An article at MarketWatch suggests that the best financial advice you can ever get comes from Dilbert.
'Dilbert' deserves the economics Nobel outlines cartoonist Scott Adam's secret nine-point formula to personal investing as revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels.".
"Everything else you may want to do with your money is a bad idea."
- Make a will
- Pay off your credit cards
- Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
- Fund your 401k to the maximum
- Fund your IRA to the maximum
- Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
- Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
- Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
- If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio
Read the Full Article
Labels: success
Flickr
- Free: 20 MB monthly upload limit / 3 photosets
- Pro account $25/year
- Networking through groups
- Most popular photo sharing site on net
- Powerful user interface
Tablo | Features
- Free Unlimited storage
- Unique themes with integration of text
- Can be used in combination with Flickr for photo display
My Photo Album | Features
- Unlimited Free Storage and Albums
- Voting & Comments
- Photo and Video Sharing
Fotki
- Social Networking
- Unlimited Free Storage
- Guestbook, Journal and Homepage
- View all comments on one page
- Photo Contests
- Video Storage
Smugmug | Features
- $39.95/year
- Unlimited storage
- Professional themes
- Password protected galleries
Others
The following are basic services aimed more at the sales of photo prints than online storage and display:
And under "Hard to Categorize"...
One True Media
- 200MB Upload per month
- 1GB Max storage
- Photo, Video and Music Storage
- Geared more to burning video and conversion
Any other suggestions? Please Share!.
Labels: net
7 Do's: The Basics
- Make sure the subject clearly relates to the purpose of the message
- Clearly state the action you want the receiver to perform in the first sentence
- Clearly state when you need a reply
- Be as brief as possible
- Provide the necessary data and/or documents
- Only send the message to relevant recipients
- Before sending, run the spell checker and grammar tool and re-read
7 Don'ts: The Refinements1. Don't be Confusing
- Do NOT expect a reply from a CC recipient - if you want a reply they should be in the TO line. If you do not want a reply take them out of the TO line.
- For long e-mail chains, if the discussion moves to another topic CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE. This will make it a lot easier for people to follow, file and refer back to later.
2. Don't be a Bore- As a rule of thumb, any message over 200 words long (about two paragraphs) will probably not be read by most people. Stay brief and get quickly to the point.
3. Don't be Annoying:- Do NOT CC everyone on the planet - this will decrease your popularity enormously.
- Only CC people who really would benefit from reading your e-mail or need to know. Otherwise it's spam.
- Delete heavy attachments from a reply especially if everyone receiving your e-mail already has the attachment. It is VERY annoying to get two copies of a 10MB file and find out that your mailbox is jammed because it is too full (some of us poor souls still have office accounts with a 20MB limit).
4. Don't be a Bully- Be very careful when and how you increase the CC/TO recipient list as, in certain situations, it can make you look overly aggressive. Do you really need to copy their boss, your boss and the head of sales?
- When criticising someone or giving them "constructive advice" ask yourself if anyone needs to be CC'd at all. It's easy to ruffle feathers when you are critical in front of a wide audience.
- Don't SHOUT USING ALL CAPS. Oh in case you didn't know USING CAPS IS SHOUTING.
5. Don't be Naive- Do NOT use BCC without being prepared for (1) the recipient to not realise they were BCC'd and they reply to all or (2) they forward your message. Generally speaking, using BCC looks slimy. Forward an e-mail after the fact if need be.
- Whenever you send a message, be prepared for it to be forwarded even if you write "do not forward" in the first line.
- Saying that, never forward a message that has been BCC'd to you or sent in confidence.
6. Don't be Stupid
- Don't forward spam, dumb jokes, ridiculous net lore, cute/horrible pictures or chain mail in the office - ever. Duh.
7. Don't be a Slave to E-mail
- Lastly, ask yourself if sending an e-mail is really the right way to communicate in this instance. Sometimes a paper trail isn't a good idea, or perhaps the issue is so sensitive or complicated that an e-mail will make a mess of it. Furthermore, some people are useless with e-mail and a phone call or popping your head into their office will be more effective.
Labels: lifehacks
There have been numerous reports that allofmp3.com is at the top of the "Notorious Markets List" - that meaning that the market are notorious, not the list. But who else is on this list? Does it really exist?
It does. The list, compiled by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, identifies markets which do not protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) thus permitting counterfeiting and piracy. The list is part of the annual Special 301 Report which is available in full for download.
The following is extracted from the Report:
Virtual Markets
- Allofmp3.com (Russia). "the world’s largest server-based pirate music website"
- Baidu (China). the largest of an estimated seven or more China-based “MP3 search engines” offering deep links to song files for downloads or streaming.
- Kuro (Taiwan). In September 2005, managers of Kuro, a peer-to-peer service, were found guilty along with a subscriber of criminal copyright infringement and sentenced to prison terms.
Physical Markets
A veritable who's who of "where to get your knockoffs." Activities in these markets include "rampant sale of counterfeit fashion and apparel product" and "bulk sales of small consumer goods."
- Xiangyang Market (Shanghai, China)
- Silk Street Market (Beijing, China)
- Yiwu Wholesale Market (Yiwu, China)
- Gorbushka, Rubin Trade Center, Tsaritsino, and Mitino (Moscow, Russia)
- Tri-Border Region (Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil)
- Stand Center, "25 de Marco" Shopping Center, and Promocenters (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Tepito, Plaza Meave, Eje Central, Lomas Verdes, and Pericoapa Bazaar (Mexico City), CAPFU (Puebla, Mexico), and San Juan de Dios (Guadalajara, Mexico)
For a more in depth look at the markets on the priority watchlist (including China, Russia, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Isreal, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukrain, Venezuala) check out the Priority Watchlist report (PDF).
Labels: world
Another
Diego story.
The boys were asked if they liked Sunday school. Diego, of course, replied in the affirmative. Matteo (8) rolled his eyes and gave a long reply:
Church is sooooo boring. Everying is "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Take a look around you. Do you see Jesus anywhere? If you think Jesus is going to help you, you are DELUDED. He doesn't even exist. Sheesh!
Margo, the boys' mom, has serious concerns about Matteo being saved.
Labels: diego
