Saturday, February 28, 2009

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 Laptop

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 is a gamers delight with very high-end graphics and sound system. Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 sports 4 high fidelity speakers with sub-woofer system which will drown you into real sound. Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 graphics engine heart is NVidia GeForce 9800 GTS graphics card which provides 1GB of dedicated memory.

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 is powered by 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor which delivers a high performance. Combined with a 3GB RAM you will be able to run heavy application like 3D Softwares and Games at high resolution with ease. Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 includes a DVD Dual layer drive for multimedia entertainment. It can burn CD's and DVDs. Multimedia can be controlled by a remote provided with the laptop. Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 has a huge hard drive of 320 GB which you can use to store all your games and multimedia files.

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 has a 17 inch screen with 1680X1050 resolution which delivers very crisp images and ultimate gaming experience. Peripherals include 4 USB ports, 1 Firewire, 1 HDMI, Express Card, 5-in-1 Memory Card Slot, Bluetooth and Draft-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) Wifi.

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q706 Laptop comes loaded with windows vista home premium with both 32 and 64bit version.

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Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 Laptop

Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 is a great 17 inch laptop. Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 is simple but very stylishly designed with very high end hardware. Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 runs on 2 Ghz Intel Centrino Mobile Processor, a 3 GB RAM and 250GB hard disk.

Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 has a huge screen with 1400X900 resolution. The screen bezel houses a 1.3 mega pixel webcam which you can use for video conferencing and taking pictures. A dual layer DVD reader/writer optical drive can read several formats, CD and DVD.

Toshiba Satellite L355-S7902 peripherals include 3 USB ports, 1 Express Card, 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader, 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Fast Ethernet, Intel Graphics Card with 1GB on demand memory and wireless lan. All this at $650.

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Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 Laptop

Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 is an amazing laptop with high-end features which can be used for home, office or heavy multimedia stuff. Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 even serves as desktop replacement. Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 is fitted with the best hardware in terms of performance like 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB RAM and huge 320 GB hard disk.

Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 display is a large 16 inch LCD screen with 1366X768 resolution. The screen bezel also holds a 1.3 mega pixel webcam. The web cam also works as a face regonition device for extra biometric security by personalizing your laptop. Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 comes pre-installed with windows vista home basic operating system.

Toshiba Satellite A355-S6925 peripherals include 4 USB ports, 1 firewire, Draft-N Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Fast Ethernet, Intel Integrated graphics card with 2GB of on demand memory and Intel's 5100AGN wireless LAN.

All in all, this is a great laptop and costs $750.

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Omron HJ-112 Digital Pedometer

Omron HJ-112 Pedometer is an awesome device which uses a sensing technology to measure your daily physical activity. Just keep the Omron HJ-112 Pedometer on your body or in your purse and it measures how much distance you have covered during the day. A pedometer works on the principle of measuring the distance covered and calories burnt based on the individuals stride. Omron HJ-112 Pedometer uses dual sensing technology to accurately estimate this. Omron HJ-112 Pedometer is equiped with easy to read digital display screen giving information about data like number of steps taken, distance covered and even calories burnt. Omron HJ-112 Pedometer comes with a wrist band and a belt holder.

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Dan Brown proves his prowess with Angels and Demons which focuses on the struggle between a scientific society Illuminati and the Catholic church. The plot of Angels and Demons revolves around the dicovery of anti-matter by a scientist who is brutally murdered. His discovery, anti-matter is hidden beneath the Vatican where some terrorist are holding anti-matter and priests hostage. Symbologist Robert Langdon along with the daughter of the slayed scientist gets on the trail to track the anti-matter and save the world from complete destruction.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Dyson Ball DC25 Vacuum Cleaner

Dyson DC25 features a revolutionary new technology called the Dyson Ball. Instead of rollers at the base, Dyson DC25 features a heavy ball free to rotate in any direction. The Dyson Ball reduces the center of gravity and increses maneuverability. A powerfull 11 amp motor is housed inside the Dyson Ball which uses Root Cyclone Technology to centrifugaly seperate the dirt particles from the air keeping the circulation free of dirt. Dyson DC25 is certified asthama safe and uses a HEPA filter which catches any micro-organisms and dirt particles.

Dyson Ball also comes equipped with a 16 foot telescopic wand and 24 foot of power chord which increases its overall reach. This product is covered by a 5 year spares and parts warranty and costs $500.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Timex Men's Ironman Triathlon Digital-Analog Combo Watch

Ironman Triathlon Combo Watch features both dial and digital time displays. Encased in a silver stainless steel 45mm wide case it is water resistant upto 100 meters. It features illuminated dials, Indiglo LCD digital illumination which uses very little battery power, 2 alarm settings, 2 time zones, a chronograph with 42 lap recall and a tachymeter. Ironman Triathlon watch comes with a 1 year warranty and costs just $47.

Invicta Pro Divers Stainless Steel Men's Watch

Invicta has designed a very robust stainless steel incased pro divers watch. The case size is 45 mm with bezel edges and tachymeter. Watch hands and numeric markings are luminous. The watch is water resistant upto 100 meters (330 ft). It sports a steel link wrist bracelet with fold over clasp. A sapphire coated mineral protect the dial glass from scratches. This Invicta watch also features a week calender at the 12 o clock position and a date display at the 3 o clock position. All in all this is a very sturdy and manly looking watch costing only $60

Hoover S2220 Bagless Vacuum Cleaner

Hoover S2220 is an amazing vacuum cleaner. Its light, powerful and its extended reach with 20 foot power chord insures you can cover your whole house. Hoover S2220 is very slim and does not have a dust bag. It runs on a powerful 8 amp motor. It also comes with a power nozzle for cleaning carpets and rugs. Hoover S2220 weighs only 10 pounds and costs $50 only.

Hoover F5914-900 Steam Vacuum Cleaner

Hoover F5914-900 Steam Vacuum Cleaner is the solution to cleaning your carpets, upholstery, rugs, doormats, carpeting, any other fabric or bare floor. Hoover F5914-900 is an upright vacuum cleaner which weighs just 28 lbs lighter than most conventional vacuum cleaners. Attached with a 8 foot hose and a long power chord ensures every corner of the house can be reached. Hoover F5914-900 Steam Vacuum Cleaner runs on a powerful 12 amp motor with surge technology which helps remove the toughest of stains. It houses a 1 gallon compartment of hot water and a seperate compartment for detergent. The detergent is automatically mixed with the water during operation. Using the surge clean give a burst of high pressure air along with the detergent mix.

Hoover F5914-900 Steam Vacuum Cleaner comes with 5 different types of brush for different types of fabric and cleaning. It is covered by a 1 year warranty and costs just $150.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Income Tax - What is Personal Exemption

Income Tax exemption reduces the taxable income. There are two types of tax exemptions - Personal Exemption and Exemption for dependents like your spouse or children. For the year 2009 if your taxable income was below $3650, you pay no taxes. Personal Exemption depends on the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and deductions lower your taxable income.

You can claim further exemption if you have dependents. There are certain criteria which define a dependent which have to be met before you can avail a dependent personal exemption. Any child under the age of 19 years is a dependent provided that you bear 10% cost of support and the dependent did not pay more than 50% of the support.

Real Estate Market Growth in 2009

The long standing jinx about the real estate market prices rising year after year has broken with the current credit crisis. Since the last recorded data in the 19th century, the last three-four years have hardly seen any appreciation in real estate prices. Most commercial and housing real estate is currently in a depression with reduced demand and rental rates falling.

What comounds the problem is non-availability of attractive loan programs which would otherwise help pull in customers. Several banks have been hit hard due to the credit crisis. AIG being the hardest hit which required a $150 bn bailout. There is a lot of bad credit in the market which needs to be cleaned and recycled before seeing any change in the real estate market.

However, there is some good news for the real estate industry. Certain states like Montana, North Dakota, Texas and Georgia were immune to the current credit crisis and managed to see some real estate business generated. Several states have published foreclosure data as business but this actually is an overall loss to lending banks. Foreclosure rates have been peaking since the current credit crisis which is not a very good sign. According to estimates nearly 4 million foreclosure were filed and the number is expected to touch 7 million by 2010. This will but the whole economy into a loop where on one hand lending banks will lose money due to foreclosures and non-recovery of loans, and on the other hand people in bulk will lose jobs due to falling profit margins.

Overall, 2009 will not see a substantial growth in the real estate sector. Whatever business will be generated would be a salvaging effort of failing home loans.

Related Content Widget for Your Blog

If you have a blog with lots of posts on various topics ranging from cooking, finance, laptops, cameras, cars etc. I am sure you must be using tags to categorize them under similar headings. For example by tagging all car related posts as "cars", your tagged pages list would show the number of articles under the tag "cars". This ofcourse means that everytime you write new or slightly different content you have to tag it properly so that it can be categorized.

What I am going to show you will entirely remove the need to tag your posts. This is the Related Content Widget by Searchles. What this widgets does is that it clubs all post which are similar in content. So, if you have 10 posts on laptops, Related Posts Widget will automatically club them based on their content. You can place this Related Content Widget anywhere on your blog for your visitors to see.

The benefit of Related Content Widget is that it tends to provide more useful information to your blog visitors and keeps them engaged longer raising your chances of earning advertisement revenue.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Chevrolet Camaro at Dallas Auto Show

The highly anticipated Chevrolet Camaro 2 seater coupe is being show cased at the Dallas Auto Show. General Motors has come out with three versions of Chevrolet Camaro:
  1. A 300 Horse Power V6, 27 mpg highway and automatic transmission
  2. A 400 Horse Power V8 with automatic transmission
  3. A 422 Horse Power V8 with manual transmission.

Chevrolet Camaro comes fitted with some awesome features like 6 airbags, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. The starting price is fixed at $22,000.

Chevrolet Camaro happens to be a young blood sports car and thats exactly what all its variants and concept models show. The most prominent being a black matte finish, 21 inch wheel base and sinister interiors of black chrome Camaro. Camaro's are also fitted with disk brakes on all four wheels and racing style aluminium pedals.

Toshiba Protege R500-S5004

Toshiba Protege R500-S5004 is an ultralight ultraportable mobile laptop with a 12.1 inch screen with a slim profile. Toshiba Protege R500-S5004 weighs on 1.7 lbs and is ideal for frequent travellers and business executives. Toshiba Protege R500-S5004 comes with a 3 year Toshiba warranty. Pre-installed softwares include windows vista business edition, Norton Internet Security 60 day trial and Microsoft Office 60 day trial.

Powered by a 1.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, Toshiba Protege R500-S5004 laptop can easily handle multitasking. Toshiba Protege R500-S5004 sports a 2 GB RAM, 250 MB Intel Graphics Card, DVD super multi optical drive and 64 MB solid state drive.

Peripherals include a wireless lan, bluetooth, fingerprint reader, PC Express slot and 3 USB ports.

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Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 Laptop

Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 is sleek ultraportable laptop designed to be highly affordable at $1200. Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 screen size is only 12.1 inch LED backlit which makes it very easy to use in small cramped office spaces or in you home office. Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 comes installed with Windows Vista Business and Toshiba EasyGuard technology which monitors the PC health and ensures longer life. Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 comes loaded with other useful softwares which include Norton Internet Security with 60 day trial, Toshiba Face Recognition Biometric Security software and Microsoft Office 60 day trial.

Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 sports 3 GB RAM and an integrated Intel Graphics card which can allocate upto 1GB of shared memory dynamically. With a Core 2 Duo 1.2 GHz processor it easily handles multiple applications with ease and a 160 GB hard disk ensure you never run out of space for your media and data. The optical DVD super multidrive lets you load upto 11 multiple formats of media.

Peripherals include a webcam installed in the screen frame, 2 USB ports, Bluetooth, PC Express Slot, wireless lan and finger print reader. Toshiba Protege A600-ST2231 comes in a standard soft pink color and weighs 3 lbs.

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Buick LaCrosse Features Review

Interiors
  • Leather Upholstery
  • Power seat adjuster
  • Map pouches
  • Rear split folding seats
  • Dual zone automatic climate control airconditioning
  • Heated/cooled front and rear airconditioning ducts.
Safety
  • Frontal and side airbags.
  • Door locks
  • Child security
Handling
  • Traction contorl
  • Powertrain modulation
  • 4 speed automatic transmission
  • standard 16 inch and 18 inch wheels
  • 4 wheel antilock disc brakes
  • Stability control system
Engine
  • 3.8 litre V6 and 5.4 litre V8 engine
  • 325 lb-ft torque
Accessories
  • Inside and outside rearview auto dimming mirrors
  • Remote keyless entry
  • Tire pressure monitoring system
  • XM satellite radio
  • Audio system with 9 speakers
  • CD Player, AM/FM radio
Price
  • $28,000 - $34,000

Sunday, February 22, 2009

HP Pavillion dv9720us Laptop

HP Pavillion dv9720us Laptop is an ultimate high end entertainment laptop costing around $1200. HP Pavillion dv9720us looks are amazing with high gloss finish and 17.1 inch lcd screen. Its features include 2 GHz dual core AMD Athlon 64 bit processor, 4 GB RAM, 160 GB hard disk, integrated webcam, integrated microphone, DVD optical drive, wireless internet connectivity, 4 USB ports, 5-in-1 memory card reader and NVidia GeForce graphics card with 800 MB on demand memory. HP Pavillion dv9720us laptop comes installed with windows vista home premium and includes a multimedia remote.

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Chevrolet Volt - Solution to Economic Efficiency

Chevrolet Volt possesses the answer to the current fuel crunch, rising prices and economic melt down. Chevrolet came up with Volt technology keeping the thought in mind to reduce dependency on conventinal fuel like gasoline or ethanol mix E85. Volt is very different than other hybrid cars in the sense that its 1.4 litre gasoline engine does not directly drive the transmission but is instead used to charge the lithium-ion battery pack. The Volt is driven entirely on battery power. Once fully charged, the Volt can cover a distance of 40 miles before it needs a recharge. According to federal estimates, average american office goer does not drive beyoud 40 miles to office. Volt can be recharged overnight which means it can be run continuously without requiring a drop of gasoline. This translates to huge savings in fuel costs.

Canon Powershot SX10IS 10 Mega Pixel Digital Camera

Canon Powershot SX10IS is an amazing camera with 10 MP resolution with features like 20x zoom, 2.5 inch wide angle LCD screen and optical image stabilizer. Canon Powershot SX10IS moviesnap mode lets you make high resolution images which shooting a video. SD/SDHC memory cards are supporte by Canon Powershot SX10IS. It also features face detection capability. It weighs only 1.2 pounds and costs $340 only.

Tips to Speed Up Your PC

  1. Turn off unneccessary windows services which run in the background and slow your PC. Certain applications also run updates and installers which slow down your PC.
  2. Use the disk cleaner utility under start->all programs->accessories->system tools to clean your PC of old and temperory internet files.
  3. Use the disk defragmentor under start->all programs->accessories->system tools to defrag the hard disk which will make more free space available and data access faster.
  4. Install a good antivirus software to protect your PC again spyware.
  5. Spend some money and upgrade your RAM to atleast 1 GB. More the better. This one thing improves the PC performance considerably.
  6. Clean up your registry once every month. The registry stores a lot of application data and a bloated registry means higher fetching times for the CPU thereby slowing it down.
  7. Don't keep too much stuff on your desktop like heavy files or large downloads.
  8. Use windows indexing service for indexing hard drive data for faster access.
  9. Spend some more money and get a good graphics card like NVidia GeForce 9400.
  10. Improve your boot speed by removing programs which are not required during startup. Do this by going to startup->all programs->startup.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Chevy Traverse Crossover SUV

Chevrolet has unveiled its latest crossover SUV called the Chevrolet Traverse. Don't be deluded by the crossover nature of Chevrolet Traverse this SUV packs a real punch. The interior space is huge which can easily seat a whole family of 8 people including the luggage. The luggage trunk size is itself 120 cu-ft. Thats more than enough to house 5 large size suitcases. The interiors are designed to be very ergonomic and comfortable.

Chevrolet Traverse comes loaded with features like ultrasonic parking assist and rear view camera. Combine this with a satellite navigation system along with a DVD player makes the Chevrolet Traverse appeal even more. Chevrolet Traverse is very ergonomically designed with a power lift gate. Chevrolet Traverse can be remotely started from a good range giving you the comfort of getting in and just driving. The front seats are heated/cooled with airconditioning ducts which keeps things very comfortable.

The exteriors of Chevrolet Traverse are also very bold. The front grill is massively designed with chrome finish borders. The rear view mirrors house turn indicators which gives a good appeal to the overall look. Chevrolet Traverse sports a power assisted panoramic sunroof. Tyre sizes range from standard 17 inch to the larger 20 inch all aluminium alloy radial tyres.

Chevrolet Traverse is powered by a 3.6 litre V6 engine which provides a peak power of 280 hp. The transmission is 6 speed automatic with each wheel having its independent power control. Chevrolet Traverse gives a highway fuel efficiency of 25 mpg. Vehicle stability is provided by a solid anti skid system and a traction control system. Chevrolet Traverse happens to be the best in class crossover SUV available today with a starting price of $28,000.

Lincoln Navigator

Lincoln Navigator was revealed at the Chicago Motor Show recently. This utility vehicle is characterised by very strong features in terms of both looks and ergonomics. The exterior of Lincoln Navigator is designed to be very bold with curves which accentuate its strong looks.

One look at its front grill will give you that big feeling. The hood is very wide which houses a 310 hp 5.4 litre SOHC V8 engine. The engine produces a torque of 365 lb-ft. Lincoln Navigator is one powerful vehicle. It can easily tow 9000 lb of load. It supports any combination of fuel, pure gasoline or a mixture or gasoline and ethanol like E85. Lincoln Navigator sports a 6 speed automatic transmission. The automatic gear shift is very smooth as the pitch between gears is pretty small. It is also equipped with a Roll Stability Control (RSC) which measures roll 100 times per second on each tyre and automatically adjusts engine power to that tyre.

Talking about features, Lincoln navigator sports Control Track 4X4 technology. This allows proper distribution of torque to wheels with best traction ensuring that the vehicle remains stable in the most adverse off-road conditionns. Two sizes of wheel options are available with the Lincoln Navigator. You can opt for the large size 20 inch aluminium alloy or the standard size 17 inch aluminium alloy.

The interiors of the Lincoln Navigator are just as impressive with chrome door handles, wood finish on steering wheel and side boards, well crafted leather upholstery, instrument dash board etc. Navigator uses a voice driven navigation system called SIRIUS. Using this navigation system you will never need to ask for directions. Just feed your start and end destination and SIRIUS will give you the best possible route depending on traffic situations. The navigation system also has a single CD player. The interiors are very quiet and comfortable with front and rear heated/cooled airconditioned seats. The Lincoln Navigator will be available for an estimated price of $55,000.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Information About Common Cold - Causes and Treatment

Common Cold is caused by a type of virus known as Coronavirus. Just like any other virus Coronavirus is just a packet of DNA information in a dormant state until the virus enters its host. Thats when the Coronavirus infects the host cells with its DNA and grows rapidly. The host in turn fights back kick starting its defence system. The effects of this defence is Common Cold.

Common Cold is characterised by all or some of these symptoms like running nose, sinusitis, head ache, body pains, lethargy, fever, nausea, itching in eyes etc. These symptoms are just a reflex action of the body against the Coronavirus. And the reason why the Common Cold is so common is because there are more than 150 different types of Coronavirus. Rhinovirus is another cause of Common Cold. More viruses are being found nearly every year. Common Cold symptoms should not be taken lightly because several deseases have similar symptoms during their early stages.

Common Cold is generally caused by infection spread throught the air like when somone sneezes, coming in contact with bodily fluids like nasal discharge of someone affected with Common Cold, not washing hands after coming in contact with a Common Cold patient etc.

There is no defined timeline or cure for coming out of Common Cold. The human body automatically fights and takes its time to fend of a Common Cold attack. However, there are certain to dos which can be used to help ease the discomfort of Common Cold. Two of the most important are getting plenty of rest and driking lots of warm fluids. Along with this use anti inflamatory drugs and painkillers if you have headaches. Antibiotics will not help during Common Cold.

Lower Back Pain - Symptoms and Treatment

Lower back pain is characterised by any sort of discomfort in the area between the ribcage and where the hips start. The pain can be just a dull feeling or a sharp pain concentrated in a small area. Lower back pain is characterised by pain in the muscle due to stress or general weakness of the muscle, pulled ligaments or tendons in the back and pain in the bones due to stress. In severe conditions lower back pain maybe caused to due to hernia, dislocation, fractures due to osteoperosis etc.

General causes of lower back pain are sedentary lifestyle especially where sitting in a bad posture for long duration leads to back problems and spondylitis, lifting heavy weights without proper posture like arching your back and accidental causes which lead to muscle pulls or vertebrae damage.

Treatment for lower back pain will vary depending upon the type of injury. Usually lower back problems are associated with lack of regular exercise combined with bad sitting postures. Whatever maybe the case the doctor may advise you to go for XRays or CT Scans. Part of the treatment will focus on keeping your posture correct so that the back is not stressed. Along with such precautions the doctor will prescribe anti inflamatory and painkiller drugs.

Depending upon how fast the recovery process is, the next steps would involve exercising your back muscles to make them stronger. This goes a long way in keeping your posture straight and helps in avoiding future injuries. Consulting a physiotherapist would be good idea. Physiotherapy will help you tone your entire body. The back muscles play a major role in transfering load from the upper body to the lower body and vice-versa. Therefore, maintaing a strong back will ensure that your entire load bearing capacity is increased.

Blu-ray Versus DVD

Blu-ray is the latest in optical reading technology which is slated to replace DVD altogether. Blu-ray has several benefits over using the DVD. As it is Blu-ray was developed by a conglomerate of 180 electronics companies names which include Sony, Philips and Sharp. The name Blu-ray was coined because of the color of the laser which reads a Blu-ray disc.

The major advantage that a Blu-ray disc have over a DVD is the storage space. A Blu-ray disc can store upto 50GB of data compared to a DVD which stores about 8GB. This makes Blu-ray very attractive in storing high-definition video. With the advent of HDTV this puts Blu-ray disc in a very competitive spot.

A hard coated Blu-ray is virtually scratch free. A Blu-ray disc has the same size (120mm Diameter) as a DVD/CD. A Blu-ray drive is backward compatible which means that if you happen to upgrade to a Blu-ray device you will still be able to use your old DVD/CDs which would appear more crispt through the Blu-ray drive.

Blu-ray currently supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video formats. It support Dolby DTS audio formats. There are several movies which are coming up in Blu-ray format. The list includes names like "Lord of the rings".

Thursday, February 19, 2009

What is Capital Gains Tax

Capital Gains Tax is levied on any asset which you may liquidate or sell for profit. The asset could be anything from a property, fixed deposits, bonds, stocks etc. Capital Gains Tax is taken as a net income during financial assesment and any capital gain comes under the purview or being taxed. Basically there are two types of Capital Gains.

  1. Long Term Capital Gains. They are capital gains which are made by holding any asset of more than a year before selling to make a profit. For example, you could own 100 shares of xyz corp. and sell the 100 shares for a net profit after 1 year. Then the capital gains through this transaction would be taxed under Long Term Capital Gains Tax. At present IRS Long Term Capital Gains Tax rate is 15% if you are in the 25% income bracket and only 5% if you in less than 25% income bracket.
  2. Short Term Capital Gains. Any capital gains made by selling an asset within 1 year of purchasing that asset is classified as Short Term Capital Gains. IRS has prescribed a rate of full 25% on any Short Term Capital Gains.



Promote Your Business Through Television Advertising

In the age of internet and e-media, television still remains the top medium through which you can reach the largest mass of households in the United States. On an average each individual in a US home sits for atleast an hour in front of the Television. Therefore, there is no doubt that television advertising can be a very strong campaign in promoting your business and getting the word around fast and cheap.

The biggest benefit of television advertising is that it is a passive form of advertising which is instantly fed to millions of viewers across the globe. It takes very little effort on your part to get your advertising campagin going. There are no phone calls, no email lists to prepare, no printing of pamphlets etc. All you have to do is contact an advertising agency, put down your requirements and the rest will be taken care by the advertising agency. They will not only script your advertisement but also find television channels to host your advertisement.

Advertising through an agency can be very cost effective provided you are careful in selecting the agency and they don't overdo your ad campaign. Some advertising agencies ask you to pump in more money into your advertising which may not be really required. An advertising agency usually makes profit from commissions it gets from the ads it serves to its client. So, if the advertising agency is honest in its approach and does a good job of getting you ad prepared, they should do ok with raking in the commissions.

Things to watch from your side would be how far and wide would your brand name be spread through the advertising campaign? What is the demographic distribution of the viewers? Is the viewership local or global? Is your product aiming only local markets or would you prefer worldwide sales? How much money can you afford for the advertising effort? How long should you run your advertising campaign?

Getting answers to such questions will help you plan and effectively execute your ad campaign. While you are at it, you could look for sources of advertising agencies. A good place to start would be American Association of Advertising Agencies

Losing Weight With Jogging

Jogging is a really good cardio-vascular exercise which can give good results if continued religiously atleast 4 days a week. The good part is that to loose weight and remain fit you don't need to jog 10 miles a day. Maybe a mile or two done deligently (with breaks in between if you loose breath) should do the trick. Jogging puts decent stress on our bodies metabolism and works out the cardio-vascular and respiratory systems. This helps in burning fat faster and loosing weight.

As a rule is you burn 500 calories every day, you would end up loosing a pound in a week. What this means is that if you eat around 3000 calories a day and hold that steady while you jog, then you could effectively lose around a pound by the end of the week. So, if you maintain your current diet and add a morning jogging routine then you can be sure to tip the scale to the lighter side.

Since jogging is a dynamic exercise it puts a lot of stress on the leg joints especially the knee. When you start your jogging routine ensure that you have done some light stretching and warm-up exercises. While jogging ensure that you donot restrict your stride by jogging slowly. Instead, try and jog without restricting your natural strides. Take breaks if you get breathless but dont stop and cover the remaining distance by walking. Your body will get accostomed and slowly become better with time in covering the distance in one stretch.

Chitika - Advertising Option for Your Blog

Chitika is a really good advertising option when it comes to blogs. Chitika offers something known as emini malls which are basically ads targeted at organic traffic. Organic traffic is the blog visitors which you get from search engines such as google and yahoo who came to your blog searching for a key phrase. So, Chitika features ads based on these keywords. Another thing is that Chitika ads are only shown to visitors coming from US and Canada only. They intend to add other countries in the future. So, if you have good organic traffic coming from US and Canada you can make some nice money with Chitika.

Ford Mustang 2010

Ford Motors new offering is the 2010 Mustang which Ford has refitted with some very cool interiors and performance standards to match mileage and driving pleasure. Features include front and side airbags, anti-skid system, flush fuel filling port, a Ford navigation system, custom interior colors and rearview camera. Ford plans to offer both coupes and sports version models with V8 and V6 Shelby GT engines. All GT engines are available with manual and automatic transmission. The V6 version 4.0 litre has a peak power of 220 hp. The 4.6 litre V6 version has a peak power of 310 hp. The GT500 V8 sports a 6.0 litre capacity with 510 hp and only manual transmission.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Treasury Bills - A Safe Investment Opportunity

Treasury Bills or T-Bills are securities provided by the US Government as an investment instrument which can be bought at a discounted price and sold for profit at the end of its maturity period. For example a T-Bill issued at discounted value of $9800 and a maturity period of 4 weeks could have a face value of $10000. At the end of the 4 week maturity period one can earn a profit of $200 on such a T-Bill.

Treasury Bills are a very safe investment instrument as they are backed by the government which pledges to pay the face value in any adverse circumstance. T-Bills are also immune from any negligence as maybe the case in mutual funds or other managed assets because the government properly manages the investments.

T-Bills are released in the market by government auctions but they can also be bought in the open market. They are easily transferable in exchange of other securities. The return on investment of a T-Bill is much higher than a fixed bank deposit for the same maturity period. Also, they are much safer than investing in mutual funds and stocks which fluctuate during market movements. T-Bills on the other hand change very little due to such volatile movements.

In todays volatile and undecided market situation, T-Bills can be a very powerfull investment instrument which can give you good returns over a short period of time.

Armband for iPod Nano

Grantwood Technologies Armband for iPod Nano is a nice accessory to have if you own an iPod. Armband is designed to fit any arm size due to its elastic nature and velcro straps. Armband has a protective screen covering which prevents the iPod screen from any scratches. All the iPod ports can be easily accessed while wearing the armband which makes it very ergonomical while you are outdoors.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Turbo Tax - Tax Filing Software

Turbo Tax is an amazing application if you are looking for filing your personal or professional tax returns. Purchasing Turbo Tax gives to 2 options to access its features. First is a web based online product which you can log onto and fill your information. The other way is to install a local application on your PC or Mac system and either print and mail your tax return or submit them online through the applications web interface. The software version gives more flexibility to work and tools at hand than the online version.

Turbo Tax boasts some very powerful features which caters to several class of individuals who have different modes of income. For example, if you are an active investor or own a property and generate income through that property, Turbo Tax offers a Premier product designed solely for such individuals. Turbo Tax also acts like a personal tax advisor. You can type in questions regarding a tax information and Turbo Tax will answer those. A Free Edition of Turbo Tax lets you file simple tax returns like 1040EZ and 1099.

If you are a bigger firm and looking for audit support then Turbo Tax is the best option available. It has an Audit Support Center which helps you deal with any problems arising during audits. Also, it has Audit Risk Meter which enable tax filers to be aware of tax returns to be files during audits.

Turbo Tax tools include a tax rebate calculator and tax estimator which help you pinpoint the amount of tax due on you. You can even access data from previous years returns.


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Essential Gadgets for Your Home Office

If you are planing to setup your home office or already have one at your home then adorn it with these essential gadgets which will take your comfot and productivity to higher levels.

Fax Machine
Automate your paper work with HP all-in-one copier, scanner and fax machine. HP Officejet 6310 give high quality 1200 dpi black and white prints and 4800X1200 dpi color prints quality. HP Officejet 6310 is compatible with both PC and MAC machines. With a printing and copying speed of 30 sheets per minute it will make your daily routine tasks very easy and fast. HP Officejet 6310 comes with a 1 year manufacturers warranty.



Portable Airconditioner
If you have a small home office within 500 sq ft of space, then there is no need to go for central airconditioning. You can opt for a portable airconditioner which will keep the interiors comfortable at considerable less cost. Alen has introduced a portable airconditioner with a cooling capacity of 10,000 BTU (1400 Watts). It comes with custom fittings for external air vent hose which you can fix through your window of door. This way it works like a split airconditioner.



Wireless Router
Linksys Wireless-G Broadband router is an amazing device. You can connect to both Wireless-G 802.11g at 54Mbps and Wireless-B 802.11b at 11Mbps networks. Also, you can connect to wired ethernet. You can connect upto 4 PC's or other switches to create a bigger network. This device reduces clutter and can connect to devices from a remote location which comes in very handy when you have a home office and want to avoid wires altogether.



Cordless Phone
Being connected with your clients and business associates is just as important as any other daily task. What best can serve the purpose but a phone with all the features like call waiting, caller ID, answering machine, EPABX etc. Check out Panasonic 6 Series which includes 3 handsets for different locations.



Desk Lamp
Improve the ambiance of your home office with this ergonomical desk lamp. A desk lamp helps cut energy costs and focuses light only where its required.



Coffee Machine
Start your day with a hot cup of coffee. Be it extended deadlines or sharing a cup with your associates, a coffee machine will help break the ice and make working together fun.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Portable USB Laptop Speakers

JLAB has introduced this amazing USB speaker with a flexible cord. Its completely plug and play and can be used for both MAC and PC Laptops. This 1 Watt speaker system houses two speakers side by side in a single unit connected to the USB port through a flexible cord. The speaker draws power directly from the USB port and does not need external batteries. Its really useful as a portable travel speaker.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Replace Your Desktop With HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US Laptop

If you are looking to replace your desktop with a high end laptop then look no further. HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US fits the bill and will easily compare up with any high end desktop. HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US has a very large 18.4 inch screen with a high resolution of 1366X786 pixels. For high end graphics it is fitted with NVidia GeForce 9600 GTS GPU with upto 2 GB of dedicated graphics memory. HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US uses 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM for breezing through heavy tasks.

HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US is also fitted with ALtec Lansing speaker with sub-woofer for the perfect multimedia experience. Its hardware is compatible with DirectX 9 and 10 with 16x anti-aliasing for very sharp graphics. Complementing all this is a Blu-Ray CD/DVD reader-writer optical drive.

HP Pavillion HDX18 1180US peripherals include 4 USB ports, 1 VGA port, 1 HDMI port, 5-in-1 card reader slot and Gigabit Ethernet port. It comes preinstalled with windows vista home 64 bit operating system. Accessories include earbud headphones, wireless remote control and protective sleeve. All this at a price of $1800 only.

Laptop Store

Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 - Most Affordable High End Gaming Laptop

Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 is the laptop of choice if you want a high end gaming laptop which also doubles up as a destop replacement. Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 has very large 17 inch screen and dedicated NVidia GeForce 9700 GTS Graphics Card with 512 MB of dedicated memory. Combine this with 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, what you get is a laptop with awesome performance, speed and stunning graphics for all your computer games. Not only this, Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 has a 320 GB hard disk which is more than enough to store all your data, games and media. DVD Reader optical drive enables you to load your favourite games and media.

Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 peripherals include 4 USB ports, 1 VGA output port, 5-in-1 card reader slot, 1 HDMI port, Draft-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet port. The 17 inch screen has a high resolution of 1440X900 pixels. Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 is also loaded with Harmon Kardon speakers with a sub-woofer for amazing sound quality for top gaming experience. The speakers are located on either side of the touchpad.

Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q711 comes pre-installed with windows vista home premium sp1 operating system. All this at an unbeatable price of $1400.

Laptop Store

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How to Invest in Stocks

  1. Gather Information. Its needless to say that staying well informed goes a long way in keeping you abreast with the developments in the financial world and helps you pick stocks in a better manner. There are several media sources from where you can gather the latest market buzz. Sites like Yahoo Finance or Business Sections of leading newspapers online should be a good start to get a feel of the market.
  2. Get Industry Specific. Choose industries based on market demand and growth. It can be very difficult to predict which sector of the market would be giving good returns 5 years down the line. But as you do your research, certain stock market sectors will keep coming up in the news with lots of potential due to the overall sentiment and their future growth capability.
  3. Choose High Growth Stocks. Choose stocks of companies which show quarter on quarter of high growth. This trend is likely to follow if the growth pattern sustains and it is a high probability that the stock would do good. High Growth Stocks are also decoupled from market fluctuations and would do good even while the market is bearish showing clear signs of future growth potential.
  4. High Capital Base. Choose stocks of companies with a very large capital base. This ensures that even in lean times the company will be able to payout its share holders. Also, the larger the net assets of the company, the higher would the investment capitalization and higher would be the future growth.
  5. High Dividend Payback. Companies which payback high dividend are good candidates for buying stocks. Firstly a high dividend percentage hints at a high profit margin and sustainability of business in the future. Secondly, as an investor you get to make some income every quarter or year depending on the dividend payment schedule.

Toshiba Satellite L305 S5924 Laptop Review

Toshiba Satellite L305 S5924 is a very economical high performance laptop which can easily replace your office or home desktop. Toshiba Satellite L305 S5924 laptop sports a 2.1 Ghz Intel Pentium T3400 processor and 2 GB of RAM. It also has a very spacious 160 GB hard disk. The screen size is 15.4 inches LCD with a webcam integrated in the frame. Peripherals include a DVD combo drive, 3 USB ports, 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)WiFi port, Ethernet port, 5-in-1 memory card reader slot and VGA output port. Toshiba Satellite L305 S5924 comes preinstalled with windows xp home sp1 64 bit operating system. All this at a price of $570 only.

Laptop Store

Toshiba Satellite A305 - S6908 Laptop
Replace Your Desktop With This HP Pavillion Laptop

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Asus EEE PC 7 Hrs Battery Life !

The cute little Asus EEE PC 10.1 screen size now comes with 160 GB of hard disk and 7 hrs of battery life, enough to keep you connect you on the move. Asus EEE PC comes preloaded with windows xp home operating system. The graphics are great with a screen resolution of 1024X600 pixels. The LED backlit display is crisp with a glossy finish. Asus EEE PC comes fitted with 1 GB DDR 2 ram and Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor. To optimize the battery life, you can even set the processor speed to different frequencies.

Peripherals include wireless connectivity using high speed through 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), 10/100 Fast Ethernet WiFi and 3 external USB ports. It also includes a VGA output port, mircophone and headphone 3.5mm ports. Asus EEE PC also boasts a 1.3 Mega pixel webcam. Asus EEE PC weighs around 3 lbs. All this comes at a price of $350 only.

Laptop Store

Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 Laptop

Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 is a high end laptop introduced by Toshiba at a very reasonable price of $650 only. Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 boasts of high performance due to its 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo Intel Processor and 4 GB of RAM. Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 has intergrated intel graphics chip for high definition graphics display and video playback. The graphic card can allocate upto 1750 MB of memory dynamically when required. Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 is very well designed with a high gloss exterior finish. It comes loaded with a 64 bit windows home vista sp2 operating system. Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 hard disk is very large with 250 GB of space.

Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 peripherals include 4 USB ports for attaching several devices like digital cameras and mp3 players, a VGA output port and a 5 in 1 card reader slot. It has a multi-drive optical DVD reader/writer. Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 also has built in Intel Wi Fi Link 5100AGN /802.11a/g/n WiFi.

Toshiba Satellite a305 s6908 screen size is about 15.4 inches with max resolution of 1280X800 pixels. The dimesions are 14.6" X 10.5" X 1.3" and it weighs around 6 lbs.

Laptop Store

Replace Your Desktop With HP Pavillion Laptop
Asus EEE PC 7 hr Battery Life




Monday, February 9, 2009

Acer Aspire One - The Ultimate Netbook

Acer Aspire One is the best netbook currently available on the block. In fact if it wasn't for its mini netbook looks it would beat many laptops in features and looks. Everything about Acer Aspire One exudes brilliance. Be it the ergonomically designed keyboard, the web cam, memory or the processor, everything fits perfectly and delivers awesome performance.

To start with, Acer Aspire One weighs in at 2 lbs. This makes it arguably one of the lightest in its class. This is because it holds a Solid State (SSD) hard disk with 160 GB of space. Acer has used 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom Processor which is quite efficient and makes the overall experience quite nice. If you look at the side profile, you would notice 3 usb ports, 2 on the right side and 1 on the left. Apart from this there is a standard video output port, a micro sd slot, Kensington lock port, ethernet port, earphone and mic 3.5 mm ports. The ram provided by Acer is 1 GB DDR 2. Acer Aspire One also boasts a 2 Mega Pixel camera and an inbuild microphone. The screen size is 8.9 inches with a high resolution of 1024X600 pixels.

The keyboard is very well designed. Although it has small areas but typing is not a problem. The keys are firm and operate without much noise. The function key provides acces to some very good shortcuts. You can switch on/off audio, turn the screen blank, put the netbook on sleep mode, enable/disable the touchpad using the function key combinations. The touchpad is a standard two button pad with left and right buttons on either side. The buttons are a bit hard to operate though.

Acer Aspire One comes preloaded with Windows XP Home Operating System and one year warranty. The only drawback is tha Acer Aspire One lacks an optical drive reader. But in the age of usb memory sticks this should not be a problem.

All this comes at a very reasonable market price of $350.

Laptop Store

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Do You Need An "Umbrella Today"

Umbrella Today is a site created to send you a simple message stating whether you will need an umbrella outdoors today or not. Basically depending on your local weather, Umbrella Today, sends an sms giving you a tip for using an Umbrella Today.

Pioneer AVIC F90BT Review

Pioneer AVIC F90BT is the best and most affordable in dash navigation device available today. Pioneer AVIC F90BT boasts features like conversational voice recognition, dvd playback, connectivity to three mobile devices using bluetooth, navigation lanmarks, route chart, connectivity to msn direct traffic report etc.

Using the msn direct traffic reports you can get live traffic conditions on several routes so that you can plan your jouney easily. The navigation display contains 3D landmarks which makes using the Pioneer AVIC F90BT very easy. The current playing track and the track menu can be overlayed on the display to easily select tracks which is very convinient feature. You can also customize the display colour to the interior look and feel of the car. The display resolution is very crisp at 800X480 pixels. The display also acts a reversing camera eye which is enabled automatically when you put the reverse gear and shows the rear view.

Pioneer AVIC F90BT can playback several file formats including MP3, WMA, WAV, CD/DVD and iTunes AAC. You can connect your iPod through the CD-IU230V cable and control the songs menu from your iPod. You get all this at a price of $1200 along with a two year warranty.

Pioneer Latest Car Stereo

Pioneer is launching its latest car stereo, Pioneer DEH P710BT. This little master is full of features like voice commands for complete hands free experience and priced modestly at $360.
Pioneer DEH P710BT has included satellite radio which you can use to tag songs. The tags can be saved on your iPod to be latter bought over the iTunes store. The large display makes things easier to see and voice command enable bluetooth compatibility eliminate the need to touch the controls. Pioneer DEH P710BT has two USB ports which you can use to upload songs from your iPod or pendrive. Pioneer DEH P710BT supports all formats including the iTunes AAC format. And Pioneer DEH P710BT comes with a 2 year warranty.

iPod Classic Review

iPod Classic is a pure beauty in terms of storage, features and its all metal design. Check out what iPod Classic has to offer:

You can store
  • 30,000 songs or
  • 150 hrs of video or
  • 25,000 high res images

What you can do

  • Play lots of games
  • Download nice applications
  • Listen to audiobooks
  • Store podcasts
  • Organize your media

Also, using iTunes (which you can download free), you can search your favorite songs, videos and audiobooks and download them from iTunes store at a very reasonable price.

iPod Classic is priced at $250.



Pioneer DEH P980BT Car Stereo Review

Pioneer DEH P980BT is loaded with features like playback of multiple file formats ( MP3, CD, WAV, WMA and iTunes AAC). Pioneer DEH P980BT is bluetooth ready and connect to any bluetooth compliant device including your cellphone. It has a full color OEL display and rotary commander from browsing files on the flick.

Probably the most amazing feature of Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo is its bluetooth compatibility with even cellphones. Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo lets you attend calls hands free without even touching your cellphone. You can talk into the microphone provided with the Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo gear and listen through the car speakers.

Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo supports multiple formats including the iTunes AAC format. Now you can rip files on your PC through iTunes and play them back using Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo.

The display graphics are superb. Along with track numbers, Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo also displays the album information for WMA/MP3 formats.

Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo has Auto Equaliser which is enable by simply plugging in the microphone. It takes input from the microphone and automatically adjusts output signal through a 16 band equalizer. This give you the optimal sound for your interior conditions of your car.

Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo has inbuilt iPod adaptor which you can control through your headset. Using the headset you can browse and select songs on your iPod for playback.

Not to mention, Pioneer DEH P980BT car stereo is satellite radio ready, comes with a 2 year warranty and priced at $570.

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Temptations - Motown Records

The Temptations are the most influential male vocal group formed in the 1960's as The Elgins. Their music is the most memorable for all their recordings which include a lot of cult music like R&B, funk, pop etc. Their recording label Motown Records was formed in Detroit Michigan. Motown Records has been a primary force behind getting African American music together and providing a platform for several types of genres. Berry Gordy is the founder of Motown Records.
You can get The Temptations Ultimate Collection here

Skylar Deleon

Skylar Deleon and Jennifer Deleon were convicted for the murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. Along with Skylar and Jennifer 3 more persons are to be convicted for these murders commited in 2004.

Skylar Deleon is reported to be sone of a drug dealer and mafia king who started his career as a child actor. Skylar Deleon acting career came to an end at the age of 20 because of his inability to remember script lines. Later he went on to join the marine core but was discharged after being AWOL.

Thomas Hawks was a bodybuilder and he owned a yatch to with his second wife Jackie Hawks. The murder seems to be an act committed while Thomas and Skylar met to strike a deal to sell this yatch.

James Whitmore no more

Accomplished actor and theatre person, James Whitmore has died due to lung cancer in his Malibu home. James Whitmore was very well known for his performances in one man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt. James Whitmore also won the Emmy and Tony awards and one of his most memorable roles was in the movie Shawshank Redemption.

A supporter of President Barrack Obama, James Whitmore stated way back in 2007 that Obama was the man who had the intellect to come out with a solution to the confused situation in United States and the world over.

James Whitmore was born in 1921 in White Planes N.Y. His first marriage was with Nancy Mygatt in 1947 out of which the couple had three sons. The couple divorced and Whitmore married actress Audrey Lindley in 1971 only to divorce and remarry his first wife in 1979. A second divorce ensued in 2001 and Whitmore finally married Noreen Nash.

Which Natural Cosmetics Will Suit Your Skin

It is difficult choosing natural cosmetics from the wide range of such cosmetics now available. Things become more complicated when most of these natural compounds may not suit your skin. Synthetic or natural, there is no gauranty that a particular type will suit your skin. Just because a cosmetic uses natural products does not mean it would suit your skin.

Before narrowing down on a type of product, its better to consult your dermatologist and ascertain the tolerance level of your skin. She would also be able to guide you better in issues related to conditioning your skin. A dermatologists main task is to classify your skin type and in determining its sensitivities. For example, some skin types are allergic to direct sun and bleach very fast under the sun leaving red spots behind. If this is the case the dermatologist may advice a natural skin cream which blocks the sun UV rays. Also, since this skin type is highly allergic, the dermatologist may ask you to test the cream for a few days. It is very difficult to determine before hand what type of cream would suit your skin. It is a matter of trial and error. But there are certain benchmarks established such as not prescribing a oil based cream to someone prone to acne. Your dermatologist comes into picture if there are any major side effects. Under her supervision you would be able to mitigate adverse situations.

Our skin is such a sensitive part of our body that even frangrances in natural cosmetics can cause irritation. And all natural ingridients do not insure that our skin will not react to them. According to regulations all natural cosmetics must have atleast 70% natural products approved by the government. This makes much of the volume of your cosmetics made of natural products which are proven safe for atleast 90% of skin types.

Most of the natural cosmetics use one or more of these natural ingredients which are proven safe : Aloe Vera, Rosemary, Strawberry, Mint, Iris etc. By reading the ingredient list of any cosmetic and your past experience you can get a rough idea whether it will suit you or not.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Why You Need a Car Insurance

Getting a car insurance in todays net connected world is not very difficult and the benefits of such an insurance are many. Your cover will vary depending upon which type of insurance you buy. A limited liability kind of insurance will cover you if your car in involved in any accident. See how important this can be because the insurance automatically covers the cost of any damage that you may have to pay.

A personal injury cover insurance ensures that your costs due to any personal injury while driving your car are covered. This also includes minimum wage payments if you are salaried and unable to get to work. Personal Injury insurance also covers death benefit. Minimum Liability insurance does not cover bodily injury of other party invovled. So, you may have to end up paying for their medical costs. It would be in your good interest to buy higher Liability Insurance so that it can offset this cost.

While buying a insurance policy its better to maintain a margin of safety. Its better to take a higher insurance rather than not taking one. It can be difficult to calculate the exact cost you should pay to cover your damage cost but in the long run getting an insurance cover helps.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Weight Watchers - What Should You Eat

Did you make a new year resolution to lose weight? Did it include a very tight diet plan, low fat, high fibre? Forget about all diets. There is good news for all weight watchers. There is really no need to have a diet plan and stick to only fruit juice all day long. The trick to staying slim and fit is to eat a well balanced diet. So, if you are biting into cheese burger, go ahead and enjoy it. Eating fat is not a problem at all provided that it is done moderately. In fact restricting to all fruit diet can lead to several deficiencies in the body which simple fruit cannot fulfill.

The basic idea behind dieting is to eat everything. The big question is how much of everything. Well, for a benchmark, all food is divided into four categories. These are
  1. Cereals. This group includes whole grains like wheat and oats. Should be consumed the most.
  2. Fruit and Vegetables. Should be eaten moderately between meals.
  3. Meat, fish, poultry and milk. Should be included in every meal. Substitutes to Meat and fish as protein sources are soybeans, lima beans, pulses etc.
  4. Fats and Oil. Should be eaten sparingly but included in all meals.

In essence, a good diet plan would include a well balanced diet containing something from the above four food groups. Eat well stay healthy.

Things you should know before buying a Hybrid Car

Hybrid Cars are complex
The complexity is due to the dual nature of the Hybrid Car. A Hybrid Car runs both on a conventional gasoline engine and a electric motor which is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery pack. If the battery loses charge, the gasoline engine taked over automatically and runs the vehicles. Also, the battery is charged regeneratively while braking. So, there is no need to stop a Hybrid Car and charge it using a chord as the battery charges automatically while the car is running on gasoline. Naturally the Hybrid Car is complex because it houses two power transmissions and the associated quipment to control them. Not to mention the Lithium-Ion battery.

Hybrid Cars are efficient
Hybrid cars are about 10-20% more efficient than conventional gasoline driven cars. This is a direct saving in fuel costs. Also, a more efficient car leads to lower emissions. Customers buying Hybrid Cars in United States are given tax benefits also.

Hybrid Cars are Costly
The inherent cost is due to the complexity of the Hybrid Car and the associated technology. The Lithium-Ion battery pack in itself is a big chunk of the price. Although, future prices would go down due to research in producing more cost effective batteries with longer life and power to weight ratio.

In the long run
A Hybrid Car does not overcome the overall cost of operation in the long run. The savings in fuel cost are just not enough to offset the price of a Hybrid Car even after running it for 10 years. Since fuel efficiency of a car is directly related to its weight, a lighter car with a conventional gasoline engine would come out much cheaper compared to a Hybrid Car in the long run.

Electric Car by Tesla Motors

Tesla motors came out with their first purely electric car called the "Roadster" in June 2008. The Roadster is powered by some 7000 Lithium-Ion cells the size of a standard AA battery housed in its boot. Lithium-Ion cells are cheap to produce and have a high power to weight ratio. Besided research effort would make theses batteries even more cost effective in the future.

Telsa Motors has also developed the electric motor which powers the Roadster and churns out a peak power of 280 Bhp at 180 lbs-ft torque. The Roadster boasts a range of about 250 miles before the batteries need recharge and a top speed of 130 mph. The Roadster does a 0-60 in under 4 seconds. The Lithium-Ion battery pack has a charge time of about 4 hours and a lifecycle of about 100,000 miles before the battery loses some 20% of its charge potential.

The only limiting factor for this sports car is its due to the cost of the Lithium-Ion cells. The Roadster falls in the range of $100 000 which is quite high. The costs may come down in the future are the prices of Lithium-Ion cells comes down.

Tesla Motors is also planning to come out with a 4 door sedan.

Doodle for Google

Want your Logo Design on the front page of google. The registration is open for this competition where google is going to judge the best design for their logo. The competition is open to all US school students and the Logo Designs would be judged in slabs of your current year.
The winner will get a $15000 college scholarship sponsered by Google.

How to Improve Your Cars Fuel Efficiency

Tips to Improve Your Cars Fuel Efficiency
  1. Get your car regularly serviced. Servicing would include changing the engine oil which will keep the engine clean. It would also ensure that the carbeurator and the air filter are clean.
  2. Check your tyre pressure. Too much leads to a bumpy ride and loss of grip, too little and the tyre print is large on the road leading to more friction. Both will burn more fuel.
  3. Don't idle your car for long. Especially on red lights. Better to turn the engine off.
  4. Drive at a reasonable speed for longer duration.
  5. Don't accelerate or decelerate very fast.
  6. Avoid using the clutch too much. Use it only when changing gears.
  7. Avoid rough or patchy roads. Make a tour plan if possible.
  8. Avoid heavy traffic areas.
  9. Use best quality of fuel available in your area. Some additives help in boosting fuel efficiency.
  10. Avoid using the Air Conditioning when its not required.
  11. Avoid driving on low gears for long durations.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bolivia - Hybrid Car Revolution

Bolivia, this humble South American nation is caught in the storm of next generation Hybrid Car technology. Current Hybrid Car technology works on Lithium-Ion batteries which are charged while the vehicle is running on conventional fuel like petrol or diesel. These batteries are very light and provide power longer than other types of batteries. Such hybrid technology cuts the dependence on conventional fuels by as much as 50% according to some estimates. The working principle of a Hybrid Car is simple. The Lithium-Ion batteries are put on charge while the vehicle runs on conventional fuel. A charging motor charges the batteries using little power from the conventional engine. Once the batteries are fully charged, the power source can be switched from conventional fuel to battery. This reduces consumption of conventional fuels and reduces carbon emissions.

So, where does Bolivia picture in this. The irony is that Bolivia has the largest deposits of raw Lithium Carbonate which is required to get Lithium to produce Lithium-Ion batteries. Currently a lot of big car manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, BMW and Audi are vying for taking Hybrid Car technology to the next level. This can only be accomplished by producing better Lithium-Ion Batteries by the millions to be fitted in next generation cars. Their dependence for lithium ore on Bolivia is natural which is not going to provide easy access of this resource to foreign multi-nationals. Bolivia is looking for a fair deal which would help their country to also prosper along with the technological development of the western world.

Bonnaroo Lineup - Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

This years Bonnaroo Lineup includes Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Playing along would also be bands like Phish, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg and Nine Inch Nails.

Indaba Music

Indaba Music is website created to bring musicians in different locations of the world together and produce music collectively. To accomplish this the site offers some very promising features like online sound recording, editing and mixing. Also, you can search for music recording gear.

Indaba Music also helps smaller artists to spread their music freely as they can interact online with other musicians around the world and portray their skills. Indaba Music is a collaborative effort to build a musicians community where they can create, share and distribute their music with other musicians. The site also offers remixing of music where fans can pick peices of music from separate albums and remix them to create original soundtracks.

Monday, February 2, 2009

List of Free Antivirus Software

Antivirus Software is required by every PC user to keep the system safe from threats posed by virus and malware attacks. There are several types of programs which can affect your PC such as viruses, trojan horses, worms, malware etc. Here is a comprehensive list of some free antivirus softwares.
  1. Avast Antivirus. This is a free to use antivirus software for home and small commercial use. The user interface is simple and easy to use. Avast Antivirus provides protection againts nearly all types of threats like viruses and malwares.
  2. AVG Antivirus. This is a better option for home users as it is light and provides a vault facility to handle infected files. The drawback is that AVG Antivirus cannot be used for commercial purposes.
  3. Bit Defender. Bit Defender provides online scanning of your system which is very helpfull if you have to scan small portions of your hard disk. Bit Defender also has a light home use antivirus software.
  4. Clamwin. This is another good option. Clamwin Antivirus is dedicated to windows OS and provides several plugins tailor made for windows OS. The drawback is that it takes long time to scan files.
  5. Avira AntiVir. Avira AntiVir provides protection against all major viruses and malwares. It autmatically downloads updates and provides protection against previously unknown viruses also.
  6. PC Tools Antivirus. It has a realtime feature for scanning files and also provides on demand scanning of files. It defends against all sorts of viruses and malwares. On good point about PC Tools Antivirus is that is also scans incoming and outgoing mails.
  7. Comodo Antivirus. This is a very simple to use antivirus software which provides automatic protection against all viruses, trojans and malware. Comodo Antivirus has automatic update feature which it runs daily and provides thorough protection of PC and network.

Google GDrive

GDrive technology is an effort started by Google to build a system based on network storage technology which would provide seemless access to data from anywhere in the world. Current PC based technology uses local hard disks to store important data like programs, files, photos, bookmarks, cached pages etc. GDrive tries to break free from the typical desktop by providing a platform free technology available over the internet to access data and run applications. The bottleneck today is only the avalibility of bandwidth over the network. Google is working on a realtime system to solve this problem and provide faster access over the internet. The advantages of this technology would be infinite storage space and no use of third party tools to run applications.

Attempts to emulate such a system have been made by using GMail as a mass storage system and using Google applications such as Google Docs to edit data. But such attempts donot provide a full solution and fall short of the real expectations of a truly distributed system running applications over the internet effortlessly. There are many third party extensions which turn GMail into a network device. XMail Hard Drive is one such extension.

Asus EEE PC

Asus EEE PC is a under $400 laptop which Asus has come out with an intention to capture the portable, ultra-portable, child laptop and netbook segment. They seem to have horribly failed at this attempt. For starters, Asus EEE PC has a very small hard disk drive of maximum 8 GB size. The hard disk, which is a solid state drive (SSD) does not compare to the drives offered by other manufactures such as Acer whos Aspire One has a 160 GB SSD drive. Also Acer Aspire One is much cheaper than Asus EEE PC.

The second major flaw with Asus EEE PC is its screen resolution. The graphic display just does not stand-up to other netbooks in its class. Both, Dell Mini 9 and Acer Aspire One have a high resolution 1024X600 9 inch screen and Asus EEE PC has only 800X640 9 inch screen.

The third drawback is the cramped keyboard. The keyboard on other netbooks are also small a bit cramped but usable and ergonic. Asus EEE PC just does not yield to typing effectively.

Asus EEE PC has a very slow processor Intel Celeron M 630 Mhz. Compare this to Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz in Acer Aspire One.

The ram is also low at 512 MB. Other netbooks like Dell mini and Acer Aspire One provie 1 GB ram.

Lastly, Asus EEE PC does not come pre installed with a windows OS which really hinders its reach for the task it is designed namely mobile net connectivity.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Jennifer Hudson Performs at Super Bowl

Jennifer Hudson along with Bruce Springsteen gave a lively performance at the Super Bowl last night. This is the first time Jennifer Hudson is performing after the killing of her three family members and Bruce Springteen proved that he is still "The Boss".

Bruce Springsteen gave a very heart warming 15 minute performance where his E Street band played numbers like Born to Run and Glory Days. This was a very important performance by Jennifer Hudson since she was appearing for the first time after her family killings. Jennifer Hudson is now scheduled to perform at the grammy on Feb 9 featuring her new video "If This isn't Love"

How Old is Bruce Springsteen?

So, "How Old is Bruce Springsteen". The singer who is also known as "The Boss" was born on September 23, 1949. Bruce Springsteen who bought his first guitar at the age of 12 went on to produce some very memorable songs like "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA".
Bruce Springsteen started his career in 1965 when he used to play for gigs organised by local clubs in the area. While playing for these gigs he earned the nickname "The Boss". In 1972 Bruce Springsteen clubbed with pianist David Sancious to form the "E Street" band. Bruce Springsteen went on to record several albums with E Street band including the hit "Born in the USA".

Rafael Nadal Wins Australian Open

Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in a five set match to win the Australian Open.
7-5 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-2

Alley Cats Strike

"Alley Cats Strike" was telecast today on Disney Channel 9 years after it premiered. The plot of the movie is based on a bowling championship title which is one by a team of Citywide Jr. High students.

Dakota Fanning Twilight Sequel

Premiere Of Summit Entertainment's "Push" - Arrivals

Dakota Fanning has confirmed about a serious possibility that she would be cast in the sequel of Twilight, "New Moon". Dakota also has a new movie releasing this February. The movie is about people with paranormal abilities and called "Push".