The Swedish Pirate Party (Piratpartiet), a political party whose main platforms include copyright and patent reform, have recently taken their efforts one step further and have launched an ISP (internet service provider). Dubbed “Pirate ISP,” the service seeks to offer anonymity to its users and to provide financial assistance to Piratpartiet.

Born out of the controversy surrounding the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, Pirate ISP was deemed necessary to ensure that competition flourished in the Swedish ISP market and that users who wished to file-share would be protected against the efforts of the Swedish anti-piracy lobby group, Svenska Antipiratbyrån. The piracy topic has been a hot-button issue in Sweden over the past several years, stemming from the popularity of The Pirate Bay as a source for copyrighted material. Because of the growth of the website, the United States government, along with trade associations the MPAA and the RIAA, have pressured Sweden and their ISPs to take action against file-sharing. This resulted  in the 2006 raid of the website’s Stockholm location by Swedish police, which put the site offline for three days.

The issue of file-sharing is not just a heated matter for Sweden, however. Various countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia (among others) have adopted their own political parties in order to attempt reform of copyright and patent law. According to the Swedish Pirate Party’s website, “The Pirate Party wants to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected. With this agenda, and only this, we are making a bid for representation in the European and Swedish parliaments.”

So it seems this isn’t just about being able to get free stuff on the internet, but about policy reform and privacy. Many would argue that copyright has been perverted over the years, through abuse from large corporations. In addition, the market for internet service providers has become a near-monopoly in most countries and freedom of choice has been severely limited not only by lack of infrastructure, but also lobbying efforts on the parts of major telecom companies who posses a stranglehold on the market in many cities.

Personally, I would welcome this kind of change to our system in the United States if for nothing more than open debate of the issues, something we as a country are severely lacking.

It is the end of your second semester and first year of your private university. You have this pile of $1000 worth of textbooks sitting in your basement, untouched, unscathed. What do you do?

You learned from first semester that you CAN actually get $.25 back for a book. (Yes this ACTUALLY happened to ME). At this point, something has got to give, so  you explore your options. Then, BING! Amazon.com becomes your new best friend.

Here is how it works: you create a selller profile by first establishing  a seller name. Here are some suggestions (of course you have to chose a unique name that is not already is use!):

• Wildcat Booksellers
• Textbook Trader
• ABC Textbooks
• Reliable Reads
• TextRex

Next, you decide what you want to sell, which in this case is textbooks. You then search for the textbook by ISBN number or Title to see if it is already listed in Amazon’s catolog. If and when you find your book, you select it and then enter the condition, condition notes and price of your book. Here are few tips when completing the aforementioned:

• Be honest about the the condition. Even if the book was only used by you twice, and you barely shuffled the pages, is it still a USED book but would qualify as Like New.
• If there is writing inside, state that in the condition notes. Buyers look for as much specific details as possible.
• For pricing, be realistic. Are you looking to make back the origional cost of your textbooks or just make some cash back quick? In order to sell your items fast…I would open up a separate window and run an independent search on your book. If it is a used book, find  the lowest price of that book used and price yours just below it. This means if the lowest listed price is $94.00, you can charge $93.00-$93.99 because it will be still be under $94.00 and users will likely look at this one first.
  • Just another persoanal note, I listed my textbooks this summer and within two days I had 2 sold using the above strategies including pricing.

Before you seal the deal, make sure you read and agree to the terms and conditions about Amazon’s comissions and shipping credits. Also, do not forget to privide proper account information for payment.

Overall, Amazon offers a secure and popular place to sell items, new or used. Thus far, I have no complaints as a buyer or as a seller!

Keep in mind that textbooks are not the only thing that Amazon sells! Check this out for more information: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZSOAMakeMAmznServ#showTab

For those who don’t know, Reddit is a social news website that was launched back in 2005. The website operates in the vein of sites like Digg, where users are able to submit stories and either vote them up (to the front page) or vote them down (to oblivion). The aim is to have the best and most interesting stories appearing on the main page.

I have been a follower of Reddit for many years now. Even though the website is owned by Condé Nast Publications, it always struck me as a less-commercial (and slightly more mature) Digg. So imagine my surprise when I saw this post on their blog today. It describes the pains of four folks running a website that garners millions of hits daily with very little in the way of a budget, and what they hope to do to fix the problem.

The more interesting part of this isn’t the Reddit blog post itself, but the comments section’s first post. A poster in their mid-twenties by the name of Nodex is proclaiming that he (or she) wants to buy Reddit and has the funds to do so. Of course, many posters laughed at the offer. “This guy seems legit,” and “Are you from Nigeria?” were two such posts that questioned the legitimacy of the offer. But not everyone was as skeptical; Reddit administrator Jedberg replied to the post, requesting proof that Nodex was indeed serious about the offer. From there, the public conversation stopped and we could only assume that discussions were taking place behind the curtain.

What would it mean for Reddit as a brilliant source of news if it were to be bought? As we’ve seen before, when Reddit was purchased by Condé Nast in 2006, not a whole lot. The only thing that really changed was the footer of the site, and who really pays attention to that anyway? It’s likely, however, that Reddit would gain more speed and stability. That is, of course, if Nodex does have the funds and is serious about providing the website with the budget to function on a large scale.

I’ve emailed the Reddit administrators for comment, but as of yet have not received word back on whether or not there are actual dealings to purchase the site beyond those in the comments. I’ll be keeping an eye on this story and if it develops, I’ll post an update.

Ever feel overwhelmed with all of the options on the internet? After all, it is called the World Wide Web for a reason! Recently, I came a across a very helpful site that did all of the sorting for me. The site is called All My Faves: http://www.allmyfaves.com/.

All My Faves brands themselves as “the ultimate homepage”, which proves to be an accurate title. Whether you are looking for an educational blog or some tips on planning your wedding, All My Faves brings you the best of the best, the cream of the crop. All My Faves showcases one-stop shopping, both literally and figuratively, at its best. For example, if I was planning my wedding today, using all my faves in a matter of seconds I could find:

• Wedding dress
• Invitations
• Bridal registries (Target, Bed Bath and Beyond)
• Wedding rings
• Honeymoon
• Bridesmaid dresses
• Centerpieces/wedding décor
• Hair styles

Here are some of the sites that All My Faves has listed under Wedding’s Faves:

All My Faves offers a unique approach to searching and it presents itself with unique choices made with customers in mind. Companies with this kind of personal touch, understanding that customers live a very busy and often demanding life, earn a gold star in my book.

On the other hand, from an entrepreneurial perspective, All My Faves provides an excellent resource for startups/small businesses. Start-ups can use this site to research and network with people with similar ideas and similar goals. It is also a great place for businesses to get featured! It is clearly an honor to be selected by All My Faves for their “ultimate homepage”.

Whatever your reason may be for visiting All My Faves , it will certainly be a pleasant and efficient experience!

When I used to think of marketing, I thought of brochures, business cards, signs, paper advertisements and person-to-person sales. Now, with the evolution of technology has revolutionized the way we market.

Marketing today is not the same it was even a year ago. Where I used to look for ads in newspapers, I look for ads online. Most of the time, the online sales at, Macy’s for example, offer a better selection and sale prices than in stores. It is also all about convenience.

If you are a small business looking to immerse yourself in era of the internet here are a few tips:

1. Step one: create your logo and your slogan. Together, these serve as the building blocks for your marketing.
2. Develop your website entirely before you market it. Do not send users to a website that says coming soon! It will discourage users to return to the site. Make sure your site its completely user friendly and one that users feel is secure. Make users feel like navigation of and purchase from your website is as simple as 1, 2, 3.
3. If you are a Twitter supporter… you must put forth a dedicated effort to keep up with it and provide informational and frequent tweets. Do your research. Learn how to get followed and how not to. It is very easy to get carried away with hash tags (i.e. #study, #tech, #gadget…). Beware of being a spammer. Before you tweet look at your message with a critical eye. Also, make sure you target the right market/people to follow. Don’t just base your decision on a search for key hash tags. Be thorough, research the potential candidate for your product further by seeing whom they follow and who is following them. Additionally, go back in time a bit and see what keywords were previously tweeted.
4. A key thing to get users to your page is an unbiased blog. Provide free, informational and professional advice. For example, if your website is about fitness, offer site visitors free access to “Free Fitness Facts”; maybe a post written by a regular at the gym or an ex-personal trainer. Mention little or nothing about your specific product offered; if users like what they read, they will navigate back to your home site.

I have a busy life.  I am sure it is no busier than many people, but for me it is constant movement.  I work afternoons with weird days off and no real set duty hours.  When I am home, I love to spend time with my baby girl.  And in the few hours of free-time I get each week, I like to write.  There is very little time for me to get my usual Christian education.  Thankfully, there are a few sites to help with this.

First, I want to say there are millions of religious sites out there for those who want to learn more or get connected with others in their own faith.  If you are into cars, there are Christian car websites out there for you to enjoy.  For example, I am a big fan of everything involved with martial arts.  A good friend of mine has a quickly growing ministry mixing MMA and Christianity.  It is at www.anointedfighter.com.

I even go to a small hobby site where I like to share my thoughts every now and then.  It is www.inspiretomorrow.com. Check with your church to see if they have a website.  Many pastors are now putting messages online and joining community websites.  I love connecting with people in Asia and Europe and even Australia.  It is pretty interesting to learn the different views that each culture lends to the same teachings.

For those who don’t have time to read lengthy articles, there are options for you too.  Twitter has been a great asset to me when I am short on time.  While I am standing in line somewhere, I pull out my phone and check in on a few people who really inspire me.  It is great to get that quick word in that often sticks with me all day.

There are probably even tons of other options out there that I am not aware of at all.  If you know of any other great sites or ways to get connected electronically, I am interested.  Leave them in the comments below…

You probably saw when Google had Pac-Man on their homepage in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game. Okay, so you saw it; did you play it too? I thankfully did not get too invested in the game and probably played for about 10 seconds before my boss rounded the corner, but some people played for hours. Do you know how much time was “wasted” due to this game last week?

Five million hours– that’s right, five million. This, of course, is an estimate from companies that use a time-tracking software. This software, used at companies such as Rescue Time (a software firm), observes where workers go online and for how long. Apparently, the average Google search is 11 seconds long and most people conduct about 22 searches a day. However, when Google put Pac-Man up, that average length went to 36 seconds! Doing some extrapolating and assuming that there are about 500+ million users who use Google on a daily basis, then that is about 5 million hours of “Google’ing”! Putting that into more of a perspective for you, 5 million hours is about 550 years! Translating this into a money value, this 5 million hours of work equates to $100 million if you use a $20/hour salary!

Marcin Wichary and Ryan Germick are the Googlers who are responsible for this Pac-Man Doodle. It is the first interactive Doodle ever created by Google, and it probably won’t be the last. It was also pretty close to the original version of Pac-Man; this made it even better! To play you had to click the “Insert Coin” button that is usually the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. You then controlled Pac-Man by using the arrow keys. You could even swipe using your iPhone or Android! To make things even better, the Doodle makers inserted some fun things in the game. One was that you could tap the “insert Coin” button a few times and then Ms. Pac-Man would show up for some two-player fun. Also, if you managed to get to level 256, you would be greeted by the infamous killscreen. Fun huh?

To play the Doodle Pac-Man, click here!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s official.  It has been known that Apple wouldn’t be including Flash on the iPad for a little while, but now we have a better knowledge of why…

In my opinion, the whole mess is a rather complicated ‘he said, she said” mess.  Is either company truly correct?  NO!  Both companies are doing the classic “blame someone else and cover my %@$!”  So, here is what I have collected on the situation.

Adobe’s Flash isn’t on the iPad because, Steve Jobs apparently told employees that Flash would soon be made obsolete by HTML5, and that it’s too buggy, obviating the need for it in the iPad.  He, at another point, stated that Flash is “buggy”.

In retaliation, Adobe released some information to Cult of Mac, the same site to whom Apple also releases a lot of their info.  “It’s pretty clear if you connect the dots: the issue is about revenue,” says Adrian Ludwig, an Adobe group product manager for Flash, during an interview with Cult of Mac.  He said that Flash isn’t buggy, crash-prone (another of Steve Jobs complaints), and doesn’t strain battery life.  There is no technical reason for Flash not to be on the iPad or iPhone, says Ludwig.  “We’ve been seeing great performance on similar devices,” he said. “The hardware is very capable.”

Now…if Flash was on the iPad, you could go on sites like Hulu for TV and game sites for games instead of buying them from iTunes, thus reducing Apple’s sales (on each of which, Apple makes a 30% profit).

“Apple has eliminated any way to get content on the device that they don’t own,” said Ludwig. “Apple is keeping the device closed to protect their revenue streams.  We’re not the only one, Flash is what people are focused on but it’s not just Flash that’s not working. They’ve blocked a whole lot more than that… It’s a universal restriction.  We’re trying to raise the issue.  We’re talking about long-term damage to the development environment. We’re just the poster child for this.”

So, is Flash buggy, or does it just reduce Apple’s 30% profit?

While this blog typically focuses on new technology and cool new gadgets, I think that every technology loving person should know about the fun website that is Woot. If you are reading this article, you probably already know what Woot.com is, but for those of you who do not know about the wonderful world of Woot.com, read on!

Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It used to focus solely on technology and electronics, and it still does, but there are some days when they will sell a funny t-shirt or something along the lines of that.

What is it? Well, at Woot.com they pick one nifty item per day and sell it for the whole day or until it is sold out. This one item is released at midnight, and disappears at 11:59pm every day. Once the item’s day has passed, you can no longer buy it from Woot.com. They sell the items at a really cheap price and strictly are selling the item for a day.

You can tell that Woot.com is a pretty “geeky” website based on the way they present their site. For instance, the FAQ is titled “woot faq: a discussion of ill-advised efficiencies, failed idealism, and trampled dreams.” Their tone throughout their website is blunt but humorous. For instance, in one of the FAQs that asks about receiving customer support, they write that you probably will not receive the support that you want and that, “If you buy something you don’t end up liking or you have what marketing people call “buyer’s remorse,” sell it on eBay. It’s likely you’ll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn’t work, find out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it’s probably your fault. Google your problem.”

As you can tell, they are pretty down to earth and are just “doing their thing.” The things that are sold on Woot.com aren’t exactly supposed to be useful pieces of technology. However, there is a chance that today’s Woot.com may be something that you really don’t need but think you should have for the fun of it and because you can “always use one of those in the house”. In that case, Woot.com probably will offer you the best price you will ever get for this item.

It takes less than a minute a day to check out and discover what may be your new favorite toy!

In my, opinion, many people buy iPods, not because of capabilities, but because of the name.  There are many equal, but under loved competitors.

Let’s talk about the biggest, but still relatively unknown competitor, Microsoft’s Zune.  The Zune is a digital audio player produced by Microsoft. The line also includes Zune software and the Zune Marketplace services sold by Microsoft, which provide online music, video, and podcast downloads.  The Zune 30, the first generation Zune music player, has a 30 GB hard drive, 3” screen, and simple directional pad for menu navigation.  The second generation set of Zunes includes the Zune 4, 8, 16, 80 and 120.  The Zune 4, 8 and 16 are smaller in size and hold 4, 8 and 16GB of flash memory, in the same order. The Zune 80 and 120 are replacements for the Zune 30, as they are thinner and lighter than the original.  The Zune HD was confirmed for release in fall 2009 by Microsoft.  This will be Microsoft’s version of the iPod touch.

One of the best features of the Zune is the Zune Marketplace.  The Zune Marketplace is an online music, video and podcast store , equivalent to iTunes.  Purchases are made through Microsoft Points, in which users prepay $5.00 for 400 points that can be applied to downloads at 79 points per song.  As an alternative to Microsoft Points, the Zune Pass is a subscription service that allows users to pay a flat monthly fee of $14.99 . Zune Pass subscribers can download unlimited music from the Zune Marketplace, but this music will be lost when the pass runs out.  However, you can keep ten songs a month.  You can sync this info wirelessly.  Unfortunately, you need Windows Vista or XP to use a Zune.

The Zune also can play music though an Xbox 360 and create play lists for gaming.   More features supposedly are coming to the Xbox.

So, what are you waiting for? Think outside the box!