TigerDirect has been promoting one sale after another as part of its back to school campaign.  Today, they have a 4 GB USB flash drive for just $8.95.  That’s one heck of a deal that will come in handy for those of us who travel quite a bit.

There are other deals, too, such as extreme savings on monitors and ram.  But the USB devices are what interest me right now … check it out.

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Sedo, which brokers domain names and/or completed websites, has added a free price suggestion tool.

Selling your domains at a fixed price as opposed to an unspecified, negotiable price may go faster, according to Sedo.  To help you figure out your fixed price, Sedo now offers its members free appraisals.  Here’s a look at the member area so that you can see how this works:

For the free price suggestion function to work, you need to be a member of Sedo (it’s free) and have a domain listed.  Then, just click the “get free price suggestions” as shown above.  It might take awhile before your price shows up, as the system is relatively new and there are a lot of appraisal requests in the queue.

This does not work for completed websites.  Your price suggestion is for the domain name only.

I have used Sedo before to sell completed websites and have been 100% satisfied with how they handle their sales and transfers.  Although I have not sold a domain-name only, I suspect it will be a snap through Sedo, especially with the new price suggestion tool.

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The Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA site is probably one of the most clever, unconventional sites I have seen in a long, long time.

For the 55% or so of Americans who believe in the Christian rapture, where Jesus returns and they are “raptured” and taken to heaven, there’s the lingering question:  What happens to the pets?

The service, a group of nonbelievers in 20 states so far, will enter into a contract to take care of pets after the rapture.  The fee is $110, plus an additional $10 per extra pet.

Who knows if they’ll make money at it, but they are certainly getting some Internet buzz.

The point of this post?  There’s something for everyone.  The sky is the limit when it comes to clever, unique websites.

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The Free Software Foundation held a rally Wednesday on Boston Common to protest Windows 7 and other proprietary software.

They set up a great big garbage can and threw fake software into the bin.  The Foundation members believe that proprietary software does not help people learn how to use computers and invades privacy. They also allege several other “dangers” and advocate open source software.

Microsoft declined to comment on the rally.

(The following video might take a few seconds to load.)

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Most everyone uses WordPress these days.  It’s an excellent blogging platform that is continuously enhanced.  Did you know:

• WordPress was released in 2003 (development started in 2001).
• As of 2007, there were over 3.8 million downloads — more current statistics have not been published, but I’m willing to be that at least 7 million downloads took place last year.
• Because WordPress is Open Source, hundreds of people all over the world work on it — more than many commercial applications.

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Let’s say you have a radio show or are putting together a video presentation and want an audio clip of a news report or something else that you heard on YouTube or elsewhere.

A quick and easy solution is to use an audio stream recorder such as SoundTap.  You can make an MP3, wav or other type of file easily simply by recording what you hear online.  This is less time consuming than trying to download the source and then convert it.

To use the software, select whether or not you want to use the microphone to record, start your YouTube video or other presentation that you want to capture a sound byte from, and then click start recording.   Click “stop” and your audio file is recorded.

You can edit your file later.

This is an excellent tool for fast and easy audio file creation.  I’ve been using it and have been pleased.  You can download a trial or take advantage of a 50% off sale this August and get it for $19.40.  The trial version is fully functional, but there is a message on the output that tells you that it’s a trial version.

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Did you know that according to PC Magazine, the most common username and password is:

• Username:  Password
• Password:  123456

If your Windows password isn’t quite that simple and you forgot what it is, there’s good news:  You can recover it.  As shown in the video below, one of the easiest ways to get in is to log in as Administrator and leave the password blank.  There are easy and advanced steps, depending on your system setup.  You might need your operating system CD and/or a USB drive to proceed.

The video may take a few seconds to load, but is well worth the wait…especially if you’re borrowing someone’s computer, quietly sitting in a panic and wondering how you can access your own PC!

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Microsoft’s appeal of a U.S. District Court’s ruling that it must stop distributing Word and pay millions in damages because of violating an XML patent held by i4i will be heard on September 23, 2009.

Among other things, Microsoft says that the ruling will cause irreparable harm to consumers who rely on Word.

Interestingly, i4i’s product is simply an add-on to Word, and the company has been profiting since the release of the 2003 version of Microsoft’s software.

You can read PC Magazine’s analysis of the i4i vs. Microsoft case here.

Seems to me that compensation for the add-on would be best remedy for all concerned — i.e., the consumers, i4i and Microsoft — rather than yanking Word from the marketplace.  If  i4i’s product is merely an add-on that depends on Word, I don’t understand what they think they will gain if Microsoft cannot sell Word until it is redesigned without the XML  coding in question.

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If you haven’t tried it out yet, I recommend you give Jeff Johnson’s SEO blog plugin a try. In my experience, it works wonders.

You have nothing to lose because it’s free.

Jeff just released the upgraded Version 2.0 of his plugin. Version 2.0 includes new “total control” features that allow you to pick and choose which features you’d like to keep, and which ones you don’t.

It’s also much more “existing blog” friendly. For instance, a new feature in Version 2.0 preserves your incoming links by rewriting your permalinks and issuing a search engine friendly 301 redirect. This is a nice enhancement.

To get the free plugin, you’ll need to sign up for Jeff’s email list here. Don’t worry … the emails are well worth it! You’ll get a lot of excellent marketing advice and tips, plus notifications of the SEO plugin updates.

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The last few days, I’ve been away, driving a friend to and from doctors and then having to hang out at a hospital.  In addition to other problems, my friend was experiencing heart attack symptoms and admitted via the emergency room for a few of days for tests.  The hospital her doctor sent her to was known for its heart specialty.

After several hours of waiting around in the back rooms of the emergency area, I finally had to get something to eat.  It is very rare that I step foot in a hospital and heard that the cafeteria food is generally quite awful.

The truth was, the cafeteria wasn’t so bad.  They had a huge salad bar with fresh spinach, about four different selections of olives, a lot of fresh vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms and so on, and even a section of fresh fruit.

But there was also a grill and deep frier.  In a hospital, no less.  I looked at what they had at the prepared food section.  Lots of pasta covered in cheese; a selection of burgers; french fries.

As I sat there, eating my salad, I watched the parade of people getting their dinner.  It was apparently a break for the hospital staff.  There were a couple dozen doctors, lab specialists, and nurses going through.  For the most part, the nurses were fairly fit, but the rest of them were all at least 30 pounds overweight.  Only one guy, a security guard, ate a healthy salad.  The rest ordered greasy hamburgers (with white buns) and fries.

We see this in “regular life” all of the time, but in a hospital setting where patient after patient was coming in with cardiac problems, it was shocking to watch this.

It wasn’t about cost.  My salad cost only $4.00 — the minimum price for the food coming out of the grill was $6.00.

In America, where we are watching an ugly health care debate, it seems to me there needs to be more of an emphasis on preventative care.  Basic stuff — like eating right — should be a part of the discussion.  If our health care providers who should know better don’t eat right, are obese and consume a diet that promotes clogged arteries and heart attacks, then it’s not surprising that this type of behavior manifests in the general population which has not had medical training.  We’ve taken on an attitude of eating what we want, being lazy, and expecting doctors and pills to take care of the results.

For those of us who work at computers all day and have a sedentary lifestyle, it behooves us to avoid greasy, fatty foods and avoid snacking on chips and guzzling calorie-packed soda pop when we work.  Taking a half hour exercise break will also do wonders.  It’ll clear the mind, keep us focused — and more importantly, keep us from visiting an emergency room.  After seeing what was going on in the hospital, I can’t help but believe that many health problems can be easily avoided simply by taking responsibility for ourselves.

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