Entries from September 2007 ↓

It’s doubtful whether the people working for the huge music corporations, the types of firms who support SpiralFrog, actually use SpiralFrog to download music. Can you imagine a UMG executive watching ads for home loans and Med cruises as he downloads a track? I can’t. In all likelihood the executive will be getting free music downloads from an open-source project employing P2P file sharing software. The professional usually opts for the version known as Ares Ultra P2P filesharing software. It allows for 20 tracks to be downloaded simultaneously and no Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been inserted into the media, so the content can be played on any device. Ares Ultra is tuned specifically for downloading MP3s and corrupt MP3 files are filtered automatically. There is an integrated playlist facility with shuffle mode and chat room where music company executives can hear first-hand from Ares users why they switched from SpiralFrog to Ares!) And for the not-so-technically-minded music execs there is a full technical support staff standing by if they run into trouble. For the record, while Ares Ultra is the “flagship” version, there is also one designed for the smaller footprint where the user does not want to use too many resources or use masses of bandwidth when downloading music. This is the Ares Lite P2P filesharing software, and is a good option for those with older, slower PC’s, especially those running Windows 98 or Windows ME. It is easy to use, unobtrusive and runs quietly in the background.

Nuts, bolts, screws and rivets are encountered regularly in home improvement, DIY projects and many basic engine applications. There are several other important fasteners you may wish to become more familiar with. One such group of fasteners is retaining rings, and the other is grommets.

Retaining rings are used either internally or externally to provide a shoulder within an assembly. This shoulder functions to position and retain components. Internal retaining ring fasteners are placed within bores. External retaining rings are located outside of shafts. They generally sit within a groove designed to secure the ring tightly in place.

Retaining rings operate as a cost-effective fastener in cases where a permanent shoulder is not required. They cost less and are simpler to tool than for instance, screw thread insert fasteners. Today hand and power tools, computer equipment, door knobs and aircraft often use retainer rings as fasteners.

Grommets are metal, plastic, or rubber ring fasteners that are inserted into holes to serve as reinforcement or to cover sharp edges. They are encountered in a variety of everyday applications. They may be used to reinforce the hole, to shield something from the sharp edges of the hole, or both. Small grommets called eyelets are used regularly to reinforce lace holes on shoes or clothing. Nonmetallic grommet fasteners may be used to shield electrical wire, cables or cords as they pass through sharp-edged metal holes.

One of the most important items to bring with you when traveling is a camera. While you don’t have to spend a lot on the latest digital cameras, you will want to bring one to capture sunsets, waves on the beach, and other sights during your stay in San Luis Obispo. With so many interesting scenes to photograph, you will be able to bring home some wonderful pictures to show family and friends.

You may also want to take pictures of the buildings and architecture in the area as many of the San Luis Obispo hotels California are modeled after Spanish villas. Older buildings are also worth photographing because of the details on them. If staying at the Rose Garden Inn San Luis Obispo, you will be very close to the beach, the airport, and other areas where you will be able to take some great pictures.

Since family vacations offer the opportunity to take many pictures, you should bring a few cameras with you if possible so everyone in your family will be able to take their own pictures. This is a fun family activity because each member gets to choose to photograph what they want to remember.

I am totally loving Brothers and Sisters. What a great cast! Sally Field is so watchable and I have loved Rachel Griffiths ever since Muriel’s Wedding and Six Feet Under. But for me the big surprise is Calista Flockhart. She really, really bugged me in Ally McBeal, so whiny and needy and I just didn’t get it. But in Brothers and Sisters its like she’s grown up and I really feel for Kitty with the ups and downs in her love life and problems relating to her mother and sister. Makes me feel a bit better about her and Harrison Ford being together. I have loved him forever and now I’m glad if she makes him happy. Read an interview with her in a magazine the other day and they seem like a real normal family. She even took some years out from working just to be a regular mother. He is full of surprises, there was that pierced ear thing and then someone told me that he has the
symptoms of dyslexia or dyslexia. I suppose they must have given him a dyslexia test sometime. He is what I call a true film star, and nothing was ever going to stop him making it to the top. So I really do wish him and Calista luck and I’m glad she is doing so well in Brothers and Sisters.

Business cash advances work by using future credit card sales which gives them the unique distinction of being tied to the business cash flow. Business cash advance providers provide your business with a certain level of funds in exchange for an agreement that stipulates paying back the provider from a percentage of credit card sales. This has a built in flexibility that no other lending process can match.

Say for example, you negotiated a 15% payback plan with the business cash advance provider. If you have credit card sales of $1000 on Monday, you’ll pay $150 to the provider. If Tuesday is a slow day and you only have $500 in credit card sales, you’ll pay $75 to the provider. If Wednesday is a holiday and you’re closed resulting in no sales, then you pay nothing for that day!

As you can see, business cash advance repayments are closely tied to your cash flow. They fluctuate depending on the level of business you’re doing. Other types of funding, such as unsecured business loans are not tied in any way to cash flow. The issuing bank couldn’t care less what level of sales you had during a given month - they will want the same payment regardless.

You won’t find this flexibility in any other kind of lending which makes the business cash advance more than a viable alternative to a conventional Unsecured Business Loans.

Just bagged the coolest vintage earrings on Ebay. They are by Kenneth Jay Lane and are huge great gold doorknockers in the shape of lion’s heads. I’ve been collecting vintage jewellery for a while now and KJL is my top man. He’s been going since the sixties and his pieces are big, bold and beautiful everyone from Jackie O to Joan Collins to the Duchess of Windsor wore his jewels and he is still designing for fashionistas today. Rhianna and Hilary Duff have both been wearing his fabulous bangle bracelets recently. Wish I got given stuff for free! I love to drool over his latest designs on net-a-porter. But not the QVC stuff tho. My all-time favourite design of his is a huge golden dragon brooch its crusted with rhinestones and false turquoise stones and looks like an ancient treasure. They are really rare though and megabucks but a girl can dream LOL. Soooo pleased with my earrings though, they are probably eighties and I reckon were never worn, they are mint. Current mood : happy and think I’ll celebrate watching a
funny video online before I go out tonight!

The launch of Bizwiki.com early next year will bring a new sense of quality and order to the internet when it comes to information about physical businesses in the United States. Until now internet users have had to make do with general search engine results when looking for on-street businesses in the US, or they have had to trawl their way through general web directories, where frustratingly many of the results returned end up being “virtual” businesses, i.e. just websites. Bizwiki.com, whose UK counterpart launched in 2007 to great acclaim, is set to change all of that by introducing an entirely new method for gathering and publishing business information. There are four main steps involved 1) Owners of businesses, clubs, associations etc. submit the names of real businesses (not websites) to the directory according to physical location. Thus someone looking for a Cantonese restaurant, for instance, will not be wasting their time by finding one in New York when they are hungry in Seattle. Each and every submission is vetted by human staff for acceptance. 2) Any registered user can enter the website and enhance and review any of the listings, which will make the findings so much more valuable to those sourcing this information. In this way feedback is given as to the service and products of any business advertised. 3) The Bizwikibot is programed to spider the websites of the listed business updating any vital information or retrieving and processing a short portion of text about companies 4) Anyone can access this beta search site free of charge. When word gets round, there will be more users, more contributors and the site will become more authoratitive. It’s a self-perpetuating project.

The fashion and movie industries are significant customers of chauffeur car hire companies in Britain. This is because fashion and the movies are industries in which a an impressive appearance and being treated as special count for a great deal with the “stars” of these industries, and also because these people tend to be internationally mobile, on and off planes all the time. That is why companies such as Cars for Stars do might what be referred to as a roaring trade in ferrying the good and great for London airport transfers . There is a good psychological reason for making a hired limo, complete with driver, available to people who work under a great deal of pressure and usually in the public eye. Air travel is something that doesn’t agree with most of them. It’s time consuming, they suffer jet lag, and it’s just not pleasant. That is why movie and fashion companies try and make things a little more comfortable for their luminaries by making their airport transfers more than merely a commute through the traffic. Such necessary little journeys are turned into a statement of how important and valued these talented people are. The leading limo hire experts in the UK at present are Cars for Stars limo hire , the outfit that won the Operator of the Year 2006 at the European Limousine Chauffeur Show. Have a look at their website to see what they have to offer and perhaps get an online quote.

Our new found interest in Palm Desert real estate got me thinking about the name Palm Desert. Apparently it was named that after someone planted date palms there, no doubt thinking the climate would be suitable. Well, no date palm industry resulted from these initial plantings, although interestingly enough the only date palms cultivated commercially in the US are grown in Indio, California fairly near to Palm Desert in the Coachella Valley. It is also worth noting that there are fewer and fewer date palms there now. The real estate is just too valuable to leave them to a bunch of date trees. In spite of all the empty, dry areas elsewhere in the US, date palm cultivation has just not taken off. A little bit of research showed me something quite astonishing, which is that date palms are grown mainly in the troubled regions of the world: Iraq, Iran, Cyprus, Palestine, Israel, Turkmenistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia. Is this because people in dry, desert area are combative? Is it because date palms are easy to grow and that is why people opt to grow them where there are no agricultural resources to draw on? Is it because they grow practically wild in these areas? I couldn’t say, but the whole story makes a bit of a mockery of the name Palm Desert. Anyway it’s pretty and the whole Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Palm Everything Else idea has been good for the area. People come from as far away as Australia and Canada to retire there. Surely the name has something to do with it, a promise of an endless Monte Carlo promenade through life right until the end.

The gift for the person who (nearly) has it all is undoubtedly top-of-the-range, leading-edge, techno gear that is more than an accessory or a fashion statement. It’s more like an extra limb or real estate - really fine stuff that can take you far. If you are looking for a gift for someone very special who will not be shocked when the gift you give him/her is more like giving a new lease on life, not just a present, then you should investigate sites like TestFreaks where you can learn about all the latest and best, all in detail. The photos and specs of the products are there, yes, but there are also ratings based on reviews by experts and enthusiasts. And there is a “Best Price” feature which is excellent. You then have clear idea of what a fair price is for the product concerned. The “Best Price” is a real price out there, so you can actually order the product for the advertised price. It’s great. Here’s a hint for gifts that anyone would adore. Check out all the
Samsung digital cameras on the site. There are amazing products there, almost too many for the brain to handle, but never fear, just read what the specialists have to say about them and you will quickly figure out which one to go for. And then there is that marvelous multi-media device that the media just can’t stop raving about, namely the Apple iphone which is really a step away from a phone - quite a few steps, come to think of it. For a start, some say it is the best ipod in the world. It offers one-touch dialing and so on an so on. You HAVE to look at it. Anyway, there are several categories, hundreds of products, and a whole lot more reviews. Enjoy the gift of giving.