slamboard

Todays big news is Apple Corporation’s first quarter profits. They are big. I played no part, personally, in contributing to the 88% increase but many of the consumers clamouring for iPods did. Notebook sales were also up by 79%.

Do I even have to say that stock prices rose as a result of the news?

I am going to put these words in the first paragraph of this post because they are the kind of words that catch my attention: limited time free download promotion. Once I see that something is free and only for a limited time, I get this adrenaline response.

If you haven’t already clicked the www.securezip.com link, you can stick around and read my take on what they are giving away. SecureZip bills itself as the the easiest way to protect your files being stored or transferred. I haven’t seen any eveidence to the contary

The site is about data security. With SecureZIP - The next generation of ZIP you have ease of implementation and scalability. I am not obsessed with security, but I deal with people who are and I respect their wants and needs. On the other end of the scale I have seen people who have a huge online presence and a huge amount of data that were very cavalier about security until AFTER they experienced the malice that you inevitably draw along with attention.

SecureZip bills itself as the the easiest way to protect your files being stored or transferred. I haven’t seen any eveidence to the contary

Type business into Google and your top hit is Business.com.

I must have visited pages on this site before, but I can’t remember having taken note of the fantastically advantagious address. This site must have huge revenue. It is first and foremost a directory. I clicked on technology, then laptops and I am at a page where the top three Featured Listings are Gateway, BestBuy and Dell.

Having a simple URL means that you get type-in traffic. Slamboard.com is not a big winner in this regard, but it does have a ring to it.

I joined a site called HighFives today. HighFivez.com has a new forum. I just made my first post there. My post is about Link Baiting, I’m hoping it will spark a discussion. Of course I put a link back to my site too.

HighFives is a site that is like Digg in some ways. The main difference is scope. HighFives.com aims to be a place for Bloggers to show each other what they think is the best of what the blogosphere has to offer as far as blogs, bloggers and individual blog posts. Of course bloggers will balance this with a healthy dose of shameless self promotion as well.

I think I am going to set aside some time everyday to check it out and contribute. With a new feature like the forum, I have the chance to be part of the old guard as the site matures. When I join a forum as a new member I often resent the established cliques that are already there excluding people. Given the focus on blogging, there is a chance that a fairly civil and inclusive community could develop on this forum. I recently had the experience of having a forum that I participated in on a daily basis just disappear. I’m experiencing a bit of withdrawal.

The $100 laptop project called OLPC has always given me a warm fuzzy feeling. Getting computers into the hands of kids in developing nations is very important. Unfortunately, costs have gone up to the point where somebody made the decision to raise the price tag to $175.

Donations to this project can be made here.

Keep in mind the fact that the US dollar has weakened against many other currencies in recent months.

Source for this story: TG Daily

Bollywood is such a revenue generator that Americans ( ever heard of Hollywood?) have been co-opting it frequently in recent years. Also, many of Bollywoods biggest female stars are given what amounts to honorary B-list celebrity in the US.

After copyright issues became a big issue with YouTube, I started looking all over the internet for different sources of user uploaded video. Aaapka Video is one such source. It is aimed at the Indian and South Asian market, and its content reflects this. Besides great clips from Bollywood, they also have cricket, football, music videos and the typical user made videos we all have come to know and love, ecept with an Indian flavour.

Oh, and they are giving away iPods to the users with the most popular uploads.

I was surprised to see the interview that Sameera Reddy gave on the Tom Green Show on Aaapka.

I made a bad joke last week. I offered the suggestion that since the War on Terror and the War on Drugs are both inherently unwinnable, the President of the United States of America should turn his focus to the Cola Wars.

I am almost certain that a show of force would almost certainly result in the manufacturers of Brand Y backing down utterly and completely. When those trucks full of Cola Brand X came rolling into town, the former Brand Y drinkers would welcome them as liberators.

I think I could serve as an interpreter during the interim period, I actually drink both brands. I find one of them goes well with greasy food but is a bit gritty on its own. I mean that in NO disrespect.

We have three teens living with us right now. They outnumber us. I think that one of the most important pieces of advice that I can offer to all parents out there is to try and recognize when a problem is beyond your scope and get help ASAP. Help My Teen - Teen Placement Options is a resource whose name starts with the word help, that should tell you something. I would suggest that you consider learning special parenting skills in addition to getting outside help for your kids. You have to look at the teen years as training for adulthood, not an inconvenient stage during which your job as a parent is damage control.

Wow, Photobucket has 40 million users that send links back to its site from 300,000 sites including MySpace. I didn’t even know that these two huge web companies were fighting and it is already over.

The fight started after Photobucket launched video hosting and MySpace blocked its users from embedding photobucket video. It ended,… well apparently it just ended. Some kind of deal maybe?

I am so out of the loop, I have a photobucket account and I didn’t know that they have video. I will have to check it out.

I deal with foreign exchange rates on an almost daily basis, but I try and ignore this fat as much as possible because it is more of a cost of doing business than an investment strategy.

I used to be in a situation where changes in the exchange rate between USD and CAD would either make me giddy or give me ulcers. I was the roaster for a Fair Trade coffee co-op. I would purchase green coffee in shipping containers. The shipments usually cost upwards of $80,000 USD. Over the course of a month or so, I would roast the coffee and it woud be sold on the retail and wholesale market in CAD. When the exchange rates were volatile, it meant that our profit margin was bouncing up and down like a yo-yo.

The strategic trading that people attempt relies on the fact that different institutions exchange currencies at different rates. I still have an account at a financial organization that I tedn to avoid using because they have very unfavorable exchanges. Making an income from the global futures market requires decisiveness and attention to detail.