Contest for Free Coffee for a year

For all coffee lovers, this is your chance to win yourself a year of free coffee. All you need to do is participate and win. Matt’s Wood Roasted Original Coffee is having a contest call Show Us Your Woodpile. Just take a picture of the wood that you’ll be burning and send it to them. By doing so you’ll get a chance to win yourself a year of free coffee from Matt’s Wood Roasted Original Coffee. You can check out the site and see the previous winners. In order to win the contest, you need to stack the woods so that it looks special. If you’re able to stack a castle with the woodpile, I’m sure you’ll have higher chances to win the contest. But that’s going to take a lot of time and some engineering basic so that your castle won’t collapse. Well, that’s just a suggestion. Most important of all, have fun with your family with the contest. For more details of the contest, check out the contest rules and details from the site. One thing that you need to take note is that this contest opens to residents of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii only. Due date is November 15, 2009. So start planning and cutting those woods now.

P/S: This is the first time that I come by a coffee site with contest. It does seem interesting and fun. 1 year of free coffee, that’s a lot.

Coffee lover that loves coffee very much, or perhaps too much

Simple things that save you hundreds of dollars

I saw an article from yahoo about 7 things you’re wasting money on and I’m thinking this might just be the right time to start saving money, energy and stop wasting. According to the article, there are 7 things that we are or normally wasting money on it. They are:

1) Buy bottled water
2) Extended warranties
3) Gym memberships
4) Overdraft fees
5) Organic produce
6) Auto insurance
7) Music downloads

If you review all the 7 items above, you might be able to save at least couple of hundred dollars each month. Imagine if you drink water from tap, give up the extended warranties for the electrical products, do exercise outdoor instead of in the gym, spend less then you earn, consume regular vegetables, drive less and listen to radio. How much will you save each month by just doing that? If you don’t know how to do the math, just try it out for couple of month and see it yourself.

Actually there are a lot more that you can save if you really think about it. During this time of period as worldwide economic is not so good, many of us are considered lucky to still have a job. Picking up the habit of not wasting can affect lots of things. It also helps in improving the economic. Imagine if you starts saving and not wasting, you’ll save yourself some money. When you carry out this habit to work, you’ll help save company some money. When the company that you work at carries out this habit, society will save some money. When the society carries out this habit, the county will save some money. When the country has more cash, chances of creating more jobs and work opportunities can be done. Now imagine that each of us around the world starts to pick up the habit of not wasting. I’m sure if that happens, we should be able to walk out of this economic crisis in just a few months.

Speaking of saving and not wasting, you can help by just turn off your lights. In support of earth hour 2009, all you need to do is turn of your lights on 28th March 2009 for 1 hour from 8:30pm till 9:30 pm. For earth, this is to tell world leaders to take action against global warming. For you, consider this as a small simple step to start saving and not wasting. Turning off your lights for 1 hour might not save you a lot of money but it’s a start. Imagine if you do the same thing to your heater, air conditioner and other energy consuming products, then you’ll see a big difference. This is a small step for you but it’s a big step for the earth. In fact it’s a big step for each of us to preserve the earth for our next generation.

Real Kung Fu starts with coffee?

This picture that stats “Real kung fu starts with this” is actually a joke. The problem is I just don’t get it. I will appreciate it if anybody can tell me. I know that coffee doesn’t help with Kong Fu. I know that people that do Kong Fu might also love to drink coffee. I know that we start work right after we have a cup of coffee. That’s a wake up call. So we need to drink coffee first to actually do real Kong Fu? This I don’t get it.

Shopping at ShopWiki

It took me some time to get familiar with ShopWiki but the way that the site presented is very interesting. The site doesn’t seem like an online shop. It looks more like a search engine for products. You get to search for a particular product, for example printers, computers, keyboards or laptops and you’ll be show a list of products with different prices and different online shop. This is actually good for customers as we are shown lots of option and able to make comparison before placing orders. While searching for the products that we wish to purchase, customers are also introduce to many new online shops. Beside the new online shops, there are also other things too. The best thing about using shopWiki is that we are able to learn and study the products that we want to purchase. Take for example if I need to buy a laptop, it’s not just the list of products I get. I’m also shown a brief buying guide, recommended products, top picks products, tips on how to get the best, pros and cons and many other info to help me get the right laptop. That means before I choose and place my orders, I was shown how to get the right and suitable product for me.
The site only has a simple layout. It does a good job in providing customers lot of option, suggestion and comparison. It makes it easier to search for what we want.

Send an email to yourself in the future using WeeMail

From time to time there’s always something special or unusual popup from the internet. As for today I found this site call WeeMail that suggested we should remind ourselves on certain things by sending an email back to us in future. How do we do that? Simple, all we need to do is uses WeeMail and send an email back to us postdated. Interesting? Not really. First of all, there are a lot of similar reminding tools that we can use online. One good example is by using the schedule form My Yahoo. You just need to click on the date that you need to be reminded and before that day come, an reminding email will be send to you. Secondly the first thing that comes in my mind when I saw this site is that this might be a great tool for email spamming. If you check out WeeMail, you’ll find that all you need to do is fill up the email address, subject, message, date and the image verification to send out an email. The process is really simple for anybody to send out an email. The only thing that the site can do to try to stop email spamming is to filter each email one by one. There is no account to block and no users to blacklist. So I’m guessing spamming might be the biggest problem that WeeMail faces.

Seriously, I’m not so sure the concept of WeeMail works. The service provided is not unique and there is a problem of miss using as spamming. But any way, this might be a good brainstorming process as bloggers, like myself will judge and comment on it. Who knows this might leads to a good idea that benefits all.

Cheat sheets for designing programs

When we are using software, programming or applications such as Microsoft Office, Linux, Windows, AutoCAD, we tend to work as fast as possible. Thus, using shortcuts or hot keys becomes more frequent. The problem is we might not be able to remember all of them unless we use them often. That is why we try to make a list of hot keys or shortcuts on a piece of paper and stick it beside our monitor. That way we don’t have to remember all of the keys. Here’s a site that I found that gather 14 most useful web design cheat sheets. The 14 cheat sheets include Photoshop, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript Frameworks and Flash.

With the help of the cheat sheets you can work faster. That’s actually good as it’s efficient that we’re talking about. There’s nothing better than finishing the work as soon as possible.

Aliens Vs Coffee Machine

That’s really the kind of coffee machine that going to scare the hell out of people before even taste the coffee. I haven’t been taken a slip of coffee for around couple of weeks ever since I fall sick. The only thing that I’m a lot to have is only water, lots and lots of water. 3 days of high fever knock down everything that I got. It took about a week for me to regain my appetite and another week to regain my strength. Guess I have lots of things to catch up, especially things that happens online. Even so, I still can’t work long in front of the monitor. I still need more rest to get myself back to normal condition. Well, I’ll just have to do this one step at a time.

Personal Finance in your inbox

Speaking of calculation, I’ve been doing that a lot lately as the economic around the world is going crazy. Many things like oil, currency, stock market are going up and down. I’m sure many of us are getting sea sick and throwing out a lot. If you’re in debt with the bank because of your car loan, housing loan or maybe refinancing, you might just want to recalculate your financial status. In fact if you seriously want to calculate your personal financial, here’s a personal finance software form Rudder that you can try out. Yes, it’s free and you can try it out. This online money management rated as the best products in 2008 and the top real world web apps of 2008. It also features in CNBC, the wall street journal, TechCrunch and many other press. Unfortunately this software seems to be created to suit people that live in US. But then that doesn’t mean it can’t be use by others. As it’s a free service, it doesn’t hurt to try it out.

The one thing that we do every day is calculation

We calculate, the moment that we wake up we start calculate how much time we have for breakfast without getting later for work. We calculate how many days left before holiday and we calculate how much we earn. Furthermore we even calculate how much we have to earn in order to buy a house, a car, getting married, have kids, education, medication, vacation and most of all retirement. Seriously you might be able to get all the calculation done nicely or perfectly but the thing is it’s a never ending calculation. The equation changes as life goes on. Life is unpredictable and everything changes, the only thing that you can be sure about your calculation is right now at this moment. At the end of the day or after you wake up next day in the morning, the answer you calculated expires. New day new calculation, thus we keep on doing the math of our life.

Here’s an online converter that might be helpful if you’re always doing the calculation. It might not be that perfect but we can go for the best that we can get. The more calculation has been done the lower the risk or the safer the path.

Watching Grey’s Anatomy Online at Cucirca

Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite US television medical dramas. Several television channels in my country always compete to air the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy. In order to catch up with the latest viewing, I have to keep up with the channels competition too. Still if you’re not staying in the US, you’ll always be one season late. Lucky for those that have an internet broadband connection, we can almost have the first view of the latest episode right after the drama is air. The latest season of Grey’s Anatomy that I’m able to catch on my country is season 4. Currently I’m waiting for season 5 to be air but I don’t think that will be happened soon.

Dragging by my desire to continue my medical drama addiction, I did a quick search on Google to see if I can watch the drama online. It turns out the first site from Google search result is able to let me watch the drama online. The site is called Cucirca and has all Grey’s Anatomy seasons and some other famous US drama as well. Putting the legal issue about copyright aside we can see that as the speed of the internet connection is increasing, it is possible to have online video, which means television is not the only channel to watch your favorite movies or drama. You can watch it on your computer or laptop too.

No doubt that the possibility of watching the same television show online is there and it seems to happening now. The big question is how they can control the airing and copyright. This involves a lot of money and it won’t be easy. Even so this is a trend that can’t be stop as we all know that many already has access to all the latest movies and television drama as long as you know where to find them. Actually similar case happens before when the internet speed is fast enough to transfer a MP3 song. It shouldn’t be a surprise any more as it just a repeated incident. The difference is that how we make full use of it.

As for viewers around the world, it is great to be able to watch the latest season or episode of the Grey’s Anatomy.

Calculate your own personal financial report for free

Here’s a wealth manager that enable you to estimate and calculate your personal financial report. The Chat is simple. All you need to do is fill in your monthly investment, return in % and other expenses. The expenses are cars, property, education, wedding engagement and so on. You can just play around with it as the chat changes as you insert your investment and put up your expenses. You will be shown graphs of liability, investment and property assets. Calculations are between the ages of 30 to 85. It’s a simple estimation but at least this will gives you a brief idea on how your financial situation is. Many of us did not actually sit down and think about the money that is needed in future, or shall I say plan on the money that we earn for future usage. This is actually very important, especially you plan to get married and wanted to raise couple of kids. You need to actually calculate if you’re able to earn enough money for shelter, food and education. There is a video clip on the site that shows you how this wealth manager works. Have a look and try it out. This may give you a good start on how to budget and plan your personal financial.

StarBucks does not have my cup of coffee

If you’re going to have a regular cup of coffee, which coffee shop will you go for? If you ask me, I’ll say any normal coffee shop is better than StarBucks. That’s true and I’ll say it again. StarBucks is not on my list of regular good old black coffee to go for. Not to mention that their price of a regular coffee is way more expensive than others, it still doesn’t taste good. Unless I’m going for a cappuccino, latte or mocha, I might think about StarBucks. Seriously, it just doesn’t sound right for a famous coffee shop around the globe to not have a good regular cup of coffee.

If you’re not sure about this, just do a simple test. Gather 4~5 of your friends and each purchase a cup of coffee from various coffee shops including StarBucks. Change the paper cup so that all 5 cups of coffee looks the same. Of cause you need to do a marking so that you remember which cup of coffee is from StarBucks. Pick some of you friends to taste the coffee and decide which coffee taste better. I’ll bet you that coffee from StarBucks won’t turn out winner. The above test might just be too troublesome, to make it simple just buy a cup of regular coffee from MacD and StarBucks. Taste it yourself and you’ll know what I mean.

I saw an article about consumer reports picks the best cup o’brew from Yahoo and makes me wonder we might just paying too much for a cup of regular coffee. That’s my thought about the coffee that I tasted. How about you?

A human search engine

Most of you probably know what a search engine is. Couple of the most famous search engine is Google and Yahoo. Basically what you do is just type a keyword that related to the topic and you’ll get a list of sites. That’s just the beginning of what you really want to find. You have to check out each and every site in order to find what you want. Take for example if you’re looking for a information that related to cars and how to repair, most likely you’ll spend a lot of time searching online and probably won’t find the exact material.

Here’s a service that you might be interested if you’re not good with search engine. You can just let others to search for the things or info for you. At WeSeekIt or human power search engine, you can just tell them exactly what you look for and they do the search online for you. That’s right. Instead of you do the search online yourself, you let others do the work. It’s a new search engine power by humans. Try it out.

P/S: I think this site is good for those that are not familiar with search engine. Sometime you might spend hours in front of the monitor and might not find what you want.

When there’s no Coffee Break

During this economic crisis, no doubt that many companies will try to restructure their business to survive. Many actions such as lay off some workers, cut bonus, reduce pay, unpaid leaves are done to get through the crisis. No matter what companies do, don’t ever try to take out coffee break. Without coffee break, there might not be any productivity as situation below might occur.

Free Ebooks Magazine and Programming Books from BooksAIO

This is not the first time that I post about free ebook site. No doubt that there are lots of free material and free stuff online. The problem is where and how to find them. Some of the ebooks that you purchase online might just be free info scattered online. Some people take the time and effort to gather all of the info and compile it into a pdf file. Basically you’re just paying for the time and effort to gather the info. Next time do a search online before you purchase anything. You might be surprise with your finding. There are lots of treasures online. Just that it might takes some skill and knowledge to find them.

Here’s the site with lots of free magazines and programming books – BooksAIO. Enjoy.

Brand new and unique social network site Acobay

Add your stuff at acobay. Well, that's the first impression from the site. Acobay is actually a social networking site that allows others to share and connect. Just check out the stuff map for popular products, similar interest and many more. You're able to find information about the best or popular place to have fun, shopping and dining. It's kind of like other social networking site, just that acobay categorize it differently. The site actually gives a unique feeling with the way they categorizes stuff.

Free Alternative CAD software and other AutoCAD related info

Frankly speaking, I don’t know much about Auto CAD design software but I do know getting the software license is expensive. Not many people able to own one especially students. That is the reason why people starting to search for an alternative software to replace it. As long as you’re able to use the alternative software to achieve your goal, then it’s all it matters. No doubt that there are a lot of functions with the use of Auto CAD program. In many conditions we only use up 10%~20% of the functions and that’s really a waste. Here’s a few of the sites that I found might be useful for those of you that are in architecture and always in use of Auto CAD. I hope that these might come in handy.

CADdepot.com - CAD shareware, demos, free utilities and add-ons.
CADspan - creates 3D printable file from any CAD model.
3D Animation Workshop - 3D modeling tutorials, lessons and software reviews
CAD Corner - Architectural Auto CAD Details
Solid Components - 3D CAD drawings for design engineering

Turn your bath tub into a planetarium or deep sea ocean

What do you normally bring along when you’re taking a bath, a toy duck? Here‘s a product form Sega toys that you’ll love to have if you spend a lot of time in the bath tub - Homestar PRO - Home Planetarium. Check out the pictures and video clips below.

Like it? Here’s the best way that you can use this product. Homestar PRO - Home Planetarium, champagne and romantic music in bath tab. I’m sure you love one will enjoy spending time with you in the bath tab with that environment. Even if you’re still single and trying to get a special gift for a girl, I’m sure this will be a suitable one. Of cause you need to check if she takes bath or shower. For that I think you need to find a way to get that info. Asking her directly might not be a good idea.

Beside I think you can use Homestar PRO - Home Planetarium not just at the bath tub but any place as long as it’s a dark room. For sure you can easily create a romantic atmosphere with this small cub.

A Cup of coffee shows how hard working you are

Ever wondering what your boss might be thinking if he always finds that you’re not at your work place? Well, you’ll just have to let him know that you’re around and close to your desk. You need to let your boss knows that even if he can’t see you, you still get your job done. So how do you let your boss understand that? Here’s product that help you with that.



P/S: You can try putting a hot plat under your cup of coffee before moving away from your desk. You might not get that much steam but you sure have a cup of always hot coffee. Remember to get a big cup so that your coffee won’t dry out fast.

Lots of Q stuff for you girls and kids

Just found a nice Japan site with lots of Q stuff. Basically all are pictures of cute bears, cats, ducks and other small animal. The site is in Japanese language but I think you should be able to identify them easily from the icon. The icon shows exactly what you’ll download. You’ll find calendars, plain sketch PDF file, wallpaper in 800x600 1034x768 1280x1024 sizes, screensavers, icons, postcards and many more. All the above are available not just in Windows version but Mac version too. If you love cute stuff and wanted to decorate your desktop then check out www.san-x.co.jp.

PayPal Free Calculator

We all love free stuff. Here’s a site that gives you PayPal free calculator. Well, it’s not just PayPal. The site also has free calculator for eBay, Half.com, Amazon, BidPay, ePier, Etsy and Overstock. It’s not exactly a calculator but it’s a tool specially created to calculate the fees, currency exchange and the amount of money that you earn or pay through PayPal. With these tools you are able to calculate the amount of money that you lost during transaction. It can help save you a lot of money when you’re dealing a large sum of money. You can use these tools to minimize the losses during transaction. Give it a try and check out your monthly transaction through PayPal. You’ll be surprise with the amount of money PayPal gets.

Earn money by uploading and downloading files

That’s right. You can earn money by downloading, uploading, storing and sharing files. Uploading.com and depositfiles.com is couple of site that I found which enable this money making opportunity. Is it too good to be true? Well, it’s true that you’re able to earn some money through these sites but there are some rules and regulations. First of all only members from certain countries are eligible to earn money through these sites. If you’re from US then you have the chance to earn money from the sites. You’re able to earn $5~$30 per 1000 downloads from the files that you upload, bedside that you’re able to earn money from referring others too. You might not earn much but I think you sure able to earn some. Basically if you upload some useful things that are needed, you should be able to get lots of downloads. Things like business plan, excel work file, sample of power point presentation, research data, meeting minutes, pictures, music as long as it’s legal.
There are actually lots of free uploading, downloading and file sharing sites available online. Competition between these sites struggling to survive is fierce. The idea of giving out part of the revenue to users really is attractive. At least it will attract lots of users in a short period of time. It’s actually a good idea for a start out promotional purpose. In long term basis, user friendly and good services still the 2 basic things that keep the site alive. Will these 2 sites survived? Time will tell.