Tell Me Something I Don't Know - Sunday, October 26th

On the on The Chris Matthews Show, October 26th Chris Matthews leads with: "A different country. America changes. It did in 1932 with the coming of New Deal and in 1980 with the Reagan era. Will the election of 2008 bring an American epoch of Obama? Frustrated by a fitful war. Shaken by a financial free fall. Is the country turning to something truly new?" The panelists: -- Anne Kornblut is covering the campaigns for The Washington Post. -- Clarence Page is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. -- Andrea Mitchell covers the race for NBC News. -- John Heilemann covers politics for New York Magazine, which has his latest story on the cover this week.

Yoiks, I lost my files!

Ye, it can happen ... and our first reaction is a blank stare that says "What do I do now?" ... and then, we kick ourselves "Why didn't I backup my files?" "For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost." ~Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1758~

Google Image Search may not be as efficient as hoped

I was writing about that scam site, Olympicbux. Hoping to adorn my post, I tried searching for its original banner (but failed) on http://images.google.com.sg . I used the keyword olympicbux . For http://images.google.com.sg , somehow my 3 posters on peace, loneliness and wealth came up as part of the search results on the first page. For http://images.google.com , the one on peace came up on the first page. The ones on loneliness, wealth, driving, existence, time, game over and flexibility are on the second. Together with these, 7 more pictures from my blog appeared. I practically monopolize this search word olympicbux that I really have no "connection" with. Isn't Google efficient? O.o

Yea! We've got another scam! - Olympicbux

Enters Olympicbux. This one has been down for quite a while but I had delayed a bit as I don't want to assume the worst just because a site possibly e.g. delayed/forgot in paying the hosting fee. The last message I remember reading was "We are temporarily off-line for the new script. Come back soon." But I don't know how long this "temporarily" is. Whether you are changing script or not, it is easy enough to maintain your site and put an Under Construction sign. Not to say this means you are therefore impeccably trustworthy but at least, you give us reason to extend the grace period. Anyway, now that the China Olympics 2008 is over, I guess the scammer(s) saw it fit to call it a day. I really don't quite understand what is in it for scammers. I just need you to email me (yes, I am sure you have my email) to let me know that e.g. you have tried your best but you did not manage to make the business work. That's fine. I will try to give you the benefit of the doubt and understand. I might even lend you my shoulder to cry on. You don't just go disappearing without a word. That only screams scam.

GiantBux - kaboom

There goes GiantBux. This isn't really a scam but an example of how people can go rushing into setting up a PTC site then claim that they don't have time, need to walk their rabbit, feed their roaches, whatever, etc. There is now a new owner for GiantBux who is possibly banned by both PayPal and AlertPay. I mean, why else would he/she only pay by Liberty Reserve? PayPal is strict - I can somewhat (but not really) understand but AlertPay? I really wonder what the new owner has done to get banned (I am just speculating). So now, the payment mode is changed to Liberty Reserve only. You know, I am really tired of getting an account with every single shady payment processor in the world. It has taken me quite a while to overcome my resistance to AlertPay - and that is only because I have an arrangement with a friend to combine our earnings, forgo the exorbitant withdrawal fee then use the money to have a little meal together. So until GiantBux starts offering PayPal, AlertPay or even e-gold, I will pass on this freedom-not-reserved opportunity. Adieu.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

October 12th, on The Chris Matthews Show, Chris asks his roundtable to "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" ... this weeks roundtable: Gloria Borger of CNN Howard Fineman of Newsweek Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution David Ignatius of The Washington Post

AlertBux - one of the lamest scam PTC sites

I don't know why I was hesitating. Probably I wanted to give this site a chance since there have been too many revealed scams recently. Well, I guess my patience has finally run out. I can't remember if AlertBux was supposed to go on vacation for a while but placing a blog post discussing whether Bux.to is a scam is already real lame * 10. Here, we can aptly use the idiom, "Pot calling the kettle black". But they did not just stop there. They scammed and continue to laugh at us like how a hyena would cackle as it sinks its teeth into your flesh and gobble you up while you are still alive. (Yes, hyenas are perfectly capable of that. They have a very powerful digestive system with highly acidic fluids, making them capable of eating and digesting their entire prey, including skin, teeth, horns and bones. Source: Wikipedia) They must be enjoying the confusion among their members and relishing every moment of their anticipation. Today, they placed another overriding ad on their site, beyond the usual Google Adsense ones. Perhaps that was the last straw and final trigger I need to declare AlertBux a scam. PTC clickers, be warned!

Fall 2008 TV: dNeero-ites want to know

Many, many good questions from dNeero-ites about TV shows and viewing habits ... '24', House, genre, time, hi-def ... we'll do more in future convos. "Today, watching television often means fighting, violence and foul language - and that's just deciding who gets to hold the remote control." ~Donna Gephart~

Find the best prices with ShopWiki!

Wow wow, what do we have here? Christmas is coming and ShopWiki comes in just handy! This is a search engine dedicated to sniffing out the best deals in shops everywhere on cyberspace. Granted, we have the all-imposing Google search engine but that is really not niche enough if we want to look for the best deal for a specific item. Yes, for those super geeks out there, I know you can enter a Google command such as "toothbrush $105...$150". This neat trick will basically grab you all mentions of toothbrushes costing between $105 and $150. I have tried searching this way on occasions too but it isn't really the best way. 2 quick reasons. One - you will see a lot of "junk" sites that are not even selling any products. Two - you can't sort the items in any order. ShopWiki is neat in that it only searches online stores and it allows you to sort the prices in ascending/descending order! Beyond this, you can also drag a slider and set the price range you desire. We online shopaholics all know how important such filtering is. If it is not important, we would just paint our glasses black and skip looking at the price tags. Geez, I think even Bill Gates looks at the price tags sometimes - not that he can't afford things but if only he doesn't get cheated! As my experiment, the key phrase I tried was "rune rings". Well, I have been eyeing one for some time but have not made up my mind yet. Out came the results and wow, there's one going for $4. I was excited... 7 stores... they turned out to be all from the thehungersite network of shops but the correct price is really $19.95. I clicked on the link showing $4 and it was directed to the one costing $19.95. There isn't really an error here. I suspect this item has been offered at a discounted price before (geez, I must have missed it... sob...) but here, it seems I have stumbled upon a drawback of ShopWiki. Apparently they do not check the validity of the items. That said, I do not think it is that big an issue. Prices of items once placed online seldom change and besides, with much of the filtering already done, we just need to click away those with no longer valid prices. If you prefer to just surf around and let inspiration come to you (perfect for Christmas shopping), you can just scan through the ready categories such as Board Games, Laptops, Kids' Clothes, whatever! Or if you want to search for DVD players in cars, just go look. In fact, you can even shop by brand if you so prefer. So run along and give ShopWiki a try the next time you need to do some shopping. :D * This is a sponsored post.

New scam minted - Isabelmarco

Isabelmarco, whether you are one Isabel and one Marco or one Isabelmarco or just a sick, stupid and screwed-up bot running on tainted fuel, I condemn you. It hurts me almost as much (or perhaps more) as it might possibly hurt you (if you have a conscience) as I really prefer to extol the virtue of people (yes, I hope to place you in this category) than to expose their true, ugly and blemished selves. A few days back, there was a sneaky announcement on your homepage that you will stop further payments to members who are not your paid intimates. Today, you emailed your decision to all your members. Are you aware that this latest action of yours is lame? I quote you, "Our recent announcment to not pay standard members was a hard decision for us to make however due to the volume of cheaters in the system this was the only method we feel that will work at the moment." This is so funny. Really funny. Instead of trying to find a way to solve the problem, you ingeniously use it as an excuse to penalize the non-cheaters who did not pay to make you richer. So if cheaters and non-cheaters all get the same treatment, why didn't you just tell me to cheat in the first place? This way, I might have made off with tons of payout already. Again I quote, "Also, premium members are the investors that keep IM running." OMG, your ploy at pretentious honesty really slammed the guillotine for you. Do you know what this means? It means that you are really taking money from one premium membership to pay another premium member. So basically, as long as people stop becoming premium members or quit renewing, your entire scam tapestry will unravel and we will then see a 404 error on your website. Many of those who have paid to become premium members will finally cry if they did not manage to pull back their investments in time. Granted that you would have made some people very happy but I don't see this as a plus point on your karma score sheet. For every 1 person you make happy, you probably tip the balance the other way for many more people. You are a PTC site. Do you know that your main income should thus come from ads? That is the only true way to be self-sustaining. By relying primarily on premium fees as you so mock-innocently admit, you also admit to making money as the middleman shuffling money around. You know, I almost invested in your site. I am glad I didn't. And did you mention some of your partner sites - PimpBattle, IMfriends, IMsMilliondollarhomepage and ArcadeLounge? Goodness! How many times do you want to scam people? Have a care before you fall into the deep abyss of no return! To all who have an account with Isabelmarco, I urge the following: If you are a premium member, quickly break even then run. If you are a non-premium member, just stop clicking unless you are almost reaching payout and want to convert your earnings to ads. Please do not for enlightenment's sake pay to become a premium member! That would just sink yourself into that cycle of making the site richer at your expense. There is no way premium membership fees will continue to get into the site's coffers perpetually. Since you are not trapped yet, don't dash forward and impale yourself. Blessed be.

Fall TV Season Has Begun

We're roughly two weeks in to the new Fall TV Season. What have we seen? What do we like?