It appears that as we get closer to November 4th, people (by people I mean the WSJ) all across the country are beginning to look closer at Obama’s proposed “tax cuts” and other tenants of his campaign. One of the most startling things people are finding is that while he promises to cut taxes on 95% of families (40% of which do not pay taxes) he’s “proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%”. Something hardly anyone was talking about a week ago.

Now MSM (main stream media) and Others are finally taking note. So yes, while he would “cut” taxes, the truth is that just like other democrats before him who promised lower taxes, he’s actually raising them. In fact, according to the WSJ article:

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of “making work pay,” but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you’re a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year.

Thats something you won’t hear any of the talking heads on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or any other MSM outlet mention or ask him about. Its only a wonder why we haven’t heard that from the McCain Camp yet.

Popularity: unranked [?]

There are a ton of different ways to make money online. Selling ads, writing reviews, suckering people in to downloading “toolbars” but none of the ones I have come across have been quite as easy as Get Paid to Offer Free Resources from Netline and RevResponse. The cool thing is that these are totally FREE magazine subscriptions in a ton of different trade areas. The things practically sell themselves.

For instance, who in the IT Field would not want a FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO ORACLE MAGAZINE or any number of other TRADE PUBLICATIONS in the IT, farming, biosomething or other or a ton of other fields? They even help set up a branded site like the one for linuxtracker so that its almost as though your visitors never leave your site. Its totally cool and easy to do.

Payouts are consistant, the content is good and they even have easy ways to write reviews and blog posts as well. Can’t beat that with a sharp stick can you? If you’re looking for an easy way to make a couple of extra bucks this holiday season you can’t beat the program at revresponse.

Popularity: 1% [?]

There was a lot of chatter yesterday on the web about a new browser from Google hitting the tubes. Well, Chrome was officially unleashed today for Windows XP and Vista sufferers users and it seems to be a VAST improvement over the current three leading browsers (IE, FireFox and Opera).

I have to say, I wasn’t too fond of reading the whole Comic Book on chrome to get to the end and not have a link. Not that I actually read it, but still. You get the point. I did manage to point my browser at the chrome home (ET!) and get the download link. Unfortunately, at the moment, its for Windows Only, they do plan on releasing a Linux and a Mac version shortly though.

I won’t bore you with the whole history behind chrome or the code beneth it, plenty has already been written about that. What I do want to do is let you see some of the cool features. First is the top screenshot. Chrome displays DoG alright, there are some alignment problems, but that can probably be corrected by actually fixing the website code itself.

The browser does render quicker than either Firefox or IE (which is a plus) and it incorporates the tabs to the top bar (where the minimize and close buttons are) which is taking a little time to get used to, but its cool all the same. There isn’t too much to the “settings” so far (take a look at the screenshots) but that is bound to change as they continue to add more features. After all, this is a beta.

I do like the “recent pages” that display when you open a new tab. Outside of the speed and some minor differences though, it appears to be “just another browser” upon first inspection. If anyone else out there is using Chrome (or trying) I’d like to hear what you think about it. Maybe I’m missing something.

Popularity: 57% [?]

Having worked for a web hosting company for a while as a Systems Administrator (think fancy tech support) I kind of know my way around web servers. When it came time to find my own servers, I knew what I was looking for. A dedicated server, where I was responsible for everything except hitting the power button. Luckily I found what I was looking for and its been a good move. If I’m ever in a situation where I need the server rebooted, I just submit a ticket and generally its back up with in 15 minutes or so. The average webmaster may not be so lucky and truth be told its often hard to find the best web hosting when everyone and their mother seems to offer hosting.

Luckily, there’s a place you can turn to. I’ve talked briefly about Webhostrating.com before and after a more in depth visit to their site, I feel good recommending them to almost any one looking for information on hosts. Aside from having one of the best rating systems on the web for hosts, they’ve also got a good slew of informative articles for potential webmasters (and mistresses) that will help guide your selection process.

For example, maybe you want to put up a website for your daughter’s world of warcraft Guild (ok, lets be honest here, *YOUR* WoW guild). However, “mean-bitches-who-kill-everyone-and-eat-their-eyeballs.com” is not really a practical url. Why not? Well, I’ll let you figure that one out, but WHR’s article on Tips For Choosing A Domain will help you select one a little better for your guild your daughter’s guild.

It doesn’t stop there! You can create accounts and rate your hosts as well. All in all, Web Hosting Rating is a tool every webmaster should have bookmarked.

Popularity: 76% [?]

Amy’s parents moved to Chicago. Well, the moved to Virginia, then Maryland and now Chicago. Its a good reason to travel, but its not a good thing when the little one’s want to talk to grammy sue and taco breezy. We’d been doing it on the phone, but that only goes for so long. This past Christmas, we decided to invest in a QuickCam for both families and we set up some Skype accounts so that we could talk to each other via the phone for free!

Skype has been around for a while and is definately the leader in VoIP services for computer to computer and their free Skype to Skype chat is really good. In fact, its so good that when the girls are on the line with their grandparents, Cookie (grammy’s dog) starts running around looking for G & E. I’ve been pretty impressed with the ease of use of skype too. We installed the web cam, and were up and running with the software in no time.

Its been a nice thing as whenever the girls want to see their grandparents we just call them up on the phone (to make sure they’re available) and then log in to Skype. The girls love it and so do the grandparents. If you travel a lot and need a way to keep in touch with your family, or you need a good way to see loved ones separated by distance (or hell, even local) this is definitely the easiest solution (and its cheaper than a plane ticket!).

Popularity: 93% [?]

Can go a long way, unfortunately, these days too many people are focusing on general IT degrees or MCSE certs that don’t amount to much when it comes to actual hands on ability. I’ve grown up in the IT field. Pops worked for IBM for something like 28 years before he took early retirement and moved on to Hitachi Data Systems and a couple of other IT jobs. Its always come natural to me (as I’ve grown up around it) and if I run in to a problem I need help with the big G is usually there to lend a hand.

One area I’ve always looked at though are the benefits of getting a Cisco certification. Cisco is the uncontested leader in networking and one of their certifications would come in no end of handy when battling the network gremlins. Who knows, if I had one of the certs, I probably wouldn’t go glassy eyed when someone starts talking about the benefits of IPv6 over IPv4. Luckily, there’s a good resource for those of us in the field who are looking to expand our horizons.

The Cicso Learning Center offers a huge array of Cisco certification programs and training that will help get you ready for the real world applications of networking as opposed to the “book” knowledge most programs provide. Another plus is that there is a nice size userbase to lean on when you need a little help.

Take a look at their CCENT program, geared for those interested in getting in to Network management. There are some pretty cool tools on there (such as the binary game) and its a terrific place to start learning the biz for network management. *mental note, must strengthen network management skills*. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Popularity: 97% [?]

I was out cruising the intertubes today and I came across a post at Cromely’s World where he was talking about recycling an AC unit. Not one of the big ones thats tied in to a thermostat in your house, but a window unit, and how he had to PAY $50 to have it recycled. Somethings you get paid for (like copper) others you have to pay to recycle and I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if you could make money from your stuff? Thats when it hit me. Gazelle!!

I had come across a site that claimed to Buy Your Used Cell Electronics! Phones, Ipods, Cameras, Laptops & More! I thought it was a little good to be true until I checked it out. I could send them some old phones (Nokia e62’s) that had been replaced with blackberries or iPhones and I’d actually get about $30 per working unit. Granted, it doesn’t pay for the iPhone, but it covers one month of data service.

I was FLOORED!! I wanted to know what else I could push on them. Old Laptops. They’d give me $147 for my laptop. Granted, thats roughly 10% of what I paid for it originally, but its going on two years old and by todays standards is WAAAAAAAYYYYY out of date! Besides, with $147, I’m almost half way to the cost of a new eeePC or one of the smaller notebooks from HP.

It appears they take almost any kind of electronic you could throw at them as well. Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Digital cameras, GPS Units, Game Consoles (sell your PS3 for $200 and put that towards a wii!), camcorders, portable hard drives and satellite radios (just in time to pick up a dual xm/sirius radio). They’ll pay you for it! And if they won’t give you cash, you can still ship it to them free of charge for them to recycle (who knows, maybe they’re building a huge Transformer out of used GameCubes or something).

Its worth a look if you have old phones or computer stuff laying around. Who knows, maybe you can Cash In Your Old Gadgets and get that new model you’ve been eying at Best Buy…

Popularity: 97% [?]

If you’re like me, you hate it when something unknown takes your website down and you don’t know about it until its too late. On my other site, linuxtracker.org, the members are pretty quick to shoot me a twitter or an IM to let me know the site has gone tits up, however, on this one, its pretty much up to me hitting the site every so often to make sure that mysql and apache haven’t bogged down the server. Until now.

I was cruising around the web (its what I do) and I came across a great offer of Server Monitoring & Alerts from Just Uptime. The first month is completely free (for one site) and after that its a low $9.95 a month for monitoring. They’ll send me an email, they’ll shoot me a sms message, they let me know the site is down (I haven’t figured out how to make it play a strongbad song yet, but I’m working on it).

Now, I could work out something myself using the two servers I have to check each other, but what if, for some strange reason, they both decide to crash? Who’s checking who then?? Do I bother getting a third server to monitor the other two? Hardly. Its way easier to let someone else do it for me.

Besides, this way, I’m free to do other stuff. Who’s watching your server??

Also, I wanted to remind everyone of the ENTRECARD GIVEAWAY in progress where I’m giving away 2000 EC Credits to some lucky individuals. Follow the Link to find out how to win!!!

Popularity: 86% [?]

In case you haven’t heard, the Olympics start Friday night. I came across a really, really, really (YES THREE REALLIES) cool contest by a “mobile im” company called eQo where they’re going to give you multiple chances to win the BLACKBERRY OF YOUR DREAMS!!!

If you have a blackberry, chances are you love it. You hear people gush about their iPhone, but when you held one in your hand, it felt odd. Somewhat alien. Also, you constantly check your providers site to know when the latest and greatest RIM device is going to be available to you (COME ON AT&T enough already, let us know when the bold will be out!!) so you can figure out if you can upgrade or not.

Well this contest takes that worry away from you (its also a good chance for you blackberryless few to get a free one!). Simply sign up for EQO’s daily olympic updates and vote on your favorite story of the day. Thats it. You’re entered to win the blackberry of your choice at the close of the games. How simple could it be??

Popularity: 58% [?]

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft ran a test panel where they had some hardcore computer users test drive a “new” OS they were “working” on called Mojave. The testers absolutely loved the things MS had built in to the new OS and were raving about it, only to find out that it was nothing more than a rebranded Windows Vista. Vista has been on the market for over a year, receiving a less than warm welcome.

Some of it is not with out reason. Vista is an OS that requires newer equipment. You cannot expect to load vista and Aero on an older machine and have it run the way XP ran. It won’t work. Even on my Turion64 laptop, its a little slower starting up than XP. That being said, it also is a more stable OS than its predecessor. I’ve been able to minimize the number of blue screens and error messages received and MS is fairly quick to roll out patches and fixes for the operating system.

One of the other nice aspects of the OS is that there is a large support base online with a good staff behind it, that can resolve most issues in a matter of time. The MS Knowldge Base is often a good place to turn to (much like man pages on *nix) when trying to find a solution to a common problem.

Another good feature of the maturing OS is that more developers are coming out with updated drivers on a routine basis for the OS. For a small business that has a number of desktops to support, Vista’s tools and reliable support resources make it a good option for the office on a budget.

Popularity: 63% [?]

If you’re going to have any kind of life online one of the biggest and most important decisions you’re going to make, besides choosing a super cool domain name (will the owner of its.me contact me?!?!?) is where to host your files. For obvious reasons, hosting choices can either make or break a website. I’ve seen a ton of sites get hit hard with traffic only to be turned off by their hosts, I’ve also seen sites that simply had too much host behind them for the amount of traffic.

Thats where Webhostinggeeks comes in. They aim to take the pain out of choosing a webhost and for the most part they do a pretty good job with clean, clear reviews that let you know what you’re getting right up front.

If you’re in the market for a new place to start hosting, check them out.

Popularity: 52% [?]

In case you were living under a rock, or in a cave, or on the third moon of Adapose 3 and you some how missed the chaos last week, the 3g version of the “greatest thing since Jesus walked on water” was released last Friday. That’s right, the 3g iPhone. Personally, I’m not a mac fan at all. Yes, they build a pretty box. And yes, they know how to make the gui look amazing. But their OS is just BSD. Their phone, is, in all practicality, an iPod that can make calls.

The “nice” thing about this version is that is does sync flawlessly with the Exchange server we use for email and whatnot… so no more tricks with yahoo or other methods to get your business email on the damned thing.

We have a couple of sales reps where I work that are Mac fans and as predicted, two of them already ordered their phones and a third is still trying to find one in a store…

I had the chance to set one up yesterday and I have to say I was not impressed at all. Aside from the thing being all shiny and black, it gets smudges on it like nothing else, the screen was covered in finger prints with in seconds and typing on the damned thing is next to impossible (note: I have a Blackberry curve 8310 and you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands). The fact that the letters are rather close together and you can’t really tell where one ends and the other begins is a pain in the ass.

Plus, when trying to type in a 40 character wep key for a wireless network, you have to keep switching back and forth between the letters and the numbers. From the limited experience I had setting up the email account, typing on the thing is going to take a while to get used to.

Ultimately, I think that if I was just out to buy the latest and greatest fad and I didn’t care about being too productive on my phone I’d probably rush right out and get one. In fact, with the built in wifi, you *might* be able to get away without having a data plan, but then you’d just have an ipod that could make calls. And that’d be a waste.

I love my BB Curve. Is there a phone in your life you can’t live with out??

Popularity: 42% [?]

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share, clean up, clean up everybody everywhere! Or something like that. At least that’s what it sounds like to me as my 4yr old sings it in her sing song voice (I swear if ever a child was meant to be a princess at Disney World….). When it comes to doing my share of cleaning around the house, I tend to let it get to the point where I can’t stand it anymore before I lift a finger to do anything.

I mean, the dust on my night table must be thicker than the current issue of Paste Magazine before I’ll consider getting out the dust rag. Its not that I hate cleaning per Se (did I use that right?) its just that its not one of my favorite things to do when I could be doing something so much better like, checking my eyelids for holes, or watching the paint in the Garage peel from the odor of cat urine. I’m not lazy so much as slack.

Which is why the Amster and I tend to look for ways of making our cleaning easier and faster (has anyone seen the Scrubbing Bubbles Bath and shower cleaner thing??) If we can do the same amount of cleaning with out using as much energy, then hell, why not??

That’s where this baby comes in! The Dirt Devil AccuCharge Stick and Hand vac is pretty cool. Remember the old dustbusters your parents had in the 80s and 90s? They’d run for maybe five minutes and then the battery would die, or they’d get full and couldn’t take any more? Well, that’s a thing of the past.

The accucharge is an Energy Star rated cordless vac that can handle anything you throw at it, with less energy!! That’s right! NO more neighborhood brownouts because you need to clean up the kitty litter. This thing rocks and you can use it everywhere.

It won’t clean for you, but it will let you hand it to your 4 year old and say go at it kid.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Wild fires start with a simple spark. Whether or not its from a match, a lightning strike, an unattended campfire or a cigarette butt, it takes one little spark to set the world ablaze. Saint Catherine of Siena said that “If you are what you should be, You will set the World ablaze”. Izea, the folks who brought payperpost and paid posting to the forefront of the blogging world, hope you’ll become a prolific blogger with a myriad of topics from their SocialSpark system.

SocialSpark is the next revolution of blogging services. Besides being a ginormous marketing platform for bloggers and advertisers alike, its aiming to become a leader in social networking for blogging and seems to be well on its way.

Anyone looking to monetize their blog, make friends, find new and interesting reads or just develop a growing reader base should take a look at the new marketing trend SocialSpark is creating.

In addition to many “for pay” opportunities ranging from simple posts to full blown video/audio masterpieces, SocialSpark allows almost anyone to reach people by asking for help promoting items, posts, sites for virtually nothing more than a link in return. One of the nice things Spark is working to do is prevent the massive google spank many paid bloggers received last year.

SocialSpark unlike many of its predicessors is Search Engine Friendly. They include the nofollow tags in the links you use (which many engines are looking for these days). They’ve also got a pretty good code of ethics and like PPP pay on a fairly regular basis as well. There has been some negative feed back about some of the options for advertising (such as some embedded flash) but for the most part SocialSpark has been received pretty well.

If you’ve been looking for a good way to make some extra cash on the side (and these days, who hasn’t) don’t look too much further than SocialSpark. You might just set the world ablaze.

Popularity: 14% [?]

I’ve never been on the cutting edge of gaming technology. I bought my first nintendo second hand from a friend years after it first came out. We had a Sega Genesis that I never really did much with and Amy and I still have an original Play Station that we fire up once a year for Scrabble or a Super Puzzle Fighter match. Otherwise, I’m content to not game too much. Except for the wii.

I bought the wii last year from a friend who found that he played his xBox more (xbox is still the ruler for FPS like HALO) and I’ve played it a bit. Downloaded the free stuff and even bought Super Mario Brothers for it (talk about OLD technology). I was surprised when I tried to locate a Wii Fit online last Wednesday when it came out, that I was able to order it no problems from Toys R Us.com. They even had a deal where I could get We Ski on sale at the same time, so I went ahead and got it as well.

The wii fit came yesterday. Amy’s having a Heritage Makers Celebration at the house tomorrow, so we said we’d put the Fit away and clean the house. Maybe pull it out on Sunday. Well, after a night of cleaning, I sat down on the couch to unwind a bit before bed and I pulled the box out and started opening it. Amy didn’t object. What followed was a hour and a half session of Wii Fit and Super Mario Brothers.

I have to say, I was pretty impressed. So far, the only thing I don’t like about it is the fact that you have to sync it with the wii for EVERY game that works with it. So I had to sync it for the wii fit game, and when we finally open We Ski, I’ll have to sync the board again. Its not too much of an issue, just a pain, but I can understand why it does that (it uses the 4th controller location, and if it sync’d permanently, then you wouldn’t be able to use the 4th wiimote). We setup out mii’s and were checked out in no time.

According to the Fit, my BMI is about 18 and amy’s is higher (but we knew that for the most part). My wii age is 39 (only 9 years off) and amy’s is again, higher. Not too much of a surprise. Amy was the first to go and she tried the yoga, needless to say, we weren’t dressed right, for it, but it wasn’t hard to follow and the basic exercises were easy to do. After amy got done with the yoga, I tried my hand at the balance games. Talk about hard.

The game where you are head butting soccer balls, is near impossible on the beginner level and the shoes and panda heads don’t make it any easier. The downhill slalom is fun as well and will take a little bit of time and the ski jump is pretty cool as well. Table tilt was by far the one balance game that was the best workout, as you really had to stay on your toes to drop the balls through the holes. We haven’t tried the strength training or the aerobics yet, but if they’re anything like the other areas, they’ll be pretty good as well.

Nintendo has done an excellent job with the wii fit. The package was nicely put together and the board seems sturdy enough (its rated up to 330 pounds). It came with 4 AA batteries, which is nice as thats what it wants and was pretty easy to get going. We’re going to keep track of our improvements over the next couple of months and I’ll post updates….

Popularity: 24% [?]

Not the Georgia Lottery game either, this is something that could be considered more valuable by many. Starting on the 12th (thats Wednesday for you people who don’t know about dates), Charter Communications is opening an auction where you can bid on High Speed Internet for LIFE!! Whats even better is the starting bid is a whopping TEN (YES 10!!) dollars. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT??

BUT Wait! There’s more!! “what?? How can this incredible offer get any better??” Well, you can also enter to win a Wii Game console!! Thats right. A cheap bid on Internet for life and a wii game console all at the same time?? AWESOME! Why its so good, even charter can’t believe they’re doing it.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this” said an undisclosed charter insider.

What do you have to do to get in on this amazing goodness? Its easy. Its simple. If they made it any easier, Gruntled from gettinggruntled.com might even have a chance at scoring! Alls you have to do is Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™! It doesn’t get any easier than that.

And remember, the auction starts at $10 on the 12th if you qualify for service so get your bids in early!!

Popularity: 45% [?]