Friday, February 27, 2009

Amazon Kindle 2

Amazon Kindle is everywhere I look this week, so I figured that it would be a good idea to make up a list of "must have's" for Amazon Kindle owners.

Amazon Kindle ClearTouch Anti-Glare Screen Protector (Single Pack)
You paid a lot for your Amazon Kindle, don't let the screen get scratched up. Protect it with an anti-glare screen protector.

Available for $12.95 from Amazon, the screen protector is the best way to keep your Amazon Kindle looking and working like new.

Bubble-free application makes it easy to apply, and an anti-dust protection means you will always be able to read your books without the need to wipe away dust particles that normally collect on screens.





Amazon Kindle 2 Leather Cover
A must have leather cover to protect your Amazon Kindle when you are carrying it in a car, briefcase or backpack.

This cover was designed by Amazon specifically for the Amazon Kindle 2 and protects your Amazon Kindle from unnecessary bumps and dings. Black exterior and charcoal gray suede interior means that it is stylishly compatible with any use from boardroom to college dorm.


Other items of interest to owners of the Amazon Kindle



And of course, the Amazon Kindle 2


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Saturday, February 21, 2009

What to do with $13 a week?

Okay, so the government is giving the lucky few an additional $13 a week in their paychecks.  I’m sitting here listening to all this whining about how lousy that is and thinking, “Oh if only I can get that too!”  I don’t know if that $13 a week will help someone in my position or not, but oh how I would love to be one of the lucky few that gets it.

It seems, however, like the only ones that will get it are those who do not need it and are only going to complain it’s not enough.  So, what can someone do with $13 a week from someone that $13 a week would REALLY mean something to?  Well, a lot actually.  If I was able to qualify for that additional $13 a week the things I can think of that could be done with it include:

NETFLIX - Subscribe to Netflix and make a “Family Movie Night”

For $4.99 a month you can have one movie at a time shipped to you, that makes it $1.24 a week, so out of your $13 a week you have $11.76 a week to get some snacks such as cookies or some popcorn to pop up for movie night.

If you watch movie on weekend and mail it back on Monday you will have next one in plenty of time to watch on Friday or Saturday and mail back Monday – that’s  a movie every week of the month, plus snacks.

Other plans with Netflix include $13.99 a month for 2 movies at a time, $16.99 for 3 at a time… right up to $47.99 for 8 movies at a time.  A plan for anyone that still leaves $4.01 a month even at the most expensive level.  ($4.01 a month into a savings account for a year is $48.12, so 8 movies a month from Netflix, plus almost $50 into your piggy bank.)

SAVINGS - How about putting all of that $13 a week into a savings account?  I know it is not what they were thinking in terms of stimulating the economy, but after that year you would have $624 to spend on something totally unnecessary for you.

Or you could get into a habit of setting $13 a week aside into savings and after 30 years you would have put $18,720.00 into a retirement account.

This is about stimulating the economy, however, so lets see what else $13 a week can do…

GAS – Let us assume that gas costs $3.00 a gallon, and your car gets 20 MPG… If my math is right…

$13 * 4 = 52 / 3 = 17.333 * 20 = 346.66

Weekly stimulus of $13, multiplied by the number of weeks in a month equals $52 a month, divided by $3 a gallon, multiplied by 20 MPG equals 346.66 miles worth of gas.

So, for $13 a week you can buy enough gas to drive an added 346 miles in a month… that is an 86 mile Sunday drive every week.

GROCERIES – In Alaska milk costs between $3.50 a gallon and $5 a gallon.  Bread varies between $1.29 and $3 and up.  Now it might not be much, but if you are buying staples for getting by week to week, then an added $13 can be a lot of money for groceries.

WEBSITES – You can get 1 Gig web hosting for $50 a year at platonicsolid.info, so each month you could pick up another website and create your own online money making empire using online advertising such as AdSense or by creating Amazon.com storefronts.  That $13 a week can easily build you a second job that you can use to make a lot more.

So… what can you do with $13 a week? I can think of a lot more ideas, but I’d like to hear what you can come up with.  So, what could you do with $13 a week?

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Jewelery

Valentines Day is only days away, but that does not mean you can not still get your special someone a gift of fine jewelry. Holsted Jewelers offers customers a wide assortment of classic jewelery as well as items designed to make the recipient go "Wow!"

For over 35 years Holsted Jewelers has provided their customers exclusively designed jewelry at very competitive prices and with their special "set savings" deal, you can save even more when you buy more. This is not merely Discount Jewelry, this is jewelery that will make your loved one shine every time they wear it.

Check out all of the jewelery selections at HolstedJewelers.com to search for the perfect way to let your special someone know that they are not only special on Valentine's Day.

Google will soon help you track your energy use

If you are like me, then you are staring at your electrical bill and scratching your head as you try to understand why it keeps going up and up and up despite how many lights you turn off. There is good news stirring around the corner. A new plan by Google could help you track down your energy use and discover what is causing your electrical bill to skyrocket.

Using "smart meters" (we call them turtles here in Alaska), the secure Google gadget would take the data the meters automatically sends to the utility company and shares it with the consumer. While at the moment there is a limit on exactly what kind of data the gadget can provide, in the future it might be able to tell users exactly what appliances are using energy and how much each one is using.

The benefits now will primarily rely on the user's ability to track when appliances are being used compared to when there is a change in the data the gadget is receiving from the utility meter.

Small Business and SEM

Considering Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as one of your marketing strategies, but uncertain on just where to begin? Check out the article published this morning at E Commerce Times, part one of SEM and the Small Biz: Desperately Seeking Success.

The article discusses what SEM is and why Google is the reigning leader in SEM tools for small businesses.

SEM is one of those areas of marketing that a small business owner simply can not afford to ignore. There is a lot of business done daily online, and if a small business wants to remain competitive, then they need to learn more about SEM and how to get their business recognized and in front of the people that are going to be in need of their services.

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The Village Voice: New York Restaurants Guide

When you work out of your home, you have more need than ever to be able to locate facilities such as a conference room or somewhere that you can hold a banquet for important clients.

Suppose you need to fly to New York for a major presentation. When you get there you need to have a banquet hall where you can make your presentation, preferably at a nice restaurant where the presentation can end in a luncheon, how will you locate the perfect one? The New York Restaurants guide at the website of The Village Voice can help you locate restaurants in New York City and sort through them to locate those offering facilities such as banquet halls or catering.

Select the cuisine you desire to find, say Mediterranean, from the cuisine menu, then select the facilities you are looking for from the overhead drop down menus, say private party. This gave me three results Enzo's in the Bronx, Virage in East Village, and Fireside Cocktail Cuisine in the East 50s. Each entry includes the location and estimate on how expensive it will be along with, when available, customer reviews.

Looking closer at one of the restaurants, lets pick Fireside Cocktail Cuisine, we can find out even more details. Such as, it has a full bar and accepts online reservations. There are even recommendations of what people who liked Fireside Cocktail Cuisine also liked, giving you a little more understanding of exactly what the restaurant is going to be like.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Just the facts please

The blogosphere is so abuzz with information on things such as the state of General Motors, that businesses like GM have began to battle back against the swarm of often erroneous information. At gmfactsandfiction.com General Motors strives to tell the truth about what is going on with the company and offers site visitors links to news articles that focus on the company and the industry.

I think this is a great idea for GM, although I would like to see a little more interactivity to the site. So far it is simply focused at making statements with the only actual interactivity being a small box to the side where site visitors can submit their e-mail to submit information on myths and rumors that they have heard about GM.

Twitter to charge for commercial use

Twitter is one of the hottest micro-blogging sites out there, used by millions of users to tell their followers what they are up to and where they are going.

I first used Twitter when I was in Las Vegas for a convention as a way to keep track of where I was in relation to where the others I was at the convention with all were at.

Now Twitter has reveled a plan to possibly charge businesses for use of the micro-blogging tool.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the UK magazine Marketing that they had been noticing companies were being followed by individuals and that had caused them to consider the possibility of charging companies. This was met with less than an enthusiastic greeting from the companies that would be targeted, and even personal users expressed concerns on what the differentiation between business and personal use would be and how it would be monitored.

Multiple suggestions for alternate revenue generation ideas have been offered up in the comments and article on this plan at the Marketing Magazine website.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Escape work for an adults only Cancun vacation

Working all the time can lead to stress and burnout, which means that even in these tough economic times it is important to get away and be pampered if you can.

Located in Maroma, Quintana Roo, Mexico, the El Dorado Royale resort, by Karisma resorts, offers papering and luxury to their guests. An adults only resort the El Dorado Royale was built on more than a mile of sandy beach in 2001, then renovated in 2005.

Their Adults Only All Inclusive Vacations bring guests to rooms that offer luxuries that include in-room mini bars, swim-up access from the guest room to the swim-up bar, veranda hammocks and four-poster beds draped in flowing white gauze.

A dedicated spa offers luxuries that include milk baths and an aromatic massage. Or participate in activities that include beach-side fitness classes, scuba clinics, kayaks, pedal boats, parasailing, hikes to local ruins, bicycles, a sauna, two tennis courts and much more.

Or visit one of the seven restaurants where market-fresh ingredients are used to bake their own breads and make their own pastas and sauces and special menus cater to any diet or indulgences.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Denny's Grand Slam

When I heard Denny's announcement during the Super Bowl that everyone in America was getting a free breakfast courtesy of them during a special promotional period I was not sure what to make of it, but I hope that it works out good for the chain of restaurants. The news just said their projection was that they would sell roughly 2 million breakfasts valued at about $6 each. That is a $12 million gamble that they will introduce enough new potential customers to the value of a meal at Denny's to recoup the gamble.

We did not make it out to have breakfast on Denny's, but looking at the lines the news was showing I am guessing that it was not easy to get that free breakfast anyway. I wonder how many of them Denny's restaurants ran out of ingredients under the customer load.
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