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Welcome to the Year of the Rat
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop,
As of February 7, it will officially be the Year of the Rat, according to the Chinese Calendar. If your birthday year is divisible by 12 into 2008, then it is your year, too. We will respectfully refrain from political cracks, but in honor of the event, we have found a Yahoo widget so that you can countdown to the year of the Ox, which begins January 26. Included with it is an analog clock and picture frame. Rats are known to have excellent taste, be charming, and have good luck in monetary dealings. They are also said to be loyal and very protective and generous to their friends. This is a good thing, being a Rat.
Read More 
| Yahoo Widgets
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Another amateur has proven the point that anyone can be discovered on YouTube. Kina Grannis created the “Digg Song” and became an almost instant viral success, so much so that a record company has been in touch with her. Although others have been discovered from the Net, this is the first one that concerns Digg. Perhaps other enterprising musicians will manage to create similar content. How about revamping that old Bread song, “I Want To
Google With You.”
Read More | TechCrunch
Writers Continue Without Studios
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Movies, Videos,
And the beat goes on. As studios continue to lose millions to make a point, many of the writers on strike have taken it out online as we reported earlier. At the very least it can be a sort of therapy. Director/Writer George Hickenlooper has developed a series of short films to show his support. Dubbed “Speechless,” it seems proof that if a writer has to write, they can always skip the middleman. In all, 7 Silcon Valley investors and Hollywood folks have formed companies to create work without studio assistance.
Read More | stuff
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A Sanctuary for Unwanted Holiday Gift Cards
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Hot Deals, Internet,
This appears to be the year of the Gift Card. If you received some that you don’t particularly want, you can always re-gift them or toss them in a drawer like an estimated 10 billion do. Or you can take them to Swapagift, an ingenious site where you can sell, trade, pay your bills, or donate them to your favorite charity. Registration is free and for $1.99 you can list each card with the monetary value or equal card you wish to receive. If you want to sell them outright to the site, you can receive up to 70% of their minimum balance to pay that overdue electric bill. Our kudos to a site that finally found a use for Vegans who ended up with a $100.00 credit for Outback Steakhouse.
Read More | Swapagift
Kwout has come up with a way to embed a quote into your blog or website (including Flickr and Tumblr) with one click. Simply type an URL onto the home page and click their bookmarklet. Drag your mouse around the area to take the quote from, select color, size and shape, and click the “Cut Out” button. You then receive the quote with hyperlinks and the embed code. It really is quite easy, once you get the hang of moving around your mouse. Others can take your quote and post it on their website as well.
Read More | kwout
Amazon has announced that it has had its best Holiday Season yet. Some of its most popular items were the Nintendo Wii, “Super Mario Galaxy” and “Call of Duty 4” video games, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” DVDs, Garmin GPS, Canon PowerShot digital Elph cameras, Timex heart rate monitor watches, Samsung LCD HDTVs, and Lego Kids’ Star Wars Darth Vader watches. They claim their busiest day was December 10, when over 5.4 million items were ordered. That equals 62.5 items per second!
Read More | I4U News
Pass the Collection Plate Online
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop,
Cincinnati’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese has decided that its 230 parishes and 110 schools in 19 counties should be afforded the pleasure of making its weekly donation via computer. They believe that this may help since fewer people carry cash these days. Of course, the collection basket will still be available, so perhaps they can come up with tokens for it that say, “I gave online.”
The idea isn’t particularly a new one as other houses of worship, including some in Georgia and California, have begun to place ATMs inside their doors on the off chance that the faithful forgot their checkbooks.
Read More | CNN
Zoombak Tracks Cars, Pets
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: GPS, Internet, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,
Zoombak understands that two of your best friends are likely to get lost, your pet and your vehicle. Their assisted GPS locator can help you find both. When installed in your car, boat, or bike, should it come up missing or is out of its “safety zone” that you set up, you can track it via their site or 24/7 toll-free number, and eventually through your mobile phone. The cost of the device is $249.95 with a service charge of $10.00 per month. The same service applies if you want to invest in the 2.5 oz. water-resistant pet version for $199.99. We wonder what happens if you forget your pet inside your car and it is stolen.
Read More | Zoombak
Keep The Kids Amused Online Today
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Hot Deals, Internet,
You have just realized that your buds are do anytime and you just had to finish “testing” their new electronic toys before wrapping them. You know that not only do you not have any wrapping paper left, your kids are bugging you that they don’t have anything to do after you spent your last cent on them. Combine both projects and send the kidlets to Paper Snowflakes. They can download wrapping paper, create gift tags, make snowflakes out of coffee filters, and even play a few games.
Read More | Paper Snowflakes
So you have done all your shopping and cooked your goose, and the relatives are due to arrive at any moment. You realize that the only tunes you have are those radio stations that play the Chipmunks and that cheap
inexpensive Barry Manilow CD you got when you purchased 3 Hallmark cards. Patrol Magazine has put together the last minute “Beautiful and Unique Snowflakes,” a free sampler that features 11 tracks. It includes “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Coldplay, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Plain White Ts, and “If There is a God” by Smashing Pumpkin and Radiohead (live.)
Read More | Patrol Magazine
