out our list of alternatives to FileSonic and FileServe to help you find a new file sharing resource.

Anonymous takes down Universal Music, DOJ, RIAA, MPAA and more

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:14:55 GMT

In response to both the takedown of Megaupload today and the SOPA/PIPA bills that are being mulled over in the United states the hacktavist group Anonymous has responded by taking down several websites with a distributed denial of service attack. Both the Universal Music and American Department of Justice websites were taken offline by the attack.

4chan, the 'homebase' of anonymous is in frenzy over closure of one of "their sites" and are seeking revenge with LOIS, an open source DDoS ableing software. Some of the anons have posted a Javascript version of the tool to help the effort, it's available on pastebin. The next plausible targets seems to be the FBI site or the RIAA website as many lasers are already "pointed" at them.

That said, even when the number of LOIC attackers is high, it still would not be enough to take down these types of high profile websites. Anynymous must have access to a bot net and/or is pooling resources with other groups to carry out and sustain such effective attacks.

Anonymous Takedown Catalogue

Updated as of 8:00PM EST January 22 2011
Most Site are now back up and running but, with fewer numbers, the attack continues on a few sites. The Brazilian arm of anonymous seems to still be hard at work. They are continuing the DDoS on a broad spectrum of websites, the hit list of 114 websites all with .br TDLs has been posted on pastebin. We've included some of the most notable downed sites on the list below.

CBS Anonymous deleted the entire site directory taking it down for a few hours until it was restored from a backup.
Universal Music BrazilDown under DDoS attack
Visa Brazil Down under DDoS attack
Anti-Piracy Belgium
New Zealand Justice Department
MGM Shop Down, under DDoS attack
Warner Brothers Store Down, under DDoS attack
Warner Music GroupDown, under DDoS attack
BMI Down, under DDoS attack
US Department of Justice
Universal Music Down, still under DDoS attack
Recording Industry of America
MPAA
FBI

Clik app | Clik from Kik

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:50:39 GMT

Clik, the new application from the Waterloo Canada Company Kik (which FSB has followed quite closely), had it's debut yesterday at the University Waterloo. The application lets you pretty much use your Apple or Android device as a remote control/media server or more for your internet connected tv or computer screen.

Users only have to visit the Clik website which displays a QR code on the screen that smart phone users can pair with their mobile devices. The device then becomes a "super remote control" for the screen able to stream from youtube, local video files, music, play games ect. You can have more then one user controlling the screen through Clik as long as they are on the same wi-fi connection. This allows for a great party feel to the application which will be released soon for Android and iPhone devices.

The application will be officially released on the app store and market place in late January 2012. One of the most exciting things about the app is that a javascript API will be released within the next couple of months allowing developers to easily create applications for the technology.

There is substantial fanfare for this application. It's much more users friendly and provides much more functionality then a lot of traditional media servers or set top devices. The javascript API also makes it easy for both developers and web designers to create phenominal applications quickly, as you just need to know HTML/CSS and javascript. Fred Wilson, the rockstar Venture capitalist, called it "a game changer".

The Kik development team is made up primarily of UW graduates (or CS/ENG drop-outs with exceptional practical coding skills and eye for opportunity) so they wanted to get back to their roots for the product launch. They launch party was at the campus bar The Bomber where Kik CEO Ted Livingston made a quick intro speech and jaw dropping product demo.

The Clik application from Kik will be available soon in the apple app store and in the Android Marketplace. We'll post links as soon as their out. In the mean time, here's a screen shot of the Clik Airtube app.

Kik Messenger: Want to meet new Kik users? Swap Kik Usernames

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:16:50 GMT

Hey a new third party service came out today to meet new Kik users. The web application allows you to see new Kik usernames so that you can add and talk to people.

Try it out at:
http://swapkik.com/

Also - check out this app to share up to 1GB movies or files on KIK through Putlocker! You can send movies to all your friends for free!

Page 4 of 366 - Twitter Trend Explained

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:46:14 GMT

The twitter keyword Page 4 of 366 is trending today and there is little explanation on twitter as to what it actually means.

Pretty much it's just a chronicling of days in 2012 as if they were pages from a book (ie today is the 4th day of 2012, so page 4 of 366 days in 2012). The explanation seems pretty straight forward but may people were thrown off by the 366 figure rather then the much recognizable 365 number. The 366 is accurate as 2012 is a leap year so there is one extra day in February. Yesterday, the term page 3 of 366 made it to the trend board in some areas so you'll probably see the Page N of 366 phrase a lot at least in the next few days.

9gag down | 9gag.com down by 4chan with DDoS attack December 21

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:20:19 GMT

The popular image posting website is going down sporadically tonight due to a 4chan led denial of service attack. The login, search registration and voting features are also failing on 9gag.com and no posts posts have been recorded since 17 hours ago. This was presumably to keep 4chan users from uploading obscene images and up-voting them to appear on the front page.

It appears that 4chan users, specifically residents of the /b/ section, are fed up with their content being re-published and shared on 9gag. The attack is also in retaliation to yesterday's 9gag.com DDoS attack that brought down 4chan's homepage. The image bellow, originally posted on 4chan.org, sums up their beef succinctly.

Devout channers are using an open source DDoS application called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) as well as it's successor High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC) and directed their packets towards 9gag's domain and DNS servers. The call to arms was initiated on 4chan.org/b/ and instructions were issued on pastebin.

A few 9gag users posted this in response to the attack

Important Ip list | IP Adresses Incase SOPA passes

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:07:52 GMT

So SOPA is on the verge of being pushed through. One of it's main features is that it allows copyright holders to request a black list of certain domains on a service provider's DNS record. Websites will still be available through their ip adresses so in the event that any site is blocked you can either copy the associated ip into your browser url bar or edit your etc hosts file to point the blocked domain to it's ip.

If you are an American Citizen please sign this electronic petition on whitehouse.gov to have the bill vetoed.

Social media

reddit.com 72.247.244.88
digg.com 64.191.203.30
imgur.com 173.231.140.219
hotmail.com 65.55.72.135
theonion.com 97.107.137.164
hush.com 65.39.178.43
gamespot.com 216.239.113.172
ign.com 69.10.25.46
cracked.com 98.124.248.77
sidereel.com 144.198.29.112
stackoverflow.com 64.34.119.12

Social networking

facebook.com 69.171.224.11
twitter.com 199.59.149.230
tumblr.com 174.121.194.34

Search engine / Link sites

google.com 74.125.157.99
yahoo.com 98.137.149.56
bing.com 65.55.175.254
torrentz.eu 46.19.137.189
torrentbutler.eu 209.44.99.122
filestube.com 149.13.65.52
watchseries.eu 85.9.47.34
tvlinks.com 208.223.219.206
1channel.ch 208.87.33.151
free-tv-video-online.me 89.187.142.52
tubeplus.me 93.114.46.163

Torrent sites

thepiratebay.org 194.71.107.15
mininova.com 80.94.76.5
btjunkie.com 93.158.65.211
demonoid.com 62.149.24.66
demonoid.me 62.149.24.67
tvtorrents.com 77.53.144.11

Live Streaming Content

stickam.com 67.201.54.151
blogtv.com 84.22.170.149
justin.tv 199.9.249.21
chatroulette.com 184.173.141.231
omegle.com 97.107.132.144
own3d.tv 208.94.146.80

Porn sites

redtube.com 209.222.138.10
spankwire.com 95.211.112.220
youporn.com 173.192.60.242
linkindexxx.com 146.82.201.229
xnxx.com 69.55.53.105
pornhub.com 146.82.204.113

Streaming sites

youtube.com 74.125.65.91
megavideo.com 174.140.154.32
gorillavid.com 178.17.165.74
videoweed.es 91.220.176.248
novamov.com 91.220.176.248
movshare.net 49.19.139.54
divxstage.eu 91.220.176.251
movpod.net 178.17.165.76
vidxden.com 184.164.144.110
videobb.com 173.199.123.19
vidbux 173.192.225.167
ovfile.com 173.249.145.57
videozer.com 173.199.127.184

Shopping

amazon.com 72.21.211.176
newegg.com 216.52.208.187
frys.com 209.31.22.39
ebay.com 66.211.160.88

Filehosts/cyberlockers

megaupload.com 174.140.154.20
mediafire.com 205.196.120.13
dropbox.com 199.47.217.179
fileshare.com 208.87.33.151
multiupload.com 95.211.149.7
uploading.com 195.191.207.40
warez-bb.org 31.7.57.13
hotfile.com 199.7.177.218
gamespy.com 69.10.25.46
warez.ag 178.162.238.136
putlocker.com 89.238.130.247
uploaded.to 95.211.143.200

Manga sites

batoto.net 208.89.221.24
Mangareader.net 62.75.183.27
Mangafox.com 173.192.36.120

Reference

wikipedia.com 208.80.152.201
anonymouse.org 193.200.150.137
wolframalpha.com 140.177.16.29
eyebleach.com 69.164.215.49
hackthissite.org 67.21.66.230
textbooknova.com 78.159.102.104
matrix.itasoftware.com 65.221.113.61

This list was transcribed from the boingboing/reddit google doc. If you have anything you would like to add, post it in the comments.

Try Windows Phone 7 on Android | WP7 for Android

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:18:38 GMT

Microsoft has released a pretty sweet demo site that lets you try our WP7 on your Android phone. It's surprisingly responsive and enough to trick a few of your friends.

I don't think I'd be installing a windows phone 7 port to my android phone any time soon..

Try this link on your android phone: aka.ms/wpdemo

Technology Gifts | Top Christmas Tech Toys

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:00:43 GMT

Top Tech Toys for Christmas 2011

Christmas is just around the corner and if you are serious about offering something brilliant and great this Yuletide season especially for the kids, you need to know what's hot and what's not in toys. You can go traditional with your gift giving or go on a budget spending to be more practical but for those who like to feel generous and have enough money to spend on good toys, then here is a list of the top 10 technology gifts to offer kids this Christmas.

1. Angry Birds Plush Toys

The popularity of the mobile game angry birds has spurred the release of a huge collection of toys for both kids and angry birds addicts! There are tons of cute plushies available, some with sounds from the game.

2. Leapfrog's LeapPad Explorer

Think of this device as an iPad but for kids. If you are concerned that your kids will have more hands on use of your high end tablet, then give them something equally fun but at half the price. This device is amazing since it has a camera and video recording tool and there are games as well as apps that you can add.

3. Fijjit Friends

These are very cute robot toys that are not only look nice, they respond to you. They are interactive toys with built in 150 phrases on its system. This robot can recognize 30 words and based on the words, they can tell a joke, play music or simply dance. I guess you could call it the Furbie of this generation.

4. Chopper with Spy Cam

Imagine having your own surveillance system in the sky as a kid! This remote control, totally functional toy chopper with an adjustable camera with built in gyroscope so camera capture isn't shaky. It may seem a bit creepy at first but it teaches kids a lot about aerodynamics and engineering (in addition to being really fun!)

5. Air Swimmers

These are probably some of the coolest (and wierdest) tech toys available this christmas season. You can choose helium filled fish like a shark or a clown fish to navigate through the air using an infrared remote. It's like an RC helicopter but much more interesting and with no breakable or swallowable parts.

6. Nerf Vortex Nitron Gun

This brilliantly engineered toy is a massive fully automatic nerf gun. It has a tracking scope that lights up and the removable ammo clip can stock 20 pieces. Foam disks can be used as ammo for this Nerf gun and this will definitely be a great gift for the boys and maybe some girls.

7. Remote control car a la Lightning McQueen

If you or your kids are fan's of Disney “Cars” then you will appreciate this toy. It's a remote control car replica of the main character, Lightning McQueen complete with the details from the movie. It is a nice, simple and fun tech toy for those who prefer a more traditional option for a gift this Christmas.

8. My Keepon

The toy was initially designed by two scientists who aimed to study autism but it became something else; a perfect gift for kids. This toy is so cute and beyond that, it can create up to 50 unique sounds and can even dance to music. It's close to the Fijit friends but a bit more gender neutral.

9. Appblaster

This is a pretty neat augmented reality toy that requires an iphone or itouch device. It's a white plasitc gun with a mount for your mobile device on it's barrel. When the mobile device is engaged, it turns into a viewfinder with aliens super imposed over a camera display of your surroundings. You aim using the mobile device and blast using the gun!

10. Vtech Kiddizoom Twist

If your kids like photography and would like to do some work while you do your own on your SLR, you can depend on this kid proof device. This one has a camera that can be rotated with has a 4x zoom as well as a voice recorder and light image manipulation software built in. This is easy to hold with the rubber case and durable enough to protect the unit inside.

All these amazing new tech toys for Christmas utilize technology in a whole new way. With innovations such as these, it can be quite difficult to choose the perfect one. Nonetheless, it is very interesting what your kids will like the best since they themselves will have a hard time identifying the options most suitable for them. A lot of these toys are brilliant for kids who are just starting out with their journey towards high tech gaming.

Android Market is Down | November 26 2011

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:17:38 GMT

Today, November 26 2011, the Android Market website is down!

Updates to follow..

Down for Everyone or Just Me Ironically Down

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:25:15 GMT

The one of the most popular web-site downtime monitoring services downforerveryoneorjustme.com is ironically down tonight. Looks like the website was too successful for it's own good and has garnered enough traffic to go over the server resource limit that was set by Google App engine.

The Google App engine provides it's users with an easy to use SDK and scalable hosting for web application developers. If one site is consuming a disproportionally large amount of computational resources, Goggle will temporarily shut down server to that site in order to ensure other sites don't suffer downtimes or slow service. The site has displayed this error message before but never for quite this long.

This may have been brought on by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The influx in shopping traffic seems to have brought down some e-commerce stores, which in turn has sent a flood of people to the down checker service. Time for a hosting upgrade!

Fear not, you can still check if a site is down or if you have just been messing with your etc hosts file too much on these services:

Top 25 Android Games | Best Android Games As Of September 2011

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:01:27 GMT

Here are the top 25 android games as of November 2011. We combined the usual factors of addictiveness, graphics, gameplay, learning curve, length. We'll be updating the list weekly - let us know if we've missed any, and vote for your favorites in the poll below!

News

November 23 2011: Medieval for android has been released! this was probably my all time favorite game for my iPhone - I havent put so many hours into a mobile game since!
"Brisk Mobile is excited to announce that Medieval, our best-selling tower defence game for the iPhone and iPad, is now available for the Android Market. Featuring the same gorgeous graphics and addictive gameplay that made Medieval a #1 game worldwide with over 2 million downloads on iOS, Medieval is now set to top the charts at Google."

The Top 25 Android Games

Medieval
Cut the Rope
Shadow Gun
Great Little War Game
Sim City Deluxe
Fruit Ninja
Reflexions
X Construction
Worms
Need for Speed S
Doodle Jump
Bejeweled 2
Minecraft Pocket Edition
Robo Defense
Sprinkle
Riptide GB
Duke Nukem 3D
World Cruise Story
Apparatus
Uno
Clowning Around
Flick Golf
The Sims 3
Trial Xtreme 2
Gave Dev Story
The Moron Test

[poll id="13"]

Find Actual Ranking in Google

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:04:13 GMT

Google's search algorithm is one of the most complicated on the interent, factoring in a multitude of data about both the keyword you're searching for as well as you the searcher. If you're logged into your google account (gmail, youtube, ect.) then Google search will be able to read their own cookies to try to better personalize your search results. Even if you're not signed into your Google account, Google search will still be able to gather search optimizing data from you based on what sites you've navigated to from Google in the recent past, your current location based on ip address, ect.

This is highly useful for an average web surfer looking to find the most relevant content. For webmasters who want to see how their website is ranking on a certain keyword, this can be a bit annoying as you will ussually observe a search engine position that is inflated compared to everyone else's results.

To fix this, what we have to do is first turn off Google instant search by changing it in your settings if your logged into your google account (gear in the top right hand corner), otherwise there should be an option to the right of the search bar.

Next search for the term you want to check rankings on. After Google populates it's results, append &pws=0 to the end of URL. So if your search for ACN scam in google the origional url will be (with some extra paremeters added)
google.com/search?q=apple
Now just append the &pws=0 to the end like so:
google.com/search?q=apple&pws=0
and submit the URL. This should populate un-personally filtered search results for any keyword! You can also use Google webmaster tools to find aggregate average position for your site in Google search results.

Top 5 Reasons to Root Your Android Phone

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:25:35 GMT

Normally I’m not one to take risks at the risk of damaging or voiding the warranties on my expensive gadgets, but recently I finally decided to go through the trouble of rooting my Samsung Charge. I had been going back and forth about the idea for the past couple months because I didn’t want to brick my phone.

Warning: Attempting to root your Android phone will most likely void your warranty, runs the risk of breaking your contract with your carrier, and may have the potential to render your phone useless (i.e. “brick” your phone). Be careful to research documented risks and consequences that others have had in attempting to root your phone model, and be sure, if you decide to root, that you root your phone in the safest method possible.

What ultimately led me to root my phone was the fact that the Charge was receiving little developer support from either the manufacturer or carrier (I’m not sure who is responsible) in terms of Android OS updates. These updates often help the performance and battery life of the phone, and I had read multiple accounts of the new Gingerbread leak (available only through root) had made major differences in phone performance.

Getting Updates
As I mentioned above, carriers and phone manufacturers are often slow to update their phones because they have more of an incentive to sell new devices rather than update devices already owned by customers. For some phones, such as my Samsung Charge, carriers have made no indication that they will update to new versions of the Android OS at all. These updates can often improve bugs and phone performance.
Better Performance
I’ve already stated that upgraded Android ROMs can improve the performance of your phone, but you can also improve your phone’s performance through using custom kernels. Many custom kernels (including the one now running on my phone) will run faster filing, conserve battery life, overclock your CPU (allowing your phone to run faster, and will run less superfluous background tasks such as indexing.
Can Finally Remove Bloatware
Remember in the old PC days when you would purchase a computer with Windows on it, and the manufacturer would add a whole slew of affiliate programs and bloatware that you will never use? Well at least then you could uninstall the bloatware. With an unrooted phone, most carriers and manufacturers have made it impossible to remove their bloatware, so it just sits there taking up storage space and even memory resources. Rooting your phone will let you remove these.
Easier Screenshots and Free Tethering
Before rooting, getting a screenshot from your Android device could be surprisingly tedious. Once rooted, you will find apps that make this an incredibly simple process. Free tethering to other computers is nothing to scoff at either. While it seems like a trivial benefit, this can really come in handy if you ever have any issues with your internet service provider at home. Now you will always have a failsafe plan.
It’s All About the Apps
Rooting your phone gives you more control over your phone which consequently give you access to a whole host of apps you otherwise couldn’t use. Best of all, you can find most of these apps in the Android Market, so you don’t have to worry about shady spyware on your phone (like jailbroken iPhone users). With these new apps, you can save the state of your phone and recover to it anytime, freeze or remove any app, tether wirelessly to other devices (without having to pay more for this feature like you would with a rooted phone), and a whole bunch of useful things that would otherwise be off limits.

4chan down | 4chan.org down November 16 2011

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:12:51 GMT

November 16 2011

12:56PM EST
4chan was up and running from about 10:20PM last night to about 12:20PM today. Though the attacks were tweeted as being over 10 hours ago, it looks like they have recommenced as some requests are timing out or they complete only after a long delay.

The attack was previously reported as a UDP packet flood on port 80, but the status blog have just revised the method of attack to TCP SYN flood. Again, we don't conclusively know who is behind the attacks but the most mentioned suspects are Lulzsec, Tumblr and 7chan.

On the 13th, a pastebin entry claimed that Lulzsec "was back" and took credit for taking down 4chan.org. We're not sure if this is legitimately from Lulsec as the links to their website in the message footer are dead and there has been no activity on the twitter account. Also,most of the members of Lulzsec have been jailed for previous online plunders.

TUMBLR was in a big feud with 4chan last year centered around that each of the website's members thought the other one was copying too much content from them. 4chan threatened to take down Tumblr (with a DoS attack) on November 15th 2011, this prompted a pre-emptive attack on 4chan on November 13th 2011. Both sides managed to deny service to the other's website for at least a day. So many of the claims that Tumblr attacked 4chan this year are those that believe that the anniversary of the takedown is being observed by Tumblr or are simply basing it on bad reporting.

The last suspect, and least likely, is 7chan, a competing chan style message board site that hosts a fraction of 4chan's user base. This site probably did not take down 4chan.org, it seems 4chan users just don't really like 7chan and want to vent frustration from these attacks by DDoSing this site.

Lulz abound.

November 15 2011
8:02AM EST
Most of of the 4chan boards are now accessible but are prohibitively slow to load. 4chan.org is still under a DDos Attack "consisting of a UDP flood on port 80."

12:45AM
4Chan is still fighting to stay up tonight as the distributed denial of service attack continues. The site is somewhat accessible some of the time for now, but admin are working to have it back up and running. Apparently, the status blog site is also under attack now, though it's more resilient than the boards of 4chan.org .

We don't know for certain who is behind the attacks but it looks like the most likely party is the Lulzsec hacking group. See below for more info.

November 14 2011
1:21PM EST
It looks like the imfamous hacking group, responsable for taking Visa offline and gaining access to Paypal records are the ones behind the DDoS attack that has brought 4chan down for almost 2 days. This on posted on pastebin below the usual Lulzsec header:

We are Lulz Security, and we're back. Today, November 13 2011, is a big day for us. We successfully completed a DDoS attack on 4chan.org, one of the top 1000 most visited sites in the United States and the world! This attack not only shows how strong the new Lulzsec is, but the capability we have. With a botnet that can take a site with so much bandwidth such as 4chan down, Lulzsec has so much potential for some epic lulz in the future. Stay tuned!

This of course may just be a hoax, the Lulzsec twitter account was not updated and the links on the pastebin entry led to a dead website.

11:04AM EST
4chan seems to be going up (but running very slowly) and down early today due again to a DDoS attack from a "fan." Many people are blaming Tumblr as this was the 1 year anniversary that 4chan took down the Tumblr blogging service but that fued was mostly settled then. Others are pointing to hacktivist group lulzsec who declared war on 4chan.org and it's users back in June of this year but this is unlikely aas many of their primary members were arrested in September.

There has been no new statements from the Administration since yesterday so right now all the finger pointing is just speculation.

12:41AM EST
It looks like the infamous anonymous image board 4chan is down today. 4chan.org has been down for at least the last 8 hours.

According to the site's status blog and twitter, the outage is only temporary. 4chan has been taken down due to a major DDOS attack. Admin are working to restore it and they're hoping to have it back up and running "soon."

We don't know who is behind this wave of attacks just yet but we'll let you know as more information becomes available.

Worst Comments Ever

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:32:38 GMT

This is a guest post by Ty from Good Canadian Kid. Check out GCK for thought provoking and humorous reads like GCK's Favourite Mac Utility Application , The Ultimate Badass: Bishnu Shrestha and Marketing and (Pseudo) Science

Online comments that reference blogs, podcasts, Youtube, memes, etc. can reveal a lot about the content in question. They give insight to the quality of the content and, in some circumstances, act as a microcosm that represents a larger community or fan base.

After watching a video, listening to a podcast or reading a blog, it is refreshing to view comments that are more telling then the original content it insinuates. On the contrary, it's frustrating when the highest voted comment is one of the of the comments below.

Comments that claim that modern day music, movies and/or culture are Dead

I’ll be the ﬁrst one to admit that mainstream popular culture, collectively, might not be at its best state (this is a topic that would take a lot more than a quick blog entry to discuss). With this said, it can be frustrating when the top rated comments have a fetish for nostalgia. This is probably because most of the users who publish and vote for these comments are teenagers that are upset with modern mainstream popular culture (sometimes I don’t blame them), and instead of digging deeper to ﬁnd the quality content, they trash ‘modernism’, and try to live in (and sometimes overvalue) the past. I did the same thing when I was a kid - they’ll grow out of it. Quality music, movies, opinions are out there, the only thing that has changed is that you probably wont ﬁnd it on MTV or FOX - you have to look it.

Comments that add zero value

I think the foundation of most of these comments are to provide a “camaraderie” feeling - I’m part of...“team I hate Justin Beiber”, “the ACDC legion’, “Oasis is the best brit-pop band team”’. I suppose, through creating and voting for these comments, people feel included in “something” - a movement, school of thought, team...whatever.

I’ll leave you to stew in this comment...

I was actually thinking about 'liking' this comment until the author dropped this astute personal survey on us; “The Music Industry is becoming more about marketing and less about musical quality”... Bleh

Do you have a most hated comment? Post it here in the comments or email your picture to firstsearchblue@gmail.com and we'll throw it up!

Thunderbolt Peripherals | November 2011

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:17:00 GMT

This page attempts to maintain an up-to-date list of Thunderbolt peripherals. As of November 2011 there is quite a small selection of thunderbolt devices on the market. Basically you've got the thunderbolt Apple Display and the Lacie Thunderbolt Hard Drive Enclosure. Now that Apple has been putting the thunderbolt port into their Macs for close to year, we can expect to start seeing this list of peripherals grow dramatically.

The Apple Thunderbolt Display is the first Thunderbolt screen that has been brought to market. It's $999 price tag is a little steepfor a 27" Monitor, but the quality of Apple's Cinema displays has always made them worth the price.
The Lacie Thunderbolt Harddrive Enclosure was the second peripheral released for the thunderbolt interface. The device gives users the lightning fast speeds we've achieved through solid state hard drives, delivered through a Thunderbolt cable. Along with the incredible speeds, you also get that daisy-chaining goodness made possible by the Thunderbolt interface. There are 2 configurations of the device sold on the apple site
Promise - Pegasus Raid Storage Array Read more about the Pegasus and a few other Thunderbolt storage devices that Promise has released over the past year on their site here

Checkout out a few of these thunderbolt peripherals together in action in the video below:

Quick Silver Screen Down - November 3 2011

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:51:32 GMT

November 3 2011

It looks like the popular quick silver screen (qss divx) site is down, giving a timeout error when accessed. The forum is a hotspot for the newest video links from 3rd party hosted services.

The downtime is most likely related in some way to the community's discontent with the Quick Silver Screen administration. The origional administration, who had let site fall into a state of somewhat disrepair, sold the site to a new party who was looking to capitolize on the efforts of many upaid volunteers. The community was offended and started a new community at Daily Flix.

A few disgruntled contributors of the QSS divx community began to wreak hovoc on the boards, flooding it with multiple accounts that would post rude and outragious comments about the owners of the site, as well as threatning to "hack it." It looks like they may have succeeded as Quick Silver Screen has been rendered un-connectable for two days.

Demonoid is Down

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:16:16 GMT

November 3 - 2011: 8:33pm

The demonoid.me site is down - we are investigating

November 3 - 2011: 8:35pm

And they're back up!

Markham Sushi | Top 5 Markham Sushi Restaurants

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:30:10 GMT

Here are the 5 best sushi restaurants in Markham Ontario - November 2011

Tsukiji Sushi Village - Tsukiji is by far our favourite sushi restaurant in Markham. Neither the prices nor the taste can be beat! The rolls are the perfect size, without too much rice - they also roll most of the maki rolls in just a little bit of tempura flake (other sushi places should learn from this) - it's one of the only places you can find a perfect spicy salmon roll for $4 - great prices on sashimi a la cart as well. They do pickup and dine in and their frequent-buyer program adds up to a free premium roll fast.
Saporro Sushi - This is one of the best places to go for lunch - the bill usually comes to around $13 per person with tax and tip, but you get way more than enough food. The fish is fresh, the staff are friendly and you can do lunch in about 30 minutes.
Sushi Tei - Sushi Tei is a bit pricier and you don't get what you pay for every time, but when you do - it's a great experience. The rolls are good, and the presentation is probably the best in Markham.
Gal's Sushi - A classic with good value and great variety
A Tate of Japan - This is a genuine Markham experience. We don't recommend this place based on the sushi alone - it's the whole atmosphere - especially around the tapinyaki tables. This place is fabulous and their chefs are amazing - it's a "Must Try"

[poll id="12"]

Google Do a barrel roll

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:07:47 GMT

Seriously try it!
It's probably one of the coolest Google search quirk/fringe to date.Click here to google it.

The effect pays homage to the Nintendo 64 Starfox game, from which a friendly character's advice to Do a Barrel Roll has turned into a geek cult saying. When typed into the Google's search bar, the site will spin around the center bottom of the browser screen. It doesn't work on mobile or antiquated browsers right now, so heres what you missing if your using one of those:

KIK for Nokia | KiK moves to Symbian and updates Windows Phone 7

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:19:10 GMT

Finally the incredibly light weight instant messaging application has been released for Nokia (Symbian.) Kik gave news of the private beta, available early this morning following the Nokia World conference. The Kik application looks amazing compared to the vast majority of the Ovi Store applications and runs smoothly on what looks to be any symbian^3 device or Symbian S60 v5.

Here are some Screenshots from the Private Beta:

Kik has covered all their Nokia bases by also releasing an incredibly sexy new Windows Phone 7 OS version of their app, enabling users of Nokia's new phone line (800 and 710) to Kik.

You can sign up to get the Symbian Kik public beta on the Kik website. This is a must have app for a Nokia N8 and 701!

Android Market Force Closing

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:16:05 GMT

Anyone having that issue where the latest version of the android market 3.1.3 will force close within a minute or so of opening it?

Here is the fix.. it's holding for now.

Settings
Language and Keyboard
Language
pick your language (even if its already selected.. just re-select it - or switch between English Canada and English US)

That fixed it for me!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/jtwrj/for_those_who_have_the_market_force_closes/

Is Samsung Galaxy R a Worthy Alternative to the SII?

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:29:08 GMT

The Galaxy R will be available for less than the price of the premium Samsung Galaxy SII. The Galaxy SII is Samsung’s top end phone with cutting edge technology, and the Galaxy R only has a few minor differences with its screen and processor. So is it worth saving money purchasing a cheaper Samsung Galaxy R contract or do these changes make it significantly less desirable than the SII?

The Galaxy R is nearly as powerful as the larger SII, with a 1GHz dual core processor as opposed to a 1.2GHz dual core. This means that both phones are very quick and can handle multitasking as well as complex media tasks with ease. The Galaxy SII is slightly faster but it really is hard to notice unless you measure them with complex technology.

A dual core 1GHz chip is still pretty powerful and top of the food chain, although it is likely to age quicker than the SII. Samsung has also switched from the Exynos chipset in the SII to a Tegra 2, and there is some debate about which offers the best performance. Either way, the Galaxy R remains a high powered device in its own right.

The devices also look slightly different and there is nearly a full 1mm of a difference between them in width. The Galaxy SII also has a larger screen and is also a little longer. The shape however is fundamentally the same, with a home button and a slim bezel – there is no doubt they are part of the same family. The home button does come with a slightly different design but with just a cursory glance you would be forgiven for confusing the two phones.

The two phones also have different screens. The SII has the famous Super AMOLED Plus screen which has tech geeks across the world salivating, whereas the R has the Super Clear LCD that uses Samsung’s TV engine, the digital natural image engine. This software creates a wonderful picture and once again image wise the phone is just as good as the SII’s.

It should be pointed out as well that while the screen is 0.1 inches smaller than the SII's, it still comes with a WVGA resolution. Because of this it has a higher pixel per inch (PPI) density offering sharper images. So the trade-off here appears to be sharper visuals instead of vibrant colours, as found on the Galaxy SII.

Both devices also come with Android Gingerbread and both also have the Samsung TouchWiz interface on top. This interface is excellent and comes complete with Samsung features like the Games Hub, Media Hub and Social Hub, which combines various social networks into an easy to manage app. In terms of software the two phones are pretty much the same.

The phones have different cameras and the SII’s is noticeably better offering 1080p recording and 8mp for stills.The Galaxy R is more austere and has a 5mp camera with a 720p recording ability. This gives the more expensive Samsung an advantage and this is clear to see when taking photos. There is no problem with the Galaxy R’s camera; it just doesn’t have the hardware to compete with the more expensive phone.

So it seems that while the Samsung Galaxy R on contract and SIM Free will most likely be quite a bit cheaper than the SII it won't actually offer any serious reduction in quality. The processor is a little slower but at present the Galaxy R will still not struggle with anything thrown in its direction. Physical changes are minimal and the only real differences are with the screen and the camera, which are still both of the utmost quality. In answer to the original question then, it may very well be worth considering the Galaxy R as a more affordable version of the Galaxy SII, without feeling that you have gypped yourself in any way with the phone deals on offer.

How to show the Library in Lion | Reveal Library Directory in OSX

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:34:22 GMT

Don't worry, your Library isn't gone, it's just hidden. It's the exact same format as the Library folders in the previous versions of OS X, only with a hidden flag attached similar to an htaccess file on the server. Anyways there are a couple ways to get rid of that flag and show the library, or just its contents in Lion.

Show Library

You can remove the hide flag to reveal the folder permanently using the command line easily. Simply copy this command, paste it into the command line window and hit return (enter). chflags nohidden ~/Library If you get a premissions error then try using this command instead sudo chflags nohidden ~/Library
If you'd like to just access it for a single session then press Shift-Command-G on the Finder and then type '~/Library' without the quotes in the "Go to the Folder" text input. You can also select the "Go" dropdown in the Finder and hold down the option key to reveal the user Library's directory

jQuery 1.6.3 Released

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:17:40 GMT

Soon after the jQuery 1.6.3 RC1 was made available to web developers, the official finished library was released. I guess testing went well! This is still pretty new so the jQuery crew need you to report any bugs!

Notable Changes

Fixed a cross site scripting attack vector: Script injection used to be possible when using location.hash to select elements. The new release disallows the use of html tags and, therefore scripts, in the $() if there is a # preceding it.
Removed support for requestAnimationFrame API: This API would tell the browser when to repaint an animation. The feature was unfortunately mis-used and caused an animation "worm hole" as the browser would execute queued animations concurrently when the browser tab went from inactive to active. Try it out here: In most cases, all you really had to do was empty the animation queue before executing and new animation. Scrapping this API to (seemingly) just reduce the number of bug reports is a bit like a waste in my opinion.
Better handling of HTML5 attributes: The .data() API has been improved to further support HTML 5 data attributes.

You can get a complete change log here.

Report a Bug

Here are the new releases, throw them on your site (or link to them) and see how they fare. AS ussual they have provided one minified version for efficient practical use, and an uncompressed version for you own reference and to make development a bit easier:

You'd be doing the online developement community a huge service by reporting any bugs on JsFiddle using the jQuery(edge) option.

Air Canada Charging for Checked Baggage

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:24:38 GMT

As of September 2 2011 Air Canada will be charging $25 for your first piece of checked luggage on all flights to the US. Seems like kind of a rip off to us..

Nexus Prime Specs and Release Date

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:25:19 GMT

This article aims to be the most accurate compilation of all the facts, leaks and rumors out there on the Google Nexus Prime as of September 13 2011. It seeks to give the best possible estimate of the nexus prime specs and also includes what we think is the most accurate prediction of the nexus prime release date. We will also provide a lits of sources that you can check out for other facts and predictions about the nexus prime and the wild specs that we can expect from it.

The Nexus Prime Manufacturer

By now it is pretty well confirmed that the Nexus Prime (the next Android device to be co-designed by Google) will be manufactured by Samsung. I guess we can get used to saying the Samsung Nexus Prime now. For it's previous devices, Google has gone with either HTC (G1 and Nexus 1) or Samsung (Nexus S, Nexus S 4G). Early on, there were rumors that the Nexus Prime would be build by LG, but that has been ruled out (at least for the moment)

The Nexus Prime Screen

The Nexus Prime is said to be the first 720p Android device (720 by 1280 pixels). This HD Smartphone is going to pack a SuperAMOLED HD Display. We can probably assume a similar look and feel to the Super AMOLED Plus display's found in the Samsung Galaxy S II, but with more than a 50% boost to the resolution (Galaxy S II is only 480 by 800). Currently HTC is running one of the highest resolution smartphone displays in their latest devices - the qHD Display stacking up at 960 by 540. Basically the screen on the Nexus Prime is going to blow anything we've got at present completely out of the water. Size will be 4.3 to 4.65 inches.

The Nexus Prime Operating System

Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich - One of the most significant perks of the Nexus Prime is that it will be running the latest version of the Android OS - Ice Cream Sandwich, 4.0. Although we have heard this won't be much more than a new skin on top of Gingerbread (along with bringing the tablet OS and phone OS under a single framework) there is one important difference in phones built for Ice Cream Sandwich - Ice Cream Sandwich phones have no physical buttons. We can safely assume that no physical buttons will have a pretty big impact on the overall user experience - we saw it in Honeycomb on tablets and it definitely changed thing up a bit. This is not to say that if you have a whine with hardware buttons that you won't get an upgrade to Android 4.0 - It's been all but confirmed that phones like the Nexus S will get the upgrade to the new OS.

The Nexus Prime Processor

Earlier this year we found out that the processor is going to be manufactured by Texas Instruments. They make some of the fastest cpu's in the smartphone industry, with and excellent record for battery efficiency. When the rumors that TI would be building the Nexus Prime processor first came out - they were accompanied by some promising stats and persuasive copy that suggested these beastly processors would be excellent when it came to power consumption. Lets hope they were telling the truth. As most of us who have ever checked out our phones' battery stats know the display is the real killer anyway. It looks like the processor will be the OMAP 4460 clocked in the 1.2GHz to 1.5GHz range. Since most of the high end smatphones (or superphones) today are already hitting the 1.2GHz dual core mark, it's pretty safe to say that the Nexus Prime will be closer to 1.5GHz. There are also rumors that we will find the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in the phone (Krait) but this seems less likely (for now).

The Nexus Prime Battery Power

This is a tough area to predict before the phone actually comes out - so we're not going to get too specific. As we all know battery technology has had almost zero fundamental change in the past 10 or 15 years, so we're not expecting anything dramatic from the nexus prime. That said, bigger has always been better in the batter world and with a 4.5 inch screen you can pack in a pretty large battery. Coupled with the fact that the Samsung AMOLED series of screens consume the least power of all the Android screens on the market today - we predict you can safely make it through a 16 to 20 hour day on one charge. When we saw the average smartphone battery size increase as phones jumped from 3.7 to 4.3 inches, we got a very welcome boost to average battery life. Based on the 4.5 (possibly even 4.65) inch screen on the Nexus Prime, plus the Sumer AMOLED HD Display, plus the rumors that TI has improved the power consumption of it's processors - we are confident in saying that the Nexus Prime will have nearly the best battery life of any high end smart phone available today.

The Nexus Prime Camera

The rumors and leaks are pretty sparse in this area. We're predicting a 5 or 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and the usual auto-focus. Most people are saying 5, but we are putting our bets on 8 at this time. We can probably expect the same type of images as we are getting from the Galaxy S II (which is also 8 megapixels)

The Nexus Prime Release Date

We are predicting a release date of October 21 2011. This is based on a number of rumors and leaks - most of which explain an original plan (or Google's) to have the phone out by Christmas, and then revamping that plan based on 2 things - being ahead of schedule and wanting to beat (or at least tie) Apple to the market on the release of their iPhone 5.

The Nexus Prime will probably have a Canadian release date a month or two later. Some analysts are calling for a March release in Canada but we will likely see it before as the incentive to have it available before Christmas is extremely large.

Youtube Channel Views Reset | Youtube Views Bug

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:01:29 GMT

A huge number of youtube videos and channels had their number of views reset earlier today. This was not intentional, it was caused by some sort of bug or misstep when doing database maintenance.

The error has not affected all youtube channels or videos. Don't panic, youtube is systematically restoring channel and video views to the correct values.

Let us know if your experiencing the same issue and if your views were restored!

jQuery 1.6.3 RC1 Released

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:39:49 GMT

The new jQuery Javascript library, jQuery 1.6.3 Release Candidate 1, was made publicly available two days ago from the jQuery website.

Notable Changes

Fixed a cross site scripting attack vector: Script injection used to be possible when using location.hash to select elements. The new release disallows the use of html tags and, therefore scripts, in the $() if there is a # preceding it.
Removed support for requestAnimationFrame API: This API would tell the browser when to repaint an animation. The feature was unfortunately mis-used and caused an animation "worm hole" as the browser would execute queued animations concurrently when the browser tab went from inactive to active. Try it out here: In most cases, all you really had to do was empty the animation queue before executing and new animation. Scrapping this API to (seemingly) just reduce the number of bug reports is a bit like a waste in my opinion.
Better handling of HTML5 attributes: The .data() API has been improved to further support HTML 5 data attributes.

Report a Bug

Here are the new releases, throw them on your site (or link to them) and see how they fare:

You'd be doing the online developement community a huge service by reporting any bugs on JsFiddle using the jQuery(edge) option.

Mac Terminal Page Down Home End Not Working | How to Fix Them

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:46:53 GMT

By default the Mac Terminal Shortcuts: Page Down, Page Up, Home and End keys do not work as you would expect them to. There is a very simple fix for this explained below:

Open up the terminal
Go to Preferences
Go to the Settings Tab
Go to the Keyboard Section
Select the end key
Click the Edit button
Choose 'send string to shell' from the Action drop down menu
Paste in this value: \033[4~

Here are the values for the commonly used shortcuts in the Mac terminal:

Key	Action
Home	\033[1~
End	\033[4~
Page Up	\033[5~
Page Down	\033[6~

Evolution of the Pit Bike

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:21:54 GMT

Just about every young boy has wanted a motorcycle. I guess I shouldn’t say wanted because I still want one, and I am not a kid anymore. I was around 16 when I got my first pit bike. I have watched them evolve. I have also been part of the evolution. It has been fun to watch the changes of these bikes.

The first pit bikes were mainly Honda, just a standard 50cc mini bike. Older guys started to ride their kid’s bikes around and do little street tricks. I remember the first pit bike video I saw was 50 Nuts. After a while pit bikes started to get more popular. Companies like BBR released parts to upgrade Honda 50’s and add more power. It was the best looking pit bikes I had ever
seen.

Because of the popularity of pit bikes, affordable Chinese brands started to surface. The first pit bike I had was a SDG. These bikes had horrible engines and just as bad frames. My clutch went out in the first 2 weeks and I broke the frame in half. It looked like a chopper because the neck of the pit bike bent and the fork legs bent forward.

Because of these broken frames and bad clutches Pitster Pro started making some improvements. After a few years they started to produce the best Chinese made pit bike on the market. Because of Pitster Pro other pit bike company tried to keep up. The only other pit bike company with the same quality is Piranha pit bikes. Pit bike quality is top notch these days.

Pit bikes are fun and are less dangerous around the track. They are also more affordable. With the power these bikes put out, adults and children are enjoying them everywhere. Whether it is on the track or at the cabin, pit bikes have become a nice niche for bike riders around the world.

Tornado Watch for Waterloo 2011 August 24

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:10:10 GMT

I can't remember anything like this ever happening before in Kitchener Waterloo! Tornado watch not warning!

The watch was issued at 11am for a large chunk of Onatrio. Full list:

Waterloo
Windsor
Essex
Chatham
Kent
Sarnia
Lambton
Elgin
London
Middlesex
Huron
Perth
Wellington
Dufferin
Innisfil
Grey- Bruce
Barrie
Orillia
Midland
Parry Sound
Muskoka

If you are in any of these areas, stay indoors and be mindful of the weather.

Symbian Anna Review | Should I Upgrade my N8?

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:19:13 GMT

For those who have purchased a Nokia N8 and are wondering if it is worth it to upgrade this is a complete review of Symbian Anna. We are going to go over the top three upgrades.

The first issue is the issue that the N8 has is that there is no portrait key board. Symbian Anna has a great portrait keyboard it has the same tactility of the regular keyboard. Another upgrade to the keyboard is there is the ability to have non full screen mode. This becomes very useful when trying to remember the context of a text message you are sending.

The second upgrade is the Web Browser. The new Symbian Anna web browser is a lot faster and easily search on google and bing.
This is a huge upgrade, because web pages that used to get mutilated by the old browser are now displayed as they should. Also there were big enhancements to speed up Javascript. This means that interactive pages will now be a lot more responsive.

The New Camera Interface is very user friendly and takes the Nokia N8 camera to the next level. Along with the upgraded UI, the main feature added is Continuous Auto-Focus (CAF) while recording videos. This will greatly increase the recording quality of videos.

Overall I would recommend the upgrade for all N8 users. Try it out!

Download 3D Videos to Watch on HTC Evo 3D

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:19:14 GMT

Looking for some sample videos to watch on you 3D Android Phone - LG Optimus 3D or HTC Evo 3D? We're compiling a list below of a few sample Stereoscopic 3D videos to watch on your phone. Hopefully we'll find YouTube 3D on the HTC Evo 3D soon!

3D Videos for Android 3D phones:

3D Cooking show: mirror 1 – mirror 2 – mirror 3
Resident Evil 3D Preview: mirror 1 – mirror 2 – mirror 3 – mirror 4

Earthquake in Markham Toronto Virginia GTA August 23 2011 1:54 pm

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:54:04 GMT

There was an earthquake felt in Toronto today.

Got it bad in Virginia, the epicentre of the earthquake. The shaking lasted for about 30 to 40 seconds in the United States and about 15-20 seconds in Toronto. Waterloo felt the shake too but it only lasted for a few seconds and with a small fraction of the force exhibited further South West. There were plenty of buildings damaged and evacuation in the United States (including the Pentagon and the White House) but no deaths or bodily injuries reported.

This one seemed way stronger than the earthquake we had about a year ago.

Did you feel it?

Where to get discounted HP Touchpad $99 In Stock

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:32:15 GMT

Latest news:

There will be more hp touchpads!

Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase. See more information in the updated FAQs below.

More touchpads on the way!

Currently the only places that have the touchpad instock as of 3:44 pm on Tuesday August 30th are:

There is some talk of Futureshop and BestBuy getting their last shipment in Thursday Sept 1st
Try University stores - the University of Toronto book store had them in stock much later than other
Get on the forum on RedFlagDeals - they are talking about stores getting new shipments

32GB hp touchpad for $149 and 16 GB hp touchpad for $99

Good luck!

Gevey sim not working on Rogers | Call failed on 122

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:14:31 GMT

This week it seems that the Gevey sim has stopped working on the iPhone 4.

Whenever we try to dial 122 we get the message "Call Failed" right away. Normally you need to maintain the call for at least 2 seconds before moving onto the next step in the Gevey unlocking process.

We're not sure if this has something to do with Rogers (or Canada?) blocking calls to 122. If you are experiencing the same thing, please let us know in the comments.

Add MySQL User | Give them Permissions On a Database

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:07:38 GMT

This simple guide demonstrates adding a new user to mysql and giving that user full access rights to a particular db within MySQL. This is really useful when you want to create a new database user for a new wordpress isntall.

You can do this from the command line of your server if you login with:
mysql -u root -p
Or you can do it from within phpmyadmin (phpmyadmin is probably the best option if you are using a web hosting account)

Before you create the new user, you will want to create a new database (you can do that from the main page of phpmyadmin)
Use the following 2 lines to create a new user named sammy with password strong_password and give him full access rights for the database called MY_DB
CREATE USER 'sammy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON MY_DB.* TO 'sammy'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Travel to the Philippines

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:39:22 GMT

If you want to experience a variety in tourism, then the worthiest place that you should visit next is Philippines where you can have a taste of the Western as well as Eastern culture since it has been dominated by several nations in the past, such as Spanish, Japanese, and Americans. Because of this, Philippines became rich in several structures like churches, towers, museums, and more. (www.philippinetourism.us)

Allow me to share some of my personal views and ideas about Philippines, bearing in mind that I am from this country and raised by Filipino parents. Filipinos are a fun-loving and friendly people. Their hospitality is legendary and at no time it is more in evidence than at festival time. Throughout the islands, there are festivals celebrated every day and foreign guests are always welcome in their homes. Every travel destination is worth a visit. I will try to feature a few of the most frequently visited tourist spots in the Philippines in which I can consider a stunning spots: the capital city of Manila; Boracay Beach (see Boracay hotels); Baguio - the summer capital of the Philippines; Bohol Island; Corregidor Island; Cebu City, (my birth place); and Davao City, (my hometown).

Tourist Spot in the Philippines #1
Boracay Island combines crystal clear waters, sugary beaches that squeak when walked on, and lush hilly landscapes into an idyllic tourist haven, that's guaranteed to fascinate and lull visitors into tranquil harmony with its simplistic beauty.
Visitors commonly refer to Boracay as a breath-taking, unbelievably magical Island. A paradise set in the unspoilt South China Seas.

Tourist Spot #2
Burnham Park in Baguio has 12 cluster areas: the man-made lake with rowboats for hire that folks refer to as the Burnham Lagoon, the Children's Playground, the Skating Rink, the Rose Garden, the Orchidarium, Igorot Garden, Melvin Jones Grandstand, the Athletic Bowl, a Picnic Grove, the Japanese Peace Tower, Pine Trees of the World and Sunshine Park.
(By Jonathan @Baguio Insider)
"Make no little plans for they have no magic to stir men's blood..." - Daniel H. Burnham

Tourist Spot #3
Isla Reta is one of the nice beaches in Talikud Island, which is a part of the bigger island, The Island Garden City of Samal, Mindanao, Philippines. While it only takes a ten-minute boat ride to get to Samal Island from Davao City, where I live, the trip to Talikud Island takes around 30-45 minutes, but it is well worth the trip. Isla Reta’s beach is magnificent!
The sand is powdery and light brown to dirty white, and as you near the water, pebbles and bleached broken corals line the beach. The water is cool, invigorating and crystal clear. If you are planning to spend some time there, don't forget your snorkeling gear so you can take a look at the splendid various marine life and growing young corals, white-sand beachfront spot. This is a tropical vacation idea where you can relax your mind and body with nature’s paradise.

Tourist Spot #4
Magellan's Cross:
When Magellan traveled from Spain to the Philippines in 1521, he brought with him in a wooden cross. This cross was planted at a place called Sugbu, now Cebu, (my birth place) to symbolize the colonization of the country on behalf of King Philip II of Spain.
To preserve the cross the original has been encased in an outer layer of tindalo wood, mounted on a concrete pedestal, and housed in a tile-roofed kiosk. The roof of the kiosk is adorned with a painting depicting the landing of Magellan in Cebu and the planting of the original cross on the shore.
Sightseeing is one of the activities that you can do here in the Philippines. Each region and each province has something different to offer. Most of the tourist spots are natural scenic scenery and had been nominated to become one of the New Seven Wonders of the World (Filed Under: General Philippines). Some of these destinations include the Chocolate Hills in Bohol, Batad within the municipality of Banaue, which is one of its Barangays. Mayon Volcano in Albay, Subterranean River in Puerto Princesa, and the Tubbataha Reef in Sulu. There are also several ruins that can be found in Cebu (churches as well as watchtowers) and even in the capital of the country, Manila (Fort Santiago).
Batad, which is within the municipality of Banaue is such a heavenly place in the Philippines. Indeed a wonder of the world, for the people have carved their lives teeming with beauty from the landscapes of the earth. The sun smiles gleefully on harvest season, from the “Ifugao Rice Terraces.”
Thrill seekers would definitely love this country because of the different activities that can be done here. Snorkelling and scuba diving are just some of the popular outdoor activities since the country is rich in marine treasures. The Philippines was once again named as one of the top 10 dive destinations in the world, this time by Japan’s leading diving magazines and given at the recent 17th Marine Diving Fair (MDF) held in Tokyo, the largest diving fair in Asia, the MDF Awards are among the highly-acknowledged commendations for must-visit dive destinations in the world.
Although some parts of the country were being modernized, there are still several places where eco-tourism is the most popular activity. Lush mountains await the nature lovers. Hiking and trekking can be done in the mountains in Romblon, the mysterious Mount Makiling, and the perfect cone-shaped Mount Mayon. (Basic Expat by: Rusty Ferguson)
The Philippines is the only country in the world that welcomes foreigners from all other countries. It is one of the very few you can enter without a visa. You will only need to get one after 21 days if you stay that long, but there are some exceptions: Passport holders of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), British National Overseas (BNO) and Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) passport holders are only allowed up to 7 days stay without a visa. Foreign nationals from Brazil and Israel are allowed up to 59 days only.
Communications and getting around the country is easy as most Filipinos understand and speak English.The Philippines is the fourth largest English speaking country in the world.
(By Dave Crosby and 20 others)

So, what’s the delay? Come and visit us!
Consider the PHILIPPINES next time for vacation.
Mabuhay!
Melodia de Guzman
Shotwell Academy

Kik Update (Simple)

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:33:21 GMT

Yesterday Kik Interactive released an update. The new update is code-named simple. Its goals were to provide a simple interface to communicate with friends. It becomes easy to sign up with friends among other things. In the last release Kik also released an API for developers. There have been a couple cool usages. The first notable one is File Kiker. This allows you to share files quite easily between phones(Download File Kiker Here). Also there are two new Apps that use kik (Check it out here) to allow people to send video from the camera and also send voice notes.

Using the Kik API is really easy and you have a chance at $5,000 if you release an App to the iTunes App store or the Android market.

My husband used to start everyday with the product and it really works. You should be able to talk with a human being, including a licensed pharmacist, to answer questions about your prescription.

Also there will be a how to guide coming soon!

Turn your Blog into a Mobile App for Nokia | Nokia App for Everyone

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:07:11 GMT

Nokia has made it incredibly easy for anyone who is connected to the internet to create their own application with the Ovi App Wizard. It basically captures the RSS feed from your blog and prints it to a neat looking, customizable, application frame that you can put on the Ovi store either for free or for a price not exceeding 5 Euros. You can also turn you Facebook, Blogger, Tmblr, Youtube, Picasa, and Flickr feeds into sections of your Ovi app, or give them their own independent applications. Up to 4 feeds are allowed per application and they can be from the same platform (ie. 2 rss feeds from different sites of yours.)

What You're Going to Need

Feed Url(s) If your using Wordpress it will be the www.yourblogs.com/feed/, otherwise all you need to do is copy the url of your account
A Logo for Each Feed This should be a 256x256 pixel PNG, JPG or GIF that will be displayed on the Ovistore website, Ovistore app, and in the users app drawer as the app icon. Make sure its not too complicated as many Nokia phones will scale it down to 60x60px and you dont want it to look blurry or "mashed".
A Banner for Each FeedThis should be a 360x60 pixel PNG, JPG or GIF that will be displayed across the top of the application. Uploading a screencapture of you blog header that's at the perscribed size will do fine, Ovi wizard has a cropping tool for you to get the size perfect.
(Optional) A Millennial Media or an Mpression AccountThe Ovi App Wizard lets monotize your app beyond including a price tag by adding advertising. Unfortunately, it can only be served by one of the two ad distributors listed above.

The Result

Once you've got all your components, just follow the Ovi Wizards instructions and you'll end up with something like this →

The text colour of the links and app bar are both customizable, as is the background colour of the app bar itself. The placement of sections (ie the app bar, banner, posts) are not customizable but you can choose to display your posts as a grid of pictures instead of the title excerpt. In our example we only have a blog feed, if you have other feeds included in your app then there would be a drop-down menu on the app bar to navigate between them.

Share It

So we've crafted this nifty Nokia app with about an hour's worth of work; not bad. Its a great tool for reader/fan retention and it can turn into solid source of revenue from advertising or sales. The App wizard also has an automated social network sharing tool as well as a web tool to create a banner for your app.

Try it out and post your app links below in a comment!

Change jBoss 5 Default Port

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:09:33 GMT

This guide explains how to change the default port of jboss 5.x (which is 8080) to whatever port you want

Open the server.xml file that corresponds to your deployment server
i.e. vi <jboss-home>/server/default/deploy/jbossweb.sar/server.xml
Find the line: <Connector protocol="HTTP/1.1" port="8080" address="${jboss.bind.address}"
Change port 8080 to whatever port you would like to use
Restart jBoss

simple mysqldump example

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:26:48 GMT

This post shows how to export a database from the command line. You can export for backup purposes or you can export and move the sql database file to a new database server.

Here is a simple example of using mysqldump on ubuntu linux:

mysqldump -u root -p MY_DATABASE_NAME > /home/myuser/db_backup.2014.08.07.sql

And here is how to import the MySQL dump file to a new database:

mysql -u root -p NEW_DATABASE_NAME < /home/myuser/db_backup.2014.08.07.sql

Install Sun Java JDK on Ubuntu Linux

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:13:11 GMT

Here is the quick guide on installing the Sun Java jdk on Ubuntu Linux. I needed to do this on 10.04 server edition, but it should be the same for just about all versions. If you don't want to do too much from the command line, substitute step 2 with: sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list to edit the file with gedit instead of vi.

Open the terminal
run: sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Add This Line (you can add the new line anywhere in the file):
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner

run: sudo apt-get update
run: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

Mark as Draft in Word 2010

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:39:01 GMT

This quick guide explains how to mark a Microsoft Word 2010 (or 2007) document as a draft (using that typical diagonal DRAFT text that goes across each page)

Go to the Page Layout tab
Select Watermark
Choose Draft 1

Seam Generator Tutorial | Generate a crud web app in seconds

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:58:51 GMT

This is just a quick note on the steps to run through when using the seam generator.

For a full walkthrough of how to build a java crud web application in under a minute, check out the video at the bottom of this page.

./seam setup
./seam create-project
./seam generate
./seam explode

You'll need to download:

jBoss 5
Seam 2
MySQL
MySQL jdbc driver (connector/j) - in the video he uses postgres, so you can use that too. When I tried with postgres I got to the end and there was no Browse Data button..

5 Things That You Definitely Want In Your Carry-On Luggage

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:34:26 GMT

5 Things That You Definitely Want In Your Carry-On Luggage

Everyone knows traveling can be a hassle, especially the airport part. Dealing with check in, security, and most importantly luggage check in and claiming your luggage makes people aggravated and annoyed. Making matters worse, so many people have been the victim of lost luggage. You get to your destination and your luggage was somehow sent to another part of the country. How and why these things happen may not have an answer, but there is a way to completely avoid the panic of not having items that you need right away.

Now, most airlines have about the same guidelines as to the size your carry on bag should be. If a carry on is all you are planning to take, then you are going to have everything in it that you could possibly need on the trip. However, if you are taking extra luggage, you can plan ahead and put your most essential needs in your carry on, just in case your luggage gets lost.

Essential clothes

An example? Under garments such as bras, panties, and camisoles are definitely required. Other clothing items such as t-shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and jeans are all good precautions too. Another pair of shoes and a few pairs of socks will add the finishing touch.

Toiletries

Toothbrushes, hair accessories, makeup, feminine needs such as, tampons are a great idea as well. Also, medications and prescriptions that you need or take daily, for example Advil or Motrin are key items for your carry on.

Wallet

Obviously you are going to want to have your money, credits, and personal information with you at all times. If you can, put your purse into your carry on. It will reduce the amount of things you have to carry and you know it will be in a secure place. Plus, if you need money, your ID, or a credit card, there is no chance of it getting lost with all of the other luggage.

Electronics

Under this category falls your laptop, cell phone, Game Boy, or even a portable Vizio TV, and of course, the chargers for both of these items. These electronics will give you some entertainment on the plane ride or while you’re waiting.

Snacks

The food they offer on the plane is expensive and the complimentary food isn’t always as filling as you would like it to be. Bringing your own snacks will be convenient and allow you to bring the snacks you want.

Listed above are just five of many different items you should include in your carry on. Again, if you are only bringing a carry on then you are all set and you do not have to worry about your luggage getting lost. If you plan on bringing more luggage you should definitely consider filling your carry on with the essentials.

Improving Overall Health via Goal Setting

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:11:24 GMT

The problem most people have when approaching the problem of improving their overall health is the lack of attainable and worthwhile goals. The great Yankee's manager Yogi Berra was once quoted as saying if you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else. Goals play a number of different psychological roles within an individual. They set the groundwork for action. The provide a sense of direction and a sense of purpose. They also provide a measuring mark for improvement. One can relate their relative progress in terms of how close they are to obtaining their goal. The important things when it comes to the average person and settings goals is that they must select goals that are not completely unrealistic, but that still push them to achieve something great. The following goals are set out to give you an idea of the kind of goal setting I am speaking of. Obviously, the goals that you choose to achieve will vary according to your own personal inclinations, dispositions, and current health states.

Run a Half-Marathon - Running a half-marathon is an achievement that others have expressed to me that they are very proud of. To put it simply, running is not something innately enjoyed by the average person. Yet, there are a number of different ways one can go about training for a marathon and many running experts actually denounce the act of simply running to train for such an event (though it should obviously play a large role.) Other modes of training such as swimming, participation in other cardio-intensive sports (such as soccer or basketball), and high-rep low-weight weight training. The average person is nowhere near running a half-marathon, but the joy that overcomes a person when crossing that finish line is second to none.
Climb a Mountain This may not be a measuring stick of health that many are familiar with, but I can speak from personal experience that climbing a mountain is one of the most grueling physical challenges I've ever participated in. I often find comfort in knowing that it is incredibly unlikely that I will be physically tested the way I was when climbing a mountain when approaching new physical challenges. Training to climb a mountain, at least for me, involved weight training, endurance training (in whatever manner you choose to do so), and learning the technical skills necessary to carry out such a feat. Not only are you likely to meet some pretty interesting people during the process, but there are few words that can describe the feeling of looking down on the world from something you've conquered.
Obtain a Fitness License - One of the most fruitful tools one can have in the search to improve their health is knowledge. Obtaining a fitness license involves learning what it truly means to become healthy, and how to go about doing that properly. You should obviously try and match the license your pursing to an innate interest of yours, whether it's to obtain your fitness instructor's license, becoming a yoga instructing, or teaching a Jazzercise class. The pursuit of this goal will put the subject of fitness and health at the forefront of your mind throughout the entire process, making you a more health conscious and health aware individual.
Remove Three Unhealthy Eating Habits from your Life - Whether they like to admit it or not, people have an innate understanding of what is good for them and what is not. We know that eating a large fast-food meal probably isn't the best thing for you (how many people feel like going for a jog after a Big Mac?). Choose the three unhealthiest food habits you have an completely remove them from your diet. Whether it be your favorite candy bar or your mom's fried pork chops, it is likely that the health improvements will be more than noticeable by then end of the six months. Expected improvements from a better diet include: better overall mood, increased supplies of energy, weight loss, improved skin and reduction of acne, and improved sleep.

How to Fix Error duplicate Id for a component selectParent

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:24:01 GMT

This error appears in in some projects created with seam 2 when you try to create or edit a record in the web ui. It seems to be a bug.

You need to modify one line in either your seam-home/seam-gen/view/edit.page.xml.ftl or seam-home/seam-gen/view/edit.xhtml.ftl depending on your version of seam.

open up the file and change this line:

Then Re-Run ./seam generate and ./seam explode

Restart jboss and everything should be working

The final code chunk should look like this:

How to Create a War File in Netbeans

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:27:36 GMT

In most default configurations netbeans, does not create a war file in the dist folder where you would expect it. By default it often just copies the exploded war file into the jboss or glassfish deploy folder.

In order to create a war file:

Right-Click your project in the explorer
Select Properties
Go to Build and Run
From the 'Build Project' drop-down select 'archive'
Hit OK
Right Click on your project
Select Build (this will create the war)

Go to your projects//dist folder and you will see your war file

Why Electronic Signatures are More Defensible Than Pen Signatures

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:11:33 GMT

Companies that utilize the technology to allow clients, customers, and associates to sign documents electronically no longer have to worry about whether those documents will stand up in court. Thanks in large part to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, known as the E-Sign Act, documents and contracts that are signed electronically are just as legally binding as those signed with a ballpoint pen.

History of the E-Sign Act

Signed into law on June 30, 2000, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act – better known as the E-SIGN Act – was created to address the realities of doing business in a global environment. The E-SIGN Act eliminated many of the barriers that were holding back e-commerce businesses and ensured that companies would no longer have to forego the legal validity of handwritten signatures for the speed and efficiency of e-signatures. According to some legal experts, contracts signed with e-signature web applications may actually hold up better in court than those signed by hand, since e-signatures can include identity authentication data and are less prone to forgery or fraud.

What Makes an E-Signature Valid?

Not all e-signatures are created equal. The E-Sign Act defined an electronic signature as a "electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record," which gave businesses latitude when it came to the ways in which their documents were signed. However, the Act also established certain criteria that all legally binding e-signatures must meet.

Behind every valid e-signature, there must be a document and there must be intent. Without these two elements, an e-signaturewill not hold up in court. Additionally, electronic documents must be tamper-proof, and they must be stored in a secure and accessible location.

Ideally, documents that are signed electronically should include date stamps and identity authentication. Being able to authenticate the identity of a signatory and provide detailed records of the dates and times when particular documents were signed is key in the event that the validity of a document is ever questioned in court.

To ensure the legality of their most important contracts, companies are increasingly turning to electronic signaturesoftware applications. These tools take the hassle out of getting electronic documents signed by providing all the functionality necessary to collect legally binding signatures online. Not only does e-signature software keep audit logs on every document, but it also provides users with convenient views of document statuses, secure document storage, and other features helpful in streamlining contract processes.

Mr. Moore is an expert in online technologies, including web applications, cloud computing, and e-signatures software. His articles on innovative products and new technology including those on digital signature have been published on leading online sites.

Things to Look for in Your HDTV

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:50:29 GMT

One of the most provocative ways to lure customers is by flaunting esoteric, technical terms in their faces and then by proving that these really matter to the customer, so that they feel the need and desire to buy that item. Some of these features and characteristics may be relevant, but mostly there is little reason for a host of factors being flaunted. For an average consumer looking to buy something, these factors can often be rather confusing and challenging, in that they make taking a decision harder than before. This could of course be avoided by being prepared when you go to buy something, because you already know what you are looking for.

The rapidly evolving world of HDTVs is no different from the issues listed above.

The factors that need to be looked into before buying a HDTV are listed below to enhance understanding.

Contrast Ratio

One of the primary factors is the contrast ratio, which is listed almost universally, with all televisions. Essentially the contrast ratio delineates the maximum difference between the white and black pixels because a greater contrast ratio makes the picture look all the more realistic.

Response Time

Another important factor is the response time exhibited by the television. The response time reflects the total delay required for a pixel to turn from one color to another and is generally chosen as the transition from white to black or the other way around. However, there are certain television manufacturers who rate response time by reporting time required for a pixel to turn from one shade of grey to another. The transition between greys is generally faster than the transition between black and white. However, the lack of a unified standard means independent response time criteria for each manufacturer. However, response times for most televisions are advanced enough so that little differences exist.

Refresh Rate

Refresh rate is another important criterion that is often under reported for most televisions. There are vast differences in refresh rate levels with the most timid starting somewhere around 60 Hz for commercial applications. The next standard arrives at some 120 Hz while the fastest standard lies at 240 Hz. The difference in image clarity especially for moving images is vastly different for 60 Hz and 120 Hz with the latter being superior. However, as the refresh rate is increased, there is no guarantee of better image manipulation. In fact, at some 240 Hz the image manipulation is so catalyzed that a certain violent shaking is experienced. The resolution is often too fast for extended viewing periods with a comfortable viewing experience. Therefore, it is generally most suitable to watch out for refresh rates of some 120 Hz, as they tend to produce clear and crisp images that agree well with the human vision system.

Size of a Television Screen

Lastly, the size of a television screen is probably the single most important factor of all. Most people tend to buy the largest television that their budgets can afford but often the results are rather unexpected. Depending on the overall location and viewing environment of the television, it is often the case that larger television screens produce straight lines when viewed too closely. Only the right size tends to produce the perfect image quality.

About the author: This guest post has been contributed by Calvin Scott. Calvin has a passion for gadgets and a love for Internet marketing. Visit his site for digitenne aanbieding or digitenne aanvragen.

4 Hour Body Muscle Gain Workout Routine

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:28:14 GMT

This is the workout Tim Ferris references when discussing how to build muscle fast. As Tim explains, it was used during the Colorado Experiment in which Casey Viator gained 63 pounds of muscle in 28 days. He gained 45 pounds overall, while losing significant (18 lbs) body fat (resulting in the 63 pound lean-mass gain). There's obviously a huge diet component that goes along with this workout routine - we'll be posting a summary soon.

All exercises are done for just 1 set (except calf raises)
There is no rest between sets (unless specified)
The Entire Workout should take 30 minutes (but will likely be a little longer your first few times)
Should be done twice per week
Based on other advice in the 4 hour body, we recommend a 5/5 cadence (5 seconds to raise the weight, 5 seconds to lower)
Aim to be at complete failure on your last rep of each exercise

Leg press × 20 reps
Leg extension × 20 reps
Squats × 20 reps
(Two-minute rest)
Leg curl × 12 reps
Calf raises 3 × 15 reps
Behind-neck let-pull-down × 10
Row×10
Behind-neck pull-down × 10 (I substituted straight-arm, lat-targeted push downs on the tricep extension cable machine)
(Two-minute rest)
Lateral raise × 8 (shoulders)
Press behind-the-neck × 10 (shoulder press)
(Two-minute rest)
Bicep Curls × 8 reps
Underhand chin plus weight for reps
(Two-minute rest)
Tricep extension × 22 reps
Dips (body weight) × 22 reps

COD Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Info

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:42:38 GMT

This information has not been explicitly confirmed by Activision, Infinity Ward or Sledge Hammer but they have been sighted at E3 and/or compiled from rumor websites. We'll update it as more information becomes available. List is current as of : June 22nd 2011.

Killstreaks

EMP Grenade Similar to Modern Warfare 2
Littlebird Remote control chopper
Precision Airstrike Same as in Modern Warfare 2
Remote Turret Like sentry gun
Directional UAV Pick an area for the UAV plane to scan
Remote Mortar Remote camera to do a "zoomed-in" airstrike
Air-Drop Trap Sends in a booby trapped supply package as the enemy
Escorted Air-Drop Airdrop that has gunship backup to secure its pickup
Specialist Strike Package No information yet

Perks

Blind Eye Makes you immune to computer controlled killstreaks (ie. remote turret). The pro version of the perk gets your launchers to lock on faster.
Assassin Makes you immune to location sensors like UAV and heartbeat sensors. Pro version extends the immunity to EMPs, counter UAVs and the reticule name.
Point Guard Every two assists count towards a point on your killstreaks.
Recon Gives you a special kind of radar to spot enemies as well as being able to hold your breath longer looking down scope.
Health Regeneration More or less what it sounds like, regenerate health quickly.
Stun Protection Protects you, to some extent, from stun grenade white outs.

Levels

Alpha
Alps
Bootleg
Bravo
Brooklyn
Carbon
Coast
Dome
Exchange
Hardhat
Interchange
Lambeth
Meteora
Mogadishu
Paris
Plaza 2
Radar
Seatown
Underground
Village

Playstation Network Status Update | PSN Back Up in Canada

Sun, 15 May 2011 02:08:48 GMT

The Playstation Network is finally starting to come back up. Playstation will be "phasing in" the online gaming and store functionality over the next few days based on geographic region. Right now you can download the new software update regardless of where you live.

Updated as of May 15 3:04am EST: The Playstation network is restored in Ontario and all of Canada! Confirmed in Waterloo, Toronto and Victoria.

The shaded areas have the service restored so far in the US:

Playstation Network Outage Update | PSN Up in the Next Few Days

Tue, 10 May 2011 16:36:49 GMT

Contrary to the Bloomberg estimate of the May the 31st, it looks like the company is on target to have the Playstation network back up and running by the end of the week. Mr. Seybold, Sr director of Corporate Media, posted today on Sony's American Playstation blog that he could not give an exact date as to when the network service would be restored. He did say that it would take "at least a few more days" leading us to believe that it will be up within the week.

The playstation network has been down since April 21st with a distributed denial of service attack. There have been a couple guesses to who is responsible for this, there were threats issued by Anonymous after Sony sued George Hotz, (aka geohot). Anonymous has now denied all responsibility for the attacks.

Diablo 3 Beta Release Announced

Mon, 09 May 2011 23:43:59 GMT

During Activision's Q1 investor conference call earlier today, Mike Morhaime, the co-founder of Blizzard, announced that a Diablo 3 external beta would be released in the third quarter of 2011. So, if everything goes to plan, we could be playing Diablo 3 as early as July of this year!

There were almost no details revealed about the external beta itself. Considering Blizzard's past beta releases (most notably Starcraft 2) and the large amount of online functionality Diablo 3 is said to deliver, they're going to need plenty of testers.

The Best Nokia N8 Instant Messaging Applications

Fri, 06 May 2011 22:36:53 GMT

We are on a quest to try and find top 3 chat applications that are available for Symbian^3 the OS Running on the N8. There are a couple of really big chat applications available for Symbian. There are a couple of things that I rate the chat applications on:

1. Efficiency - are they efficient and not going to suck away at your battery life?
2. Cross Platform - Are you going to be able to communicate with your friends on other platforms
3. Usability/Design - Is it easy to use and start a chat, and is it visually appealing?
4. Features - Are there a lot of cool features?

1. Nimbuzz - Currently we have found that there though this messenger seems bulky this application is the most feature complete as it has its own dedicated user base, as well as allowing you to communicate over MSN Messenger, Facebook Chat, Google Chat, as well as a variety of other services. As well they are VOIP provider allowing you to make network calls. This app needs to improve their ability to automatically select the network interface to use, as it makes the user experience weird. On my N8 running on rogers in Canada, when first starting the application on a 3G network a modal view is brought up asking me connect to a wireless network. If I did not select a wireless network Interface the application would crash and force me to select a wireless network. If this was intended as a feature, then please take it out, or allow the application to select a default network interface to connect on.

2. Skype - Everyone knows Skype, but it seems like they can't get the user experience right on Symbian^3. This application was seemed slower to load and killed my battery life. I did really enjoy the audio quality on VOIP calls, when it comes to VOIP providers, Skype team knows what they are doing. The Good thing about Skype is that they still have a massive cross platform support for their own skype user base.

3. WhatsApp - I never really liked whatsApp on Android or Iphone (Iphone client they charge for), and I really didn't like it on Symbian though It was very lean on battery and the it does not really feel well. As well, it would bring itself in focus at the most random times. And very often times crashes when the phone is in Offline mode.

In summary I liked Nimbuzz the most, but I think we need another messenger client to enter the game on Symbian that will really stand out in by their User Experience and efficiency. Since Nokia has just released their first set of devices with the Notifications API, many of the symbian chat apps keep constant network connections and thus eat your battery.

If you have any suggestions as to other messenger clients for the Nokia N8 ( I have already looked over IM+), then leave me a comment below.

Get Nokia N8 to run on Fido Network | N8 on Fido

Wed, 04 May 2011 03:48:14 GMT

Here's how to get an N8 working with your Fido SIM card

Get the phone by either:
- Buying an unlocked version on ebay.
- Get someone you know who is a rogers customer to purchase the phone for you, slip your SIM card in and purchase a $7.99 unlock code from cellunlocker.net.
We start by adjusting the Internet Settings so that we can browse the internet on the handset.
- Go to Menu > Settings >Connectivity > Settings > Destinations to display the network destination settings.
- Select "+ Access Point" and respond no to the next prompt where it asks to check for available access points.
- Select Packet Data access point and name it "Fido Internet".
- Select Internet on the Select destination prompt
This should bring us back to the Network destinations screen. Select the "Internet" destination and from there, select our Fido Internet access point. Fill out the fields according to this:
One that doesn't upset my tummy and make me taste it all day. Buy cipro from united states online! There are a lot of legitimate mail-order pharmacies in this country.
- Connection name:Fido Internet
- Data bearer: Packet Data
- Access point name: internet.fido.ca
- Username: fido
- Prompt Password: No
- Password: fido
- Authentication: Normal
- Homepage: wap.fido.ca
Press back and power the phone off and back on.
Press menu and go to Web Browser > Settings > General and change Access point to Internet if it isn't already selected. You should now be able to access the internet on your N8!
Next we have to adjust the MMS settings so that we can send and receive text and media messages. Go back to the network destinations scream by following Menu > Settings >Connectivity > Settings > Destinations and follow these steps to create an MMS access point:
- Select "+ Access Point" and respond no to the next prompt where it asks to check for available access points.
- Select Packet Data access point and name it "Fido MMS".
- Select Media Messaging on the Select destination prompt
This should bring us back to the destinations screen, select Media Messaging and then Fido MMS. Fill in the fields according to this:

Connection name: Fido MMS
Data bearer: Packet data
Access point name: mms.fido.ca
Username: fido
Prompt Password: No
Password : fido
Authentication: Normal
Homepage: http://mms.fido.ca

Now select Options on the bottom left and choose Advanced Settings

Network type: IPv4
Phone IP address: Automatic
DNS addresses: Automatic
Proxy Server address: 205.151.011.013
Proxy port number:0

Press back twice and power the phone off then on.

Finally, go to Menu > Messaging > Options > Settings > Multimedia message and change the "Access point in use" to "Fido MMS". You can now send and receive text messages on your N8!

The Best Way to Earn Amex Membership Rewards Points

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:57:43 GMT

Here are a few of the best strategies to rack up the most points with the american express gold rewards card: This assumes that you are using the amex points to convert into aeroplan points at a ration of 1:1 (which is absolutely the best thing to do with them)

Buy gift cards at shoppers drugmart
- works especially well if you buy giftcards for places that don’t take amex
- works well for any place that doesn’t give you double points (as shoppers does give you double points)
- you also get to collect shoppers optimum points
Swipe your aeroplan card before pumping gas at esso
- get 2 amex points for ever $1 spent, plus 1 aeroplan for every $3 spent
Buy Gift Cards at Canadian Tire (only good if you buy a lot of stuff at canadian tire..)
- Cash back in Canadian tire money, plus 1 amex point per $1 spent
- One Option: Buy Canadian Tire Gas Station gift cards

Check out our list of retailers that take american express for more ideas

Best Canadian Points Credit Card as of April 2011

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:51:28 GMT

As of April 14th 2011 the best points credit card in canada (in our opinion) is the American Express Gold Rewards Card (check it out here)

Basically it allows you to earn points faster than almost any other card and all the points can be converted to Aeroplan points at a rate of 1 to 1 (so long as you convert a multiple of 1000 points)

Until the release of this card, the CIBC Aerogold card was number 1. The Amex gold rewards card offers you all the same points earning potential of the Aerogold, and far more. For example, Aerogold lets you earn 1.5 points for each dollar spent at grocery stores, drug stores and on gas (as well as 1 point for every dollar spent elsewhere. The Amex on the other hand lets you earn 2 points for every dollar spent at grocery stores, drug stores and on gas! Additionally, the amex gives you 2 points for every dollar spent on travel - this includes hotels, flights, rental cars and even all inclusive vacation packages (I recently booked one on redtag.ca and received double the points.)

The Amex is $150 per year, instead of $120 with the Aerogold BUT Amex waives the fee for the first year. Also, both cards normally charge you $50 per year for a supplementary card (usually for your spouse) but amex gives you one supplementary card for free (not just one year free, but free forever)

Check out our list of the best places to earn amex points and best strategy for earning amex and aeroplan points

Which Stores Take Amex - List of Stores that take American Express

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:41:52 GMT

Here is an on going list of the best stores that take American Express in Canada. This list was last update April 14 2011. This list points out the merchants where you can earn more american express and aeroplan points. If you are looking to earn aeroplan points you should take a look at our best canadian points credit card article (it's an amex)

Please list other stores in the comments section and they will be added to the list.

Costco
Wal-mart
Shoppers Drugmart (double points with Amex Gold Card) (also collect Shoppers Optimum points)
Sobeys (can convert Club Sobeys points to amex points)
Metro
Canadian Tire (also collect canadian tire money)
407 ETR
CinePlex
NCIX.com
The Keg
TTC (metro pass)
Go Transit (passes)
Amazon
Chapters & Chapters.ca (also take aeroplan on chapters.ca)
Starbucks
McDonalds (only certain locations)
Canadian Government/Passport Offices
eBay (also takes aeropan)
The Bay
Sears

Here are a few stores that do not take Amex

Loblaws
Great Canadian Super store
No Frills

Hot New Releases on DVD and BluRay in April, 2011

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:39:44 GMT

With April only a few days away, it’s time to start looking forward to some hot new releases on DVD and BluRay coming your way next month. Be sure to check out these great titles, especially if you didn’t catch them on the big screen when they were in wide circulation. There are several comedic gems in this batch, as well as one or two with Academy Award Nominations. The King’s Speech racked up at this year’s Oscars ceremony, so now is your chance to find out what all the hype was about, in case you

didn’t see it.

Apr 5

Little Fockers
Tron: Legacy
Casino Jack
I Love You Phillip Morris

Apr 8

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Apr 12

Country Strong
The Paranoids
Heartless
Plastic Planet
Behind the Burly Q

Apr 15

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

Apr 19

Gulliver's Travels
The Way Back
The King's Speech
Rabbit Hole
Somewhere
Vision
Street Kings 2: Motor City

Guest poster Sergo enjoys writing about entertainment, home theater, and satellite television. He currently writes for Allied Satellite Tv

New Finance Blog Aggregator Hits the Web

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:11:32 GMT

This is a guest post from Cashblogged.com

The Purpose of CashBlogged
The purpose of CashBlogged is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the finance, business, career advice and topics” that interest you.
We do this by collecting the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover finance, business and careers. We then group these stories and sites into categories, so you can be sure you have the most up to date information. Then we display the headlines of the information sources as well as their first paragraph. Our topics run from investing, frugal living, personal finance, banking, venture capital etc.
You can think of CashBlogged as the “business book section” of the web. CashBlogged is a starting point – not the ultimate destination. Ultimately, our goal is to enhance your online reading by displaying stories and resources from sites that you’re already visiting plus helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. We help you find that needle in the hay stack.

Why another aggregator?
We were frustrated with traditional RSS readers, with too many sites/blogs the reading experience changes. Missing a few days in google reader meant sometimes hours of scrolling through articles. We needed a quicker and more efficient way to consume the best finance, business and career sites/blogs. So we built CashBlogged.

How do the CashBlogged categories work?
We import the stories of the top finance, business and career websites and blogs and display the headlines of the five to ten most recent stories. When you place your cursor over a headline, we display part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it. To read the story, click on its title. To go to the home page of the site, click on the header titles.

Couldn’t I build my own custom aggregation using a feed reader?
Yes, you could—knock yourself out. While you’re at it, you could pay off your mortgage, bake a pie, floss daily, tune your own car, and ride your bike to work.

How can you add your favorite blog to our list?
Make the suggestion through our submission form.

Have a look at our complete list of Finance Blogs

Quality finance, business and career aggregation from Cashblogged is just the tip of the iceberg, we have lots more planned.

Follow us: Twitter and Facebook

What is a LAPDOCK? Basically its the Future

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:40:16 GMT

Here's a shot of Motorola's ATRIX LABDOCK - we're big fans. Seeing as this is the first (real) LAPDOCK ever.. I think it's safe to say there are better ones coming, but we think this is going to be the way of the future (especially considering NVIDEA's quad-core 1.5 GHz chips hitting the market later this year!

Quad Core Cell Phones

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:36:38 GMT

It's pretty official now! We should get to see some quadcore tablets and smartphones in action later this year. We figure NVIDIA's tegra 3 won't be for sale in android devices until early 2012, but the fact that mobile chipset development has accelerated to this point is nothing short of incredible.

side edffects of prednisone

Kik Releases Update | Fred Wilson joins board

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:04:05 GMT

Kik messenger just released the latest version of its popular mobile messaging application for the iPhone and android today. It includes some cool new features that we profiled from the beta like picture messaging and group chat, it also features improved social aspects to help find your friends on Kik more accurately, a groups function and it remains lightning fast. In this mornings press release it also mentioned that esteemed VC Fred Wilson would be joining the company's board of directors.

Kik messenger is an incredibly fast mobile messaging application. It features a read receipt system close to BlackBerry Messanger, but it works across all smart phone platforms.

The addition of Fred Wilson to the board of directors looks great on the firm. Among other notable investments, his company was one of the early investors in Twitter and a shareholder in the popular location based social network foursquare. He possesses key industry insight that will help Kik take its already large user base to the next level.

Kik Groups are Here! Try It Out!

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:55:26 GMT

We were thinking it would be fun to have an ad-hoc kik groups going on. If you wanna meet new people through kik then post your username in the comments and let other's ad you into a group.

If you do not have the latest version you can download it from the apple app store, or the android market as of today!

Calf Workouts | Build Your Calves Fast!

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:13:55 GMT

The first you need to consider when building bigger calves is your training frequency. Far too many people think calves are an “endurance” muscle and therefore, that they respond better to very frequent training in a much higher rep range.

While it is true that your calves typically get worked any time you are standing or walking, the degree of muscular force generated from performing these activities is going to be much lower than when you are in the gym working them out with a more targeted calf exercise. If your goal is building bigger and stronger calves, you will want to train them three days a week, being sure to allow for one full day of rest between each workout.

You should perform just one calf exercise variation each session, but be sure to switch your variation each week. The reason for this is because calves adapt very quickly to a given exercise stimulus; changing the stimulus, or workout variation, will force the calves to keep responding.

One big reason for a lack of growth in the calves for many people is because they perform the same calf raises each workout. You’re far better off using more variations but performing fewer sets. This allows you to really hit them hard and then allow for sufficient rest before hitting them again 48 hours later. When it comes to different calf exercise variations to perform, both seated and standing are good options. From there, you can also turn the feet slightly inward or outward to change the exact angle of force. Performing single-leg calf raises is also a smart move, as this will ensure that you are not overcompensating by using one leg more than the other.

Another additional move you can make for building bigger calves is to utilize a short rest period right at the bottom of the exercise. This will really increase the intensity of the exercise, stimulating the muscles further to grow larger. To do so, take about two seconds to lower to the bottom (where the calf is fully stretched), hold for two seconds and take two more seconds to rise up again. This pause makes a dramatic difference in your calf workout.

Alternatively, yet another variation is to take a short pause at the top of the movement, which will again really increase the total intensity. You should start out aiming to do three heavy sets for each session you perform, trying to increase the weight on each exercise each week.

Work across a variety of rep ranges throughout the week, shooting for a set of eight reps the first day (using the heaviest weight of the week), 12 reps the second day (adjusting the weight downward), and then 15 to 20 reps the third day of the week, using a slightly lighter weight. This third day will help train the muscles to deal with lactic acid. After that week is completed, cycle on to a different exercise for the next week of training.

Finally, be sure to stretch at the end of the workout. This is a common mistake that is made and will really stifle your progress. The reason the stretch is so vital is because not only does the stretch help to promote faster recovery between sessions so you can grow muscle faster, but it also increases your range of motion. As a result, when you are working through various exercises, you will be able to stimulate a higher number of muscle fibers in each rep thanks to the increase range of motion developed from stretching.

Sources:
Pasted from <http://ca.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_250/254b_fitness_tip.html>

Kik Group Chat | Check it out here!

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:17:47 GMT

Kik group chat is almost here. We've got a few screen shots of the latest version running on Android. It allows for up to 10 participants in a chat (a serious step ahead of Whatsapp which offers a 5 person maximum in their group chat)

We had no issues with the group chat feature - it worked flawlessly and intuitively.

lasix for weight loss

Kik Chat Picture Messaging | It's Here!

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:11:10 GMT

Kik chat now supports picture messaging (as long as you've got the latest beta..) This feature will make it's way into the next kik update, which should arrive in the next few days - provided apple sticks to their typical (terribly slow) schedule for pushing app updates through.

The first version of these new picture messaging features allows users to take a picture from within a chat. They are able to decide whether they like the picture, or they want a retake, and then they can insert it into their chat - all very seamless.

cipro tab

We don't have the ability to select pictures we took previously, but I'm sure that feature is coming. Even if it isn't.. who cares - it's kind of cool to know that all the pictures you receive were actually taken right then.

Once you send or receive a picture message, you can click it in the conversation to view it full screen

Along with the new picture messaging features come a few new settings for your kik display picture. You will now be able to view the full size display pictures of all your contacts.

Top 25 PS3 Games | Best PS3 Games as of September 2011

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 19:28:23 GMT

Looking to buy some PS3 Games? We recommend you pick from our list instead of hoping for a good game based on the box's pictures.

This is, in our opinion, is the list of the best PlayStation 3 games ever made (as of February 1st, 2011). No reading to the end to find the best one, just the list - in order. This list tries to include more new games since the release of our last list - please see the old list for more of a best of all time type list: Best PS3 Games. Once you've picked a few, check out our guide on The Cheapest Way to Buy PS3 Games.

1. Dead Space 2

2. Two Worlds II

3. DC Universe Online

4. Mass Effect 2

5. Modern Combat: Domination

6. LittleBigPlanet 2

7. Venetica

8. Gran Turismo 5

9. Call of Duty : Black Ops

10. Killzone 3

11. Fallout: New Vegas

12. Mindjack

13. God of War III

14. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

15. Assassin’s Creed II

16. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

17. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

18. Dragon Age: Origins

19. Uncharted3: Drake’s Deception

20. WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011

21. Boderlands

22. Vanquish

23. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

24. LittleBigPlanet

25. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

Tricep Workouts

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:25:15 GMT

The 6 Best Tricep Workouts for Increased Size!

Looking for Bigger Triceps? These are the 6 best tricep exercises to build size.

We recommend selecting 3 of these for 1 week, and taking the other 3 for the next week. Alternating your tricep workouts each week is the best way to ensure you are always making them sore and always making them grow. If you find that after a few weeks with these tricep wourkouts your triceps are no longer getting sore, then change up the reps and the weight. For example, the first week you feel like shocking them back into getting sore (tearing the muscle enough so that you know they are going to grow) switch to only doing 8 reps with with an additional 10 pounds per hand for individual hand exercises (i.e. overhead dumbbell extenstions), or an additional 20 pounds for tricep workouts that use both hands (i.e. skull crushers/lying tricep extensions). This should shock the triceps back into serious growth. The following week pick a weight that you can do 14 reps with and try to do 3 to 4 sets of 12-14 reps. Then go back to 12-10-8 (see below). Remember: Always eat 30-50 grams of protein within half an hour of finishing your workout! (Protein Powder of the Year -5 years in a row)

online xenical buy

1. Skull Crushers (aka lying tricep extenstions)

Select a weight that you can do no more than 12 reps with (likely in the 40 to 80 pound range)
Do 12 reps for your first set, 10 for the second and 8 for the third

Lying Tricep Extension How To Video

2. Tricep Pushdown (using cable machine)

Knees slightly bent, shoulders back, elbos in front of hips, extend your arms from 90 degrees to straight
Do 12 reps for your first set, 10 then 8 (really we try to do as many as possible on the final set)
Alternate between different bar types (easy curl, stright bar, v-bar, rope)
when selecting 3 tricep workouts for a day, try to pick three that use different and positions such as easy-curl skull crushers, straight bar tricep pushdowns and dips

Tricep Pushdown How To Video

3. Dips or Weighted Dips

As always, start with 12-10-8 (reps) on the first day doing the exercise (then you can change things ups according to the info at the start of this post)

Tricep Dips How To Video

Tricep Pump Workouts

If your looking for the maximum tricep pump, we recommend the following exercise:

Cable push downs in slow motion
- Push the weight down at a medium pace over a 3 second count
- Squeeze and flex your triceps at the bottom and hold for 4 seconds
- Bring your arms back to 90 degrees very slowly, over 5 seconds

For this Tricep workout you want to feel the burn as much as possible. Focus on using every bit of energy in the muscle so that by your last rep you can't even keep the weight down. Do higher reps (12 to 14) for 4 sets, with lower weight and make sure to perform the workout painfully slowly - try to keep your triceps squeezed and flexed the whole time, especially at the bottom when your arms are fully extended.

Check back for new info on the best tricep workouts. We are going to add sections for maximizing strength and endurance. We'll also let you know the best supplement routine to follow when building triceps and biceps.

Fix Wordpress Shailan Dropdown Menu Widget for IE

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:30:53 GMT

You might have noticed that the Shailan Dropdown Menu Widget does not display the dropdown menus properly in older versions of Internet Explorer. The dropdowns actually show behind the other content on the page.

Here is how you can fix it.

Start By Using the Blue Gradient Theme/Skin

To start we recommend trying the fix with the Blue Gradient theme/skin for the menu - once you see how it works here you can easily fix it wherever you need. To select this skin, go to the Drop Down Menu section (under Settings) in your admin panel. Select the Blue Gradient Skin at the top, and click Save changes.

Now you have to modify that skin's css file

Use your favorite ftp tool (fileZilla, coda, cPanel for hosting, fetch, ssh + vi, etc) to go the plugin's directory on your server/hosting. The location will be your_domain/your_wordpress_install/wp-content/plugins/dropdown-menu-widget/themes.

Now edit the simple-blue.css file.

You just need to change one line (about the 8th line of the file):

Change the line from this:

ul.dropdown{ padding:0px 0px 0px 20px;}

To this:

ul.dropdown{ padding:0px 0px 0px 20px; z-index: 9999;}

(you've just added the text "z-index: 9999;")

Save your file. (Make sure you are saving back to the server/hosting)

That's it!

If you are using a different skin than Blue Gradient, you will just have to make this change the your skin's corresponding css file. Blue gradient uses simple-blue.css, you can easily figure out what the others use.

Waterloo Poutine | Best Poutine in Waterloo

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 17:09:59 GMT

As of February 2011 - here are the best poutine places in Waterloo Ontario. Unfortunately Waterloo has a pretty lousy selection these days, but leave a comment if you find a place that we have missed!

cymbalta best price

1. Ish n Chips

The best place we have at the moment - it's delicious and probably the best post-bar food on king st these days. Serious line ups (in a good way) full of people all ordering poutine.

2. McCabe's

If you're willing to make the trip to the kitchener boarder this is probably the best poutine you can get. Make sure to get the HP Guinness Gravy (just normal dark gravy, but it's the best - we's also recommend getting extra cheese.)

352 King St. West Kitchener On

3. Harvey's

This just shows how weak our selection really is in Waterloo.. It's pretty delicious as far as fast food poutine goes and super convenient.

University Plaza (and a bunch more..)

London Bars | Top 10 Bars in London Ontario

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 16:55:57 GMT

The following is a list of the best bars in London Ontario as of February 2011

1. The Ceeps
Opened in 1890 this place continues to attract a large majority of the London student population. Get there early for Ceeps Saturdays, it's always packed with the best people and the line-up often starts around 10 pm. Every Tuesday night Ceeps Sledgehammer Bingo is the place to be and garauntees a laugh, a few sledged watermelons and the best of the worst prizes ever. Ceeps is also attached to Barney's lounge and patio, which is great for live music and a popular place in the summer months.
Located at 671 Richmond St. London.

2. Jack's
Jack’s Bar in London is open seven days a week, from 4pm – 2am, always offering something to do in the downtown area. Popular with students and young people living in the city, the party never ends inside Jack’s Nightclub and Bar in London. New weekly and special events draw people every night, as guests come for food early in the evening and to party into the wee hours of the morning.

Located at 539 Richmond Street, London.

3. Rouge
A nightclub that frequently hosts special events with celebrity guests and performers. Thursday to Saturday a $5 cover is in effect (which may increase to $10 on Saturdays as it approaches capacity), but no-cover Wednesday nights are quite popular. Rouge does reserve the right to deny anyone based on dress-code policy.
Located at 50 Piccadilly Street, London.

4. Jim Bob Ray's
Popular amongst the student crowd, Wednesday is $2.50 cocktails and DJ Chaos, Thursday $10 pitchers and featuring live acts anywhere from Illscarlet to Zed'z Dead, Friday is $3.50 domestics with DJ Hush and DJ Mar Keey, and Saturday features $1 shooters and is a popular place for party bookings.
Located at 585 Richmond Street, London

5. Tap House
Open 7 days a week, 7pm-2am, this classy bar and lounge features an open high-energy dance floor downstairs and a tiered balcony second floor with pool tables and many LCD TVs, including one over each urinal in the men`s bathroom. Often the spot for parties and events, including corporate occasions and social gatherings, the London Tap House even offers stagette packages.
Located at 545.5 Richmond Street, London.

6. The Barking Frog
The Barking Frog pub and nightclub is well known amongst locals for offering a sophisticated night out in London. Famous for its chic ambiance and an urbane environment, The Barking Frog restaurant, pub and lounge is popular amongst a young professional clientele. Those in search of a more up-scale taste of clubbing in London often turn to The Barking Frog bar, as special events draw partygoers and weekly events keep regulars coming back for more.

Located at 209 John Street, London.

7. Cowboys Ranch
Fridays and Saturdays, no cover before 10 pm and ladies free all night. Free t-shirts to whoever can ride the bull the longest and line dancing instructors on the dance floor 8pm-10pm on Fridays. Top 40 country music keeps the crowd rowdy.
Located at 60 Warncliffe Road North, London.

8. Molly Blooms
An Irish pub great for sitting back and hanging-out, with a great beer selection, extensive menu, outdoor patio and fantastic karaoke Sundays and Mondays. Great live music venue on the weekends and the Mike O'Brien band every Thursday.
Located at 700 Richmond Street London.

9. Martini Bar
Located above the Mongolian Grill Restaurant (which features an all you can eat buffet), this bar offers an extensive selection of unique martinis and is a popular spot on Martini Mondays, where a full shaker is only $5.
Located at 645 Richmond Street, London.

10. Up on Carling
Often the after-party destination for concerts and events occurring at the near-by John Labatt center, this esteemed night club has hosted events by the likes of Akon, Brody Jenner and Shemar Moore and performances by MSTRKRFT and The Bloody Beatroots. In addition to the main room, Up also features a scenic rooftop patio, which includes its own fully functional bar and VIP cabanas.
Located at 253 Carling Street, London

[poll id="10"]

How Might Offline Methods of Building an Email List Be More Effective Than Online Methods?

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:13:58 GMT

As an online marketer, you may feel that the best way to build your email list is to use methods that revolve around the internet. Keep those type of feelings bottled up inside you, and it could cause you to miss out on a chance to grow your business. There is a big world out there away from the internet, one filled with opportunities for quality leads and legions of potential customers. If you thought online list building techniques were the holy grail, this article will explain why offline methods can be just as, if not more effective.

An Edge on the Competition

Building your list offline is a tactic that could give you a huge advantage over your competitors. How you may ask? Because there is a great chance that for at least some of them, using the internet as their marketing playground is the only tactic they know. It is no secret that the internet is tightly integrated into today’s society, but there are still a few stragglers as not everyone has jumped onboard. Believe it or not, there are people out there who would rather walk into a store and buy what they need, instead of browsing through an online catalog. These are the consumers who are the most likely to subscribe to your email mailings, and the ones the competition is most likely to miss out on.

Potential for Better Responses

Email is a highly effective medium used everyday by billions of people around the world. It works so well, that it has become the backbone for one of the most powerful marketing techniques available. However, having a list doesn’t guarantee that you will reach your target audience. There will always be people on it who use the internet everyday, but ignore your messages for whatever reason. For these prospects, the value of your offer means nothing because they will never even see it. Building your list offline gives you the opportunity to contact prospects through methods outside of electronic mail. Whether it is by direct mail, fax or phone, you can relay the value of your message and possibly receive better responses than you would have via email.

The Power of Variety

Perhaps the most notable advantage offline list building has over the online technique has to do with the fact that there are so many ways to engage potential subscribers. When it comes to the internet, several marketers limit themselves to putting an opt-in form on a website and merely rely on traffic to drive conversions. This is common and can be effective, but taking your list building strategy outside gives you many more opportunities. Savvy marketers have found that mingling at events, placing opt-in forms at the retail counter, and simply passing out business cards are among the effective ways to acquire new prospects.

Think Outside the Box

Offline marketing is alive and well, and list building is one of the key ingredients to its success. Utilizing a few tried and true methods will help you grow your email subscribers, and introduce some of the internet virgins to cyberspace in the process. Once you get them to climb onboard, it is your responsibility to engage and convert. Whether or not you succeed depends on various factors, but if you do not step out of your comfort zone with an offline strategy, then you might be doing nothing but restricting the potential of your business.

Author Bio

Fletcher Finn is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading Web and permission-based email marketing solutions

Bicep Workouts | Exercises for Bigger Biceps FAST

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:05:57 GMT

The 6 Best Bicep Workouts for Increased Bicep Size!

Bicep workouts are the most rewarding part of going to the gym. Seeing those highly coveted muscles bulge does wonders for your ego and tight-ness of that new shirt. Though some have suggested that a back routine does enough to stimulate these muscles, a truly BIG biceps require incorporating a bicep-targeted workout into your gym schedule. We’ll show you two great bicep workouts that will have your arms pumped and growing immediately.

Week A
Barbell Curls - 3 Sets of 12 Repetitions (with 1 light warm up set of 12 Repetitions to begin)
Preacher Curls - 3 Sets of 12 Repetitions
Standing Cable Curls - 2 Sets of 15 Repetitions, and 1 Set of 20 Repetitions

Week B
Standing Reverse Barbell Curls - 4 Sets of 6 Repetitions (with 1 light warm-up Set of 12 Repetitions to begin)
Seated Dumbbell Curls - 4 Sets of 6 Repetitions
Pull-down Bicep Curls - 3 Sets of 8 Repetitions, and 1 Set 20 Repetitions

These bicep workouts should be done once a week on top of your regular training and alternated each week. For example, I would do Week A’s bicep workout this week, Week B’s next week, Week A’s the week after that, ect. If you don’t know how to do any of the bicep exercises just click on their names above, you will be directed to explanatory video of the exercise.

To keep your biceps growing make sure that you are doing a complete exercise routine and eating a large amount of protein. We typically try to eat 30 - 50 grams of protein within half an hour of completing our workouts. (Protein Powder of the Year -5 years in a row)

Bicep Pump

Want the biggest bicep pump possible from your workout? This is usually the strategy if you are planning on going out the night of your workout. Getting the biggest bicep pump possible is easy - stick to these tips:

Start with standing barbell curls and at the top of your rep (when the barbell is closest to your chest) Squeeze and flex your biceps as hard as you can for a full 3 seconds
- The negative (the action of lowering the weight) is absolutely key for pump - lower the weight very slowly, take 5 seconds (note: towards the end of your bicep set you might have to jerk the weight to get it back up - although normally that is considered bad form, that is OK when your goal is high quality negatives)
Move on to single arm, seated dumbbell curls - same goes for this bicep workout - you want to squeeze and flex at the top for three seconds and lower for about 5 seconds (do not focus to much on the timing or form of raining the weight - especially in reps toward the end of you set when you are getting very tired. You want to squeeze every last bit of energy out of the bicep - jerking the weight up quickly, squeezing (HARD) and lowering very slowly is the best way to do this
- Sit with your legs open, and the lower part of the back of your tricep against the inside of your knee
If you are doing these bicep workouts properly, then by your last rep of each set, you will not be able to hold the weight at 90 degrees - no matter how much force you use it will just fall slowly
Aim for around 12 reps - with 3 to 4 sets of barbell curls and 3 to 4 sets of seated dumbbell curls (per arm)
If you did these bicep workouts properly, your biceps should be incredibly tired and you should have a hard time reaching your shoulders with your fingers

Workouts for Bicep Growth

The big secret to bigger biceps consists of just 2 things:

Make sure to tear your biceps sufficiently every time you work them out
Make sure to give them what they need to rebuild themselves (high quality protein or amino acids)

The second task is pretty easy, do your best to eat 40 to 50 grams of high quality protein (whey protein isolate blend) within half an hour of finishing your workout.

The first task is a little more challenging. In order to make your bicep workouts effective enough to tear your biceps, you will need to change up your workouts regularly. Our favorite way to do this is to start by getting into a routine of doing 12 reps for 3 to 4 sets. On your first week you will definitely be sore the next day (sometimes 2 days later) - Your second week should be pretty similar, but by your 3rd week you probably won't get nearly as sore. For your fourth week you need to change it up. The best way to shock your muscles back into tearing is increase the weight dramatically. For this 4th week workout (or whenever you want to sock your muscles with a big change to your bicep workouts) increase the weight by 20%. If you don't feel like getting out the calculator, start by increasing the weight by 10 15 lbs per hand for individual arm workouts (i.e. dumbbell curls) or 20 - 30 lbs for 2 arm workouts (i.e. barbell curls, preacher curls, cable curls). Do as many reps as you can for 3 or 4 sets with this new weight. For your first set aim for 10 reps, but be satisfied with 8 or more. By your last set you should only be able to do 4 to 6 reps.

Check back this week for more bicep workouts and a great schedule for you to sustain maximum bicep growth over the next 3 months.

Mississauga Bars | Top 10 Bars in Mississauga

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:44:10 GMT

The following is a list of the best bars in Mississauga Ontario as of February 2011

The list starts with the best. Click on the name of the bar to get some more info on it. The post is just our opinion and - we are more geared towards younger bars. . Let us know what you think by leaving a comment - recommend anything we've missed and we'll update the list accordingly.

drug prednisone

1. Rehab :

If you are in the mood for clubbing rehab is without a doubt the most fun time in Mississauga. It's technically located in Oakville, but its worth heading out there. One of the youngest crowds in Mississauga (although still older, on average, than most of the clubs in toronto) Rehab has the best party environment that we've found in Mississauga so far.

Rehab Address: 2065 Winston Park Dr. Oakville | ON | L6H 6P5

2. Blue Suede Sue’s :

Blue Suede Sue's - Mississauga's Hottest Nightclub. Blue suede Sue's keeps its fun ambience all year round. This is absolutely one of the highlights of Mississauga's Hottest Night Club. Its beautifully maintained space with great sound and superb music including Top 40's, Hip-Hop, Dance, R&B and more.Located at 75 Watline Ave, Mississauga, ON. Contact us at : www.bluesuedesues.ca.

3. Crocodile Rock Mississauga :

With a capacity for over 800 people to party on three floors including Mississauga’s most popular rooftop patio, the 25+ crowd can enjoy delicious food from our great new menu. An extensive appetizer section, specialty pizza, and an up-scale entrée section make this menu perfect for the after work crowd or the late night diner. Our DJ plays nightly Classic Rock, Retro 80’s, Top 40, Disco and Dance music. Located at 10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, ( Hwy 10 just North of Hwy 403 ), 905-712-1112, www.crocrock.ca, unwind@thecroc.ca.

4. Coopers Pub:

Coopers Pub -A traditional Irish pub where you can find all of the comforts of Ireland right here in Mississauga. Come on In and try some traditional Irish fare and watch the big game on 1 of our many big screen tv's. Voted best wings in Mississauga!!!! There's something for everybody at Coopers Pub!. Located at 780 Burnhamthorpe Rd W, Mississauga, Ontario, L5C 3X3.

5. Gabriel’s Ristorante Bar Grill :

The culinary team at Gabriel’s cultivates a history of fine dining experience from Toronto, South Florida and the Caribbean. Gabriel's offers Downtown Toronto dining in the comfort of the West End; reasonably priced without compromising quality. Located at 6501 Mississauga Rd, Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 1A6.

6. The Comrade

The decor and atmosphere is brilliant. Staff are awesome, cocktails very good. Super cool space and an excellent selection of beers and cocktails. It’s the ideal place to linger over drinks with friends. Located at 758 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON, Canada +1 416-778-9449 .

7. Imperial Pub

Both of our bars offer a wide variety of premium spirits and liqueurs. Many "top shelf" brands are available for a small premium. We'll always be happy to learn how to mix up your favorite libation, but these classic cocktails are what we do best. We are located in the heart of downtown Toronto at 54 Dundas St. E. - Right across Dundas Square from the Eaton Centre.

8. Ten Restaurant & Wine Bar

Housed in a warm red brick building, Ten Restaurant & Wine Bar is a popular summer night life spot. Guests can sit indoors in a black leather booth, or outdoors in a large patio that faces a manicured courtyard. The bar has many live music events and weekend dance parties. While the drink menu heavily favors wine, there is a large selection of specialty drinks. Guests can order variations of sangria, martinis and mojitos. The bar has a range of domestic, premium and imported beers on tap. Ten has a dress code: no sports attire, sneakers or ripped or torn clothing. Located at :139 Lakeshore Road E.Mississauga, ON L5G 1E5, Canada,(905) 271-0016
hiprestaurants.com/ten/ .

9. Abbey Road Pub & Patio

Abbey Road Pub & Patio is a British-style pub that features live music and an abundance of beer and fried pub food. The pub is furnished with dark wood, photographs of the Beatles and brass fixtures. Classic English pub food includes fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie and liver and onions. The pub frequently puts the game on their high definition TVs, and when the game isn't on, there's a good opportunity that a live rock band or Beatles tribute band will play while you drink. Located at Abbey Road Pub & Patio, 3200 Erin Mills Parkway,Mississauga, ON L5L 1W8.

10. Old Town Tavern

Located at Street Address: 151 Brunel Road, Mississauga, ON, L4Z1X3

Old Town Tavern Address

How Social Bookmarking can Benefit your Website

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:40:22 GMT

Social Bookmarking is one of the fastest and most effective techniques of Search Engine Optimization. It is an effective and powerful method of promoting a website, increasing traffic and targeting audiences which result in more business and more revenue. It is one of the most effective ways to increase the number of inbound links and gain the attention of major search engines (in turn boosting your page rank.) While doing social bookmarking, the bookmark of your website is posted to various social networking sites with desirable information related to the website and the services offered by it. This allows online users who come across such bookmarks to get to know more about the site and decide if they are interested in your content, products or services.

With the help of Social bookmarking one can save money and effort in notifying people with regards to your business and the services you offer. It helps to get more quality backlinks to the site and at the same time helps to increase the popularity of the website as the content of the website is being posted and shared on a number of sites.

With the use of Social bookmarking we can be noticed by major search engines, resulting in increased credibility and traffic for the website. We can also target the users we want and increase the number of specific types of visitors to our website. This is achieved by targeting top ranking social networking sites and posting bookmarks in specific categories or with specific tags. This will increase our sites credibility in certain areas of the internet and among certain demographics of browsers and potential customers. Submitting on social networking site is free of cost, so you are spending almost nothing to get noticed by search engines and by millions of users.

With the help of Social bookmarking your webpage along with all the new pages/posts (as you add them) will be quickly indexed by major search engines (sometimes immediately after submission.) Being indexed by these search engines is an excellent way to improve your traffic.

While creating the title and content for a social bookmark, one should keep in mind that proper keywords need to be used in a proper way. Don’t stuff keywords while ignoring the quality of content. Check the density of the keywords in the content, as it will help you in indexing. You want your keywords to exist in the content, but if you over do it you will be flagged as spam and your bookmark will not get created - you might also get banned. Secondly, the content should be unique, don’t copy content directly or you will likely be seen as spam.

Social Bookmarking has proved to be very beneficial in terms of increasing traffic, unique visitors, targeted audiences and revenue overall site revenue.

Influence of SEO on Website Marketing

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:43:22 GMT

Website marketing is done so as to earn more revenue for the business, to establish a high place in search engines so that the targeted and potential client can search for your services and business. Marketing the website is essential in order to achieve any long term business objectives. Marketing the website typically consists of advertising the products or services of the website or business. Marketing can also be just for the site itself in order to increase traffic and later increase advertising revenue for the site. Advertising your website will both increase sales and traffic as well as increase public knowledge of your presence on the web.

cheap kamagra

In order to acquire high quality customers via the internet, advertising one's website is paramount. This is done best through search engine optimization techniques. The idea behind SEO (Search engine optimization) is to present the website in such a way as to appeal to both human users as well as search engine crawlers.

How to Increase SEO:

Determine the objective of the business and work accordingly. For example – When selecting keywords one should search for phrases that are relavent to the business, are searched frequently (check out the Google Keyword Tool to figure this out) and ones that are not too competitive (also find this on the Google Keyword Tool.)

Apply Non-Automated SEO Techniques for the promotion or for marketing a website. Automated tools just don't provide the same value and the search engine crawlers getter better and better at weeding out this sort of forced SEO all the time.

Content of the website should be relevant to the web site or the business. While writing content, it should always be kept in mind that the content should be relevant to the business objective.

Popularity of the site. Increase the popularity and traffic to your site by generating high quality links to the site. Email web masters to arrange for link exchanges with sites that have content that complements your site. You can also write articles that include links back to your site and publish them on other high-traffic and high Page Rank sites (See our Publish Article section.)

Perform proper keyword research. While performing SEO, one should take care of keywords which are being used for the optimization purpose for a website. First search for the keywords what people normally search for relevant to the content of the website. Then determine which keyword you need to select for your promotion purpose and try to use those keywords in the content, title and in Meta tags of your pages.

Process of Link Building :

Try to build as many links as possible, this could be done through various processes including :

Article Submission

Directory Submission

Social Bookmarking

Blog Creation

Blog Commenting

Forum Posting and so on…..

These are some of the processes which help to increase the number of back links to your website, help to increase traffic, increases the prominence of a website and boost the number of targeted users for the business. All of these things will increase the credibility of the website and ensure that it is indexed by the major search engines.

Writing Articles for Landing Pages

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:59:08 GMT

A website's Landing Page is the incredibly important representation of a website or company. This page is kept simple and is designed to accomplish a select few desired actions. It is the page where visitors first arrive when they are directed to your site from somewhere else on the web. This page could be your homepage, but could also any other page of the site - such as one designed to sell a particular product or advertise a new service. In order to promote a landing page and direct traffic to it, a webmaster should participate in Article Marketing. Article marketing is one of the fastest and most effective means of driving large amounts of highly targeted traffic to a particular landing page. Article Marketing involves writing articles and publishing them to high traffic and well targeted article directory sites. The publication will result in increased traffic to the respective landing page as well as increased search engine optimization by creating a high value back link to your page with the specific and optimized anchor text of your choosing.

Here are some key points that you should keep in mind to create effective articles that promote your landing pages:

Article Title

Article titles need to be very effective and capable of engaging readers so that they will initially click on and begin to read the article. From the promotion and traffic point of view try to incorporate keywords and words that will attract people to read the article. You should also try to use words that are actually indicative of the content/product/service that is on your landing page - if the title is unrelated to the landing page, you might get a lot of readers, but very few will make it through to your site.

Introduction

The starting paragraph of the article i.e. the introductory part, is where the reader decides whether he or she will complete the article or just have a glimpse of it. Don't bother starting the article by describing what it is about - this isn't a high school essay -the title is sufficient to explain the premise of the article, so no need to go over it again. Use the introductory portion of the article to captivate the reader and encourage them to read further into it in order to reach the link to your landing page. Impressive facts, quick success stories and creative warnings are a great way to hook the reader.

Content of the article

The content of the article needs to specify the products/services that you are offering on the landing page of your site. You do not mant to shamelessly promote your landing page directly in the article, you want to hint that there is more information on your page and that the reader should continue there in order to satisfy his/her curiosity. Keep building the reader's interest by offering information that the reader is likely searching for. Ask and answer questions that a reader might be wondering about - especially ones they would need answered before visiting your website. You want at least one link to your landing page within the content portion of the article.

Conclusion

Ideally you want to structure your introduction and content so that the reader will stick it out to the end of your article. If they have made it to the end (and presumably still haven't clicked your link) then you can be a little more direct in your promotion. Finish it off with a question you think they are still wondering about and let them know the answer is on your site - then include another link to the landing page.

Useful Resources

At the bottom of the the article you should include a useful resources section where you can place links to a few pages of your choosing. Some can be your own pages and some can be from external pages that you find useful. It's always helpful to write high quality articles that will get passed and shared between readers and useful resources is one way to do this.

Following all these steps should ensure you get some high quality results from your future articles.

Here are a few great sites you can submit and publish your articles on:

Publish Article - FirstSearchBlue
HubPages
Squidoo

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Top 5 Features

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:06:10 GMT

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc is one of the most popular devices available with current Android phone deals. So how can a single core device from a manufacturer that has released a number of lacklustre devices in recent years become this popular? We look at the phone’s top 5 strengths and try figure out why it is so popular.

Camera

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc has one of the best phone cameras seen on any smartphone. This is thanks to the 8.1mp camera it has and the Exmor R sensor it utilizes with the device. This sensor was once the preserve of Sony’s compact cameras, has now been used by Sony Ericsson on the camera phone to excellent effect. The camera allows near compact quality photos on the phone. Add to this the ability to shoot 1080p and you have a phone that is as good for filming still and moving shots than most of us have at home separate to our phones.

BRAVIA

The phone also comes with the BRAVIA Reality Display for use with its excellent 4.2inch screen. This display uses technology from the television manufacturers sets to increase the quality of the display. The use of the technology and processors means that the phone creates some of the best blacks and whites, contrasts and shadow details across a wide array of colours seen on any small screen anywhere at this point and time. This makes the phone amazing for watching footage on and also amazing for viewing the images you shoot on also. Reality Display offers real time picture correction, making images sharper and more vibrant.

Aesthetics

The device is also physically beautiful. The Arc shaped back and the wonderfully slim bezel around the outside make the device a very attractive prospect. The phone is only 8.7mm thick and curves from top to bottom at the back. This all creates a very spectacular phone with which many will be happy to have in their pockets.

Android

The device also uses Android 2.3 Gingerbread and drops many of the Sony Ericsson inspired applications. This is all quite positive for the device and means that it can do what it does best by utilising the software simply with little standing in the way.

Processor

The phone comes with a single core 1GHz processor which may not seem a lot, though is a nice quick processor that Sony Ericsson has got the most from. It can lag slightly when using things like the Timescape social media widget, though is a very good little chip and really works well.

But to make things even better Sony Ericsson have released an upgrade to the Xperia Arc with an even more powerful processor. This is the Xperia Arc S deals which come with a faster 1.4GHz chip and even better performance. This is not a full upgrade, and the Xperia range has not yet entered into the dual core era, but the Xperia Arc S is an excellent boost to an already fantastic phone.

Blog SEO Tips

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:14:03 GMT

Search Engine Optimization abbreviated as SEO is a technique which is employed for the promotion of websites, web pages or even blogs. By following the principles of SEO we can greatly increase traffic to the site, and thereby increase the revenue generated by that site. SEO optimizes certain elements of a page or blog so that it can easily be read by search engine crawlers who constantly scan the web for new and popular content. According to the level of optimization, the page gets preference in search results which will help the site to receive more traffic. SEO for a blog is a little different than SEO for a traditional website -Blog SEO puts more focus on getting the attention of the reader searcher by giving them a taste of what they can find in the full article/post.

Keyword Research:

cipro generics

There are many keyword research tools available which give the blog writer multiple keyword suggestions that include (in order) all of the phrases that people most commonly search for search for. We strongly recommend the Goolge Keyword Tool as it is probably the most accurate, and is also free. Keywords play a keen role in the SEO work. We target the keywords that will give us the greatest traffic increase to the site - keywords should always be selected with this goal in mind, while making sure to stay relavent to the blog and its content.

Blog Title and URL:

Try to add keywords or the words which are relevant to the content of the blog in the blog title and if possible add them in the URL. Ensuring your keywords can be found in each of these areas will greatly help to push your blog to the top of the results when these words are searched. The URL you are using for the blog should be meaningful; it should not simply be a collection of your keywords in URL form - remember that getting to the top of the results is just the first step, you still need searchers to click on your site and the only way to encourage them to click is to give them a good synopsis of the content that is on the page.

Updating Content

Updating content is one of the single best ways to boost your position in search engine results. If you have had a website for a while now and are wondering why your site shows so poorly in the results, this is often one of the primary reasons. If your site is a blog, then you should try to add at least 2 new posts a week. If your site is not a blog, you might want to consider adding a blog section. You can also easily create some automatically updating content by adding a twitter feed or an RSS feed that pulls data from other sites in your industry. Twitter and RSS feeds can be added as widgets to your home page.

Links to the Blog:

The more links that point to your blog (from other sites that are ranked well in terms of SEO) the more frequently that your blog is crawled and indexed which in turn will cause your blog to be viewed as more valuable. This will take time, but working to generate a few links every week will have a dramatic effect on the SEO of your blog. This site only has around 150 incoming links and is ranked in the top 2% of all sites. That said, top 2% doesn't mean all that much, we recommend making the top 0.5% your goal. Some links are more valuable than others - the most high value links come from sites who have many links to them, but who do not link to too many other links. A forum for example might have a lot of links to it, but because it is so easy for anyone to post an outgoing link back to their site, the value of a link from a forum can be very diluted. Links to your blog only help you get to the top of the search results, as we mentioned before - make sure the content that is showing up in the results is attractive to the reader or all the SEO in the world isn't going to get you any traffic. Typically the search engine will grab the first few sentences of your blog post, so make sure these are of good quality and reflect the content of the rest of the post. You can also use the description meta tags on your pages to specify the text you would like to show.

Writing Articles with Back Links:

An excellent way to generate high quality links to your site is writing articles to be published on other sites. By writing an article you can guarantee that your link will be placed on a page that has very few links to other sites. On this website we publish a lot of guest articles from from web masters trying to raise awareness of their product/service by writing articles that include links back to their sites. Visit our Publish Article page if you would like write an article to be published on the site. The article will appear at the top of our home page immediately after publishing. Our front page has a Google PageRank of 3 (for now..) and we link to very few other pages, so this will provide you with a very high quality link to your site and will ensure that your site gets crawled by search engines almost immediately. You can expect that the article (along with the link to your site) will be in the google results within 10 minutes of publishing.

Content of Blog:

The content of the blog should be different, it shouldn’t be like copied from some other sites, articles or blogs. Copying content directly is an excellent way to lose SEO. If content has already been indexed by the search engine one someone else's site, it will not index the same content again on your site - doing so would create inefficiency for the customers of the search engine so naturally they avoid that. You can take ideas from other sites and paraphrase and reorganize them to create new and better content, but copy and paste will get you no where.

Long tail Keyword:

Use keywords in such a way that it should comprise of all those words which a user normally look for a particular information. Wide ranges of tools are available which will help you to track such keywords. Some of those tools are Sitemeter, Google Analytics, Mybloglog’s. Get long keywords from the mentioned tool bar and prepare a long set of keywords, and try to use those set of long keywords often within the content of the blog.

Social Bookmarking :

Submit the URL of your blog and your post, along with its content, to social networking sites, which will definitely help the blog to be crawled by the search engine a bit faster. The social bookmarking of the blog will help the blog to get a good ranking on its chosen keywords and help to boost the blog to the top of the results. Links from social bookmarking sites are the easiest kind to get so make make sure to take advantage of them. They are not quite as high value as say, a direct link from the front page of a major website, but they are fundamental to building site SEO in the early stages of any blog.

These are just a few way in which you can boost the SEO of your blog. Good luck! Post any questions in the comments below.

Planning Your Next Tech Event on a Budget

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:25:25 GMT

Planning a tech event requires a great deal of effort and forethought, but there are ways to make the task more manageable. Creating a checklist for your particular event can make the process less intimidating. By separating the preparation steps, you can either handle them one at a time or make progress in several steps simultaneously. As your planning begins, focus on the big picture and leave the details for later. It can be helpful to ask yourself the major questions that you will face at the beginning stages of event preparation.

Where is your event taking place? This is one of the first questions that will demand your attention as you plan your tech event. If the location is not yet established, you should begin scouting the possibilities as soon as you can. Finding the best setting can be difficult because you will need to have a rough idea of what your event will look like. Will there be presentations or speeches? Will participants need to split off into smaller groups? How many people will attend? The good news is that location scouting can give you a good idea of how your event will eventually turn out. The location should have the space you need for people, equipment, and presentations. Other considerations include price, cleanliness, and the proximity of restaurants and hotels.

One of the most important aspects of a tech event is, of course, technology. It may also involve a good chunk of your budget. Well in advance of the event, you should think about the types of equipment that will be necessary. The final count may require input from presenters or attendees. A lecture hall or auditorium is an example of a typical location. For this example, basic equipment would include computers, a projector, a screen, microphones, and an audio deck. Of course, these items come with an array of options, so you should pin down the exact equipment that you need. Should your microphones be wireless? What speaker size will be needed so everyone can hear?

Keep in mind that your event location may provide some of the equipment you need. Other technology can easily be rented online. If your event is being planned on a tight budget, online rental is the clear choice. Online companies provide the best rates and are a great alternative to purchasing any necessary technology. Computers, projectors, and audiovisual equipment are readily available for short or long term rentals. Rental equipment can arrive as soon as the following day, or even the same day in major cities. Again, it is wise to plan ahead, but this can be extremely handy in emergency situations. A final tech check may reveal a problem or equipment may break down right before your event. The availability of last minute rental equipment and the rental company’s support staff can be life savers.

As your tech event draws near, return to the location once you have final numbers on attendees, presentations, and equipment. At this point, you want to visualize the event and plan how everything will take place. Test any of the equipment that is available. Think about ways to make the area comfortable, especially if attendees will be seated for a long period of time.

Check for cleanliness and accessibility, thinking particularly of any attendees who will need special accommodations. If any presenters have expressed interest in seeing the location before the event, this would also be a good time for that. Attend to any final details or decisions that were delayed.

At your event, try to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. You should remain ready to handle problems that may arise, but remember that your planning should give you the satisfaction that you did everything possible to make your tech event a great one.

Author Bio: Vern Marker is a writer for a Rent a Computer company and frequently blogs about anything tech related. When Vern is not writing, he loves to travel the world. Follow him on Twitter@VernMarker.

iPhone 5 Specs & Release Date

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:05:42 GMT

The iphone 4S release is expected today (October 4 2011) at 11:00 PDT (2:00PM EST)! So far from today's conference the features highlighted on the new iPhone are:

Now Confirmed Features on the new Iphone

The new iPhone will be a 4S model and not an iPhone 5 (good call CNet), though it still has plenty of cool new features.
It will have a new dual core A5 processor in it, apparently twice as fast as the iPhone 4's.
Graphics will be 7 times more efficient in the iPhone 4S than the 4.
There will be a new antenna system to correct the reception issues.
The camera has an 8 megapixel sensor, can capture higher than 3264 x 2448 resolution and shoots 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
Today's presenter not get specific if the iPhone was 4G as the standard seems to have wide boundaries but did say the new iPhone will have 5.8 Mbps upload and 14.4 Mbps download speeds.
The new iPhone will be both GSM and CDMA making it easy to bring it across borders.
Siri made it into the phone in a pretty large way. Rumoured to be called assistant, the app lets you speak pretty much anything into the phone and get an answers back. For example, if you want to know if there is a type of restaurant in the area you can simply ask your phone exactly that and it will give you the top 5 listings from Yelp based on your spoken parameters.
In the United States the phone will be 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399 under contract. It will probably be about the same price in Canada.

Compared to the compiled rumours below it looks like the analysts were pretty close!

NFC Technology – The new iPhone 5 supports NFC technology the one which is used in Google’s Flagship Android phone, the Nexus S. With NFC technology, iPhone 5 will have extremely high data transfer rate between two devices.
Slimmer and lighter - The enclosure for the iphone 5 (or 4s) will be much more economically spaced, allowing for a slimmer and lighter iphone than it's predecessor.
New Smart and brainy iPhone – Now with the new iphone5, you can even get answers to your questions like: What is the phone number of nearby hotel, Dispensary, taxi company? What Italian restaurant is nearby?
Facial Recognition – The iPhone will be able to identify its owner through facial recognition. The phone can be unlocked and begin to function after recognizing its owner. We've seen similar technology in laptops when logging on to windows via face recognition. It no doubt come in handy for other apps.

iPhone 5 Camera – The new iPhone 5 will have an 8 megapixel camera and can record full HD video (720p we expect) with a capped recording time of 25 to 30 seconds. The camera is equipped with a Omnivision OV8820 sensor.
Case - The iphone enclosure will be slimmer and lighter than the iphone 4.
Battery Power – iPhone 5 comes with an awesome battery that exceeds the life of the 3G by 14 hours - 7 hours over 4G which makes it perfect for heavy use.
iPhone 5 Screen Size - 4.0 inches (scratch and shatter proof) Apple will be removing more of the nonsensitive borders on either side of the screen, reducing the size of the home button and possibly increase the size of the phone itself.
iPhone 5 Processor - The Iphone 5 will be powered 1.2GHz Dual Core Qualcomm wireless baseband chip.
iPhone 5 provides you with a variety of email alerts and notification. You can now assign alerts for different emails as well.

How iPhone 5 is different from iPhone 4?

The processor used in iPhone 5 is a 1.2GHz dual core processor which makes it faster than its former version in the iPhone 4
iPhone 4 had a complication regarding the antenna issue, attenuation in receiving signals, dropping off calls etc. will be completely sorted out with iPhone 5.
The battery backup of iPhone 4 is high enough to last up to 48 hours despite of its heavy use. With iPhone 5 we expect no issues regarding the battery life. It will have an extended battery life of 14 hours on 3G and 7 hours on 4G with a stand by time of 600 hours.
The hardrive will be larger on the iPhone 5, a range of sizes will be offered up to around 64Gb.
iPhone 5 is expected to have a 8 MP camera, an upgraded from iPhone 4's 5MP, to capture high quality pictures and videos.

iPhone 5 Release Date

The iPhone 5 is expected to launch sometime in the middle of August 2012 in the US and shortly after that in Canada. Most analysts are calling for a Canadian release date of October 1 2011 to Telus and Rogers.

The information in this article is based on the most reliable rumors we found. Final specs will likely differ, but this list gives us some good hints as to what we can expect.

Five Technology Trends to Watch in 2011

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:10:42 GMT

Whatever technologies a business favors, whatever level of sophistication the operation, one thing is certain to hold true for 2011: there are going to be a number of technology trends of which no successful business can afford to be unaware.

Technology has changed the way modern businesses operate almost beyond recognition over the last few years and this is not only likely to continue, but the pace will almost certainly increase over the coming months. The following five trends will make 2011 one of the most exciting for technology we will have yet seen.

Business on the move. Perhaps the single greatest technology trend of 2011 will be focused around mobile communication devices. We have already seen major advances with the introduction of the latest model of the iPhone, the new iPad and Blackberry and other smart phones. These devices are fast becoming so capable of multi-tasking activities that the office on the road is now a reality. 2011 will see even greater speed hikes that will close the gap between plugged-in computers and mobile devices to such a degree that many businesses will be comfortable making the move to fully wireless mobile devices. Although costs at this stage may prove prohibitive to some, the investment may well signal the beginning of the end of wired business device.
It’s still about the dollars. Businesses will continue to keep a close eye of costs as the recession continues to impact all sections of the marketplace. From a technology standpoint, this will mean that more and more businesses will be looking at the benefits of cloud computing. The savings are only outmatched by the performance improvements and the knock on benefit to customers/clients. 2011 will see many businesses moving away from storing their own data and moving to the cloud so that information and data can be accessed from the ever-increasing number of mobile devices.
Setting workers free. The increase in cloud computing along with the advance in wireless devices will mean that 2011 will see a new level of mobility for employees. It may well be the year that finally sees workers unchained from their desks and offices to create a more dynamic and fluid working platform that can offer increased benefits for staff (think about the savings in child care for example) as well allowing staff to get out there and interact with customers to a much greater degree.
Rip up the desk planner. The days of the paper-based desk planner have already passed, but their computerized replacements are already beginning to look far too passive. 2011 will see new technologies where a web-based planning system will become much more interactive by helping the worker plan their day/week/month/year in the most productive way. New tools will make use of automation to suggest the best way to manage projects, budgets and meetings to help staff get the most out of their time.
Paperless world. Perhaps not the whole world, but 2011 will certainly see technology gather speed in the move from paper-based activities. The ability to produce and publish online without the need of paper to be involved anywhere in the process will lead to not just an increase in newspaper and magazine online-only editions, but it will create a whole new way of business communication. Everything from individual memos to in-house journals and detailed strategy presentations will be written, created and published on the web so that they can be accessed from mobile devices anywhere in the world. This will in turn lead to further advances in mobile devices and a sea change in the worlds of journalism and business communications.

Guest Poster: Brian Tanner is a freelance writer for HP. Since 1939, HP has been making technology products to help people and companies address their problems and challenges, and realize their possibilities, aspirations and dreams. On their website you can find scanners to toner.

Best WordPress Theme Clubs | Top 10 WordPress Theme Sites

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:09:33 GMT

Word Press Theme Club customizes the overview of a website. With the use of themes we can completely change the look of web pages without transforming the coding and functioning of it.Word Press exhibits a wide range of club themes to build up the feature, presentation of a web site, some of those club themes are discussed below:

1. Somaxiom

Somaxion Theme Club focuses on the design and styling perspective of a web page and come up with some unique feature and application to give a different and elegant look to the web site or the web page.

2. Woo Themes

Woo Themes come up with some exciting features like documentation which will help the users to use the theme efficienty.It has also come up with Integrated Theme Options. With each theme there is some color and layout option which could be used while using a website

3. Templatic

With the use of this theme you can reconstruct the website or the web page to give a different outlook. Easy to work with and to handle.

4. Thesis

Thesis Theme is very simple to work with and supports multimedia. Thesis theme is flexible with use of columns and the columns can easily be customized in a single click. It also supports SEO. Wordpress’s built in custom field function s used in this theme so as to post the videos, photos and page specifying advertising.

5. Elegant Themes

It’s a premium word press theme which comes with user-friendly templates. The designs provided in the system are very unique, elegant and dynamic.

6. Press75

Press 75 is easy to use and comes with content management and key customization.Press75 is built on solid code framework which makes is applicable for developers and designers.

7. Studiopress

Studiopress supports Genesis Framework which makes it easy to build extraordinary web sites and web pages. Supports SEO, provides professional themes, user friendly, it is secure – no malicious attack under this theme, too many options available to customize the site and many more

8.Rockettheme

a. Juxta

The one searching for very professional look and at the same time very unique and stylish theme then Juxta is the one to work with. Supports Gantry framework which captivate features like menu item control, RTL support, custom preset and many more.

b. Quantive

Quantive have more of illusive and constant designs as compare to rest of the themes released in 2010. Also supports Gantry Framework with 8 CSS style choices, so that you could use this feature to develop a Rocket Theme template of your own

c. Afterburner

The fastest Word Press themes supports Search engine optimization and give performance at its best. Complete documentation is made available, so no problem in handling this theme, installing it or wants to work on this theme.

Comparison of WordPress Theme Clubs

Name	New Themes	Pricing Package	Framework	No. of themes available	Date of release
Somaxiom		For 90 Days : $50For 365 Days : $75 For Developers 365 Days : $250	Gantry Framework		21 Jan 2011
Woothemes	2 new theme every month	Standard – 70$Developer– 150$ Enterprise– 200$	Solid Code Framework	88
Templatic	2 + new theme every month	Emporium single use license ($65.00 for lifetime subscription)Emporium Multiple use license ($99.00 for lifetime subscription) Premium Themes Club Full Access ($279 for the first year. Then $179.00 for each year)		58	10^thDecember 2009
Press75		Essential -50$Plus- 75$ Extended- 100$	Solid Code Framework	22	June 2008
Quantive		For 90 Days : $50For 365 Days : $75 For Developers 365 Days : $250	Gantry Framework		November 2010
Studiopress		Pro plus all theme-249.95$	Genesis Framework	33
Elegant Themes		Yearly membership for only $19.95		55
Juxta		For 90 Days : $50For 365 Days : $75 For Developers 365 Days : $250	Gantry Framework		May 2010
Afterburner				8preset styles

Search Marketing Trends In 2011

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:21:38 GMT

This article is a Guest Post: Carla Sanchez is a freelance writer for Omniture. Omniture is the world leader at cms software and search marketing; software that enables you to better understand your customers and increase your sales.

As 2011 moves into full view, trends in search marketing will be highlighted by local and mobile search as well as social media marketing efforts.

As the Internet industries grow up and mature, many businesses are looking at how search marketing will trend in 2011. And more importantly, how those changing trends are going to affect their business revenues and bottom lines. A number of important technological developments on the hardware and software fronts will have their affect on how users effectively benefit from search. Additionally, the big search engine companies like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft's Bing are continuing to make interesting and exciting changes to the services they are bringing to web searchers every day.

One aspect of search marketing that we saw steadily increase last year was the use of offline advertising to promote online search. Bing launched and rode a steady wave of interest based upon their novel television commercials. Regardless of just how effective the actual search results might be, the ads brought a bit of market share to the newly emerging search engine.

The reverse is also a trend to keep an eye on in the coming year. Retail sales are and continue to be heavily influenced by the web. This means the more effective your business is at search marketing, the higher the chances you're company's online messages will reach and influence your retail buyers. People love to take their time online and get answers to questions, see options, and figure out exactly what it is they want to buy. Just as they tend to like to take their time learning about your products, they also want to be able to buy immediately.

Though somewhat slow and stumbling, the trend towards mobile search has finally begun to take off and is growing at a rapid pace. Hardware manufacturers continue to compete with smaller, faster, and more effective smartphones. Even some search providers have gotten into mobile hardware and software development with the release of Android operating systems and a number of heavily integrated applications designed to take advantage of search marketing.

If you're not actively developing your search presence to appear for the local, mobile searcher you'll be missing out on immediate results that could have a big impact on your bottom line. Most of the big search providers are focusing a lot of their attention on various local and mobile search solutions. If it's important to them, you can be sure it needs to be important to you as well.

Not to be overlooked is the trending opportunities associated with social media marketing. Most of the larger, more influential online social communities have a number of opportunities to reach targeted niches within the larger member set. Whether you're using their in-house search features, or are taking advantage of targeted, direct, on-page advertising, these communities offer a rich, untapped audience to get your message in front of.

Active online marketing campaigns inside of Facebook, or even on Twitter, can provide you with results that make your ROI extremely attractive. An important aspect to succeeding within the social marketing world is to fully understand each community you're attempting to reach. Knowing that an audience on Facebook will be quite different from one you're attempting to connect with on LinkedIn is a sure way to maximize your efforts while minimizing the potential damage which could be created by poorly designed and delivered marketing efforts.

At the end of the day trends are interesting and can have a great impact on your business's effectiveness. Chasing the latest, greatest trends however may be less important than simply providing steady, consistent efforts. Essentially, it's important to know what's happening in the world of search marketing, but also to be making progress establishing your presence as an authority for the niche target markets you hope to compete in.

Carla Sanchez is a freelance writer for Omniture. Omniture is the world leader at cms software and search marketing; software that enables you to better understand your customers and increase your sales.

Keg Crab Spinach Parmesan Dip Recipe

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:16:50 GMT

This is a recipe for a dip that is almost identical to the Keg Steakhouse Crab Spinach and Parmesan dip. One of our friends has worked at the keg for 3 years and has recently become a manager there. He has scaled the recipe to be approximately twice as much as you would receive at the keg. This is the best warm crab spinach dip ever.

Ingredients:

azithromycin 500 mg side effects

One 250 ml (8 oz) container of regular cream cheese
1/2 Cup of regular (14% M.F.) sour cream
1 Cup of grated Cheddar Cheese
3 Tablespoons of Mayonaise
2 Cloves of chopped or minced garlic (we found 3 cloves to be even better)
1 Cup of chopped spinach (you can substitute frozen spinach, but make sure to remove all water)
1 can crab meat (Drain well)
1 Tsp parmesan cheese (a few shakes from a container)

Directions:

Heat the cream cheese in the microwave for 30 seconds or so to make it stir-able
Mix in all other ingredients except for the parmesan cheese, mixing the carb in last (leave out a little of the cheddar)
Sprinkle the parmesan and left over cheddar on top
Bake for 30 minutes at 375 or until bubbling at the edges, then broil for 3 minutes or so to let the top get a little crispy

ACN is Not a Scam | How We Can Help

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:43:05 GMT

This guest-post came to us as a response to our first post on ACN. If you would like to put together a whole post instead of just commenting below, please send us your post to firstsearchblue@gmail.com. We are open to any and all points of view.

I would like to begin this post by first refuting some of the statements made in the first ACN post on this site and some that have been made in the comments. Then I would like to shed more light on some of the reasons why ACN is viewed as a scam and how we might go about fixing this.

I have been with ACN for the past four years and am currently in the position of Team Coordinator. I still have my day job, but the extra income from ACN has provided me and my down-line with greatly expanded lifestyle and a far more secure retirement plan.

If you want to make ACN work for you, you should treat it like a real business, that is really all it comes down to.

Refuting the Comments and Content of the Previous Post

Firstly, a pyramid scheme requires that all the income be generated from people putting money into a pot and having it float to the surface. In ACN there is legitimately a ton of money made from the actual sale of services. Take the video phone for example. This is nothing more than an IP phone with a webcam attached and some basic software that can detect when it is connected to another video phone. If you do a little googling you will find that you can get a Forwarding (or virtual) phone number for about $8 a month. I would assume that ACN can get them even cheaper by buying in bulk. Even if it is primarily the reps who use ACN video phones, there is a phenomenal amount of revenue being generated here that absolutely finds it's way back into the pockets of the reps who have sold this service.

The recruiting process does not have to be a "strange" as it is made to sound in the last post. In my experience it only becomes this way when people are recruited who really don’t belong in ACN. When I show friends the business I make sure that they honestly want to have a look at a network marketing business. In the beginning I tried to use the method of not telling anyone what the business was until they could hear it from my up-line, but I can honestly say this did not result in a single successful enrollment. If you are going to sign people up under you, you really have to be able to show them the reasons for yourself – If you are not willing or ready to do this, then spend some time getting to this point. If you resort to keeping secrets and having your up-line present a network marketing opportunity that most of your audience was hoping not to hear.. you will often be met with resentment. How can you blame them? If you want to enter into a business partnership with someone you need to start with a basis of honesty and integrity, not secrecy and off-loaded responsibility. Like I said above, if you want to be successful in ACN, then treat it like a real business, nothing else. (Please Note: I am not saying that it is impossible to make money by just sitting back and having your up-line present the opportunity – I’m just saying that it is not the best way, and that it is one of the primary reasons why so many people see this and other network marketing companies as scams.) In the beginning it can be quite difficult to present the opportunity on your own, but I strongly believe that by presenting to your friends on your own, anything you lack in experience you will more than make up for in sincerity. Explain the business yourself and show your reps your personal reasons for doing the business. This means you will probably not be able to start recruiting on your second day in the business. Who Cares? This isn't a get rich sprint. Put in the time, do it right and you will be rewarded accordingly.

Many of the comments on the previous post state that because reps are unwilling to show their prospects their checks, that we must be lying when we say we make good money. Where I live it is against to law to show prospects your checks. Simple as that! I’m not sure this is the best law… It seems these days that showing others that I truly do make good money could stop a lot of the negative feelings toward ACN. So many people seem to feel that it is impossible to make money in ACN, I assure you this is not the case – it’s just a lot easier to take someone seriously when they say “I hate ACN, I made no money” than when they say “I love ACN, I make lots of money… I just can’t tell or show you exactly how much…” I think we all need to explain this law to reps up front and stop the rumor that because we don’t show off our checks, we must not make any money.

Why ACN Is Seen by so Many as a Scam

There are a few reasons why many people think ACN is a scam. It is my hope that we can start to shift this opinion by adopting a few new philosophies and changing our mindset. To all my fellow reps who include the portion of the pitch on Mindset – please read the below statements and see if you incorporate them into your presentations. I have started to make some changes to my powerpoint and hope to post it here for you within the next few weeks.

Donald Trump: The fact that we have Donald trump endorsing us does feel pretty satisfyinh. But for new recruits it has been my overwhelming experience that they are not sold by this. I will admit that when the first ACN DVD featuring Trump came out I was flying. I tried to sell everyone and anyone using the statement that if a billionaire like Donald Trump was supporting our business, then how could anyone say it wasn’t a great opportunity. My team and I got carried away saying that if people didn’t see the light after trump’s message, then these people weren’t worth recruiting anyway. I have since realized that this is a very immature attitude. I have now recruited many very successful reps who were boarder-line disgusted by the Trump endorsement. At the end of the day, trump was paid to advertise our business – simple as that. The type of people who will be convinced by that are not serious business people. Like I said earlier, it doesn’t mean you can’t make money by recruiting this type of person, but largely speaking they will not do well and they will quickly come to resent the business and spread negative rumors about it. Look at the comments in the previous post – I think it’s safe to say that the number of people who resent this business is becoming a legitimate problem, we should seriously consider changing our recruiting techniques in order to curb this opinion. One way of doing this is by acknowledging Trump is our paid endorser. We can have fun with our teams and enjoy the exceptional training that Trump has given us, but telling prospects that they should sign up because trump endorses ACN has brought far more hostility to me than it has success.

The over-emotionalizing of the training sessions. In my city we have had Saturday morning sessions for the past 4 years. I have watched them go from about 30 people a week to 300 people a week. In the beginning these sessions really focused on how to succeed at the business. We spent time talking about how to find a good team and how to build a strategy to move up through the ranks. Nowadays they focus almost entirely on appealing to people’s emotions in order to get them to sign up. RVPs in my city tell story after story about how ACN lifted them from abject poverty into a world of riches. For many this is actually the exact truth, and I do not hold it against them that they enjoying telling their personal experiences. From a profitability perspective it is almost impossible to refute this tactic. We have never had so many new people signing up as we do today. I have watched some of my own prospects see these emotional demonstrations and be stirred enough to sign up later that day. The reason I am suggesting we get off the emotional kick for a while is that it is giving us a reputation that is seriously affecting the way non-reps view our business. The emotional sell largely does not convince the type of people who are going to prosper in this business. This isn’t because they aren’t capable of succeeding; it is simply because they signed up without considering the full requirements for being successful in the business. They see the emotional spectacle and are swept away into signing the forms. When they snap out of it and realize what it takes to make money, they feel like they were ripped off and lied to about the business (invariably it is too late for them to get their money back...) Selling ACN on an emotional basis breeds resentment among those who sign up for purely emotion-driven reasons. If we want to stop all the "scam slander" that we are dealing with these days, I think it’s important to be honest about what it takes to be successful. This is a business, it should not be sold by telling stories and promising riches. Let’s get back to the facts – this is a highly profitable opportunity if you are willing to work! Let’s show our prospects what it takes, and teach our recruits how to execute.

That’s it for now – I plan to do a follow up post in the coming weeks. Please leave your feedback in the comments section below and I will try to respond or incorporate your advice into my next post. Let’s put in some effort and get this “Scam” title off of our perfectly legitimate and highly profitable businesses!

Sincerely,

Curtis

Disclaimer

As always, firstsearchblue.com makes no guarantee as to the authenticity of the facts, arguments, comments or statements presented in the articles/posts on the site. We have a collection of over 20 writers (plus many guest authors) and keeping track of exactly who writes what is not done. That said, the articles and posts of this website are taken largely from personal experience and are more often then not very trustworthy sources of information - whether you choose to trust them or not is entirely up to your own judgment.

Access KIK from the web | webKIK messenger

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:43:45 GMT

Welcome to FirstsearchBlue's webKIK client. This web app allows you to access your KIK account from your web browser. This means for those of you who don't have smartphones, but still want to get get in on KIK mania, you can do so through this KIK web client (for now you'll have to create an account on one of your friend's phones - we'll add that feature soon). It's still in the beta stages so please bear with us, we'll make it less buggy I promise.

We should note that by logging into this application you will log out of your mobile app and therefore will clear all your past conversations. Sorry, we're working on it! Be sure to log back in on your phone once you are finished chatting on WebKIK!

News

Dec 21st, 2010 We got webKIK to webKIK chat going but something seems to have gone wrong when we tried adding the registration ability. Should be back to normal soon.

Dec 20th, 2010 I want to reiterate, we do not collect any information about your kik account when you loggin! Please read the privacy below for details.

Dec 14th, 2010 And we're Back! Login and try out our WebKIK If you have comments or would like to notify us of a bug please email: jchalden@student.cs.uwaterloo.ca

Known Issues

When you login to webKIK it signs you out of your smartphone client (remember to log back in.)
There a bunch of dead links, we will complete them as soon as this first round of testing is done

We're working as hard as we can to fix these. If you come across any more bugs, please let us know in the comments!

About

Please note that we are in no way affiliated with KIK Interactive Inc.
This program was developed by FistsearchBlue Media
Lead Developer: Julian Haldenby
Adrian Haldenby

Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you Login. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: Kik Username or Kik Account Password or e-mail address. You may, however, visit our site anonymously. Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy..What do we use your information for? Any of the information we collect from you may be used to personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)

Do we use cookies?
Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
Because we value your privacy we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.

Online Privacy Policy Only
This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our online privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.

Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the information below.

firstsearchblue.com
93 David St
Kitchener, Ontario N2G1Y1
Canada
jchalden@student.cs.uwaterloo.ca
519-578-6605

RIM Suing Kik - Dec 2 2010

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:06:20 GMT

After pulling Kik from App World a few weeks ago, on Tuesday RIM officially sued them. We feel that most of their grounds are completely ridiculous and we sincerely hope these actions do nothing but help to promote the awesome service that Kik provides.

Here is our comment from the article on the Financial Post website:

What a Joke: “In that capacity, Livingston had access to RIM proprietary information related to BlackBerry Messenger, including but not limited to technical information, development plans for BlackBerry Messenger, market research, internal reports, presentations, and other commercially sensitive or secret information.” Its a beautiful app, but really, it's a cross platform chat client with fewer features than BBM had 3 years ago - how could RIM possibly think that Ted's time working there and his exposure to "secret information" is the reason he was able to put Kik together? RIM is coming off as a complete a cry baby - a company actually manages to build a good and popular app for their terribly convoluted platform and they pull it down because they are naively scared it might compete with their one last hope at holding any ground in the consumer mobile world.. I think the truth is that as Kik continues to grow on Android and iPhone, RIM will lose the massive percentage of their users who only purchase Blackberries for BBM. People wont be stuck buying RIM's behind-the-curve hardware in order to get a BBM like software experience. Good luck Kik!

Here is the article: http://www.financialpost.com/news/technology/broke%20patent%20ethics%20pacts/3914225/story.html

Get a Facebook Email Invite | How to Get On Facebook's New Email

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:23:09 GMT

Facebook rolled out it's new email service this week and it includes a lot more features than the standard webmail clients. It allows you to use your Facebook id to create a name@facebook.com email account that is fully integrated with Facebooks private messaging system. On top of that, it lets you send text messages to other users from the website and text facebook users on your mobile phone. The sms text conversations are fully integrated with your facebook chats, messages and emails. The procedure to text users from a mobile is not very user friendly at the moment, you have to text "msg" followed by the user's name, then the message to 32665 (FBOOK).

To get your invitation, simply click here and press the request invitation button. You should get one within a couple of days. Eventually it will be enabled on all Facebook accounts, but for now enjoy the beta!

How To install gcc on Nokia N900

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:49:17 GMT

For those of you who are looking to run GCC on the N900 here is a quick guide for packages to install. I am using the latest version of maemo, (fremantle-1.3).

First you are going to have to download the following packages on your computer. Links are provided to the repository directory, or if you prefer I will list a direct links to the most current packages:

binutils - http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/b/binutils/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/b/binutils/binutils-dev_2.18.50.20070820-4+0m5_armel.deb

libgcc1 - http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/libgcc1_4.2.1-4maemo12+0m5_armel.deb

libgomp -http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/libgomp1_4.2.1-4maemo12+0m5_armel.deb

c++ - http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/cpp-4.2_4.2.1-4maemo12+0m5_armel.deb

gcc-4.2-base - http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/gcc-4.2-base_4.2.1-4maemo12+0m5_armel.deb

gcc-4.2 -http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/g/gcc-4.2/gcc-4.2_4.2.1-4maemo12+0m5_armel.deb

make - http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/m/make/ - Latest: http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/free/m/make/make_3.80-9osso_armel.deb

Plug your phone into your computer and select Mass Storage Mode.

Copy all the files into the MyDocs folder.

Now unmount the drive ( make sure all the files have copied ), and type in the following:
cd ~/MyDocs dpkg -i *armel.deb

This will install all the packages.

Now to compile a c program you can use the application: gcc-4.2.

You can also use make files to build projects. Many c Makefiles are formatted with a CC variable defined:
CC=gcc

You replace the previous line with the following to allow the makefile to run on your system:
CC=gcc-4.2

If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try to respond.

Update: I was able to successfully compile Marcan's PS3 Firmware version 3.41 exploit using my N900. I compiled the ps3pwn part of the exploit and it ran well on my n900. I was not able to cross compile Stage 1 and Stage 2 binaries for the cell but they are available for download.

Root HTC Desire Z | how to

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 02:47:38 GMT

It has been confirmed - you can officially root your HTC Desire Z using the Visionary app! (just download it from the app store)

This is a temporary root - so your phone will go back to un-rooted if you reset it (this is great if you think you are going to have trouble using the warranty on a rooted device)

Before you run it make sure that USB Debugging is enabled (we recommend you disable and re-enable it before running the app:

Go to the Home Screen and Click Menu
Choose Settings
Go to Applications
- Check off Unknown Sources while you are here
Go to Development
Check off USB debugging (or if it is already checked off, un-check it and recheck it)

Now download, install and Run the Visionary App by MoDaCo

You can read about other users' experiences here

We confirmed this on a Bell HTC Desire Z

Rogers APN Data Settings for Desire Z

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:51:57 GMT

So if you've managed to get a Bell Desire Z while still being a rogers customer, here are the settings for getting your 3G Data working:

To do this, simply go to:

Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point Names
Hit the Menu Key and select New APN
Enter the settings as follows: Name: Rogers APN: internet.com Username: wapuser1 Password: wap MCC: 302 (Default Value) MNC: 720 (Default Value)
Leave everything else blank
Hit Menu and Save
Activate the new APN by clicking in the little circle next to its name
You should see a little 3G pop up in the status bar withing a few seconds and if you are in a good area you will see an H come up as well.
If for some reason things arent working properly, just pop your battery out and put it back in.
- although you might see the 3G in the corner, it doesn't always work properly until you do a battery pull

It is likely that your MMS will not be working either. In order to fix that, simple add a second APN as follows: Name: Rogers MMS APN: media.com Username: media Password: mda01 Server: 172.25.0.107 MMSC :http://mms.gprs.rogers.com MMS Proxy: 10.128.1.69 MMS Port: 80 MCC: 302 MNC: 72 APN Type: mms
Leave all other settings blank
Hit Menu and save
If you did this properly, you will see it in the list with the APN you created earlier. You should not see a little circle next to the Rogers MMS APN (this is because as an MMS APN it does not need to be set to active - its used in the background for MMS only) If you do happen to see the circle next to it, you probably forgot the last step in the above settings: APN Type: mms

How to Get a Desire Z if you Aren't with Bell

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:42:57 GMT

So today we managed to pick up a Bell desire Z without being customers of bell - here is how we did it:

Found a friend who was on Bell
Asked them nicely to come to the Bell store with us
Told the Bell Lady to sell him the new phone (For $499)
The HAVE to activate the device with the Bell customer's phone number - so they did that, then they can sell the phone, then immediately after they just transfer the number back to the customer's original device

That's it! The Bell people were very helpful, they knew exactly what we were doing and went through with it very efficiently

Here is our guide to getting the Desire Z running On Rogers: Desire Z on Rogers

HTC Desire Z Running On Rogers

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:30:49 GMT

Today we bought a Desire Z from a Bell Store and had it running perfectly on rogers within half an hour.

This article explains how to get the HTC Desire Z Working on Rogers

online phentermine xenical

If you need to get your hands on one but aren't a bell customer, read our guide on that here: How to Get a Desire Z without Being On Bell

We used this site for the unlock code, im sure there are way cheaper codes out there but we wanted it in a hurry. http://www.cellunlock.net/Unlock_Bell_HTC_Desire_Z_p/unlockbelldesirez.htm

After we got it unlocked we followed our old guide on setting up the apn settings for the nexus one - here it is slightly revamed for the Desire Z: Desire Z Rogers APN Settings

Its working absolutely perfectly with full 3G and HSPA support - we have zero complaints with this device, its the best around .. for now.

The New Kik Chat | Better than BBM for iPhone, Ipod, Blackberry and Android

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:15:22 GMT

Kik messenger was profiled by Firstsearch Blue twice already back when it was in it’s beta stages. Since then, the Kik messenger app has changed it’s service for the better leading to so many downloads that their servers crashed!

The Kik developers have done away with the “Cheap SMS” scheme, where you used to be able to pay a low cost to send unlimited SMS text messages over wifi or 3G. This won’t really be missed, it wasn’t too functional and, if your cramped for cash, its so much easier to just get an unlimited text plan than having an expensive data plan, or running around looking for public wifi. They have re-designed the messenger interface on top of improving the predictive text and spell check to make it more user friendly.

What is left over is a sleek, intuitive, and multi-OS messenger service that, in this writer’s opinion, beats Black Berry Messenger (BBM). The app is available for Blackberry, Android, Iphone or even your Ipod touch. It has the leg up on SMS as it’s free and you have the BBM-like read receipts available. For those who don’t use BBM, this is a feature notifies the sender of the message when it has been sent to the recipient, once the message has been delivered and finally, and finally when it has been read by the user. The messages status is indicated by the little icon left of the sent message, reading either S for sent, D for delivered or R for read.

The application has had over 500,000 downloads in the last 10 days, and subscribers continue to pour in. The company is looking to try to monetize this audience eventually, most likely through streaming media sales.

You can get it on the Itunes, Blackberry and Android App Stores. Note that you might have a bit of trouble with it for the next few days as the company has temporarily shut down their servers to re-tool.

Canadian Bank Numbers

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:53:30 GMT

Looking for the Bank Number for your Canadian bank? If you need the transit number (also called branch number) of your bank use the branch locator on their website. If you need the account number of your bank account you should be able to find it easily in your online banking where they list your accounts.

lasix in midland texas

Here is a list of all the Canadian Bank Numbers:

Bank of Montreal / BMO Bank Number - 001
ScotiaBank Bank of Nova Scotia - 002
RBC Royal Bank of Canada - 003
TD Canada Trust / Toronto Dominion / TD Bank Umber - 004
National Bank of Canada Bank Number - 005
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce / CIBC Bank Number - 010
President's Choice Financial / PC Financial Bank Number - 010
HSBC Bank Number - 016
Bank of Canada Bank Number - 177
Citibank Canada Bank Number - 260
Citizens Bank of Canada Bank Number - 309
ING Bank of Canada / ING Direct Bank Number - 614

030 Canadian Western Bank

039 Laurentian Bank of Canada

117 Government of Canada (Not listed as a member of the Canadian Payments Association)

127 Canada Post (money orders)

177 Bank of Canada (Canadian central bank)

219 ATB Financial

241 Bank of America Canada

260 Citibank Canada

270 JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (Toronto Branch)

290 UBS Bank (Canada)

308 Bank of China (Canada)

309 Citizens Bank of Canada (Canada)

326 President's Choice Financial (no longer assigned, now shares 010 code with CIBC)

338 Canadian Tire Bank

340 ICICI Bank Canada

509 Canada Trust (prior to the merger of TD & Canada Trust)

540 Manulife Bank

614 ING Direct Canada

809 [Central 1 [Credit Union] - BC Region]

815 Caisses Desjardins du Québec

819 Caisses populaires Desjardins du Manitoba

828 [Central 1 [Credit Union] - ON Region]

829 Caisses populaires Desjardins de l'Ontario

837 Meridian Credit Union (formerly Hepco)

839 Credit Union Heritage (Nova Scotia)

865 Caisses populaires Desjardins acadiennes

879 Credit Union Central of Manitoba

889 Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan

899 Credit Union Central Alberta

Samsung Nexus Two Release Date

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:10:26 GMT

Looks like Google is switching up is standard handset builder and moving from HTC to Samsung for its Nexus Two.

We're now pretty confident this will turn out to just be the nexus S.. no big deal

We have no details other than it won't be running the usual Samsung UI (which is a huge plus in our books) and that it will be the first device to be released with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (looks like they're not going with 3.0 after all..)

We think its reasonable to expect the official release of Gingerbread to be the same week if not the same day.

The general consensus is that Samsung is nowhere near the hardware manufacturer that HTC is - we all sincerely hope they surprise us with this one.

How to Remain Anonymous While Browsing

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 07:07:13 GMT

Tor

While there are many proxy server solutions to remain anonymous, currently the best and easiest way to mask your ip is through onion routing, using tor. The basic idea behind onion routing is that your connection will go through a series of tor routers that only know who the connection is from and where they need to make the next connection. This means that your connection will go through a series of other servers that together mask your IP address.

You can download the latest tor bundle for your operating system at:
http://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en

Draw Backs of Anonymous Browsing

The first is that when you make google searches, they will ask you for human confirmation, this is really easy, you will just have to enter a captcha.

The second drawback that while you are browsing anonymously it is strongly recommended that you do not use any plug-ins. This includes flash. This is because there could be a tor router that could inject a new executable that your machine would run. To bypass this you can disable tor when watching flash videos.

The third drawback is the speed. It will take longed to send and receive data because you are going through so many different connections.

Anonymous browsing is not encrypted browsing. There is a big difference between anonymous browsing and encrypted browsing. encrypted, and signed data can be transmit through the tor network but just because you are using tor to mask your IP does not mean you are secure.

How To Set Up a Photoblog

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 06:45:03 GMT

I was looking around at different photoblog CMSs. Currently my favorite is pixelpost. It has some great templates as well it has a a lot of great addons for social networking. For this we are going to assume that you have ftp access to a web server. This guide will go over setting up a basic photoblog installation. You will need php support on your web server to run pixelpost. Most Linux web servers come with this functionality.

FTP will allow you to upload the necessary files to your web server. First you can get the php code from:

http://www.pixelpost.org/releases/latest.zip

Getting PixelPost

This will give you the latest copy of pixel post on your local machine. You must unzip the package on your local machine. This should create a pixelpost directory. Use your ftp client to upload the unzipped package to your web server. your going to want to upload the files inside the pixelpost folder to your document root, this is usually labelled as a directory "www" or "public_html".

Setting up the Database

This step varies according to your web server. Basically you are going to need to add a new MySQL database, or if you already have one set up you can use that.

The instructions on how to do so for a couple web hosting solutions can be found here:

GoDaddy
http://help.godaddy.com/article/36
Dot5Hosting

For Dot5Hosting log into from www.dot5hosting.com, then you will get redirected to your vDeck. Click "Manage MySQL" in the Scripting and Add-ons section.

By default the Manage Databases tab should be selected( you should see the Manage Databases tab blue ). Click the Add database icon that is located beside the refresh button.

This should bring up a dialog box that says Add Database.
For "Database Name" enter pixelpost
For "Username" enter pixelpost
For "Password" and "Confirm Password" you can enter any password that contains a combination of letters numbers and symbols. This will be your database password.

Other

If you are not on Dot5Hosting or GoDaddy, then do a google search for adding a database for your provider. If you are running your own server you can add a database through phpMyAdmin or through the mysql terminal.

Configuring PixelPost

In your Web Browser go to: http://{yourdomain}.{com,org,net,ca}/admin/

Replace your domain with your domain name and choose the appropriate ending. Next, it will bring up a configuration screen. Click the button that says "Begin Installation".

Then a new page should load, click, "Proceed to next step".

The next page, will show a table of a couple of prerequites. All the Values on the right must be green. If any of the values in "PHP Version and Settings" are red, you will need to contact your hosting provider, or recompile php with the supported libraries or add in the required packages.

If there are any of the values under "Files and Directories" that are in red, then you will have to use your ftp client and chmod the "images/" and "thumbnails/" directories to 755.

If all the values are green then you can click "Begin Installation".

The next step is entering your database information. For the database host will vary. Most times the host will be localhost. For Dot5Hosting, the host will be {your user name}.dot5hostingmysql.com. If you do not know this please contact your provider to get this information.

For the database name we are going to use the database that we previously created: "pixelpost".
For the database user we are going to use the user that we created previously: "pixelpost".
The database password is the password that you created for your database. Leave the database prefix as the the default value, "pixelpost_".

Then hit "Test Connection".

After this the configuration should be pretty straight forward. Keep pressing the buttons at the bottom to proceed with the installation. You are going to need to remember the Admin user name and Admin Password that you enter. These can be custom values that you set.

Final Steps

To Add pictures, you are going to need to go to: http://{yourdomain}.{com,org,net,ca}/admin/

Then log in with the custom username add password that you set during your installation. You will proceed to the Administration panel. Through this you can add new images to your new pixelpost photoblog. There will be new articles to come later this week on how to add a new theme to your pixelpost installation.

When uploading pictures, some errors will happen if you upload files with filenames that have spaces in them

If you have any questions or comments about this article if you need help, then please leave a comment with your email.
.

Author: Louis Le

Louis Le is an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo in the science and business program. He is a talented photographer who has had his work featured on several ad campaigns. Visit his portfolio at Worth One Thousand.

Netflix comes to Canada

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:31:39 GMT

Netflix made its debut in Canadian on September 22 offering a streaming only service to it's subscribers. You can stream TV and Movies on your Mac or PC computer or connect it to a tv via your PS3 or Wii. It comes at a price of CAD$7.99 per month but they're running a promotion where subscribers get their first month free. If you have a paypal account or credit card, sign up for the free period, its incredibly easy to cancel after the free period has expired.

From using it myself I found that the content available left alot to be desired. Firstly, the movies featured are hardly new releases (Slumdog Millionaire, Marley and Me) and the selection of more recent movies is limited. Its not nearly a replacement for pay cable/satellite with a very limited selection of programming from America. It seems like the major production houses have kept the big ticket shows like The Office, Grey's Anatomy ect reserved for Hulu and payTV, letting Netflix broadcast some prime time stinkers. If you're looking for HBO shows like True Blood or Entourage, you won't find it on Netflix nor will you find anything made by ShowTime other than The L Word. This may change soon though, as Netflix has signed a few new deals including one with NBC to get The Office.
My advice would be to sign up for the free trial because, well, its free and streaming movies on the PS3 or Wii looks great. After the first 30 days GET RID OF IT! As it stands now, Netflix Canada is not worth the $8 a month.

Bell and Telus not working on Waterloo Campus

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:16:15 GMT

The University of Waterloo Campus is a dead zone for Bell and Telus Cell Phones. It's so bad that it seems you can't even get a single bar of service no matter where you are on the campus. If you happen to know any little pockets where you can find some signal, post in the comments so the rest of us can check our texts without having to head to the plaza (we found that once you are in the university plaza you can get a few bars again.)

This problem seems to have just started September 2010. There are a few rumours of people getting out of their contracts for free (instead of paying the usual $300+ cancellation fee) by claiming that since they are on campus the majority of the time and they do not get service, they should not be forced to pay their bill. Rogers still has perfect coverage of the campus.

Last week we went to the Bell store in Conestoga Mall to complain about the lack of signal, but we mostly just got smart-ass remarks "well we can't just go and build a new tower overnight..." They did recommend pulling the battery and sim card - claiming that after you put them back in and boot your phone you should have service for a few minutes. We tried this, but had no luck...

Download Sywpe for Nexus One

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:36:39 GMT

We're not going to post any links.. but follow these 3 steps and you'll have Swype on your Nexus One in 5 minutes.

prednisone oral

go to isohunt.com or thepiratebay.org and search for Swype
Sort the results by number of seeds and look for 12.61MB torrent near/at the top
Download the file and install it on your phone using the usual method
- For those who don't know how, just drop it into your memory card, make sure in your settings that you haven enabled installing apps from the SD Card (from non-market sources) then use a app like ES File Explorer to browse to the file on you SD Card and install the app - then enable Swype in Language and Keyboard settings. Then go try to type somewhere - long-click the text area, choose input method and pick Swype.

Swype is awesome..

Top 25 Wii Games | Best Wii Games as of September 2010

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:18:47 GMT

Below is the list of the top 25 Wii games as of September 6, 2010. The list is in order of most popular to least popular. The numbers are based on sales figures.

Mario Kart Wii
Wii Sports Resort
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Wii Fit Plus
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario Party 8
Link’s Crossbow Training
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Just Dance
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Wii Music
Super Paper Mario
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Deca Sports
Game Party
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
EA Sports Active
Monster Hunter Tri
Mario Strikers Charged
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Carnival Games

How to Take Advantage of Balance Transfers

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:08:40 GMT

This post explains how to take full advantage of the low balance transfer rates offered by many credit card companies. To figure out exactly how much money you can save/make by doing this, take 5 minutes to figure out the average interest rate you are paying on your debt. Once you know what you are paying now, you can get a better idea of how much you can save by dropping your debt interest rates massively by taking advantage of promotional balance transfer rates.

Getting the Cash out of Your Credit Card

If you look around on the Internet you will find that most promotional balance transfers apply not only to transferring balances, but also to checks written from your credit card (sometimes called convenience checks.) You can use these checks to transfer money from your credit card into your checking account – once it’s there, you can do whatever you want with it – maybe pay off your car loan using this new money that you are only paying 2% on. Better yet, you can use the money to invest in low risk securities.

Often times the best balance transfer cards do not come with the luxury of letting you write checks from the card at the promotional rate – you can get convenience checks with all credit cards, but often you will have to pay the full interest rate of close to 20% on money extracted via these checks. You can easily deal with this by getting 2 cards, one with the lowest interest check rates you can find and one with the best overall balance transfer rate. Simply write checks out of the first account and then pay that account off using the ultra low interest balance transfer card.

Examples of Profiting from Balance Transfers

Profit by Saving Money on Debt

Say you purchased a car for $12,000 and intend to pay it off over 5 years. If you were to use a traditional car loan at 8% interest, you would end up paying $2,599 in interest by the end of the 5 years. If, on the other hand, you decided to pay for this car using a promotional balance transfer rate of 3% (which is quite easy to find) you would pay just $937 by the end of the fifth year – a savings of $1,662! To pull this off requires a little work, since promotional rates typically last around 12 months, you need to be ready to sign up for the next card with a new promotional rate at the end of each year. In the event that you cannot find one – you simply go get the car loan – this is not ideal, but at least you would have benefited from the low rate for the first year. Typically you can find promotional rates of well under 3% – saving you even more money. Be careful! these credit cards typically only require you to make very small payments during your promotional period, make sure you don’t forget to keep making the payments that will allow you to have the car paid off in 5 years!

Profit by Earning Interest on Your Balance Transfer

Say you apply for the MBNA Platinum Plus MasterCard and get the promotional rate of 0% for 15 months with a credit limit of $10,000. Write yourself a convenience check and transfer the full $10,000 to your High Interest Savings Account at 2% interest annually (ING Direct TFSA for example.) If you leave the money in there for the 15 months you will make $252.94.

Profit by Investing Your Balance Transfer Funds

Obviously you can take this to the next level and invest in something with a higher return like a 5 year GIC – but you had better be ready to hunt hard for very low interest balance transfer rates as it comes time for you to shift things around. In the event you have cannot find a low enough rate, you would be forced to pull your GIC, forfeit the interest earned, and pay off the card – not the end of the world, but not ideal

Of course you can always take things to the next level and use the cash from the balance transfer to invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, etc, but as always, be careful. If you lose the cash in the market, you will either have to find a way to pay off the card with other money of yours or be ready to find another ultra low interest rate card/account to pass the debt onto.

Reduce Your Debt | The Simple Trick to Dropping Your Interest Rate to 1%

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:07:04 GMT

This post explains how to get the absolute lowest interest rates on your debt. Be careful, if you don’t have self-control, you might be tempted to rack up more debt after you implement this plan. Obviously we take no responsibility from anything that might happen to you as a result of following this advice. Here it is!

Balance Transfer Rates

The lowest debt interest you can get is almost ALWAYS in the form of promotional balance transfer rates on credit cards. When you first sign up for a new credit card, the card company will often offer you a Promotional Balance Transfer Rate. These rates typically last for 6 months to a year and usually fall into the range of 1% to 6%. At the time of this writing, MBNA Canada happens to be offering a balance transfer rate of 0% interest for 15 months (with the fine print it ends up being 1%). This is an incredible offer and could probably help almost everyone in paying off some of his or her consumer debt. PC Financial also offers low interest on balance transfers at about 1.9% for the first 6 months (not bad either.) Capital One will usually give you 5.9% for around 3 years.

paroxetine cr

How Balance Transfers Work

Balance transfers simply let you pay off one credit card with another. If you are carrying high interest debt on one card, you can transfer the debt to another card at a much lower rate (i.e. 2%) You new card company loves when you transfer them debt and is willing to give you a great rate because they think that after your low interest period (of say 6 months) is over, you will have to start paying them the usual high rates of about 20%. You have to be smarter than that, by the time your low interest rate disappears, you should try to have your debt paid off – if you still have some left, you should be ready to transfer it to a new card at an equally low rate. I have a friend in the banking industry who tells us stories about rich clients (million plus net worth) who still float $50,000 in low or no interest balance transfers. He says they simply don’t care to pay it back because it doesn’t cost them anything to keep it – and often times they can use that money to get a far better return than the 2 or 0% they pay on the debt.

How to Get Access to Balance Transfer Opportunities

As mentioned above, the usual way to get access to a promotional balance transfer rate is to just sign up for a new credit card that is offering a promotional rate to new customers signing up. A second method of getting a low balance transfer rate is by threatening to cancel one of the cards you already have. If you have a card with no balance on it (or a balance that you can easily pay off) call your credit card company and tell them you want to close the account unless they offer you a promotional balance transfer rate. They do not want to lose you as a customer, and as we mentioned before, it is often in their favor to offer you the rates since they don’t think you can pay off the balance before the rate goes back to 20%. Remember, you should try to pay off the balance on the card before you threaten to cancel – if you have a $5000 balance with this company, they probably will not believe you when you say you’d like to close the account.

How to Really Take Advantage of Balance Transfers

Now that you understand balance transfers, check out our article on how to really take advantage of them: Take Full Advantage of Balance Transfers

Workouts and Live Fit Tips

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:00:38 GMT

First and foremost, this article is meant for people who are looking for a place to start and seeking out pointers. For people who are looking for a routine, stop reading now, I am only providing some do’s and don’ts based on my personal experience. What works for me, may not necessarily work for you.

Before you start, you should determine what body type you are, there are basically three main body types, ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs. The ectomorphs are the hard gainers, small frames, small shoulders and petit muscles (I would consider myself to be in this category when I first started). The mesomorphs are the lucky guys, these are the easy gainers, the hard bodied and naturally athletic people we all strive to become (in the most modest way possible, I would consider myself one of these now). And finally, the endomorphs; these are the bigger guys, big boned, round and soft muscled.
This article is aimed towards the smaller scrawnier guys who are looking to put more muscle and definition onto their frames and get some strength along the way. If you are looking for tips on losing weight, this may not be the article for you. . .however you can still get some pointers on where to start, so it wouldn’t hurt to read.

Do’s
● Eat properly.
There is a reason why every live fit article you will ever read says the same, its true.
I curbed junk food and excessive drinking when I decided to work out. I know it sounds hard but it becomes habitual once you get into a routine of it, then it becomes second nature for you to avoid bad food. Since carbs are you bodies main energy source, you should eat these in the morning, lots of fruits and vegetables so you burn these throughout the day and stick to meat in the evening, this will give you the protein your body needs to build and repair muscle.
I avoid the typical 3 meals a day, I eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day (on average about 5 or 6). The reason for this is because your metabolism works like a furnace, the more you keep fueling it (with small meals and snacks) the more it burns (fat) and provides energy for you. Also, this is a minor detail that many people miss but CHEW YOUR FOOD! The smaller your food is, the more surface area there is for enzymes to catalyze their breakdown.
● Invest money into it (sort of)
This is kind of misleading but let me explain. You don’t need fancy supplements or pills to get in shape. If you show me a person who takes two pills a day vs. a person who runs two blocks a day I will bet you the latter is more in shape everytime. What I mean by investing money is that I personally found that when I bought supplements such as multi-vitamins and protein I was more motivated to workout simply because I put money towards it and didn’t want it to go to waste.
● Get into a routine and get a partner!
Honestly once you’re into a routine you find yourself out of place when you miss a day of working out. Start early in the day as possible so you get it out of the way and always go on Mondays, this will start you off on the right foot for the rest of the week. Also, workout with a partner if you can, one who is the same strength and fitness level as you preferably and you will motivate and push eachother. Plus it is invaluable to have a spotter on a bench press.
● Do body weight excersices and do a high intensity run to start your workout.
When I first started working out, I could not do a single pull-up or a single dip and this was extremely discouraging but you just need to be persistent and you’ll get yourself above the bar in no time. Your body has this amazing ability to adapt and become stronger as long as you put enough stress on it. Now pull-ups and dips are no problem and I use weights to increase the resistance. I recommend body weight exercises because they don’t target specific muscles but rather groups of muscles together (I always found that the gymnasts were the most defined people in the Olympics) . Also, do a short but intense run to warm up to get your whole body started, don’t get yourself too tired or you’ll be dead for the workout.

Don’ts

● Don’t workout in groups Avoid this at all costs, I found that when I did this, there was a lot of just fooling around and talking as opposed to working out. If you can get a group of people that are determined and focused then it wouldn’t be so bad, as long as you can avoid taking long breaks in between in set. ●Avoid machines if you can This is essential if you want to build muscle. Sure, you can lift more on a machine, but you’re restricted in your movements and you don’t use your stabilizers as much. Also, I’ve been told by a personal trainer that you’re prone to serious injuries using the leg extension machine and squatting on a smith machine. Why go through all the trouble with for fewer gains? Just stick to free weights. ●Don’t Give Up! Sure when you first start, you can’t lift as much as the regulars at the gym, but everyone had to start at some point. You just need to get over that fear, and trust me, nothing will motivate you more than seeing some gains when you look in the mirror. ●Don’t slack off I can’t tell you how often I go to the gym and see people just slacking off and not working hard. If you’re at the gym to workout then stay focused and give it everything you’ve got, otherwise you’re just wasting your time. ●Don’t stick to a routine This is important because once you stick to a routine your body adapts and then it plateaus and you don’t get any gains. Change up your exercises often and don’t stick to what you’re comfortable doing, get outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself.

All in all, this is just my advice and you swallow it how you want, what works for me won’t necessarily work for everyone else. In case you’re wondering yes that is me in the picture, I wish I could show you a before picture but trust me, I was tiny. I’m not big but its an improvement!

Writer: Louis Le

Ignore SEO At The Peril Of Your Business

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:36:44 GMT

This Guest post comes from our friends over at Edinburgh SEO

Day after day the volume of individuals using the world wide web to obtain products increases. This can be lethal for small town enterprises who can no longer count on customers finding their shops unless they have got a useful web page. If you are a small business owner you simply can't afford to ignore internet marketing advertising, and affordable search engine optimisation needs to be a large component of your strategy. By gaining better on-site SEO your chances of reaching new customers rises substantially. This completely new target audience for your products, very likely increases sales. Then again, if you ignore search engine optimisation and simply construct an internet site that isn't optimised, you might as well shut the doors and pull down the blinds as nobody will see you. In case you think you do not need to incorporate SEO marketing for your business, you can be certain your rivals will be promoting their web sites. By ignoring SEO you could well be handing your potential customers to your competitors on a plate!

Getting to the first page of the SERPs isn't entirely a matter of relevancy plus plugging loads of rich key terms directly into the site’s written content, it comprises various intricate calculations, some which we know about and a few that are carefully shielded techniques that change regularly. In case you didn’t know by now, the awesome Google is the leading internet search engine, way above Yahoo and Bing. Google caters to around 60% of all web based searches and it has billions of websites in its index. In addition, it can provide practical resources for online businesses which include internet applications, and promotion specialist tools to motivate webmasters to hold on to their top rated rankings.

Search engine advertising for example the famous Adwords controlled by Google, entails bidding on particular key terms so that each time that keyword is searched your ad is going to be viewable. This method should make it simple setting a marketing budget so if you have paid up to your maximum your advert will not be displayed. Additionally it is a straightforward method to observe the efficiency of a variety of different wordings of advertisements and enable you to tweak your marketing campaign. In the event that one particular format outperforms others then you can pause the lower converting adverts and target all of your available financial resources to the high-performers. There isn't any restriction to the volume of advertisments you could start or stop plus no cap on the different adverts you are able to trial. This helps make the Adwords kind of advertising very affordable and functional for small business owners. Test several variants and monitor them meticulously to determine which function best.

Establishing a web promotion system and sticking with it unfailingly is the only method to increase web site page views plus more potential clients online. Your internet marketing strategy will need to include systems which will lead your prospective buyers towards your web page daily. The strategy will need to involve different web marketing methods, such as article marketing, banner advertising, on-site seo, etc., to bring the visitors to your internet site.

The Lowest Balance Transfer Rate Credit Card as of July 25 2010

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:25:40 GMT

Currently the absolute lowest balance transfer rate you can get on a Canadian credit card is 0% for 15 months. As it turns out it's actually 1% for the 15 months because you have to pay 1% on transferred amount at the time you transfer it. You can transfer money out via convenience check or just call them up and have them transfer it to your checking account - or you can do the usual and call them to have them transfer the cash to another one of your credit cards (so long as the other card isn't an MBNA one)

This is one of the best rates we have ever seen for balance transfers and one of the longest grace periods available. Additionally, the rate applies not only to balance transfers, but also to the Credit Card Convenience Cheques. Realistically there is no reason not to take the cash from the card and invest it in a savings account. Realistically most of us have high interest debt that we should shift to a card like this and pay off within the 15 month grace period.

The Card is the MBNA Platinum Plus card - check it out here: http://www.mbna.ca/popular_cardList.html

Position Marketing

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:32:28 GMT

This is a guest post from our friends over at TheTelecomSecret

Position Marketing is a little understood term that applies to the approach used by 99% of network marketing or MLM companies. The principle is simple - position the company as profound and the top earners as experts. This sounds like a sound and logical plan - but where does that leave you?

As a novice marketer virtually no-one will regard anything you have to say with any relevance unless you are inherently wealthy - something most new recruits are not. The new recruit does not realize that by edifying their up-line sponsors they are actually promoting them and increasing their sponsorship rates instead of their own. Many times someone will 'hear' the pitch from a newbie before going online and signing up under the local "big fish" in the hopes of getting special mentoring or instruction. The 'big fish' then swoops in with a "buy first, ask questions later" approach filled with mis-direction and false promises. Once the early commissions are earned the 'big fish' continues on their way looking for the next prey. The novice recruiter didn't profit at all from the experience (and likely never even knew their friend registered).

efectos xenica

Why does nearly every 'system' out there insist on YOU building a list of 100 people - friends and family is always the routine. You are to submit this list to your up-line for one reason, and one reason only. So that when you're broke and no longer involved your up-line can now contact these people with a typical tag line like "This is Mr. Big Fish Successful Guy, you know Tim right? He totally WANTED me to show you this! Come check it out, you won't regret it!". Most of your friends and family will ignore him - but some won't - and you'll be blamed for their lack of success when the 'system' doesn't pan out. In reality - the 'system' is not designed to pan out - it's designed to make a handful of people wealthy.

Anyone with REAL business experience knows the importance of a sales pipe-line and generating leads. Leads are generated through advertising your product or service - not through harassing your relatives and directing them, single-file, to your up-line. YOU instead need to position yourself as the expert. There is nothing the 'top dogs' know that you don't. The only difference is how long they've been in the business and how many people they have out there still subscribing to the same, unsuccessful, system.

Duplication - you've all heard of it in one form or another. McDonald's will serve you the same Big Mac anywhere in the world. Yes that's an example of duplication - but it's a duplication of a process, not an individual. McDonald's follows the same steps and recipe to make your burger - and the reason is always the same - you're hungry. Everyone on the planet is different however, so you can't apply duplication to people. You can however duplicate processes. Find out what works for YOUR business - not your up-line. Articulate those steps until you can clearly see the process involved. Once that's clear - you're ready to TEACH other people your process and profit from it as a result. You're now the expert and they defer to you because you're the creator of the process. Edifying yourself and building your own brand are two key principles of success in any business.

New Samsung Display | Flexible Screen

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:10:39 GMT

Samsung is currently working on the development of a flexible AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) that would take the technology of smart phones to the next level. How flexible? Watch the video below and begin dreaming about a phone that you can roll up and put in your pocket!

no prescrition brand name xenical

The application on smartphones is of the largest interest, but television displays are also a future development idea. These displays produce a higher refresh rate than their OLED counterpart, while consuming less power for equal display quality. Can't wait till this hits the market! Any other applications that people would like to see these used for?

Apple Security | Vulnerabilities?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:50:36 GMT

Recently, although historically reputable as the impenetrable operating system, Apple has been getting hit hard with security vulnerabilities, and in the first half of 2010, topped the list over Oracle and Microsoft. This page outlines the complete details of Apple topping the charts.

Feel free to leave comments and opinions!

The Best Keyboard for Android as of September 2011

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:34:55 GMT

We've played with the following five touch screen keyboards and made a decision as to which is the best for the every day texter. This ranking is based solely on the speed and accuracy we were able to achieve using each of the four keyboards. The keyboards are sorted starting with the one we found to be the best. All keyboards were tested on the Nexus One. The most frustrating part of the Android keyboard .. despite using it for the last 6 months, I pick up an iPhone and can still bang things out faster and more accurately than on any of the Android keyboards we've tried - and I've owned an iPhone..

The Verdict: The fasted and most accurate in landscape mode is Smart Keyboard Pro. If you really want to keep things portrait, then put in the time to get good at Swype - it will give you the best results

canada meds

Smart Keyboard Pro
If you like typing in landscape, this is definitely the most accurate keyboard around. It's as close as Android gets to iPhone accuracy (and it's DAMN close!) This keyboard is great in portrait too, better than the other non-swype keyboards. You have to pay for this app - we recommend you give it a try.
Swype Keyboard
If you are willing to put in the time, Swype is worth it. It seems to have better accuracy than most the others - you do REALLY have to be good at drawing that line right though the key you want though (so no looking up at the top half of the screen when you are trying to type..) It's a little hard to get used to, but as we all saw in that commercial (that one where they break the Guinness World Record) - it does seem to be the fastest way to type on a cell phone. We would never use Swype in landscape mode... it just isn't very good that way. For now it is pretty tough to get your hands on a copy of this software for most Android phones, but do a little googling,checkout XDA and I'm sure you will find it. Swype is only being released on samsung phones, but our guide: download sywpe for android will help you put it onto all other android devices - it's titled for the N1, but it works on most devices. We even got swype running on an Xperia X10 with Android 1.6 (although it force closed very frequently)
SwiftKey Keyboard
This keyboard is great for short text messages where it can predict what you want to say really well. It's not as great for writing long emails. Make sure that while (or after) you install it, you let it learn from a good base of your own text messages (our installation learned from about 1000 messages.) The keyboard predicts what you are going to say before you even start to type - in some cases you can put an entire text message together without atually typing a letter on the keyboard - you just select form the 3 most likely words that it decides for you and places across the top bar of the keyboard. In all ways this keyboard is superior to the regular android keyboard and there is no way that anyone should not install it. Check it out here: http://www.swiftkey.net/
HTC_IME Keyboard
This keyboard is awesome! Fully customizable and very easy to type on. It seems to have the best user experience. The three reasons we ranked SwiftKey above HTC_IME are: swiftkey has the ability to learn from your pre-existing text messages, HTC_IME only works on HTC phones and HTC _IME has no option to predict a word before you even start typing it (one of the coolest parts of swiftkey.) In almost all other ways, the HTC_IME keyboard seems superior - and it learns over time, every time you type a new word it will add it to the dictionary. The keyboard is incredibly customizable with settings for every feature you could ever want (or so it seems.) Check it out here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=624416 you wont be disappointed. We are eagerly awaiting the next release of this awesome keyboard - we have a feeling it will push it to the top of our list.
Better Keyboard
You can buy Better Keyboard in the Android Market for $2.99. It's more accurate than the stock android keyboard, and there are a million themes/skins you can get for it. It's a good keyboard, and some people say it's as accurate as iPhone (we didn't find this to be the case)
The Standard Android Keyboard
The standard keyboard comes in last. With all these fancy new time saving keyboards out there, the default just doesn't hold up.

[poll id="11"]

JustHost Suspended Sites and Account | Explained

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:34:00 GMT

So your all of a sudden your justhost sites and account have been shut down? This happened to us back when we used to host with them.

Why you Were Suspended

It seems that in 90% of situations this happens because you have used more CPU than you are allowed to (your site resulted in a processor spike on the server that hosts its and just host has shut you down.)

Our first reaction was thinking that one of our other sites had some content on it that someone had complained about.. this was not the case and probably isn't the case for you.

This is well within the rights of JustHost - it is in their contract that although you have unlimited storage and bandwidth, cpu is not unlimited. JustHost is cheap and we can't really expect them to be providing us with tons of CPU power for the low price we pay.. If, as in our case, your CPU usage was the result of just one spike and isn't likely to happen again (right away at least) its sort of unfortunate for you. You will be forced to upgrade to a new service (of your choosing) and pay more money, even though you probably don't really require it yet. Oh well, you'll be ready for the next spike!

What you Can Do now

Step 1 is to get all of your files back! Contact JustHost (either call or email them) and let them know that you need your files back asap. They will open a ticket for you, give you new login information, allow you to login to the billing section to view your ticket - and there they will give you a link to a huge file that contains all the data that was in your hosting account (all sql table dumps, all html and php files, everything you need to move your sites to a new location.)

So JustHost will probably encourage you to go with their dedicated server hosting partner. There is nothing wrong with this option - they seem quite good BUT it is unlikely that you really need this type of computing power at this point. Additionally, you probably arent ready to go form paying about 5 dollars a month to paying around 200.

We would recommend that you transition to a service that is somewhere between the price of a regular hosting account and a dedicated server. Look into virtual servers such as those offered by linode.com - you can grab one of these for about $20 a month. With a virtual server you are entitled to all available CPU power - so don't worry about getting shut down for a spike. We would also recommend having a look at Amazon EC2. Depending on the type of site you have, this might be a good and inexpensive option for you - if you are running a site that uses php and you always have a least one page load per hour (which probably describes 99% of sites on justhost) amazon EC2 may end up being too expensive as you will pay full price for constant CPU usage (about $800 per year it seems)

Good luck getting your sites back up!

Post any questions you have about the process and we can direct you to one of our guides.

Megapixel Marketing Scam

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:52:21 GMT

Don’t be fooled by claims that cameras with more megapixels are better, it’s not true. This is just a gimmick used to convince people that newer camera models with more megapixels are better than older ones. Picture quality and picture resolution are two different things that camera manufacturers and salesmen often exploit to capitalize profits.

The camera industry has relied on the megapixel as a measure of quality; that more is better. Sure, this would be important if you were to blow up the image, but the image quality itself is determined by the lens and the skill of the photographer. With a better lens, more light can be focused onto the sensor which gives sharper and more saturated images. And of course, if you know how to manipulate light with a camera then your photos will turn out better than someone with the most expensive DSLR who doesn’t know how ISO, shutter speed and aperture correlate.

Here’s another way of looking at it;

“A megapixel is one million tiny colored dots in a photo. It seems logical that more megapixels would mean a sharper photo. In truth, though, it could just mean a terrible photo made of more dots.” –David Pogue. For those of you who don’t know who David Pogue is, he’s a technology columnist for the New York Times but he’s better known for hosting the show, “It’s All Geek To Me” . He ran a test in which he took a series of identical photographs with a 5MP, 8MP and 13MP camera. He then posted the 3 pictures on a wall in Union Square Manhattan and for 45 minutes where dozens of people were asked to rank picture quality with respect to megapixels. Only one person managed to do so correctly.

So, if you’re going to get scammed by pharmaceutical companies claiming they have an effective weight loss pill, or if you’re going to get tricked by cosmetic companies who promote anti-aging creams, do not; after reading this article be fooled by the Megapixel Marketing Scam.

Article: Louis Le

Honda Civic Gauge Lights and Tail Lights not Working | Fix it Guide

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:46:49 GMT

This guide explains how to fix your tail lights and gauge lights on your Honda Civic in the event that they have somehow stopped working - usually as a result of a short during the installation of a new stereo head unit. This was done on a 2001 Civic, it will likely work the same on all 2001 to 2005 civics and probably be very similar on older a newer models as well. All instructions are taken at your own risk, be careful - you might want to disconnect the battery while replacing fuses. That said, the is an extremely easy fix that anyone can do themselves, we do not advise you to take your car in for service - that would be a complete waste of money.

It is likely that you are experiencing all of the following problems:

Gauge lights behind speedometer and other gauges not working
Tail lights not working
Main ceiling light does not come on when you open the doors (even in 'door' mode)
Car does not beep when you leave the headlights on and remove the key
Car does not beep when you leave the key in and open the driver door
Power locks to not work unless the ignition is turned
No constant power to the stereo head unit - the stereo will not store its presets and will not remember the time

null

The Solution

This problem is very easy to fix - You simply have to replace two fuses in the fuse box under the hood, both of which can be replaced with spare fuses already in your car (so no need to buy anything new.)

The 2 fuses are very poorly named, you would probably never even think to check them to correct the problem at hand. They are the 15A FI ECU Fuse - No. 2 in the chart below, and the 10A Back Up Fuse - No. 9 in the chart below. As you pop them out, have a look at them - you should see that the metal that runs through the plastic is broken (this indicated that the fuse is blown.)

As the chart shows, fuses in slots 21 to 25 are all spares - you will be able to find the 2 replacement fuses you need here (you will have to replace them with fuses of the same amperage, 15A for the FI ECU and 10A for the Back Up.

We would recommend having a look at your Accessory, Radio fuse as well - this fuse is in the fuse box under the steering wheel - post a comment if you would like to see a diagram of this fuse panel and we will put one up.

That's it! You should be back in business. Let us know if you have any questions.

Easy Stereo Guide | Car Head Unit Installation

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:52:32 GMT

So you bought your first car and now you've been considering getting a new stereo deck with flashing lights and all the bells and whistle. Expensive? Maybe. But if you read this guide you can learn how to do it, save money while doing it, and get that sweet stereo you want!

Firstly, car head units come in the standard size called "DIN". This size is meant to fit all dash spaces, and if you are removing a larger head/stereo unit you can purchase a head unit dash kit that will fit over your new head unit, while hiding all the gaps that would now be exposed. Dash kits can run anywhere from $6 to $40, but be careful! I suggest to BUY ONLINE because most kits include parts for dozens of other makes and models which you will never use at all!

Now, the head unit. We suggest although it matters what your stereo sounds like, buying online will get you the best bang for your buck! Two of the FSB staff here learned this guide from experience and purchased $70 head units! They included front AUX IN for any input, CD player, BLUETOOTH A2DP Streaming and CALL features, a FRONT SIDE USB as well as more presets than you could ever handle. Any brick and mortar store will cost you at least $100 and doesn't come close to all of those features. Great buy! (comment if interested in head unit store!)

Next we suggest (before you buy anything) find an online guide for your make and specific model that explains step-by-step ho to remove the head unit. A simple google search of "make model head unit removal" should do the trick. Some cars are trickier than others (mainly Japanese makes) so figure this out!

Once you have removed the head unit, find a wiring diagram online that corresponds to your car. FSB highly recommends http://www.installdr.com/

Unlike other wiring diagrams, they guide by the pins that are connected rather than the wire colour. I found that some head units have different wire colours than are widely described online, but knowing which pin is which saves the hassle and uncertainty.

Once you have a good wiring diagram, DIN dash kit, and head unit picked out, get it all together and install! New head unit will include a connector that you splice to your existing wires then connect to the unit, put it all together, and voila! Make sure you disconnect the battery before any installation or removal of pre-existing head unit.

Goal Systems | The Summit Energy Scam

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:24:33 GMT

Summit energy has long been slandered on the web for being a total scam of an energy company (i.e. http://forums.redflagdeals.com/canceling-summit-energy-676250/). It seems they are now going under the name of Goal Systems in some job postings. The person who answered the phone gave us the address which we instantly googled to find out that it was actually the address of Summit Energy. The posting that some friends of ours were responding to looked something like this:

STILL LOOKING FOR A SUMMER JOB?

Date: 2010-07-06, 9:02AM

We are currently seeking well groomed individuals for a Hot water tank inspector position. NO EXP REQUIRED!!! Full Training Provided Competitive WAGES If you are looking for an alternate to back breaking labour, and opportunity for rapid advancement in the management world, please contact our HR dept. for immediate consideration. 416-218-0000 NO EMAILS No vehicle required STUDENTS WELCOME :) /18+/
PLEASE NOTE this is a FT only position, thanks in advance for your interest

Location: GTA

Compensation: avg $800+/week

Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

Phone calls about this job are ok.

Original URL: http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/lab/1827884181.html

Anyone else have any experience with this company?

Terminal Not Showing in Kate Ubuntu | Quick Fix

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:16:56 GMT

When you click the Terminal button in Kate, but a terminal does not show up, it's simply because Kate requires the Konsole terminal and you don't have it installed yet.

To install it just do a: sudo apt-get install konsole

Everything should work now - you don't even have to restart Kate.

Update: Iphone 4 Release Date Canada | Iphone 4G Release Date Canada

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:37:02 GMT

There has been no official date for Canadian release but the insider sources in the online community have stated the Iphone 4 will hit Canadian shelves on July the 23rd. It will probably be priced at $649 for the 16gb model and $749 for the 32gb model, less with a contract. Bell, Telus, Rogers and Fido will all be carrying the Iphone 4 and it will be available through each company's web site and retail store on the launch date. No matter where you go expect huge lineups and fast online stock depletion, there has been no information yet on pre-orders.
Just something to note, it will NOT be on the 4g network as our preview article suggested.

Tether with your Rogers Wireless 500 MB Plan and Nexus One

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:19:32 GMT

So Rogers thought they locked their users out of tethering for those who are paying for less than a gig. Well if you happen to be someone who has a Google Nexus One on a Rogers Wireless 500MB data plan - you can now tether to your heart's content - or at least until you burn through your 500 megs and can't stand to pay the expensive overage costs.

Simply upgrade to Android 2.2 (froyo) and enable your portable wireless hotspot from within settings. Just connect to it from your laptop and have access to your full 500 megs on your computer.

How To Use Your Nexus One as a Wireless Router | Portable Hotspot

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:09:18 GMT

Here is a simple little guide on how to get going with your Nexus One's Portable Hotspot feature.

First of all - make sure you have the latest release of the android OS (2.2 at this point.) 2.2 (or Froyo) has been the first version so far to offer the wireless hotpot feature - we sincerely hope it's not the last.. Our testing has been done on the AT&T version of the devices using the Rogers Wireless (Canada) and At&T (US) networks - but we're quite confident it would work just the same on any cellular network - provided you have a data plan with that company

Here are the steps:

Go to Settings
Select Wireless and Networks
Select Tethering and Portable Hotspot
Check the box next to Portable Wi-Fi hotpot (the network is now enable)
Not go to Portable Wi-Fi hotspot settings
Configure Wi-Fi Hotspot
Set the name of your network
Set the security to WPA2PSK
Set a password for your hotspot and click Save
Now simple go to you computer, scan for wireless networks and connect to your portable hotspot using the password you just created

Pretty simple - but we though it might be helpful to a few people.

The Best Canadian Points Credit Cards as of July 2010

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:59:36 GMT

The Canadian credit card scene has changed slightly in the past few months with the introduction of travel rewards cards from Scotia Bank and BMO. These 2 Canadian banks did not offer competitive rewards cards in the past, but that seems to have changed. So are these cards better than some of the others we have already? Well it depends what you are looking for.

The big three cards of the past have been the TD Infinite Visa, the RBC Avion Infinite Visa and the CIBC Aero Gold Infinite Visa. The New are the ScotiaGold Passport Visa and the BMO World Elite MasterCard.

Scotia card comes with 20,000 initial bonus points, plus 10,000 more at the end of the first year. The 30,000 points are estimated to be worth $300 in real money (mind you this will come after paying $209 in annual fees - $99 for the first year and 110 for the second.)

The BMO card carries a fee of $150 per year - this is the highest of any of the major Canadian Travel Rewards cards. The card comes with a signup bonus of $15,000 points, or about $285.

Of the pre-existing cards the real competition has seemed to be between TD and CIBC. If you put a lot of value on being able to choose your travel and then use points to pay for it, go with TD. If, on the other hand, you simply want to be able to trade your points for their maximum cash value and you don't really mind picking your flight/vacation from a list provided by the bank - go with the CIBC Aero Gold.

In terms of sign-up bonus RBC and CIBC are closely tied - RBC however seems to put a maximum value on flights to be purchased with points (we have not seen this to be the case with CIBC, although this is just based on our personal research.) When it comes to trading TD points for real dollars, the exchange rate is poor, but as we stated above, you do get the luxury of buying your travel from just about anywhere.

The Final Verdict: Although it is exciting that Scotia and BMO are getting into the travel reward cards market, we feel the best deal to the consumer is to go with one of the older cards. As far as we can tell, the best way to get the most free money out of a Canadian Travel Rewards card is to go with the CIBC AeroGold Infinite Visa. This card comes with an exceptional initial bonus ($15,000 points - worth somewhere in the area of $300,) an annual fee of $120, and a point rate of 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent or 1.5 if spent on gas or groceries. We've estimated each Aeroplan point to be worth about 1.8 cents. So you are getting approximately 1.8% back on every purchase you make. If you are buying gas or groceries, you are getting about 2.7% back.

Long MP3s like Audio Books Not Working in Android

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:27:25 GMT

Although Android 2.2 has brought us a ton of incredible new features (including the portable wifi hotspot which I am using right now) it appears to also have introduced a few new bugs. One of these bugs results in longer audio files (such as audio books) not playing correctly in the native music player. It appears to set the length of all these longer files (1 hour plus) to 3 to 4 minutes. It then procedes to play beyond the end of the progress bar in order to finish the file. So you are able to listen to the entire file, but you are not able to jump to portions outside of the first 3 or 4 minutes - pretty frustrating...

Does anybody know if there is some kind of work around for this? Is there a better audio player for android that doesn't include this annoying new bug?

How to get USB Drive Working on Virtual Box Ubuntu Windows XP

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:21:16 GMT

This guide explains how you can access your USB flash drive from within Windows XP when you running within Sun Oracle VirtualBox on Ubuntu. By default it just seems that the virtual machine is unable to access any drives connected to the computer - but with an easy shared folder work around we are able to geat read and write access to the drive. This has only been tested on windows XP but we are fairly certain it would work just fine on windows 7 or vista. Additionally - this method will work with more than just flash drives, a hard drive, optical Disc Drive, cell phone or MP3 player will work as well.

Connect your USB drive and make sure you can access it from within Ubuntu.
Go to your virtual box instance of Windows and from the virtual box menu (that bar at the bottom of the screen if you happen to be in full screen mode) select Devices -> Shared Folders.
Click the little add button (with the green plus sign)
Select the drop down menu next to Folder Path and choose Other
Select your USB drive from the list of folders/drives on the left and click Open
Check off Make Permanent (and do not check off Read-Only)
Click OK

Alright so now the USB drive can be accessed from within windows. In order to get to the files simply follow the following few steps:

Click the windows Start Button.
Select Run
Type in: //vboxsrv
Press enter

You will now see a list of all folders/drives that are shared between windows and linux. For now you probably only have the one (which coresponds to your USB drive.) Open it up and you will have full access to the contents of your drive.

Android BBM Kik Chat

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:51:24 GMT

We now effectively have BBM on Android. Not only that - but thanks to Kik Chat we can now chat with BBM like features between BlackBerry, Android and iPhone.iPod/iPad!

This sweet little app can be found in the Android Market as of last Friday. iPhone and blackberry users can pick it up on the App Store and App World.
Both the android iPhone versions are flawless!

They've now added features to send kik picture messages to your contacts.

With Kik (kik.com) you can see when another user has read your message - a feature that has become essential to any Blackberry messenger user. The beauty is, you have this feature no matter what platform you or the other party are running.

To anyone still using gchat, msn, or some all in one messenger to talk to their friends between mobile devices: you can finally give it up!

Earthquake in Toronto Montreal Ottawa Waterloo Canada June 23 2010

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:51:09 GMT

Yep - that was an earth quake!

If you're looking for info on today's (August 23 2011) earthquake, you can find it here:
Earthquake Waterloo Toronto Virginia

Sync Android with iTunes Music Playlist

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:46:49 GMT

There a re a few new pieces of software that make syncing your iTunes playlists with your android phone incredibly easy! For anyone who is used to blackberry media sync - they work in a very similar way.

Salling Media Sync - nothing to fancy but works well and is fast: http://www.salling.com/
Double Twist - nice looking but terrible slow: http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt

Get What You want From Canadian Satellite Providers | Lower Cost Bell, Telus, Shaw

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:18:39 GMT

The cost of Television in Canada is outrageous thanks to limited competition in the majority of Provinces markets. That, coupled with the fact that TV service provider's customer service is completely intolerable, make them impossible to deal with. This guide will show you how to go on the offensive against these monopolies to bring your bill down.

First, figure out what it is you really want. New hardware, low monthly bills, or a one time large bill reduction.
Next give your television provider a call. The person who first picks up the phone will not be able to give you what you want and neither will their manager. No matter how upset you are with the TV company, yelling at these people is just a waste of breath. Simply, and politely let the customer service representative know what you want (Eg. My bill is too high, My PVR is broken and I want a new one but dont want to pay anything for it, Promotion X is available to new customers and I want it)
The customer service representative will tell you, more or less, that this is impossible. At this point tell them that you would like to cancel your services / speak to the retentions department. Don't worry if your in a long term contract, most larger tv companies require 30 days notice for you to cancel an account so it therefore takes 30 days from the day that you call in to cancel for any cancellation order to go through. This is ussually incredibly annoying for the consumer as it is rarely communicated upon purchase, but we can use it to our advantage in this case. If your conversation with retentions ends in you canceling the account you can call back in anytime before the 30 days are up and cancel the cancellation order.
The Customer Service rep will put you on hold and explain the situation to the retentions representative before passing you over to them. If you are in a long term contract the first thing the retentions rep will do is to try to scare you away from canceling by citing early termination penalties. Don't budge, remember the 30 notice rule, and tell them that you still would like to cancel your account.
The retentions rep will give you an opening offer. If the offer fits your goal in mind then by all means take it but, depending on how long you've been with the company, how much your monthly rate is, and payment history, there is probably a better offer available. It's advisable to deny this opening offer.
Continue negotiating with the retentions rep until you either get what you want, or end up putting in your 30 days notice to cancel the account.
If your account is put on the 30 days notice just call back in and cancel it with the customer service rep and try cancelling again tomorrow!

From experience some things are pretty easy to get the first time you ask for them, they are:

30% off for 6 months of programming
50% off a new reciever
Free installation of a rented reciever plus 12 months free rental charges
3 months free programming

Try it out and let us know how it goes by posting a comment!

Install Android 2.2 on AT&T Rogers Nexus One

Tue, 25 May 2010 15:54:55 GMT

Note! Since the original position of the this guide, Android 2.2 has been formally released from Google. It is recommended that you just allow your device to update itself. Check for updates by going to Settings -> About Phone -> System Updates. To root your N1 and get the latest and greatest rom, go to the Cyanogenmod site!

This guide explains how to install the latest version of the android OS (2.2 Froyo) on Rogers/AT&T version of the nexus one. There have been a ton of guides on how this works with the T-Mobile version, but very few for this one. Following the advice of this guide is to be done at your own risk, and we take no responsibility for any damage that may occur as a result. First of all, you need to get your device to this firmware: ERE27, in order to do this you first have to flash your device to ERD79 and then update to ERE27. Once you have updated to ERE27, you can install the official 2.2 update. Here are the steps all broken down: You should just follow the instructions on the on http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Nexus_One

Download the ERD79 stock ROM (boot, system and recovery partitions section)
Download ERE27 from the same site
Download the Fastboot flashing utility
Download the Android 2.2 update file - there are 2 links to the file in the first post on this site (first link is broken)
Flash the ERD79 using fastboot with the following command format: fastboot flash system system.img (google fastbook tutorial to find out a little more about how this tool works)
Update to ERE27 (using standard update method - see below)
Update to android 2.2 (using the standard update method - see below)

Standard Update Method

1. Rename the update file to update.zip 2. Note that if you're using Windows and don't have "show file extensions" turned on in the file explorer you won't see a .zip. Just rename it to "update" (no quotes, of course) because it's already a zipped file. 3. Copy the update.zip file onto the root of your microSD card (that means not in any folders) 4. With your Nexus One off, hold down the trackball and press the power button. 5. You'll be booted into a white screen with three Android robots on skateboards. Select "Bootloader." 6. On the next screen, select "Recovery." 7. Your phone will reboot, giving you a picture of the Android robot and an exclamation point inside a triangle. 8. Now press the power button and volume up button at the same time. It could take a couple of tries. 9. Now (using the trackball this time) choose "Apply sdcard:update.zip" and let things run their course.

Data Not Working on Rogers Nexus One | Quick Fix

Thu, 20 May 2010 12:32:04 GMT

If you've recently ordered a nexus one from the google store and tried to use it on Rogers, you'll find that the data (3G or EDGE) is not working. The quick and simple fix is to add the APN Settings.

To do this, simply go to:

Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point Names
Hit the Menu Key and select New APN
Enter the settings as follows: Name: Rogers APN: internet.com Username: wapuser1 Password: wap MCC: 302 (Default Value) MNC: 72 (Default Value)
Leave everything else blank
Hit Menu and Save
Activate the new APN by clicking in the little circle next to its name
You should see a little 3G pop up in the status bar withing a few seconds
POP Your Battery Out and Put it Back In although you might see the 3G in the corner, it doesn't work properly until you do a battery pull

It is likely that your MMS will not be working either. In order to fix that, simple add a second APN as follows: Name: Rogers MMS APN: media.com Username: media Password: mda01 Server: 172.25.0.107 MMSC :http://mms.gprs.rogers.com MMS Proxy: 10.128.1.69 MMS Port: 80 MCC: 302 MNC: 72 APN Type: mms
Leave all other settings blank
Hit Menu and save
If you did this properly, you will see it in the list with the APN you created earlier. You should not see a little circle next to the Rogers MMS APN (this is because as an MMS APN it does not need to be set to active - its used in the background for MMS only) If you do happen to see the circle next to it, you probably forgot the last step in the above settings: APN Type: mms

That's it! Your 3G Data should now be working on your Rogers Nexus One

iPhone 4G Release Date

Wed, 12 May 2010 18:29:15 GMT

We can expect the iPhone 4G Release Date to be Late June 2010.

We feel that there are now a sufficient number of speculations, combined with leaked information and the discovery of one iPhone 4G to accurately predict a release date.

Canadian Release of the iPhone 4G

Updated information for Canadian Release

We expect the Canadian release of the 4G to be shortly after - likely arriving in mid July. The Canada release date was predicted based on the Apple's past strategy for the iPhone 3G, 3Gs and the iPad. Mid July is a little bit ambitious considering the lack of a 4G carrier in Canada. We expect that the 4G will come to Canada before the availability of 4G network connectivity. With the upcoming release of the HTC Evo 4G on Verizon, we wonder if the CDMA version iPhone 4G will actually be released before the GSM version (this would be the first time Apple has released handsets in this order.) On a side not, with Bell and Telus recently adopting the GSM model, we feel that it is unlikely they will even bother to invest in 4G CDMA infrastructure (let us know your thoughts on this topic). In any event, expect the 4G to hit Canada before August 2010.

iPhone 4G Images

iPhone 4G Features

Front-Facing secondary video camera for video calling and Skype
Camera Flash
High Resolution Screen: 960x640
High Definition Video Capture (720p)
Secondary microphone for noise cancellation
Common Mailbox: 1 view for all email accounts, SMS and third party messenger apps

Setup A Review Website | How To

Thu, 06 May 2010 19:00:34 GMT

This guide explains what seems like the easiest way to setup a review website. This would be the sort of site where people review products and services that you have listed on your site. We are going describe a way that is flexible enough that the user can setup any of the three common types of review sites:

User Review Site - This is the type of site where users can review and rate a set of items (maybe other websites, books, movies, etc) that the webmaster has put on the site. Users do not add new items, they simply review and rate items put on the site by the owner.
User Review and User Content Site - This type of site allows user to add new items to the list of items being reviewed and rated.
Webmaster Review Site - This is the type of site where the webmaster just lists a few items of their choosing and rates/reviews them based on their opinions (with no input from the user.) This type of site is typically used by affiliate marketers (who are often just trying to drive traffic to the sites of products on which they make a commission...)

So we started this by checking into the Content Management Systems available for building a review based website. They're really weren't any. Most useful CMS's just offer a way for the user to create a review based site by adding plugins to a site that is initially generic.

After deciding that we'd need to use a Review Plugin, we checked out the plugins for the most popular CMS's. You can build a review site that utilizes a review plugin using: Joomla, Drupal, WordPress and several others.

For now, we recommend giving WordPress a try with the GD Star Rating plugin. We're going to create a site like this over the next couple of days - we'll let you know how it goes and if we decide to change our approach.

Guelph Bars | Top 10 Bars in Guelph

Tue, 04 May 2010 21:39:04 GMT

Wooo partaaay! But where are you going to go tonight? Here is the list of the top 10 bars in Guelph as of September 2011 (in no particular order) that you may love, or maybe you haven't even been to yet!

1. Frank & Steins / Apartment 58 Franks is a classic bar whether for dinner, drinks, the hockey game, Franks is a great atmosphere and has cheap drink nights and wing deals weekly. Have had some sweet live bands in there that get everyone dancing. Apartment 58 is the club upstairs that usually has anything from top 40 to house to hip-hop and currently has promotions handled by Fresh Media - who always make the party crazy!

2.NV Lounge A bar that most people overlook, depending on what night you go you can have a great time. Fridays are usually the day to go, but with their huge drink menu any nights a great night.

3. Van Goghs Ear Also one of the classic Guelph bars, Van Gough's (Ear) has three floors that will accommodate any music tastes. First floor will have anything from live bands to top 40 music with a stage to dance on, while upstairs has huge parties hosted by the guys at Guelph Nightlife for their third floor "Loft".

4. Vinyl /Jimmy Jazz A great place that may have a minor cover, but hey..$2 drinks! Awesome music, dancing, booths, stage, and the place to hit up on a Wednesday, Thursday, or whatever night you feel like hitting the bars! Jimmy Jazz is right next door with a great place to chill out and yes, a patio!

5. Albion Hotel On the edge of the downtown area, Albion Hotel has great food and a bar scene that is distinct. Upstairs there is a dance floor but nightly music choices are very different.

6. Trappers Alley / Tabu / Palace One address, three very different scenes. Main floor is the famous Trappers with their dollar beers and atmosphere that can result in a sloppy night for first year students. Upstairs, Palace offers a very open club scene that plays top 40 and hip hop for the most part with a balcony, huge dance floor, and dancing cages. Downstairs, a newly established nightclub Tabu is now fully up and running thanks to the LateNites crew. They have wild house music that hits you hard and the best laser light show in Guelph.

7. Doogies/ Pablo's Very friendly bars that are joined at the hip, go to either one and you will hear live music from the Doogie's stage whether you want to hear some Tom Petty or Oasis. Pool tables, foosball and an extremely chill crowd, but a party if you're looking for it.

8. McCabe's Right at the corner where everything is happening, this is the place to go to with a big group, grab some wings and pints and have a great time. Has a big screen to watch the game, live bands, and an overlooking open second floor bar.

9. Bobby O'briens / Opus Lounge Bobby O'briens was the place to watch the Vancouver games this year and it isn't any surprise with their great food specials, variety of beers on tap, and flat screen televisions as well as a big screen on the back wall. Opus, also put on by the LateNites crew is a classy club upstairs with leather couches and a bangin' dance floor.

10. Brass Taps The official University campus bar, has pool tables, great bar grub, and a variety of entertainment from live bands todance music.

-- Looking for some grub after your night out? Check out our Top 10 places for post-bar food

Downtown Guelph Food | Top 10 After Bar Eateries in Guelph

Tue, 04 May 2010 18:08:12 GMT

Planning on going out tonight? Here is a quick guide for places to go once you stumble out of the bar/club off MacDonell and want food fast! (Maps included)

1. Salsateria - If you are in to quesadilla's, nachos, or burritos this is the number 1 after bar food. Great price point (like you'll really care at that point) and the food is amazing. They have a locally famous in house salsa that is more delicious than you can imagine. Unlike some post-bar food, just as gratifying during the day.

2. Pierre's Poutine - Best poutine in downtown Guelph, end of story. Has only been there a few years now but their poutine with Montreal smoked meat, wow. Little more expensive, but a must try.

3. Mega Pizza - Conveniently right on MacDonell grabbing a slice after the bar is really cheap, fast and amazing pizza. Also another food that you don't need to be slightly intoxicated to enjoy. Just great pizza!

4. MacDonell Village - Have ended up here many of times, no matter how you pronounce "gyro" you will get 2/$6 and be very satisfied. Also offer other foods such as fries and poutine that are cheaper than Pierre's, but quality is the price you pay.

5. Sun-Sun or Wong's Garden - May as well be the same restaurant but a traditional "drunk food" for Guelph, you can get 3, 4 or 5 item dishes (Styrofoam boxes) of vegetable rolls or chicken wings or anything else you'd expect from a late night asian restaurant. Personally don't recommend making a point of eating there during the day, but late at night sure hits the spot.

This is just a guide to late night bar food in Guelph. Other food spots include Subway, hot dog stands, Frank & Steins, or Pita Pit. To have your restaurant included in this list of late night food downtown, leave your contact information below.

-- Looking for a place to go before you grab some grub? Check out our Top 10 Bars in Downtown Guelph

Waterloo Sushi | Top 5 Waterloo Sushi Restaurants

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:31:58 GMT

Here are the 5 best sushi restaurants in Waterloo - September 2011

Some are all you can eat, others are better for sushi take out. Maps are provided when you click the restaurant title links. The Restaurants begin with the best (or our favourite - everything is just our opinion).

Tomu Sushi (Dine in and Take out, not all-you-can-eat)

This is now definitely the best sushi waterloo. It is a great price and absolutely delicious. It's not that close to campus, but it is totally worth the trip. You get all kinds of free Korean goodies when you dine in, and you even get miso soup (and sometimes salad) with your takeout. This is both the best tasting and the best value sushi in the waterloo area.

Sakura Island (Dine In, Take Out, NOT All-You-Can-Eat)
- Second best sushi waterloo. The sashimi is a little expensive unless you get it in one of their combos - so make sure to do that. They have great lunch combos as well - try the spicy salmon lunch, lots of food for about 10 bucks.
Sushi 99(Dine in , Take Out, All you can eat)
- We're really happy with this new addition to the Waterloo Sushi line up. If you are looging for all you can eat and want to try something a little different than Ye's - we say give Sushi 99 a shot!
Nikko Nikko(Dine In, Take Out, NOT All-You-Can-Eat)
- This sushi restaurant is technically in Kitchener, but it's worth the short drive.
Yummyaki (Dine In, Take Out, All-You-Can-Eat, also have regular menu)
- Yummyaki has a great all you can eat menu. The sushi is good - fresh fish and not too much rice in the rolls.
Ye's Sush (Dine In, Take Out, All-You-Can-Eat, also have regular menu)
- Ye's is probably the best known sushi restaurant in Waterloo. It's famous for the all you can eat menu. Their is also a Ye's in Kitchener (the original.) The Kitchener location is better, they seem to use less rice in their rolls
Ye's Sush (Dine In, Take Out, All-You-Can-Eat, also have regular menu)
- Ichiban is new to our list - good food, good value, great staff
Iron Chef (Dine In, Take Out, NOT All-You-Can-Eat)
- Iron Chef is located in the University plaza, so if you are just coming from a class at UW it's definitely the most convenient. They have great lunch menus. Ordering sushi a la cart from this restaurant is little preicey. Their Miso soup doesn't have much to it. Still a great choice for a quick lunch.

That's our list! Feel free to leave us a comment. Let us know if you've found another waterloo sushi restaurant that belongs in the list!

[poll id="9"]

Waterloo Bars | Top 10 Bars in Waterloo

Mon, 03 May 2010 19:00:06 GMT

The following is a list of the best bars in Waterloo Ontario as of September 2011

The list starts with the best. Click on the name of the bar to see a map of its location in Waterloo. The post is just our opinion and we are heavily in favour of cheap, fun, student bars. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Phil's
- Everyone knows Phil's as one of the dirtiest bars in the city, but everyone also agrees that it's probably the most fun. We recommend going to Phil's on a Wednesday (hip hop night) or a Saturday (electro night). The best part of Phil's is definitely the cheap drinks - $2.25 EVERY NIGHT. ($5 cover..)
Bomber
- The Bomber is UW's on campus bar. It's pretty well only good on Wednesday, but it's usually packed and plays good music. Drinks are pretty cheap, but they can take about 20 minutes to line up for. You need a UW student to sign you in. Show up before 10pm unless you want to wait in a huge line.
Revolution (Rev)
- Rev is the biggest bar in Waterloo. It's huge and it gets pretty busy on Fridays. Music is good, cover and drinks are a little expensive.
Starlight
- Starlight has become one of the most popular bars on king st. If you haven't checked it out yet, you definitely should.
The Turret
- The Turret is Laurier's campus bar. It's good most nights, usually lot's of Laurier chicks. You'll need a Laurier student to sign you in.
Philthy McNasties (philthy's)
- Philthy's has a bar/pub area upstairs and more of a club downstairs. The bouncers are a little nuts about who they let on the stage.. but the music is good and the drinks are decently cheap.
Ceasar Martini's (Ceasar's)
- Ceasar's is usually an alright time. The best night to go is Thursday. The drinks aren't overly cheap and the people are sometimes a little
Chainsaw (the ex-Spur)
- If you remember the Silver Spur, chainsaw is pretty much the same thing. It's a karaoke bar with cheap beers and wings.
Morty's (pub)
- Morty's has the best Hot chicken wings in Waterloo. The pitchers aren't super cheap, it's worth going just for the wings) Cheap Wings Nights are Monday and Thursday
The Fox and The Fiddle (The Fox - pub)

The Fox has the best wings in general in Waterloo (Ancho chipotle are the best.) It's a little dark, but good wings and cheap beer. The Cheap Wing Nights are Sunday and Wednesday.

The Weekly Schedule

Here is our recommendation for what bar you should go to every day of the week in Waterloo.

Monday: Philthy's
Tuesday: The Vault
Wednesday: Phil's
Thursday: Ceasar's
Friday: Rev
Saturday: Phil's
Sunday: The Fox

Non-Top 10 Bars

These guys didn't quite make the top 10, but they're worth mentioning:

Molly's
Starlight
Roxanne's
Front Row

Leave a comment below to let us know what you think of our ranking. Maybe give us a few suggestions of other bars that belong in the list.

[poll id="8"]

Management Books | Top 10 Management Books

Mon, 03 May 2010 13:54:15 GMT

The 10 best business management books as of May 2010. This list has them all, in order of best to worst.

The Art of Exceptional Living - Jim Rohn
- Not a management book by definition, but probably one of the best tools you will ever come across. This is an audio book that combines recordings of live lectures with other more directed chapters. It is an absolute must-read (or listen) for life and for management.
First, Break All the Rules - Marcus Buckingham
- This management book holds the results of an extensive study performed by the Gallup group into why the most effectives managers were just that. The managers studied were often famous for breaking the norms of the business world though the use of new and innovative management strategies.
Winning - Jack Welch
- This book describes the successful strategies employed by Jack Welch as he let General Electric to the top. The book has great lessons for both management and for life.
Strengths Finder 2.0 - Gallup Organization
- This management books helps readers to identify their core areas of competency. This should be one of the first steps any manger takes. Not only will it help you to recognize your own strengths, but also those of the employees you manage.
One-Minute Manager - Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard
- This short and to-the-point book discusses how you can apply the best and most fundamental management strategies to your life right away.
Getting to Yes - Roger Fisher
- This Book explains one of the best proven negotiation strategies to date. The book is focused on a strategy know as "principled negotiations" developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project.
Primal Leadership - Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee
- Leadership is perhaps the most important aspect of any management strategy and any management book. Primal Leadership give insight into how leading and its results are heavily reliant on our basic human instincts and the makeup of our brains.
Good to Great - Jim Collins
- This management book describes how and why some companies make the jump from being mediocre to be extraordinary.
12: The Elements of Great Managing - Rodd Wagner & James Harter
- The primary focus of this book is identifying what keeps employees actively engaged in their work. The book is full of evidence and examples of how all elements of management can be utilized.
Getting Things Done
- Essential to all managers is the ability to execute. This book is fundamental to all who seek to achieve results, especially in the area of management.

Feel free to leave comments that include the management books you have found to be most valuable. We've put our top 10 list into our Amazon account if you feel like purchasing a book directly - just click the book to find out more.

Amazon.com Widgets Vote in the poll below to let us know what your favourite book is: [poll id="7"]

Chatroulette Drinking Game

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:07:35 GMT

Getting tired of playing Flip Cup and Beer Pong over and over again? Are you looking for a new and bold game to play? Don’t really have the balls to actually play Russian Roulette? Well we’ve got what you’re looking for!

The Basics of the Game:
It’s almost the exact same as the original Russian Roulette game, the difference is that there’s no revolver and live round involved... actually the only similarity is that it’s a game of chance.

Here’s What You’ll Need:
1. A Drink of Choice (Vodka for obvious reasons, but anything will suffice).
2. A Computer with a webcam and internet connection.

Number of Players:
This game isn’t restricted to a specific amount of players, as anyone who can see the computer screen can play. However it could be difficult, so it’s best to stick between two players, alternating rounds.

How To Play:
-In order to play, simply just get onto www.chatroulette.com , and allow chatroullete to use your web cam.
-Each player will take his or her turn in spinning the roulette (In this case, its just hitting the “New Game” button at the top left corner, but use your imagination)
-The player who lands on someone "doing something revolting" (I'll let your imagination take care of this) takes the “shot”. (This is considered to be landing on the bullet, or the fatal blow).
-The game continues until one player decides he or she cannot drink anymore and the other player is the winner.
-Variations include drinking when you see a girl with her top off, however this could involve long waits at which point you’re just better off taking shots.

Remember alcohol is somewhat of a gamble. You start the night off by drinking and don’t really know where you’re going to end up the next day. It could be great or it could be disastrous. Like a game of Roullette.

Written by: Louis Le

Macroglossa - The Visual Search Engine

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:10:28 GMT

This press release has been provided by our friends over at Macroglossa. They've recently released the alpha version of their visual search engine. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

On March 23, 2010 the alpha version of MACROGLOSSA, a project of the independent group MVE, was released.

Have you ever received an image in which you could not determine the content? If you have, you know that trying to figure out what a picture is of can be a pretty time consuming task. Search after search in a typical search engine will take you at least a few minutes before you figure out what you are looking at. Well Macroglossa has attempted to solve this problem. You simply select an image file form your computer, run it through their reverse image search, and receive a list results. All results contain both the content of the image (in English) as well as other images of the same or similar content.

What's MACROGLOSSA?
MACROGLOSSA is a search engine based on the comparison of images. The operation is simple:
Have you taken a picture of something you could not identify? Maybe you're not sure what animal is contained in the image? In order to learn more about the content of your image, you can simply upload the image file to MACROGLOSSA and begin your search.

MACROGLOSSA wants to push the limits of the Web, giving users an alternative way to achieve many research goals.

Engine Comparer Technology compares your image with other images available on the web. It looks for similarities
and / or matches, giving the results page for visual references, accompanied by a link to the site on which the image was found.

The software is still in its alpha stage and currently the only working category is: animals.

Currently the search results are not as accurate as they will be in the future, so don't be too surprised if your results contain images from a different category than you intended.

The search time could be quite long because the engine is running a series of real-time controls to make sure that the results are as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

Our aim is to increase the speed of calculation, the precision, the number of images and categories of comparative research for the next release. ( We plan to release a new version at the end of April). Additionally, we hope to release the iphone app within the first week of June.

For notices, proposals and recommendations on the project, please write to :
mveinc@gmail.com or comment on the site below.

All future updates and improvements to the engine will be made available on our
Twitter Channel: http://www.twitter.com/macroglossa

Enjoy MACROGLOSSA

Website: http://www.macroglossa.com

The ACN Scam | Understand This!

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:56:15 GMT

First of all, when we refer to the ACN Scam we are not trying to say that what ACN does is illegal in any way. ACN the corporation is not a scam. When we refer to 'The ACN Scam' we are referring to the practices of certain independent representatives. In our opinion (based on limited experience) it seems that many ACN members have been "scammed" into believing that making money in ACN is more realistic than it actually is.

This article has nothing but good things to say about ACN the corporation. They provide great services at a great price and have utilized a unique means of sales and advertising. The article seeks only to discuss the strategies and activities of some of the reps within ACN (which often times are likely not in accordance with what ACN the corporation encourages or condones.)

The Basics of the ACN Scam

The scam works by convincing people that they have are going to make a lot of money in the telecom industry by selling a few video phones, satellite TV subscriptions, cell phones, landlines, etc and encouraging a few of their friends to do the same. It's a simple concept and in theory is quite easy. Anyone can sell 3 services and we would argue that anyone could also find a friend to do the same. The issue, in our opinion, comes when you actually try to do it. There is very limited data on the success rates of ACN Independent Representatives. Most people are told from the start that less than one in 100 are successful in the business. Additionally, a recent study (see references) has shown that approximately 0.5% (less than 1 in 200) even make their initial $500 investment back. The problem: certain representatives are so good at convincing you, that everyone believes they will be the 1 out of 200 who actually makes money! Why?

The Giveaways that Suggest ACN is a Scam

Here are a few things that should suggest why ACN is not worth your time or your reputation:

All the money is in the sign-up fees! We know they claim that the sign-up fee goes to registering your personal business, getting you a license with the FCC/CRTC etc... You can't blame them for charging some sort of fee - there is obviously some setup work required and if people could join and quit with no penalty, then they would do it constantly and cost the company a fortune. Our guess is that the set-up process for an individual rep probably costs the company around $20 (based on the assumption that all they really have to do is add you to a database and send you a glossy package). So why charge $500? We suspect the obvious, to pay the bonuses! ACN sells it as "the bonuses will start you off, and the residual income will sustain you later in your career." This seems impossible - we challenge anyone considering the ACN opportunity to ask their recruiter if the bonuses make up the majority of their income. We suspect this is generally the case, but would recommend you check for yourself - the exception to this rule would be when the individual has not yet earned a bonus - in which case their minimal income would be a product of service commissions. It seems to us that the bulk of the payouts are in the sign-up fees. If this is true, this meets the definition of a pyramid scheme, we know they convince you that their products make the business legitimate, indeed some income must come from phone/TV bills, but is that enough? A scam is a scam and just because the company pays out some money in actual service-bill revenue does not make it legitimate in our opinion. From the ACN Integrity Site:
"As distinguished from the legitimate multilevel business opportunity advanced by ACN there are some companies who continue to engage in illegal pyramid sales. Simply defined, an illegal pyramid sales program occurs when persons are induced to purchase the right to sell a product by representations that they could regain their purchase price and also earn profits by subsequently selling the same right to sell to others. This certainly does not occur with the ACN Opportunity."
Are they kidding? Maybe a typo? by this definition ACN seems to us to clearly be a Pyramid Scheme
The "Recruiting Process" is long, hard and strange. Sure a few people sign up on the spot, but the vast majority are fall under the "Some Wait" category. Once you are in, often times you become so wrapped up in things that you find it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn't sign up - but think about it: If the opportunity were as good as you have convinced yourself it is, then most of your friends would sign up on the spot. This big disconnect between what you think of the opportunity and what the majority of the people you show it to think of it should make you nervous. We recommend everyone understand the concept of position marketing described here: Position Marketing
If the statistics showed that most people make a lot of money in ACN, then the above point should not make you nervous - if it really was a good opportunity, then it wouldn't matter if people took a little convincing before they saw the light. But the limited facts seem to suggest that almost nobody makes money in ACN. The average (mean) income of an ACN representative less than $2 a month (see references). The odds are HEAVILY in favor of you having to admit to all your friends that you were wrong in trying to convince them to join ACN.
ACN has an entire website (ACN Integrity) devoted to proving that they are not a fraudulent company. The fact that this website even exists means the vast majority of people will probably assume that ACN is a scam. As I'm sure you've realized already, most people do assume it is a scam (at first glance.) This means that nearly everyone you attempt to recruit and almost every customer you seek to acquire is going to (at least initially) think that you are involved in an illegitimate business. This is not something you want to be associated with - not when the odds of you losing money are 100 times greater than the odds of you paying off your initial investment. Sure, maybe you can deal with people thinking you're part of a scam, because deep down you 'know' you are going to get rich and 'show them'. That seems to be what everyone thinks.. and yet so many are proven wrong.
Obviously ACN is not illegal, or they would not exist! The strange part comes when they fall back on this proof of legality as an argument for why it is a good business. Why should the fact that it's legal mean that it's a good way for you to make money? Occasionally they seem to use the fact that it's "almost illegal" as a way to convince you that there must be money in the business. They use quotes like "Direct TV is in on the Scam, Bell Canada is in on the Scam, in fact, you're the only one who isn't in on the Scam!" Does the fact that ACN might seem like a scam make it more likely you will get rich?
To all those sold on the tax argument. No doubt your upline has told you that once you sign up for ACN everything will become a tax "write-off". If all you're in it for is the tax breaks, why don't you register a business of your own for a tenth of the cost? Just because you'll get a few tax deductions doesn't mean you should spend $500. Legally you can only deduct expenses that were incurred as a result of the business. Therefore, the only way you are going to save money is by spending a lot more. The fact that tax deductions become available once you join ACN will only save you money if you plan to file a false tax return and deduct expenses that you already had prior to joining - not a good idea!
Look at what you give up! Can anyone name an industry that requires you to be hated by so many people (see comments below) and still has such a low success rate? Success shouldn't (and usually doesn't) require you to hurt your personal relationships.

The Perceived Premise of ACN: Push the Favor - Trade your Dignity for Income

Even panhandlers can make a little money by begging on the streets to a bunch of random people who they have never met. If you were to elaborate on this concept and take a group of beggers who were more socially acceptable than bums, then have them beg to people they actually knew - not just for money, but for "a Favor" - you're sure to see better results than the bums on the street. Even bums have documented success stories in which they have earned over $100,000 per year, yet none of us are running out to join that profession. As it turns out, the average (mean) panhandler makes over 400 times the annual salary of the ACN independent representative. Doesn't this seem a little strange?

Honestly, ACN is a beautiful idea: It seems to us they have taken the collective ability of 1 million people to beg and pester their friends/family for a favor, and turned it into an enormous business. We admit, the begging power of this many independent representatives is huge - and hugely profitable. The issue is that none of the beggers make enough money - all of the cash floats to the top. It would appear the vast majority of independent reps have traded a portion of their dignity just to make their upline some money.

The Saddest Part of the ACN Scam

There are 2 parts to this: Firstly, the majority of reps don't make money, and secondly, if you work hard enough at ACN you will indeed make money. This tricky situation allows ACN reps/recruiters to use terribly effective tactics to encourage their reps to keep on recruiting in order to make money. For example - say John tells Bob that all he has to do to be successful is keep on showing the business to more people and eventually he will be rich - the harder he works the more money he will make. Bob takes this recommendation to heart since he has been told the same thing most of his life - more work (hard or smart) equals more money. Bob shows the business to 300 people over the course of the year, 60 of them sign up, and 2 of them actually make their initial investment back. By this time Bob has earned a decent chunk of cash for himself along with some solid residual income. John was right - hard work actually paid off in ACN! Screw the haters, this is a legitimate business :) ... but what about the 58 people who signed up and lost money? Is hard work still a reasonable justification for profits when you have caused 58 people to part with their money by promising them great returns and delivering them nothing? Oh wait - but it's alright because you gave everyone fair warning that making money in this business means hard work and they new from the get-go what the odds were of making money. Ya.. maybe you did explain this, but 5 minutes after that talk you halled them off to a rah rah pep rally and subjected them to 3 hours of watching people who claim to be rich walk accross stage spouting how great ACN is. Don't these 2 actions (telling recruits that ACN is nearly impossible, then flashing riches and success stories in front of them..) seem a little contradictory? In any event, it would appear that anyone who actually "Made it" in ACN (through all that "hard work" promoted by the brain washed reps) only got there by screwing a sizable number of people out of their signup fee. ACN might make you rich if you work hard enough - but based on the data, it's going to require that you make a lot of other people poor.

Jim Rohn probably said it best: Service to Many Leads to Greatness. We want to achieve greatness at the service to many - ACN seems to seek greatness at the expense of many.

Our Recommendation

If you're about to spend $500 on ACN, at least think about your other alternatives and keep the statistics in mind. You can say with 99% confidence that you are more likely to make money putting the $500 into a savings account. But ACN, like all business ventures, is a risk - and the only way you make it big is by taking risks. We argue that there are better risks you can take. Think for a moment why you would say yes to ACN - probably not because of the odds, but because you know that you have all these people in your upline who are doing it already and are willing to help you. This is a highly emotional reason for starting a business, and you should probably put a little more emphasis on the facts.

Ask For Proof! Get some proof from your upline (at a level close to you, not proof from the top) that they are actually making money. A lot of independent reps pretend that ACN is making them rich, when really they are just as broke as everyone else. Be careful - find some proof that the people whose footsteps you're about to follow in are actually doing what they claim to be. Too much of your time, money, and reputation are about to be put on the line for you to just take their word for it. Good Luck!

Feedback

Leave us some comments below. We are open to and uncritical of what anybody has to say. Do you think what we have said is right? Do you have a contradiction to our arguments that shows ACN really is a good way to make money?

References:

Graser D. Panhandling for change in Canadian law. J Law Soc Policy 2000;15:45-91.
ACN Integrity - http://www.acnintegrity.com/nopyramidscheme.html
Stackhouse J. Seven days on the street [series]. Globe and Mail [Toronto] 1999 Dec 18,20,21.
ACN Income study - http://bindone.org/acn-income-study
MLM-TheTruth: Shocking MLM Stats - http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/ShockingMLMstats

Disclaimer

As always firstsearchblue.com makes no guarantee as to the authenticity of the facts, arguments, comments or statements presented in the articles/posts on the site. We have a collection of over 20 writers (plus many guest authors) and keeping track of exactly who writes what is not done. That said, the articles and posts of this website are taken largely from personal experience and are more often then not very trustworthy sources of information - whether you choose to trust them or not is entirely up to your own judgment.

[poll id="6"]

Check out our latest Post-Response to this Article: ACN Is Not a Scam

WordPress SEO | 10 Steps to The Top

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:00:28 GMT

This guide explains in very simple terms, and exception WordPress Search Engine Optimization strategy. Here's how a new website can push itself to the top of the search engine results in 10 simple steps that anyone can follow.

1. Your Page Layout

A lot of how you score depends on the sites that link to you, but as a new site, you're probably not ready for that. You can score a ton of points with the search engines by organizing your content in way that is easy for them to understand. Here are a few bullet points on how to set things up properly (don't worry if you are already setup, most of these recommendations will just be small modifications to your existing site.)

-Have only one h1 header on each page. This is the largest standard title size in html. A web page should have just one of these - more than one and the words in the headers become less valuable to a search engine. The words in your header should match the words that you think someone will type in on a search engine. For example, this site is just a bunch of how-to guides - there are a million sites just like it. But if you'll look at our post titles they're all trying to mimic what someone might type into a google search. the better your title the better the SEO.

-Meaningful Meta Data. Search engines don't value this information nearly as much as they used to, but it's still important to give this area some attention. Make sure you have a description meta tag that gives a good description of your site that includes relevant words or phrases that one might search - more often than not, this is the text that will end up below your link in a page of search engine results. Use the keywords meta tag to list a few short (comma separated) words/phrases about your site.

-Page and Post URLS that make sense.
If you have a page about search engine optimization, its address shouldn't be /page0664, for better display on search engines and to make it easier for a reader to return to that article it should be more like /guide-to-wordpress-search-engine-optimization.
If you are using WordPress, check out this guide to automatically have your post titles become the URL names: <a href = "/better-wordpress-urls">Better WordPress URLs</a>
If you are using another content management system like joomla, mamboor drupal, they'll have ways to automatically setup this feature.
If you are not using a content management system, just make sure to name your html and php files appropriately.

-Content. If you are trying to target a specific set of words/keywords that you think users will be typing into the search engine, make these words appropriately frequent and prominent on your site. Don't over-do it, just make sure to include these words or phrases a couple of times in each paragraph, and bold them occasionally where it is fitting. (Maybe we can include something about how to find out how many hits each keyword gets?)

-Stay consistent. Keep the keywords (that you think a user will be searching) top of mind while you put the site together. Make sure they appear in your meta data, headings and content. Do not over do it! If your site seems like a trap and not a place to find meaningful information, no search engine is going to list you.

2. Head over to websitegrader.com

Type in your URL and see what your score is - this site has a ton of tricks for improving the quality of your site. Check your score now and then check it again at the end of this guide, it will go up. When you've finished making your way through this guide, you should go through all of the items on this list and make sure you've adhered to as many as possible.

3. Submit to the Search Engines

Now, there is some debate as to weather you should submit your URL or you should let the search engines pick it up automatically. The majority of recent research (cit needed), though, suggests search engines do not assume you have less credibility if you submit your URL to them manually. If this was such a "no-no" to them, they probably wouldn't offer the service. Additionally, when you're first putting together a site, it is quite difficult to have any well established site link to you (assuming you are still in the process of adding content.) Without anybody linking to you, google will never find you. Once you have been picked up by google, it will be much easier for your "First Round" visitors to find you - these visitors will likely be your friends and family, and if they don't remember your exact URL, you can bet they'll turn to google to look it up. Once a search engine has indexed you, you can typically expect to be in the top 10 results when somebody searches for your near-exact URL title. For example, our URL is but when we started and had no incoming links, if you searched some variation of the words 'first', 'search' and 'blue' (in that order, but mixing up the spaces) you could find us in the top 3 search results.
Here are the links to submit your URL to the search engines:
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/
Bing: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
Ask.com: send them an email with your url and a site description to url@askjeeves.com
For a little more info, you can check out our guide on this: <a href="/submitting-your-site-to-the-search-engines">Submitting your Site to the Search Engines</a>
Or, if you have a WordPress site, you can set it up to automatically send updates to the search engines as you add posts/content - you can check out that guide here: <a href="/submit-your-wordpress-site-to-the-search-engines">Submit your WordPress site the the Search Engines</a>

4. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools

It's free and it's incredibly helpful for figuring out how to rank higher in the Google results. Often times your site is being dismissed by Google for reasons that are easy to fix (i.e. your sitemap file, your robots.txt file or the fact that by default, WordPress blocks the search engines from crawling the interior pages of your site)
Note: To make sure that Google can crawl your WordPress site, go to Settings -> Privacy and make sure the first option is checked (then hit save changes)
Once you have signed up, you will be asked to verify your site. There are two ways to do this, either by adding a Meta Tag or by Uploading a file to the root directory of your site. If you are using WordPress or some other content management system, you will find it easier to upload a file that to add a meta tag - so pick that option.
Once your site has been verified, you will be able to see whether or not google has crawled it yet. If they have, check out the Site Configuration -> Crawler Access section and make sure that you don't have any errors. If you have errors, feel free to post in the comments section of this page to get help.

One of the best features of Webmaster tools is the "Your Site on the Web" -> "Links to Your Site" This section shows you all sites that are linking to all of the pages within your site. Once you have some Page Rank you should examine who is linking to your highest page ranked sites and do whatever you can to get more links from them.

Another useful feature of Webmaster tools is being able to see how you rank in search results for given key words. If you notice that you are ranking high, but not getting much traffic, you should examine the "Title" of that web page and compare it to the titles of other search results on those keywords. If your site title isn't appealing, people are not going to click it, they'll opt for the yahoo answer or some forum result instead of seeing what your site has to say.

There are lots of other interesting areas within Google Webmaster tools that you should check out as well.

5. Get a Twitter Account for Your Site

The day after we signed up for our twitter account (http://twitter.com/firstsearchblue) it was the top hit for "firstsearchblue" in Google. It actually outranked our home page…
When you sign up for twitter, go into settings and set the More Info URL to your webpage - Your Twitter page will have a Google Page Rank (more about this later) of 8 right off the bat, so this incoming link should help you a little. (Your Twitter page will be a high value site in the eyes of a search engine's algorithm, this incoming link should help you get listed and better your site's search result placement.)
If you are using WordPress, you should go get the Tweetly Updater plugin and set it up so that every time you add a new post to your site, a link to the post will be published on your Twitter page. This plugin requires that you create an account with http://bit.ly - this allows Tweetly to create a shorter URL link to your post so that you don't use up your 140 character limit with a link.

6. Submit to dmoz and Technorati

dmoz is the open directory - it lists just about every worthwhile site on the web. Once you have a little content on your site, you should submit your URL to dmoz at www.dmoz.org - just navigate to the category/section that best describes your site, and click the suggest URL link in at the top of the page.
Make sure that you give your site a good description, this text often ends up as the text below your link in a page of search engine results.

Submit your blog to Technorati ASAP! This gets you a solid and legitimate incoming link to your homepage. Technorati also links to all of your posts, so make sure to get the sign up process started! It takes a few hours and a bit of back and fourth before you are finished the submission process, but it's well worth it

7. Understand Google Page Rank and Inbound Links

Google Page Rank is a score out of 10 that Google applies to websites - it basically translates to how likely that site is to appear at the top of a list of Google search results - the higher the better.
Inbound links refers to links that point to your site (usually/ideally on other peoples' sites)
For this step you should start by installing the google toolbar in your browser - it seems to work best in Firefox (just do a quick search of "install google toolbar" We all hate tool bars.. but this one is good.
When it asks you if you want the additional/advanced/extra features, say yes.
Now whenever you load a page, you can see it's Google Page Rank in that little green and white bar within the Google tool bar.
The higher this number (out of 10) the more Google likes the site, and the higher it is going to rank in the search engine results.
When considering what sites you would like to link to your site, you should go after ones that have a medium to high page rank. Obviously in the beginning this isn't going to be very easy - a site with a rank of 10 is not going to want to link to your site which probably has a rank of 0. So start small (maybe get someone with a rank of 2 or 3 to link to you) and work your way up.
One thing to consider with inbound links, is that they decrease in value with the number of total outgoing links that the site has. For example - You decide to post your link in a forum on a site that has a page rank of 6. Not bad! You have an inbound link from a well-ranked site. BUT on a site like a forum, there could be thousands of users doing the same thing as you, so this forum website might have 5000 outgoing links. Because there are so many, it makes the one link to your site less significant. Keep in mind that it is better to have someone link to you if they are not linking to a million other sites.

8. Get Some Inbound Links

There are many strategies to this. We recommend going about inbound links in this way:
1.Your own sites
Utilize the site you already have - This includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.ico.us and any other profile-type sites that you are a member of. This also includes other sites that you may have built in the past. Maybe your school/employer has a website where you can post profile-type information.
2. Forums and Comments
If you think the content on your site might be helpful or valuable to a certain group of people, join a forum where these people discuss things and post your link to let them know where they can find some info. You can also comment on blogs where similar topics are being discussed.
3.Your Friend's Sites
Talk to people you know that have websites. See if you can put some content on your site that would give them a reason to link to you. You could write an article about their site, or a product/service they offer.
4. Bigger Players
Once you have established some web-presence, use the "contact us" forms on other sites to see if they would be interested in linking to you. Perhaps you have some content that would be useful to people on their site. You can also offer to place a link to their site on yours in exchange.
5. Advertise
If you want, you can pay to advertise your link on other sites or search engines. Google Adwords is probably the most popular way of doing this.

9. Analytics

Analytics tell you who is coming to your site, how long they stay, where they come from, what they looked at and much more. If you are using a hosting service, it almost definitely has some Analytics software built in. Check out your control panel and look for a Statistics section.
WordPress has Google Analytics built in, if you click the Dashboard link from your WordPress back end, scroll down a bit and you will see a summary of your Analytics.
Whether you use a hosting service, have a WordPress site, or manage your hosting on your own server, it's a good idea to sign up for a Google Analytics account. It's free and the information will tell you a lot about how to optimize your site.
If you are using WordPress, you get a Google Analytics account and then install and connect the Google Analyticator plugin. You can also link your Google Analytics account to your Adsense account if you have one.

10. Write!

Get as much relevant content up onto your site as you can. This one applies for a few reasons.
1. First of all, when a search engine crawls and indexes your pages, it ads all of the text to its searchable database. That means every additional phrase/sentence (or even word) that you have on your site, is one more phrase that someone might type into their favorite search engine before getting directed to your site. By this logic, the more content you have, the more likely people will be driven to your site by a search engine.

2. Credible sites (especially WordPress or article/post based sites) have a substantial amount of content. Little scam or get-rich-quick type sites don't typically have 1 or 2 pages. The search engines know that the web is a sea of scams, be more like the credible sites and you will rank higher.

3. Bad at writing? There are companies and individuals that offer inexpensive editing services and cheap, high-quality article writing. We have a few good contacts/relationships with writers and editors, send us a quick message if you need some help with your editing or content generation <a mailto="info@firstsearchblue.com">info@firstsearchblue.com</a>

Need Some Help?

Shoot us a message at info@firstsearchblue.com - We'll give your site a once-over and send you a few tips for free. If you are interested in a full-scale SEO makeover we can help with that as well!

Advertising on Twitter

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:51:52 GMT

The Ads Are Coming

Twitter ads are scheduled to hit your screen later this afternoon. They call them "Promoted Tweets" and they answer the age old question of how twitter is going to leverage its massive user-base to to bring in cash.

Current advertisers scheduled to pop-up at launch include: Best Buy, Sony Pictures, Starbucks and Virgin America.

Don't you love the way promoted ads always show at the top of your Google and Bing results? Get ready to see the same strategy employed in your twitter searched: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on their blog recently that the promoted tweets will be shown in search results, similar to the sponsored search results in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Will you click them? or better yet, Will you advertise with them?

[poll id="4"]

Elecbrands Scam on Craigslist

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:50:03 GMT

Elecbrands Scam

Found something good on craigslist, but seems a little too cheap to be for real? We're sure it is. Elecbrands is a fairly new mass-craigslist spammer. You've probably run into them if you've ever tried to buy a cellphone online. They offer the newest phones at unrealistically low prices (usually in the area of $170 to $200 - for phones that are worth about $500)

Scams of this nature are usually obvious in that they have images of their site information within their craigslist post. They post the image instead of actually writing in their links because craigslist will automatically stop or delete your post if you make reference to a scam website (such as elecbrands.com) These scammers are getting around being deleted by placing the links to their sites in images (craigslist can't scan the text in the images - not easily anyway) If anyone has any personal experience in dealing with Elecbrands (or similar sites) post some comments below and let us know how things went.

Here is one user's response to their experience with elecbrands:

These places are scammers they just take your money and send you nothing. They say we can't send your money back cause there is nothing wrong with items besides the fact they never ship them I bought something over 1 month ago and they keep telling me they have no info.

Other Craigslist Scams

These sites seem to have followed suit, offering ultra-low prices for products they claim are coming from China and other Eastern countries.

Firm-Deals.com
Choicedealing.com
Shiningdeal.com
fairlyshop.com

Fairlyshop.com seems to be getting just as large as elecbrands on craigslist. Fairlyshop is the same thing, just a scam with no product ever shipped. Be careful!

BlackBerry to iPhone Instant Messaging | Kik Chat

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:06:32 GMT

The new way to chat between iPhone and Blackberry is Kik Chat. iPhone and Blackberry Messenger users can finally find some common ground with Kik Chat. Kik lets you chat blackberry to blackberry, iPhone to iPhone (basically iPhone BBM) and most importantly, Blackberry to iPhone all over your phone's data plan. Flawless instant messaging complete with Read reports (you get to see when the other person has read the message you sent - a feature all BBM users can't do without) Anyone used to using BBM should check out the Unavailable feature in Kik. You can read all your messages without the sender seeing that you have read them, BUT in order to send a message, you will have to return to available mode.

Unlimited Free SMS on BlackBerry

Right now you can get unlimited free SMS on BlackBerry though Kik chat!

Just open up Kik,
Go to settings
Click "SMS Credits (xxx left)"

You will instantly be topped back up to 150 SMS credits. Next time you are running low, just click the button again - unlimited SMS on blackberry! We're not sure how long this deal is going to last, but you might as well make the most of it for now.

Kik Chat Details:

INSTANT: Just start texting any mobile phone number in your phone's address book and we automatically get it through. You can forget about requesting or following your friends, or trying to figure out who is and isn't on Kik. Woohoo!
UNLIMITED FREE KIK-TO-KIK: Get unlimited, free texting to all Kik users! So send your friends a free Kik message telling them to join.

TWO WAY KIK-TO-NON-KIK: Stay connected to non-Kik users with 50 free outgoing SMS messages a month (unlimited free incoming). Additional outgoing messages are less than a cent. But hey, why not save the $0.009 by getting your friends to download Kik?
REAL NUMBERS = REAL RELIABILITY: Thanks to special arrangements with US and Canadian carriers, we send your Kik-to-Non-Kik messages through real mobile phone numbers. That guarantees fast delivery of every Kik-to-Non-Kik text. Nice! Most other services still rely on email to SMS gateways, which means your texts can take up to 8 hours to deliver. Sooo 2009.

BLACKBERRY AND IPHONE PEACEMAKER: We took the time to develop an awesome app for both BlackBerry AND iPhone. Now you can easily and reliably text your iPhone and BlackBerry friends for free.
NO LONG DISTANCE SMS CHARGES: Your friends who haven't yet joined Kik can reply without paying long distance SMS charges. How so? We automatically assign you a local texting phone number in each country we support (currently US and Canada).
FUNCTIONAL STATUS: Have time to read a message, but not respond? Don't worry, we won't rat you out. BBM users know why you'll love this feature. :)

Try our new KIK online application. You can access KIK from the web here

Beyond Chat
Kik Chat is cool, yes. But there's much more to come. Kik is all about sharing and connecting - starting today with your thoughts, and soon music, pictures and video. Chat is the foundation for the unfolding Kik community.
Speaking of music... we're on target for a Q2 launch of our mobile streaming service in the US and Canada. As we speak, we're fine-tuning the service and finalizing licensing. This will be a truly unique on-demand model that takes music sharing to a paid service. Exactly as promised.
We're also well underway with design and planning for video and picture sharing. And, of course, we've started building out the website, starting with chat (www.kik.com).

Top 25 Xbox 360 Games | Best Xbox Games as of April 2010

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:19:07 GMT

Looking to Buy some Xbox 360 Games? We recommend you pick from our list instead of hoping for a good game based on the box’s pictures.

This is, in our opinion, the list of the best Xbox 360 games ever made (as of April 7, 2010). No reading to the end to find the best one, just the list – in order:

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Fall Out 3
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
Final Fantasy XIII
Mass Effect
Gears of War 2
BioShock
Grand Theft Auto 5
Assassins Creed 2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dragon Age: origins
Borderlands
The Orange Box
Rock Band
Left 4 Dead
Dead Space
Fight Night Round 3
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Halo 3
Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Vegas
Guitar Hero
Dead Rising
Soulcalibur IV
Burnout Paradise
Forza Motor Sport 2

How to Avoid Paying Bank Fees

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:08:15 GMT

This is a guest post from our friends over at CashBlogged.com - a community for the money conscious, hoping to save and spend more efficiently, their team of financial professionals provide the ins and outs of Financial Institutions. Think of them as a tell-all for Banks, Lending Institutions, Credit Companies, and Investment Firms for the beginner spender to the advanced investor.

When was the last time you reviewed your bank statement? Did you notice all those extra dollars you ended up paying at the end of the month? Bank fees are a big reason why people don’t bank at the major financial institutions in Canada and instead choose no-fee accounts offered by ING and PC Financial. These big bank alternatives are great in a lot of situations, except when you need to actually speak to an expert or get a cheque certified. Bank fees at full service banks can be avoided by using the right tricks as well as some careful money management.

After reading this article you can expect to have all of the following bank fees waved:

Monthly Service Fee
Cheque Order (Especially because 90% of cheque orders are for 12 post-dated rent cheques)
Certified Cheques, Money Orders/Drafts
Statements, Account Confirmation Letters
Platinum, Gold and Travel Credit Card Annual Fees
Those nice little Safety Deposit Boxes Annual Fees

How do you get all those things free? Every major bank has a “platinum” chequing account that will give you all the above free – it typically carries a monthly fee of around $25 unless you keep a minimum balance of around $5000. If you can keep $5000 in a chequing account do it! Everything is now free and its a great place to save a portion of your emergency fund. What that $5000 is earning in a savings account vs. what you are paying in monthly service fees makes it worth it alone.

If you can’t afford to keep $5000 in you chequing account then you've got a little work to do, if you are a new customer to the bank you NEED to ask for this account for a 3 month trial period and take advantage of everything free, especially if you don’t plan on leaving $5000 in it. This means order a book of cheques ($30 value), sign up for a platinum visa ($120 value), and open a safety deposit box ($60-$150 value). The same goes for existing customers who receive a free trial period of a platinum account. Now lets say your trial period is up, and you can’t keep the minimum $5000 balance to waive the monthly fee, all you’ll need to do is have your account changed to a basic one and you’ll keep avoiding fees. And at least for a year a new platinum visa, safety deposit box and book of cheques – FREE!

Relationships are key in banking! Keep in touch with your advisors, even if they’re not. If you have an existing relationship with a financial advisor or bank teller they should be your primary point of contact in all banking matters. Managers I would avoid because they’ll ask to many questions. At the end of the day if you have a questions, ask! That’s what the bank branch is there for.

In banking you need to take a look at the big picture, something most people fail to do. The $6 dollars a month in interest you’re making in that “high-interest” Savings account the bank representative forced you to open (which by the way is illegal in Canadian banking) vs. the $8 a month you pay for a Chequing account is a prime example of a negative return on your money. Stepping back, taking a look at the big picture and looking into where your money is really going will put more money in your pocket and send you in the right direction towards financial freedom.

A good rule of thumb is that YOU SHOULD NEVER BE PAYING FOR UNNECESSARY BANKING FEES

TIP: Banks hate losing customers, and love new customers – use this to your advantage.

Broadcast Video on Chat Roulette | How To

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:16:33 GMT

Sometimes when you're browsing through chatroulette you notice some of your partner's camera feeds are of recorded video or picture. You can do this too on your mac using Camtwist and Soundflower. Setting up the video and audio channels Camtwist can be found here and Soundflower here. Install and launch both applications. Soundflower should populate up on your global toolbar as a small flower icon like so.Thats all we need to do with Soundflower. Go over to camtwist and under the step 1 heading, click on Movie to select it (1) then press the select button(2). Find the movie that you want to broadcast in your finder and drag it into your playlist(3). Finally click the play button to play it (4), at this point you will only hear sound. [caption id="attachment_557" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Click to Enlarge"][/caption]

Press cmd+, to go to preferences and click on "General". In the drop-down menu for the audio output device select "Soundflower(16ch)".

Setting Up Chatroulette

Visit the chatroulette website and, once the website has loaded up, move your cursor over your (bottom) cam window and a few options should pop up. For cam, select "CamTwist" and for Mic select "Soundflower(16ch)" and press allow on any flash security prompts. A CamTwist screen should appear on your (bottom) cam window. Click the Start button and you are now broadcasting your movie or image to the other chatrouletter.

If you don't see the CamTwist Icon appear on your cam window, try restarting the browser and configuring the chatroulette Cam and Mic options again.

Download Latest BlackBerry 8900 OS 5.0.0.509

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:38:36 GMT

As of March 16, the latest OS to be released for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is 5.0.0.509.

This is not a leaked version, this is an official 5.0 release. Currently the only carrier making it available for download (from the blackberry.com site) is Wind Hellas.

To Download the new OS (note, people have reported this sometimes fails in chrome and Firefox:

Go to the blackberry download site: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/#tab_tab_desktop
Click "Access your service provider download site"
Under Europe, Select Wind Hellas
Select BlackBerry Curve 8900 and download the software
Alternatively, you could try this rapidshare link: http://rs659.rapidshare.com/files/358651130/8900M_PBr5.0.0_rel860_PL5.2.0.47_A5.0.0.509_Wind_Hellas.exe
You can check out our guide on how to load a blackberry beta os if you need some help installing an os that's not from your carrier

Mess with Junkmail Senders!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:32:06 GMT

How to combat junk snail mail - take prepaid envelopes that come in junk mail, fill a box with bricks or dirty underwear (the heavier the better = $$ from junk mail sender) and tape the label to the box and mail it! When a sender attaches a prepaid envelope, this means that they have already fronted the cost of you sending in your subscription for air conditioner maintenance or useless magazine subscription, so send them a token of wasted resources back by sending them back a useless box of rocks!

Search Engine Guide | Using Internet Searches

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:05:48 GMT

Yeah, yeah google is the ultimate search engine that finds everything you need in one click, but have you explored other options that may actually find your answer faster?

1. www.wolframalpha.com - Take any sort of mathematical statement, or question, or even trends between two items such as stocks, seal population growth versus chickens, or anything in between, Wolfram Alpha is a great tool that can find answers fast! Need to find out if the CN Tower is taller than the Empire State Building? It will tell you Yes and by how much. Need to find a derivative? Plug in the equation and you've got it. It is the search engine for straight answers and everything else you need to know about it. - including the time the sun rose on your birthday. Check it out! [caption id="attachment_525" align="alignright" width="194" caption=" "][/caption] 2. Google Image Search - Okay, so this is part of Google, but do you know of all the sub-searches available for images? Say you want to find a picture of an apple, but may be you want a blue apple for some strange reason. Choose search options, colour, and boom! Blue apple. - Image search also has various other search specific fields such as a clipart versus a photo for that slideshow you've been working on or even a facial recognition search. 3. www.skreemr.com - Skreemr is possibly the largest audio search engine offering over 6 million links to DRM free music. Skreemr allows you to listen to music right away in podcast style making it much easier than going out and buying music, downloading off P2P networks, or trying to find official youtube videos without getting Rick Roll'd.

Lose Weight FAST with Ephedrine and Caffeine | ECA stack

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:35:49 GMT

First of all, I am not a medical professional and the information below is for entertainment purposes only. It requires you to take ephedrine and caffeine for at least 2 weeks ramping up the dosage. These ingredients were the backbone for the original hydroxycut formulas, the ones that actually worked...

What is it?

Ephedrine and Caffiene act in synergy to supercharge your metabolism, burning more calories at any given time in any given state of exertion. This means that you can carry on your regular routine, consuming the same number of calories and still lose some weight. That said, combining the "stack" with a reduced calorie/carb diet will lead to a much more remarkable results. This isn't too hard to do while your taking these compounds because they are pretty powerful appetite suppressants. You should be careful to make sure your eating lots of small, protein rich snacks and meals throughout the day so that you don't waste away too much solid muscle mass or become malnourished. Traditionally, the combination contains asprin to help reduce blood pressure (hence the A in ECA) but usage of the drug for extended periods of time has recently been linked to stomach ulcers so we recommend against using it. If you're very concerned about your blood pressure, taking half a tab (162.5 mgs) per day probably won't put you at too much risk.

Where do you get it?

In Canada you can get the two ingredients at any Popeye's supplement store or online at livepurehealth.com, which is by far the cheapest option. Ephedrine almost always comes in 8mg tablet and Caffiene usually 200mgs, sometimes 100mgs.

How do I use it?

Ephedrine is a pretty powerful stimulant so when combined with caffeine it can lead to anxiety and "jitters." In order to curb these side effects we work up to the most effective dose of 25mg of ephedrine and 200mgs of caffeine 3 times a day. Do not exceed 6 weeks of use without at least a 12 week break.

Important Notes

Don't take this if you are younger than 18 years of age.
Do not use EC with SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOI or any other anti-depressants.
Do not use EC if you have any sort of heart condition WHATSOEVER, seriously!
If you're having trouble sleeping, reduce to only 2 dosages of the stack so 24mgs of ephedrine and 200mgs caffiene twice a day. This is still effective for fatloss and appetite supression.
The stimulating effects will wear off after about the 14th day but don't worry the positive impacts on your metabolism are still there.
Never go over the recomended doseage!

The Best Strategy for Chat Roulette | Chatroulette Game Plan

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:30:46 GMT

This article explains the best strategy to run game on chat roulette. As we all know, the goal of chat roulette is to find a girl and get her to NOT click Next within the first 2 seconds. Here are the 3 stages to the perfect chatroulette wooing.

The Hook: First of all, you need to get the viewer somewhat hooked. We recommend having a girl within the frame of your webcam. If you don't have a girl handy, we recommend going to a library, a starbucks, or another public location where wireless internet is available. Sit down next to a female, and make sure she is centered in your video feed. It works best if you are as far out of the frame as possible (without looking like a total creep.) We're not exactly sure why this works, but having a girl in the frame ensures that the average length of your chatroulette chat will be at least 12 times longer. Alternatively, you can get the person on the other side of the chat (the stranger) hooked just by NOT being a freak. If you've ever tried chatroulette, you'll notice that 94% of chatters are guys, 60% are freaks, and 17% are naked losers jerking off in front of their webcams. (on a side note... what do you think these guys are trying to do? Most of them are in bed, so it's pretty safe to assume that chatroulette has become their new alternative to a free porn site... but finding a girl willing to watch them masturbate is about a 1 in 10 million chance (and since there are only 27,000 chat roulette users at any given time... they will definitely never find anyone..) Lastly you might get someone hooked by wearing a cute or unusual hat, or holding up a funny sign.
The Transition: Once you have your "stranger" hooked, the next step is to make them believe that you are interested (but not overly interested - remember the freak ratio...) in them. For this step we recommend finding something interesting about what you see in their video feed, and making a polite comment about it. For example, if you see a musical instrument in the frame, encourage the stranger to play something for you. If you do not see a musical instrument, you could comment on an article of clothing. It will be so refreshing for the stranger to hear a clothing-related comment that doesn't include the phrase "take it off" that they will be inspired to reamain in the chat for (on average) another 1.4 minutes (pretty huge in the world of chatroulette.) Another favorite stranger-hooking-method is to introduce a pet to the conversation (preferably a cute puppy, but honestly, any run of the mill sewer rat will do.) Studies have shown that pet introduction increases the length of a chatroulette chat by about 1.8 minutes. The last method of hooking a chatroulette stranger (and we mean THE VERY LAST RESORT) is to claim that you have a terminal illness that is likely to kill you in the next 5-12 minutes. Conversation seems to flow naturally from a statement like this. If things go well, and you eventually have to tell the truth, we recommend telling them you were in love and did not know what to do, or just hitting the next button. REMEMBER: Never resort to indecent exposure. Based on the stats: if someone were looking for a dude jerking off, they would have found it on their 4th chat..
The Close: Now that you've established a relationship with the stranger, feel free to whip-er-out, knowing with confidence that this stranger ain't goin nowhere. Not actually.. but give yourself a little pat on the back for being better than 98% of the chatroulette clientele and click the good ol' next button.

If this doesn't work for you, you can always broadcast some obnoxious picture/video to your webcam using our guide: Broadcast Video on Chat Roulette | Play Video on Chatroulette with Mac

Change Twitter Widget Pro Title Text Color

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:04:58 GMT

This guide explains how to change the color of the title font on the Twitter Widget Pro WordPress Plugin. By default the plugin just uses the same text color as all the other titles on your site (and usually that looks bad against the blue twitter background.)

We recommend you change th font color to white. Here is how you do it:

Go to the backend of your WordPress site
Click on Plugins link (on the left side of the page)
Locate Twitter Widget Pro and click Edit
Find this line: $args['title'] = "Twitter: {$args['username']}";
Change that line to: $args['title'] = "<font color='white'> Twitter: {$args['username']} </font>";
- Or get a little creative and add some text like: $args['title'] = "<font color='white'> Check out our FirstsearchBlue Twitter Feed</font>";
Save your changes

That's it! It's a bit of a quick and dirty work around.. You could edit the CSS if you wanted to, but who wants to get into that...

The Best Way to Buy PS3 Games

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:49:08 GMT

This guide explains the best and cheapest way to purchase PlayStation 3 games.

We've reached a time where there are only 2 possible reasons to purchase a new video game. The first is if you absolutely have to have it the day it comes out. The second is the rare situation when you can find a new (sealed) copy of the game for the same price (or less) as a high-quality used copy. Other than that, you should always buy high-quality used games.

This list explains the best ways to get your hands on the PS3 games you need. If you need help coming up with a list of games to buy, check out our post on the Top 25 PS3 Games.

Half.com If you live in the US, head over to half.com and check out their PS3 section. This is where you will often find the lowest prices on used PlayStation 3 games.
eBay If you live outside of the US (like us) start with eBay. They also often have to lowest used game prices. Make sure to purchase from a user or an online store that has good credibility (lots of satisfied customers). You can often find brand new, sealed games for under $25 (including shipping) from countries like Hong Kong and China.
EB Games Check out your local EB Games store. They typically have a huge selection of used games and they will guarantee that they work just fine. You can also trade in the games you are bored of, for some pretty serious discounts on your next purchase.
Craigslist You will often find people trying to unload a large number of games for a serious discount.

Post in the comments if you know of any other ways to purchase high quality used PlayStation 3 games.

Top 25 PS3 Games | Best PS3 Games as of April 2010

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:48:10 GMT

Looking to Buy some PS3 Games? We recommend you pick from our list instead of hoping for a good game based on the box's pictures.

This is, in our opinion, the list of the best PlayStation 3 games ever made (as of April 7, 2010). No reading to the end to find the best one, just the list - in order. Once you've picked a few, check out our guide on The Cheapest Way to Buy PS3 Games.

Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots
Uncharted 2 - Among Thieves
Resistance 2
BioShock
Assassin's Creed 2
KillZone 2
Resident Evil 5
Batman - Arkham Asylum
Grand Theft Auto 4
Fallout 3
Little Big Planet
Dragon Age - Origins
Street Fighter IV
God of War III
Gran Turismo 5 - Prologue (the full version will be here soon - we'd recommend waiting)
Borderlands
The Orange Box (Half Life 2 + Episode 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal)
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Ratchet & Clank Future - A Crack in Time
Tekken 6
inFamous
Guitar Hero
Rock Band
The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion

Add A Facebook Connect Comments Box to Your WordPress Site | Facebook Comments into Arthemia

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:01:08 GMT

This guide explains how to insert a FaceBook comments section onto your WordPress Site. The guide puts a little more emphasis on users of the Arthemia theme, but also explains things for the general WordPress user.

Get your Facebook Connect API Key

Head over to http://facebook.com/developers
Click the Set Up New Application button
Type in a name (maybe YOURSITE-comments), check off Agree, and hit Create Application
Copy the API Key to somewhere you can remember it (we will need to use it later)
On the Basic setup screen that it takes you to, scroll to the bottom of the page, set the Help URL, Privacy URL and Terms of Service URl all to the homepage of your website. Save your changes.
Select the Canvas link in the top left and set the Canvas Callback URL to your site's homepage, but MAKE SURE to put a / at the end of the URL (i.e. /) Save your changes.
Select the Connect link in the top left and set the Connect URL to your site's homepage AGAIN MAKE SURE to put a / at the end (i.e. /) Save your changes.
Click the Widgets link in the top left and (if you wish) set Allow Anonymous Comments to No (this will force users to be logged into their Facebook accounts before they can post comments) Save your changes.

Setting Things up on Your Site

Download this cross-domain receiver file (right click -> save target as) and upload it to your website (just use an ftp client to drop this file into a know location on your webserver - you must be able to access this file from the web).
We recommend that you just upload this file to the main folder of your site, so that you can access it from http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/xd_receiver.htm
Go into your WordPress backend/dashboard
- Select Appearance (on the left side)
- Select Editor
- Select Header (on the right side)
- near the top you should see a line that begins: <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" or something quite similar. Right after the xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" part, paste in the following bit of code: xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"
- That line should now look something like this: <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml" .... (there will probably be a bunch more code here)
- There is one more thing we need to add to this Header file, scroll down to the line that reads: </head>
- On the line just above this, paste the following block of code: <script src="http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php"
- type="text/javascript"></script>
- <script type="text/javascript">
- FB.init("YOUR API KEY", "http://YOURSITENAME.COM/xd_receiver.htm");
- </script>
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit Update File
- Your site now supports Facebook comments, now you just have to tell it where you want the comments box to go
- Select the Comments link on the right (comments.php)
- Scroll down and near the bottom find the line that begins: <p>You can use these tags
- Immediately under that line, paste the following bit of code: <fb:comments></fb:comments>
  - Note: Wherever you paste that bit of code on your site, a comments box will show up
- Scroll to the bottom and hit Update File

You should now have a Facebook Comments box at the bottom of all of your posts

Here is an example of what your Header and Comments files should look like if you are using Arthethia (if you are using a different theme, things should still be fairly similar)

Header:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>

<?php wp_head(); ?>

<script src=

"http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php"

type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

FB.init("YOUR_API_KEY", "http://YOURSITE.COM/xd_receiver.htm");

</script>

</head>

<body>

...

Comments:

...

<?php endif; ?>

<p>You can use these tags:<br/><code><?php echo allowed_tags(); ?></code></p>

<fb:comments></fb:comments>

</p>

<?php do_action('comment_form', $post->ID); ?>

</form>

<?php endif; // If registration required and not logged in ?>

<?php endif; ?>

Precisions Resistors Find precisions resistors and other products for your OEM business that meet all RoHS guidelines.

Printed Circuit Boards
We specialize in manufacturing Quickturn Printed Circuit Boards for businesses looking for high quality boards at competitive prices.

CGI Scripts on JustHost Hosting | Make Them Work

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:09:38 GMT

This guide explains how to get CGI scripts working with your JustHost hosting account.

Getting Your Script Working

You'd think they would just work off right away.. but there are a few things you have to do:

Make sure that your script begins with the line: #!/usr/bin/perl -w
Then enter any of the use statements that your script relies on
Under the use statements enter the following line: print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
Under that line you enter the main part of your script.
Upload your script to the cgi-bin directory of your web server.
Change the permissions on the script to 755. This is VERY important, JustHost servers require the permissions of CGI files to be set to 755. You can set this from any ftp client, or form inside the File Manager section of your JustHost cPanel.
That's it! Your script should now run if you point your browser to the address (probably http://YOURDOMAIN.com/cgi-bin/YOURSCRIPT.cgi)

Some Additional Notes
You can install perl modules from inside cPanel (in the Perl Modules section.) To make sure that your script picks up all of these installed modules, you must add the following chunk of code immediately under the first line of your script:

BEGIN {

my $base_module_dir = (-d '/home/YOURUSERNAME/perl' ? '/home/YOURUSERNAME/perl' : ( getpwuid(mce_markergt;) )[7] . '/perl/');

unshift @INC, map { $base_module_dir . $_ } @INC;

}

Note that YOURUSERNAME must be changed to the username that you login to your JustHost cPanel with.

A Sample CGI Script That Runs on JustHost Hosting

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

BEGIN {

my $base_module_dir = (-d '/home/USERNAME77/perl' ? '/home/USERNAME77/perl' : ( getpwuid($>) )[7] . '/perl/');

unshift @INC, map { $base_module_dir . $_ } @INC;

}

use strict;

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

print "This script is working!";

Make sure that after you upload the file to your hosting space you set the permission to 755!

How to Buy a Laptop

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:12:46 GMT

This article explains the best way to go about purchasing a new laptop.

Netbook or Notebook?

First of all, I'm sure the possibility of buying a netbook has crossed your mind. We strongly recommend against it. There was a time that netbooks were so much cheaper than larger laptops that it was worth putting up with all their issues. This no longer applies - full sized laptops are now priced at a level that makes them a better solution than a netback no matter what your budget is. I'm sure a quick google search of "why netbooks suck" will be enough to talk you out of this useless laptop alternative.

Size

You are buying a laptop because it is a portable computer. If you really only see yourself using it at a desk, then buy a desktop. You pay a huge premium for the portability of a laptop. On average, if you were to spend the same amount of money on a desktop, the computer you could afford would be 3 times as fast (or 3 times better) than a similarly priced laptop.

Maybe you think that you want a portable computer, but you will still be using it at a desk quite often. If this is the case, you might be tempted to get a laptop with a very large screen (in the range of 15" to 17".) People who buy 17" laptops are invariably disappointed. A bigger screen almost always means a heavier, noisier, hotter computer. A 15.4" screen is as large a laptop as you would ever want. We recommend smaller: Either 13.3", 14" or 12". These are the three best sizes of laptop. If you end up using your laptop at a desk most of the time, you should go buy an external monitor.

NOTE: In most cases a larger screen DOES NOT mean you can see more - how much you can see on your screen is limited by the screen's pixels or resolution and most manufacturers use the same resolution in all of their screen sizes (typically 1280x800.) A larger screen offers fewer benefits than you might expect.

Price

There are basically 2 schools of thought on how much you should pay for a laptop. You can either buy a cheap one and replace it in exactly 2 years, or buy an expensive one and keep it for 4 years. When the laptop performance was shooting up every month, it was a better idea to stick to cheap ones and replace them often. Today however (and for the past year or so) laptop performance as been comparatively stagnant. Most of the time, the big factor in replacing your laptop is the release of a new version of Windows that would run too slowly on your old computer. For the first time in Microsoft history they released a version of windows that was less physically demanding on your computer than their last release. Windows 7 runs better on almost all computers than Windows Vista. This demonstrates that it is no longer that important to constantly upgrade the performance (RAM, CPU, Videocard) or your laptop. We recommend purchasing more expensive laptop and keeping it for a longer period of time. That said, if you do not need a top of the line machine, go with a cheaper one - there is no rule that says you HAVE to replace it in 2 years.

Options

If you want an expensive laptop go with one of the following: Macbook Pro, Lenovo Thinkpad T400, Lenovo Thinkpad X200, Dell Studio XPS, Dell Latitude.

If you want a cheaper laptop, go with one of these: HP Pavilion, Acer Aspire, Dell Inspiron, Gateway.

Hope that helps! Feel free to post comments or questions about your laptop purchasing experience.

Maximize Your Student Loan

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:12:48 GMT

This article explains both how to maximize the amount of money you get for your student loan as well as the best way to deal with any cash you receive that you might not need for your tuition or living expenses. It also explains the rules around when you are required to list your parents' financial details on your loan application.

Most student loans (or school loans) do not have to be paid back until at least 6 months after a student graduates. Additionally, student loans typically accrue no interest until 6 months after graduation. in Ontario, the OSAP loan works in this way.

In years 1 through 3 of university or college, a student must input their parents' financial information when filling out a loan application. For many students, this singly annoying fact is enough to deter them from applying. Once a student reaches their fourth year of study however, they are no longer required to give any information about their parents' financial situation. This is where you have the most control over maximizing your student loan. Every student in their fourth year of a University or College program should absolutely apply for a student loan. Even if you do not require the money, you should take it and invest it in some form of guaranteed investment instrument (such as a high interest savings account, government savings bonds or GICs.) Once you reach your fourth year of study, you have about 14 months before you have to start paying the money back, so investing in riskier securities (such as stocks or options) is not recommended.

In order to get the most money possible for your student loan, you basically just have to make yourself look as poor as possible. There are 2 aspects to your financial status - how much money you've earned or plan to earn and how much money you have saved/invested. Obviously if you have $25,000 in your investment account, the government will feel no need to give you an interest free loan - you can clearly pay for school out of your own pocket. If you are in a situation where your current savings or investments make it look like you do not need financial assistance, find a way to change that! There are a few ways you could do this (make sure not to break the law!) First of all, you could just go and spend all your savings - probably not the best plan, but it would definitely increase the amount of loan money you would be eligible for. You could also temporarily loan/donate the money to someone else (be careful that you approach this in a legal way.) You could open a foreign account and temporarily transfer the money into it. You could move the money into a Registered Savings Plan (less emphasis is given to money in registered instruments when the government makes their loan calculations.) In order to maximize your loan amount you also have to make it appear that you are not making too much money. There are two aspects to this: the amount of money you earned in the period prior to the school term you are about to enter and the amount of money you are going to make during your study time. There isn't ouch you can do about the amount of money you made last year, but you can definitely optimize the amount you plan to make. It's pretty simple, do not plan to make any money during your study term until after you have completed you loan application and received your loan money.

These ware the most basic of methods for getting the most cash out of your student loan. Keep in mind that the money has to be paid back eventually, so don't go too crazy. But let's be serious, this is interest-free money - you should get as much as you possibly can.

A Better Quest Schedule/Calendar | Print and Save Universtiy of Waterloo Calendar

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:27:36 GMT

This guide explains how you can save your University of Waterloo Quest Calendar to a file (html, or Excel)

Quest sucks, and the worst part has to be the calendar. First of all, why does it take 12 clicks to find it? (it's under enroll if you were wondering... ya, because my CURRENT courses should be listed under enroll... obviously..) What's even worse is how impossible it is to save the calendar - you can't... even if you save the html page it doesn't come out right. You also cannot print it properly.

The geniuses over at Fix This Face have come up with an awesome system that lets you view, save and print your calendar in a simple and user-friendly way. You can view it right on the page and print it to a perfectly sized file, or you can save your quest calendar to an Excel file.

Just login and in 25 seconds, you have your calendar ready to go. It only takes 25 seconds the first time, once you've logged in once, your calendar will be saved to the system and can be accessed instantly at any time.

Check it out: UW Calendar Fix

How To Secure Your Facebook Privacy

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:29:00 GMT

By Nataliya Schafer

Facebook has changed its privacy policies several times since the site first launched in September 2006, leaving many of its users confused over its latest privacy policy adjustment.

In December 2009 the website changed its security policy for a third time, suddenly making information that could be censored from certain people (such as relationship status and sexual orientation) in to publicly accessible information unless settings were manually readjusted.

According to Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg "people [nowadays] are more open to sharing information," and their tweaked privacy settings now reflect this 'social norm'.

Even if you frequently monitor your security settings, you may be missing some newly changed settings that can be easily readjusted.

Allfacebook.com , makeuseof.com, and spylogic.net all have excellent guides on how to ensure you aren't sharing more with your relatives or boss than you want to.

How To Prevent A Hangover

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:15:39 GMT

By Nataliya Schafer

So you had a few too many last night. It happens to the best of us, but unfortunately you’ll probably be paying for it this morning.

While extra strength Tylenol and coffee are the most popular remedies there are lots of more effective preventative measurements to help you lick your hangover before you get it.

Hydration, hydration, hydration. Never underestimate the power of a good glass of water. Alcohol dehydrates the body and causes a loss of electrolytes which contributes significantly to a hangover. The regular recommended daily dose of water is 4-6 cups a day, but if you know you will be drinking it’s best to drink as much as you can (especially if you work out before a night of partying). A good rule is to have one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you have. If water is too plain for you mix it up with some Gatorade or fresh fruit smoothies and you'll still get all the right nutrients.

Eat the right stuff.

Some believe that milk, milk thistle vitamins and/or yogurt will coat the lining of your stomach and prevent the alcohol from being absorbed too quickly and reduce your chance of getting sick.
Bananas are high in potassium (yet another vitamin depleted by alcohol), and can be eaten to prevent or cure a hangover, along with avocados.
Sweets and high glucose foods like white bread, marshmallow squares and candy will boost your blood sugar levels and help minimize ‘the shakes’.
Fatty foods will also line the stomach and prolong the absorption of alcohol, reducing your changes of a pounding hangover the next day. An old Mediterranean folk tactic is to take a spoonful of olive oil before drinking, but if that isn’t for you a Big Mac should do nicely.

Eat before and while drinking to compensate for vitamins and chemicals being depleted from the alcohol. Multivitamins can be taken in advance if food will not be available later.

Drink the right stuff. Congeners are toxins produced in the process of fermentation, and a general rule to avoid their wrath is ‘the darker the liquor, tomorrow feel sicker’. Clear liquors like vodka, tequila patron and gin contain fewer congeners than darker drinks like wine (especially cheap, sweet brands), beer, whiskey and bourbon. Sugary mixed drinks like piña coladas only add insult to injury so avoid them at all costs, and stick to one kind of drink throughout the night.

Pace yourself and know your body. Girls, keeping up with the boys is not necessarily a good thing. Men and women metabolize alcohol at different rates due to muscle mass, body size, weight and body water levels. Women have lower body water levels, which means they achieve higher blood alcohol levels faster than their similarly proportioned male friends.

Don’t smoke. As if there weren’t enough reasons to knock off the nicotine here’s one more: smoking restricts oxygen flow to the brain, and tobacco ingestion can enhance the headache, dizziness, gastrointestinal discomfort and sleep disturbance that go hand in hand with hangovers.

What to do in Waterloo | Waterloo to host exciting event in the mathematical sciences this summer

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:52:06 GMT

The majority of this site’s contributers are from the Kitchener/Waterloo area or go to school at the university of waterloo. While putting fingers to keys in our luxurious office (the Waterloo tech library) we overheard some exciting news, the University of Waterloo is hosting the Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference this summer.

It’s a week long annual conference that has been running for 17 years and it hasn’t been hosted at Waterloo since 1996. This time around, it should be twenty times as good with some extremely well decorated keynote speakers and 170 attendees.
I know exactly what you’re thinking: Its math… That’s what we (with the exception of the CSers and Mathies amongst us) thought too until we heard about the format of the conference and who the keynote speakers are. The way it works is students attending the conference are invited to give talks about any subject pertaining to math: pure mathematics, theoretical physics, computer science, economics, whatever you’re into. Student lectures done in a non-competitive and supportive environment with no Profs or pros to show you up. Not only is it great experience, but also it will look outstanding on a resume.

The student talks will be held throughout the day with breaks for the keynote speeches. This years speakers are the primary cause for our excitement, with big names from the math, finance and computer science worlds giving talks. Most notably, Waterloo CUMC has flown in Frank Morgan, the vice-president of the American math Society, to talk about the physical-geometric theory of soap bubbles. Phelim Boyle, the inventor on Monte Carlo methods in option pricing, will also be delivering a speech that should not be missed by any ECON or AFM student. The full list of speakers can be found here here on the CUMC website.

Talking to the conference organizer, I asked him what his favorite part of the event is:

“its really refreshing to meet a bunch of enthusiastic people you’re age when you’re into math. Its weird when you’re into math, and you spend a lot of time and energy on it, thinking that maybe there is no one else in the world, just you and your textbooks who find mathematics interesting. Last year when I showed up I was blown away by all the friendly down to earth people who found the subject as interesting as I do.”

At $90 registration, the whole thing is relatively cheap. A tip to any undergrads that want to go but are afraid the cost of travel/stay/ticket price is outside of their means -talk to you’re university or college’s math department. You might be able to get them to sponsor you. If you would like to attend, lecture or sponsor this kick-ass event visit the CUMC’10 website at http://cumc.math.ca/2010/en/ or contact them at cumc.2010@gmail.com

Buy Cheap Textbooks

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:48:02 GMT

For almost all of your 100 and 200 level courses, and some of your 300s and 400s, you can probably find the international copy of your textbook on eBay. These versions of the textbook are paperback, intended for resale in developing economies and, for that reason, are usually about a quarter of the price of their University store hardcover equivalent. Simply search for only the ISBN in eBay and look for the result that says "international copy" in the description. Make sure that the seller has a decent rating before placing an order.

Add Description Meta Tags to WordPress

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:25:58 GMT

This guide explains how to add description meta tags to your posts and pages in WordPress

Head into the backend/dashboard of your WordPress site
Go to the posts section
Click on post that you want to add a description to
Go down to the Custom Fields section
Add a new custom field called: description
Enter the text for your WorPress description meta tag into the Value field
Hit Update or Publish in the top right, and you're finished!

FLAC Audio Files To MP3 for iTunes on Mac

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:08:01 GMT

Although Flac gives you a far superior sound quality, the files are large and impossible to transfer to most big market mp3 players. In order to get these cumbersome files into itunes on your mac we need to get a piece of open source software called Max which you can get here .
Decompress and open the application.
First we need to pick the format that we would like our flac files to be converted into. Along the top select Max>Preferences or simply press command+, to open preferences. In preferences select format, this is where we select what we would like to convert our .flac files into. Click on the MP3 option in the "Available output formats" list and then press the plus button to the left above the list as shown here:

Max will drop down a set of quality options, I advise selecting best to retain as much audio quality as we can when we convert to MP3. Set the Encode Quality to best and select "OK" to continue. Now that we're back to the Formats menu, click the check box to the left of MP3 in the "Configured output formats" and close the window.

From the File menu, select "Convert Files..." or press command+shift+O. This will bring up the file conversion screen. Find the files that you want to convert on your hardrive and select Open. You can change the meta data of the music; the album, artist, genre, ect that will show up in itunes along with the song, by clicking "Metadata."

Select the convert button in the top left corner of that screen to start converting your FLAC files into MP3. Max will automatically add the files to your iTunes library to be put on your ipod.

WordPress on BlackBerry | Edit WordPress from Blackberry

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:01:14 GMT

This guide explains how to edit your WordPress site from your Blakberry smartphone.

First of all, you have to enable XML-RPC on your WordPress site
- To do this, go into your backend and select Settings -> Writing
- Make sure that XML-RPC is checked off under the Remote Publishing heading and save the settings as below:

Now you have to install WordPress 1.0 on your BlackBerry
- Open up App World on your BlackBerry
- Search WordPress
- Download and Install WorPress 1.0 The first time you fun the app you will be will have to set the permissions of the app and grant it trusted status

Now Simply add your blog using your URL

Fill in your Username andPpassword
You can select to have WordPress on BlackBerry automatically resize your images so that you can transfer them more quickly - and avoid using up your monthly data.

Once you've logged in it's very straightforward to add/edit/delete posts pages and comments

Add a Disclaimer to Arthemia WordPress Theme

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:15:37 GMT

This guide explains how to add a disclaimer to the bottom of your Arthemia themes WordPress site.

Head into the backend of your WordPress site
Select Appearance -> Editor
Select Footer (footer.php) from the menu on the right
Find the following line of code:
-
Paste your disclaimer directly below this line. You might want to put in a line break (<br>) just before your disclaimer so that it begins on a new line. You may also want to enclose your disclaimer in <strong></strong> tags so that it stands out more.

Here is an example of the bottom of the footer.php code from the FirstsearchBlue website:

<br><strong>Disclaimer: All Guide's, How-To's, Recommendations and anything on this site that may be deemed as advice, is taken at the user's own risk. <a href ="">firstsearchblue.com</a> will not be held responsible for any unwanted events that result from following the information within any of our pages, posts or sites.</strong> </div> </body> </html>

How to Add a UNIX User to a Group

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:42:28 GMT

If we take the user julian, and we want to add the user to a prexisting supplemental group, apache, then you can use the following command:

usermod -a -G apache julian

[ad#Google Adsense]

If you would like to change the primary group of user julian to the group prexisting group, apache, you can use the following command:

usermod -g apache julian

Add Mailing List to WordPress

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:34:26 GMT

This guide explains how to add a mailing list to WordPress and let users subscribe to the mailing list on your WordPress site.

First of all, a mailing list needs a backend, so any time you want to set one up, it's going to be a two-step process, but don't worry! It's easy.

The first thing we have to do is install the mailing list software. For this we are going to use PHPlist - it's the best and it's very easy to use.

If you use a hosting service that offers Fantastico to install applications (which pretty much all of them do):

Head into Fantastico
Select PHPlist on the left side (under Mailing Lists)
Create a new installation in a /lists/ folder on your site
Set the admin username and password and the email address you would like to use for the mailing list
You can skip the section immediately below this one

If you do not use a web hosting service, just download the latest version of PHPlist from their website and extract and upload it to the public_html/lists/ section of your web server.

Now we have to setup the list:

Go to the URL where you installed PHPlist (probably http://YOURSITE.com/lists/)
Go to the mainpage
Select setup
Go to initialize database - if you see any errors, you'll have to login to phpmyadmin (try http://YOURSITE/phpMyAdmin or, click the phpMyAdmin link from the backend of your web hosting service, usually pretty close to where you clicked Fantastico)
- Click the SQL tab at the top
- Paste in the following line and hit Go (make sure to change the database name to the one that you are using, i.e. mysite77_plst1)
- ALTER DATABASE firsts77_plst1 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1
- If you got the message "Your SQL query has been executed successfully" then you are good to go, if not, you probably didn't change the database name to your own.
- Exit phpMyAdmin and go back to setting up your PHPlist

Go back to the mainpage -> setup
Go to configure attributes
Add 2 new attributes: Name and Email
Go back to the setup and create list
Go back to the setup and create a new subscribe page (just change the Title for now, everything else can stay the same)
NOTE:: In the Configure section there are a lot of options that you probably want to play around with - you don't have to do that now, everything will work without customizing those items, but you probably want to come back to this area later to set things up the way you want them (i.e. change the "What name do system messages appear to come from" field

You're finished setting up your PHPlist - now we just have to add a section on your WordPress site for users to subscribe to the mailing list

Head into the backend/dashboard section of your WordPress site

Go to the plugins section and hit Add New
Install the WP PHPList plugin and activate it
Go to the Settings section and select PHPlist
Fill in your information (make sure the Name and Email fields are checked off at the bottom)
Hit Update Options (top and bottom)

Now you need to add a new page to your WordPress site called Subscribe

Go to Pages -> Add New
Set the title to Subscribe
Hit the HTML button to add some code and past the following line:
-
Hit the Update Button and go check out your Subscribe Page

When you want to edit/manage/mail-to your list, go back into the area where we setup PHPlist (http://YOURSITE.com/lists)

To mage the users list, hit users (in the menu on the right)
To send a message, click send a message (in the menu on the right)

Feel free to ask any questions or post any problem, we reply very quickly.

Submit Your WordPress Site to the Search Engines

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:04:34 GMT

This guides explains the best way to keep your site (and all its pages) up to date with three major search engines: Google, Bing and Ask

Initially, you should submit your main URL to the search engines manually, you can do that here: Submitting Your Site to the Search Engines

Once you have submitted, go and download the Google XML Sitemap plugin

In your WordPress backend/dashboard go to Plugins -> Add New
Search the Google XML Sitemap Plugin, install it, activate it
Head into the settings section of your WordPress backend
Go to the XML Sitemap settings
Generate your first sitemap (using the link in the settings section)
Make sure that you have the options enables to send sitemap changes to Google, Bing and Ask

Submitting Your Site to the Search Engines

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:03:09 GMT

Here is a list of the links to submit your site to all the major search engines. Submitting your URL does not guarantee that the search engines will pick you up, but it does let them know you're out there and typically, if you have a half decent site, they will list you.

Submit your site to Google

http://www.google.com/addurl/

Submit your site to Bing

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx

Submit your site to Yahoo

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Submit your site to Ask.com

Just send them an email with your URL and a site description to url@askjeeves.com

Screenshots on Mac OS X

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:05:40 GMT

For anyone used to taking screenshots on their PC, this explains how to do it all on your Mac.

**Mac Screenshot Commands**
Action	Key Combination
Capture entire screen and save as a file	Command+Shift+3
Capture entire screen and copy to the clipboard	Command+Control+Shift+3
Capture dragged area and save as a file	Command+Shift+4
Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard	Command+Control+Shift+4
Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file	Command+Shift+4 then Space bar
Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard	Command+Control+Shift+4 then Space bar

Delete Most Commented Section in Arthemia Theme

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:58:05 GMT

This guide explains how to delete that "Most Commented" section in the middle of the footer of your WordPress site. This is a common request with the arethemia theme, but affects other themes as well.

Go into the backend/dashboard of your WordPress Site
Go to Appearance
Go to Editor
Select the Footer file from the menu on the right
Look for the line of code: <h3>Most Commented</h3>
Delete this line and every line up to and including: </ul>
Your code should now look like this:

</div>

<?php /* Widgetized sidebar, if you have the plugin installed. */ if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(6) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>

...

Click the Update File button

Delete vendor.xml Blackberry File

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:21:49 GMT

Delete the Bleckberry vendor.xml file!

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\vendor.xml

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\vendor.xml on 64 bit systems

Now load your Blackberry Beta OS

How to Load Blackberry Beta OS

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:18:39 GMT

This guide explains how to install a beta operating system on a Blackberry device.

Get your hands on the latest copy of the Blackberry OS - usually form a torrent site or a quick Google of "latest blackberry 8900 OS" (replace 8900 with whichever blackberry you have). You can also checkout forums like crackberry.com to find the latest.
Once you've downloaded the the .exe file, install it. If it asks you if you want to start the desktop manager, just say no (if you accidentally say yes, just close it)
Make sure your Blackberry is plugged into your computer
Go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\ Note: if you have a 64 bit system, the file will be in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\
- Delete the vendor.xml file
- Run the AppLoader.exe file
Follow the prompts and you'll be good to go!

Fix Arthemia Error 404 Not Found on Next Page

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:40:46 GMT

Often by default arthemia will throw a 404 error when you click next page (from the main page). Most of the time this happens only when you get to the last page of posts that should exist.

Here is how you fix it:

Go into you WordPress backend/dashboard
Go to Appearance -> Editor
Hit Main Index Template (on the right side)
Find the section where it says: query_posts("cat=
The end of this line will have something like "posts_per_page=5"
Remember your number of posts per page
Hit the settings button on the left and go into the Reading section
Set "Blog pages show at most" to that number that you just found (5, in my case)

Adding Thumbnails To Wordpress Posts

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:21:00 GMT

Now this may not work for all wordpress skins, but it will for the majority of the magazine/blog types like arthemia and convergence.

First, add a file to the "Media" section of your Wordpress admin tools by selecting Add File (or some sort of variation of that depending on the theme you have used) , select Upload file and find the picture you want to use as a thumbnail on your computer. Once The file is uploaded it should look like this:

Note the highlighted area, this will be your picture's path. Copy that line starting from wp-content for later use.

Next, go to the post we would like to attach the thumbnail to in the posts section of the dashboard. If you scroll further down the edit page of your post there should be a section for a custom field. Create a new custom field by clicking on the text box below name. For name input "Image" and for Value input our path for the image, in this case wp-content/uploads/2010/01/arthemia-screenshot10.jpg.

NOTE: The 'I' in Image, must be capitalized!

[caption id="attachment_171" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Adding A Custom Field"][/caption]

Now click Add custom field and we're done, you should see your thumbnail on the blogroll.

Check Your Mail Server Security

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:48:57 GMT

This guide will teach you how to make sure that your SMTP mail server is not a relay server.

An open relay server allows people to use your mail server to deliver spam.

If you have an email server on Ubuntu or other Debian based operating system and you are setting it up using postfix and courier then by default they are not going to be open relay servers. There is a very simple way of testing. The mail-abuse.org offers an automated test suite. The way you run this is by logging into your server, this can be done through ssh.

From your mail server run:

telnet relay-test.mail-abuse.org

This will attempt to connect back to your machine and run a series of mail relaying tests against it.

Upon completion you should recieve the following message:

System appeared to reject relay attempts

If you are inadvertently running as a relay consult your mail server documentation for tips on how to prevent it.

The Protein Shake Cottage Cheese Diet

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:37:18 GMT

What is the diet’s objective?

Burn fat fast without losing muscle
Give your body few enough calories that it will need to feed off its own fat stores, but eat enough protein to keep your nitrogen balance highly positive so that your body does not consume its muscles (to any significant degree)

Who is this diet for?

This diet was developed for people who are looking to lose a little body fat (drop from 16% to 13%).

How long does the diet last?

The diet should be maintained for 7 to 14 days

What foods are part of the diet?

Obviously there is more to this thing than JUST protein shakes and cottage cheese

Food List

Protein Shakes (Whey powder + Milk or Water)
Cottage Cheese – 1% or 2% MF
Eggs – Fried (in oil or low fat margarine) or hard-boiled
Tuna (no mayo though – yogurt/tziki/non-fat sour cream)
Yogurt (low or non fat)
Apples, bananas, orages, grapefruit, etc – only in the morning or well in advance of bed
Vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, carrots etc – no overly high fat veggies like avocadoes)
Water – lots! But at least 1 hour before easting or 2 hours after as it slows digestion
Milk (white 1% or skim, chocolate milk is allowed after a workout or run)
Coffee – no cream or sugar, only milk (don’t add coffee to your diet, but don’t feel like you have to give it up)
Beans (kidney/black/lima/chick peas ect.)

What level of exercise is required by the diet?

Obviously, the more the better
The purpose of the exercise is to assist in burning more calories than you consume
- This can be achieved through diet alone, but if you cut your calorie intake too significantly, your body will go into "starvation mode" and you wont be able to lose weight
Exercise with weights (or pushups/chinups) 3-7 times a week
Jog/Bike/Walk (light cardio) 2 - 4 times a week

Is this diet healthy?

Not really, it’s pretty hard on your system, but it lasts for such a short time (7 – 15 days) that it’s not an issue

Putting it together:

Stick to these pointers and you'll be set

You don’t need to focus on cutting calories too hard – that will happen on its own
You cannot eat carbs anytime close to going to bed (within 3.5 hours of bed time)
Try to fill up (not stuff yourself, just get to a point where you are not hungry) on high protein, low fat foods – avoids carbs (especially those from sugar) at all times other than breakfast (eat oatmeal at breakfast)
Going to bed starving is the worst! If you are hungry at bed time (to the point where it is going to make it tough to fall asleep) eat an egg and some cottage cheese – both of these foods contain lots of slow release protein that will feed your muscles through the night.
Protein is the best, carbs are MUCH worse than fat - stick to high protein, medium fat, low carbs
Remember you are creating a calorie deficit while preventing your body form going into starvation mode

Adding Ads to arthemia theme

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:45:07 GMT

This guide explains how to put your ads into the arthemia wordpress theme. By default, arthemia has 2 places for ads, the 468x60 pixel ad in the top right, and the 300x250 pixel ad a bit further down on the right side. Both of these sizes are common to Google AdSense.

Adding the 468x60 ad:

Head into your WordPress admin Dashboard
Click Appearance
Select Header (header.php) from the list on the right
Find the line of code (about half way down) that reads:
- <img src="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-content/themes/arthemia/images/banners/wide.jpg" alt="" width="468px" height="60px" />
Just replace the entire thing with your ad code (make sure that your code is for a 468x60 pixel ad)
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update File

Adding the 300x250 ad:

Head into your WordPress admin Dashboard
Click Appearance
Select Sidebar (sidebar.php) from the list on the right
Find the line of code (right near the top) that reads:
- <img src="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-content/themes/arthemia/images/banners/square.jpg" alt="" width="300px" height="250px" />
Just replace the entire line with your ad code (make sure that your code is for a 300x250 pixel ad)
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update File

Categories in Arthemia Theme - Get them working

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:27:20 GMT

This guide explains how to get categories working properly in your arthemia themed WordPress site. By default the theme doesn't really support your categories, this guide fixes that problem.

Find the ID's of the categories you want to show
- In the admin section of your site, go to Posts, and select Categories
- Click on the one of the category titles on the right (Note, if you don't have any categories yet, add some now)
- One you click on a category title, the ID of the category will show up in your browser's address bar. Remember which ID is for which category (You can have 5 categories listed on your Arthemia site)

Now that you know which categories (and their ID's) that you want on your homepage, we'll add them
- Go to the Appearance section.
- Select Editor, and click Main Index Template from the list on the right.
  - Find the section in the code that says: php $display_categories = array
  - Just use Edit->Find in your browser
- Change the numbers in the brackets to the categories that you want listed on your page.
- For example if, I want the categories with ID's 5,3,9,7 and 1 on my site, I will change the line of code to read: <?php $display_categories = array(5,3,9,7,1); $i = 1;
- NOTE: Only change the digits in the brackets, do not modify the rest of the line, just leave it as is.
- Hit Update File at the bottom of the page.

You're finished!

Speech to Text on a Mac Laptop Using the Internal Mic

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:23:52 GMT

First, get Macspeech Dictate. It's available for sale at www.macspeech.com, and you can save 10% on MacSpeech Dictate with Microphone by using coupon MACSPEECH during checkout. Once its loaded up it will ask you to create a profile by selecting a microphone. The stock Dictate application will not let you select your internal mic to be used as an audio input source. To get around this, we have to download two applications, the latest version of Soundflower from http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list and LineIn from http://rogueamoeba.com/freebies/.

Install Soundflower and launch both applications along with Macspeech Dictate. If we go back to Dictate we can select "Soundflower 16ch" as depicted below.

Now go to LineIn and route the internal mic to Sounflower we select "Default System Input" and Output " Soundflower (16ch)" then click "Pass Thru".

Keep all these applications open and go back to Dictate and create your profile. Follow the rest of the steps in Dictate and this should allow you turn speech to text using your Mac Laptop's internal Mic.

Mess with Your Landlord

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:41:15 GMT

This guide contains a list of ways for you to take the upper hand over your landlord. These are little-known, legal secrets that can help you when you fell like you are being pushed around by your landlord.

Interest on Last Month's Rent Deposit

Remember that deposit cheque you made out for your last month's rent? Do you think it's a little strange that the landlord just gets to use that money for 11 months? As it turns out, the landlord must pay you interest on the last month's rent deposit. The interest rate changes annually, but currently (2010) it's at around 1.7%. So if you pay $400 a month, your landlord is legally obligated to give you $6.23 at the beginning of that last month. If you like math... that's $400 x 0.017 / (11/12).

The concept of paying the last month's rent upfront seems at first like it might be a scam in favor of the landlord. As it turns out, this deposit provides protection to the tenant - the fact that you have paid this deposit makes it much harder for a landlord to kick you out prematurely.

24 Hours Notice Before Showing

In most states and provinces (Ontario for sure) your landlord is required by law to give you 24 hours notice before showing the residence that you are renting. This is especially prevalent in student housing where landlords frequently take advantage of students by giving them only a few hours notice (or none at all) before showing the residence to groups of students looking to rent the house/apartment the next year. If your landlord tries to swindle you into having your home shown without 24 hours notice, you have every right to deny him/her entry to the residence.

Eviction due to Smoking / Pets

In Ontario, renting a house always brings to mind. "Are we allowed to have pets?" The answer is YES! Unless there is a clause in your lease agreement clearly not permitting pets within the residence (which technically isn't even enough to keep you from doing it), pets are okay to have. The only real issue that can be justified is that if the pet is causing damages or disturbing tenants, which is the only justifiable reason for eviction in this case. Same of which goes for smoking within your residence, as long as it's not disturbing other tenants, burning the carpets, or illegal substances!

C++ Execute Shell Command

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:09:45 GMT

Here is how you execute a shell command from within a c++ program on Linux/Unix Example Code: (this code creates a new directory called newFolder22 in the /home/sam/ directory);

system ("mkdir /home/sam/newFolder22");

C++ Convert String to Char Array

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:07:08 GMT

Here is the best and simplest way to go from a string to an array of characters in C++ Example Code:

std::string myString = "My Name is Sam"; char *myCharArray = (char*)myString.c_str();

Install Perl Module Linux | Ubuntu

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:02:51 GMT

This guide explains how to install perl modules using CPAN in Linux

Type: perl -MCPAN -e shell;
- This will take you into the perl cpan shell - if you are promted to answer some questions, just answer them (typically with the default answer - just press enter)
Type: install MODULENAME
- i.e. Type: install IO::Socket
- Answer all the questions, generally just use the default (press enter)
- if something fails and it appears that it should not have, you can try: force install MODULENAME

Change Browser Icon

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:53:03 GMT

Ever wonder how to change the little browser icon of your webpage?

This guide will explain it in just a few steps (for both a traditional webpage and for a WordPress theme)

Go find the image that you would like to use for your logo
Scale the image down so that it is exactly 24x24 pixels
Save the image as an Icon file: On windows, this is just a BMP file, on MAC you can save as Windows Icon File
The filename must be: favicon.ico

For Wordpress:

Save the file in your wp-content/themes/YOUR-THEME-NAME/images (overwrite the existing one)

For a Traditional HTML Page

Save the file in your website root directory

Better WordPress Rich Text Editor

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:36:52 GMT

Download this zip file and extract it to view the contents on your computer
Copy the advanced-wysiwyg.php file to your WordPress Plugins Directory located here: /wp-content/plugins
Copy all the files from the plugs folder (from the file you downloaded) to the TinyMCE Plugins folder located here: wp-includes\js\tinymce\plugins
Activate the new editor by opening up the administrator view of your WordPress page
- Select Plugins (on the left)
- Activate the Advanced WYSIWYG Editor plugin
That's it! Next time you go to make a post you will have significantly more formatting options.

References:

http://www.mkbergman.com/275/extending-tinymce-the-wordpress-rich-text-editor/

Change WordPress Logo

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:36:23 GMT

[ad]
Changing the WordPress logo really just consists of overwriting the logo.gif in the theme you are using with file with your own logo.gif file - Here are the steps:

Open up the image that you would like to use for your new WordPress logo
Save your file as logo.gif (File->Save As)
Open up your ftp client (or however it is you view the files on your WordPress site)
Navigate to the themes directory (www.mysite.com/wp-content/themes)
Navigate into the images directory of the theme you are using
Delete the logo.gif or logo.png file that is currently in there (the old logo you want to get rid of)
Copy/upload your file (in place of the old one you just deleted) NOTE: you must have the same file extension as the file you are replacing, (png or gif)

Better WordPress URLs

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:35:57 GMT

The URLs that WordPress Generates by default are no good (for humans or search engines.) This guide will explain how to fix that giving you more legible URLs as well as Search Engine Friendly WordPress URLs

Head into the admin section of you WordPress site
Select Settings (bottom right)
Select Permalinks
Choose the custom option and paste this into the text field: /%postname%
That's it! from now on when you create a new post, it will be given a URL in accordance with the name of the post. For example, check out the URL you are at right now. Before I changed my settings it would have read something like "firstsearchblue.com/?p=7563" (useless...) but now! "firstsearchblue/better-wordlpress-urls" (beautiful)

Query Database with Drupal Form

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:35:32 GMT

The Problem

By default, there is no way to allow your users to query one of your databases (either internal or external) in Drupal. Additionally, there are no modules that really allow you to do this either.

The Solution

With a little pasting and editing, this guide will enable you to let users do a simple search of one of your databases. This information can easily be extended to allow for all kinds of user-database interaction in Drupal.
Use Ajax! This is by far the easiest way to get the job done.

Preparation

Make sure that you have the PHP code Input Format enabled. To do this simply go to Administer->Site Building->Modules. Scroll Down to PHP Filter, make sure it's enabled, click 'Save Configuration'
If you have a rich text editor enabled (such as YUI) you should disable it temporarily while we create the form

The Drupal Page/Form

Go to Create Content and create a new page (it doesn't have to be a page, but we'll use a page for the sake of this guide.)
Call the page Database Query
Select PHP code from the Input Format dropdown.
Paste the following code into your page:

<html> <body>

try{
// Opera 8.0+, Firefox, Safari
ajaxRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
} catch (e){
// Internet Explorer Browsers
try{
ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e) {
try{
ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e){
// Something went wrong
alert("Your browser broke!");
return false;
}
}
}
// Create a function that will receive data sent from the server
ajaxRequest.onreadystatechange = function(){
if(ajaxRequest.readyState == 4){
var ajaxDisplay = document.getElementById('ajaxDiv');
ajaxDisplay.innerHTML = ajaxRequest.responseText;
}
}
var lastphp = document.getElementById('lastphp').value;
var queryString = "?lastphp=" + lastphp;
ajaxRequest.open("GET", "/php/check.php" + queryString, true);
ajaxRequest.send(null);
}
//-->
</script>

There is only one thing we eventually will have to change, but we'll leave it for now: "/ajax-example.php" (just before the tag. You'll probably want to keep your php file somewhere else, and will have to update the file location accordingly.
For now, just hit the save button to save your page and move onto the next step.

The PHP File

We now have to create the PHP file that the above ajax script refers to.
Open up your favorite text editor and paste in the following code:

<?php //Connect to MySQL Server //connect to your database ** EDIT REQUIRED HERE ** mysql_connect("localhost","MySQLUser","password") or die('Cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());

//specify database ** EDIT REQUIRED HERE **
mysql_select_db("databaseName") or die("Unable to select database"); //select which database we're using

// Retrieve data from Query String
$last = $_GET['lastphp'];

// Escape User Input to help prevent SQL Injection
$last = mysql_real_escape_string($last);

//Build and run a SQL Query on our MySQL tutorial
$query = "SELECT * from dataTableName"; //just grab every row from our table
$results = mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());

//print what the user entered (eventually I'm sure you'll want to use this data in your query)
echo "You Entered: " . $last . "<br><br>";

//print the results
echo "Database Results: <br>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($results)){
echo "$row[lastname]<br>"; //NOTE: Here we are printing all the data from the 'lastname' column of our database, either change this name, or make sure you have a lastname column with some data in it
}
?>

You will have to make some modifications to this file! These include
- Server: I used localhost, you might have to change this
- MySQL User: Change this to your user
- password: This is the user's password
- databaseName: This is the name of your database
- lastname NOTE: This needs to be changed to the name of a column/field in your database (it is located at the bottom of the code)
Save this file as check.php
Upload this file to your server/hosting space in a php folder within your Drupal Installation.
- For example, if Drupal is installed in the root of you web page (like on ) just create a folder called php and upload your check.php file to it.
That's it! Navigate back to the form you created (we called it Database Query) and try hitting the search button.
I'm sure this guide is a little tough to work through PLEASE post any questions or issues below - they will be answered quickly!

Watch Unlimited Megavideo | How-To

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:34:33 GMT

UPDATE!!

Check out our new guide on The Best Way to Watch Movies and TV Shows Online

Megavideo|vReel|zShare

Illimitux 3.5: Unbridle videos from streaming platforms

Illimitux extension is a FireFox tool that removes limitations imposed by streaming plateforms as Veoh, MegaUpload or MegaVideo. Its purpose is watching without restriction vidoes from those platforms. When your are in one of these websites. Illimitux identifies the video and show a little icon in the sidebar of the browser telling you to remove the limitation. Once you click on it, you'll be redirected to our website to view the Full video.

For Example, if you are in Veoh, you will be able to watch a video without there 5 minutes limit. That's the same with MegaUpload and MegaVideo. In the case of MegaUpload (file sharing platform), you can stream a file (watch it in live) or download it without waiting 45 seconds.

http://www.illimitux.net/

Here are other solutions that people have found successful with respect to Megavideo:

Firstly clear your browsers cookies, next block all cookies coming from megavideo.com:

Go to: Tools > Options (in firefox)

Then click "Exceptions" and block "megavideo.com" & "www.megavideo.com" (without quotes)
(IMG:http://i37.tinypic.com/2rwb4m8.jpg)

Method 1
All you do is start the video playing then pause it and let it buffer all the way to the end. Then press standby on your modem (or unplug it if you don't have a standby button) and watch the movie off/line, then hit play.

(Instead of turning off/unplugging your modem, you can also try clicking File > Work Offline in your browser. But remember to change it back when you want to load another video.)

The obvious drawback is that you are offline but, you can do this all-day if you want to have a marathon Megavideo session without that annoying video limit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Method 2
Unplug your modem from its power supply. The mailing address you have leased from your carrier will expire, as it will see that you are no longer online, and you therefore do not need an IP Address. Your IP Address currently being used will return to the pool of IPs available to use to your IP.
Clear your cookies. This takes care of the client side monitoring being done on your machine.
Wait 60 Seconds, then plug your modem back in. During the reinitialization of your modem, it will query your IP carrier for another IP Address from the pool of available ones, giving you a new IP Address.
Reconnect to Megavideo by closing your browser and accessing the material again. Your cookies will be cleared, and Megavideo will have no record of your new IP Address on their server log. Enjoy another hour of uninterrupted content.

(Method 2 won't work if you have a static IP)