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December 28, 2006
Buying Greek Merchandise
Last year I learned my lesson by going cheap and buying knock-off college apparel - the logo's were crooked and the quality of the material was definitely low.
This Christmas I decided to take the high road when shopping for greek apparel for my niece and nephew and discovered a great website called GreekForMe.com which is licensed to distribute Greek Merchandise to college students college alumni and friends and family of Greeks.
Members of fraternal organizations purchase fraternity gear and sorority paraphernalia to show their pride of membership, but as I found last year you need to be careful to make sure that you are buying from a licensed vendor of custom
Greek Merchandise. This way fraternity and sorority members can be certain their sorority stuff and fraternity merchandise lives up to the standards of quality for their organization. While searching their website, I found GreekForMe sells merchandise for just about every single Fraternity and Sorority oganization out there.
From last year's experience, I now know the value of using licensed vendors for college apparel and collegiate merchandise. I found GreekForMe.com’s quality standards are outstanding and the my niece and nephew were extremely happy with their new Fraternity and Sororety bling.
Posted by Idea Man at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2006
Cost of War
As we all know the Iraq war is costing the U.S. lots of money. We feel the war's cost especially hard in Michigan which depends on the auto industry for its economic health. Oh well, maybe when we finally win the war we will have easy access to cheap Iraqi oil so the rest of the U.S. can afford to start buying Detroit gas guzzlers again.
For those keeping tabs, this website tracks the cost of the war to the second.
Posted by Idea Man at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2006
Santa Tracker
For several years NORAD has been tracking Santa live as he makes his way around the world.
Don’t believe? See for yourself with the NORAD Santa Tracking System.
Ho Ho Ho
Posted by Idea Man at 03:21 PM | Comments (1)
December 22, 2006
Website Hosting Ideas
Got a great website idea? Well the first thing you need to do is find a great website hosting service. I bet you’d be surprised at how cheap web hosting is now-a-days. If you look a bit, you can actually find a hosting service between free and $9 per month.
I am talking about quality hosting that will be able to take your site a long way before you need something more. The web hosting business is so competitive that prices for shared hosting (where your site shares a web server with other websites) are at their lowest point ever.
The days of $100/per month shared hosting are long gone and the barrier to entry to the web is now more self-motivation than cost. I found a great website called the Web Hosting Bluebook, that ranks the top 10 hosting sites. I would have to agree with the quality of their selections. You can’t really go wrong with any of their choices - not only are they all cheap, they all offer easy set-up and decent customer service.
Posted by Idea Man at 03:16 PM | Comments (1)
Best New Sitcom
30 Rock is my favorite new comedy on TV in a long time. If you haven’t seen it, it is a fictional ‘behind the scenes’ of Saturday Night Live. It stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.
Anyway, Alec Baldwin plays the show’s executive producer and is hilarious. At the 30 Rock Website, you can have Alec send a personal message via phone or email to any of your friends. Great show, great website.
Posted by Idea Man at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2006
Peace > War
Posted by Idea Man at 05:54 PM | Comments (1)
December 20, 2006
Norton Antivirus 2007 - is it worth it?
One of my New Years resolutions is to keep my PC virus and spyware free, so I have been researching some of my available options. Last year, I had to delete everything and do a clean install and don’t want to go through that again. Of course the first antivirus program I looked at was Symantec’s Norton AV which I have used in the past but hardly ever updated.
Symantec released their latest version of Norton Antivirus software earlier in September of 2006. With the release of the Norton Antivirus 2007 one has to wonder if the new version is worth the price? Has Symantec finally begun to pay attention to the problems of its previous versions - namely the bloated code of Norton and its slow performance?
Well it seems that Symantec finally listened, as CNET's website review states: "Norton AntiVirus 2007 is faster and lighter on system resources than previous versions." Symantec's Internal Performance Review goes on to discuss their findings on Norton 2007's less memory usage, faster scans, faster boot time, and faster UI response. For instance, Norton 2007 scans a 1 GB file set in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. This is faster than the industry average of 2:49 and nearly 35% faster than the previous version of Norton Internet Security.
Other cool features you can expect from Norton include antispyware, rootkit protection, and a "light" firewall that now comes with Norton Antivirus. Also, Norton Internet Security 2007 now protects up to 3 computers for one low price, a very good deal for those like me with several computers!
The bottom line is, if you are out surfing the web unprotected get some protection fast before your computer goes kaput. I am seriously considering the upgrade to NAV 2007.
Posted by Idea Man at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Whistler Lodging Website
One thing I like to do more than anything else is ski. This year we are looking to try someplace new. Some friends told me Whistler offers some of the best skiing around so I have been searching the web looking for accommodations and found a great website.
If you are thinking of heading up to Whistler and are looking for some Whistler accommodation you should check out Holiday Whistler. Whistler has an amazing selection of different rental properties and you really need good advice on where to stay, especially on the trade-off between ski-in, ski-out properties and those in or very near the Village. (Tip from my freinds: the very best locations have both ski-in, ski-out and just a 2 minute walk to the Village – look for Snowy Creek or Telemark – but these are very sought-after and have a price tag to go with it.)
Anyway there are loads of websites offering rentals in Whistler, but this is the best one I found. All the homes have plenty of pics so you can see what you are getting and it is very informative about what each home is really like. I ended up staying in Cedar Ridge 17: just above the Village, but near enough to walk down for dinner in the evenings, and right on the edge of the slopes. It had a great private hot tub and a fantastic kitchen and was really well-equipped.
Whistler seems to be hot again after a couple of years when it lost a bit of popularity, so if you want your choice of unit you should book well in advance. I also liked the feature that Holiday Whistler offers which is a hefty discount for long stays; this is built right into their pricing algorithm, so you don’t have to negotiate if you are staying for more than a week.
Anyway, this site is the best place for Whistler lodging; chalets, condos, townhomes etc.: they’ve go them all.
Posted by Idea Man at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2006
Album Cover Art
Sometimes I miss the old albums – the way they sounded, the way they felt, and especially the awesome album art that defined many classic albums. Today’s CDs just don’t give you anything to hang onto.
Classic “Album Art” is pretty much a thing of the past. Somehow "Zeppelin 4", "Dark Side of the Moon", and "Hotel California" covers don’t translate their former power on a tiny CD case. To make matters worse, now with digital music and MP3 players, all you have is ones and zeros.
However, with some album art it is probably just as well that we don’t see it. Check this website which has a page showing some of the worst cover art ever.
Posted by Idea Man at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2006
Cool cookware
During the holidays, I always find myself wandering the aisles of cookware as great gifts for friends and family. And I always wonder when I'm going to take some time and pick out some items for my home, too. I'm thinking I'll get some now as gifts and then later for myself.
I was surfing around to make shopping easier and found this cool site that has practical and fancy cookware. The copper cookware is especially notable for its quality and selection.
I need new basic stuff, like pots and pans. The kitchenware is perfect. I got my mom an Excellence steele casserole. After the holidays, I might go back online and get one for myself.
My ultimate favorite, though, is the selection of bakeware.I love the mini muffins, quiche molds, French bread pans. I'm hungry just looking at the pictures.
So this site is worth checking out. It's easy to use and the images are helpful. It's been around for five years so that says something. I wonder if I can learn how to use that chocolate bunny mold.
Posted by Idea Man at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2006
Website Idea Help
I have been involved with the web since I can remember, however, I have many friends that have attempted to create websites and failed. Just like me with home or auto repair, sometimes if you want a job done right, and have no idea how to do it yourself, it pays to go with a pro. I have referred some of my friends to W3 EDGE Web Design, they are truly a full service custom web design company.
One thing most people that are new to web design think is that if they build it visitors will come. Not true. The web is so huge, your shiny new site is likely to be lost among the millions of other great websites out there, so unless you want to put in the hours necessary learning SEO (search engine optimization), you really need to find a good SEO company that can handle the marketing side of your new website.
If you want to completely hands off, they do reseller web hosting. Meaning they can help you build your site, promote it, and even host it. But you still need to do the hardest part, come up with a great website idea.
Posted by Idea Man at 12:43 PM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2006
Hawaii Car Rentals
As you read this blog, you will find that I am a sucker for little known great website deals. Often with a bit of web searching you can save a ton of money by finding hidden deals on the web. For example, I have some friends that are going to Hawaii in a few months and they were complaining about the price of a decent rental car in Hawaii.
So I did about 30 minutes of ‘Googling’ and found a website that offers excellent prices on Hawaii car rentals. Their secret? Negotiating corporate rates from many of the big car rental companies and then passing the savings on to their customers. This business model also gives them a large Hawaii car fleet to select from. My friends ended up using this site and as a result will save a good deal of money.
Now if I ever go to Hawaii, I will rent one of those Jeep Wranglers and take it off-road ;-) So don’t be afraid to go “off-road” on the web to find hidden gems like this one that fall outside the mainstream websites everyone uses.
Posted by Idea Man at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2006
Donate Cell Phone
Donate cell phone? If you’re like me, you have at least 5 or 10 old cell phones lying around the apartment or house that have not yet made it to the garbage bin. Did you know that these electronics and their batteries are extremely bad for the environment? So why not do something good for the environment and your taxes and donate your old cell phone?
I just discovered a local non-profit company here in Michigan that runs a website called Recycling for Charities. Their website makes it easy to give away these old electronic devices and donate their value to the charity of your choice.
The best part is that all makes and models of cell phones are welcomed. Working condition is not an issue. Their primary goal is to keep your devices from ending up in landfills where they can harm the environment. That is why they accept all cell phones in all conditions. So do something good for you and the environment, give those old cell phones away.
Posted by Idea Man at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
Data is Power
Google continues to amaze me with the new data they keep adding to their search. Their latest product Google Patent Search lets users search the U.S. Patent database. If you ever used the .gov patent search you will know it is extremely clumsy to use.
True to Google form, the Google Patent Search is fun and user friendly. You can find lots of Google’s other products and website ideas here. It seems that soon Google will control most data, I had a college professor that once said, “data is power.” This is something for us all to keep an eye on in the future.
Posted by Idea Man at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2006
Loans can actually get you OUT of a bind
We all want to get ahead in life, but sometimes it's hard to get just what we need on limited funds. My friend from England asked me if I had run across any websites that offered information on finance.
Well, I came across this great site on loans. The site is aimed primarily for UK residents but much of the information applies to our loan types here in the U.S. For instance, my research included finding information on home loans, which are referred to as secured loans in the UK. This site delivered the information in a clear and concise way.
Then I noticed a loan type that I had never heard of before, an IVA -
Individual Voluntary Arrangement. The IVA article describes how residents in the UK can wipe out a huge portion of their debt by entering into this contract. Essentially, you repay your debts over 5 years at a rate that you can afford, on completion the remainder of the debt is wiped out! I have some friends who consolidated their credit cards into one loan and paid it off in a reasonable time frame.
There are also specific types of loans only available to students including a graduate or undergraduate loans and also the career development loan. After loosing complete track of time I book-marked the site for a visit another day.
So I passed this information on to my friend and she was spending some time learning about her options. It's a good time of year, too, to think about your finances, set some goals for the coming year, and to figure out a way to pay off this year's debts!
Posted by Idea Man at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2006
Concerts from daze past...
One of the coolest websites I have discovered of late is the Concert Vault. They have acquired an amazing collection of classic concerts from a variety of sources and are building out a Web 2.0 collaborative community site of classic concert recordings.
For copywrite reasons, you can't download the concerts to your MP3 player but you can stream hallowed music like Led Zeppelin’s first U.S. rock concert. Now that is a piece of history any Zep fan won't want to miss.
What is really cool is that they are constantly adding new recordings to their collection (this week a David Bowie 1983 concert is added you won’t want to miss) so if you are a music bootleg junkie, this site will surely be habit forming for you. You've been advised!
Posted by Idea Man at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)
EU Call Home (free)
Here in the USA we pay to receive phone calls on our mobile phones, but did you know that in the UK you can call the USA free from their contract mobile phones? A great site I found, Cheap Phone Calls, also lists many other international destinations that are free or far cheaper than we normally see. They also sell roaming sim cards, where calls are free to receive in many countries, and again far cheaper to make calls, these can be bought by mail order, and are essential for the frequent international traveler.
Last time I was in Europe I was paying $2 per minute to call home on my international Sprint cell phone, next time I am definitely going to use this website to call home nearly free of charge.
Posted by Idea Man at 05:33 PM | Comments (1)
December 09, 2006
Creating a website?
If you have a good idea, you probably want to create a website to promote it. If you're not familiar with the process, it can be a little scary venturing into unknown territory. But you don't have to be a technical wizard to learn how to do it.
I found this great creating a website tutorial for beginners. It's a free, easy guide that shows you step by step how to create and build your own website. Well-written and to the point, it cuts through all the techie jargon and tells you what you need to know in plain English.
The domain name information page explains how to choose a good domain name and how to avoid a clunker. This information is really helpful.
The choose a web host section shows how to know if a web host is good or not before you sign up. That's really important. I know people who had some bad experiences with hosts.
Check it out, let me know what you think.
Posted by Idea Man at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2006
Lost In Space Without a Paddle
I always have wondered what would happen to someone that ended up in outer space without protection. I know it wouldn’t be good, but how long could one survive or would the body explode immediately? Things like this keep me up at night…
On the TV show, Battlestar Galactica, criminals are often put to death by being ejected into outer space. The visual is usually of them floating away flapping their arms – yeah right, just TV…
Well I stumbled on this site that has tons of fun fact type information and found a post that explains the whole process. Apparently, a human can live unprotected in outer space for a few minutes and fully recover if brought back in and treated immediately. Don’t believe it? Read about it and other interesting things at the Damn Interesting website.
Posted by Idea Man at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)