nesher's Blog

It’s a pain when your DSL goes down, but the bright side is that it gives you a chance to rate yourself on the Internet Dependency Scale. Just compare your actions to those listed below and you’ll know what sort of pathetic computer geek you really are.

Stage 1 Internet Dependency

Immediate reaction: Check the wires, see if you can steal a neighbor’s Wi-Fi, then get up and do something else.

What you do while waiting for the connection to come back: Read a book, watch a movie, go for a walk. Is this a trick question?

If it doesn’t come back in an hour: Call your service provider, then go back to whatever you were doing.

Stage 2 Internet Dependency:

Immediate reaction: Try to steal a neighbor’s Wi-Fi. Walk around the house with your laptop if necessary.

What to do while waiting for the connection to come back: Watch a movie or something with your laptop close by so you can see if the connection’s back up.

If it doesn’t come back in an hour: Call your service provider, then check the connection every half hour just in case it fixes itself.

Stage 3 Internet Dependency:

Immediate reaction: Try the neighbor’s Wi-Fi trick, including making a few guesses at the passwords of their locked-down networks.

What you do while waiting for the connection to come back: Try connecting again. And again. Try to watch a movie, remember you only watch movies that stream online, go back to your computer and try to connect again.

If it doesn’t come back in an hour: Call your service provider, then pack up your laptop and head for an internet cafe.

Stage 4 Internet Dependency:

Immediate reaction: Shocked disbelief, followed by a thorough inspection of your network settings, DSL modem, router, Wi-Fi configuration and the state of local radio interference fields. Then try the neighbor’s Wi-Fi trick. Then stand and glare at your modem for a while.

What you do while waiting for the connection to come back: Try connecting again. And again. Go down to watch a movie, remember you only watch movies that stream online, go back up and try to connect again.

If it doesn’t come back in an hour: Call your service provider, then pack up your main computer and monitor and head to a hotel that offers reliable internet access.

Stage 5 Internet Dependency:

Immediate reaction: Get up on the roof and point your homemade Wi-Fi antenna at the library 15 blocks over. If that doesn’t work, hook your cellular modem up to your laptop. If that doesn’t work, pull out your old 56K modem and log into the dialup service you pay for every month just in case something like this happens.

What you do while waiting for the connection to come back: Write a long, involved blog post about how your ISP is costing you time, money and/or effort because of its incompetence.

If it doesn’t come back in an hour: Call your service provider and fire them. If there aren’t any other DSL providers in your area, move.

Source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/07/alt-text-dependency/

Happy socializing and moneymaking!

Short tip for today (Monday, September 8, 2009):

The following is a brief step by step tutorial on how to make your own free iPhone ringtones for both the new iPhone 3G and older iPhone. You shouldn't have to pay iTunes an additional $1 to convert a purchased song into a ringtone. 

1. Get the music file in mp3 format.
2. If you purchased a song from iTunes, first convert it to mp3, because as the song owner, you are the only one that can legally do the conversion.

If you right-click on a music track in iTunes, there is an option to Convert Selection to some other format. Change your import settings to get iTunes to import the track as MP3. In iTunes 8, go to Edit / Preferences / General and click the Import Settings button. In older versions of iTunes, click on Edit / Preferences / Importing (or Edit / Preferences / Advanced / Importing). Your goal is to change the Import Using from the default setting to "MP3 Encoder". Click OK to save this setting. Now when you right-click on a music track, there will be an option to Convert Selection to MP3. But just try it... iTunes will tell you that "Protected files cannot be converted to other formats."

1. Upload the mp3 file to Ventone's FREE Ringtone Creator and create ringtone from your audio file:

http://www.ventones.com/make-free-ringtone.aspx

1. When your mp3 ringtone is ready, go to your "My Ventones" page where you will see personalized list of created ringtones. Click on the ringtone, you are going to choose.
2. On the ringtone page, scroll all the way to the bottom, where you will see a link that says "Click here For your iPhone Ringtone". Click on the link, and you instantly receive a link for your iPhone ringtone download.
3. Download the file onto your computer.
4. Go to iTunes, and Import the iPhone ringtone. If the operation is successful, you will see it listed under Ringtones category in iTunes.
5. Connect your iPhone and Sync the Ringtones.

Happy socializing and moneymaking!

On May 22, President Barack Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure, or Credit CARD, Act of 2009 into law. The legislation will improve consumer disclosures and end some egregious practices in the credit card industry but stops short of capping interest rates and fees. Most of the provisions go into effect Feb. 22, 2010, unless otherwise stated.

Here's an overview of the major changes the law will enact.

New credit card rules

1. Retroactive rate increases
2. More advance notice of rate hikes
3. Fee restrictions
4. Restricts marketing and issuance to students
5. Ends double-cycle billing
6. Fairer payment allocation
7. More time to pay
8. Gift card protections

1. Retroactive rate increases

Issuers can't raise rates on an existing balance unless a promotional rate expired, the variable indexed rate increased or you paid late by 60 days or more. No longer will they be able to punish borrowers for late payments on unrelated accounts under the practice of universal default or due to "anytime, any reason" clauses.

If the cardholder does trigger the default rate because of a 60-day delinquency, the bank must restore the lower rate once the cardholder demonstrates six months of consecutive on-time payments. This provision takes effect in August 2009.

In general, rates can't be raised in the first year after issuance, and promotional rates must last at least six months. Exceptions include expiration of a promotional rate, termination or completion of a workout plan, a change in the index rate or a 60-day delinquency.

Caveat: Issuers can raise rates at any time for any reason on new balances with 45 days' advance notice. Cardholders will still need to read correspondence from their creditors.

2. More advance notice of rate hikes

Consumers get 45 days' notice before key contract changes take effect, including rate increases. Under the current Truth in Lending Act, cardholders only receive a 15-day heads up. This change takes effect Aug. 20, 2009.

Caveat: This provision doesn't apply to credit limit changes. If your issuer slashes your limit, notification isn't necessary unless the reduction would trigger a penalty, such as an overlimit fee.

The new rules also don't cap interest rates. The increased rate can still be triple your existing APR.

3. Fee restrictions

Cardholders will not face overlimit fees unless they elect to allow the creditor to approve overlimit transactions. Issuers can't charge more than one overlimit fee per billing cycle.

In general, banks can't charge consumers a fee to pay their credit card debt, a cost some cardholders encounter for payments made by telephone or Internet. They can impose a fee to expedite a payment.

Payments received by the due date -- or the next business day, if the bank doesn't accept mailed payments on the due date -- won't trigger a late fee. If the cardholder pays at a local branch, the payment must be credited the same day.

The new law limits fees on "fee-harvester" subprime cards as well. In the first year after issuance, nonpenalty fees cannot take up more than 25 percent of the initial credit limit.

4. Restricts card issuance to students

Consumers under age 21 who can't prove an independent means of income or provide the signature of a co-signer aged 21 or older won't get approved for credit cards. The provision protects young people who lack the means or the knowledge to handle credit cards from miring themselves into debt, but could backfire by pushing students to payday lenders and pawnshops, says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

According to a recent Sallie Mae study, college students carried an average balance of $3,173 on their credit cards last year, a record high since the first analysis in 1998. A whopping 82 percent revolved a balance each month.

5. Ends double-cycle billing

The new law bans double-cycle billing, the practice of basing finance charges on the current and previous balance. Under this method, the issuer could charge interest on debt already paid off the previous month.

6. Fairer payment allocation

A close look at your card agreement will likely reveal a clause that explains that payments will be applied to lower-rate balances first. Not so anymore. The Credit CARD Act requires above-the-minimum payments to be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest interest rate.

7. More time to pay

Card companies must send statements 21 days before a payment is due. Current law requires a mere 14 days' notice. This provision goes into effect Aug. 20, 2009.

8. Gift card protections

The legislation includes protections for gift cardholders. The new law prohibits gift cards from expiring for at least five years. Issuer cannot assess inactivity fees unless the card has gone unused for 12 months. 

Source: Bankrate

Short tip for today (Tuesday, September 1, 2009):

You are leaving your computer in hurry but you do not want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screensaver.

To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer:

1.       Right-click the desktop.

2.       Point to New, and then click Shortcut. 

3.       The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following:
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

4.       Click Next.

5.       Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like.

6.       Click Finish.

You can also change the shortcut's icon. To change the icon:

1.       Right click the shortcut and then select Properties.

2.       Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.

3.       In the Look for icons in this file text box, type: Shell32.dll.

4.       Click OK.

5.       Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK.

To lock your keyboard and display, double click the shortcut.

Happy socializing and moneymaking!