Hi, I bought Neardeals.com.
I wanted to use it for a coupon search type application on the phone wiht LBS functionality. I have however decided to pursue another startup instead. If you want to buy this, just contact me!
Business Cards have a lot of information now a days. People’s contact and interest are listed in multiple profiles across the internet. We have a ton of ways for someone to contact us(IM, Phone, Emails, Social networks etc)
ShrtCards provides you a simple contact page that you maintain.
When you pass out business cards with the ShrtCard code, the recievers can just go online and enter www.ShrtCard/XXXXX to see your contact details.
ShrtCard is not searchable nor indexable so only people with the ShrtCard Code can see your contact.
On the ShrtCard Contact Card, you can import the contact to various contact managers (outlook, gmail etc)
I thought of this idea when I was…
Trying to design a simple name card with just my name and my website where users can find the ways to contact me.
Vote for my Idea on Cambrian house
ShrtCards: Simplify Your Business Card
So i was on getafreelancer.com trying to get quotes for clone sites that I could buy and spin off. Then I got this message from this dude who is clearly out of his mind…I am going to play along with him just to see his response.
Message on Project Posted!
dkmisra has just posted a message for you on project named Programmed a Clone Site before?
Message:
Hello Mate, I don have any personal clone site but i can give you thr URL Of that site from where u can get atleast 40 sites clone. They have clone of all famous site like orkut, frindester,alibaba,gmail,facebook and so many top sites you can go that site and buy and clone with ur customzation and ur choices templates so if u can believe on me then i can give u the That URL but i will charge $2000 from ur give that site url if u r agree connect me on dkmisra at g-mail dot com
You view and answer this message on this page.
I am planning my 2 week trip through California and I was tempted to use Priceline.com and Hotwire to book my accommodation needs. The business model and how they work are not necessary the most transparent and easy to understand stuff. Both Hotwire and Priceline sell a variety of travel related products like air tickets, hotels, car rentals etc.
How Hotwire works is by showing you a few available hotels after you provide some details of your travel(i.e. Date of stay; where you want to stay and how many people will be needed a room). Hotwire then shows you their partner hotels in the area. You can see the description of the hotel, the amenities it has and an approximate location. What you cannot see if an exact name of the hotel. They do this so that with the low prices, people will still purchase hotels rooms that have not been sold. Hotwire will tell you the name of the hotel once you have paid for the booking. (Note: Hotwire does not do refunds. Once the hotel is booked, you had better be there to use your Hotwire booking. This is important!)
Because you cannot see the name of the hotel you are booking, this brings a lot of unease in most people because they want to be sure of the quality of the hotel. With that we provide our first tip.
1) How To Guess The Hotel Which You Might Be Booking
It is pretty likely that you can figure out which hotel you are booking if you go through the steps below.
Step 1: Look for the list of hotels on Better Bidding.com
For this example, I will use Los Angeles as an example. To access BetterBidding’s Hotwire list of hotels in California, just click here. BetterBidding’s list shows you by area the names and the amenities of the hotels in that area.
By comparing BetterBidding’s information and the description that Hotwire gives you after you filled in your travel details, this should allow you to pinpoint the name of the hotel to a 60% correct guess.
Step 2: Compare with TripAdvisor
Of course one is never satisfied since we are talking potentially a few hundred bucks here. So in our quest to make our guess close to 100%, Hotwire(Most of the time) also provides you a TripAdvisor rating and the number of reviews the hotel has.(Yippee!)
Now go to Tripadvisor.com and enter the hotel name that you have previously guessed. Hotwire will show an approximate number of reviews the hotel has. Just make sure the number of reviews on TripAdvisor and Hotwire matches up and you should have a 99.99% chance of getting the hotel. (I.e. Don’t ask me for a refund if this doesn’t work.)
2) Protection Is Unnecessary (Well…Not This Protection Anyway)
Hotwire has a new feature called Trip Protection. The protection protects your Non-Refundable booking against unexpected events such as medical emergencies, strikes, natural disasters and bad weather. From what I have seen, the approximate cost is about 10% of your booking. It is also highly unlikely that you will even use this protection. For its cost, you are better getting travel insurance from an insurance provider.
3) Get Starwood Preferred Guest For Free Upgrades
Starwood Preferred Guest is like a frequent flyer miles for hotels. Hotwire does not earn you points when you book a Starwood hotel through them but when you check in, sometimes the hotel will upgrade you for free if you tell them that you are a Starwood preferred guest. The membership is free so go ahead and register here.
4) Timing Is Everything
Hotwire changes their prices frequently. It has been reported that new users get a slightly better rate than returning users. ($10 at most) So if you are looking to book a hotel, clear your cookies from your web browser first before going to hotwires website.
Hotwire also has a useful chart to check when the hotels are the cheapest. In some months, hotels in an area will be 50% cheaper than their peak period.
In General, when booking a hotel, booking earlier is almost always cheaper.
5) Caveats About Hotwire
Hotwire is not the hotels’ website so they don’t really know and can’t control which room the hotel gives you when you check in. This is true even though they ask for how many people are coming with you; they do not confirm that the number of beds the hotel gives you on check in is appropriate. What they suggest you to do is that you call the hotel once you have made your reservation and quote your confirmation code, then give them your details of the number of beds required, whether you want a smoking or non smoking room and any other features you care about.
6) Pick Up The Phone And Call Directly
Compare prices on Hotwire, Tripadvisor.com, and the hotel’s website before booking. It has been reported that the hotels sometimes have promotions that make booking through the hotel itself cheaper. Also if you don’t book through hotwire, you can still cancel your reservation later on without a penalty.
Also Hotwire’s retail price is way off…so take that with a large pinch of sodium.
And if you have already made your purchase, you can ask for a refund within 24 hours of booking if you find a price that is cheaper online. You do have to screenshot and save this for proof.
7) Prices Are Higher Than Priceline
Hotwire prices are about 20-30% more expensive than Priceline. However for Priceline you have to spend time bidding for the hotel. Everytime you bid and do not receive a winning bid, you cannot rebid in 24 hours so you will need a few days to try to get the 20%-30% discount. This might mean that the hotel room might be sold while you are waiting to rebid. So if you are a patient man, go with Priceline.com(It’s fun too!)
Book Hotels With At Least 3.5 Stars
Hotwire gives you the most savings if you use it to book for hotels that are better than 3.5 starts. Anything lower than that and the savings become marginal and you are better booking through the hotel itself. Don’t expect Motel 6 pricing on Hotwire. Plus it is well know that Hotwire’s star rating is not entirely industry standard. Check the Tripadvisor rating and google the hotel after you have obtained the name from tip #1.
9) Check To See If The Hotel Double Charged You After You Leave The Hotel.
I am hoping this doesn’t happen to you but hotels can make mistakes. They might have missed that you already paid on Hotwire and they will still charge you again. Just make sure you look at your credit card statement. If this happens, call the hotel instead of hotwire. If that doens’t works then call Hotwire.
10) Check Out These 2 Sites
biddingfortravel.com
betterbidding.com
So there is the 10 tips I promised. I haven’t checked into my hotel yet so I will update you guys later on my experience. I just hope I do not get a “special room”
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Location: Sunnyvale, CA Time Sunday Apr 27th 2008. 1230pm
So I was out running on saturday and I was this great looking yet rare part of a rainbow in the sky. I guess there must be some refraction theory behind it…I wished I had a better camera to use as a wall paper but since I was out running, my Ipaq 6828 will have to suffice
A closer look at the streak of cloud
Doing a search for “Rainbow in the clouds” led me to this National Geographic article which unsuprisingly had a much better picture than mine
a href=”http://zhouwenhan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/060619-rainbow-fire_big.jpg”>
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html June 19, 2006—It looks like a rainbow that’s been set on fire, but this phenomenon is as cold as ice. Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border (map of Idaho). The arc isn’t a rainbow in the traditional sense—it is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What’s more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground. When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. If a cirrus’s crystals are aligned just right, the whole cloud lights up in a spectrum of colors. This particular arc spanned several hundred square miles of sky and lasted for about an hour, according to the London Daily Mail.
A Youtube Video of a rainbow in the cloud. Taken in Singapore! My hometown! what a coincidence
Written by Varshaa Negi from NUSSU Hooked
Have we become self obsessed? Has it become all about our happiness? I don’t think so. The most rewarding thing, even today, is to see someone you care about happy. Here are ten ways how one can contribute to increase the happiness of the world around.
10. Appreciate people. Make each day special for them. All it takes is for you to compliment their new hairstyle, that day’s attire or just their pretty smile. Yes, everyone has a pretty smile.
9. Crack a joke in the middle of a tense situation. Easing an uptight situation can be the biggest support one can show to others.
8. Be a good listener. Let people complete their conversation. Speech maybe silver, but silence is golden.
7. Do not keep others waiting. Acknowledge the person’s value. Just being on time for a meeting, get together, party or dinner can make someone’s day. On the contrary, the failure to do so can break someone’s enthusiasm towards the following event.
6. Use the 3 magic words – Please, Sorry and Thank you – these are capable of metamorphosing any difficult situation.
5. Be the ice-breaker. Be it between common friends or your own friend and yourself. The problem understood is the equivalent to the problem solved.
4. Give a big teddy hug to people who deserve it and the people who need it. You will be surprised by the kind of wound a hug can heal.
3. Go out of your way to help others. Reach out a little from your comfort zone, and you might just be helping someone find his/her meaning in life.
2. Be generous with your praise. If they’ve done well, be quick to give them a pat on the back, so that they will know what they have done right! Besides, it will definitely lift their spirits, even at work!
1. Keep yourself happy. Enjoy life and smile often. If you look closely, there’s a lot to smile about in life. So smile, and then you can spread the joy. hooked
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I recently completed reading this book. It is an interesting and contempory book about network. Inside there is a section on becoming an expert in any field that you choose. I have summarized the points here.
1) Get out in front and analyze the trends and opportunities on the cutting edge
-Get to know the people who form the next big idea
-Read niche online forums, materials that might go big
2) Ask seemingly stupid questions
-This tip is pretty similar to a previous post I wrote before.Top 10 Surefire Ways To Come Up With A Million Dollar Idea
3) Know yourself and your talents
Cultivate strength and use the 80/20 rule to reduce your weakness
4) Always learn
Books, conference, educational session
5) Stay healthy by
- Physical – daily exercise
- Mental – vacations, spiritual retreat
6) Expose yourself to unusual experiences
- Different experiences give rise to different tools leading to different questions
7) Don’t get discouraged
Know the new technology
9) Develop a niche
- Find a small market that you can dominate. Being a big fish in a small pond is way better than being a small fish in a big pond
10) Follow the money
Where money is or going to be, there is bound to be interest. If you develop yourself as an expert in that field, you get instant creditability.
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Hi, It has been a long time since I did a blog carnival. There were lots of entries to the blog carnival this edition. I have grouped them into Blogging, Tech, Personal Improvement, Movies and Others.
Blogging
Tech
Personal Improvement
Movies
Other kind of interesting stuff
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As a Singaporean whom just moved here 3 weeks ago, I came some cultural adjustments to make. Coming into a different culture really allowed me to see the differences in how envirnment can shapre people’s behaviour and actions. Here are just 10 thoughts that I just came up with.
1. The weather
No wonder this is just about the only place in the world where people can use the weather as a conversational topic. It is really cool and dry here. Even in the afternoons, the temperature is cooling provided you are not under direct sunlight. I finally understand how movie characters can wear suits without breaking a sweat here while chasing the world villain on a busy city street. On a more negative note, my lips cracked a lot for the first two weeks. Basically almost all the skin died and peeled off leading to a definetly unkissable and horrdenous looking pair of lips At least now after all my old skin has shed, I can say that I have normal looking lips for now.
2. Cars
One thing I dun get is the size of the cars here. Why don’t everyone just drive a coupe. Why SUVs, monster trucks and MPVs? A 4 door will suffice for a family car right? No wonder oil is a big issue in the states. Also I pretty much detest what I called the driver’s handicap syndrome here. Everyone drives. Every building is spread out so far, walking becomes unviable and driving is the thing to do. It contributes to the bulk of Americans and also to the carbon emissions problem that our earth has. However I would like to say that in mountain view, I see a lot more bikers cycling to and fro work. I am still looking for a bike that I can use though.
3. Toilets
My first day here and I was urgently in need of a restroom. Yes toilets are called restrooms here. Why? Because you can really take a rest on a comfortable plush chair in the restroom. Why anyone would actually want to do that confounds me. Anyway I was at a bank and I needed a toilet. To my dismay, the toilets are employees only. So I walked out of the bank thinking that the next building has a toilet…hmm….round this corner….into another mutual bank…..asked a security guard…he said 4 blocks down…what!!! Ya…then it hit me that if you are at an unfamiliar place, getting to a toilet is pretty hard as shopping centers are pretty rare here and you have to drive to them.
4. Food Size
Ha, I was surprised that fast food here is actually normal sized. What isn’t normal sized is the Chinese/viet/western food stores. It’s a bit daunting to see like lunch and dinner on the same plate. But I have gotten used to taking half home for dinner or breakfast anyway. I guess this is probably why the “you can have anything you want, but only half of it” diet can only work in the US.
5.People
Hmm…Sunnyvale is pretty much like Singapore in this aspect. You see the occasional Caucasian. But mostly it is Mexican and Asian dominated area. (Side joke: UCLA=University of California (Los Angeles) or = University of Caucasian Lost in Asian)
6. Houses
Right so everyone has a big house. Although being the suburban area, real estate prices here are still almost the highest in the United States. House hunting was quite an experience. Looking at houses and thinking if it could fit 8 people was our primary consideration. Then after that came the neighborhood itself. Some places were obvious that it was a bad place to live in. if you see fenced gardens with dead grass and old rusty cars parked by the roadsides, you know it is time to turn around and get out of the neighbourhood.
7. Gardens
Speaking of gardens, did I mention that the gardens here can rival Singapore’s garden city label? The gardens here are really really pretty..Even the average garden has blooming flowers, squirreling squirrels, well kept patios and tall trees. It is a pretty sight when you drive down the neighborhood. However all this comes at a cost. Sprinklers are automated and critical for the survival of the garden. Given that it doesn’t rain much here and people are too busy to water their gardens, everyone has a sprinkler system that turns on near sunset. A lot of water is being used just to keep all the plants alive.
8. Running
I love running in this weather. There is no way I could break into sweat because the weather is too cooling and dry to sweat. But the throat gets quite dry when you run past a certain point. The moisture in your throat starts to wear off and you get a striking pain in your vocal cords. Sort of like a sore throat. I guess it is alright as long as I drink more water before I run.
9. Work
Work here is pretty good. I have got a pretty good boss. There are also multiple events that allow you to network and meet new people. Here it seems that everyone does attend a few events and everyone has some sort of networking experience. This is unlike Singapore where only a small segment of the population does networking. I guess the academic and high tech nature of Silicon Valley does affect how people treat networking as part of working and extending your social life.
10. Living in a shared household.
Living together with housemates is a pretty interesting experience. Most interesting is probably how billmonk has become part of our vocabulary. Billmonk is a expense record keeping website (www.billmonk.com) that allows you to bill your friends. It is an interesting concept that is probably only workable in the States and Europe. In Asian countries where living with parents is so much more common than sharing accommodation with friends, you don’t really need to split your expense with your mom and pop.
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Everybody says that health is the most important thing. But a little bit of luck could do more. Many victims of earthquakes or airplane crashes can be very healthy, indeed…
Psychologists say that a certain type of behavior favors luck. Others say that luck is by the side of those who take their chances. The next tips are given by psychologists:
1. Imagine that luck is on your side. You have to behave in such a manner as if you expected only good things to happen to you every day, not just from time to time. Optimism is the key.
“If you’re convinced that you’re a lucky person, you will have a behavior which will determine those around you to be more receptive with your person,” said Martin Seligman, Psychology Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
2. Try to control your negative emotions. Shyness, fury and resentments turn people against us. How to oppress them? First,
look for the cause of those emotions, in order to stop them before they control you. If you succeed, you’ll have a better
opinion about yourself, you’ll be more optimistic and more extroverted.
Change the way you see difficult colleagues: “X is very good at her job, even if she is short-tempered.”
b We don’t know what will happen, but we can improve our chance by training, putting more trust in people and in the fact that good things will happen to us due to this.
For instance, some do not share their ideas with their workmates fearing that their ideas will be stolen. But if you keep amazing ideas just for yourself, they won’t be good for anybody. It is honest people that are actually appreciated.
4. Manage expectations. Set clear and realistic goals with your colleagues and clients, but be prepared: these can change. If demands overwhelm you and timescales become unrealistic, deal with the situation. Communicate your worries to your team.
5. Do not believe the world is yours. You won’t be luckier if you stay home. If you’re invited to certain events, enjoy the moments. Exploiting them, you can improve your luck. Be always ready, be prepared to make mistakes.
We will gain more by learning than if we stay isolated or we are not interested in what’s going around.
6. Find an escape. Go to the movies or gym, retreat to the country; shifting your focus brings mental and physical relief. You’ll come back with a fresh perspective, ready to tackle your problems.
7. Take charge. Worrying can keep you alert, but wallowing is pointless. Accept what you can’t do and get on with what you are capable of. Don’t panic when everything seems to have gone wrong. Talk to people. Sharing your concerns with colleagues who’ve been through the same experiences will offer you insight and coping strategies, decreasing anxiety.
8. Do not envy the others. Those that obsessively compare their life with the others end up being unhappy. For instance, if you’re obsessed with the fact that somebody was promoted at the office, you will feel like a loser.
Nothing guarantees that the person is happy. In most cases, promotions bring about more headaches. What’s ideal for others is not necessarily for you, too. Just focus on your own goals and desires.
9. The more people you know, the more pleasant and prone to luck you are. Why? Because if we interact with powerful people they can share some information and introduce you to important persons.
Many feel it is complicated to make friendships with such people and prefer staying home and party with close friends. It is actually much easier to keep in touch with such people, through e-mails or postcards sent on certain occasions.
The more people you know, the more opportunities you will have.
10. See the good part of the things. To be lucky, you should look at the past from a positive angle and at the present with optimism. People that pretend they’re lucky remember more often the good experiences in their life than the bad ones.
If something bad happens to them, they compare it with their worst situation from which they managed to come out winning.
By: Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Top-10-Secrets-of-the-Lucky-People-62622.shtml
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