How to Get Out of Debt

     Worries: How to get out of debt

I am a college student with $8,000 of debt. What is the first step in paying this off?

Debt elimination involves three steps:

1. Stop acquiring new debt.
2. Establish an emergency fund.
3. Implement a debt snowball.

Here’s how to approach each step. (I’ll use Nick’s situation as an example, but the principles apply to everyone.)

Stop acquiring new debt
(This step can be accomplished in an afternoon.)

This may seem self-evident, but the reason your debt is out of control is that you keep adding to it.Stop using credit. Don’t finance anything. Cut up your credit cards.

That last one can be tough. Don’t make excuses. I don’t care that other personal finance sites say that you shouldn’t cut them up. Destroy them. Stop rationalizing that you need them.

• You don’t need credit cards for a safety net.
• You don’t need credit cards for convenience.
• You don’t need credit cards for cash-back bonuses.

You don’t need credit cards at all. If you’re in debt, credit cards are a trap. They only put you deeper in debt. Later, when your debts are gone and your finances are under control, maybe then you can get a credit card. (I don’t carry a personal credit card. I don’t miss having one.)

After you destroy your cards, halt any recurring payments. If you have a gym membership, cancel it. If you automatically renew your World of Warcraft account, cancel it. Cancel anything that automatically charges your credit card. Stop using credit.

Once you’ve done this, call each credit card company in turn. Do not cancel your credit cards (except for those with a zero balance). Instead, ask for a better deal. Find an offer online and use it as a bargaining wedge. Your bank may not agree to match competing offers, but it probably will. It never hurts to ask.

Establish an emergency fund
(This step will probably take several months.)

For some, this is counter-intuitive. Why save before paying off debt? Because if you don’t save first, you’re not going to be able to cope with unexpected expenses. Do not tell yourself that you can keep a credit card for emergencies. Destroy your credit cards; save cash for emergencies.

How much should you save? Ideally, you’d save $1,000 to start. (College students may be able to get by with $500.) This money is for emergencies only. It is not for beer. It is not for shoes. It is not for a Playstation 3. It is to be used when your car dies, or when you break your arm in a touch football game.

Keep this money liquid, but not immediately accessible. Don’t tie your emergency fund to a debit card. Don’t sabotage your efforts by making it easy to spend the money on non-essentials. Consider opening an online savings account. When an emergency arises, you can easily transfer the money to your regular checking account. It’ll be there when you need it, but you won’t be able to spend it spontaneously.

Implement a debt snowball

(This step may require several years.)

After you’ve stopped using credit, and after you’ve saved an emergency fund, then attack your existing debt. Attack it with vigor. Throw whatever you can at it.

Many people say to pay your high interest debts first. There’s no question that this makes the most sense mathematically. But if money were all about math, you wouldn’t have debt in the first place. Money is as much about emotion and psychology as it is about math.

There are at least two approaches to debt elimination. Psychologically, using a debt snowballoffers big payoffs, payoffs that can spur you to further debt reduction. Here’s the short version:

1. Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance.
2. Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month.
3. Pay the minimum payment on all debts except for the one with the lowest balance.
4. Throw every other penny at the debt with the lowest balance.
5. When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance.

I’m a huge fan of the debt snowball. It still takes time to pay off your debts, but you can see results almost immediately.

Supplementary solutions

You can do other things to improve your money situation while you’re working on these three steps.

First, focus on the fundamental personal finance equation: to pay off debt, or to save money, or to accumulate wealth, you must spend less than you earn.

Curb your spending. Re-learn frugal habits. (Frugality is something with which most college students are all too familiar.) You can find some great ideas in the archives of this site. Also checkFrugal for Life.

While you work to spend less, do what you can to increase your income. If possible, sellsome of the stuff you bought when you got into debt. Get an extra job. (But don’t neglect your studies for the sake of earning more. Your studies are most important.)

Finally, go to your local public library and borrow Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. Don’t be put off by the title — this is a fantastic guide to getting out of debt and developing good money habits. I rave about it often, but that’s because it has done so much to help my own personal finances. After you’ve finished, return it and borrow another book about money.

The most important thing is to start now. Don’t start tomorrow. Don’t start next week. Start tackling your debt now. Your older self will thank you.

10 Expert Tips for Saving on Car Insurance

My friend Lynn works for a major U.S. insurance company. I recently asked her for tips to help people save money on auto insurance. I expected maybe a few quick ideas, but she went above-and-beyond with the following detailed list. If you own a car, you should read these tips. For readability’s sake, I haven’t blockquoted this, but it’s all Lynn.

Note that every insurance company is different — not all of these ideas work everywhere. The first thing you can do to save money on auto insurance is to self-insure as much as you can afford. Do this in the following ways:

• High deductibles. Everyone preaches this, yes, but it’s usually the easiest way to cut costs. Usually. (If your car is over ten years old, the savings may be minimal.)
• Remove towing. Good maintenance and planning can save you money. Don’t run out of gas. Don’t lock your keys in your car. Make sure you have a spare and know how to change it. Sometimes your car will break down, but if your car is well-maintained, it won’t happen often. You pay $10 – $30 a year over the life of your policy and one tow costs $100. Note that in the event of an accident, towing is almost always covered under collision.
• Remove car rental. Small economy cars cost about $20 – $25 per day to rent. Car rental is $20 – $40 per year. Play the odds. If you rent a car on vacation, your insurance will cover you while driving that car. Don’t pay for the extra coverage. The only things it offers are:
  1. Zero deductibles. You go all year long with your deductibles, why change now? Also, if you pay for the car with a credit card, they may pay for any out of pocket in the even of an accident.
  2. Downtime coverage. Downtime means that while the rental car you wrecked is in the shop being repaired, it can’t be rented out to other customers and they can ding you for the daily fee. This may be an issue if they can show that all other cars were rented out and they lost money because of you — Hawaii is notorious for charging this. But, again, it’s a risk you might decide to self insure rather than pay $21 a day for the insurance.

Aside from self-insuring, there are other steps you can take to save on car insurance.

• Shop ahead. Before you buy your next car, check on insurance. Many people assume that SUVs are expensive and Neons are cheap. This is not necessarily true. Some companies will increase your liability based on the cost of damages your type of vehicle may inflict — big trucks cause big damage. However, they also rate the autos based on how likely they are to be damaged in an accident, how often they are stolen, and how badly driver/passengers are injured. That Neon (or Jetta or Honda) is going to be a lot more expensive than you think. Many companies will have websites that will give you lists of safe and lower priced cars. (Saturn is a low insurance car because it has dent-resistant doors.)
• Think twice about after-market gizmos. If your vehicle is totaled or stolen, the insurance company will determine a fair market or actual cash value. They will look at your vehicle as a “whole package.” Even if you paid for $3,000 in after market items (wheels, spoilers, stereos, exhaust, etc.) they may only add $1,000 in value to your vehicle. It’s not dollar for dollar.
• Have all of your insurance in one place. Often, the more types of policies you have, the more you save in discounts.
• Find out if your insurance company offers any low-mileage breaks that you qualify for.
• Can you take a safety-driving course? Some companies offer a discount for this.
• Do NOT pay monthly. Your carrier will charge anywhere from $3 to $5 per month for this type of billing. Pay every six months if possible. If you must pay monthly, do an auto pay — the charges are less because they only send a bill if the amount changes.
• This might not be a money saving tip, but insurance companies are state regulated. They must file their rates with the state and be able to justify any increases these are public record as are any types of complaints or fines. For example, if you’re in Oregon, you can check out your company and/or agent at http://insurance.oregon.gov/.
• Most companies now use aspects of your credit to determine your rate. It is illegal for them to do this mid-term — as long as your policy is continuous without any lapses, they can’t use external info to change your rate. They can only use claim and ticket info. However, all newly added vehicles can be affected by credit. If you have good credit, this may be to your advantage. You are allowed to request that they re-check your score once per year. However, whatever the score is, you’re stuck with it. If it comes back bad and it raises your rate: too bad. But, if you have a policy that was written when your credit wasn’t so great, request that they check it again after things look better.

These are fantastic tips, full of great ways to save money on auto insurance. Thanks to Lynn for the advice!

Make Free Calls anywhere in the world

There are lots of people searching on internet for hacking tutorials to make free calls but got nothing about it. We are going to share a tutorial here from where you'll be able to make free calls all over the world. This is not a hacking tutorial anyways but, is very useful for almost all people. I guess most of you guys know about SKYPE, Skype is the way to make calls on very cheap prices over internet. Some of you guys also know about wallmart in USA, they provide free call service to almost every location in the world. All you have to do is just dail the Toll Free no. of wallmart USA from your skype. Here are the steps:

1. Download Skype/Login to Skype
2. Dial 1800Free411 (18003733411)
3. You'll listen to some ads there, wait for menu options.
4. Now say "FREE CALL" when it tell you to say so.
5. You'll again have to listen some advertisment.
6. Say "FREE CALL" again when it stops speaking.
7. It'll tell you to dail your No.
8. Dail you no. along with the country code eg. for USA dail - 1987-987-9876
9. Do not add 00 or + before country code.
10. you have made free call.

Please note you can make free calls all over the world only for 5mins but you can make the call again anyways.

You might can hear all lines are busy because many people are using this service now.

HAPPY HACKING :)

11 Movies People are About in 2011: 'The Green Lantern,' 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' and More

2011 is almost upon us, and for many people, that means it's time to reflect on the year gone by. And for movies, 2010 certainly had its share of excitement, with unexpected hits like 'Inception' and 'The Social Network' joining surefire blockbusters like 'Toy Story 3' as the most talked about and debated films of the year. Yes, 2010 was pretty cool.

But frankly, we'd rather spend our time looking forward than looking backward, because as great as 2010 was, we have a feeling that 2011 is going to blow it out of the water. In fact, the hard part isn't identifying cool movies to look forward to; it's figuring out which of the dozens of awesome upcoming features we're most excited about.
But if you're overwhelmed by the array of sweet flicks on the horizon, fear not, because we've sifted through every preview, press release and backstage photo to boil it down to the films you're going to be talking about all year long. Without further ado, then, here's our list of 11 Movies to Watch in 2011:

 'Thor' and 'Captain America: The First Avenger'
Okay, we know what you're thinking: two movies? That makes 12 total! You're cheating! But in this case, 'Thor' and 'Captain America' need to be considered as one big movie because, thanks to the shared universe Marvel Studios is trying to create, how they work together is almost more important than how they work separately. Can Marvel pull this off? Will the two films live up to 'Iron Man,' or will they flop and leave next year's 'Avengers' as an expensive afterthought? The discussion is only going to heat up from here. 'Thor' is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 6; 'Captain America: The First Avenger' will follow on Jul. 22.

'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'
The fourth 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie is also the first that doesn't feature the uncommonly beautiful team of Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley. But we think fans are going to find plenty to talk about, anyway, thanks to new pirates Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane, not to mention a certain returning Captain by the name of Jack Sparrow. The stories may be getting stranger, but the buzz just gets bigger. (May 20)

 
  'The Hangover: Part II'
Fans have already been talking about this film for months, thanks in large part to the pseudo-controversy that erupted when the cast refused to allow Mel Gibson to appear in the film. (He was quickly replaced by Liam Neeson.) Will that incident overshadow the movie itself? Based on how popular the original was, we're going to go with a no on that one, but it sure gives us something to talk about for the next five months. (May 26)

 'X-Men: First Class'
In a summer of high-profile comic book gambles, 'X-Men: First Class' may be the biggest dice roll of all. Will fans of the original trilogy return for this prequel that features none of the original stars? Will critics turned off by Brett Ratner's handling of the third 'X-Men' film give this one a fair shake? Will it, to be frank, suck or not? Whatever the answer -- and we certainly hope it's awesome -- there's no question fans will be talking about this one all year. (Jun. 3)

 The Green Lantern'
Speaking of big-budget comic book franchises, DC Comics and Warner Bros. try their hand at replicating Marvel's 'Iron Man' success by trying to launch their own B-list hero into the stratosphere with 'Green Lantern.' Star Ryan Reynolds has the abs for the part, but can this frequent comic offender (see: 'Blade: Trinity' and 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine') finally pull off a starring role in tights? The fanboy world waits with bated breath. (Jun. 17)

  'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II'
People have been talking about this moment for over a decade, so we're pretty sure they're not going to stop now. After seven books and eight movies, the final installment of Pottermania arrives this summer. We may already know the ending thanks to the novels, but getting a chance to say goodbye to the actors we've seen grow up before our very eyes is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. (Jul. 15)

 'Winnie the Pooh'
It's going to be hard for Disney/Pixar to equal the year they had in 2011, but thanks to 'Cars 2' and this hotly anticipated movie, they have a pretty good shot. The last 'Winnie the Pooh' came out more than three decades ago and has been a beloved classic ever since. Now, Disney hopes to recapture that magic and even add to it with updated, state of the art animation techniques. And that should be sweeter than any hunny. (Jul. 15)

 'Cowboys and Aliens'
The premise is so simple that everything you need to know is right in the title. But there are a couple more things about 'Cowboys and Aliens' worth noting beyond it's fantastically simple (and awesome) concept -- things like 'Iron Man' director Jon Favreau behind the camera and superstars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in front of it. Giddyup. (Jul. 29)

 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1'
What more can possibly be said about 'Twilight' that hasn't already been said? Love it or hate it -- or, you know, love it -- 'The Twilight Saga' is one of the biggest film franchises in the world. And considering this installment is the beginning of the end of the series (at least for now), we have no doubt that this will also be one of the biggest movie events in recent memories. Start getting ready now, because the line forms here -- right behind us. (Nov. 18)

 'The Muppets'
It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights. Yes, after an absence of several years, the Muppets are back in business as Jason Segel steps into the spotlight in an attempt to try and recapture some of the magic and wonder that has been absent since Jim Henson's untimely death two decades ago. Will this bold relaunch, featuring a slew of high profile cameos, bring the beloved franchise back to the top? We certainly hope so. (Nov. 23)

 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'
The hottest book series (for adults) in the world finally gets a big-screen Hollywood treatment in perhaps the most hotly anticipated film of the season. Hardcore fans of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, of course, are still on the fence over whether this new version -- which stars Daniel Craig and the relatively unknown Rooney Mara, who reteams with her 'Social Network' director David Fincher -- is really necessary considering the epic job turned in by Noomi Rapace in the acclaimed Swedish adaptations. Our answer? Good stories are always necessary in Hollywood. (Dec. 21)

Tags: breaking dawn, captain america, cowboys and aliens, harry potter and the deathly hallows part II, pirates of the caribbean 4, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the green lantern, the hangover 2, the hangover part II, the muppets, thor, twilight, winnie the pooh, x-men first class

10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World

There is no doubt that some of our most popular lists are ones which revolve around mystery and intrigue. Fortunately for us all, there is no end to the number of weird and wonderful mysteries in the world, so we are now able to present ourfourth list of unsolved mysteries. So – onwards to the world of the mysterious!

10 The Grooved Spheres

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian – and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

9 The Dropa Stones

In 1938, an archaeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendants, possibly, were found in the cave

8 The Ica Stones

Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father’s work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs – brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While sceptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

7 Stone Balls of Costa Rica Giant

Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

6 Oera Linda Book

mythological, and religious themes that first came to light in the 19th century. Themes running through the Oera Linda Book include catastrophism, nationalism, matriarchy, and mythology. The text alleges that Europe and other lands were, for most of their history, ruled by a succession of folk-mothers presiding over a hierarchical order of celibate priestesses dedicated to the goddess Frya, daughter of the supreme god Wr-alda and Irtha, the earth mother. The claim is also made that this Frisian civilization possessed an alphabet which was the ancestor of Greek and Phoenician alphabets. The current manuscript carries a date of 1256. Internal claims suggest that it is a copy of older manuscripts that, if genuine, would have been written by multiple people between 2194 BC and AD 803. 

5 Impossible Fossils

Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don’t make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human hand print for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

4 Out-of-Place Metal Objects

Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

3 Ark Of The Covenant

The Ark is considered the greatest of all hidden treasures and its discovery would provide indisputable truth that the Old Testament is hard fact. Its recovery remains the goal of every modern archaeologist and adventurer. Its purpose was as a container for the ten commandments given on stone tablets by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to the book of Exodus, the Ark is made of shittim wood (similar to acacia) and gold-covered inside and out. It was topped by a mercy seat comprising two cherubs also made of gold. It was believed to have supernatural powers due to several events, including causing the death of a man, who attempted to steady the Ark as the oxen hauling it stumbled, bringing down the walls of Jericho in one battle, and showering misfortune on the Philistines after they captured it in another. There are several speculations around the final resting place of the Ark, and whilst it would take a shrewd operator to find it, it would need a brave or even foolhardy person to open it

2 Angel Hair

Angel Hair is a rare phenomenon that has so far defied explanation. It is made up of silken threads that rain down on to the earth, but reach out to touch it and it will almost certainly vanish before your eyes. It is a world wide phenomenon with the most regular occurrences from North America, New Zealand, Australia, and western Europe. There is no known proof for what causes this substance, or even what it is made up of. Speculations are that it has come from Spiders or another type of silk-spinning insect, and even UFO’s as it has often been associated with UFO sightings. Because of its sensitive nature, it has been difficult to collect, and to analyse as it is subject to contamination from car exhaust fumes, and even human contact, which could skew the chemical results.

1 Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis Map is a famous pre-modern world map created by 16th century Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The map shows part of the western coasts of Europe and North Africa with reasonable accuracy, and the coast of Brazil is also easily recognizable. Various Atlantic islands including the Azores and Canary Islands are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia. The map is noteworthy for its depiction of a southern landmass that some controversially claim is evidence for early awareness of the existence of Antarctica. Some scholars claim this and other maps support a theory of global exploration by a pre-classical undiscovered civilization

This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains some quotations from Wikipedia.

Additional text for this article is courtesy of The Skeptical News.

The Facebook iPhone

In The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick posits the great social network is the one entity that could bully Apple, today’s most powerful technology company. As the iPhone and other iOS devices have paved the way toward an unprecedented level of convergence, the collective power of Facebook’s user base presents a daunting challenge to Apple: specifically, could Facebook literally imprint its own applications on iOS devices, most notably the iPhone, to the point where it could, theoretically, transform the device into “The Facebook Phone” without ever having built its own hardware and/or standard mobile operating system?

At the moment, Facebook is believed to be undertaking what has been dubbed “Project Spartan,” its own Trojan Horse for stitching its social layer into multiple mobile platforms in lieu of building its own phone (like Apple) and/or its own mobile operating system (like Android). As “Spartan” has been written about before in detail (which I won’t recount here), the basic idea, as it applies to Apple, is the development and rollout of multiple HTML5 applications which would allow Facebook to create a range of mobile applications without having to adhere to the rules and toll charges imposed by Apple’s app-store.

Now, let’s consider an alternative scenario: What if Facebook releases an entire suite of iOS apps, as fast as “Messenger” (which feels faster than SMS) and powered by users’ own social networks? (See mock image created by Sahil Lavingia, above.)

Specifically, what if Facebook decides to apply resources to construct a full “suite” of federated yet interconnected native iPhone and iPad applications to satisfy a number of interactions within Facebook, entirely powered by your friends? Consider, for a moment, the possibility of having individual apps for asking questions, playing games, sharing pictures and videos, digesting your newsfeed, listening to music with friends, accessing your address book, participating in groups, viewing pictures and videos, and so on. You could have them all, or just use a few. I’m not suggesting that it will happen, but theoretically, Facebook has the muscle to create these apps and, with its huge user base, they would be downloaded in droves.

A few months ago, Apple announced a partnership to tie Twitter into its operating system. Many lauded the deal as a win for both sides, and to be sure, it is a great idea. But to be fair, it also underscores the lengths to which Apple, a company without a social network and notorious for wanting to control its platform, made strange bedfellows with Twitter. Earlier, when Apple had tried to bake Facebook into its iTunes player experience, Ping, apparently it didn’t work out because one side exerted more strength than the other. Guess who?

Whether Project Spartan continues, or whether Facebook builds out all these native iOS apps, Facebook will increasingly become the mobile identity gatekeeper and power source behind some of the newer application layer services. For example, one of the most anticipated iPhone apps to arrive this month is Turntable.fm, which requires that users login via Facebook only.

One thing is clear: Facebook is determined to get onto your iPhone. And your Android, and any other major mobile platform, too. The number of platforms doesn’t matter—this game is platform-agnostic. It will either build its own “lingua franca” for mobile via HTML5, or maybe it will build an entire fleet of apps. Or, they Facebook simply improve upon its current iOS app and not fragment the experience. Or, maybe it will develop its own mobile operating system (like Android) or, shoot, maybe build its own phone (Apple). Well, maybe those aren’t as likely, but given what we’ve seen in the last few months, with Google buying Motorola, and with Android use growing and iPhone profits skyrocketing, expect Facebook to do something big, something ambitious, and something that leverages its massive user base to penetrate the fabric of the mobile experience with social, by all means necessary.

Crowdbooster's Social Media Appeal: From Esther Dyson To Lil Wayne

Ricky Yean, 23, was pitching while driving.

The entrepreneur already had angel investors for his social media start-up Crowdbooster. But he wanted Esther Dyson, a noted angel investor and board member of advertising giant WPP and former investor in start-ups such as Flickr and Delicious, as an investor. He’d been trying to connect with her but wasn’t successful. Dyson has been busy investing in space companies. Finally, Dyson told Yean she needed a ride from NASA to San Francisco International airport on a recent trip to Silicon Valley.

No problem, Yean said. He didn’t own a car, so he borrowed his roommate’s. During a drive through Silicon Valley traffic, Yean pitched Dyson on his start-up. She’s now an investor.

Yean’s company, Crowdbooster, is a social media dashboard with analytics and optimization for measuring the impact of Facebook and Twitter messages and giving actionable information. “It’s trying to understand how you can improve,” Yean says. Crowdbooster provides graphics that show which posts or Tweets had the highest number of retweets or Likes and which had the largest impact based on number of impressions–in other words, which were retweeted by people with the most followers. It also graphically shows how a user’s follower count increases as a result of certain Tweets.

Beyond the data, Crowdbooster provides recommendations, such as which times of day are the best to Tweet and a scheduling tool to auto-post at certain times. It also surfaces websites you have Tweeted that have been most successful and that you should Tweet more in the future. If you connect Bit.ly, Crowdbooster can also tell you which links were successful. The service is meant to help cut through the clutter. For accounts with many followers, the service will highlight which new followers you should follow based on their Klout score. Crowdbooster also reminds you if you miss replies or direct messages from people.

“It’s a much better experience than staring at the fire hose,” Yean says. “Social media people are drowning behind Tweetdeck. All these conversations are coming at them. What people are looking to do is talk to customers, answer questions, thank someone for sharing, or engage around a conversation or content. The rest is noise. This is for people to get work done.”

Crowdbooster is used by companies and brands such as the Los Angeles Times, Wieden+Kennedy, JetBlue, Education Week, Ben & Jerry’s, The Roxy Theatre, Crowd Surf and Stussy. In addition, entertainers such as the manager of rapper Lil Wayne (recently featured in Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings) have jumped on. Other rappers such as Drake, 50 Cent, Young Money and Trey Songz (or their managers) also use Crowdbooster.

The service has grown through word of mouth, as Yean and his two co-founders, Mark Linsey and David Tran, have promoted it through, well, Twitter. “We’re super active in our social media presence,” Yean says. “All our users are really chatty. We all do this ourselves.” The company runs a chat session on Twitter every Tuesday with users called #SMOchat–social media optimization–to talk about best practices in social media.

Yean’s first $25,000 in funding came from George Zachary at Charles River Ventures. Yean knew Zachary because he was a leader of BASES, a Stanford student entrepreneurship group that Zachary advised. The Crowdbooster team was also accepted to Y Combinator, the popular tech incubator, and StartX, Stanford University’s start-up accelerator. Crowdbooster has raised unspecified seed financing from Steven Chen of Youtube; Esther Dyson; Nils Johnson of Beautylish; Charles River Ventures; Quest Venture Partners; StartupAngel; Royce Disini, formerly of Myspace; Tony Pham, formerly of Slide; Brian Shire formerly of Facebook; Adora Cheung formerly of Slide; and Jonathan Pines, formerly of Facebook.

There are a number of companies providing social media dashboards, or “social media optimization,” as Yean calls it. Hootsuite, Brizzly, Social Flow, coTweet, Seesmic and others are in this general area. Yean says his company is focusing on providing data and easy-to-use tools for people to take action.

Learning From Jay-Z's Successes -- And Failures

Cash Kings 2011: Hip-Hop’s Top 20 Earners

Six years ago, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter found himself on the verge of finalizing one of the biggest deals of his life. The prize: A Jay-Z branded Jeep Commander that would roll off the lot boasting an audio system preloaded with all of Jay-Z’s songs, an interior swathed in butter-cream leather and an exterior slathered in a coat of patented Jay-Z Blue paint. For his efforts, the rapper would receive a 5-10% royalty on each $50,000 vehicle sold.

The Jay-Z Jeep would have been a multimillion-dollar bonanza had it ever hit the streets, but it fell through at the last minute. Through no fault of Jay-Z’s, a change of management at Jeep parent Chrysler iced the plans (the episode wasn’t reported until I stumbled upon it while reporting my new Jay-Z biography, Empire State of Mind). Those close to the negotiations say that the situation turned into a fiasco of epic proportions.

“That deal was the most [screwed]-up deal that I’ve ever seen or heard of,” says Michael “Serch” Berrin, the rapper-turned businessman who helped put together the Jay-Z Jeep proposal. “I came to Jay with the automobile industry in my back pocket to do a Shawn Carter edition vehicle that he approved, only to have the automobile industry basically shoot it down for fear that he was a bigger star than the car.”


Though Jay-Z is a perennial hip-hop Cash King, the eponymous Jeep is one of many deals crowding his entrepreneurial wastepaper basket. But listen to some of his work and you might get the impression that he’s never made a misstep in his life. He utters the phrase “I will not lose” in at least three different songs and constantly peppers himself with godlike monikers “Jay-Hova,” “Hova,” and “God MC” throughout his oeuvre.

In many ways, though, Jay-Z’s failures are more instructive than his successes, especially for people who aren’t lucky enough to be famous rappers. Take the Jeep deal. Two years after talks with Chrysler fell apart, rival General Motors hosted a gaudy gala in a gigantic tent on the shores of the Detroit River. A procession of celebrities, including Carmen Electra and Christian Slater, escorted new vehicles down a brightly lit runway. But the star of the show was the man who emerged from a blue GMC Yukon—none other than Jay-Z. For his efforts, sources told me, Jay-Z received a seven-figure sum.

Though the evening’s events suggested a Jay-Z Yukon might have been in the works, that vehicle never emerged, either. It seems Jay-Z was mostly interested in promoting the truck’s Jay-Z Blue paint and receiving a hefty payout. To be sure, that sum was a lot less than what he could have gotten had the Jay-Z Jeep ever come to fruition. But as Warren Buffett says, “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Jay-Z took that advice, which resonates for many people across a spectrum of situations, from workplace drama to relationship problems to actual vehicle trouble. Like many successful people, his time is simply too valuable to waste on a troubled situation, even if the payoff could be huge.

Another lesson from the Jeep episode: Don’t publicize your failures. By all means, tell your significant other, tell your best friend, tell your shrink. But don’t make a scene every time something goes wrong, or people may start to judge you as harshly as you judge yourself. Jay-Z’s invincible aura, both as a musician and a businessman, has been cultivated through constant emphasis on victory—and by sweeping under the rug anything with an unsavory result.

To the aspiring entrepreneur, there’s something heartening in knowing that even Jay-Z doesn’t get it right every time. Sure, he’s got the fame, the money and the girl (and soon, the baby), but he’s taken his lumps like everybody else. That might be even more inspirational than his success—and Jay-Z probably knows it. But publicizing his defeats just doesn’t work for his image.

Besides, “I will not lose” just has a better ring to it than “I might lose sometimes, and though it’s not necessarily my fault, it’s a lot more instructive than when I win, which is what usually happens these days.”

In Japan, Microsoft struggles to connect with Kinect

Midori Kaneko, right, enjoys a game of Dance Central 2 for Kinect at the Microsoft booth at Tokyo Game Show on Friday. But she says she won't buy an Xbox.

TOKYO—Of all the Tokyo Game Show attendees who visited the Kinect booth, one salaryman in a button-down shirt stood out. He jumped into the Dance Central game with gusto, busting out crazy moves in his patent-leather shoes, literally going leaps and bounds beyond what the dance game required.

A small crowd gathered to watch his moves. At one point, he did a handstand in front of the Xbox 360 camera controller. He was making Kinect look like barrels of fun.

But did the man, who gave his name as Yoshida, plan to buy the upcoming game and do “The Humpty Dance” at home?

“No,” Yoshida said. “I don’t have an Xbox. There are no games I want for it.”

A few months from now, Microsoft will celebrate its 10th anniversary of not being able to sell many videogames in Japan. The company is enjoying record-high sales in the United States and Europe with its redesigned Xbox 360 and the Kinect motion controller. But it remains locked in a struggle to make its console appealing to one of the world’s biggest markets for gaming.

Aside from an Xbox 360 roster filled with the kind of shooting games that historically don’t do so well in Japan, the biggest thing holding back Kinect might be a simple issue of real estate: The unique sensor, which lets players use their bodies to control the on-screen action, requires a lot of physical space to operate—and that’s something a lot of Japanese people just don’t have.
A history of failure

Microsoft has had no luck in Japan since it launched the original Xbox there in February 2002. It was the exact opposite of what the country wanted out of a game machine—a giant, noisy, power-sucking box with a massive controller and nothing but Western games, like first-person shooters, that were unpopular with gamers here. The marketing, the design, the content—everything was out of whack with what Japan wanted.

On paper, few of those things apply to the Xbox 360, which is probably why it has sold three times as much as the first Xbox. But even these sales numbers are relatively tiny. Since its launch in 2005, the Xbox 360 has only sold a pitiful 1.5 million units in Japan compared to PlayStation 3’s 6.7 million and Wii’s 11 million. In fact, sales of the console in Japan linger barely above those of the ancient PlayStation 2.

The Kinect doesn’t seem to be helping the problem. The controller, with its camera and microphone sensors, “doesn’t fit with Japanese culture,” a player named Takizawa told Wired.com at the Microsoft booth. He thought Michael Jackson: The Experience looked like a lot of fun, but questioned whether he’d have room to play it in his typically small living space.

Another gamer named Takumi, who is a student at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, said he could probably get a Kinect into his place, although his friend Akira said “no way.” Both of them are PlayStation 3 owners, but neither owns an Xbox. “It’s too expensive,” said Takumi. A Kinect alone costs ¥15,000.

The ironic thing about Microsoft’s struggles to sell Kinect to an apathetic Japanese audience is that the company says Japan’s gamemakers are coming up with the best concepts for the motion controller.

Two of the Microsoft-funded games are on display at the booth: Masaya Matsuura, the popular creator of the megahit PlayStation game Parappa the Rapper, is making a first-person haunted-house adventure. Suda 51, creator of ultraviolent action games like Shadows of the Damned, is contributing Demonic Pitch, in which you play a baseball player that fights monsters with his killer fastballs.

These are clever, original games from talented designers. But Microsoft has been down this road before, commissioning the original creators of Japan’s popular RPGs to make Xbox-exclusive games. The strategy didn’t work. Eventually the company successfully lobbied Square Enix to release Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360, as well as PlayStation 3. The incredibly popular series barely moved the needle.

Sometimes it seems like it doesn’t matter what Microsoft creates—Japan’s gamers just aren’t that into Xbox games.
Haunt, created by Tokyo developer Nana-On-Sha, is a spooky game set in a haunted house

Richard Newman, head of Microsoft's game-development studios in Japan, spearheaded the move to get well-known Japanese designers making Kinect games.

"Kinect is an interesting paradigm to design for," Newman said at an event Wednesday at which Demonic Pitch was introduced. "When you break away from the controller, there are a lot of conventions that get broken. A lot of the early itches that we got were controller games adapted to Kinect. What we really wanted was for creators to think outside the box."

The pitches that Microsoft Game Studios got from Japanese designers, Newman said, were some of the most unique and unexpected. They looked at several prototypes and tried to pick the "craziest" ones.

"These are core games for core gamers," Newman said.

Masaya Matsuura's Haunt was one of the chosen few. It's a first-person game that attempts to replicate the feeling of being spooked by a haunted house at an amusement park. Wired.com tried the game in developer Nana-On-Sha's Tokyo office, in a small room that, if you push all the furniture out of the way, is just barely big enough to play Kinect games.

"Haunt is not a game that requires a big space," Matsuura said; players don't have to move their bodies in extreme ways. But, he added, when he wants to watch an employee play the game, he has to lie down prone in the room to avoid accidentally being picked up by the Kinect sensor.

It's probably no coincidence, then, that even the Japanese gamemakers are aiming their products at the global audience. Nana-On-Sha's Matsuura thinks that working alongside Japanese creators is important if Microsoft wants to make the Xbox 360 more of a success in the territory.

But, he says, "the biggest market for the Xbox is the US, so we have to concentrate on the English-speaking territories." Haunt was built in English and translated into Japanese later.

So even if their countrymen don't want the Kinect, the hands-free controller is becoming so popular in the United States and Europe that the games might still sell. Just not here.

Microsoft's Newman believes that the Kinect, simply by virtue of being a brand-new method of controlling games, could help game creators express truly new ideas.

"The aspirations of the creators were greater than Kinect," he said. "They were ready to break free from some of the constraints they were feeling in the industry. Some ideas were nothing short of philosophical about where they wanted to take things."

Wired.com did speak to one Kinect owner at the Microsoft booth. She was standing with her friends watching Dance Central 2.

"It's fun," she said, "but I hardly use it. I barely have enough room. My back is against the wall."

Did she play any regular games? The kind that use a controller?

"Yes," she said, struggling to remember the name of the game she owned. "What's it called... what's it called... Ha... Halo."

City Hunter

city-hunter

Title : 시티헌터 (RSiti Heonteo)
English Title : City Hunter
Country : Korea
Episodes : 20
Broadcast Network : SBS
Series Description
City Hunter is based on world-famous Japanese Manga by Tsukasa Hojo. Lee Yoon-Sung (Lee Min-Ho) works at the Blue House's National Communication Network Team and received his Ph.D at M.I.T.Kim Na-Na (Park Min-Young) is a bodyguard at the South Korean President's residence, the Blue House . Na-Na lost her parents by car accident since then she made a living by doing part time jobs. She became a bodyguard at the Blue House and she falls in love with Lee Yoon-Sung.

HOW TO CONVERT YOUR 1GB MEMORY CARD TO 2GB

Am very excited today and will be sharing a very Good and Informative Tutorial wit h you Guys, Lets get to Business as Usual.

I will show you How to Convert a 1GB Memory Card to 2GB without any Stress whatsoever using a simple software, The Good News is that, I wll be giving out the Software for Free. With this Software you can keep converting your Memory Card to Higher Capacity!

WARNING: It only work 1GB Memory Card Only!

FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE TO CONVERT YOUR MEMORY CARD
1. Get the Memory Card you wish to Increase it Capacity, It must be a 1GB Memory card.

2. Back Up the Memory Card because we will surely Format it during the Conversion Process.

3. Insert your Memory Card to your PC.

4. Download this Software for Converting your Memory Capacity! {Skimedi Fix}.


5. After Downloading it to your PC, Extract it and Install to your PC and then Follow the next step! If ask for Password before extraction, Use www.naijaloaded.com as your Password.

6. After Installation, It will Auto-Open, Showing the FIX and Cancel option. And you have to browse the drive where your Memory Card is located (generally G: or L: drive for USB.


The Memory Card shows 955MB before the Conversion.

7. After Selecting the Drive, Click on the Fix button, and then the updating process will be followed up. It will ask you for conformation whether you agree to format or not. click on Yes.

8. It will ask you to Unplug the Memory Card, Remove it and Insert it again. Now the Size of the Memory Card has been Increased to 2GB, You can now check the Properties of the Memory card by Going to My Computer » Right click on the Memory Card » Properties, Now the Size of the Memory card will show 2GB. You can check the Properties before and after the Conversion Process.

UPDATE YOUR FACEBOOK AND TWITTER STATUS VIA BLACK BERRY AND I-PHONE

Its Fun today, Can't just stop laughing after i updated my face book and twitter with this Application and i Updated my Status with it... Comment keep Rolling in!
We've written many Articles here. Update your Status via Blackberry, PS3

Now its a lovely and Funny One, How to Update your Facebook Status via black berry and i-phone.... You Friends are gonna Find it very much Funny, i bet you!
Update your Status via black berry and i-phone like that just visit (1) statusvia.net (2)funnyfacebook.com

HOW TO H!CK COMPUTER ON A LAN NETWORK

Today,I will write about hacking computer inside the LAN network.

This technique will be taking advantage of Port 139.

Most of the time, Port 139 will be opened.

First of all,I will do a port scanning at the target computer which is 192.168.40.128.

This computer is inside my LAN network.

I will scan it using ZeNmap.



I get the result and it shows Port 139 is opened up for me.

Now you will need both of these tools:
** USER2SID & SID2USER
** NetBios Auditing Tool

You can get both of them on the Internet.

After you get both of them,put them in the C:\ directory.



You now need to create a null session to the target computer.



Now open the Command Prompt and browse to the USER2SID & SID2USER folder.There will be 2 tools inside it,one will be USER2SID and another one will be SID2USER.

We will first using USER2SID to get the ID.



We will test against the Guest account because Guest account is a built in account.

After we get the ID,we need to do some modification on the ID.

We take the ID we get from the guest account and modified it become
"5 21 861567501 1383384898 839522115 500".

Please leave out the S-1-,leave out all the - too.



Now you will see that you get the username of the Administrator account.

In this case,the Administrator account is Administrator.

Create a text file called user.txt and the content will be the username of the Admin account.



Prepare yourself a good wordlist.



Now put both of them in the same directory with the NetBios Auditing Tool.



Now we are going to crack the Admin account for the password in order to access to the target computer.

Browse to the NetBios Auditing Tool directory.



Press on enter and the tool will run through the passlist.



In this case,I have get the password.

In order to proof that I can get access to the target computer using this password.



After you press enter,it will prompt you for the username and password.



Therefore,just input them inside the prompt and continue.



Target C drive will be on your screen.



In order to prevent from this attack,close down port that you do not want to use such as Port 135,Port 136,Port 137,Port 138 and Port 139.

The download link of the tools is:
DOWNLOAD NOW

Goodluck Guys