"Get a Mac" Campaign Ends: What's in Apple's TV Advertising Future?

"I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC." This award-winning line, voiced by Justin Long and John Hodgman, has become a symbol of Apple's surge in the computer market. We can all quickly identify these seven words as the starter for Apple's series of witty ads, each finding a different way to show the PC up. But unfortunately, today, Apple made it official that this campaign would be discontinued, removing the ads from their website.
However, with the success that Apple has found with TV advertising, I would expect a new line of spots to air in the very near future. But how will they retain the same effectiveness?

Keeping it Fresh

Obviously, Apple must be able to come up with strong new content. But that's not the big issue, especially with the team of brilliant minds working on their advertising.
These days, television has essentially lost its ability to persuade people to buy things. It's now more about showing people that a product exists, basically publicizing it. However, Apple has plenty of publicity so really, what they want to do with advertising, is maintain their brand.
In the "Get a Mac" spots, they were able to effectively portray Mac's brand as a cool, youthful product for the quirky, artistic consumer. They achieved this by fascinating, amusing, and amazing the viewers.
Now, how will Apple replicate the success of "Get a Mac" without duplicating the same idea? In other words, how will they project their brand again, in another clever way?

Which products?

Do they want to continue to advertise the Mac heavily, or do they want to focus on other products such as the iPad?
Also, part of keeping it fresh is to avoid over-promotion; if Apple were to heavily advertise each of their products, they would lose their novelty and intrigue, two key components in the campaigns.
Personally, I think that they need the TV to help promote the two products they have entered into the most competitive markets, the iPhone and the Mac, for smart-phones and computers respectively. The iPad is a relatively new product, but it's entered into the much smaller market of tablets, and has already gained huge publicity. I'm not saying that the iPhone and Mac haven't gotten their fair share of publicity, but what I'm saying is that they need even more.

Will they shift their resources?

TV advertising is gradually moving out of the picture, as online presence and public relations become the two big things. Being the innovative, cutting-edge company that they are, Apple can opt to change their focus a bit. I wouldn't doubt that they will continue to air TV ads but how many they will air, is one thing they have to consider.
Is it still a good idea to allocate as much resources as they are currently, to TV advertising, while the internet is just as good, if not a better tool for furthering their brand?

In the end, there really isn't a way to be sure of what the geniuses at Apple will do next. But hey, we can always try.

Why Readers Hate Your Blog Widgets

As an avid blogger, you probably dream about that day when you'll be able to make a living off your Google AdSense income. Every minute, you'll have a new visitor and you'll be able to declare your Google PageRank without squirming in embarassment.
Of course, in order to reach this level, you need a quality blog. That's a given. And to have a quality blog, naturally, it has to be awesomely useful and entertaining.
Then, you see the light, your savior. Blog widgets! Blog widgets can let readers check Facebook, check their horoscopes, send texts, see the forecast, and just about anything else that you could imagine being awesomely useful and entertaining.
Unfortunately, widgets don't lead to success, and it could even be argued that they actually detract from your blog's overall appeal.
So before you add a widget to your blog, think about these 3 things:

1. Is it relevant?

Now, it is true that your blog should be awesomely useful and entertaining. However, it is not true that your blog has to do everything anybody could ever ask for. Do you think that people need your blog to check the weather? There's the Weather Network, the iPhone weather app, and Yahoo! Weather. Your blog is the last place anyone would check for the five-day forecast.
One of the key principles in marketing is focus. Focus is essential to the success of any brand, and actually, the same goes for your blog. If you have a horoscope widget, a Pac-Man game widget, a slideshow of landscape photos, and a Time Magazine widget, people will be confused. What's your blog's purpose? But more importantly, what am I going to go to your blog for? For my blog, people will visit to find out about the latest in tech from the perspective of an average Joe. Therefore, I do not display the price of gas, dictionary or love calculator on my page.

2. Will people care?

Even if a widget is entirely relevant to your blog's material, you have to consider a question that people often like to hide from: Will people actually interact with this widget? I could have a widget for technology news on the sidebar of my blog, but I am well aware that nobody would care to use this. When people want news, they go to Time or Google News, not Useful Crap.

3. Load time

And finally, you have to bear in mind that any widget will add to your page's loading time. People hate waiting for a blog to load. If it begins to take too long or the process slows down their computer, it's possible that they'll just close the page before they read anything. Overcrowding a blog with widgets, however relevant and useful, will piss your readers off.


Now, if a widget passes all of these tests, then you can safely add it to your page. But before getting too excited about every one of the thousands of widgets in Widgetbox's gallery, think about how your readers feel.

Dear "Quit Facebook Day": The Privacy Policy Won't Lead to World Domination

Similar to how Y2K didn't happen, 2012 isn't going to happen, and the Pittsburgh Pirates aren't going to win the World Series, Facebook will never take over the world. If it's alright with any fearful Facebookers out there, I'm going to put my money on Mark Zuckerberg not wanting to be the world's next supreme dictator.
With the recent uproar about Facebook's controversial privacy policy changes, people have started a "Quit Facebook Day" on May 31.
The group that started this movement has expressed concern over the "Open Graph" concept that Mark Zuckerberg has pioneered. Basically, this will allow Facebook, CNN, and 6 other sites to share the personal information of users, in order to adapt content, advertising, etc. to everyone's personal needs. Unless people think that Facebook wants to overthrow the government-- or for that matter, create a new super-awesome mind-control regime-- I don't see why this is problem. They're improving our user experience and showing the ads we would most likely click on and/or find useful.
Also, another concern is that more user information is being shared with the public, and not just your friends. My view on this is that if you're not OK with your profile picture and personal interests being shared with everyone, you shouldn't be posting them in the first place. If you feel that these pieces of information would embarass you if some people saw them, why would you post them?
All in all, unless you seriously think Facebook wants world domination, don't quit Facebook.

Questioning the Utility of the iPhone and iPod Touch

One of the main arguments most giddy teenagers use to convince parents to buy them an iPhone or iPod Touch is their actual utility for doing useful stuff (such as accessing Useful Crap (Oh my goodness, what a witty comment!)). Their irksome shrieking voices utter flawlessly planned lines that often breach these confines: "There are apps that'll help me do my homework," and "I can become more organized with calendars and stuff," and "I won't have to be on the computer all day to do stuff," and the always effective "BUT WHY!?!??!?!"
Of course, while it is impossible to combat the latter, you may have some luck using pure logic to clash with the other ones. But let me join their side (because after all, I am somebody who wants $300 crap that I'll probably never really use) for a second. It's true; you'll have to concede that there are apps out there that can help kids do their homework. There are study guides and question-and-answer apps and all the other stuff. There are many calendars and event organizers that can really be of great value. And in fact, it's quite possible that you will be able to re-claim the home computer as yours. This cannot be argued. You can even concede that the iPhone may be one of the most utile machines on the planet. I mean, it's got a phone and a camera and all those apps and a GPS; it's geektastical gold.
But that's not what the real question is. The real question is, how often are your kids actually going to use the goody-two-shoes features? Will they be reading up on the day's economic fluctuations or will they be reading up on the latest developments in the Paris Hilton saga? Will they be communicating ideas with friends about the American Revolutionary War or will they be communicating ideas with friends about the next big party? Will they be busy making an agenda or will they be busy popping touch-screen bubble wrap?
These are all questions that must be considered. Well actually, I'll just tell you the answer and save you the hassle. It's always the second answer. Simple as that. No matter how much they whine, "BUT DADDY!!! I WILLLLL!!!" they won't.
So come the holiday season, don't donate 300 bucks to Steve Jobs' plan to take over the world. You can get a workable MP3 player or even an iPod for $100, $150. Then hey, maybe you'll spend 20 bucks on getting them to remember what those obsolete books were all about.

The 5 Irrational Reasons Why You Want to See Michael Jackson's "This is It" in Theatres

Going with the spirit of paying tribute to Michael Jackson, I'm going to tell you the real reasons why you're paying 9 bucks to see "This is It". You're probably thinking, "It's a good movie" or "I love Michael Jackson" and perhaps these reasons to apply to you. Unfortunately though, the vast majority of the 20 million people who will see "This is It" this week don't get to use those. It's sad but true. Here are the 5 real justifications:

5. You think it will help you become like MJ

This is a classic case of people feeling a need to satisfy their sub-concious fantasies of becoming rich, famous and loved. If these things are already part of your goals, you might think that watching "This is It" will make you informed and give you inspiration to "do great things".

4. You need to feel like you were a part of the tragedy

When something big happens during your lifetime, you want to feel like you were right in the centre of it. You want to feel like somebody who genuinely mourned his death and you want to feel involved in his great life and legacy. This is similar to the story of Barack Obama, the first African-American president in United States history. Everybody wanted a piece of campaign merchandise, whether a shirt or a bumper sticker, because they want to be identified as a part of the movement.

3. You want to have credit as a true fan

Half the people who never liked Michael Jackson's music suddenly started flooding into HMV to buy his CDs and memorabilia. This is because they want to be considered a real, die-hard Michael Jackson fan because that's just the "cool" thing right now. Seeing "This is It" in theatres is something I know people will be boasting for decades to come. They saw the tribute to the king of pop in theatres!

2. You want to feel like you're dong a good deed

It's true. When you go to a funeral of a person you never really knew or liked, one of the factors is that you can feel nice. After all, you're acknowledging and mourning somebody's death; what a nice thing to do! And even better, it's a famous person that everybody likes and maybe I'll even cry in between because that'll really show I care. But really, watching a movie isn't doing a good deed. No lies.

1. Because everybody else is

Ah, good old peer pressure. It's a contributor to virtually any decision we make. No less watching Michael Jackson rehearse for a concert. We need to be able to join in on the conversation at the bar or we think that watching a movie about a musician that some girl likes will give us a few points. I'm sure plenty of people will be scorning at those who didn't watch "This is It" just to feel that warmth inside that they did so they're cooler.

Why GM Will Never Overtake Toyota Unless They Start Making Hovercraft

This is a little mock advertisement I put together to sort of illustrate what I talk about in this post. It's not very professional since it's on a 0-dollar budget but you get basically what it's supposed to get across:



General Motors was a humble little start-up in Flint, Michigan back in 1908. Not even founder William C. Durant could have predicted that it'd climb to such heights. Throughout the 20th century, it gained a reputation in the United States, as maybe the best practical car around. And even as the 21st century dawned, GM still held the lead in annual sales. Nobody could have predicted that it would have fallen this hard back in the glory days of the mid-1900s. However, since the late 80s, disaster had been knocking on the auto giant's door, and finally it grew big enough to shoot GM down.
But after filing for bankruptcy, the company is making an honest effort to re-gain its footing on the automobile market. Determined executives are calling it the "re-invention". But they are still refusing to look up to their Japanese counterparts, not willing to damage their sensitive ego. Let's face it though, GM will never get past Toyota ever again as long as cars are the prime mode of transportation. I think most average Americans have realized the Harvard executives at GM can't seem to grasp it.
However, I don't mean to convey that GM should admit defeat and just shut down. They don't even have to tangibly admit defeat. But they do have to stop trying to be number one and start trying to be number two.
I know that sounds odd to you. But look at the auto sector as a race on a sheet of ice. GM had been gliding along nicely as the leader for almost a century but then suddenly, it slipped and fell. So Toyota and a few other brands retained their pace and sped ahead. Once GM got back up, they were quite far from the lead position. On the other hand, now they're trying to run at full speed to try and catch up. That's not going to work though running to fast on ice is just going to make you fall again. GM just has to maintain a steady sustainable pace that won't make them fall down but allow them to remain a contender. Here's why.
If you took a poll of every American driver, and I'm sure plenty of agencies have already done so, it's most likely that a majority will consider Toyota the leader in fuel efficiency, value, environmental issues, service and practical performance. These are aspects that GM owned for the past few decades but has been taken away from them. However, GM is outraged over this fact and its inflated ego is telling it to try to snatch all these things back. But common sense and the marketing knowledge, that I know they have, is telling them to project themselves as something that Toyota is not, even the opposite. You're probably thinking, "Well, they can't say they damage the environment, are too expensive, are not fuel-efficient at all and make bad cars." I agree, they can't. But what else do analysts talk about and label Toyota when they continuously assert its excellence? They say that Japanese cars are this and Japanese cars are that. That's the key word, Japanese. But I'm not telling GM to start discriminating against the Japanese, I'm saying for them to advertise the fact that they're American and if you're a real American, you'll buy GM.
Now, I'll admit: A lot of people aren't about to buy a car that they think isn't very good just because they think it'll make them a better American. Then again, there are plenty of people who value this image of patriotism. A 4th generation American is going to be very upset if they feel any less American than anybody else; they'll but a GM. How about companies that want to seem genuinely American; they might use GMs for any transportation needs. These demographics aren't going to allow GM to re-gain top spot but they will allow GM to re-gain its status as a successful company. And research has shown that people prefer to buy from successful companies so who knows what will come of a simple step in the other direction?
Nobody can claim that they're more American than GM but there are plenty of companies who can claim that they make better cars. And maybe GM does make better cars but in the end, its about who the consumer thinks makes better cars.

Your Very Own Back-to-School Checklist: What to Buy Before School Starts

I've seen lists on what you have to do before school starts and I've breezed through a few that list a few writing utencils but stop at that. But never have a come across a simple list of every single school supply you might possibly want to bring. This is what I've tried to create here:

Writing/Correction

Highlighters
Markers
Pencil crayons
Pencils
Pens
Permanent markers

Writing Accessories

Glue
Mechanical pencil refills/lead
Pencil sharpener
Scissors
Tape

Paper

Blank paper
Construction paper
Graph paper
Index cards
Lined paper
Notebooks
Post-it notes

Organization

(Portable) hole punchers
Adhesive labels
Backpack
Binder
Calendars/agendas
Dividers
File folders
Locker organizers
Lunchbags
Paper clips
Report covers
Staples

Electronics

Cell phones
Laptops
Printer/ink

Educational

Calculators
Dictionaries
Math set
Textbooks
Thesauruses

Other

Batteries
Bookmarks
Cardboard
Computer monitor wipes
Locks
New clothes
Paper weights
Sanitizer
Snacks
Tissue
USB sticks

Back-to-School Special: Top 7 Tips to Saving Money on School Supplies

As the summer winds down, every parent needs to do some back to school shopping. However, budgets have definitely tightened with the economic crisis and now, more than ever, you have to worry about every dollar you spend, even on school necessities. Here are some tips on how to save money while doing back-to-school shopping.

7. Buy in bulk

While 40 pencils might cost you $2, 10 might cost you $1. Obviously, you're constantly trying to get the most stuff for each dollar. Hence, common sense would tell us to buy the 40. On the other hand, some people just think about the dollar amount and get uneasy when spending more. But think about it. Do you really think that your child (that clumsy little kid) will be able to hold onto 1 pencil for even a week, let alone a whole month? And besides, even if you don't need all 40 pencils to get through the year, you've still got next year...

6. Look for coupons

You may be skeptical that Staples or Target will be giving out coupons but get your hopes up because perhaps these two particular stores aren't giving anything. But trust me, there will be at least one store that will and when you miss that $10 discount, you can't say I didn't tell you. Anyway, the best coupon site around has to be RetailMeNot, which is loaded with good deals and has an excellent interface.

5. Don't buy what they don't need

Sure, it'd be nice to have a customizable stamp maker or a label printer or a pack of blue staples but there's not need to splurge on school supplies. Just buy the basics; pencils, pens, erasers, a glue stick, a ruler, a calculator. They don't need white-out or tape to carry with them to school or an electronic dictionary. You know they'll barely use any of these items.

4. Get them to use their old stuff

Maybe their binder has a few scratches and has a bit of dirt on it but get your child to use old stuff again. Pencils that haven't run out of lead and erasers that are only half-used can still be packed into a bag for next year.

3. Don't waste

You have to teach them not to waste anything that they have. Staples can't be used to draw a picture and you can't use full bristol board as scrap paper. Have a scrap paper bin and a few old things that they can play around with.

2. Compare prices

This can be done quickly with Google Product Search. Just type in what you want and it'll return the most relevant results with prices and retailers conveniently included. Also, you can organize the items by price, then go to the cheapest retailer for each thing.

1. Don't worry about brands

Maybe they'll want the best clothes, but hopefully, your child won't care about the brand of his pencil. And you won't be cheated in quality either; most school supplies are around the same, whether generic or "luxury".

Why You Can't Get Paid For Blogging: The "Pay-Per-Post" System Explained

After disappointing results with the pay-per-click system, I started searching for a more surefire way to make a few cents blogging. That's when I came across PayPerPost, the site that claims to pay its army of bloggers to make posts on behalf of advertisers.
Now, this might sound like the first paragraph to one of my posts that would recommend a site, software or item to you. However, it's quite the contrary. It's just a euphemistic introduction to a post that will delve into the flawed paid-to-blog system.
Pay-Per-Post claims to have fooled 265,000 innocent bloggers into joining their forces. Let's hope that you don't become one of the disappointed people crawling out of their ranks. On the other hand, I am not going to apply the label of "total scam" on this site because Izea, the parent company seems like a bunch of good people have apparently made ads for a few big companies. Still, I will apply the label of "unsatisfying waste of time" and this is why.
To begin with, considering blogging your job takes the joy out of it; and as I've said before you can't create a successful blog without liking it. If you blog for pay, you make it a duty and therefore enforce pressure on yourself to keep doing it. Plus, the topics you'll start writing on will become forced and who likes raving about a brand of chocolate cake that tastes like cement?
And trust me, readers can tell when you're being forced to make a post; first of all, because of the fact that you have to announce that it is a sponsored post and second because you'll lose all your personality in any paid-for post. You may be thinking, "Well, they'll still like to read my blog." But the truth is, that nobody likes to read something that is a blatant attempt to sell something, which the writer is getting cash out of no matter how useful or charming. Thus, you might be seeing your readership tumbling rapidly after you start writing fake posts.
Also, there are strict guidelines that regulate your sponsored posts once you join and if you don't follow, you don't get paid. These include mandatory photos, average tacks, Google ranks, Technorati ranks, Alexa ranks, regions, blog hosts and more.
But even when you do loyally abide by these rules, you'll probably never get paid more than a few dimes for each post, that is if you get paid at all.
And if you were to take a look at PayPerPost's website, you'll quickly realize that it follows virtually all the rule of a spam site. The cheesy graphics, the made-up testimonials, the brilliant colours, the fake photos of users etc. etc. etc.
But not only does this apply to PayPerPost, this applies to pretty much all paid-to-blog sites. And for that matter, it applies to pretty much all work-at-home sites.

The One Magic Rule to Blogging Success

A lot of different websites give a lot of different tips that you can follow in order to reach a level of success in blogging. There's the always common SEO techniques, social networks, guest bloggers, commenting on other blogs and the likes. However, none of these pieces of advice really capture the essence of a good idea that has turned sour.
Blogging is not about having the top spot on Google or about driving 500,000 people to your site each day. It's really a life lesson just like a lot of things. That's right, bloggging is a life lesson. And the life lesson is that you have to enjoy what you're doing.
The blog has been over-glamourized for about a half-decade now. It's been called everything from the thinking man's memo to the way to the future. Everybody basically has a blog and some passionate bloggers spend hours and hours on each of their ten blogs.
That number sums up to over 200 million weblogs worldwide. That's a lot. If each of these blogs had only 25 posts (a pretty conservative estimate), you'd have to sit on26,455,026 flights from New York to Los Angeles, reading non-stop, to be able to get through all these.
So attaining fame by this means isn't exactly the best path. And it sure as heck isn't the easiest. You're not getting very many visits to your blog before at least 3 years. It's not impossible to have fantastical post that would suddenly surge to the top of Google and give you 1 million hits on your first day, but it doesn't happen often. (And trust me, I've dreamed of this many times before.)
Sometimes you just unwillingly follow the "10 Tips for Immediate Blog Traffic" but find that even doing this takes time. You have to implement a lot of things, from meta tags to a Digg counter to even subscription by email. Then, you've gotta promote, which often takes away a lot of your life. You have to act as the annoying telemarketer always adding links into your email signatures and forum signatures and everything else. And you can't forget learning internet codes, which takes days and days and you still only know the basics. You have to design all the graphics, add little widgets. In fact, I even have a checklist of all the things I need to do to a blog before I make my first post.
And the posting is the hardest. Many sites tell you to have a regular "Tuesday Ramble" or "Noon Hour Laurel" or something of the sort. Trust me, it's not easy doing that. I've never even made an attempt because that's just too much of a commitment.

On the other hand, you can do all of this. It's not hard. In fact, it's easy. But there's one condition. You have to love to blog. You have to love to go after research and make up exciting leads and struggle through the first few years. You have to love to see the results of all your codework and listen to criticism and delete spammy comments. Customizing and creating labels and titles have to be your things.
It's not something just anybody can stay with until the end. But if you keep doing all this, for three years. I guarantee you that you will have a successful blog. Blogging isn't rocket science, it's just a grueling process. It's not like inventing a new gadget or writing a poem. Blogging is about passion, not intelligence or literary skills.
I'll admit, you're only 1 of about 10 visitors I get every day. But maybe this will be my magic post. Never say never.

7 Alternative Uses for Youtube: Finding the Useful Side of The Video-Sharing Site

Let's face it. Too many of us are spending way too much time on YouTube searching up the latest uselessly silly but somehow trendy videos by NigaHiga or whoever else. Sometimes it is a good dose of entertainment but when you get hooked, spending an hour or even half an hour every day on this video-sharing site, then you have a problem. YouTube should be a utility and not a time-waster so here are 7 good alternative uses for YouTube.

7. Product reviews

Reading a long, grueling product review just to pick out a few important points for 10 minutes is gruesome. On the other hand, watching a 10-minute video on the pros and cons of a product is less so. Trusted media sites and everyday people alike post videos on their favorite and least favorite things, often profane but often useful as well.

6. Getting caught up in the world

If you missed Obama's historic inauguration address, millions tuned into YouTube to watch clips of it in relatively high quality. They weren't captivated by the live moment but it's still nice to know a few good lines from the speech. There are tons of other speeches, news conferences and sporting event highlights displayed on the famed video site.

5. Expressing opinions

Here's my video on staying in Iraq and the dilemma surrounding the Iraq war. Here's another one, a prepared speech on brand name obsession, our adoration of the Abercrombies, Hollisters, American Eagles and Aeropostales. YouTube is a useful way to vent emotions and give honest opinions and insight, receiving public reaction that you could not get from just telling a few friends. Plus, you might get your four minutes of fame.

4. Instruction/Advice

Seminars are constantly posted up that might offer you some life-changing words of wisdom that you'll be able to credit YouTube for. Then there are other simple instructional videos on everyday things, from turning off a calculator to cooling a coke to making your own karaoke tracks.

3. Audio player

If you don't want to listen to radio, don't have an MP3 player, and don't have any tracks stored on your computer, then YouTube is the best option as an audio player. Just type in virtually any song and it's bound to be on YouTube. Most people like it for it's convenience and how easy it is to share music. You can just paste a link and people will be able to hear what you're hearing.

2. Promotion

Organizers might promote their event, start-up bands might promote their CDs, aspiring authors could promote their writing and publishers can promote their websites. Overall, YouTube is a great way to get publicity because no matter what, you are going to get at least 50 views within a month to pretty much any video. That's 100 more eyes on you.

1. Research

There's a lot of intriguing stuff that surprisingly never gets the millions of views that the stupid stuff gets. For a debate, I watched a few videos on gun control. And you can find videos posted by news agency, advocacy groups, companies and more on any issue. But that's not all. YouTube can be Wikipedia in videos and that's what I envision.

Why Testimonials Don't Convince Buyers (Anymore)

Testimonials are now officially useless. But they did have a few years of glory back when these little devices were the big thing that was used to sway buyers into trusting a product. However, since then, the dawn of a new type of testimonial has come to town.
The self-testimonial has become a pretty prominent non-factor in the market of scammer websites. Joe Walker isn't a satisfied customer. Cindy Johnson sure isn't either. They're all invented by some coward who thinks he's cool making fake testimonials. And he is anything but cool because some dumb page filled with these dumb things does anything but convince at least adequately intelligent people to make any purchases.
The rare income that these scammers to get is the few people who are too tempted by the small possibility that they could lose 50 pounds in a month on a guided weight loss program that costs $50. Or maybe its a work-at-home program that costs $20 to get started.
But the vast majority of people have simply stopped going to the testimonial parts of websites. If there's a testimonials page, I advise you to immediately close the window in which there will probably be a series of other pop-ups that activate right when you do this.
The plain truth is that companies or web businesses that have seriously established themselves as a brand that can be trusted, don't need testimonials to re-inforce anything.
This is the same with television testimonials. The multicultural actors dressed in business suits, with no facial expression are more lame attempts at making you think that they are real people.
Here's a perfect example of testimonials obviously created by make-up laiden actors who barely know what they're working for. Trust me, it doesn't just happen that they all look like either weightlifters or half-genuine football dads with their goatees and everything.
It's all stupid and it's all crap. Please. Don't ever fall for a testimonial.

Top 10 Stupidest Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets

The post I made yesterday talks about the best and most useful Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets. This one is the opposite. This one talks about those useless gadgets that just serve to take up space on your hard drive:

10. Currency, unit conversions

First of all, half of these aren't even up-to-date with the constant exchange rate changes in terms of currency. But, I'll admit, you may come across a time when you would like a currency conversion and such a gadget would be great, if only it were accurate. However, this is not the same with unit conversions. No average person, has a sudden realization that if he knows how to convert centimetres to inches, his life will be better (sorry, this is the first thing that came to my mind). So forget unit conversions at least, please.

9. Mini-radios

I don't want to listen to India's news or British 88.5, if I live in Canada. If I seriously want radio, I'll either listen to a station that actually has something to do with me. Plus, with the not-that-recent advent of iPods as well as computer media players, there isn't much of a need for a radio, let alone a radio Vista gadget.

8. Countdowns

Ah, aren't these cool to take a look at once in awhile. No. Do you really need to know that there are 324 days until Christmas, or better yet, 243 days until Good Friday? You'll know when these things come; you don't need some geek who made the gadget telling you when Christmas is. And if you're actually customizing these countdown clocks to your birthday or something, get a life.

7. System control

Seriously, if you have this gadget installed, please get a treadmill and lay off the McDonalds for a little while. If you're lazy to the point where you can't even move your mouse to click on the start button and proceed to click the "Shut Down" function or something of the sort, then it'd be healthier for you not to have a computer.

6. Application launcher

Refer to number 7. Again, you can't just click on the application name on the start menu or even glance to the left and double click the icon on your desktop? May I inform you that sitting by your computer all day munching on Lays and drinking Fanta pop is not good for you.

5. Bobbleheads, animated flags, optical illusions etc.

This seems to amuse some people but doesn't really do it for me. I like Obama but I'm not going to express my support by downloading a virtual bobblehead. And downloading an animated flag is not showing that you're patriotic, it's showing that you're stupid. I don't even want to talk about optical illusions.

4. Anything in safety and security (i.e. terrorist alert, password generator)

I click on the "Safety and Security" category of the Windows Live Gadget Gallery and the first one that I see is "Terrorist Alert". To begin with, I don't trust something hosted by Microsoft with terrorism alerts. Secondly, if you're the type that downloads system control or application launcher, you probably won't be willing to get out of your seat anyway. Just keep munching, don't worry that Osama's knocking at your door.

3. System Usage

You'd better be pretty geeky to care about "system usage". For the most part, ordinary people neither care about, nor understand what "64% computer usage" and "45 GB of hard drive space left". You can buff it up with cool graphs and numbers but I refuse to download this gadget.

2. Date/clock

What the hell. If you download this, you are literally as low, if not lower than the group that downloads system control. In terms of the clock, move your pupils downwards and to the right to look at the digital clock provided instead of peering the second hand moving on a fat orange cat. But here's the hard part for you people out there. To get the date, you'll have to move your mouse all the way down the same place that you just gazed at and put your mouse over it (not click it).

1. UFO news

I just had to mention this one. UFO news. Let me just say that if you still believe in UFOs, you must have been hiding in the well for way to long. You must realize that they don't exist. Now, I'll just tell you some of the description: "Get the latest news on Ufo's, Alien abductions, Cattle mutilations and Crop circles on this planet from 80 of the worlds top researchers and radio programs." Alien abductions? Cattle mutilations? You've got to be kidding me.

If you want useful gadgets though, the best ones are listed here.

Top 10 Best and Most Useful Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets for an Average Joe

For the computer geeks out there this is not for you. That means, if you go on the computer at 6 AM in the morning to check your email, 9 AM to check Facebook and spend all day working on Microsoft Word then come home to play Warcraft, leave. Now. However, if not, you're welcome to take a look at the 10 applications that I personally find most appealing:

10. Blogger Buddy

Simply enter an account username and password and you'll be off and running. Direct links to all the blogs correlated with that account will be provided. Plus, you can compose full posts with many of the necessary formatting accessories including emphasis, hyperlinks and pictures. In fact, you can even preview the post right from the gadget before you publish. The one flaw that I've found is that you can't insert labels into the posts from this gadget.

9. Dictionary/Thesaurus

I don't care what you do for a living, there are those times when you just need a definition, spelling or synonym that you can't seem to find in your head. That's when this very simple but useful application will come in handy. It's dictionary is definitely useful although it has its flaws, with most of its entries originating from the Webster's 1913 dictionary and an odd interface but the thesaurus is surely adequate and sure is better than the few words that Microsoft Office's thesaurus provides.

8. Desk Essentials

Like a pizza, this is a lot of good stuff crammed into one thing. A detailed to-do list that features organization by priority and due date, an easily accessible notepad as well as a decent calculator that will solve small equations. In addition, it's nice to be able to print out the to-do list and notes too.

7. SportsAlert

This gadget has a ton of versatility listing scores to every NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB and NCAA basketball game. It's reliable with occasional updates but there's not much more to say; it's just a good application.

6. News

It doesn't really matter what you want here. I'm just throwing this search term out there. Most versions already have a news reader installed but you might prefer a particular brand of news, perhaps the USA Today.

5. WeatherBug

Although I don't personally like this particularly, it's consider a basic essential that you just have to have. You can set your location very easily and this gadget will retrieve temperatures, satellites, photos, wind gusts, precipitation and HI/LO reports daily.

4. Facebook Sidebar

At this point, pretty much everyone has a Facebook account. Well with this application, you can satisfy your craving for a constant view of Facebook updates. This displays messages, pokes and all invitations as well as friend requests. Moreover, you can update your status as long as you authorize this action.

3. zCalendar

This is a very cool gadget, which, along with showing the date (my favorite part), lets you add events, which you can customize with your own notes. To add, this application will play a little chime as an alert if you enable it at a set time before the event starts.

2. All Search

Type in any search term, select a search engine from the list that includes Google, Yahoo!, Live, eBay, Amazon, the weather, dictionary, Youtube and Wikipedia. This will instantly open your Internet Explorer taking you to the search results page for the particular engine. Really easy, really convenient.

1. Email

Ah, email. How can you forget this. I can't pinpoint you to the exact gadget because I don't know what service you use. But you need this. Trust me.

5 Ways to Save Your Eyes While on the Computer

These days all the talk is about weight loss and keeping your heart healthy. However, not many are as worried about their eyes, with vision probably your most valuable sense. But I understand you have to go on the computer, especially with blogs like this one (just joking!), so I won't tell you how to stop going on the computer or to relieve your eyes once you're done. I'll just tell you what to do while you're on to just help them out a bit.

5. Look away when the screen is white

White is a pretty irritating colour for your eyes, particularly when its on a computer screen. Plus, there's no point in staring at a blank screen so may as well look away, just to give your eyes a bit of a break.

4. Get a better monitor

Believe me, this helps. A flat monitor is always better then a rounded one while the higher the resolution, the better. I recommend any brand other than Acer. Although these ones are cheap, they are incredibly irritating for your eyes.

3. Lower the contrast and brightness

Your eyes hate contrast and brightness. They'll relax a bit more without as much contrast and brightness and you can see everything perfectly fine even with a bit less.

2. Don't stare to intently

I know sometimes you have to stare intently to read but this hurts your eyes a lot. Just train yourself to relax your eye muscles while watching videos or reading. This usually means basically not dilating your eyes and letting them be a bit lazy, if you get what I mean.

1. Take breaks

Ah. I hate to do this but it just helps you so much. It keeps your muscles loose, keeps you energetic and of course it helps your eyes. But don't just walk out of your office to stare at a newspaper's size 10 font or a TV screen. Go for a walk outside or just look into the distance every 45 minutes or so.

How You'll Be Able to Survive When Internet Ads Stop Working: Part Two of the Two-Part Series

This is the second part of the two-part series commenting on internet ads. This post will tell you what you can do when internet ads inevitably stop working. If you want to read the first post, click here.

So when Google Adwords, Yahoo's ad service or whatever else you use stops working in a half a century, here's your toolbox for what to do. Be sure to bookmark this post because you never know when you'll need it.
First of all, if you're so keen on staying loyal to internet advertising, one way to use it would be to make any ads less apparent. The latest innovation has been content links, which are the double-underline links that are actually ads. However, most people have realized what these do by now and internet-saavy users will quickly see through any trick ads so if you choose this option you'll have to just keep making your ads less and less discreet.
And of course, there are many other means of advertising a site as well. Print ads (which are fading even faster than their internet counterparts), TV ads and billboard ads are all alternatives. Further, soon you'll have to start being creative with how you market. Some sites have robot voices who shout out their URL in the background of MP3 files while some people put bumper stickers with their URL printed on them onto their cars.
What is essential though because of all the scams that go on these days is establishing a good image. You must demonstrate that your company/website isn't one of those scam sites. This means obviously no scams. However, you can go a step further; make your page look professional and even help out in the community.
The important part of all this though, is SEO. If you don't know what this is (shame on you if you have a full domain and don't know what this is), it stands for search engine optimization. Basically this means modifying your site to make it appear more prominently in search engines, the main tools that people use to look for web pages. And the our love for Google and the likes will likely not cease for a long, long time because of how much they have been engraved into our everyday lives. Hence, you can keep feeding off of search engines, which will probably always be your top referring sites in terms of visitors. However, SEO isn't exactly an easy process; it takes a lot of time and effort. There are tons of guides on the internet that tell you all about the meta tags, alt tags, keyword research, emphasis, directory submission, incoming links and all the other boring stuff involved in creating a website.
But face it, that's what you'll have to deal with if you want to make it in the internet world. This is what you will be subject to do when the day comes.

Opening Day: 5 Ways to Keep Track of the Baseball Game If You Don't Have a TV

You're on the subway, you're at work, you're at school or you just want an excuse not to watch your team lose miserably in high-definition (ahem, Seattle, Toronto and Washington fans). Either way, when everyone's talking about the game tomorrow and you didn't even catch the highlights, then watch your neck, especially when your boss is a drunk baseball fan. Here's a few ways to (half) catch the game without ever having to leave your computer:

5. Check the score

If you do this for opening day, then you can no longer consider yourself a baseball fan. However, it is one of the techniques, although it can only be reserved for loners. And if you don't know how to do this, you need help: There's Facebook applications, sports websites, Windows Sidebar tools and everything in between.

4. MLB.TV

Another thing you can do is pay a hundred bucks for something you'll never actually used. I don't recommend this. Yes, you have your pause and rewind, DVR features, "high-definition quality" and everything else, but it's a hundred friggin' bucks (that's over 50 beers).

3. Radio live audio broadcasts

Chances are your baseball team has some sort of a radio station that broadcasts its games in audio. Also, this station hopefully supports online listening. This is the best way if your team has a station. The thing is though, most radio broadcasters are washed up commentators who got cut from ESPN.

2. Yahoo! Sports GameChannel

Don't we all love Yahoo? Here's another reason to love the good guys at Yahoo! Sports. The GameChannel. Not as bad as checking the scores as they support play-by-play, box-scores, full stats, player info and a better interface.

1. ESPN the next morning

If you're that keen on not watching the game but not getting fired, then just watch ESPN the next morning; they'll have the juicy parts, they'll tell you the score, they'll give you a few interesting facts.

How to Find a New Job: The Part CNN Doesn't Talk About

With unemployment at an all-time high, the economy barely limping, your money being channeled directly to Wall Street CEOs and the general progress of America and the world at a seemingly endless halt, sometimes it's hard to find the energy to get up and look for a job. Sometimes determination, drive and tenacity just fails you. This is when motivation is essential.
However, these days, the talk seems to focused only on how bad unemployment is getting, more job cuts and people's unfortunate stories; all negative. And even the things telling you how to get your job back are centred around your resume, social networking and the laborious searching.
Wings For The Heart will give you that extra boost to actually start doing these things. On the other hand, only a few people have even heard of this website.
With a great library of motivational articles as well as articles of guidance of the kinder sort, this site will truly bring out your brighter side. Wings For Heart Can help you with weight loss motivation, stress management, self-esteem, gratitude, positive thinking and a lot more.
Plus, the e-mail newsletter is great for motivation on your mobile device or when you just don't have time to go to the website. As well, specialized e-mail e-courses as well as e-books and the always wonderful motivational quotes will definitely set you on the right track.
And of all the websites I've talked about, this is one of the few that can truly change your life and let you "love, trust, open, surrender, believe, live, breathe, shine, soar, become ... and more".

Why You Should Stop Searching For An Online "Stay-At-Home" Job

In your days, you've probably seen quite a few "Take Surveys for Cash" or "Click for Cash" or "Fill in Forms for Cash" and the likes. I've seen my share of these and tried way too many. Now my inbox is filled with spam telling me that I can "Make $10,000 in 1 week".
It's never bad to try things on the internet because you never know what you'll be able to find that's of use. However, this general rule has the exception of "high-paying" online jobs that "let you work your hours" from the "comfort of your own home".
In this recession some begin to get desperate and instead of looking for honest ways to earn money, they look for easy ways to do it. They surf the web looking for online jobs and try out every last one that they find, with the glimmer of hope never ceasing to shine. They get optimistic every time they see the cheesy fake testimonials, six-figure promises and half-professional website designs.
But these don't work. You've heard the success stories and it is true, perhaps a handful of people have actually done well on the web (mind you most of these stories are fabricated), but just because the guy down the street did it, doesn't mean you can do it. It's not like cooking or knitting or fixing a car. There's no good recipe. On the other hand, there sure are a lot of recipes that'll result in burned chicken.

To begin with, it takes a ton of time to do each form, filling out your contact information and then trying to get off the ground just to find that nothing's happening. This is precious time that you can be using to try to find a job with a steady, honest income.
Also, there are sites that work, but these sites won't be close to enough to support a family or even a single person. Most might give you a few cents every third day for hours and hours of work but that won't even be enough for an ant.
Moreover, the scams that happen every day should immediately turn you off. If you stay in the business long enough, your identity will be stolen. I guarantee it. You can get into a lot of trouble with the law yourself as well because many of these pages are illegal or get you into legal trouble.

A rule is, if it's too good to be true, it isn't. Another rule is that if there's tons of emphasized and capitalized letters, neon bright colours, highlighted words and video testimonials, don't trust it. And finally,
you can't make money online with anything. It could be reading emails, sending emails, taking surveys, or even writing reviews. You just can't do it.

10 Reasons to Stick to Google Adsense

Google Adsense is the most used ad program in the world and with good reason.

10. Integrated into Blogger.

If you have a blog that you didn't pay for, chances are, you use Blogger and it's always nice having a convenient little tab called "Monetize" that lets you add and customize ads that you want to display on your blog.

9. They'll help.

This is great for newbies. Like all Google services, Adsense has one of the most useful help sections in all of the internet, detailing every feature, fact and technique there is. They'll guide you through pretty much everything.

8. No spam ads.

A problem with a lot of smaller Adsense alternative is that they have to resort to misleading ads that link to malicious, cheat or illegal sites that pay more. However, with the larger audience, Google doesn't have to so you're safe from any complaints or lawsuits.

7. They find the ads for you.

The problem with a bunch of ad publishers is that they make you link up with an ad displayer, which is a long, gruelling process suited only for sites with a ton of views. And in the meantime, they often display ads that don't pay you a single penny, which is really frustrating.

6. No traffic conditions.

A bunch of the "premium" ad sites that are pretty much the same as Adsense demand that you have at least 100,000 individual page views every month, or some other outrageous number for smaller pages. However, Adsense doesn't require a certain number of views or clicks or click-through rate. On the other hand, it's not like they don't have conditions; there's a great deal of restricted types of content, quality guidelines (you need a site map), rules you have to follow and other things, but it's easier to obey these than traffic conditions.

5. They will actually pay you.

You can trust a company like Google to pay you because they want to retain their reputation. But other sites aren't as trustworthy and have not reputation to retain. There are a lot of scam ad publishers that just keep the money to themselves with creative little schemes. However, it's not going to be a way to earn a living; and the $10/click that Bidvertiser offers is pretty attractive compared to the few cents that Google is giving you. Trust be though, it'll be better in the long run.

4. Relevant ads.

It's hard not to find an ad that has something to do with what your site's about in Google's massive database. And you know the deal with their amazing search algorithms that are bound to find something.

3. Low payment threshold.

Last time I checked (a few minutes ago), the minimum payment was only $10 (US) while many other companies demand $20, $50 or even $100 worth of clicks/impressions for you to claim anything. This is fine for some people but definitely not for the hardworking little guy on main street.

2. Most reliable.

First of all, it's not like ads are suddenly all going to disappear because the server crashed or the code screwed up; that'll probably never happen. Also, that little symbol that reads the familiar "Ads by Google" is enough to tell someone that they aren't going to be mislead, obviously leading to more clicks.

1. Most feature-rich.

I can't really stop talking about Adsense's features. You can display the ads in different formats, on different types of sites, in different places, with easy earnings tracking, on multiple different sites with the same account. This is just the beginning.

On the other hand, I'm going to stick with my Bidvertiser just because my blog isn't exactly at an advanced stage yet. When it reaches a decent number of page views though, I'll definitely make the switch.