zedomax.com » Business

Got a lot of bottle

David Allen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:00:37 +0000

This is the sort of thing that would expect Homer to come bungling in a drink the lot. If that did happen, the owners of the world most expensive bottle of beer would not to be too pleased at all.

At $1,200 per bottle, it would be surprise at all.

The 12-litre bottle of Vieille Bon Secours ale has been in storage for the last ten years and should now have an alcoholic volume of around eight per cent.

It is not a rare beer, just expensive and yet some bars are reporting of some people buying two or three bottles of the stuff!

Source [Telegraph]

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Got a lot of bottle

Recession Hack – How to Sue and Make Money from Evil Telemarketers!

max — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00:08 +0000

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Remember I did a blog post on how to shut down telemarketers? Well, I found out there’s actually a way you can “sue” and make money from those evil telemarketers who don’t comply to the U.S. law. (probably won’t work in other countries by the way)

Watch the above video to learn how and believe me, this could be something you could do to make some good money and rob those telemarketers from growing their evil empire.

Also, you can report any numbers to FCC and put yourself on do-not-call registry, which makes it illegal for telemarketers to ever call you again. If they do, record the conversation, phone numbers and SUE them for free money!

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Recession Hack – How to Sue and Make Money from Evil Telemarketers!

Money Hack – How to Deal with Debt Settlement Services!

max — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:31:35 +0000

Frankly, I used to be very broke about 2 years ago when I was barely trying to be independent with my blogging business. Gladly, I never had to get a job after I got to a point where I was making enough money with blogging. Well, during those times, literally hundreds of debt resolution services called me on a daily basis. I always turned them down because what they “don’t” tell you is that having your debts settled with the credit card companies WILL LOWER YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

Of course, if you owe like more than $100,000 AND you have no way of paying them back EVER AND your interests are higher than $1000 a month, THEN you might want to really settle your debt by yourself (remember, credit card companies are always willing to negotiate if you talk to the managers, especially if you tell them there’s no way you can pay them back) or use one of the debt settlement services.

My credit score is still bad because I had about 6 months of straight late payments or no-payments due to the fact that I was trying to barely get by month to month but in the end, I found a way to pay them back. (and I am STILL paying) I won’t regret my decision though, freedom I have now for that risk is greater than any money can pay for, blogging for a living.

Anyways, there’s also a good book Debt Cures you can read up on that shows you how to negotiate with credit card companies yourself, lower your APRs, and more.

Remember, credit cards are great to use to build your credit. I am not saying not to use your credit cards, just keep a good balance check on a weekly basis so you are only spending as much as you can pay.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Money Hack – How to Deal with Debt Settlement Services!

Paper DIY – How to Make Cool Notepads!

max — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:33:47 +0000

Even with the creation of new gadgets such as touchscreen laptops and smartphones, I can still appreciate the use of physical notepads and I usually will opt to use them over my electronic counterparts as they give me more creative powers with out all the electromagnetic radiation from LCD displays. When I make new business plans for new blogs, I make sure to use my trusty, physical notepad, not my computer.

Anyways, I am always looking for cool notepads but here’s a great guide on how to make cool notepads yourself from scratch.

But there are moments in life when the prosaic pressed-pulp appeal of proper paper is preferred.

For those particular purposes, we proudly present these paper pads, complete with pictures on the cover.

Fabricate a few fetching folios with photos of your friends, or pair them with pencils to make pleasant presents!

via lifehacker

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Paper DIY – How to Make Cool Notepads!

Phone DIY – How to Shut Down Telemarketers and Stop Them From Calling You Permanently!

max — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:41:16 +0000

Recently, telemarketers from this number 6169801367, have been calling me constantly, like 30 times per day! The worst part is that it’s an automated message selling some kind of debt solution. When I talked to the operator and ask them to stop the calls, she just hangs up on me.

Anyways, I got a great tip from Jason that you can actually file a complaint with FCC, a simple form you can fill out. FCC will go after these companies and shut them down “permanently”.

Don’t let these scammy telemarketers get away with calling you bunch of times a day, wasting your time.

Also, you can see this blog post on how to stop text-messaging spam on your cellphone.

(Image Credit)

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Phone DIY – How to Shut Down Telemarketers and Stop Them From Calling You Permanently!

Business DIY – How to Think Out of the Box!

max — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:26:07 +0000

Well, I’ve done a bunch of blog posts over on my Zedomax.Biz blog over the last couple months, here’s some of the best ones showing you “how to think out of the box”:
(This might go contrary to many traditional beliefs out there because they are all mine, hence “think out of the box“)

Don’t Be Afraid to Fail – This blog post outlines why you should never fear failure. In fact, failure is the only thing that drives real successes.

Getting C’s in School will get you Ahead as an Entrepreneur! – Grades in school are probably the most overrated factor for success as an entrepreneur, I outline how it applied to my blogging business and how it can to yours.

How to Go All In! – Going All-In may decide whether you succeed or fail in life and business. See how I went “ALL-IN” and succeeded while I failed when I didn’t risk anything. “Risk nothing and you gain nothing.”

Blogging is about Passion and Dedication – See how I spend my free time blogging without actually blogging.

How to Make Viral YouTube videos – YouTube is actually on the rise contrary to what some people are saying. Google isn’t losing money, they are smart, why would they spend billions on YouTube. (because it’s just started, duh!)

My Ideal Business Plan – How I made $10 online as a 9 year old before internet even existed and my ideal business plan for pain-free business.

How to answer negative comments on your Blog – Learn how easy it is to answer those negative pessimists in simple 2 words.

The Korean “Suicide” Strategy – This one is a good story for learning how killing yourself might be the only way for you to actually “survive”.

Google’s Ultimate Secret – Discover why Google is ahead of the competition and why no one else can catch up because the secret is too simple to realize.

Nick Vujicic is my hero.

How to Slow Down and Get More Work Done! – This one is for all you busy peeps, don’t get busy for nothing.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Business DIY – How to Think Out of the Box!

FRAUD ALERT FOR BUSINESS OWNERS – Business Filings Division Scam!

max — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:26:35 +0000

There’s a lot of scam companies out there but today I was about to send a $239 check to the State of California and upon closer inspection, found a “clearly” scam/fraud company.

I just wanted to get the word out to other business owners who might receive similar letter from this scam company, they could be literally making millions of dollars from unsuspecting business owners and corporations.

Great Idea – Incomplete Ad with Rest Sent Via your MMS!

max — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:51:22 +0000

@nishanjoomun just tweeted this cool ad where you get the rest of the “woman” via MMS. Now I wonder if there’s more than one version of this…hmmm…. Great viral ad campaign btw.

Interesting what you find on Twitter, follow me @zedomax and send me a tweet if you have tweet stuff like this as I will “blog” it.

You frustratingly look around the ad for an explanation and read:

To complete this ad send AXE to 2345 after 9 pm.

The moment the text is received, an MMS is sent to your mobile with the rest of the ad. Placed over the page, which of course you would do, suddenly makes you and the ad feel complete. Like I said, genius.

via thenextweb

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Great Idea – Incomplete Ad with Rest Sent Via your MMS!

iPhone Notebook – Notepods!

max — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:13:19 +0000

Here’s something new for you iPhone lovers, an iPhone notebook/notepad called Notepods! (@notepods) – via make, swissmiss

Three 60 x 110mm, 100pp Notepods printed on both sides. 80gsm laser throughout with a stiff black strawboard back.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

iPhone Notebook – Notepods!

PR DIY – How to Make Succeed Online by Making Everything “Relevant”!

max — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:12:42 +0000

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Here’s a short video explaining why “relevancy” is everything and that you cannot buy “relevancy”, you simply have to implement it in your online marketing strategies.

PR people, listen up, are your campaigns highly relevant? If it’s not, you might be losing millions of dollars for your clients/company.

For years, I’ve been guilty of not promoting “relevant” stuff within my blog network. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize this, just some clear thinking. Enjoy~

Relevancy is the key to success in any online business. Whether you sell potato chips online or provide content on your blogs, being “relevant” in anything you do online makes you stronger, bigger, and better.

via zbiz blog

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

PR DIY – How to Make Succeed Online by Making Everything “Relevant”!

Business DIY – How to Build a Brand that Consumers will Trust!

max — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:32:26 +0000

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

It’s 2:28AM again and I am still blogging. Yes, it’s a Saturday night and I am blogging! (I know I am crazy about blogging but then, what else does a blogger do other than blog at 2:28AM on a Saturday?)

Anyways, I did a short video of how to build a brand that consumers will trust over at my .biz video.

The solution is pretty simple, that you use your common sense and “be honest”.

People like honest products, it’s as simple as that. When customers trust your company, they will buy your products because not only they believe your company’s philosophy, the product looks even better because of it.

Well, I am ranting here, I should really head to sleep as I’ve got some really big projects to do this week. C YA!

In this example, KettleChips explains on the back of their potato chip bag, that KettleChips is made from all natural ingredients and they help sustain the environment through good causes. I like that idea, it makes me want to eat more of these chips. (and I have about 3-5 bags of these on a regular basis)

via zedomax.biz

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Business DIY – How to Build a Brand that Consumers will Trust!

Seth The Blogger Guy Responds, My Response Seth

max — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:39:58 +0000

Yesterday, I got sorta “peeved” because someone try to impersonate a “blogger guy”.

Anyways, Seth Bloom has just sent this e-mail to me:

Hey there,

Saw the post – happy to talk more about the program. I get most of what you’re saying…but I do want to make sure you understand the title – and I’m concerned that readers will get the impression from the post that our videos are less then genuine. We started these videos as a way to communicate directly and interact with our customers…mostly as part of our conversations on Facebook and other social media sites. Sometimes bloggers find the content compelling (like handset unboxings, a walk-thru of a new iPhone app, etc.) and embed…and sometimes they just live on our sites.

When I started doing videos for AT&T I explained that I was the guy who works with tech bloggers for AT&T – that’s what I do. (And a few posts – like MG’s TechCrunch post and Brian Chen’s Wired post make it clear that I do indeed work with them.)

Over time, that’s been shortened to “the blogger guy…”

Thanks for listening – hope there’s a way to clarify a bit so folks understand both who I am and why AT&T is making these videos for customers.

SB

Here’s my response Seth and AT&T:

I think your videos are not genuine because they are simply not genuine. If you are going to fool the world with a “blogger guy”, try hiring real blogger guys like me, who are working 24/7 to make a living online. I think it’s unfair that AT&T is sending out a message like it’s coming from a “real” blogger guy.

I do understand that you have worked with TechCrunch or Wired but that doesn’t shorten your title to, “the blogger guy”. Perhaps, you need to use phrases like, “I have worked with blogger guys like TechCrunch or Wired,” or otherwise, it’s very misleading. But definitely, you are not a “blogger guy” or even come to be like a blogger guy.

Let me tell you a story that almost every Korean knows about. In Korea, there’s a saying where “If you can see one thing wrong, everything else is probably wrong.”

Like the saying, the first sentence in AT&T’s video, “Hi there, I am Seth, the Blogger guy,” is a complete lie so I don’t have to tell you everything else on that video is probably not worth anyone’s time.

My honest wishes are that companies start taking “blogger guys” seriously and don’t try to impersonate blogger guys. With millions of dollar you’ve made by selling iPhones through deceptive marketing, you could have easily even paid money to real blogger guys to make your statements. There’s absolutely no reason I can think of right now that you need to impersonate a “group” of people. That’s almost like saying, “I am Asian and I like AT&T. You should buy one too.”

Look, I am a blogger guy and I am just really speaking my mind here. I really have nothing against Seth Bloom or AT&T other than they have not been truthful about their marketing tactics in the past. Most blogger guys speak what’s on their mind and that’s why people read/come back to blogs instead of reading newspapers or magazines.

For this:

…hope there’s a way to clarify a bit so folks understand both who I am and why AT&T is making these videos for customers.

I would ask Seth Bloom and AT&T to send out a retracting/apology statement for the things mentioned above. I speak my mind, this is an independent blog that speaks its mind, not concerned with money. I think that’s probably the first thing in order to keep the remaining of your customers from going to Verizon or Sprint. I am probably speaking out for other blogger guys out there here so I hope you understand the matter at hand, not just for me.

Perhaps no other blogger guys care but I do(and some of these guys do too), I will do whatever I can to make a change in the world. I NEVER GIVE UP.

Be truthful, be honest, be respectable and you shall be rewarded.

My final advice on your e-mail:

I’m concerned that readers will get the impression from the post that our videos are less then genuine.

Make your videos genuine and I will never have to make such negative blog posts about you or any companies you are affiliate with.

There’s a saying in Korean, “Don’t step on poop, you will get dirty,” I feel very dirty now. No more of this from now on.

Here’s a short video of what “the blogger guy” really means in plain English:

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

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Seth The Blogger Guy Responds, My Response Seth

Cloud Hack – How to Build a cheap Perabyte Cloud Server for under $120K!

max — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:34:05 +0000

Okay, I admit it, I am not an Apple fan boy, I am a linux fan boy, let’s forget about bad PR just for a minute here as I don’t really like getting mad anyways.

The BIG NEWS this week is that there’s a way to build a Perabyte (or 1,000,000 gigabytes) Cloud Server for under $120,000.

BackBlaze, a company that provides unlimited online backups for just $5/month, has just released their company’s secret. They can build this “perabyte” cloud server for just about $117,000. Compared that to Dell’s $826,000 or Amazon EC’s $2M equivalent storage space.

Perhaps they did provide this HOWTO as a marketing ploy but it’s a very honest marketing ploy and I am buying it.

I have to say I am highly impressed that BackBlaze had the courage to share their knowledge to the world. I see that their web traffic has skyrocketed overnight, must be getting a lot of new customers. (I am even thinking about signing up for their backup service, maybe they can give me one free so I can test it out for the next couple years? hahaha, I love free stuff.)

You can read full instructions on their blog here.

In essence, they just showed you how to start a storage server company at the minimal cost. Of course, there’s more involved than just making servers but still, they just solved 90% of the overhead for you.

Before realizing that we had to solve this storage problem ourselves, we considered Amazon S3, Dell or Sun Servers, NetApp Filers, EMC SAN, etc. As we investigated these traditional off-the-shelf solutions, we became increasingly disillusioned by the expense. When you strip away the marketing terms and fancy logos from any storage solution, data ends up on a hard drive. But when we priced various off-the-shelf solutions, the cost was 10 times as much (or more) than the raw hard drives. Here’s a comparison chart of the price for one petabyte from various venders:

via zdnet

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Cloud Hack – How to Build a cheap Perabyte Cloud Server for under $120K!

Interesting HOWTOs on Making Money Blogging!

max — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:36:18 +0000

Well, I have been actively blogging more over at Zedomax.Biz, which is my .Biz site featuring helpful articles for your life and making money blogging.

Here’s a couple of the latest blog posts you might be interested in:

Well, that should be enough fun reads for all of you who want to learn “how to make money blogging”, enjoy!

And don’t forget to work like 30 people like me:

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Interesting HOWTOs on Making Money Blogging!

UPS Hack – How to Get More Capacity and Battery Power from a UPS!

max — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:58:33 +0000

UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) is a great way to insure that none of your real-time applications shut down while working if the power goes out for some reason. Of course, UPSes aren’t cheap these days and they can cost you an arm and a leg but there’s a UPS hack that can help you get more capacity and bettery life by adding car batteries to it. What a great idea huh? Your new hacked UPS should last you at least 3-20 times longer.

Now I have a great idea for all those UPS companies, they can simply make a UPS unit that works with any 12V car batteries! (Why would they do that though, they’d make a lot more money by selling overpriced units with smaller batteries.)

Those UPS devices you buy for your computer usually have a gel-cell battery that lasts for a few years. Less if your power goes out a lot. When you replace them, you pay a bundle, even if it’s a standard cell. This short Instructable will demonstrate how to rework an older UPS for more capacity with cheaper battery power.

via instructables

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UPS Hack – How to Get More Capacity and Battery Power from a UPS!

Arduino Hack – How to Make a pH Meter!

max — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:57:17 +0000

Here’s an awesome Arduino hack that shows you how to make a pH meter. I was thinking that this could be great for automating the pool maintenance where you have to check the water’s pH level among other things. That could be a LOT of money, automated water stabilizer!

Now, I gave you a great idea for a niche business, someone go please make it! (well, I guess there’s such thing as automatic pool cleaner already, oops!)

For example, it is necessary control the pH of an aquarium. Some species of fish can not live out of a range of pH. So, we need read it and make the write correction of the pH. Other areas or applications where is important to know the pH are hydroponic, fermentation processes like beer and wine production, environmental monitoring of soils, water of rivers, lakes, and rain, sewage treatment tanks, monitoring of solution and buffers in laboratories of chemistry, and etc.

via hackaday

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Arduino Hack – How to Make a pH Meter!

Bank of America ATMs Wasting Energy, Turn that LCD OFF Please!

max — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:17:30 +0000

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Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Here’s my letter to BofA and any other ATM-owing banks in the world who leave their ATM LCD on all night long:

Dear CEO of BofA and other banks that leave their ATMs on at night:

It’s 3:35AM over here in California, I have not been able to goto sleep tonight so I am working(blogging) in my car again. Anyways, I parked my car by a local stripmall where I’ve noticed that Bank of America ATM machine LCDs are on as bright as hell.

Suddenly I realized how many BofA ATMs were out there and how much energy was being consumed by those needless LCDs being turned on.

Bank of America, I simply ask you to turn your LCDs off in the early wee hours. I have nothing against your company but when I see situations like this, it makes all of us who are trying to save every bit of energy to sustatain the world pointless.

If every ATM machine in America has sleep mode function that would turn off after 30 seconds, we’d probably have enough energy to power a small city each day.

Let’s change the world one ATM at a time. BofA and banks, please set your LCDs to sleep mode, there’s absolutely no reason why you need to keep them on, especially 3:35AM in the morning.

Thank you in advance for making the world bettter,

Best Regards,

Max Lee

CEO of Zedomax Network LLC

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Bank of America ATMs Wasting Energy, Turn that LCD OFF Please!

The Honeywell anti theft drawer safe

David Allen — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:00:50 +0000

A lot of people these days are worried about the banks and this is especially so when it comes to savings there is the temptation to keep cash at home! This means getting somewhere safe to keep the cash, such as this anti theft drawer from Honeywell. It can be bolted into place by using the predrilled holes and therefore your cash and valuables are safe.

Technical Details

.35 Cubic Foot Capacity and Solid Steel Construction

Reprogrammable Digital Access with Emergency Override Key

Two Live Door Bolts and Pry-Resistant Concealed Hinges

Mounting Hardware Included

Backed with 5 Year Limited Warranty

Product Description

Honeywell Anti-Theft Top Opening Drawer Safe – This Honeywell burglary resistant safe with programmable digital electronic locking system. Offers .40 cubic feet of storage capacity. Can be bolted to a drawer, shelf or floor (mounting kit included). Equipped with an emergency over-ride key. Includes interior light and dual live locking door bolts. Made of heavy gauge steel. Excellent for storing valuables, including laptop computers. Outer dimensions: 11.88″ x 14″ x 5″. Inner dimensions: 11.75″ x 13.88″ x 4″. Imported (2074SQ)

Priced at $80.33

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The Honeywell anti theft drawer safe

The Best Grid, VPS, and Dedicated Server Web Hosting Review!

max — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:38:30 +0000

Over the last couple weeks, I have been doing a little “host” shopping, jumping from hosting company to another, thus Zedomax.com went down a lot. (Sorry about that, sometimes in life, you need to keep searching until you find the best deals.)

So, I’ve actually narrowed it down to 3 companies that provide the best “cloud/grid”, “VPS”, and dedicated servers.

This review is based on the 30+ blogs I manage, each of blogs getting anywhere from 100 to 20,000 pagesviews each.

In the end, I found that each hosting company had its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on what kind of web traffic you get and what kind of resources you need from a web server, you will have to choose your web hosting company “wisely”.

For the moment, I am using 3 hosting companies, MediaTemple, GoDaddy, and SingleHop, the ones I highly recommend to host your websites.

This web hosting review is for those of you who are serious about getting the best value/speed from your web server.

So, let me break it down by each company and what I’ve experienced.

Godaddy Grid Beta

This is the first time I have ever tried Godaddy’s web hosting services although I have used them in the past for all of my domain management. (Btw, GoDaddy is the best for Domain names, there’s no doubt about that.)

The GoDaddy Grid is actually in its beta phase and I was able to score a deal for $4.99/month for the first 3 months and $19.99 thereafter. I was sorta worried that the service seemed too cheap but in the end, the GoDaddy Grid is very reliable once you have your websites set up.

The GoDaddy Grid is probably the best option for anyone who wants to run a Wordpress blog for stability, price, and speed. I would highly recommend this over any other shared web hosting companies out there.

Btw, shared web hosting companies are the worst. You might pay like $100 for one year but trust me, shared web hosting companies are not reliable by any means if you are serious about getting your website up and running. I have tried BlueHost, DreamHost, you name it. The thing with shared hosts is that they are “shared”, you never know if you are going to be sharing your website with 10 other websites or 50.

Besides sharing the server, shared web hosting companies also share 1 dedicated IP address among those different websites. Meaning if that IP gets blacklisted for someone “spamming”, you will get affected too, even if they change the IP address.

Just stay away from shared hosting companies, they are the worst.

Pros

Grid offers “unlimited” resources. Grid is basically like a Cloud web hosting service, it can ramp up and provide your website with extra bandwidth up to 1000GB per month. That’s a lot of bandwith and the Godaddy offers great stability, especially if you are on a plane to Hawaii and your website gets digged or slashdotted.
SSH – Godaddy’s SSH is pretty functional for doing a lot downloading/uploading via wget or scp command. This comes in handy for busy webmasters like me who need to move 30+ websites in a matter of hours. Without SSH, it would take about 3 days to do the same thing. This is the number one reason I chose Godaddy over other cloud service providers like Rack Space Cloud.
I’ve loaded about 10K uniques/day on this grid server, it allows you to add about 20 websites. This is a really good sign, I am actually putting all my crappy sites with smaller traffic on Godaddy. You can check out DeClubz Blog, which gets about 3000 uniques/day, hosted on the GoDaddy Grid. (I was rather surprised the Grid didn’t crap out at all and runs flawlessly.)
You can load up to 20 websites/20 MySQL databases, this is the perfect server if you plan on making/running multiple websites in the future.

Cons

I’ve noticed that there’s some kind of automatic “throttling” by the Grid when you try to download/upload files over 100MB. This is normal on most cloud/grid/VPS servers as they need to protect the system against DoS attacks and whatnot. I still prefer fast downloads on pure dedicated as they waste less of my time, which is highly valuable to me. But again, this isn’t something that’s going to affect your website after you have set it up, it’s only going to be a little pain to restart your downloads.
Godaddy’s uses separate MySQL database, meaning you can use “localhost” as database domain. This can become quite a lot of pain for custom-coded sites but stuff like Wordpress shouldn’t be easy.
I found that some PHP coding didn’t go through as well with the Grid. There’s no ability for you to install/manipulate the core PHP files in the server. This is not a good thing for developers but if you are just running Wordpress, not a big deal at all.

For the regular price of $19.99, you can’t really get better than GoDaddy’s Grid service, especially since they provided a limited SSH, which is crucial for moving/setting up your sites in time.

Overall, I found that GoDaddy has the best bang for your buck for any sites getting between 100 to 10,000 pageviews/day, especially Wordpress blogs.

GoDaddy Grid Beta Hosting ($4.99/month for 3 months and $19.99/month thereafter) – Click Here and Go to Hosting->Grid Hosting.

MediaTemple

MediaTemple isn’t a cloud nor grid web host, they run something very similar to it, a Virtual server utilized by Plesk, which is probably the most reliable virtual server system out there. I run Plesk on all my dedicated servers and it was easy for me to migrate all my websites to MediaTemple using Plesk, which has a native “import” tool so you can do a “1-click” migration when moving servers.

MediaTemple provides 3 different levels of service, the Grid(gv), the Dedicated Virtual(dv),and Dedicated Nitro(dpv).

The Grid(gv) I know have had some issues in the past so I didn’t even sign up for that, especially since you are also CPU-limited by the number of processing power you use. Although MediaTemple even gave money back to their customers in the past, I would highly avoid the grid, especially if you are serious about getting your website up and running 24/7. If there’s been problems with MediaTemple’s grid in the past, I am sure it will happen again. (Murphy’s Law) If your want to go grid, I would probably suggest GoDaddy’s Grid.

The Dedicated Virtual(dv) is the one I signed up for. It’s basically like a dedicated server except your server is virtualized within a number of servers.

There’s 3 different levels of the DV service:

Base – This is the most basic DV service you can get at $50/month. I have about 10 of my lower-end websites running on it. I could probably compared to a dedicated server with Dual-Core Xeon processor but you are going to be very limited by memory resources.
The most web traffic it can handle – around 3000 pageviews/day. I loaded couple sites but once I got over 3000 pagesviews/day, the server kept hitting its memory resource limits.
Rage – This is the second-tier DV service you can get at $100/month. I had most of my medium-end website running on it with about 10,000 pageviews/day. It ran fine but did experience some hiccups once I got over 10,000 pageviews/day. I think that is pretty much its limit. I did however upgrade to Extreme “instantly”. The best part about these DV servers is that you can upgrade your hardware instantly, I mean literally within seconds, no rebooting needed.
Extreme – This is the best DV service you can get at $150/month. You can also upgrade your RAM up to 512MB. I did find the Extreme server able to handle about 15,000 pageviews/day but again, my site (Zedomax.com) came to a crawling. I even tried hooking up Zedomax.com to 2 of these Extreme servers with 1 HTTPD and the other MySQLD. The major problem I faced was that there was no way to “locally” connect the 2 extreme servers. Without being locally connected, my ping times between the 2 servers averaged from 0.5ms to 10ms. This caused a havoc on the HTTPD server and load would go out of control. But don’t get me wrong, if you have less than 15,000 pageviews/day on your website, this is a really great server. I have most of my 3000 pageviews/day blogs running on the Extreme now.

Nitro – The Nitro is the next step up from the DV servers. I found that the price wasn’t worth the features as much as the DV servers. For $750/month, I could get 3 quad-core dedicated servers, which would probably be much better investment. I even talked to Tony at MediaTemple, who told me the same thing.

Room for Improvement?

MediaTemple needs to provide a medium point between its DV Extreme servers and the Nitro. For me, Nitro was an option but I wasn’t sure if that was even going to solve my problems since my blog has been always running on 2 quad-core dedicated servers. I wish there was something between the Extreme and Nitro.

You can clearly see that there’s an obvious gap between the price points of Extreme($150) and Nitro($750), that’s about $600!!!

If MediaTemple provides something in the mid-range so customers can pay like $300 and get somethine in-between, I am sure they would have more customers and also customers who need something in-between doesn’t have to overspend on a Nitro.

Another point is that even if a customer gets a separate DV Extreme server for database, MediaTemple does not provide a local switch between the 2 servers. This is a serious issue for sites like this as it’s a difference between me going out finding a job or keep running my blog and making a living from it.

Other than those 2 issues, MediaTemple is awesome virtual servers that perform.

Overall, I found that MediaTemple has the best bang for your buck for any sites getting between 3000 to 15,000 pageviews/day on the Dedicated Virtual servers. I am still using them on most of my medium-trafficked blogs, they are very reliable so long as your web traffic doesn’t get out of control.

Check Out MediaTemple Here

SingleHop

If you are serious about getting your high-trafficked website up and running “FAST”, SingleHop is probably the best place to go as I have found their hardware, prices, and customer service excellent over all the other dedicated server hosting companies I have tried.

I have tried many other dedicated servers but SingleHop has the best prices for hardware.

If you get over 15,000 pageviews per day and you need multiple servers to run just one website (such as Zedomax.com), you will want to take advantage of SingleHop’s great deals on quad-core servers that come with default DDR2 8GB of memory. (Anything below 5000 pageviews/day, I do recommend MediaTemple for price.)

I actually got 2 of these servers to run this very site (Zedomax.com). It’s running and humming faster than ever and I have to say the best part about SingleHop is that they offer “gigabyte” switches between your servers as one of its basic add-ons. My site has been plagued before by slow MySQL server connections. I have talked to numerous people at hosting companies telling me that their “datacenters” are fast and I don’t need a local connection between servers. Yeah, well, anything above 1ms is NOT FAST for mission-critical blogs like this one. If my life depended on it (which it is), I would try using a gigabyte switch between servers.

I’ve experienced about 0.05 ms average of ping times between my servers at SingleHop using the gigabyte switch versus 5 ms average of ping times over at MediaTemple. (That’s about 100 times difference in MySQL speed!!!)

The end result?

My site loaded in about 5 to 30 seconds while on 2 MediaTemple DV servers while it took about 1 second while on 2 SingleHop dedicated servers. Well, it’s not a fair comparison since MediaTemple is much cheaper but I did learn my “expensive” lesson as Zedomax.com plummetted to like 9,000 pageviews instead of its normal 20,000 pageviews during the week of testing. (I could have paid for 2 dedicated servers for that loss…bummer.)

Check out SingleHop Dedicated Server Here

RackSpaceCloud

I did try RackSpaceCloud before trying GoDaddy and MediaTemple. In the end, I had to cancel my service because they did not provide SSH service plus FTP uploads took way too long. To move 30+ of my websites, that’s about 30 gigabytes of data, it would have took at least 24 hours on RackSpaceCloud while SSH would cut that down to about an hour. I simply don’t have much room for margin here, I am work against time, one man managing 30+ sites, I need it fast. Time is money, especially when it comes to moving servers. And the faster I can move my blogs, the more time I have for blogging and concentrating on my blogging business.

I have heard great things about RackSpaceCloud and if you don’t have much data and don’t mind uploading via FTP, go ahead and try RackSpaceCloud.

As for me, I decided to wait until RackSpaceCloud has SSH in the future. It simply doesn’t work for me if there’s no SSH. Everything should be fast as possible.

There’s also a “cloud server” which is bare-bones system for people like me but I don’t like paying my server by the hour, it doesn’t seem like a smart choice if I get “digged” suddenly one day and my bandwidth bill skyrockets above my profits.

Final Thoughts on Web Hosting

If you run multiple websites/blogs, you should NEVER to rely on one web host. My advice is to use at least 2 or 3 different web hosting companies so you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It’s inevitable that every hosting company will have its “downtime”, whether that happens once every 100 years or 3 months, it’s something you cannot control.

If that “disaster” happens to your web hosting company, at least you will have other hosting companies to resort to while that “disaster” get resolved.

One time, all my websites were hosted with Aplus.net, I lost couple thousand dollar easy as Aplus.net was down for almost a WEEK! I did however move after Aplus.net was slow for couple days. Aplus.net did not offer me any kind of credit after that incident nor did they say they were sorry. I later found out that Aplus.net executive management team did that INTENTIONALLY so they can save themselves some money but not their customers. All they had to do was tell their customers that their servers are going to be down for another week and they would give money back for that month. I am not bitter though, they did take a nose-dive after that anyways and got bought by another company.

I am much more experienced now and smarter. Whatever web hosting companies you use, make sure they are reliable, fast, and priced competitively.

Feel free to ask me questions via the comments below, I do like talking about web hosting companies. But please do not spam the comments line with web hosting company ads, they will immediately be marked spam and my right index finger can move much faster than you can think, already.

Some Tips on Using wget with SSH

The main reason I use hosting companies with SSH access is because I can transfer files between web servers, which is about 100 times faster than trying to upload files from your own computer. If you are a webmaster and you still don’t have a clue about SSH and using FTP for all your file transfers, I highly suggest you to dig into SSH more as it can ultimately save you enough time to go play golf instead of waiting for files to transfer.

One such command I use often is “wget” linux/unix command, you can easily download any files on any website via the HTTP protocol.

Simple usage:

wget http://mysite.com/myfile.zip

You can actually “resume” a download file if you happend to “stall” while using linux command wget. Just make sure to add “-c” at the end like this:

wget http://mysite.com/myfile.tar -c

This comes handy for those cloud/grid/VPS servers where you might stall often due to its throttling mechanism.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The Best Grid, VPS, and Dedicated Server Web Hosting Review!

The emergency fund

David Allen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:00:52 +0000

Everyone must have seen those “Break Glass in an Emergency” things in the walls of public buildings, so now there is one that students and or just about anyone who wants to save money for a rainy day. Just throw your loose change into this money box and in an emergency break the glass! It is the only way to get your hands on that case.

Features:

Brand Information

Brand: suckUK

Model: SK BREAKGLASS1

Product Type: Retail

Product Specifications

Measurements: 2″ L x 4 5/8″ diam.

Designer: Becky Miller

Priced at $15.95

Source [X Tremegeek]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The emergency fund

Want a new car then how about an F1 car!

David Allen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:57:04 +0000

The former F1 world champion may not be getting back behind the wheel of the Ferrari F1 car any time soon, but he might interested in one of his old cars. Like the 1994 Benetton-Ford that crashed Damon Hill out of the Australian Grand Prix helping Michael Schumacher win his first world title. It is on for sale on eBay at the moment the bid is at 73,000 euros.

Details:

The car with which Michael Schumacher did his first F1-championship in the year 1994.

At the last race in Adelaide Michael Schumacher in this Benetton-Ford had a collision with Damon Hill in his Williams-Renault, after both of them did not finish their race and Michael could use his one-point-leadership to get the driver’s championship.

Car configuration, motorization such as panting and sponsoring scheme as at the Grand Prix of Australia:

Ford-Cosworth 3.6 litre Zetec-R V8 engine

Sponsoring incl. the now banned tobacco advert

Painting in at that time scheme

Vehicle in racing condition

Source [Random Good Stuff]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Want a new car then how about an F1 car!

The hidden wall socket safe

David Allen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:32:27 +0000

This is what you are going to need if you want to keep valuable items in your home but necessarily on view for everyone to see, this could also apply to cash as well although it only has 7” x 2” worth of storage.

Product Features

Colour: Natural

Size: 7″ H x 3 1/2″ W x 2 1/2″ D

It looks like an electrical outlet but it is a great place to hide your valuables!

High impact plastic and metal

Once installed it pivots out to reveal the secret hiding place

Comes with cut out saw and template for easy installation in just minutes

Priced at $8.19

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The hidden wall socket safe

FUNNY VIDEO – FedEx Infomercial on YouTube!

max — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:54:23 +0000

My friend Joel alerted on the latest “spoof” informercial from FedEx. It’s quite funny, my favorite part is when one of the audience’s head blows off, (2:13) then he’s head is normal again. (2:14) LMAO.

According to Joel:

FedEx decided to make this YouTube video instead of SuperBowl advertising. They had tried unsuccessfully in the past to make a viral video campaign on YouTube; this time they enlisted Fred Willard (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) to use his dead-pan humor for a faux-infomercial for FedEx.com. FedEx hopes to draw attention to their products for small business as well as entertain.

I think it’s a smart move on FedEx to forgo the SuperBowl ad this year and instead, spend the budget on “viral” YouTube videos. That is part of the reason why bloggers and other online content publishers are thriving in these hard, economic times. Plus, there’s a better ROI value to internet marketing/advertising as the number of conversions are higher in the long run compared to traditional TV advertising.

Here, watch the video and let me know which part you like the most other than the head blowing off.

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Resources:

FedEx Viral YouTube advertising campaign on NYTimes

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

FUNNY VIDEO – FedEx Infomercial on YouTube!

Somewhere safe for your cash

David Allen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:00:23 +0000

In the good old days granny or granddad would have kept their cash either in or under the mattress as this was considered to be the safest place in the home. Today we are very weary of the banks and are looking for some alternatives, so what about this miniature mattress money back?

Features:

Money Bank Mattress – Safest Bank in the World

The Money Bank Mattress is a mattress shaped money bank!

Stash your cash in the slit at the front

It measures approx 24.7 cm x 16 cm x 4 cm

Great gifts for savers or spender aged 10 to 100!

Start saving for that rainy day with the Money Bank Mattress!

Stash your cash the old fashioned way.

Priced at $19.79

Source [Nerd Approved]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Somewhere safe for your cash

DIY LCD Cards

David Allen — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:00:01 +0000

When only words will do, these cards will say them for you in font that any geek will totally understand; it doesn’t get any easier than that does it?

Features:

The thick recycled cards have two rows of digital font embossed that are just waiting for you to create your custom message

Fill them out with a marker and 80’s style LCD type appears

The beauty is that the debossed effect makes it super easy to fill out the letters and to create stunning cards.

Each card measures 7.5″ x 4″ (19 x 10 cm)

Comes with a perfect envelope to match

Priced at $5

Source [Nerd Approved]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

DIY LCD Cards

Dr Freud’s Therapy Ball

David Allen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:00:50 +0000

Why pay out hundreds of dollars when you can therapy right at away, no matter where are, home, work or even travelling around. When you think that you are need of some help, you simply get hold of the ball, give it a quick shake and turn it over, your answer will be revealed and if that is not ok then are another nineteen to choose from.

Product Features

Dr. Freud s Therapy Ball responds to your heartfelt confessions with the stony objectivity of Dr. Fr

Twenty different therapeutic responses

Made of plastic

3-3/4″ (9.5 cm) diameter

Priced at $10.63

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Dr Freud’s Therapy Ball

The power strip in a pyramid

David Allen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:00:29 +0000

Normally we would expect to see power strips in a long line, but when you think about it, this in not very practical as the cable and wires is stretched across the table or floor taking up a lot of room. This design is called to the Powermid and it provides six power outlets and a built in surge protector.

This device takes up much less space than you expect and it can cater for devices will short cable with ease.

Prices range from $24 and rise to $29

Source [Popgadget]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The power strip in a pyramid

The instant excuse ball

David Allen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:00:41 +0000

You know those times when you are off work for no particular reason and the boss rings up, naturally unless you are super cool, you are going to be pressed to come up with an excuse as to why you are at home and everyone else has to work. The instant excuse ball will help you out with a great excuse, although some may be just a little too good to work.

Product Features

Fortune Telling Instant Excuses

Need an excuse, just turn over the ball

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches

Priced at $5.74

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The instant excuse ball

The brand name keyboard

David Allen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:00:54 +0000

This had to happen sooner or later, but here it is. What we have here is a standard looking keyboard but take a closer look and you will see that the letters have been replaced by images. Upon closer inspection, the images turn out to be logos.

This is a brand orientated keyboard with each letter being replaced by a brands logo, the brand has the same first letter as the letter on the keyboard that it has replaced. Naturally, it is going to take a bit of getting used to, but eventually it should work.

Source [Craziest Gadgets]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The brand name keyboard

Gauge your own economy

David Allen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:00:23 +0000

This is great way to keep track of your money and how much you are saving, it is sort of like an opposite to a fuel gauge this one fills up, why the other empties. It is a great idea and looks terrific it is just matter of if you can keep saving or not.

Features:

The economy may be tanking, but you do not have to

Put a few coins aside for a rainy day and watch the gauge inch its way upward

Before you know it, you will have a full tank

Each Fill ‘er Up bank is wrapped in a printed plastic sleeve for display

Source [Techna Bob]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Gauge your own economy

The cheeseburger wallet

David Allen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:00:45 +0000

This is something that you can really impress your friends with or maybe not depending on who they are, you would certainly get great service down at the local burger bar. It has to be the burger fans dream wallet, its soft and spongy like a real burger bun.

Features:

One I.D. window slot,

Four interior card slots

One bill pocket

Two hidden pockets

The outer bun is super soft like a real one

Man-made materials

Approximately 4.25” x 4.5″

Priced at $25

Source [Fashionably Geek]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The cheeseburger wallet

The handy kitchen saw

David Allen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:00:31 +0000

Sometimes an item that makes light of a job is often the least likely; in this case, it is a saw. However, this may look like the sort of tool that a workman would be using, but in fact, it is a perfectly acceptable piece of kitchenware. As you can see from the image, this really does make carving a piece of cake.

Features:

Table Saw is the perfect accessory for your kitchen tool belt

It is big and toothy so you can slice and dice your lettuce without discolouring it and show that cake that you really mean business

Aren’t you feeling handy already?

Packaged on a printed backer card

On sale later on in the year

Source [Nerd Approved]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The handy kitchen saw

Money tree magnetic sculpture

David Allen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:00:37 +0000

Who doesn’t like building up a pile of money? However, as in real life, this pile of cash has a habit of tumbling down just as you manage to get it at an all time high. Nevertheless, it is much better to learn your lesson on the desk, rather in real life.

Technical Details

Release your pressure, having fun for few minutes, build the way you like. This magnetic sculpture block with all metal pieces can be a big break for your busy day, an impressive executive toy.

Metal Money Pieces

Magnetic Base

Priced at $9.95

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Money tree magnetic sculpture

Key ring with abacus

David Allen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:00:21 +0000

The old things are always the best and this little abacus can come in really handy if you can get to grips with how one of these things actually work, then working out those awkward sums could be made easy. Otherwise, you could always just use it as a key ring.

Product Features

Count in the ancient manner

Height 3″

Packaging: black gift box

Priced at $14.35

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Key ring with abacus

Surviving the credit crunch

David Allen — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:00:18 +0000

These days we all have to make those little cutbacks to try and save money in order to survive, however some people still want to keep up with the luxuries. This kit has been put together for those people, makes an excellent gift to those without any discipline.

This handy kit comes complete with:-
Economy “pint” beer glass
“Luxuries” decision dice. Choose whether you should eat, light a candle, put the heating (6 decisions in total)
“Tough Times” toilet roll.
Condom puncture repair patches
Priced at $6.99
Source [Nerd Approved]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Surviving the credit crunch

Auto DIY – How to Negotiate with a Car Dealer!

max — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:06:45 +0000

Car dealers/salesmen have been touted as one of the worst people in the world for ripping off consumers. It’s true, even today, car buying process in America isn’t easy as paying for the retail sticker, you must haggle, haggle, and haggle.

Well, I just came across the “secrets” of car negotiation that could possibly make you a better negotiator the next time you shop for cars.

Salesman: So let me ask you this, Oren. I know you’re a businessman, and we’re both real busy. So if I were to offer you the car at $47,900, would that work?
Weintraub: I would say that if you can do $44K on the car, we would probably have a deal. But I don’t want to present it to him unless it’s a real offer.
Salesman: OK. I’ll see if I can make that deal happen. One more question: Are you in the market for any other vehicles at this time?
Weintraub: What you do right now could lead to more business for you. If we find the people we’re dealing with to be professional and tenacious about price, we’ll send you more business.
Salesman: I’ll call you right back.

Notice also that Weintraub reviewed the specifications on the car: It’s a 2005, certified with 29,000 miles on it. It’s essential to establish — and then confirm — the details of the car you are buying. Year, make, model, number of miles, condition level and warranty details all affect the value of the car.

After a few more rounds of car negotiating, Weintraub got the price of the Mercedes, which was originally on sale for $49,995, down to $45,500. His client bought the car.

via edmunds

(Image Credit)

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Auto DIY – How to Negotiate with a Car Dealer!

Hertz Italiana Offering Lotus Elise SC in Italy!

max — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:59:19 +0000

Here’s some good news for fellas out there traveling to Italy as Hertz has just announced they will make these Lotus Elise SCs available for rent. Now, it’s going to cost you some big dollars over your regular ol’ Accent but going 10 times faster might just be worth it. – via autoblog

PRESS RELEASE:

Lotus Cars Limited, the sportscar subsidiary of Group Lotus plc is delighted to announce a marketing co-operation agreement with the car hire company Hertz Italiana and to supply Lotus cars for its rental business in Italy.

Now driving enthusiasts, fans of the Lotus brand and those who want to drive cars from one of the finest sportscar marques in the world will be able to hire a Lotus Elise directly from Hertz Italiana S.p.A.

Lotus Elise SC sportscars will be available to hire from key Hertz centres throughout Italy from middle of July.

Mr. Michael J. Kimberley, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus plc, commented, “I am delighted that Lotus Cars has entered into this agreement with Hertz, giving us the opportunity to make our stunning world class sportscars available to the rental market. The iconic and multi award winning Lotus Elise and the stunning Lotus Exige are the perfect fun rental cars for those who desire exclusive and high performance motoring.”

Mr. Andrea Manni, director of the official Lotus dealer, ‘Lotus Rome’ said, “For many, to drive a Lotus is to fulfill a lifelong dream and now, thanks to Lotus and Hertz Italiana S.p.A. this dream can be realised for a longer period than just a quick test drive at a Lotus dealer. We expect some drivers who hire an Elise or Exige from Hertz Italiana S.p.A to visit a Lotus dealership afterwards, as once you have experienced the exciting and adrenaline fueled capabilities of a Lotus, there is no turning back!”

Ing. Giuseppe Caminiti, Fleet Director for Hertz Italiana said: “We launched the Hertz Fun Collection last year to give our customers the possibility to drive the cars they have always dreamt of driving. The Lotus Elise SC is one of these dream cars and by including it in the Hertz’s Fun Collection our customers have an opportunity to drive a real sportscar. We are honoured to be able to work with Lotus and are delighted that Lotus has created personalised versions of the Elise SC especially for Hertz.”

To book a Lotus Elise car hire from Hertz, drivers are invited to contact Hertz on www.hertz.it or by calling the Hertz call center on +39-199-11-22-11.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Hertz Italiana Offering Lotus Elise SC in Italy!

Startup DIY – How to Hire the Right People!

max — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:20:53 +0000

For those of you starting your online or offline business, you might want to read up on this quick post on how to hire an A-team. As a person who’s running a start-up myself, I do highly believe that your success has everything to do with people you hire. Of course, my favorite tip is “hiring athletes.” I just happened to be playing competitive pro golf before I dived into the corporate world so…

Here is a bit of timeless wisdom from Warren Buffet. He advises that, when hiring, look for brains, energy, and integrity. But if the people you find don’t have integrity, the other two qualities will kill you.

via techmynd

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Startup DIY – How to Hire the Right People!

Keep your valuables safe with biometrics

David Allen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:00:11 +0000

Most people have something of value around the home, but keeping it safe is a different matter. That is where this great looking and stylish safe comes in handy; it can only be opened up by the owner placing their finger over the reader. The system allows for three different users, which is handy if someone is away when access is needed.

Product Features

Stores multiple users

Runs on 4 AA batteries

Security cable & backup key included

Access control at the touch of a finger

Fingerprint recognition takes less than one second

Priced at $208.88

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Keep your valuables safe with biometrics

Documents DIY – How to Convert Your Scanned Documents for FREE using OCR!

max — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:41:41 +0000

Most scanners comes with an OCR(Optical Character Recognition) software that will convert your scanned documents into text. Of course, if you happened to scan a document somewhere sometime but wanted to quickly convert it to digitized text, you might want to learn that there’s a FREE OCR conversion site called Free-OCR.com.

In a test conducted by Lifehacker, this OCR was just as effective as a commercial OCR software:

The rate of errors and quirks in the conversion wasn’t much higher than commercial OCR software and just like using a commercial solution you’ll need to go through and double check to make sure what you see and what the machine sees are the same thing. If you know of other free OCR services, share the wealth in the comments below.

I have to agree that a free website for OCR is awesome, especially since it also converts PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP formatted files.

via lifehacker

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Documents DIY – How to Convert Your Scanned Documents for FREE using OCR!

Recession DIY – How to Watch Fireworks on a Budget this July 4th, Independence Day!

max — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:04:25 +0000

July 4th Independence Day is one of my favorite days as I do highly enjoy celebrating my freedom as an independent person who doesn’t depend on his parents to make a living. I’ve been such a July 4th nut and I have been going to every firework in San Francisco last couple years but this year, I’ve decided to save money and watch the fireworks.

So, here’s how to save money during one of the biggest holidays in America:

1. Don’t go out to see the fireworks, stay home! If you are going to go out clubbing on July 4th or even to a bar, don’t expect to pay less than $40 to get into any bar. This will add up and you will probably end up spending hundreds of dollars, especially if you go out with bunch of close friends and buy drinks for them all night long. I took this route couple years ago but it ain’t the smartest choice as I spent about $200 easy on this night when everything was super expensive.

Besides spending so much money on bars and liquor, you might regret waking up next day, only to find out there’s another stranger on your bed. (hopefully good lookin’ and fine plz)

If you must go, please make sure you find a good party spot where you can actually see the fireworks and pay in advance. (usually you will get discounts on paying early for special events)

2. Now, if you somehow got yourself to not go out like me, you will save a bunch of money. But how to see the fireworks? Heck, you don’t have to see the fireworks in real life, just watch your nice HD LCD TV and drink beers or wine at home. (That $200 you didn’t spend at the bars will go a LONG ways for a nice bottle of Hennessey or whatever.)

3. If there’s a China town around, go there and buy some cheap fireworks that you can light off in your home or around where you live.

4. Again, this DIY is for those people on a budget, who’s barely surviving the recession. If you must go out, do so but do remember what you spend on Independence Day could take a big bite out of your lifestyle over the next few weeks. If you are willing to live on McDonald’s $1 burgers, by all means go ahead but I rather put that money to some good liquor than overspending at your local pub, which the bartenders don’t really deserve anyways. (it’s just a hallucination that your brain feels happier and pays more…)

I’ve also written a blog post on where to watch the fireworks in San Francisco for SF residents.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Recession DIY – How to Watch Fireworks on a Budget this July 4th, Independence Day!

Increasing Auto Insurance Fraud and How to Re-Negotiate Your Car Payments!

max — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:24:58 +0000

The recession economy is increasing auto insurance fraud like no other in history. According to Autoblog,

Despondent over being financially strapped and unable to cover car payments, vehicle owners are ditching, sinking, or torching their vehicles and reporting the loss to collect insurance payoffs.

It is definitely a shame to see honest citizens affected by the economy and end up burning their cars.

My honest advice is to really get a grip on your life before you attempt to recover money from insurance companies. Life isn’t supposed to be easy but there’s always going to be solutions to problems if you keep looking.

Autoblog also says you can “re-negotiate” your current plans before deciding to burn your car and end up in jail:

A better solution for cash-strapped owners, say experts, is to attempt to renegotiate payments, sell the car, or trade it in for a less expensive model. While you generally won’t come out ahead, those transactions are legal and they’ll keep you out of the slammer.

I actually know someone who does insurance fraud stuff on consistent basis. Just remember, “what you do will come back to you ten fold whether that’s good or bad.”

via autoblog

(Image Credit)

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Increasing Auto Insurance Fraud and How to Re-Negotiate Your Car Payments!

Humidity metre by Extech

David Allen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:00:51 +0000

This is a cool device that measures temperature and humidity, it has a built in stand so that it can fit properly on a desk or table. The device comes with a warning system too, the user can set the limits and if the device detects that, the humidity level has gone above or below these settings it will warned the user.

Technical Details

Large triple display of relative humidity, temperature and dew point

Alarm with programmable set point gives visual and audible warning when humidity level exceeds high or low limit

Built-in stand for sitting on a desk or mount on a wall using included bracket

Recalls minimum and maximum readings

Ideal monitoring device in humid areas where mould can be a problem

Priced at around $50

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Humidity metre by Extech

The mini filling cabinet with clock

David Allen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:00:15 +0000

This is nice little item that offers a nice storage space for all of those business cards that we seem to collect from people and never really have anywhere to put them. In the drawers of the filing cabinet, there are index cards so that the business cards can be sorted alphabetically.

Technical Details

This miniature file cabinet provides perfect storage for 800 business cards.

Made of sturdy plastic, Colour: Metallic Silver

Top drawer has a built-in digital clock with date.

A-Z card index included.

Dimensions: 6.5″ x 4.5″ x 6.5″

Priced at $12.10

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The mini filling cabinet with clock

It is the body billboard

David Allen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:00:36 +0000

There is a growing trend these days to get the message across in any way that is possible, one such way is to put your message up in lights, this is a very effective way of making your thoughts known, this could even be down to a marriage proposal. However, you have to make sure that the message gets to the right person; otherwise, you will end up in big trouble.

Product Features

Wearable Magnetic LED Moving Display Billboard

Programs up to 50 characters

Features 5 circulation display speeds

Bonus: Includes 2 Button Cell Batteries

Recommended Ages 5+

Priced at $14.99

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

It is the body billboard

International adapter plug

David Allen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:37 +0000

Why bother with collecting a wide range of travel adapters, when you can just have one for all countries.
This handy adapter should be the only the one that you will ever need making it indispensible to the person who travels through work or pleasure.

Product Features
Keep your gadgets and devices going on your travels
Convert power sources in more than 150 countries
Convenient all-in-1 adapter design
Replaceable fuse(extra fuse sold separately)
Made in China
Priced at $24.99
Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

International adapter plug

Supermarket car park produces power

David Allen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:00:39 +0000

Sometimes the supermarket giants are able to come up with a fantastic idea and this one is no exception to that rule. The have realised that having thousands of cars entering and leaving their car park there much be a way that they could use this to generate power.

After a lot of thinking they have come up with this idea that uses a row of plates that rock as the cars move over them, this causes a rocking motion that turns generators and therefore produces energy. This simple installation could produce enough power to keep the entire store going twenty four hours a day and fro seven days a week.

Source [Coolest Gadgets]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Supermarket car park produces power

Recession DIY – How to Survive the Recession!

max — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:20:48 +0000

Okay, it’s officially recession economy these days with more and more people losing jobs while foreclosure rates are at sky high.

If you own a small business, you might be interested to know that there’s a contest going on where you can win $2000 in Office Depot products. The rules state that you need to own or work at a small business with less than 100 employees.

Basically you need to upload a 2 minute video of how your business is surviving/thriving in this recession economy. Heck, I will be entering this contest too as internet businesses are thriving on recession. (I will have that video up soon…)

Here’s the promo video for the contest and other cool tips on how to survive the recession:

The Recession Aggression Bag Release your frustration with this recession by wailing on the only bag that deserves it. For more info, visit: http://www.thesurvivalofthesmartest.com/

Download latest version of Flash to view video!.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Recession DIY – How to Survive the Recession!

The personal oxygen bar

David Allen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:00:42 +0000

These machines come in handy, not only do you get the four different soothing sounds as well as four song mode too. However, what is supposed to be interesting is that this device offers enhanced oxygen concentration and that is supposed to be good for you, as it helps to rejuvenate as well as relax.

Product Features

4 soothing sounds

4 song modes

Stationary & portable

Enhances oxygen concentration

Helps rejuvenate & relax

Priced at $249.95

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

The personal oxygen bar

Tekgadget numeric keypad

David Allen — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Use this device with either the USB or PS/2 port and you will have a cool stand alone keyboard that has hundreds of functions for use in the finance industry and other business sectors that require complex working out.

Product Features and Technical Details

Product Features

High Quality Mechanical Key Switches

20,000,000 life cycles

Short Cut Keys

Localized Function Keys

Technical Details

Model: KP-701

Priced at $39.99

Source [Amazon]

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Tekgadget numeric keypad

zedomax.com » Business

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