It is kind of odd too, because that Jan 2009 edition of PC Magazine is the last print copy of the magazine. They are going totally digital after that edition. So, I guess it’s a milestone edition and I got published in it. Maybe it could be a collector’s item?

Read my submission:

Since eBay ditched it’s latest CEO for a new, fresh CEO, the company has taken some fairly drastic steps to change it’s business model while cutting away the almost utter devotion most avid users had for the service/community it created.

It has been slowly evolving. First they raise prices for things, which justified or not almost always happens with any floundering and/or greedy business.

Next they decided to take away the voice of reason that many a trustful and honest eBayer relied on, the positive/negative feedback tool. Now a seller cannot complain about a deadbeat buyer, but the buyer can continue to blast you as a seller without real visible recourse.

The latest indiscretion is what really makes you wonder what will come next. Now eBay is insisting that you ship products out for a set price, no mind whether the time/energy to ship at that price is even relevant.

I’ve read that eBay is trying to cater to the larger sellers on eBay with it’s fees and Buy-it-now auctions, but with all the changes and the utter disregard for the small time buyer/seller, eBay is cutting it’s core audience to the bone.

They are slowly morphing into a online storefront. Gone will be the entertainment and candor of possibly the first internet e-tailer that really had a compelling reason for people to get on the internet and buy/sell almost whatever you could dream up on a site originally dealing with Pez dispensers.

It annoys me and I can see myself shying away from the site due to this continued behavior.

By now you should know I like delving into interesting financial concepts, especially those online. Having a community based lending option has been intriguing as Prosper has shown.

Well Zopa has finally come into it’s own in the U.S. An import of the U.K. that has now also expanded into Italy and Japan. They were almost 2 years late in the coming to America. Oh, well, at least they made it and could give Prosper a run for it’s (lending) money.

Zopa is a somewhat different beast, but interesting none the least. It also lends out $ but these loans are based at local credit unions. They are associated with Affinity Plus, a credit union from the Cities that I had been acquainted with from my schooling at MSU, Mankato. But the loans are cool. If you get someone else to invest in a CD with Zopa, they can actually help you out. For every CD you purchase through Zopa (CDs are FDIC insured through the credit unions) you help someone out by reducing the rate they pay for their loan thru Zopa. Yes, you can even get your rate down to 0% (i.e. no loan payment) if you get enough help from other Zopa members. That is very cool.

Every CD you purchase is much like a CD at a local bank/credit union. Their current rates continually beat the pants off of local CD rates. These CDs are currently only for 1 yr terms, pretty common for most CD holders out there. With the purchase of a CD you get to apply what ever percent of your return on your money you want to your friend/family member through the site. Say the site offers 3.75% on your money, if you were real generous you could knock down your rate to say 3%, thus giving 0.75% as help to the person of your choosing or even stay at 3.75% and still help someone out a bit more minimally. You get a great rate on a CD and your money goes to help an actual person with their loan rate. Pretty cool.

So ready to help a man out. Check out the link to the left if you are so far interested. Otherwise, contact me and I’ll answer any questions you may have. Wouldn’t it be nice of you to help me pay less on the loan I’m taking out to help with wedding finances? I intend to pay this loan back shortly after festivities, it’s more of a cushion for me.

Thanks!

Next two days were spent in SanFran. Did self-guided walking tour that Friday, walking a few miles from downtown/Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf. Good lot to see that day. Went on Bus tour the next day and out to Alcatraz that afternoon.

Was a very good trip, one I’m glad we took, even if we planned a good chuck of it on the fly!

Neat thing about it is that you have control over it. You can set which email addresses you get text on your phone from. It works well with Gmail, an awesome email service as well.

I don’t have to log into my email to see what messages I’m getting, I just get them on my phone. It may also be of note that I can receive all my text messages for free with my service from Midwestwireless, which is a good thing too for the cost the messages might cost with any other provider.

So, if you’re eager to get email from certain ppl on your phone and aren’t charged for received text messages, I’d highly recommend this awesome service. FYI, it’s still in beta.

I just fail to see why Myspace is the craze that it is. I mean, it’s not easy to configure with backgrounds or what not. It’s next near impossible to just find someone’s Myspace web address, nothing neat and kind about that. The layout is confusing and can be placed about.

Moths are just drawn to some interesting flames. Maybe it’s something I’m not seeing here, but if it’s that unobvious, it sure isn’t living up to the simplicity principle.

So yeah, here’s my awesome placeholder of a page. It’s bland, but it takes off, oh man, imagine the blank possibilities that await.

Wanna an invite? 100 waiting to be had. Don’t want one, no problem too.

But I can confirm that I have indeed recieved the t-shirt as well. Although, one wonders if only said 200 shirts were issued. If it turns out as such, it’s kinda of like being in a secret group where no one knows your name.

I was amused that Ask Jeeves and Bloglines itself have already been purchased in the amount of time this whole transaction took place. Quite amusing. And probably of little interest to anyone other than myself. But I am a happy user of Bloglines and hope to remain so into the foreseeable future. I guess that’s why this is all so engrossing.

It’s a very scary premise for all those contacts on the device, as well as users of such gadgetry as well. It’s amazing how quickly such information can and was spread to all corners of the connected world. Sadly, I think we’ve only begun as can also be attested to in the Choicepoint data leakage as well.

You’d think the idiots that hold all this sensitive data would place a little higher value on such data, but I highly doubt that they care when someone gets their identity stolen, it’s not their fault!

It’s too bad that all those contacts on Ms. Hilton’s Sidekick have probably already changed their numbers and/or disassociated themselves from her, as I wouldn’t mind asking , oh say, Lindsay Lohan how’s things are going in her career.

Few days back I registered piotter.tk, which points to this blog. The DotTK refers to a small bunch of islands bobbing around the Pacific. Seems they have embraced the internet to help pay for things in their country. So I registered this domain in hopes of having another Piotter domain name. One stipulation though:

Can I lose my free Dot TK domain name?

Yes, having a free Dot TK domain name does not give you the legal ownership. Dot TK allows you to use your chosen Dot TK domain name as long as you have 25 visitors or more on your domain name once every 90 days. Activity must include website access to your Dot TK website. If you don’t have more than 25 visitors to your website in 90 days, your website is either not up or you did not provide any content. That will result in a cancellation of your registration. Your domain name will then be automatically available for other registrants to register either as a free or as a paid registration.

I’m sure I won’t visit it that much, and this domain will probably expire in 90 days, but this seems like a decent way to link to a garbarled web address for a highly frequented place. Heck, they even set up email forwarding up for you.

Just a very interesting domain register.