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Top Ten List Carnival #5

Hi Readers, welcome to the May 27, 2007 edition of Top Ten List Carnival. It is still amazing to me how many bloggers are writing their post in Top Ten List formats. Top Ten List are simple to follow for the reader and an effective way to share an experience with the readers of your blog.
John Hill presents 10 Steps to Raising Your Vibration posted at Universe Of Success.
The Free Geek presents Top 10 Ways to Recycle Your Old Computer posted at The Free Geek.
Robinson Go presents The 10 Most Effective Ways to Increase Blog Traffic posted at Robinson Go dot Com, saying, "thanks and all the best!"
Kathryn presents Top Ten Recent Interviews on SFV posted at San Fran Voice.
Cade Krueger presents Mission Statement And Ten Benefits Of A Business Plan posted at Write To Right.
Silicon Valley Blogger presents 10 Ways To Organize and Simplify Your Finances posted at The Digerati Life.
Jon Rochetti presents Rudest Drivers - DC in at #5, Top Ten Rules posted at The DC Traveler – Washington DC travel & tourism information, saying, "Top Ten List for BAD Washington DC Drivers!!!"
isabella mori presents the 10 paradoxes of creative people posted at change therapy, saying, "an abbreviated version of a list made by psychologist mihalyi csikszentmihalyi, perhaps the greatest living expert on the psychology of creativity. this post sparked all kinds of interesting discussions and further blog posts."

Top 10 Free Classic Game Remakes

It is the summer holidays and many people have plenty of time on their hands. Some of us are stuck with laptops and can’t play the huge blockbuster games that require hefty graphic cards. Why not try these classic open source remakes? The underlying gameplay has already been proven and the graphics are updated to a presentable and playable level. Everyone of these games listed here were best sellers of their times and many of us hold great memories of these games.

I personally remember playing a lot of Total Annihilation, Transport Tycoon, Civilization, Colonization, X-COM: UFO Defense and Worms. I still regularly play TA Spring and FreeSpace. TA has great multiplayer and FreeSpace has some quality campaigns that boast of good stories and exciting gameplay. Please do take your time to try these games out. They are free, have very good gameplay and are sure to entertain you. You won’t be disappointed!

Top 10 Classic Game Remakes

1. TA Spring - Remake of Total Annihilation
“Total Annihilation a.k.a. TA is a futuristic RTS PC game, created by Chris Taylor and Cavedog Entertainment and released on September 30, 1997[1] by GT Interactive. It was the first RTS to feature 3D units and terrain, a significant achievement in the days before graphics cards with hardware based 3D acceleration became commonplace. Two expansion packs were released, The Core Contingency on April 30, 1998[2] and Battle Tactics on June 30, 1998.[3] The game won many awards, including Gamespot's Game of the Year Award for 1997. TA is considered to be one of the best RTS games of all time, and is still played actively today, more than 9 years after its release.”



TA Spring has improved 3D graphics, control schemes. Even the TA’s successor, Supreme Commander takes a few pointers from Spring. Great multiplayer community means there is always a game ready to be played. Try this out if your computer is unable to run Supreme commander or you are looking for a great RTS night with your friends.
Download @ http://spring.clan-sy.com/download.php
2. FreeSpace 2
FreeSpace 2 was a Space simulator like the Wing Commander Series. However now it is living on as an open source game where there are even user created campaigns with quality and content that rivals that of the original. User created campaigns include settings in Babylon universe, Battlestar Galactica Universe and also Wing Commander. Improved graphics means that flashing light effects and sounds make the game seem quite modern. Great for a fun night blasting enemies away.
Download @ http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FreeSpace_Open_Installer

3. Simutrans - Remake of Transport Tycoon
“Transport Tycoon (TT) and Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTD) are computer games in which the player is in control of a transport company, and can compete against rival companies to make as much profit as possible, by transporting passengers and various goods by road, rail, sea or by air.”
I remembered spending a hours playing Transport Tycoon when I was still in school. You get to learn some basic economics and business skills. Great for a young mind to play as it is addictive and educational. Parents might just want to introduce this game to their children. Sadly economic building games are no longer hot games and very little companies actually develop them anymore. Simutrans has simple graphics but the underlying game play is very complex and there is much to learn.
Download @ http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/board,51.0.htm
4. NetHack - Remake of Hack

“NetHack is a single-player roguelike computer game originally released in 1987. It is an evolution of an earlier game called Hack (1985), which was itself an evolution of Rogue (1980). The "net" element references that its development has been coordinated through the Internet, which was notable at the time. The "hack" element refers to a genre of role-playing games known as hack and slash for their focus on combat.”





The player takes the part of a dungeon-diving hero in search of the Amulet of Yendor. The dungeon spans over 50 levels, most of which are randomly generated. The dungeon contains monsters, weaponry, magical items, hidden doors and more.Diablo, Titan quest has great graphics. Nethack has no graphics to speak of. Instead it compensates by adding very flexible gameplay. Using ASCII characters to represent monsters and walls, it creates a random universe everytime you step into the game. I tried it once but I found that I kept dying. Not for the faint hearted I guess. But as an RPG, it is the golden benchmark of game play
Download @ http://www.nethack.org/v343/downloads.html
5. Vega Strike - Remake of “Elite” which inspired Wing Commander: Privateer
“Vega Strike aims to insert players into a large, dynamic universe with diverse factions of varying disposition to the player and to each other, and an economy model where trade, combat and exploration are all profitable. Financial gains allow the player to buy upgrades and/or better vehicles, thus enabling him/her to advance into more dangerous and profitable missions. The player can have varying levels of relations with factions. Negative relations can form if the player kills some of a given faction’s ships. Positive relations can be formed if the player destroys ships that are part of an enemy to a given faction. Players can either buy and sell cargo, or accept missions from the Mission Computer, as well as talking to people in the local bar at the space station/planet. In the tradition of some precursor games, individuals of significant plot importance are often found in bars.”
Download @ http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/files/index.html
6. FreeCiv – Remake of Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization is a computer game created by Sid Meier for Microprose in 1991. The game's objective is "...to build an empire that would stand the test of time". The game begins in 4000 BC, and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires through the ages until modern and near-future times. It is also known simply as Civilization, or abbreviated to Civ or Civ I. It is generally acknowledged to be a pioneer in the genre of turn-based strategy games.”
Civilization is one of the longest running franchises in computer gaming history. The latest is Civilization 4 which incorporates multiplayer. Civilization is another turn based game that I played a lot of. Even recently I had play matches of civ 4 with my friends. This game definitely brings out the “one more turn” syndrome that sucks you into the game and refuses to let you go until the game ends.
Download @ http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Download
7. FreeCol - Remake of Colonization
“Colonization has many similarities to Sid Meier's previous title, Civilization. Both games pit the player as a godlike leader of an embattled civilization, the objective being to gain supremacy over rival civilizations, primarily through military means and discovery, but also through diplomacy, economics, and the strategic transformation and utilization of the land.[3] In Civilization the player begins the game in 4000BC, with a ‘primitive’ tribe which “gradually builds up a sophisticated conglomeration of cities... infrastructure, units, resources” and scientific know-how, “nearly everything is quantified (not only money, production of units, and infrastructure but also science and culture). With increasing levels of sophistication of the population of the cities, the player controls the differentiation of the people, some become farmers, others soldiers, scouts, diplomats, scientists etc.”
Colonization is very similar to civilization. Both comes from the great game designer, sid miero. Colonization takes place in the great immigration of the New World. There is a stronger focus on economics and diplomacy compared to Civilization. A game I played in between civilization 1 and civilization 2.
Download @ http://www.freecol.org/index.php?section=6
8. UFO:_Alien_Invasion - Remake of X-COM: UFO Defense

“The story of X-COM begins in 1998. The initial plot centers around increased reports of UFO sightings. Tales of abduction and terrorism by the unknown aliens become widespread. The nations of the world come to perceive this as a threat and attempt to form their own forces to deal with this, such as Japan's Kiryu-Kai; these forces fail miserably, the Kiryu-Kai not intercepting a single UFO in its five months of operation. On December 11, 1998, representatives from some of the most powerful nations in the world meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the issue. From this meeting was born the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit—X-COM, who the player controls in the course of the game.”
Another remake of a classic game. UFO Alien Invasion is a turn based tactical game when you do battles with aliens. In addition you also have to allocate resources to develop new technologies and build new bases. Games of these type have almost become non existent now. The closest I think is Company of Heroes.

Download @ http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=157793
9. BZFlag – Remake of Battlezone
“Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white CRT (with green and red sectioned color overlay). Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years.”
Download @ http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3248
10. Wormux – Remake of Worms
“Worms is the first in a series of turn-based strategy games developed by Team17. It was released in 1995 and is one of the most popular strategy games ever made. The player controls a team of worms, each team consists of four members. The objective of the game is to wipe the enemy team(s) within the time limit, the team which has worms still alive at the end of the match is the winner. The player has access to a whole variety of weapons, from simple firearms like the shotgun, to heavy weapons such as the air-strike.”
Simple to pick up and play with your friends. Worms is a great party game.
Download @ http://www.wormux.org/wiki/en/index.php

10 Signs You Have Grown Up

1. You think of the consequences before you act.

2. You find it hard to spend as you know that earning money is not that easy as spending money.

3. You realise that time is precious and you do not have much left.

4. You get the idea that things you done 1 year ago feel extremely retarded to you now.

5. You start getting wedding invites.

6. When you meet up with friends, the topics goes like this "Last time", "In the past" , " Remember that time when we...".

7. You suddenly ask yourself what is the meaning/purpose of your life.

8. You can do something you do not like everyday even when there is no one pushing you to do it.

9. You see other kids and you ask either 1) How old they are, 2) Where they are studying.

10. You forgot what it is like to be a kid and how irrating adults can be when they all ask the same questions.

10 Reasons to Get a Widescreen Monitor

If you are coming here from Digg and is looking for "Top 10 TV shows on EZTV", the story has been wrongly linked. Click here instead.

10 Reasons to Get a Widescreen Monitor

Slowly but surely. Widescreen Monitors are taking over the world. Why are widescreens better than normal screen monitors? Here are 10 Reasons that you should get a Widescreen instead of a 4:3 Screen.

1. Movies

DVDs, HDTV all come in widescreen format now. With a regular monitor, you are just resizing the image and the image appears less large because it can't fit on your normal size monitor. Widescreen Monitors on the other hand, fill up almost every pixel so you can sit further away and get that cinematic effect.

2. Windows Vista

With Windows Vista, Native widesreen support is included into the OS. XP has support for Widescreen too but it doesn't take advantage of it a lot. At least the sidebar dock in Vista uses the extra space that comes from a widescreen monitor.

3. Games

Computer games used to come in normal screen format only. Not anymore though. Most games have true widescreen now. This means that the images are not streched or cut off. Instead your viewing area becomes more natural and realistically mirrors that of your eyes.

4. Periperhal vision

Evolution has made us more alert of things are the side or us instead of above and below us. Predators traditionally comes from the sides, not the top of trees. So when you get a widescreen monitor compared to a normal screen monitor, you are actually more alert to the information on the screen.

5. Supports PS3, Xbox360

The new generation of console games are meant to run on a widescreen monitor. It does no justice to use them on a normal screen monitor. If you have a screen for both your computer and console, widescreen is the only way to go.

6. Side by Side Documents

With widescreen monitors, you are skip the alt tabbing when comparing documents. A picture speaks a thousand words. 2 Pictures side by side saves you a thousand Alt Tab

7. Tilt
Some widescreen monitors come with an adjustable stand. You can tilt it 90deg to get a book like effect. This is very useful when reading ebooks or long documents.

8. See it the way it is meant to be seen

A flash says a millon words.

9. Looks Cool

When was the last time you see a normal screen in the sci fi movie??? Widescreen are cool!

10. It's time

The trend is towards widescreens and the phasing out of normal screens. As media formats move towards widescreen monitors, you may find yourself at a disadvantage if you still have only a normal size screen.

Top 10 Must Have Add-Ons for ThunderBird

ThunderBird is a great email client. It works fast, is free and its expandable. I am sure you understand fast and free. But what do I mean by expandable? Well, being an open source project from the people that brought you your friendly Firefox, Thunderbird has extra bits of software called extensions. These extensions adds functionality to Thunderbird. Below I have list the 10 most deservings extensions. I strongly recommended that you try them out. You will like them. A caveat though, 1 or 2 have not been updated to work with the latest version of Thunderbird(2.0)


Top 10 Must Have Add-Ons for ThunderBird
1. Text size toolbar: Adds text size buttons to the toolbar.
I never really quite figured out why the increase/decrease font size button was missing. I placed this number 1 as it seem to be such a basic feature that it should not even be an add-on.

2. Lightning: An integrated calendar for Thunderbird
Outlook has Calenders. Thunderbird sadly does not have one built in by default. Thanks to the Lightning people, we have calenders to boast about too. You can even have multiple calenders. One for home, one for office etc.

3. Contacts Sidebar: Displays the address books in a sidebar in Thunderbirds 3-pane-window
Makes contacts really easily searchable. Given that TBird saves all the names and emails of everyone you have contact with, you should be able to find anyone's email in a jiffy.

4. MinimizeToTray: Minimizes Mozilla windows into the system tray
Usually when we press the red X at the top right of Tbird, it will close TBird. However heavy users might actually want it to go to the system tray so that it can monitor incoming emails

5. Image Zoom: Adds zoom functionality for images
Self explanatory I guess...

6. Auto Zip Attachments: Auto Zip Attachments allows you to easily compress (zip) attachments.
Multiple files? Need to compress them? This extension does it for you!

7. Signature Switch: Switch the signature on/off or choose a new one from your predefined set
Sending emails to different people mean different signatures. Do you still manually type the signature every time? I hope not as that would be wasting a lot of time. Try saving signatures and selecting them when you need them.

8. Quicktext: Quicktext is an extension for Thunderbird that lets you create templates that can be easily inserted into your own emails.
Like Signature Switch, but for everything else non Signature

9. Advanced Remove Duplicates: Extends Folder-Context-Menu with a Button to delete Duplicate Messages
I usually need this when I import mails from other computers. Sometimes I will end up with multiple emails so using this extension can reduce the storage needed.

10. XNote: Persistent sticky notes for Thunderbird associated to mails

XNote allows you to create a note for each mail. Thus, you can add for example the phone number of that contact or when you have to contact the sender back.

The Truth behind 10 User Photos you find on Myspace or Facebook

Photo Type: Guy with beard on couch

What They Want You to Think: Sit on couch a lot, has a beard

The Truth: Sit on couch a lot, has a beard

Photo Type: Close up of Breast
What They Want You to Think: Sexy and Naughty
The Truth: Fat

Photo Type: Dark and Brooding
What They Want You to Think: Doesn't Care
The Truth: Dangerous, possibly a pirate
Photo Type: Disney Cartoon Character
What They Want You to Think: Cute, Playful
The Truth: Immature

Photo Type: Face at awkward downward angle
What They Want You to Think: Eccentric, Possibly supermodel
The Truth: Unattractive, this is the only good picture ever taken

Photo Type: Blurry
What They Want You to Think: Artistic
The Truth: Has acne or moustache
Photo Type: Anime
What They Want You to Think: Eccentric, maybe Japanese
The Truth: Computer programmer
Photo Type: Holding so sort of alcoholic beverage
What They Want You to Think: Fun, laid back
The Truth: There has never been a photo where they weren't holding a bottle
Photo Type: Very closely cropped
What They Want You to Think: Enigmatic
The Truth: Fat
Photo Type: Dude jamming on guitar
What They Want You to Think: He is in a popular band and rocks all the time
The Truth: Umemployed

Labels: faceboook, joke, myspace

Carnival of Top 10 List  4

Welcome to the May 6, 2007 edition of top ten list carnival. This edition is rather interesting. Of personal interest is the post about insurance from Silicon Valley Blogger(10 Tips On Life and Disability Insurance: How And Why We’re Getting More). I am going to Silicon Valley around the end July for my 1 year internship so I am looking at insurance options for the duration.

Also from Zen Master Leo comes Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your Work Week. It's rather interesting given that shorter work weeks seem to be the trend now. I especially like Tip 9: Shut off the computer. I think far too much time spend online can be better spent working. Like I said in my 10 Things I Learnt From Blogging, TodaysTen traffic peaks on weekdays which means many people are readng blogs instead of working.
The Carnival

Leo presents Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your Work Week posted at zen habits.

Debra Moorhead presents My Simply Successful Secrets posted at Debra Moorhead.com.
Lexi Sundell presents My Own Simply Successful Secrets posted at Energies of Creation, saying, "This is my own list of ten Simply Successful Secrets which I practice every day to make my life more effective."
Silicon Valley Blogger presents 10 Tips On Life and Disability Insurance: How And Why We’re Getting More posted at The Digerati Life.
The Frugalist presents 10 Alternatives to Credit Cards (for Those Who Can't Get One), posted at Frugalist.
Tom O'Toole presents Top Ten 19th Century French Saints posted at Fighting Irish Thomas.
Ted Reimers presents 10 Best Colleges to Attend posted at CampusGrotto.

Top 10 List Collection  1

Hi readers, in my bid to widen your areas of interest, I have come up with a great idea. Every Saturday, I will be linking to numerous Top 10 list that I have read and came across. Hopefully you will find them interesting.

America's Top 50 Jobs
Jobs that are both growing faster than the average for total employment (13.0 percent) and have annual earnings above median of $28,770.
1. Registered nurses: $52,330
2. Postsecondary teachers: $51,800
3. General and operations managers: $77,420
4. Elementary school teachers, except special education: $43,160
5. Accountants and auditors: $50,770
6. Business operation specialists, all other: $53,460
7. Computer software engineers, applications: $74,980
8. Maintenance and repair workers, general: $30,710
9. Carpenters: $34,900
10. Computer systems analysts: $66,460

Pictures of 10 Fake Brands in China
China is reknown for its abundance of fake goods. Here are some pictures showing some obvious fakes. Worth a look because somehow its so obviously fake, its funny

Top 10 Strangest Robots
Comes with video and pictures. Robotics have a great potential but somehow all the scientist are intented on making them human like. I think we are just wasting our time trying to make them human like. The focus should be finding places where specialised robots can help us. The most prevelant robot now is the "Roomba", a moving dish that is a vaccumm cleaner. We do not need a humanoid to mop the floor. We just need a disk on wheels. I guess human vanity is warping our perceptions for the ideal robot.

10 Geeky Gifts for Mom Under $50
Ya, I know. Geeky Moms are so rare that it is about as easy as finding a 5.25 floppy nowadays. Nevertheless, here are so gift ideas for your geeky moms!

So this ends the Top 10 List Collection #! Hope you have enjoyed it. Do check out my other articles and carnvials where other Top 10 Lists are featured.

Top 10 TV shows on EZTV

Eztv is the world’s largest bittorrent distribution site for TV shows. I personally watch Lost, Heroes, Prison Break and 24. Heroes is probably the best show so far. The plot twist and turns even more than Lost. Every episode is a roller coaster ride for me. I am still watching Lost as the first season really got me hooked, so I am just watching to see how it unfolds. Prison Break had a great first season that put the show on the radar screen of many viewers. The second season is much slower in pace and focuses less on the exciting part of prison breaking and more on conspiracy theories. 24 is a fast paced action movie designed for simple viewers who just want something watchable to destress. Who doesn’t like watching police and thief? (You can click to the entire show list on eztv here)

Top 10 TV shows on eztv.org
1. Battlestar Galactica
Ronald D. Moore, the visionary producer of Carnivale, and writer for shows such as Star Trek : The Next Generation, and Star Trek : Deep Space Nine boldly re-imagines this classic tale of good versus evil. Gone is the technobabble and mindless space battles of the show’s earlier namesake. This is a program that introduces many new elements to the Galactica Tale. The Cylons look like US now, they could be anywhere, and they seem to have developed a monotheistic religion that is in contrast to the human polytheistic religion. The Cylons begin by wiping out the twelve colonies and sending the survivors… all 47,000 (approx) of them on a desperate search for the fabled 13th colony…. Earth.

2. Lost
Out of the blackness, the first thing Jack (Matthew Fox, Party of Five) senses is pain. Then burning sun. A Bamboo forest. Smoke. Screams. With a rush comes the horrible awareness that the plane he was on tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a Pacific island. From there it's a blur, as his doctor's instinct kicks in: people need his help.

Stripped of everything, the 48 survivors scavenge what they can from the plane for their survival. Some panic. Some pin their hopes on rescue. A few find inner strength they never knew they had.

3. Heroes
Heroes is a serial saga about people all over the world discovering that they have superpowers and trying to deal with how this change affects their lives. Eventually their superpowers draw them together when they try to evade the series' antagonist who wants to harness their super-DNA for himself. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world.

4. House
From executive producers Paul Attanasio, Katie Jacobs, David Shore, and Bryan Singer comes a new take on mystery, where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients.

5. Office, The
From Reveille and NBC Universal Television Studio comes a documentary-style look into the humorous and sometimes poignant foolishness that plagues the world of 9-to-5 in the half-hour comedy The Office, based on the award-winning BBC hit.

6. 2424 is about Federal Agent Jack Bauer and the different bad days he is having. Each season of this series has 24 episodes taking place in an hour of real time. From finding bombs, stopping assassination attempts, stopping a deadly virus to preventing world war three. For the next 24 hours you are about to see the life of Jack Bauer.

7. Prison Break
This drama focuses on a prison designer who gets himself thrown into one of his own prisons to help his falsely accused brother escape death row.

8. Riches, The
The Riches centers around a traveling family of con artists. After completing a 2-year stint in prison, a married couple (played by Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver) are now dealing with a drug addiction and begin to question their marginal lifestyle. Along with their three children, they assume the identities of a normal, higher-income bracket family.

9. October RoadThey say "you can't go home again." Perhaps because everything you left has changed; or worse, stayed the same. They also tell you "never to burn your bridges." That's so when you do try to go home, you won't find everyone there hates you. When Nick Garrett was 18 he packed up his truck and said goodbye for a summer road trip, but somehow one summer turned into 10 years. He's since become a literary celebrity in Manhattan, dating supermodels, and living off the fame and fortune from his best-selling novel and movie – a story based on his hometown friends. To the literary world, Nick defined a generation... to his hometown, he's betrayed them by telling secrets and painful truths, or worse yet, leaving some of them out entirely. The book hurt them all, especially Hannah, the love of his life, and Eddie, a good friend he was supposed to go into business with 10 long years ago. Now, without inspiration for a new book, Nick returns to his hometown and finds that while the townies haven't changed, their feelings towards him have. To make matters worse his new job teaching at the local college makes him part of the college crowd on the "other side" of October Road...something no townie aspires to... and creates an even deeper rift between him and his former friends. The bridge is burned, again. Regardless, Nick's going to stick around for a while and see if he can repair his relationships. Plus, he has a sneaking suspicion that Hannah's precocious and brilliant son just might be his too.

10. Scrubs
The show focuses on the professional and personal lives of several characters working at Sacred Heart, a fictional hospital in an unspecified city. Its use of first-person narration, unusually verbose characters, abrupt segues between subplots, breakneck pace, and surreal escapism (usually presented as the thoughts and reveries of the main characters), counterpointed by poignant scenes where the characters address how doctors deal with death and issues in their personal lives distinguishes it from other series. At the end of each episode, the narrator, whomever it may be, shows the moral or theme of each episode in a sequence of shots that show how the theme or moral is connected to all the characters.

Top 10 iPhone apps for Stock Market Investors

1) MarketWatch

[iTunes]

The MarketWatch iPhone™ application delivers breaking markets and business news headlines, full-stories and real-time commentary throughout the day. MarketWatch editorial provides you with a hand picked list of the day’s most important stories, together with global market news, real-time quotes, and markets analysis and insights.

Features:

• Market data quote lookup with real time data
• Full feed of MarketWatch breaking news and analysis
• Text-to-Speech feature for Top Stories
• MarketWatch podcasts
• Innovative “Cruise Control” feature to allow for hands-free listening of Top Stories and podcasts
• Twitter section to follow MarketWatch columnists as they tweet breaking business news
• Customizable market data Watchlist
• Articles to Save and Share

2) Forbes Intelligent Investing

[iTunes]

Forbes presents the Intelligent Investing iPhone Application, a series of feature stories and video conversations with the business and investment world’s most respected minds. Watch Intelligent Investing With Steve Forbes, a video series of rare one-on-one interviews with financial luminaries at the famed Forbes Townhouse in New York City. Read Intelligent Investing articles and panel discussions as they focus on current investment topics and present exclusive editorial from investment strategists and forecasters that influence your financial climate. Take a chance and use your shake function to pick from a lottery of quotes and video clips of Steve Forbes himself. From investment philosophies to the state of the global economy, Intelligent Investing is your mobile access to the best minds in the business.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/forbes-intelligent-investing/id310628790?mt=8

3) AlertStocks

[iTunes]

[Website]

Great for Forex and Stock Traders

Stay updated on your Stock Prices by getting instant stock price alerts via push notifications. Breaking news that can impact your stock price
**Version 1.1 in is Review! Last Chance to get 2 Months of subscription with initial purchase.**

***Exclusive Benefits for Version 1.0 Users.****
- Unlimited number of stocks you can track
- Free Subscription period doubled from 4 weeks to 8 weeks.

Alert Features
- Price rises above your set price
- Price falls below your set price
- Intra Day Percentage Change more than your set percentage
- Pause your alerts at any time

4) BlackGold - Oil, Gas, Gold, and Silver Tracking

[iTunes]
Mobile Price-Watching for Crude Oil, Gold, Gas, Natural Gas, and Heating Oil on your iPhone or iPod!

Works great on iPad too!

With the fluctuations in recent years of the Stock and Futures Markets, it is necessary to keep informed of the current prices at all times. BlackGold for the iPhone and iPod Touch gives you mobile price-watching power in the palm of your hand. Near-realtime prices on your mobile device, 24/7.

Five price watch options available:
? Crude Oil - WTI - Current Price, including four charts.
? Gasoline - Regular, Mid, Premium, Diesel, E85. (US National Average provided by AAA)
? Gold - Troy Oz. - Current Price, including seven charts.
? Natural Gas - Current Price, including intraday chart.
? Heating Oil - Current Price, including intraday chart.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black-gold-oil-gas-and-gold-price/id294444490?mt=8#

5) Bloomberg

[iTunes]

Bring the power of the most trusted source for financial information to your iPhone, along with tools to help you analyze the world's markets.

More than 280,000 professionals around the world trust Bloomberg to give accurate, timely information about the world's financial markets.

That source is now available to you on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Bloomberg offers news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders/laggers, price charts, market trends analysis, and more.

You are also able to create a customized list of stocks that you want to follow from markets around the world.

6) FX360

[iTunes]

The FX360® iPhone app gives you the ability to track currency markets, related market analysis, and real-time, changing prices of currencies and other major markets, such as gold, U.S. indices, U.K .indices and oil prices. The currencies commentary is provided by Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg, GFT Directors of Currency Research, and their team of technical analysts.

Features:
• Commentary - Intraday updates from Kathy and Boris deliver professional outlooks and opinions as the market changes throughout the day and major articles that represent on-going themes in the global financial world, including economic policies and government decisions that could affect the markets and your trading decisions.

• Technical Analysis - Get basic and advanced technical analysis reports, and directional biases for the major currency pairs provided by FX360.com's dedicated team of professional analysts and researchers on your iPhone.

• Quoteboard and charting - Real-time quoteboard offers you key quotes for currencies, oil, gold as well as international equities so you always have the latest price information – much better than the delayed data indicative of other apps. Also includes real-time, price charts for oil and gold markets, which typically provide you with a leading indicator for the direction of other major markets

• Economic calendar – includes historical charts of major events, news and data – provided through our real-time calendar, which you can also download into a printable format.

• FX News Alerts Signup - one of the most unique aspects of FX360.com is the ability to get FX News Alerts – Sign up on your iPhone for breaking currency news and commentary and have it delivered right to your email or iPhone. This is available free of charge with the quality that you have grown accustomed to from Kathy and Boris.

Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg are both directors of currency research at GFT, worldwide leaders in online currency trading. Lien and Schlossberg are leading forex analyst and best-selling authors in market trading, and are often quoted on CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and other leading financial outlets.

7) DailyFinance

[iTunes]

Experience the most powerful iPhone application for investors and market followers. DailyFinance is the only free app with real-time quotes, tracking for multiple portfolios, customizable news from 3,000+ sources and professional-grade charting.

Free Real-Time Stock Quotes
Real-time stock quotes from BATS Exchange and 15-minute delayed quotes from NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX.

Real-Time Financial News
Customize and track top business, company and sector news and dozens of other news topics from over 3,000 sources.

Web Tracking of Your iPhone Portfolios
Track and manage your iPhone portfolios on the web at
http://finance.aol.com/portfolios/myportfolios

Multiple Portfolios and Watchlists
Create and track up to 25 different portfolios and watchlists.

Powerful Charts
Use interactive charts to track the current and historical performance of investments and easily compare against peers and market benchmarks.

Global Markets, Gainers & Losers
Follow leading global market indicators as well as the individual securities moving the U.S. markets.

Auto Refreshing of Data
After initial screen load, stock price and market data automatically refreshes every 30 seconds; intraday charts and market news headlines refresh every 2 minutes.

8) StockCharts

[iTunes]

StockCharts is a program for technical stock chart analysis for Apple‘s iPhone. It can display line and candlestick charts and currently the following indicators:

• Simple Moving Average
• Exponential Moving Average
• Bollinger Bands
• Envelopes
• Volume
• MACD
• RSI
• Fast Stochastics
• Momentum
• ROC

It is also possible to switch between daily, weekly and monthly values.

The data can be retrieved either from Yahoo Finance (now with intraday updates, 20min delayed) or from Google Finance.

StockCharts can help you to analyse a stock's chart. You can configure the parameters and colors of all indicators and also add or remove them to/from the chart view. The chart and the indicators are displayed as a large, scrollable view.

You can configure how many years of historic data are downloaded by using the iPhone's Settings application.

The y axis can now be switched between linear or logarithmic scale.

9) E*TRADE Mobile

[iTunes]

Trade anytime, anywhere¹ with E*TRADE Mobile Pro for iPhone™ and iPod® touch.

E*TRADE Mobile Pro is one of the most powerful mobile trading applications ever. You get the same core functionality as your desktop, all fully synchronized with your online account in real time.

TRADE ANYTIME, ANYWHERE:

• Free streaming real-time quotes with integrated charts
• Breaking market news and commentary
• Easy stock & options trading with market, limit, and advanced orders
• Simplified account management from a single screen
• The same live watch lists and portfolios you set up online
• Quick cash transfers to and from any institution²
• And, with OS 3.0 you can set up stock price alerts from the quote details page, and receive push notifications for all Smart Alerts

10) Morningstar

[iTunes]

The latest Morningstar Mobile application offers enhanced features to help you track your investments and stay on top of the markets. Get our take on stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds—right on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

NEW! Morningstar Mobile now lets you:

• Sync to your Morningstar.com portfolios and watch lists
• Create and edit Morningstar.com watch lists
• View performance charts for stocks, funds, ETFs and Indexes
• Access the Morningstar Market Barometer and data on each of the Morningstar categories
• Track the market indexes with up-to-date news and listings of gainers, losers, and actives
• Log in for Premium Analyst Research
• Research Canadian securities

Top 10 Beautiful QR Codes

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Book Summary - Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

by Dan Ariely 

Book Description: 

Irrational behaviour is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioural economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Drawing on psychology and economics, behavioural economics can show us why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused, why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money. According to Ariely, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. Ariely argues that greater understanding of previously ignored or misunderstood forces (emotions, relativity and social norms) that influence our economic behaviour brings a variety of opportunities for re-examining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational policy. Ariely's intelligent, exuberant style and thought-provoking arguments make for a fascinating, eye-opening read. 
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 

My Review Rating: 4/5 Stars.

This is an insightful way of how our mind works and why we are often irrational in our decision making. This is useful if you are a consumer or working in the field of marketing as you will be able to learn some guidelines that might help you consume less or help your customers consume less.

Related Book Summary: LESSONS FROM YES! 50 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN WAYS TO BE PERSUASIVE

Book Summary

1.    The Truth About Relativity Why Everything Is Relative – Even When It Shouldn’t Be

a.     Choices are rarely made without a reference to other similar choices and their worth. When making a decision, we make our choices based on the array of choices presented. Decoy choices are choices inserted into the mix to “help” people choose a product.

b.     Groups of choices that are similar to each other are preferred over isolated choices that have hard to compare attributes.

c.     Relativity also plays to our emotions of contentment and creates the keeping up with the Jones syndrome. One can solve this by moving to a smaller circle where the objectives might be different or the less competitive.

2.    The Fallacy Of Supply And Demand – Why The Prices Of Pearls And Everything Else Is Up In The Air

a.     The chapter starts with the discovery of black pearls in Tahitian. An entrepreneur harvested the pearls and tried to sell them to the world. Initial efforts failed. However when the pearls were marketed with the finest gem stones, sales took off.

b.     The price anchor was set to a similar level as precious stones. Once we set a price to a product, our mind becomes used to the fact that it cost a certain amount. Any amount below will be considered cheap and any amount above will be considered expensive. This is regardless of the actual value of the product. This is called arbitrary coherence.

c.     An experiment involving suggesting initial prices by having participants write a number then bid for a product proved a correlation of the written number and the average bid price. Also when the participants were willing to pay a certain price of one product, their willingness to pay for other items in the same category was also similarly affected.

d.     Self herding is the habit formation of establishing a new price anchor and continuously reinforcing the anchor without thought. To create new anchors in a space where there are already anchors, the author suggests that one creates a product positioning that is highly differentiated.

e.     Thus since our initial anchors have far reaching consequences, we should consider the value when we purchase a first product.

3.    The Cost Of Zero Cost – Why We Often Pay Too Much When We Pay Nothing

a.     When product choices are placed together and a certain product is free, the free product creates a large relative value that distorts the choices. In a transaction, there is a return on investment. However once a product is free, there is no visible and direct loss created thus the return is infinity and thus the free choice is almost always the overwhelming choice.

4.    The Cost Of Social Norms – Why We Are Happy To Do Things But Not When We Are Paid To Do Them

a.     There are 2 worlds in which we exist. One is dictated by market norms and the other by social norms. We usually try to keep the 2 markets and the people that we interact with in each separate.

b.     When money enters into a transaction/request, it becomes a market and people will view the request relative to the market.

c.     People work equally hard when the norm is social compared to when the pay is market competitive. If the pay is reduced, the performance drops. However if the payment was not in monetary terms (gift), social norms take place. But when the price of the gift is mentioned, the market norms return. Hence we should keep the two entirely separate.

d.     Mentioning money also affects behaviour of people. When money was mentioned or suggested, people became more self reliant and less willing to ask for help. In other words, they were more rational and market oriented.

e.     When a market norm and social norm converges, the social norm is easily removed but is hard to get reestablish even when money is removed from the context.

f.     Social motivations are cheaper and more effective that monetary motivations and should be incorporated into policy making to help people make sound decisions.

5.    The Influence Of Arousal – Why Hot Is Much Hotter Than We Realise

a.     The experiment was first conducted when the student was in a normal state. Then the experiment was then conducted again when the student was in an aroused state. The results were that in an aroused state, our choices were less rational and could not be predicted by ourselves in a cold state.

b.     We should give ourselves time to cool down and analyze choices instead of making snap decisions.

6.    The Problem Of Procrastination And Self Control – Why We Can’t Make Ourselves Do What We Want To Do

a.     This chapter explores why it is so easy to lose sight of our goals and self control. We might not understand our own lack of self control. Commitments are necessary for keeping us on track. They could either be self proposed or imposed by another authority. There is reason to believe that commitments imposed by another authority might be more effective.

  7.    The High Price Of Ownership – Why We Overvalue What We Have

a.     In general the ownership of something causes the value of the thing to increase only in the owner’s perspective because it is easier to attach emotional experiences to the object. The owner also focuses more on the aspect of the loss of the object and its benefits.

b.     The more work we put into something, the more sense of ownership we get and thus higher satisfaction from using the product (IKEA effect). Ownership can also take hold partially causing virtual ownership where we imagine ourselves using the product before we own it.

8.    Keeping Doors Open – When Options Distract Us From Our Main Objective

a.     We feel compelled to keep as many choices available without due consideration to opportunity cost. When we are trying to keep our doors open, we also lose our focus on our current activities. The need to keep the choices open is due to our tendency towards loss aversion.

b.     When we narrow our choices to the final 2 choices, it is now even much harder to make a decision because the two are so similar. The author suggests making a decision and getting on with our lives.

  9.    The Effect Of Expectations – Why The Mind Gets What It Expects

a.     Expectations affect our experiences. If an expectation was set before using the product, our conclusion will likely be similar to the expectation. When the expectation was not set, the conclusion was made on the basis of the product. If the information supplied to manage the expectation was shown after the product was used, this information had little effect as the expectation would already have been set by the product experience.

10.  The Power Of Price – Why A 50-Cent Aspirin Can Do What A Penny Aspirin Can’t

a.     Placebos run on power of suggestion and they work because the person taking the medicine expects it to work. The expectation derives from a belief that the medicine works and the body becomes conditioned to the presence of the medicine and starts a physiological response.

b.     The more expensive the item, the stronger its placebo effect.

11.  The Context Of Our Character Part 1 – Why We Are Dishonest And What We Can Do About It

a.     There are 2 types of dishonesty. One is a highly criminal dishonesty where the decision making is based on how much they can steal. The second is committed by the average person where the object is often not money and less decision making is made.

b.     When given the opportunity, most honest people will cheat. Once tempted to cheat, the magnitude of cheating did not increase beyond a certain point.

c.     Honesty has an internal monitor that activates when the amount is large. When the amount is small, it is passive and the dishonest act does not get register on the virtue counter.

d.     The honesty monitor can be activated in certain ways. One could put up a sign reminding a person of honesty or a mirror for self reflection. All these ways helped in bringing up the contemplation of the internal moral benchmark.

  12.  The Context Of Our Character, Part 2 – Why Dealing With Cash Makes Us Honest

a.     When the object of dishonesty is cash, we are very unlikely to commit the dishonest act even though it might be a small amount. When the object is not cash but a product of similar value, we are inclined to commit the dishonest act. When cash is a step removed from our dishonest act, our dishonest rate goes up.

  13.  Beer And Free Lunches – What Is Behavioural Economics And Where Are The Free Lunches

a.     We should base our decision making on how we really behave instead of how we are modelled to behave in classical economic theory.

b.     We are far off from really understanding ourselves and we underestimate the external influences to our decision making.

c.     PS: if you want to participate in this journey, log on to www.predicatblyirrational.com

Book Summary of Hot, Flat and Crowded

This is the complete summary of the Book, Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L Friedman.
Yup, he is the same guy who wrote that the world is flat a few years back that highlighted how the internet and global supply chains is flattening the world. Now he is on to his next book that is highlighting Hot= Climate Change and Global Warming, Flat = Globalisation and Crowded = the growing middle class. Here is the first part of my summary.

Part 1: Where we are

1. Where birds don’t fly

American has gotten distracted by its war on terror and has become more insulated and loss its path from global leadership. Friedman argues that green is a new national strategy to take its economic to its new heights.

2. Today’s Date 1E.C.E

The trends of Hot, Flat and crowded are converging.

1. Hot= Global Warming
2. Flat= Globalisation of marketplaces
3. Crowded= Growing competition for resources

The convergence of these 3 trends increase the magnitude of problems: energy supply and demand, petrodicatorship, climate change, energy poverty and biodiversity loss

We have to do something about these 5 problems as they determine peace, security, economic growth and human rights.

Part 2: How we got there

3. Our carbon copies

This chapter focuses on energy supply and demand.

The American lifestyle is wasteful and being emulated in developing countries. If all of them reach American standards, the demand will be so high the Earth will not be able to provide the current level of resources to all. There will be intense competition for resources which will lead to conflict.

Thus a more sustainable growth model is required. The US needs to take leadership as it is the country using most of the resources right now.

4. Fill em up with dictators

This chapter focuses on petrodicatorship which is a political development in oil producing country.

As energy demand exceeds supply, oil prices rises which then gives oil producing countries a lot of money. The influx of Oil money influences politics in countries and turns it less democratic and more anti American. It also fuels terrorism and armies.

First Law of Petro Politics: As oil prices does up, the less freedom in petrolist countries

Thus reduction of oil use is necessary.

5. Global Weirding

This chapter focuses on climate change.

Climate change is real and proven. We are not sure if they will happen even faster than previous predictions. We are not sure of the changes that might happen because we have not accurately modelled the complexity of the climate.

We need to increase national awareness of climate change.

6. The Age of Noah

This chapter focuses on biodiversity loss.

Rapid climate change and human development destroys biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity directly affects human life quality. Degrading the environment means that we have to do more that the climate used to do for us.

Later is too late and we have to stop biodiversity loss now.

7. Energy Poverty

This chapter focuses on energy poverty in developing countries.

1.6 Billion people do not have access to electricity grid. Without energy, almost all aspect of life is affected. The poorest are the ones most affected by climate change.

Without electricity, one has no access to machines and communication necessary for making a living in this flat world.

This keeps the poor poorer.

With communication and electricity, we can move to a more sustainable work life style

8. Green is the new red white and blue

We have passed the point where we cannot put off dealing with the 5 problems.

The true costs of the problems are becoming clear in a transparent flat world which demands accountability.

America must take the lead because if it does not it will lose its global competitive edge. America can because it still has innovation, research and capitalist funding that is still leading edge in the world.

Plan A (There is no Plan B)

Code Green: Friedman proposes a Code Green Plan and highlights the need for a whole new system to power the economy. Need to replace the entire input of the system (dirty fuel)

The components of the Plan are Clean Electrons, Energy Efficiency and Conservation

Clean Electrons: We need to simulate innovation to find a source of electrons that is abundant, clean, reliable and cheap.

Energy Efficiency and Resource Productivity: In the short term, we must reduce the demand because Clean Energy will not be here soon.

Ethic of Conservation: Responsibility for the earth. Changing our lifestyle to something that has less effect on the earth

What We Need: A system of government policies, regulations, research funding and tax incentives that would stimulate a system for innovating, generating gland deploying clean electrons, energy efficient and resource productivity along with an ethic of conservation

On the next summary, I will cover the remaining portions of the books.

Part 3: How We Move Forward

9. 205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth

In this chapter, Friedman lists how many parties are jumping on the green bandwagon regardless of if they are really going green. He argues that the media is positioning green as the next big thing and mis-leading people into thinking that it will be easy to achieve.

He goes on to show how it is really hard to go green. He shows examples of the rapidly increasing demand on energy, the amount of investment we need to make into alternative energy and the amount of time to start these sources of energy and how hard it will be to achieve all these three. The second example he shows is that to stop the doubling of CO2 by 2050, we would have to make several major changes to the current life style all of which are also hard to achieve.

10. The Energy Internet: When IT Meets ET

The energy internet is the convergence of information technology and energy technology. This and the next 3 chapters describe a system of clean power, energy efficiency and conservation. The current power grid is built patchwork and dumb. Major regions are not interconnected and prices are set by regulation instead of market forces. The system was setup without the total cost of ownership in mind.

A scenario is painted 20 years into the future where the grid is connected to your home appliances and dynamic energy load balancing is done based on the instantaneous price of electricity. The utilities are now incentized to help your save energy and even give you loans and rebates to make your house and your appliances more efficient.

11. The Stone Age Didn’t End Because We Ran Out Of Stones

Clean energy is going to be the next global industry. We need a clean energy input to power the grid described in the previous chapter. However we have had no exponential breakthroughs yet and Friedman says that this is because of both the barrier of innovation and more importantly that we haven’t really tried. We need to create a market of clean energy. Current energy markets are dominated by the interest of oil, coal and gas companies and we need to level the playing field so the market can adopt clean energy.

A price signal is required to make sure investors will invest in the creation of clean tech companies and their products. A stable price signal will stimulate demand and confidence and pull our R&D efforts up the learning curve.

Price signals should show the true cost of burning fossil fuels. There are several ways that it could be implemented such as Carbon Taxes or Cap-and-trade schemes. Friedman concludes it doesn’t matter as much which system is implemented but the speed of the implementation.

12. If It Isn’t Boring, It Isn’t Green

We need to nurture all the cost-effective energy efficiency because it is cheaper than generating electricity. This chapter focus on how standards and regulations can optimise and lead to efficient energy usage.

Friedman uses the case of GE’s Transportation EVO Train of how tighter environmental regulation and standards drive innovation which leads to more efficient products that command a higher market premium. He also brings examples from the auto industry and air conditioning products.

Green building design can also cut operating cost even though construction cost might be higher.

The current utility incentive system has to be redesigned. Instead of aligning profits with the consumption of energy, states should reward utilities from helping to make energy use more efficient.

Transportation has to be electrified as we can then directly control the emissions from transportation. A smart grid can use the off peak power and even out loads throughout the day by exchanging power between parked cars and the grid.

13. A Million Noahs, A Million Arks

We need to develop a system for preservation of our natural assets because the degradation of these assets directly affects the quality of life. Each preservation system will need to be different depending on the local environment. There are 6 components.

1) National government policies to set aside areas for conservation and other areas for development
2) Economic opportunities for the local community to thrive without harming the local biodiversity
3) Investors with an interest in keeping the biodiversity intact and make profits
4) Local government who is able and willing to preserve and protect the areas
5) Experts with the ability to do biodiversity assessment to assess which areas should be protected
6) Education programs for the people so it is less necessary to plunder the natural world around the

14. Out Greening Al-Qaeda (Or Buy 1 Get Four Free)

Out greening is a competitive issue (economically and military). When you adopt a competitive greening strategy, you get more than 1 advantage. Being cheapest also means greenest. We need to change the current mindset of carbon neutral to pro green. Carbon neutral means a cost to the companies. But if you get the green strategy right, you can use it as a competitive tool to outcompete your competition.

Part 4 China

15: Can Red China Become Green China

China has a pollution problem because of the waste and pollution of its industry. China cannot do take the same path of dirty industrialization as the west has done because it would mean serve health problem to its citizens.

The government has realised this and has been taking small steps to go green while still keeping the economy red hot. Executing a green plan however is not easy because of the large inertia and the lack of control over local governments. Transparency in the ground is requiring for citizens to police polluters by using media outlets and civil rights movements. This is possible with the government endorsing this movement.

China is having an emergence of a clean tech industry. Buildings play a large part in the environmental policy of China mainly because of the number of buildings erected.

The US needs to take the moral ground in leading clean energy because China will follow us as it has no choice but to follow the world standard.

Part 5 America

16. China for a Day (But Not For Two)

America has been discussing greening for too long with too little action. Decisions carry too much divergent priorities. The difference between the China and US is that it takes the US takes too long to decide but measures are implemented while China can mandate in an instant but the plan might not be correctly implemented.

Decision making is being impacted by traditional energy companies that oppose any incentive to clean energy. They use advertising to mislead voters.

Congress is also negligent is letting funding go to the wrong projects instead of science and development. Government need to be funding basic research so as to seed the breakthroughs required to solve the green problem.

There is too much red tape involved in construction of a power plant. It took 11 years to connect a wind farm 275 Miles to Los Angeles. This is too slow compared to the speed at which China is building power plants of one every 2 weeks.

17. A Democratic China or a banana republic

Change will be painfully disruptive and everyone needs to be involved in bringing attention to the issue. The benefit is not immediate but it has to be done for our children.

We need a strategy to move the general public.

The energy climate era represents a new set of dangers and opportunities. We need leaders to solve this multi generational multi faceted multi trillion dollar problem.

Term Insurance vs Whole Life Insurance Strategy

So for the last few weeks my girlfriend and I have been evaluating insurance policies for her. Basically it came down to a debate of 1) “Whole Life” - (WL) or 2) “Term + Invest the difference” - (TID). Before this evaultion, I always believed in “Term + Invest the difference” because the cost was lower and the returns from stock investment would be more than that I can get from whole life.

However there is always a nagging doubt that term might not be the right choice because it doesn’t cover you in old age which is the time when you might need insurance the most. In the end after much discussion we came up with a strategy that both of us thinks make financial sense. Thanks to my girlfriend whom helped put the nagging doubt to rest by crystallising my thoughts.

First let’s make sure you understand both term and whole life insurance

Term

“With term insurance, you’re covered only during the life of the policy, while you’re paying the premiums. If you carry a term life insurance policy for 50 years, regularly pay the premiums, and then quit paying and die a year later, you’re out of luck. (Well, you’d be out of luck regardless – but, in this case, your beneficiaries are out of luck, too.)” 

Whole Life

“Whole life insurance, meanwhile, is designed to cover you for your whole life. These policies charge you a fixed premium each year, one that’s typically higher than term insurance. The advantage touted by insurance companies for whole life insurance is that, while part of the premium covers what term insurance would cost, the surplus resides in an account that pays interest and accumulates a cash value. As this “accumulation account” grows, your premiums can decrease over time. Eventually, in some cases, the interest earned can pay the premiums for you. So, you won’t be paying any more premiums, but you’ll still be covered for the rest of your life.” http://www.fool.com/foolu/askfoolu/2002/askfoolu020725.htm

 So if you distill the 2 polcies these are the differences between the 2

 1.     Forced Savings in WL

2.      Cost of premiums (WL is more expensive)
3.      Coverage after 60-65 years old (That WL has whereas TID doesnt)

 Of the 3 differences, only the coverage after 60-65 years old  cannot be replicated by a TID strategy so that is what we based our decision upon. 

Since the main diffierence of WL and TID is that WL covers you after 65 years old, we should then only buy WL for that function and only intend to use its insurance after 65 years old.

The strategy goes as follows

“Before 65, buy enough whole life that you will need in old age and then whatever amount of term you need to get enough coverage for current times. After 65 discontinue your term policies and hold on to your WL policies.” 

The reasoning goes like this:

Before age 65 is when you have the most liabilities (loans, dependants etc) which means that the need for insurance will be highest at this point. However to get whole life is way too expensive for the average person to consider so  the cheapest option is term insurance with a critical illness rider. Plus getting whole life also means that you are probably wasting money in old age since you do not need that much coverage.

After 65, most of your liabilities will have been repaid and your dependants would have grown up and thus you no longer need the insurance to ensure their livelihood or pay off debts if something happens to you. Also after 65 years old, term insurance cost also skyrockets so it is not something that is worth keeping for its cost.

Yup, so that’s the strategy. As for timing and how much to get, it based on each individual but do remember that $100,000 might not be worth much when you are 65 years old so that you need to increases your coverage as inflation catches up.

I think the most important lesson is that one should always think about what they are buying and why they are buying it. If you are reading this, most probably you have already done much research on financial planning. But most people will not have research on what to buy so go out and spread the message to them.

In the next blog post, I will discuss which WL policy we chose and why we make that selection.

Lessons from Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive

This is a book about social psychology applied to marketing, sales and general persuasion. It is an interesting read of what is essentially hundred of social studies and test complied into a laymen format with applicable real life examples.

I have complied my summary after reading the book. Do note that this is not in the order for the 50 chapters in the book. I have even grouped them under headings not found in the book for my own use.

How to encourage a response

1)The herding instinct

• By saying many people are doing it
• By referencing people similar to the target audience
• Increasing social approval of an action
• Seeing a mirror or a set of eyes encourages self reflection and a stronger sense of sticking with the social norm

2) Reducing the options

• When customers are not clear about requirements
• People choose the middle product as a compromise
• Present at least 2 products
• Present the more expensive one first

3) Fear

• The more clearly people see behavioral means for ridding themselves of fear, the less they will need to resort to denial

4) Providing a memory aid at the decision making stage which you message is trying to affect

The reciprocity Principle1) An ounce of personalize extra effort is worth a pound of persuasion
2) Three Major factors make a gift or favor more persuasive and more likely to be reciprocated

• Significance
• Unexpected
• Personalized

3) Initiate the reciprocity without expecting anything back
4) Favors change in value over time

• Recipients placed a lower value
• Doers place a higher value

How to get commitment1) Get a small commitment before asking for successively bigger ones
2) Asking "Even a bit will help" increases the possibility of an action
3) People perform to expectations when labeled
4) Asking a simple question of volunteering
5) To increase the possibility of following through - Commitment should be voluntary, active and publicly declared to others
6) Active commitments- Written are more likely to be fulfilled

How to change people’s mind

1. when presenting ideas that might be inconsistent with previous behavior, 
2. free them of their previous behavior by saying it was the correct decision at that time given the evidence and information
3. Use the word “Because”
4. Adding this in your conversation with a good following reasons increases willingness of the other person to help you
5. Get the other party to say because to you because it reinforces their beliefs about you

How to get a positive perception

1. asking someone who does not like you for a favor might help change their perception of you for the better
2. See the virtue of others instead of their flaws
3. get someone/something to introduce you and blow your trumpet
4. promoting your weakness puts you in a better position of trust to sell your strength
5. Promoting a weakness and then a related strength enhances the preference of your product
6. Taking responsibility for your mistakes shows that you control over future events and the fix ready

Confluence

1. Bring up similarities between you and the other person to increase the chances of that person agreeing to a request
2. People like names that are similar sounding to their own
3. Parroting a person’s word will make them feel more at ease and confident that you have understood them
4. Names should be pronounceable and easy to remember
5. Product Slogans that rhyme
6. Asking for too many reasons of why a product is good might induce a negative perception because of the difficulty of coming up with the number of require reasons

Scarcity principle

1. The more scarce, the more people are likely to horde it
2. People – who knows or have it
3. Things – Limited quantities

Perceptual Contrast

1. The amount of information that a preceding message has affects the positive influence on the next message. The less information, the more influence the second message is.
2. People will be more likely to complete task and programs if there is an indication that there is already some progress towards completion instead of no progress.
3. in a competitive market, a lower starting price is better as it generates more attention and buy in from early bidders

Loss aversion principle

1. Instead of pointing out what they stand to gain if they do A, point out what they stand to lose if they don’t do A

Names:

1. Unexpected Descriptive, Ambiguous names create a sense of fascination and attraction with it compared with common and common descriptive names

Interpersonal Dynamics

1. Team > one person’s thinking. Encourage input but make your own decisions
2. a true devil advocate will increase confidence in the final position
3. It is easier to reach an agreement with someone when there is background information on each other 

Others

1. learning from examples of past mistakes is more effective than just learning good practices
2. Cultural differences affect the strength of messages
3. Bundling will devalue the bundle product
4. Instead of using the word free, state the value of the product
5. “Receive $250 security program at no cost to you”

Physiology

1. Emotional affect decision making.
2. Avoid decision making when you are feeling down
3. Take time out before making a decision
4. Being distracted or tired makes you more susceptible to untrue persuasion
5. Caffeine consumptions make you more easily persuaded with good arguments. Bad arguments have no effect.

Ten Rules of Thumb for a Volatile Market

Side Note: Top 10 iPhone apps for Stock Market Investors

Focus on Organic Growth.
With Citi’s economic forecast calling for below-trend GDP growth (typically considered to be approximately 3% annualized) over the next year, we believe that investors will place a premium valuation on companies possessing the ability to increase their earnings at rates well in excess of the S&P 500, through organic (non-acquisitive) growth. Companies in the early stages of new product cycles or brand line extensions of popular products offer the best opportunities for organic growth and economic resilience, in our view.

Focus on Companies that Make Other Companies More Productive.
With productivity gains and resulting cost savings becoming more difficult to achieve given macroeconomic headwinds, we believe that companies will focus on those products and services offering a “value proposition” or enhanced return on investment (ROI). For example, oil service companies that possess the latest technologies can charge a premium price because they provide an efficient way to extract difficult-to-access oil and gas deposits. Similarly, technology companies that offer products that make accessing data easier and more pleasurable are likely better able to withstand slowing demand, in our opinion.

Identify Long-Term Growth Trends.
Shifting demographic patterns or new legislation can often lead to critical behavioral changes that influence the products and services consumers and corporations purchase. Often, these trends are less affected by economic conditions because of necessity. In many cases, companies enjoying either critical mass or “first mover” status reap the benefits of these changes and develop strong customer loyalty, which, in turn, can lead to strong recurring revenues.

Maintain an Emphasis on Companies Possessing Financial Flexibility.
During periods of heightened uncertainty, access to new or additional capital might be more difficult to obtain. We believe companies that possess the financial strength to fund internal or external growth opportunities through strong and rising free cash flow(and low debt service costs) will tend to exhibit lower volatility and more stable returns. Metrics that take on added importance in the late stages of a credit cycle include: interest coverage, working capital efficiency, and free cash flow. We believe companies that possess low debt levels as a percentage of total capital will be rewarded by investors,particularly when access to financing is perceived as becoming more limited.

Make Sure “Perception” Can’t Become Reality – Avoid Companies That Need to Roll Debt or Access the Capital Markets During Adverse Conditions.

Recent market events show that a company that needs to raise capital or roll maturing debt can suffer severe consequences in the current market environment. What would normally be a regular occurrence has become a potential sign of weakness, given the extreme illiquidity in the market. Furthermore, share price weakness can raise questions about the perceived inability to raise capital and put a company into bankruptcy orconservatorship just as quickly as a lack of financing options can.

Pay Attention to the Quality of Earnings.
A good measure of a corporation’s quality of earnings is how closely its free cash flow (net income + depreciation and amortization +/- changes in working capital – capitalexpenditures) matches its net income. For a time, a corporation may be able to obscure an underlying deterioration in fundamentals through financial engineering. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are based on accrual accounting and may allow for a higher degree of flexibility in recognizing revenues and expenses than free cash flow allows for.

Scrutinize Free Cash Flow.
We believe free cash flow is the clearest measure of a company’s financial flexibility. Companies generating excess free cash flow may choose to reward shareholders through the payment of a dividend or a share repurchase program. Other corporations maychoose to direct cash flow toward strategic acquisitions or internal growth opportunities. Investors should closely monitor corporations where significant changes in depreciation schedules can have a meaningful impact on near-term earnings. Additionally, a large increase in receivables or inventories can be an indication of potential trouble ahead.

Avoid Value Traps.
In our view, investors should focus on forward earnings projections because many economically sensitive companies, particularly at or near cyclical peaks, tend to appear attractively valued based on trailing earnings. A focus on consensus earnings estimaterevisions can provide investors with some insight into near-term operating momentum. Often, particularly during a period of slowing economic growth, the first earnings shortfall may act as a harbinger of future earnings disappointments.

Merger & Acquisition (M&A) Selection Criteria Shouldn’t BeDismissed.
While many investors believe a slowdown in M&A and leveraged buyout (LBO) activity could lead to a lower stock market valuation, we do not believe this implies an absenceof value. In our view, many of the same characteristics that financial buyers were drawn to over the past several years (strong free cash flow, low leverage, and solid profit margins) remain in place today, though in many cases at significantly lower valuations than last year. Screening for companies with free cash flow yields well in excess of prevailing bond yields can often be a starting place for attractive investment ideas.

Focus on the Long Term and KeepEmotions In Check.
Successfully negotiating difficult market environments requires a willingness to act quickly on investor misperceptions that frequently occur due to “panic-selling” or “group-think.” Emotionally charged markets are often driven by fear rather than thecareful analysis of fundamentals. In our view, a disciplined investment process, emphasizing strong or rising free cash flow, profit margin expansion, attractive valuation, positive changing internal dynamics, incremental market share opportunities, and strong management, can help maintain clarity in volatile markets.

The top five cancer-causing foods

Live Life Without Limits!
AND PASS THIS EMAIL TO WHOM YOU CARE

The top five cancer-causing foods are:

1. Hot dogs
Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can't live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.


2. Processed meats and bacon
Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.




3. Doughnuts
Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, says Adams , may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.



4. French fries
Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries, said Adams .




5. Chips, crackers, and cookies
All are usually made with white flour and sugar. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.


BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS


1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain



------------ --------- --------- ------------ --------- --------- ------------ --------- --------- -

The main causes of liver damage are:

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver.
Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to 'schedule.'

DO TAKE CARE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH...... ......... ..
AND PASS THIS TO ALL WHOM YOU LOVE & CARE FOR. ............ .........

10 Types of Leadership Style

The leadership styles we look at here are:

1. Autocratic leadership.


2. Bureaucratic leadership.


3. Charismatic leadership.


4. Democratic leadership/participative leadership.


5. Laissez-faire leadership.


6. People-oriented leadership/relations-oriented leadership.


7. Servant leadership.


8. Task-oriented leadership.


9. Transactional leadership.


10. Transformational leadership.

10 Ways To Get The Best Price For Your Car

I just sold my car, a Mitsubishi Mirage vintage 2000 with 90K miles on it. It was a good deal for me and the buyer. I got it for a good price so I let it off at a good price too. I know my car is reliable but I was thinking of how I could make sure that my car is in peak condition when buyers came to test drive. This is the list I came up that I think might help you get a higher price for your car.

1. Polish, wash and clean your car’s exterior and interior
First impression counts! This is important!

2. Inflate all tires equally
This reduces any chance of alignment issues. Sometimes you feel that your car is drifting. This is usually not an alignment issue but one where tires are either infliated to a different amount. In case you do any an alignment issue, you can try to hotfix the alignment issues by custom inflating your tires to “balance” it all out

If you under inflate your tires by a bit, it also helps for a less bumpy drive. However this comes at a cost of reduced mileage

3. Fill it up with premium gasPremium gas helps a little bit for smooth acceleration. Use pump this one time!

4. Oil change and clean the engineBring it to a mechanic for an oil change. Oil changes will make for smoother transmission changes and acceleration. If it is due soon, bring the car in yourself. Alternatively if you are a scrimper, let the first interested buyer bring the car in for an inspection. Large auto repair chains usually bundle oil changes and 50+ point checks together for a cheap price.

Ask for the mechanic for help in cleaning the engine dirt off. The engine will look well maintained when the hood is opened

5. Change the tyre covers30$ from Costco. This helps to improve first impression lot if you are like me and scratch the covers on the kerb when doing a parallel park,

6. Warm up the car before the buyer comes
So that the engine has the power for quick acceleration which buyers like to test
7. Get your documentation readya. New Smog Check
b. Service records
c. The title
d. Carfax report
e. Vin Number

8. Get a cheap mechanic check from a honest mechanic (I use a highly yelped mechanic)
You can share the cost with the first interested buyer. A recent check report will help push in decisive buyers to real buyers.

Be aware that mechanics usually tell you to change everything. So get the mechanic to highlight only the things that really need to be changed.

9. Take lots of flattering photos of your car(photoshop???)No need to highlight the flaws. The buyers will see them when they come for the test drive. But the goal of an ad is to get response and not to close the deal. The test drive and you are the deal closer.

10. Test the market valuationOther than checking KBB and other similar car prices, you can do a market price test.

Post a ad on Craigslist with some information. No pictures or vin number and see how many people email you to setup an appointment. Once you have 3-5 people emailing you in a week, you are probably are at a good spot.

Now post the real ad with photos and bell and whistle. Add a few hundred dollars to the price where you got response. Now people will be contacting you and you know how much your car can fetch

Bonus:Never let bird shit stay on your car for too long. After a while it starts to corrode the paint and past that point, there isn't much you can do :(

10 Ways with Salad Dressing

It's not just about lettuce. Add a splash of this bottled flavor booster
to potatoes, eggs, burgers and more.
Did you know? Italian is the number one dressing choice for Americans
followed by Ranch and then Blue cheese.
1. Dressed Up Corn: Brush corn on the cob with a layer of your favorite
vinaigrette (try roasted red pepper or white wine varieties) before
grilling. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and Parmesan cheese while it's
still pipping hot for some Latino fair
=
2. Creamy Dreamy Spuds: Pour on a good glug of Blue cheese dressing into
a simple mashed potatoes for a cheese packed punch.Top with some chopped
chives or minced red onions.
=
3. Standout Slaw: Replace half mayo in your go to cole slaw recipe with
honey mustard dressing and mix thoroughly coat.Toss in chunks of avocado
for a super creamy combo.
=
4. Salad Burgers: Mix a few Tablespoons if thousand island dressing or
sun dried tomato dressing into ground meat before shaping into patties,
Grill, broil or saute as you like.Serve on crusty rolls topped with a
heaping pile of shredded lettuce
=
5. Magic Marinade: Coat chicken breasts or fish fillets in Italian or
Asian sesame dressing and let it marinate (refrigerated) for at least 30
mins before coking. Drizzle more dressing over the top right before
serving
=
6. Top Notch Toast: Pour a bit of Caesar dressing over sliced of french
bread ( or another crusty loaf) and broil until golden. Serve as an
alternative to garlic bread. Cut into croutons or crumble into homemade
seasoned bread crumbs
=
7. Cheese Lover's Pie: Top a store bought or homemade pizza crust with a
layer of three cheese dressing instead of your standard sauce. Sprinkle
with mushrooms and shredded mozzarella and bake as directed,
=
8. Mediterranean Medley: Cook rigatoni according to pkg directions.
Drain and rinse under cold water. Combine rigatoni with a splash of
greek dressing as the basis for a homemade pasta salad. Toss in some
chopped roasted red peppers, sliced olives and a handful of crumbled
feta cheese
=
9. Picnic Chicken: Dip drumsticks and bone in chicken thighs in a tangy
buttermilk ranch dressing. Then roll in seasoned bread crumbs to coat.
Bake at 350 until crust is golden and meat is cooked through about 50
mins.
=
10. Better Breakfast: Add a splash of french dressing to scrambled eggs.
Then spice them up with a bit of shredded pepper jack cheese. Garnish
with sliced green onions.
The beauty of life is not how happy you are but how happy others can be
because of you.

Should YOU Mobile? - Opportunities & Challenges in the Mobile Space

Hi,

I just wanted to post this great event that is happening. There will be speakers from Storm Ventures, Intel and Qik.com(of course the event will be qiked live too) and Nokia.

Date: Jun 27, 2008 (Friday)

Time: 5:30pm - 9:30pm

Location: Wilson Sonsini 

 

More information about the event can be found at http://www.nusea.org/rainmakers2008/index.php

http://rainmakers2008.eventbrite.com/.

Top 10 Location Based Startups to track

1. Whrrl http://www.whrrl.com/
Whrrl is a new mobile network that lets you aggregate information as you visit different places in life. It’s generally like a location review service that’s wrapped up in a map mashup and a social network.

 












2. Brightkite http://brightkite.com/
The service, a device agnostic, SMS-based application, lets you "check in" at various locations out in the real world and then see who else is there, has been there, and who is nearby. You can check in via text or via the web, but text is easiest if you're mobile.


3. Loopt https://loopt.com/
Loopt is a mobile social mapping application. Using cell phones and mobile devices, it displays the locations of a user’s friends along with their presence status (available, away, etc) visually on maps or on lists. Based on GPS and related data, users can request alerts when friends are within a certain distance, send messages to groups of friends in particular area, and be able to tag and blog physical locations in a way that’s accessible to friends through Loopt. Users can also take pictures from their cell phones and tag them; these pictures will be available to friends and others on the Loopt network.


4. Rummble http://www.rummble.com/
Rummble users build their social network on with a basic relationship (i.e. friend, relation or business) but then apply tags to that. Users can review almost anything (restaurants, stores, coffee shops, etc.). Rummble has an algorithm that works out which reviews by others in the user’s network to trust, based on user’s behavior and relationship to them. Rummble functions across Web and mobile and Facebook.


5. LOcle http://locle.com/
Not much is know about this startup. Here is what i have gathered
Locle is the hottest mobile geo-social networking app, showing your location and if friends are near, without a need for GPS or operator LBS.
Locle [2] is an application for Java Mobile, Symbian S60 and S80, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry phones that allows users to share their location using either GPS or cell-tower. The application integrates into Facebook and other social networking websites with open APIs (application programming interfaces). Locle is developed by Leprecian, Ltd., who also own GSM-Tracker [3], a cell-tower semantic tagging community website.


6. PublicEarth http://www.publicearth.com/

PublicEarth’s goal is to become the premier data source for this next generation of location specific data and content. They define next generation location specific data and contact, in its essence, in the same way that the Google Maps Mashups work: “content attached through geographical coordinates to relevant points of interest in the physical world, describing in organized detail the attributes of those points of interest, accessible through a simple intuitive web mapping interface.”


7. uLocate http://www.ulocate.com/index.php
uLocate is calling WHERE a platform for mobile LBS widgets because you can personalize which services you choose to use on your cell phone and you can use the Where.com website to drag-and-drop new services to your phone.
WHERE is also the world’s first mobile location-based services (LBS) platform built with both consumers and developers in mind. The WHERE platform offers easy access to global positioning system data (GPS), a simple programming paradigm, and a unique go-to-market opportunity for mobile application developers.


8. Citysense http://www.citysense.com/home.php
Citysense, a location-based service that the company calls "social navigation." The first Citysense application is a mobile map that shows the busiest nightlife hot spots in San Francisco. Citysense is currently available only for the BlackBerry, but an iPhone version is promised.
"Citysense demonstrates the power of combining anonymous, aggregate location data for social navigation," said Sandy Pentland, chief privacy advocate and co-founder of Sense Networks.

9. RadiusIM http://www.radiusim.com/
RadiusIM relies on location-based features to differentiate it from other web-based instant-messaging services. It offers access to key IM services such as AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger and Google Talk, and it lets you search for other RadiusIM users based on their location.

10. My own?
I haven’t really named my startup yet. Suggestions on the name are welcomed.
My startup(in a few words) will be on the topic of
• Discovery of Mobile generated Content
• Creation of Content on Phone
• Community Conversation
Think of it as Digg on your phoneJ
if you want one of

Using Hotwire? 10 Hot Tips on Booking Hotels via Hotwire

I am planning my 2 week trip through California and I was tempted to use Priceline.com and Hotwire to book my accommodation needs. The business model and how they work are not necessary the most transparent and easy to understand stuff. Both Hotwire and Priceline sell a variety of travel related products like air tickets, hotels, car rentals etc.

How Hotwire works is by showing you a few available hotels after you provide some details of your travel(i.e. Date of stay; where you want to stay and how many people will be needed a room). Hotwire then shows you their partner hotels in the area. You can see the description of the hotel, the amenities it has and an approximate location. What you cannot see if an exact name of the hotel. They do this so that with the low prices, people will still purchase hotels rooms that have not been sold. Hotwire will tell you the name of the hotel once you have paid for the booking. (Note: Hotwire does not do refunds. Once the hotel is booked, you had better be there to use your Hotwire booking. This is important!)

Because you cannot see the name of the hotel you are booking, this brings a lot of unease in most people because they want to be sure of the quality of the hotel. With that we provide our first tip.

1) How To Guess The Hotel Which You Might Be Booking
It is pretty likely that you can figure out which hotel you are booking if you go through the steps below.

Step 1: Look for the list of hotels on Better Bidding.com
For this example, I will use Los Angeles as an example. To access BetterBidding’s Hotwire list of hotels in California, just click here. BetterBidding’s list shows you by area the names and the amenities of the hotels in that area.

By comparing BetterBidding’s information and the description that Hotwire gives you after you filled in your travel details, this should allow you to pinpoint the name of the hotel to a 60% correct guess.

Step 2: Compare with TripAdvisor

Of course one is never satisfied since we are talking potentially a few hundred bucks here. So in our quest to make our guess close to 100%, Hotwire(Most of the time) also provides you a TripAdvisor rating and the number of reviews the hotel has.(Yippee!)

Now go to Tripadvisor.com and enter the hotel name that you have previously guessed. Hotwire will show an approximate number of reviews the hotel has. Just make sure the number of reviews on TripAdvisor and Hotwire matches up and you should have a 99.99% chance of getting the hotel. (I.e. Don’t ask me for a refund if this doesn’t work.)

2) Protection Is Unnecessary (Well...Not This Protection Anyway)Hotwire has a new feature called Trip Protection. The protection protects your Non-Refundable booking against unexpected events such as medical emergencies, strikes, natural disasters and bad weather. From what I have seen, the approximate cost is about 10% of your booking. It is also highly unlikely that you will even use this protection. For its cost, you are better getting travel insurance from an insurance provider.

3) Get Starwood Preferred Guest For Free Upgrades
Starwood Preferred Guest is like a frequent flyer miles for hotels. Hotwire does not earn you points when you book a Starwood hotel through them but when you check in, sometimes the hotel will upgrade you for free if you tell them that you are a Starwood preferred guest. The membership is free so go ahead and register here.

4) Timing Is Everything

Hotwire changes their prices frequently. It has been reported that new users get a slightly better rate than returning users. ($10 at most) So if you are looking to book a hotel, clear your cookies from your web browser first before going to hotwires website.

Hotwire also has a useful chart to check when the hotels are the cheapest. In some months, hotels in an area will be 50% cheaper than their peak period.

In General, when booking a hotel, booking earlier is almost always cheaper.
5) Caveats About Hotwire

Hotwire is not the hotels’ website so they don’t really know and can’t control which room the hotel gives you when you check in. This is true even though they ask for how many people are coming with you; they do not confirm that the number of beds the hotel gives you on check in is appropriate. What they suggest you to do is that you call the hotel once you have made your reservation and quote your confirmation code, then give them your details of the number of beds required, whether you want a smoking or non smoking room and any other features you care about.

6) Pick Up The Phone And Call Directly

Compare prices on Hotwire, Tripadvisor.com, and the hotel’s website before booking. It has been reported that the hotels sometimes have promotions that make booking through the hotel itself cheaper. Also if you don’t book through hotwire, you can still cancel your reservation later on without a penalty.

Also Hotwire’s retail price is way off...so take that with a large pinch of sodium.

And if you have already made your purchase, you can ask for a refund within 24 hours of booking if you find a price that is cheaper online. You do have to screenshot and save this for proof.

7) Prices Are Higher Than Priceline
Hotwire prices are about 20-30% more expensive than Priceline. However for Priceline you have to spend time bidding for the hotel. Everytime you bid and do not receive a winning bid, you cannot rebid in 24 hours so you will need a few days to try to get the 20%-30% discount. This might mean that the hotel room might be sold while you are waiting to rebid. So if you are a patient man, go with Priceline.com(It’s fun too!)

8) Book Hotels With At Least 3.5 Stars

Hotwire gives you the most savings if you use it to book for hotels that are better than 3.5 starts. Anything lower than that and the savings become marginal and you are better booking through the hotel itself. Don’t expect Motel 6 pricing on Hotwire. Plus it is well know that Hotwire’s star rating is not entirely industry standard. Check the Tripadvisor rating and google the hotel after you have obtained the name from tip #1.

9) Check To See If The Hotel Double Charged You After You Leave The Hotel.
I am hoping this doesn’t happen to you but hotels can make mistakes. They might have missed that you already paid on Hotwire and they will still charge you again. Just make sure you look at your credit card statement. If this happens, call the hotel instead of hotwire. If that doens’t works then call Hotwire.

10) Check Out These 2 Sites

biddingfortravel.com
betterbidding.com

So there is the 10 tips I promised. I haven’t checked into my hotel yet so I will update you guys later on my experience. I just hope I do not get a “special room”

It never works...

I was reading a White paper written by Russell Buckley from mobhappy.com and there was an interesting joke inside so I thought I will share this.
"
This all reminds me of a friend of mine, who I shall call Nick, because
that.s his name. When he gets very drunk and happens to be in a
restaurant, he calls the waiter over and asks for 15 eggs and 15 wine
glasses. The bemused waiter normally brings them and Nick spends about
20 minutes building a complicated pyramid of eggs and glasses. By this
time, most of the restaurant are watching in suspense.

Nick then announces that he.s going to pull the table cloth out and all the
eggs will break and fall neatly into their corresponding glasses. The
suspense is palpable as it would be truly amazing if he managed to pull
this trick off. With much theatre, Nicks grasps the table cloth, (even the
kitchen staff are watching now) and with a flourish, he yanks it hard.
Glasses and egg fly everywhere, coating the immediate vicinity in broken
glass and yolk. It.s also noticeable that not one egg has broken cleanly
into one glass. The restaurant is hushed in shock and Nick stares at the
wreckage. He then shakes his head and says, after a 4 second pause:
.It never works..."

Rainbow in the clouds

Location: Sunnyvale, CA Time Sunday Apr 27th 2008. 1230pm

So I was out running on saturday and I was this great looking yet rare part of a rainbow in the sky. I guess there must be some refraction theory behind it...I wished I had a better camera to use as a wall paper but since I was out running, my Ipaq 6828 will have to suffice



A closer look at the streak of Rainbow Cloud



Doing a search for "Rainbow in the clouds" led me to this National Geographic article which unsuprisingly had a much better picture than mine

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html
 
June 19, 2006—It looks like a rainbow that's been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice. Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border (map of Idaho). The arc isn't a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What's more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground. When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus's crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors. This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour, according to the London Daily Mail.