June 2007

I once heard of a trend among the super rich. They buy extremely expensive jewelry but are too cautious to wear them since they don’t want to risk anything happening to them. Rather they order exact duplicates (there aren’t cheep either) of their jewelry and wear the replicas outside while keeping the originals safely in a well guarded safe. The idea behind this is that while they would never normally wear any kind of fake, the fact that they actually own the original allows them to maintain a certain status and they consider the real jewelry as sort of legitimizing the fakes.

Personally I think this is absurd. I have no problem wearing something fake, copied, replicated or any other form of clothing or jewelry as long as I like it and it looks nice. The truth is that I don’t even mind if people know it isn’t real but usually that is not an issue at all since it is so easy to get identical replicas of almost anything. That’s why I love ashleysboutique.com. They sell handbags that are either replicas or inspired by the most prestigious designers such as Louis Vuitton, Coach, Prada, Gucci, etc. The prices are so reasonable and cost only a fraction of the originals that I find myself getting a new handbag almost every month.

What is more important for you? The things you put in your money bank or the things you put in your memory bank? While the team at Lastminute.com.au claims they have created their site in order to help with the later option, they actually do a good job at helping you with both.

The idea behind the Lastminute.com.au website is giving customers an easy inside track to find smarter and more affordable travel and leisure options so they can make the most out of their last minute plans. Using the site actually gives a whole new spin on the term “last minute”. Just because you haven’t planned your trip months in advance doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a wide range of experiences that you won’t forget.

In fact, your trip will be all that better since you can get much more bang for your buck by taking advantage of the savings of last minute hotels and last minute flights, allowing you to do more in your trip without increasing your budget.

What do Alice Cooper, Motorhead and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts have in common? Right, they’re all rockers who have made a name for themselves in the rock music industry. Now, they’re all set to treat rock fans to a one-of-a-kind concert this November 2007.

The three rock groups are teaming up for a concert tour that will take them around the U.K. They will stage ten concerts that guarantee a real rock ‘n roll experience. This is not the first time, though, that these three groups will get together for a show.

Alice Cooper has earned the title as the original shock rocker and has entertained rock audiences for more than 30 years now. He has more than 30 albums to his credit. Cooper said he’s looking forward to working with Motorhead and Joan Jett once more for an all-out energetic show every night. He promises a “no mercy” tour for rock fans.

Motorhead, meanwhile, is known for their punk-metal music. The trio got positive reviews for their 18th studio album entitled “Kiss of Death.” The album was released on SPV records in August 2006.

Of course, everyone knows Joan Jett, the originator of the first all girl rock and roll band called the Runaways. She’s also behind the first successful woman-artist owned record company, Blackheart Records. And who could ever forget her famous hit “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.”

We’ve just joined a new bloggers network called Payperpost. This is a pretty cool service which allows bloggerst to make money while blogging on the things they like. The idea is that advertisers looking to generate some buzz for their products can offer opportunities for bloggers who can then get paid to blog about what they think about the advertisers product. It’s kind of a win-win situation since advertisers get genuine word of mouth advertising as well as a helpful review of their product and bloggers can get paid for what they do best – update their blog! Keep your eyes out in the next coming days and weeks for some sponsored posts through the Payperpost system. We will try to review products and services which we think our readers will find interesting. I guess that makes it a win-win-win situation since our readers benefit too :).

A member of the Rolling Stones recently donated almost 300 acres of his hunting preserve to the state of Georgia as a conservation easement. Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell is a conservationist and is among the first residents of Georgia to avail of a new land conservation tax credit. He expressed hope others will follow his act to protect the open spaces in Georgia.

Last April 2006, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a law giving tax income credits for private landowners and corporations who have preserved undeveloped property. Landowners whose property is covered by conservation easement give up their right to develop the land. There are only six applications at present but state officials expect more resident to apply after the rules were finalized in December last year.

Leavell’s middle Georgia hunting preserve called Charlane Plantation will initially be under the supervision of The Conservation Fund. It will be transferred later to the Georgia Forestry Commission. Leavell was appointed to the Georgia Land Conservation Commission in 2001.

Georgia is among the 12 states with a tax credit program that encourages the donation of conservation easements or land. The federal government provides a separate tax credit for this program.

It looks like we picked quite the day to join Payperpost. Only a few hours after our previous post about this great paid blogging service, the company has announced that they managed to raise a whopping 7 million dollars from investors in order to build the company for the future. The money was raised via the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and comes after a previous round of investments totaling 3 million dollars.

In the press release put out by the company (see below), ted murphy, the company’s CEO was quoted “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential…”. It will be interesting to see what developments the company rolls out in the coming months and how it puts this new money to use. One thing can definitely be said about Payperpost and that is that they don’t seem to rest much. Just a few days ago the company announced a new feature called Payperpost direct which is an expansion to the company’s previous business modal which worked on a marketplace model. The new service allows advertisers to purchase reviews directly from the bloggers they choose which Payperpost acting only as a billing and escrow platform which lowers costs for advertisers and offers them greater control over who where their products are reviewed.

ORLANDO, FL – (June 12, 2007) – PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for advertisers to reach bloggers and other consumer content creators, today announced it has completed a $7 million second round investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an investor in the company's Series A and one of the world’s leading high-technology venture capital firms. The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by PayPerPost to over $10 million, giving the company considerable resources for further development as the industry’s leading Consumer Generated Advertising marketplace. Additional participants in the round include existing investors Inflexion Partners and Village Ventures as well as new investor DFJ Gotham. With this investment, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein also joins PayPerPost’s Board of Directors.

“PayPerPost created this exciting new advertising space and has established itself as the industry leader,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential. Our content creator and advertiser ROI metrics clearly demonstrate the upside for PayPerPost’s model. We intend to use this capital to build the infrastructure, visibility and professional expertise necessary to reach and retain a greater network of advertisers and content creators than ever before.”

Since its founding in June of 2006, PayPerPost has signed more than 6,500 advertisers to its groundbreaking service, which has enabled Consumer Content Creators to be compensated for their efforts discussing specific companies, products or services via blogs, videos or other media. The content creators are required to disclose relationships with advertisers on their blog, providing transparency for the end reader. Over 125,000 Internet postings, most in the form of blogs, have already earned money for their creators through PayPerPost’s innovative marketplace. PayPerPost recently released PayPerPost Direct, a disruptive new service that allows advertisers to contract and negotiate directly with individual bloggers they identify through a safe, managed system.

“PayPerPost has laid a strong foundation for the future,” noted Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “It continues to attract a critical mass of participants from both the advertising and blogging communities. Analogous to Overture’s sponsored search model, we believe PayPerPost’s business model holds disruptive potential and will enable the company to thrive in the evolving paid-content arena.”

To mark the $7 million dollar funding, PayPerPost has launched a new website detailing the company’s service offering at http://www.payperpost.com. Bloggers and advertisers can easily sign up at the site and begin leveraging the self service marketplace.

For those of you following the recent London 2012 Olympics logo saga, it has finally come to an end with the British minister of culture’s verdict that the proposed logo will remain unchanged. The decision followed a wave of criticism about the proposed logo due to its graffiti style which some viewed as cheapening the event. However, the majority of people who saw the logo expressed they liked the logo with a new and young image. The new logo also provides flexibility for customizing it to fit various events and sponsorships. I actually feel good about the time it took us to create our new logo (coming soon), this actually makes our trouble look like child's play...

We have more news to update you about today and some great things are happening here at Brew This!. In order to further enrich your experience on our site and to enhance the content we provide you, we have signed up for a new service called The News Room. The site brings together numerous sources of news content from the internet’s top informational websites. In addition to video segments The News Room also provides written articles which can be embedded in any website.

This step will not only provide a better user experience for our readers but will also help us earn money for the maintenance of our site. The News Room allows website owners to embed video articles on their site from a wide range of categories and pays the website owners a fee based on the number of impressions the videos receive. Webmasters can earn up to $4 CPM (cost per one thousand impressions) by simply providing their readers with interesting video segments.

We definitely recommend this service for anyone with a website who wishes to add as bit extra to their site as well as help monetize their site. Signing up for the site was surprisingly easy and the entire process took less than 5 minutes. Also, once you sign up, adding content to your site is extremely simple and all it takes is to simply cut and paste the appropriate code from their site. Check out our first video on a quite interesting celebration below.

Apple computers is already a long time not just a computer company and has shifted their business model to include best selling consumer electronics devices such as their Ipod music player and soon to be released Iphone cell phone. However, in a press release from yesterday the company announced they are now offering their Safari web browser for Windows users as opposed to the current versions running solely on Mac units. This recent announcement is a clear indication that the company has not abandoned the PC market just yet and is going head on with Microsoft by offering an alternative to their Internet Explorer web browser which currently enjoys an 80% share of the market.

While we do encourage responsible partying and drinking here at Brew This! there is one thing we take a very firm stance on. We can’t emphasize enough the seriousness we view on the subject of drug use. There is no reason to incorporate drugs into a party in order to have a good time. If you think your party is not successful without drugs, you simply don’t know how to party.

But the more important issue that most people miss out on is the fact that even if you don’t use drugs, you can’t hesitate to make sure your friends don’t either. It may not be a pleasant situation, but you can really save their lives. It is also your job to help your friends in case they do develop a drug addiction. This is a time where they cannot help themselves and you must step up to make sure they receive the best treatment possible.

A great treatment center is available at the Stone Hawk rehabilitation center. The center uses the narconon system to treat their patients. They have an interesting story since the founders of the center have gone through a drug addiction themselves in the past and were able to get through it with the narconon system.

An Australian beer ad featuring a bikini-clad woman under the title "Hahn boobs" is being criticized by viewers for being offensive and sexist. Critics are claiming the ad is derogatory to women and demand it be pulled from publication immediately.

The state's top health advisory body, VicHealth, has written to the Advertising Standards Bureau asking for the ads to be put on hold. The ad for a low carb beer Hahn Superdry features a young man transforming a love heart in the sand into a pair of woman’s breasts before drinking a beer. At least you can tell what the ad is for, most commercials are strong on the sexual connotations but neglect to promote the actual product.

Computers have certainly taken over our lives. We have grown so dependant on our little machines and gizmos that it seems we sometimes just can’t go without them. The problem is, they aren’t always there for us. The nature of machines (and human beings) is to go wrong every now and then. The trick is to be prepared and not let a simple computer glitch cause long term damage.

People don’t always take the proper measure to keep their data safe and create regular backups. A new service called IDrive-E Online Backup tries to help solve this situation. The company provides a free virtual drive online where you can save backup version of your files absolutely free.

Just a few days after Google launched a massive protest against the online auction giant eBay claiming the company is blocking their Google’s online payment system Google Checkout in an unfair move to maintain the dominance of eBay’s Paypal payment system. However eBay showed Google that they don’t really want to mess with them and they chose the wrong people to pick a fight with. In an innocent move masked as an advertisement budget test, eBay removed all their paid advertisements from Google’s network. This seemingly unrelated event made Google realizing they have more to loose by going against eBay than they can gain. In addition to loosing the advertising dollars (from one of their top advertisers), Google also fears this money will go to their competitors giving them a nice boost in their competition against Google.

Summer is in the air and it seems like just about everyone is planning some sort of vacation or the other. The funny thing is for what is supposed to be a fun and relaxing experience there is a lot of stress involved. It all starts with the planning. Oh, the planning… This can easily take hours on end and it seems sometimes like you can spend more time planning you trip then the actual time you spend on your vacation itself. But I guess this isn’t always a bad thing, it depends more on your state of mind than on the actual time you spend. Some people actually enjoy planning their trip since it builds up anticipation and it’s kind of like fanaticizing. You can almost smell the trip in the air when you are planning so you can almost feel like you already are on your vacation.

But the real problem is that most people go on a vacation only to return needing another vacation. People spend their time during their trip constantly trying to accomplish as much as possible that they forget to relax and have fun. That’s why I always prefer the type of vacation where the main focus is just a relaxing environment with no pressure. Last year we visited costa blanca in Spain. The whole area is just so relaxing. First of all you have some of the most beautiful beaches you have ever seen. The only stressful thing about the trip is deciding on which fantastic restaurant to go to for dinner or which beach you want to relax in.

In addition, even the sightseeing is a very pleasant experience since you don’t actually have to have a strict plan of what you want to see and when. You can simply drive up and down the coast stopping by the wonderful towns along the way. Each town has its own charm and there are things to see all over. You will even enjoy the car ride itself since the route is magnificently scenic.

The internet has brought new life into the already popular game of poker. There are so many online poker websites which allow web users to play against other people from all over the world. Players of all levels enjoy playing over the internet and the various sites allow them to either play with virtual money for fun or actually compete against other players for real money.

The popularity of the game has spurred a large number of websites offering every type of poker game possible. Each site has its advantages and offers different games and offers for their players. A great source is available online with terrific poker information as well as online poker site guides and reviews.

Wichpoker.com features reviews of the web’s top poker sites including the widely popular PokerStars which produced three of the last four WSOP champions, Pacific Poker which is owned and operated by 888.com and one of the web’s first poker sites Paradise Poker.

Do you remember the days when waterbeds where in fashion. Back in the seventies waterbeds were the latest thing and everybody was rushing to get them. I don’t know how that trend died out, I always thought it was a cool idea. I never actually got one myself but it is still kind of a dream of mine, who knows maybe if it makes a comeback I will get rid of my spring mattress and “spring” for a new waterbed.

You have to be from Mars not to have heard about the upcoming cell phone by Apple which should be released this month called the Iphone. In fact it has been anticipated by Apple and Ipod fans even before the company officially acknowledged that such a phone is in the works. But I have a feeling Apple is in for a surprise. Many competing companies have already beet them to it in producing their own version of a touch screen phone selling at much lower price points. I’m not sure Apple will be able to pull off what they did with the Ipod this time.

As home prices grow in the UK new home buyers are finding it more and more difficult to finance their new home. The problem is that UK salaries haven’t grown at the same rate as house prices have. In fact over the past decade home prices have outpaced salary increases by a two to one factor making mortgages a harder thing to finance.
While this is a bad thing for the market in general some banking institutions are offering special financial tools to help cope with the larger loans. Consumers art taking out mortgage protection which ensures their loan in an event they can no longer work and pay off their loan. In addition, banks are offering current home owners to take out remortgages in order to monetize their higher home price and use the difference in price of their new and old mortgage for other needs.

It is no secret that Brew This! has become the number one source for drinking games and drinking game rules on the internet. And we now have some official recognition. The Brew This! drinking games section now ranks #4 on Google for the term “drinking games”. I have a feeling number one spot is just around the corner.

Dealing with a drug addiction by a someone close to us is though and it is often our responsibility to make sure they receive the proper treatment towards recovery. Thankfully our country has some of the best drug treatment facilities in the world and your loved ones don’t have to go through this on their own. There are many institutions that can help them in a professional and caring manner. A good place to turn to if you have someone close to you suffering from a drug addiction is 1800nodrugs.com. They provide help and advice on finding the right treatment for each individual.

Good news at the Brew This! blog. Our blog has been accepted to the PPP direct program. The new PPP direct program by Payperpost allows advertisers to purchase reviews directly from specific blogs they think is relevant to their products. While Payperpost is not new to blog ads and they have actually pioneered this new industry of advertising on blogs, this new program provides their current advertisers more methods of purchasing blog ads. The current Payperpost system works on a marketplace model where advertisers post review opportunities for bloggers to accept. Any blogger who meats the opportunity’s minimum criteria can opt to complete the review and get paid. However under the new PPP direct model, advertisers have more control over where their ads are displayed by choosing the specific blogs they are interested. Each blog can also choose their own asking price for a review. There are a number of competing services who work on a similar business model including Sponsoredreviews.com and Blogsvertise.com however PPP direct is currently offering the lowest service fees for the deal. While some services charge as much as 30% per transaction, Payperpost priced their new service at only 10% of the transaction. If you take into account that they pay for credit card and paypal fees which can amount to almost 5%, their current price model is extremely competitive and fair.

I grew up in a small neighborhood and actually went to a high school that was just four blocks from my house. The truth is that I really enjoyed this proximity and took advantage of it quite often (I would cut class a lot and it wasn’t uncommon for me to “visit” home during the day for a break) but I do feel I missed out on some experiences my friends who went to boarding schools had. It’s something that stays with you for life. While many people have this kind of experience, there is nothing that can quite replace the experience of boarding schools for teens. A great source for parents to view the various options of boarding schools for their children is available at myboardingschool.com.

Things seem to be heating up in Israel. As I’m writing these lines, news reports of three rockets hitting the northern city of Kiryat Shmona are all over T.V. This recent attack comes exactly one year after the second Lebanon war which took place in June of 2006 in a month long campaign between the Hizbolla terror group and Israel.

But the timing of this latest attack is interesting not only because of the symbolic date after the war but also because of what has been going on in the Gaza strip. Over the past few days a dramatic uprising has taken place with the Hammas terror group taking control of the entire Gaza strip. The next few days will tell how these developments will unfold and whether we are in for a new uproar in the entire region.

We always like to compare ourselves to our kids and quite often you can hear a parent telling their kids about how things were when they were growing up. Usually our point with these old tales is to try and explain how we did things better. But the hard fact is that we probably wouldn’t survive in today’s teenager world. The average teenager goes through much more stress and pressure during their everyday life than we ever did growing up.

The problem is that parents don’t always have the right tools and knowledge for dealing with these types of problems with teenagers especially if they have extreme cases of troubled teens. Nothing in life can prepare you for this, not even the years raising your children during their pre adolescence years.

A good source to turn to for dealing with and helping troubled teens is helpmyteen.com. The site is backed by an organization offering over organization with over 20 years of experience in counseling and connecting families with appropriate situations for their troubled teen. The site deals with a wide range of issues from ADD\ADHD to depression and self esteem problems among teens. Through the site you can find a wide range of solutions and resources including information on boot camps and military schools as well as special behavior programs for teens.

There are many drinking games out there. And believe me, we should know. Our site lists over 160 drinking games, many of which have been submitted by our loyal site readers. But for a real beer sport, there is nothing like beer pong. This is different from most drinking games since it is a real sport (or game) that involves beer as part of the game and not just as a penalty (or prize) in the form of drinking based on the game’s outcome. You can purchase a cool beer pong kit directly from the link on our site which can be found on our beer pong game here.

It is very rare for a television series to evolve into a full release movie and things usually work the other way around. But while I thought the Reno 911 hugely hilarious television series just can’t get any better, I realized I was wrong once I saw Reno 911! Miami The Movie. It just rocks! I don’t remember seeing a movie where I laughed so much. In fact I didn’t have to be embarrassed since I wasn’t bothering anyone at the theater since the whole theater was laughing with me.

I think the best scene of the movie was during Junior’s dream (which by the way took place during his nap while driving!) where the dorky Reno police force was introduced as some sort of super heroes and recruited by the FBI in order to take down the building in which terrorists were locked up after taking over a law enforcement convention.

I just pre-ordered a copy of the movie on Amazon since the movie is supposed to be released in two days (June 19th). The DVD version is called the “unrated” version but I’m not sure what that means. I wonder if it includes parts that were edited out of the theater release. In any case, I can’t wait to add Reno 911! Miami The Movie to my DVD collection. I have a feeling this is one I will be watching over and over.

It looks like things are cooling down a bit in the Middle East. It seems that Israel decided to take yesterday’s hit from Hizbulla without any retaliation whatsoever. I guess there is something to be said about giving the other cheek but to tell you the truth I don’t think this applies with terror groups. If you give the other cheek they will simply hit you there too and look for further week spots as well. I don’t know if you could call this a courageous or simply a coward move by the Israeli government after last year’s not so positive war results. Let’s hope this calm doesn’t fuel the terrorists and give them confidence for a larger attack still to come.

We were asked to review the website of Great Priced Furniture (greatpricedfurniture.com) and give our input. The owners of the site have been working on it a lot lately and have quite an impressive outcome to show for. The site is slowly becoming one of the web’s top sources for discount furniture with a great selection and even better prices. While not many would consider the internet as the place for purchasing furniture, the folks at Great Priced Furniture make the process natural and easy. The site offers great pictures of each item providing a number of angles of view so you can get a good idea of what you are getting. In addition the site offers convenient shipping options making the entire transaction a pleasure.

I have a friend who got himself into a bit of trouble. He never was very responsible with money and always would live from hand to mouth. In fact, most of the time he would live beyond his means constantly taking out loans. The problem was he didn’t have a clear plan for paying off his loans and therefore they just accumulated. He reached a point where the only way he could pay off his current personal loans was by taking out new loans and using the proceeds to pay off the old ones. Often this would result in paying high fees and being forced to take out expensive loan options (in terms of APR). Finally I got him to consider a debt consolidation loans. While this too is a loan intended to pay off older loans, it is done with a plan. The idea is that you reach a viable income forcast and take the loan out in such a way that you are sure to afford. In addition, the idea behind a debt consolidation loan is that it replaces ALL your previous loans helping you finally get on track to financial stability.

You know the old saying – if you can’t beat them join them. Well it seems that some high tech giant execs have created their own version to that saying. Only their version apparently goes, if you can’t beat them – buy them! While this concept is not new and many lines have been written about the strategy that made Microsoft the giant they are today, it seems that you don’t have to be a 300 billion dollar company or be run by Bill Gates in order to swallow competition to survive. Just to name a few of the recent deals: Newcorp’s purchase of Photobucket, Flektor and of course Myspace. Google’s purchase of Doubleclick, GreenBorder and more. eBay’s purchase of StumbleUpon (not to mention previous purchases of Paypal and Skype)

I know it’s a bit late for father’s day but I just came across the perfect gift for when you are looking for something original and personal. A cool website called paintyourlife.com offers customers to send them a photograph of the person they want to surprise and they turn the photo to art. The site’s on staff portrait painters create original oil paintings of just about anyone of anything you send them. The entire process can take roughly ten days and you have a real unique piece of art ready to make someone very happy.

People try to buy their new used cards (well, new to them – used to others) at “fair market value”. But just how do you determine what fair market value is? Is it the blue book value? Possibly. But to really determine what the market values a car you must actually go to the market. You must be thinking this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Market value doesn’t mean going to the market, rather it means how cars sell with the market forces of supply and demand affecting their price.

But for people living in the Chicago area, you can actually go to the market and see the market forces in play. How, you ask? Well you can go to the auto auction Chicago. The North Shore public auto auction allows Chicago area’s residents to come and bid on a real car auction sometime getting cars at almost wholesale prices. You may say that the wholesale price isn’t exactly “fair market value” but the fact that the North Shore public auto auction runs on an open auction platform, leaves the price to be determined by just that – the market forces of supply and demand.

You can definitely tell that internet ecommerce is growing up. While most people realized very quickly that you can get great deals on commodity items such as computers, electronics, books and more over the internet – items like clothing were considered something that needs to be seen bought in person. But more and more people are now shopping for their clothing online. And it’s not just about deals either. Sites like electricladyland.com provide the very latest in new fashions and sell the latest designs of top brands such as True Religion and Rock & Republic Jeans with an exceptional user shopping experience.

Most of you are probably familiar with Backgammonmasters.com. The company’s award wining software has become synonymous with playing backgammon online. Backgammonmasters.com have indeed started out by offering players a chance to enjoy the great game of backgammon over the internet with amazing 3D graphics and the option of playing against others from around the world. But as the company gained a growing user base, so did the game selection that the company offered it’s players. In a novel concept, the company allowed their players the ability to play a number of games using a single program which can be downloaded from their site.

In a recent press release by the company, Backgammonmasters.com have announced their latest and perhaps most important addition to their game selection. The company now offers all their players the option to use their award wining software to play poker for fun or for real money against other players over the internet. The new software will allow players to play up to 3 table simultaneously for those who want an extra rush. In addition the company announced that they will be offering all poker games with no rake (house commission) to allow players a chance to get to know their product and benefit from the process as well.

Want to stay up to date on those little important things in life? Okay, maybe they’re not really important but they sure are interesting and they are definitely juicy. Yup, you know what I’m talking about – good old fashion celebrity gossip. If you like keeping up to date on what’s going on with our famous little friends in Hollywood, be sure to check out www.celebritygossip.com. As it’s name implies, the site provides the very latest stories and entertainment gossip from the world of theater and television. Site visitors are welcome to vote on the stories and leave their own comments adding even more to the gossip…

Ken Kutaragi, former chair and CEO of Sony Entertainment who helped push the development of video game technology, retired in June 2007 at the age of 56.

Kutaragi is generally credited for being the Father of the Playstation, helping to push games from rough pixels and tinny midi sounds to the glossy, gadget paradise that it is today.

Well, Kutaragi will have time to finally play a few video games of his own—while his successor, Kazuo Hitaragi, is left with the far more pressure-filled game of steering Playstation through rough waters.

According to Sony, Kutaragi will continue to have an advisory role.

There’s nothing worse than losing important computer data simply because you didn’t have proper backups. The time and cost it takes you to replace this valuable information is hard enough but nothing can add to the aggravation more than the fact that all this could have easily been prevented with a few simple steps.

With the advanced and simple to use tools there are today, there simply is no excuse for not maintaining proper backups. Be sure to check out ibackup.com. The site allows users to easily create an online backup of all their files so you don’t have to worry about multiple hard copies and backup tapes.

You’ve seen the phones and heard of the promises of 3G video, letting you “see” the people you call. Now, AT&T, one of the United States’ telecom giants, has announced the official roll out of its Video Share Services.

Services cost nearly five dollars a month for 25 minutes of “video time”, though clients can get smaller packages of nearly 10 dollars for an hour, or pay 35 cents per minute.

AT&T has high hopes for the service, citing research that the market’s ready and eager to avail of 3G. It certainly has promise (parents can check if their teen is really in their college dorm, as they claim) but realistically, it could take years for people to embrace the technology. Maybe when the costs level off, and when they get the habit of taking off their curlers before running to answer the ring.

It’s here….! The long awaited release of the Reno 911! Miami The Movie is finally out. You can find the DVD for sale online at stores like Amazon, Buy.com and more as well as in stores such as blockbuster and Wal-Mart. If you haven’t heard of the movie, well I just don’t know where you’ve been living. The movie is based on the same loser-cop characters from the Reno 911 T.V series. In the movie, the team is sent off to Miami to attend a law enforcement conference. However, due to a mixup the team discoveres they weren’t registered and spend the time at a nearby hotel. Lucky for them, it turns out that the attendants of the conference were taken over by terrorists. But unlucky for the city of Miami, this left the team of clowns as the only law enforcement team in all of Miami.

To accompany the Reno 911! Miami The Movie DVD release, Fox has added some cool flash games to the movie’s website. I loved the Midnight Shootout game the most. In the game you are required to get a quick five second glimpse of a scene and remember where the bad guys are situated. Then the screen turns black and you are required to shoot blindly (not unlike most of the Reno crew do on a daily basis). After you are done, you can see your stats and learn how many bad guys you killed and how many innocent casulties there were (oops…). The last scene is a killer – you are required to use a rocket launcher (!) and aim it at the building where the terrorists are. Again you do this blindly and actually blow up half the buildings in downtown Miami. The funny thing is that you are then recruited to pursue the “crazy nut” that is firing a rocket launcher at the city (double oops…). Have fun!

Your baby is the most important person in your life. Why not show it by dressing her in some style. While not everybody takes baby fashion the same way, some people have no problem investing the same time and money on their baby’s clothing then they do on their own. If you are interested in true high quality baby clothes in designer fashions (don’t worry, they are still baby fashions) be sure to check out babycz.com. The site is owned and operated by Carolina Zapf, a known name in the designer field. You can find the most gorgeous baby clothing there for boys and girls. The site even has a special cashmere section designed specifically for babies.

It’s official – Paul McCartney is the first artist of Hear Music, a new joint recording label owned by Starbucks and Concord Music Group. The former Beatles member is due to release his first Hear Music album in early June this year.

McCartney takes pride in his still untitled album produced by David Kahne saying that the songs are a mix of the past and present. “This is something I’ve been working on for a little while now, “ he said during a March 21 webcast. “The songs are in some ways a little bit retrospective…but all of them are songs I’m very proud of.”

The Hear Music label has been used since 1999 for Starbucks’ compilations and co-releases. Starbucks has been involved in the music retail outlet for years now and has successfully produced, together with Concord Music, Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company” album that won eight Grammy Awards. The new label is also set to release exclusive albums by Bob Dylan and Alanis Morisette.

McCartney last came out with a studio album in 2005 with “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.” The album sold 533,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

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We all get a number. All you need to do is register your car and presto, the state gives you your own private number. But then you realize that not all number were created equal. More and more people are beginning to want to add a little personal touch to their car and get their own custom private number plates. They’re cool, they’re original – they’re you! Well, they’re you if you find the right one’s. Check out toon-plates.co.uk for over 27,000,000 different UK number plates. You are sure to find the right plates for you on the site. The only question is – who are you?

The site provides exceptional customers service and you can read numerous online testimonials from satisfied customers. In addition to providing the largest database of plates for sale on the internet, Toon Plates also allows current private plate owners to list their plates online for sale through the site. If you can’t get the exact lettering you want for your plate, the site has a cool suggestion page called “number plate speak”. The “number plate speak” page provides optional variations you can use to replace certain numbers and letters which still resemble the letter you would like (such as using the letter O instead of a zero).

Here’s another reason to rifle through your old collection of vinyl records. Some bands have hidden video games, pretty much like the encoded text files and backmasking in cassettes. Of course, don’t expect anything in terms of graphics or sounds—these date back to the 80’s, when Donkey Kong was the King of Cool.

Finding it can be tricky: you need to capture the record on cassette tape, and play it on a PC’s cassette drive. If you don’t have the machine—or the patience to wade through your attic—you can download the games from the Internet.

One game, hidden in a Thompson Twins’ record, chronicles the adventures of (you guessed it) the Thompson Twins. Explore caves, or drown them in the ocean. Gameplay is unwieldy (you have to guess the verbs for particular actions) but you’ll like the kietsch factor.

It looks like this guy takes his phones quite seriously. While I'd trade in my cellphone for an Iphone anyday, I'm not sure I'd get quite as mushy as him...
iPhone Review and Video

Now that summer is officially here, the travel season is beginning. It’s funny sometimes to take a look at our neighborhood during July and August. While kids are out of school and the city should be alive, the streets are actually quite quiet. I guess everyone is simply away traveling.

During the next few weeks we will be bringing you various vacation destination ideas you may want to consider for your next vacation (or maybe you are a quick planner and will still go this year). Today’s destination in focus is the beautiful city of Helsinki. As the capital of Finland this city is a must for any serious traveler. Surrounded by water, the city provides numerous attractions for the whole family. Be sure to visit the Senate Square and admire the magnificent Neoclassical architecture. Also don’t mis the famous Suomenlinna Maritime Fortress – one of the biggest sea fortresses in the world.

When planning your next trip to Helsinki be sure to also stop by cheaperthanhotels.co.uk for a wide selection of cheap hotels in Helsinki.

You can form your own conclusions to this – Yahoo has finally added a Gmail preview pane on the frontpage of MyYahoo. Unfortunately, there are some Gmail inboxes that are reported to be also viewable to other users, although the company is claiming that the problem is traced to the publishing features with Google’s email service.

The new addition is part of the recent changes being implemented for the My Yahoo beta project. The new pane is designed to allow previewing any mail account as long as it supports pop mail. There is also a dedicated Gmail module available that would let users preview Gmail’s email service and then allow them to connect directly to it.

Planning a trip and going on the internet have already become synonymous. You simply can’t plan a trip and expect to get decent rates or the flexibility of your itinerary nowadays without going online. But while many people are familiar with the larger American sites like Expedia and Travelocity, very few take the liberty of going directly to the local sites for the destinations they plan on visiting. You can often get lower prices, a wider selection of hotels and more detailed reviews of the hotels listed on local sites than on Expedia and Travelocity which focus mainly on U.S. destinations. For instance a search for hotels in Sydney will give much better results on the Australian site cheaperthanhotels.com.au than on any global or American site available. After all, they know their market best.

It’s amazing how just about everything has become simpler thanks to the internet. Besides having all the information you desire literally at your fingertips, the promise of e-commerce allows you to easily order almost anything online providing both price savings as well as unparalleled comfort.

But it’s not just comfort and price that make online store appealing. The fact that you can find some amazing specialty stores online catering a nationwide audience helps finding hard to find items as well as expanding your options incredibly compared to your limited local market.

And you can find specialty stores for literally anything online. If you are having a baby be sure to check out partypail.com which provides the most amazing decorations for a baby shower. You can buy complete baby shower themed sets from a wide range of designs online. I especially liked the cute baby ducky set (pictured below).

Owners of new computers are having problems with their Windows Vista notably when they are hooked to a broadband connection. The problem is said to stem from some old installation discs that won’t work with Vista. And this predicament has been encountered by several net service companies as well. Fortunately, these firms are fast enough to respond Vista woes faced by their customers.

Meanwhile, Vista may not be well suited yet for playing downloaded music. Apple, maker of iPod, has advised iTunes users, for instance, against upgrading right away to Windows Vista saying its music software may not work properly yet. Apple said problems may be encountered when playing purchased music files and synchronizing data.

Apple is apparently concerned about issues on compatibility. It revealed several problems with Vista such as failure to play music and video bought from iTunes, poor animation performance and failure to synchronize media, contacts and calendars.

Microsoft, for its part, has formed a team to work with Apple in making iTunes fully functional on Vista.

What if I told you that you can buy money for a discount? I know it sounds crazy, but it’s actually possible. Okay, maybe it’s not exactly money – but it’s the next best thing. Many businesses both online and off are now offering the option of purchasing gift cards which can be used at their store for purchases instead of cash. While most places sell them simply as a gift solution and don’t offer a discount on the card, you can get many of these cards for a substantial discount online.

At citydeals.com you can get up to 70% discount on gift cards every day. The site offers nice discounts on almost all the cards they sell online but for the real savings of up to 70% off, be sure to come to the site every day at 9AM. That’s when City Deals offers their “deal of the day” sale with certain cards offered at up to 70% off (only a limited amount is offered each day, so be sure to grab them early).

The 75-foot-long Apatosaurus displayed at the University of Wyoming Geological Museum will undergo a total makeover from head to tail to reflect the newest paleontological research findings. The makeover of this plant-eating dinosaur will take one year after which the fossil display will be returned to the museum in 2008.

The Apatosaurus existed in Wyoming 150 million years ago and its fossil is one of only six on display around the world. About 60 percent of the fossil display at the University of Wyoming is real bone which were discovered in the early 1900s 70 miles north of Laramie, Wyoming. The display was assembled by UW professor Samuel Knight in 1960. Experts from Treibold Paleontology Inc., which casts skeletons and mounts fossil, dismantled the dinosaur this month.

Only the skeleton of the Apatosaurus’ huge hip bones were not dismantled because of its heavy weight which is about one ton. Meanwhile, the dismantled skeletons will be made available to researchers from around the world.

The online gaming software company BackgammonMasters is well known among the online gaming community for their award wining version of online backgammon as well as successful versions of other popular board games which can be played online against other players from around the world. But now the company is targeting a new audience by adding poker to the portfolio of games they offer. The company’s poker game will be available in two modes- in a play for money mode where players can play against other players for real money and in a fun mode which can be played without gambling real money.

As an introduction offer, the company has announced that for a limited time all poker games are offered with no rake (house commissions) giving customers another reason to try out the new game from BackgammonMasters. As all their other games, the new poker game will be added to the company’s All-in-One Lobby which is a software interface which allows players to download a single program (just once) and switch between the various games offered by BackgammonMasters including their famous backgammon game and the new announced poker. To make the game more thrilling for advance players, BackgammonMasters will allow players to play up to three tables at once.

Paris Hilton is now officially out of jail. I am not sure exactly how much time she actually spent there since it seemed like every other day she was either going home for a “vacation”, being transferred to house arrest, being taken to court and what not. I guess the fragile Hilton princess could use a little break from prison life but to be honest, we could use a little break from hearing about Paris Hilton a bit too.

If you are looking for an original game for your next party, you may want to consider Cornhole. The game is played in teams and requires placing special bags on a playing board. If you have never played this game before you can find a full printable instruction sheet at mycornhole.com. The site also sells all the cornhole accessories you will need for the game.

The master’s degree for business administration or MBA has been found to be the most popular masters course in the U.K. A survey by the Higher Education Career Services Unit (HECSU) showed a rise of over 50 percent in the number of masters qualifications awarded from 2003 to 2004, notably in the field of business.

The HECSU survey looked into the careers of masters graduates who completed their studies in the summer of 2004. Poll results revealed that nearly a quarter of masters graduates were holding management positions six months after finishing their course while some pursued careers in the education sector either as lecturers in higher education or as secondary school teachers. Meanwhile, 11.2 percent were involved in research in general professional occupations.

A significant finding is that two-thirds of the MBA graduates were male and 48 percent were aged 30 and above. This result suggests that a big number of MBA students are either fully or partly supported by their companies, according to the HECSU executive director. He added that the MBA figures are a sign that employees recognize the need for strong business qualifications that will ensure their promotion.

Are you the athletic type? Well, you should be. Okay, I know not everyone is cut out for serious sports but you should definitely add some sort of physical activity to your lifestyle. A great “light” sport which is fun and easy is ta