All of the bloggers I know online have felt the pinch from the economy. The money isn’t flowing around the internet as freely as it used to! Most of the folks I’ve talked to who are receiving “stimulus” checks from the IRS are planning on stimulating their bills with the money. Times are only going to get tighter, and those of us who are used to making money online will continue to feel the pinch. If your budget has taken a hit, now is a good time to investigate debt counseling online. Programs like debt analysis and credit repair can help get your budget back on track so that you’re not a victim of the economy!

Jim and I watched Family Guy last night, and it was the episode where James Woods seeks revenge on Peter by stealing his identity. Peter loses his wallet, and because James Woods has Peter’s social security card, drivers license, and the deed to his house, he’s able to move right in to Peter’s house. Absurd, of course, but funny. (Peter later gets revenge on James Woods by stealing HIS identity and going on David Letterman to promote a comedy about 9/11.)

Identity theft is a real, and growing concern. I, like most of my neighbors and friends, get 10 credit card offers a week in the mail. How easy would it be for someone to take my mail and get credit cards in MY name for their use? Too easy! You can see why identify theft has topped the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint list for the SEVENTH year in a row. 36% of all complaints received by the FTC in 2006 were about identity theft.

Lifelock is hoping to change those numbers by creating fraud alerts for their customers and removing your name from junk mail and credit card lists like the one I mentioned above. As a Lifelock customer, you receive free, regular credit reports so you can stay on top of changes to your account, too!

James Woods may never steal your wallet, but wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry?

We’re on the verge of making big password changes at work for our system. Going forward, all passwords will need to have three of the following items:

A capital letter
A lower case letter
A number
A special symbol (*, &, $, etc)

This is going to cause huge issues, because most of our users are…well, not technical people. They can’t even remember the simple passwords they’re choosing now, so when we break the news to them that their passwords have to change - well, people are going to be bent.

It’s for a good reason though - people often use the same password on every single site they belong to or register at, which makes it super easy for hackers to crack one account…and then every single account that person has online. Could you imagine if someone hacked into your blog, and then was able to do the same to your online banking, simply because you used the same password for both sites? Scary, huh?

I bought a new laptop recently (note to self: send rebate form in to get my $180 rebate!) and last night I finally got around to moving files from my old laptop to the new machine. It’s been a while since I switched laptops, and I had forgotten what a pain it is. I used one of those Belkin easy transfer cables to move everything, and that was simple, but I still had to download Firefox, and add in the extensions and add ons I use with it.

When I did the Firefox install, one of the questions I was asked was what did I want my homepage to be? Because I was in a bit of a hurry, I just kept the standard Google Firefox search homepage I’ve been using on my old laptop. BORING! The laptop came with a Toshiba homepage in IE, and it’s sort of neat - but it doesn’t look right in Firefox. I’d like to have something a little more custom, a little more fun, and a lot cooler than the lame-o Google page, which is what led me to HomePagle. I can use this site to create a cool custom homepage for Firefox, complete with a picture of moi, or some celebrity, AND the functionality of Google search.

When you create a HomePagle homepage you’ve got your choice of premade templates featuring female celebrities, male celebrities, cars, animal images, sports themes, landscape pictures, holiday themes, and music as well. The Google box on your homepage moves, and you can drag it around the image and place it where ever it fits best. This is so easy, my mother could do it!

Here’s a screenshot of my Homepagle homepage:

Easy, fun, cool, and fresh!

In another case of a company being afraid of a little competition, Experian (one of the three big credit bureaus) is attempting to block Lifelock from helping credit consumers. I’ve previously written about the great services offered by Lifelock on this blog, which include Lifelock creating fraud alerts on your behalf with the credit bureaus. Experian is trying to stop this, saying that current credit laws don’t allow for a third party to place a fraud alert on the behalf of a consumer. Hmm…why would Experian be trying to block this service, which PREVENTS credit fraud? Could it be because fraud alerts cost Experian money, and affect their bottom line? Could it be that Experian really doesn’t care about protecting your credit, only THEIR PROFITS? Lifelock also allows consumers to opt out of pre-approved credit offers and other junk mailings, which further cuts into a big business the credit bureaus having - selling your personal information to credit card companies!

And we wonder why there’s so much credit card fraud in the US - it’s because the credit bureaus couldn’t care less about protecting us!

Just in case you’re a texting fool, Yahoo has put together a list of things you can do to protect your privacy while texting. I’m sure most of us don’t think of texts like we do emails - but text messages can be forwarded, and they are stored on your cell phone provider’s network. I’ll bet you didn’t know that text messages can be easily intercepted by anyone with a radio kit, and that it’s so easy to do, even Wal-Mart employees have figured it out!

Treat texting like email - don’t send your PIN, don’t send a credit card number, your social security number, or other personal details.

I’ve returned to college this spring, and signed up for the first of what will be many online classes. It’s kind of amusing that I’m such an internet addict, yet in all my years of college, I’ve never taken an online class! I’m in the first week of statistics, and while there is some disconnect that occurs when you never meet your instructor or attend a lecture, I don’t mind at all. I’m saving time on commuting to the campus and sitting in a class trying to keep my eyes open. I can do all of my work at home and submit it online, and ask questions on a class discussion board. The particular university I’m attending has a ton of online classes, and degrees can be earned without ever stepping foot into a traditional classroom.

That’s progress, baby!

For whatever reason, when I got my new laptop from work, the IT guys didn’t install the calculator that comes with Windows. How the heck did that happen? I haven’t been able to spare the time to hand over my laptop to the IT guys to get it added, so I’ve been using cheesy free calculators online whenever I needed one.

I just found out that the Google toolbar works with Firefox to give you a little free calculator utility, right in your browser! It even does square root functions, so I can use it for my statistics class.

If it weren’t for the internet, would we be so involved in celebrities lives?

Take the recent tragedy with Heath Ledger’s untimely death. Instead of waiting until the next day to find out about this via the front page of a newspaper, people knew within hours of the event. Shortly after that, the first falsehoods about Heath’s death were making their way around the internet, one that the apartment was Mary Kate Olson’s. That was found out to be incorrect, but it illustrates how quickly information moves thanks to the internet.

What about Britney? You can practically get up to the minute information on her crazy antics online, making us all more involved than we should want to be, or need to be in that train wreck. Will she go to drug rehab? Will she never see her kids again? Will she drink so much she needs alcohol rehab?

I don’t care. In that case, I wish the internet would STOP feeding her attention. To echo that whack job on YouTube, “leave Britney alone!” (And maybe she’ll go away!)

A few months ago, stressed when I couldn’t get any more Dexter discs from Netflix, I decided to get Showtime on Demand from the cable company. Watching television on demand got me thinking about the advances made to the entertainment industry in recent years. Cable came out in…what, the 80’s? I remember needing a box for our television back then. Once cable came out, nothing changed for a LONG time. And then, along came the DVR, which I refer to as the single best invention since the internet. After that, it was TV on demand, and Netflix allowing you to watch whole movies on your computer. Amazing, isn’t it?

I’ve watched all of the Dexter there is to watch for now, and I moved onto Weeds. I love this show! Where Dexter is high tech, with computers and crime scenes and blood spatter, Weeds is low tech - just a few commercial lighting units, some
electrical supplies, and an empty house - boom, you’ve got a growing cottage industry. Pun not intended.

One of the things I could have used on our trip last week was a GPS tracking system. I normally have an excellent sense of direction, but Amsterdam is a confusing city! The streets are narrow and winding in most cases, there are alleys with storefronts and restaurants that don’t appear on maps, and when you throw in canals and bridges on every other block, things tend to get a wee bit confusing. To our cab driver’s credit, he made it from the airport to our hotel in 20 minutes flat, without a GPS vehicle tracking system, quickly navigating down the one way streets of the red light district. Of course, he did charge us a pretty penny for the ride - about 60 Euros!

While on my trip to Amsterdam last week, I stopped in a few internet cafes to get my email fix. More than once, I was tempted to take the trackball out of a mouse and clean it, but I resisted. (Why are even sold anymore? Optical is the way to go, baby!) Prices for the internet were generally good in The Netherlands, ranging from FREE at the small cafe immediately next to the Anne Frank House (as long as you were a paying customer) to 2 euros for an hour at a internet cafe on Damrak.

The priciest internet on my whole trip was back in the good old US of A at the Dulles airport in Washington D.C. With an hour plus to kill before my flight back to Tampa, I was excited to find an internet kiosk, but not too excited when I realized the internet access would cost me 40 cents per MINUTE!

Needless to say, I declined.

If you’ve got bad credit, you probably receive offers every day designed especially for you - everything from home loans with high interest rates to secured credit cards. How do you know which offers are right, and which will only dig you deeper into debt? This site offers information on bad credit loans, as well as credit repair, giving you resources for loans when you’re in a bad credit information. You can compare services and products without obligation, and apply online instantly.

I’ve been talking with the owner of MoneySmart this week, and I’m really impressed with her product. The site sells ebooks designed to help kids and teens learn about money, budgeting, and saving for a rainy day. The workbooks are available in both dollar and euro version, and will give you a way to talk openly with your kids about family finances and the almighty dollar. We teach our kids so much, but all too often, we forget about this important subject. Considering how much money affects your everyday life, this is something every parent needs to talk to their kid about!

One of the major changes to the internet in recent years was the move to make things more compatible for browsing via your cell phone. With so many mobile phones able to access the web now, it only makes sense to develop mobile content for the millions of people that surf via their cell phones. The next logical move of course, was to create a social networking site that caters to these uber cell phone users, where one can find cool free cell phone apps, ringtones, wallpaper, videos, and even games, all in one place.

Cellware is the first in a new breed of cell phone content sites taking the mobile phone experience to a whole new level. Members get access to new mobile content daily, and your free membership doesn’t require giving out personal details about yourself, like some other free sites. All you need to do to sign up is provide an email address, and select a user name and password. No credit cards, address, mother’s maiden name, or first born child required.

As far as the social networking and community aspect, members are given a Facebook-ish profile page where users can see your creations, who you’re friends with at the site, or leave a message on your wall. Users can rate the content offers as well.

I mentioned that Cellware is free, right? ALL of the content available at the site is free - there’s not a charge to access anything. What’s more, once you’re a member, you’re eligible to take part in Cellware’s unique revenue sharing model. By creating applications, wallpapers, games,
ringtones, and the like, and sharing your creations with the Cellware community, you’re able to receive a piece of the revenue pie. It doesn’t make sense to let someone else make money off your content at another site, so why do it?

How many times have you purchased a new car, agreed on a price, signed on the bottom line…and then been pressured by the dealer to add extras? Do you want undercoating? Floor mats? Or the salesman starts pressuring you to select one of the extended auto warranties the dealer sells. DON’T succumb to the pressure. Dealers often put a big markup on these extra items, and you’re the one who ends up paying for it. You do NOT need to buy an extended warranty at the time of purchase - you can buy a car warranty online at any time, online! Companies like Continental Warranty specialize in the car warranty after market, so to speak, and you end up saving quite a bit of money.

I do recommend getting the floor mats though

I love a good after Christmas sale, and this web hosting special definitely qualifies as a great deal! How would you like to have:

• 250 GB of disk space
• 3000 GB of bandwidth
• unlimited MySQL databases
• PHP4
• webmail
• a free domain, for LIFE
• and professional web design tools?

Sound good? It’ll sound even better when I tell you it’s available for a ONE time payment of $95. But hurry! You’ve got to be one of the 1st 1000 people to sign up for the Rudolf plan in order to snag this deal. I’d take it for the unlimited MySQL databases alone - I hate hosting plans that limit those! This plan is normally $60 a year, but you can get it for LIFE for only $95, and that includes the free domain. They take care of the renewal fees, for as long as you stay with THC.

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own blog, a new blog, or a website for the new year, this is a great deal to take advantage of. Sure, it’s a little more upfront, but you’ll be saving money each month when you don’t have to pay for your server space!

With a lot of folks headed towards drowning in debt thanks to Christmas and holiday spending, I know there are people out there who want to save money, they just don’t know where to start. If you’re not a financial genius, FinanceGenius.com can help you with all sorts of options to reign in your spending. Maybe you just don’t know how to read that home owner insurance quote you recently received, and you need to compare it to your existing coverage. Or you’d like to find out more about how to pay off your student loans quicker. This site can help!

Holy cow! I guess friends and relatives on Piotr Staniaszek’s Christmas list aren’t getting much this year, considering he’s got an $85,000 cell phone bill to pay off. Piotr mistakenly used his cell phone as a modem for his computer - he thought it would be covered in his $10 a month unlimited mobile internet plan. Uh…no. The plan covers you when you use the PHONE to navigate the net, but not when you use the phone to use your computer to surf the internet. As a show of good will, Bell Mobility dropped the bill to $3,243, but Piotr is fighting it.

My advice? Give in and be happy you’re getting off for just over $3000 - it could be much, much worse.

Is a new website design on your list for Santa? Or is a brand new design on your must do for 2008 list? Either way you slice it, the new year is a good time to take a new look at your website or blog and freshen things up. Tweak your website design with changes to your sidebar, new pictures, an updated logo, or by updating your website templates.

If you’re unsatisfied with your web hosting, make the new year your time to find a new place for your business web hosting. Start the year fresh with less downtime and more server reliability. View your website like a user would - do all of the links work? Is there a contact form? If you’re using ecommerce web hosting is your shopping cart easy to use, and is the check out and purchase process simple?

Small changes like these can make 2008 start off on the right foot!