tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10115992008-03-09T22:12:33.612-04:00Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-29980731796648199882008-03-09T21:53:00.001-04:002008-03-09T22:12:31.022-04:00

There's been an ongoing debate over the value and ethical merits of blogging for pay over the past two years, and the one company smack in the middle of it has been pioneering startup Pay-per-Post (now IZEA) and their bizarre founder and lampoonish leader, Ted Murphy (right). I've looked into the company's brief history, (here's a good summation) and actually was involved as a blogger for a

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-64449041668008963542008-02-14T20:46:00.000-05:002008-02-14T20:47:22.395-05:00

From France comes a revolutionary new car that runs on fuel that is so abundant we barely ever think about it: air. Frenchman Guy Negre, a former Formula 1 engineer, has been working on a vehicle that uses compressed air to drive pistons in an efficient, no-emission engine, and he has at last produced a working prototype, the OneCAT. Shown at right, the OneCAT is a five seater that will cost

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-34762562972882388712007-12-02T10:05:00.000-05:002007-12-02T10:22:01.081-05:00

As the college football season rolls into the month of bowl games, only one thing is for certain: there will be upsets. On Saturday, the top two teams, Missouri and West Virginia, both lost, marking th second consecutive week that the #1 and #2 teams lost and will likely drop in the rankings. Last week, it was LSU and Kansas, who lost to Arkansas and Missouri, respectively. This weekend, the

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-53383862921509162902007-11-17T11:22:00.000-05:002007-11-17T11:27:47.556-05:00

Here's a sign of the times: A first issue of Playboy, December 1953, recently sold on ebay for $1525.00. Just 3-4 years ago, these magazines sold for as much as $3,500 and up. The economy, in addition to the wealth of issues pouring onto auction sites such as eBay, has pushed the price of vintage magazines to their lowest levels in years. Buyers should be able to find deals aplenty this holiday

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-21523252667523057492007-10-09T23:08:00.000-04:002007-10-09T23:09:58.616-04:00

Today, eBay announced that they had overpaid for Skype, the free phone service they purchased two years ago, and cited that the service had not met the company's profit and revenue objectives. In what has to be the strangest deal I've ever seen, somehow, eBay won't have to pay all the money promised at the beginning of the deal. In either case, it looks like eBay made a bad deal for their

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-68238098086832363142007-10-05T17:34:00.000-04:002007-10-05T17:35:21.679-04:00

Normally, I don't boast, but last weekend I was KING OF THE NFL, romping home with a stellar 11-3 record in Week #4 Against the Spread. See for yourself, the only games I missed were Atlanta over Houston, Tampa Bay over Carolina and Indy over Denver. And there were a fair share of upsets, all correctly picked by me. I had the Browns over the Ravens, Detroit over Chicago, the Bills over the Jets

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-19985281122784192732007-10-05T15:57:00.001-04:002007-10-05T15:57:53.103-04:00

Here's an interesting quandary. My web site hosting company refuses to answer any correspondence from my lawyer. The reason my lawyer is trying to contact them is to avoid a lawsuit. The crux of the matter is that I've had intermittent uptime issues which got so bad over the summer that I pressed the company for first, six months of free service, and later, a refund of $400, to which the COO of

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-65329142677436243542007-10-02T19:49:00.000-04:002007-10-02T20:00:43.835-04:00

Soul Twins: A Latino Journey From The Edge To Self-redemption. By Oscar Vega Romero. ISBN 978-0-915745-93-7. $22.95 162 pages. With immigration currently a topic of great debate, this new novel by Mexican author Oscar Vega Romero offers a glimpse into the world of illegal immigrants who cross the border to the United States seeking a better life. Based on his actual experience, Vega Romero

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-56951827548010915972007-10-02T19:04:00.000-04:002007-10-02T19:05:42.059-04:00

If you are at least half aware of your world, you probably have tuned into PBS to view at least a couple episodes of Ken Burns' opus on World War II, simply titled, "The War." It's a lengthy examination of the "Great War" which took place in the 1940s between the Allies (the United States, Russia and Europe, generally) and the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan). What I've come away with so far is a

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-71950885575635629142007-10-02T09:25:00.000-04:002007-10-02T09:26:26.440-04:00

File this under shameless self-promotion. With the greatest month of sports just beginning, you can get all the insight and coverage you'll need for the MLB playoffs and World Series on my Baseball On Deck blog. Not only do the playoffs begin this week, but NFL and college football is mid-season, and the NBA and NHL seasons begin. They ought to rename October Sportober. There is no more exciting

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-25213046147089457792007-09-28T14:48:00.000-04:002007-09-28T16:16:46.532-04:00

Need an upgrade? Is your computer 7 or 8 years old but still extremely functional like my Mac Powerbook G3 that I purchased in 1998 (Geez, it will be 10 in 6 months)? I run two websites, six blogs and do all my record-keeping on this ancient relic. It's only broken down once and cost me an entire $142.00 to repair. It's been one of the best investments I've ever made and one of the most reliable

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-73553800024192222412007-09-24T13:05:00.000-04:002007-09-24T13:06:53.436-04:00

Since we're talking about cars here today, I'd like to express my solidarity with the 73,000 UAW (United Auto Workers) who went out on strike against GM (General Motors). Picket lines were seen shortly after 11:00 am in at least three sites around Ohio and elsewhere across the US. There are 82 GM facilities in the United States. Talks have broken down after union and GM negotiators have failed

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-43817652405348738832007-09-24T12:08:00.000-04:002007-09-24T12:09:41.788-04:00

Recently, the hosting provider for another of my sites, Rochester1.com crashed the stats program attached to my hosting package and I was left without any reliable stats to track. Now, my displeasure with hosting providers runs from extreme to lawsuit, but this particular bozo continues to operate with outdated systems on shared hosting facilities. The only reason I stay with him is because the

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-47251292185944295432007-09-24T10:13:00.000-04:002007-09-24T10:14:34.077-04:00

The first week of October is one of the best of the year for sports fans. Not only are college football and the NFL in full swing, but the baseball playoffs get started on Tuesday, this year on October 2. One wonders how much work actually gets done in this week. It's probably comparable to the first week of the NCAA basketball tournament in March, when people everywhere are paying more

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-59372033218729961402007-09-14T19:07:00.000-04:002007-09-14T19:08:28.721-04:00

I simply had to write about this experience from today. Frustrated that my ads from Google Adsense were delivering clicks paying less than 2 cents each, I decided, after penning an extensive email to Google support, that I would find Google's phone number and try to talk sense to somebody about my need to make a decent living. Guess what? Google's phone numbers are a pretty well-kept secret. I

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-42735796321361241412007-09-13T21:37:00.000-04:002007-09-13T21:48:12.701-04:00

I just copied a word at random (photograph) and plugged it into Google. As usual, there was the spammy links Google likes to throw at you, a Wikipedia entry, but further down the page an interesting link to The First Photograph, an online exhibition from the University of Texas at Austin. To say I am constantly amazed at the depth and scope of the online experience produced by this august

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-32435382061705584622007-08-08T18:04:00.000-04:002007-08-08T22:28:30.932-04:00

If you're ready for some football - I know it's a little early, but the first weekend of preseason games begins on Thursday, August 9 (omg, that's tomorrow) - I urge you to head over to Fearless Rick's Pro and College Football Picks where you'll find not only picks for this weekend, but previews of the NFL teams and the Top 25 College Football squads. Also, I'm offering a tremendous ad package

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-31289059203505800042007-07-28T09:45:00.000-04:002007-07-28T09:49:50.632-04:00

If you're interested in the future of the US economy (and you should be if you live in the USA), you're probably wondering what happened this week on the stock market, which took a terrific dive. All the info you need to know and how severe this crisis (yes, it is a crisis) really is can be found on my financial blog, Money Daily. Just a hint: If you think your mortgage payments, gas prices and

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-90658597997842787122007-07-19T14:55:00.000-04:002007-07-19T15:05:43.967-04:00

I stumbled somewhat upon a great site for magazine fans the other day, quite by accident. With over 2,000 print magazines in their media directory, Wooden Horse Publishing is more of a site for free-lance writer's, but it makes for great reading if you have any interest in the magazine trade. The site boasts a directory of all US and Canadian consumer and trade print publications, including:

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-67172182603648290132007-04-27T17:59:00.000-04:002007-04-27T18:00:02.754-04:00

Recently, I sold an item on eBay. The buyer purchased with "Buy It Now" which indicates a willingness to pay a higher price to get the item rather than waiting for the auction to expire, and risking loss. This particular buyer did not pay, even though eBay, via PayPal, offers an easy means for immediate payment. In other words, "buy it now, pay for it now." The buyer did not avail himself of

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-24777518743610722802007-04-11T11:34:00.001-04:002007-04-11T11:34:54.267-04:00

Imagine the amount of gas that would be saved in America if half the population worked from their homes and didn't have to drive to work every day. Better yet, we'd probably save the planet from Global Warming, as auto emissions are one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. I've been doing my part for the past 7 years, working from right here in my spare room and I

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-15947233158999906642007-04-07T09:41:00.000-04:002007-04-07T09:42:31.116-04:00

Elitists are people who think they are better than the rest of the population. In some cases, they have a valid point of argument. The world has more than its fair share of half-wits, morons, slackers, fools and sloths. The general public is usually so woefully misinformed and concerned only about their own small circle of life as to render them sub-beings to the enlightened crowd. A case in

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-53884067792988049362007-04-04T15:23:00.000-04:002007-04-04T15:31:39.056-04:00

If Baseball's your thing, you owe it to yourself to make a daily trip around the bases of my mew baseball blog, Baseball On Deck. Every morning, I scan the boxscores for you and pick out the peak performers and fabulous flops from the games of the previous night. There's also inside scoops - I'm MLB registered press - on player news, trades and overnight action, plus great photos of the top

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-65064321898824535162007-03-29T20:41:00.000-04:002007-03-29T21:10:07.576-04:00

Somebody asked me, "Why are you so angry all the time?" So, for their benefit, here's my answer. I'm not usually. Basically, I'm a very happy person when things work right. I absolutely cannot stomach incompetence, however, and I am surrounded it by it day and night, in all forms of life at all levels. There are also certain people who have made it abundantly clear that they are willing to be

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1011599.post-45380761207432591142007-03-29T15:01:00.000-04:002007-03-29T15:09:05.593-04:00

I've been having a great time with the heavy duty fans at the PPP blog. Some of them will justify almost any kind of activity, including vulgarity and outright spam. I managed to get a whole bunch of them cranked up at me because I was complaining that I couldn't make $20/day from PPP. If they only knew the truth... hahahahaha. I did manage to call one of them a foul-mouthed welfare mom (true)

Rickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03750146830682218859noreply@blogger.com