tekno_boy

Windows 10 Screenshot.

2009-11-24T20:21:00.004+01:00

The year is 2019. Microsoft is about to bring out it's latest windows operating system.

In 2009 Microsoft launched Windows 7. Windows 7 was very well received and hailed as the savior of Windows Vistas failings. Three years later Microsoft released Windows 8 and got it right once again. Not wishing to change Windows 7 too much, in Windows 8 Microsoft concentrated on further refining the interface to make it easier an more intuitive.

Following the release of windows 8 in 2012, Microsoft decided to take the step of remodeling/enhancing the desktop. Amongst the changes for Windows 9, the taskbar was given a 3D effect and all icons were updated to a better design/higher resolution.

Windows 9 was released just before the holidays in 2015. Although it was now pretty, easy to use and intuitive, Microsoft still had some tricks up its sleeve. Microsoft embarked on more ambitious changes to completely alter the way the operating system used multi core processors and the power of modern graphics cards. It took four years to completely transform the core (kernal) of Windows 9, but the world is rejoicing once again the imminent release of a new Windows version.

This is an operating system which not only utilises graphics processor cores for other tasks, but will also properly manage multiple cores so that users could actually make use of their modern 16/32 core processors.

For those of you who can't wait for windows 10 or have already pre-ordered it here is something to keep you going until the release day: A screenshot of Windows X (Windows 10): -click to enlarge-

Latest free virus scanner for your PC 2009/2010

2009-09-29T22:15:00.006+02:00

This is just a small post for those who are looking for a free virus scanner 2009/2010.

One of the best free virus scanners of 2009/2010 is the one by Avira (Avira AntiVir)
Download Avira Antivir virus scan free

Another popular free anti virus lots of people use (myself included) is AVG Free Antivirus
Download AVG Free antivirus

Whats new in 2009 is the Antivirus from Microsoft. Microsofts new Antivirus scored highly (although Antivir Free scored better). Anyway, it's a newly available Antivirus and if you trust Microst (the people who gave you windows and the blues screen of death)....
Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials Anti virus

Hope that keeps you virus free.

Is Affiliano a scam?

2009-09-19T15:17:00.002+02:00

Is Affiliano a Scam?

If you've come across an affiliate scheme (oh, sorry “program”) called Affiliano and are wondering if it is scam or not, thats easy: Affiliano is a scam. How can I say this? Why do I know so much about Affiliano? Because I lost almost $7000 with it's predecessor Affiliate Junction. I'll get to that, but first it's important to say Affiliano is a scam, don't under any circumstances enter you email and contact details.

Affiliano you see, is either a copy, or (much more likely) a new site by the people who made Affiliate Junktion. It's the same in every way. They say a sucker is borne every minute, Affiliano is banking on the fact that around the world more and more suckers come of age and get credit cards. Don't be so stupid to think that you'll be the smart one. You're the sucker and Affiliano is going to take your money.

So how does Affiliano work, why is Affiliano a scam? It works (or operates) by paying you a commission for every referral you bring in. Affiliano doesn't pay you for conversion, all you have to do is get someone interested. Sounds good right? That's why lots of people are bound to sign up to Affiliano. But don't be fooled. Affiliano is a scam. After someone signs up, you have to spend money on advertising to bring people to the Affiliano web site. This is done with pay per click ads through Yahoo, Google Adsense or similar. Really this only benefits Affiliano because quality traffic (clicks) cost so much these days that you will send just as much if not more than you will make from Affiliano's scam.

But that's not the danger part and not the reason I lost money with the old Affiliano (Affiliate Junktion). It's quite simple. Even if you can get cheap enough traffic and enough suckers to fall for Affiliano Scam to make a profit you then need to get paid. In the beginning Affiliate Junktion paid out, so Affiliano probably will, for a few months, then the excuses start coming... “waiting for our advertising partner to pay”.. “next month” and then after a month “due to our click fraud check payments will be made at the end of next month”. Affiliano is a scam as sure as the sun shines.

If you want to take the time to see what happened to me, read my old blogs about Affiliate Junktion (Blog archive on the right column). I left them in case something like the Affiliano scam appeared. You can apply the same to Affiliano. You'll see that I even managed to get it working for a while, but in the end Affiliate Junktion just closed down, promised to pay the balance and never did. Affiliano is going to do the same and then just start again with another name. Don't be the sucker who fell for the Affiliano scam.

What about the claims and testimonials about how much people are making with Affiliano? Probably just BS. Why would you blindly believe Affiliano? If Affiliano is a scam, they are hardly going to have the morals to tell the truth for their testimonials are they? And even if the Affiliano testimonials were true and correct and Affiliano were not a scam, those totals don't talk about how much people are spending on advertising to get that sort of income. And if they are making that much from Affiliano it simply shows you how many thousands of people are going to be competing with you and forcing the price of traffic up even further.

In the end. If Affiliano did work (and was not a scam), it is unsustainable. Eventually it will reach saturation point and no one will be able to make money or get new referrals. Affiliano, by that stage will have stopped payment for a couple of months and will simply close down. You'll have no way of collecting your commissions and be left high and dry.

Make no mistake. Affiliano is a scam for sure.

Not the Apple fanboi this week. In fact I'm feeling like .. Apple sucks

2009-09-18T19:42:00.004+02:00

Turns out my brother was right Apple sucks.

Well, ok he didn't say that, in actual fact he agrees that the Mac is a great piece of technology and although we've had some heated discussion on the Mac vs PC front, we both pretty much agree we want MAC's.

Let me start by saying. I want a Mac. I have owned MACs and understand the value of the Mac OS. I have been patient. I have been waiting a long time to get my Mac. First I waited for Leopard (but couldn't afford a MAC at the time...), then I waited for a new mac Mini (I want a mini because I have a good keyboard, mouse and monitor), I still wasn't able to afford one. Finally I got back into the position of having more disposable cash. I'm ready to but a MAC, except...

... I've run into a snag, one that my brother is quick to point out and he's right. I can't get a machine capable of playing decent games (eg Left 4 Dead) without robbing a bank.

Apple has, you see, a very limited range. To some this is a boon because they don't want a lot of choice. I too think too much choice can sometimes be a bad thing, but at the moment I'm finding the reverse to be true because there simply isn't a Mac which meets my needs.

I want a Mac built with gaming in mind, that means with a decent graphics card. Neither the mini or the iMac have good enough graphics even for last years games.

So tell me Apple, what should I do? I ready, I've got cash, and I'm not asking for graphics super power, just something that would give me respectable gaming performance.

Update: I just purchase a Nvidia Geforce GFX 260 for my PC, putting off my Mac purchase indefinately. Now however I'm thinking, if I buy the right motherboard and CPU (under €200 more), I can make a Hackintosh... something I wanted to avoid. HELP ME APPLE: Make a mid range 'tower' (it doesn't need to be a tower, a cool fresh Apple design would rock!). - Please ..?

Confessions of a Video Game Tester

2009-05-10T16:41:00.004+02:00

I am now working as a video game tester (yes, it is the best job in the world).

Here are some random (fictional) bugs I came up with for fun:

- - -

During a test playthrough of 'Urban Darkness' the user noticed a striking resemblance of one of the NPC's to his grandmother. After taking a quick census of the office, it became obvious that she looks like everyone's grandmother. Given that in order to pass the lever you have to bash her head in with a blunt potato peeler then rip out her heart and eat it, do you think that the graphics could be changed a little?

- - -

While testing the game, the user was, in reality, attacked by a horde of mutant alien zombies. By coincidence, the 'Read Me' button on the installer actually started a rather powerful mutant alien zombie ray gun which instantly turned the invaders to dust.

Testing department requests the button be relabeled. Although installation during a mutant alien zombie invasion is an unlikely user path, if it does happen again the user is unlikely to click 'readme' and mankind might be doomed.

- - -

While testing 'Little pink furry animals 3' for girls aged 3 to 6, the user discovered that after the completing the game 32 times his home life was affected (he was no longer able to get an erection). This could (in time) reduce future tester candidates.

In order to alleviate this problem, we suggest a special 'tester' mode should be made available in which squashing those damn furry animals lets the user to unlock a secret 'island of nyphos' level.

- - -

While testing in game menu functionality of 'Left out in Space' the tester noticed that if the player returns back to the game from the in game menu and gets suddenly attacked by a monster, this would frequently result in an uncontrolled expulsion from the rear resulting in a damp messy seat, bad odour and an uncomfortable testing session. The only Fix to this problem seem to be a change of pants. As this was frequently encountered by the user and wearing a nappy was not considered a user friendly workaround, the testing dept. has given this a Critical severity.

Note the user found the title so scary that perhaps a fast key should be implemented to allow the user to quickly and easily call "Mummy !".

- - -

While testing the game the user found an Easter-egg first person game hidden on the DVD. We are not asking for the game to be removed, but rather specifically request the game (called "Castle of the unfeasibly large breasted nympos") not to be removed, as might end up the case.

Personal NOTE: in this game, um, how do you pass the 'satisfy all the bitches' level as we don't seem to be, er, 'large enough' (yes, we ARE still talking about the game).

- - -

While testing the user encountered difficulties with the nudity and simulated sex scenes withing the game. The resulting arousal caused discomfort (amplified by the testers tight Jeans) and could have been embarrassing if anyone noticed. We acknowledge this might be quite an uncommon user path because although it was 100% reproducible with male testers, it was only actually a problem because we are all really well hung.

- - -

While testing the user found that the game sucks. Dude, are you kidding me?

- - -

While testing the user found that during installation, if a sodium silicate vessel containing H2O was emptied over a fellow user, said user emitted profanity an responded by breaking the keyboard over the other users head.

In this case the install was interrupted and the game failed to install as intended is this intended?

Safari vs Firefox

2009-05-10T13:20:00.003+02:00

I recently reinstalled my OS. I just did a fresh install of Windows Xp, not because I like it but because I don't yet have the funds for a MAC and my computer wont run Vista (or Windows 7 for that matter).

I took the excuse to try a different Browser. I installed the latest Safari browser from Apple. It's got some great features. You can browse you history using cover flow with safari. It shows reasonable size previews of the websites you've visited in a flowing bookcase like way (the same way iTunes does it), making it a breeze to find a size you visited the other day even if you don't know what it is called.

Safari also shows you twelve of your most often visited sites (or you can 'pin' your favorites) as a preview every time you open up a new tab (ctrl+t).

Apart from that (and a bunch of other feature I probably don't know about), Safari has a great apple-like interface consistent with itunes and OS X.

However despite this (and being an avid Mac OS X fan) I think I like firefox more. Firefox just worked more like I do. I appreciate the logic in putting the tabs up in the title bare to save screen real estate, but I still like the firefox way better.

I didn't notice too much speed difference, I think 'sometimes faster-sometimes slower' is probably appropriate and really this is not a big deal for me.

I guess I just like having a home button available by default (although it wasn't too hard to turn this on in safari) and the way 'find' works in firefox.

I'm writing this in a Safari window, but I think I will install Firefox any day now. I might try to keep using Safari long enough to make sure my dislikes are not born out of habit. If Safari doesn't grow on me, then I'm going back to Firefox.

One thing is for sure, they are far superior to IE. Why anyone would still use Internet Explorer is beyond me.

Yes, I guess I should try chrome (I once tried opera, but liked that not one bit), at lease the underlying technology implemented in chrome looks excellent, I just want to see if Safari is better than Firefox (or Firefox is better than Safari) first.

I'll keep you posted.

The end of Affiliate Junktion

2009-02-08T17:36:00.002+01:00

It turns out that Affiliate Junktions excuses for non payment were founded on something more sinistar. On Sat 7^th of Feb 2009 Affiliate Junktion posted the message on its website:

“Dear Affiliates,

I would like to start by thanking you all for hard work on the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Program.

Due to the change of direction and global economic changes, Affiliate Junktion's strategic business goals can no longer support the Affiliate Junktion referral program.

All Affiliates have been notified by email and in the news section of the control panel on February 5th and given 2 days notice as per the Terms & Conditions set out in the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Agreement.

Please accept our apologies for the sudden termination of this program. “

My bet is that through a number of factors the system stopped working for them (and of course their affiliates of which I am one).

I for one really thought they had something. For a number of months I was making a theoretical (I say theoretical because Affiliate Junktion never paid it out) profit of $100 a day. In the end Affiliate Junktion wound up owing me around $6,500.00.

I still believe there must be a good way to make money online, just, as it turns out, Affiliate Junktion is not it.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

Affiliate Junktion, a scam after all? Only time will tell.

2009-01-31T16:43:00.004+01:00

I am way overdue for an update on Affiliate Junktion. Many people visit my site because they want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam. I’m beginning to think the answer might not be so easy to find.

In the beginning I couldn’t get the Affiliate Junktion system working. I thought Affiliate Junktion was a scam for sure. Then I managed to get my advertising cost right down and started to make a profit. At one stage I was earning NZ$300+ per day! Well, at least my account with them was showing that.

Here’s the thing, my first check was right on the money. I had earned 1,226.00 for my first month adn that is exactly what Affiliate Junktion paid. The problem is that Affiliate Junktion went through a website update and used that as an excuse to delay payments. The first of many. I only received my first payment about three months later.

This alone would not have been a problem. The next thing to happen was an ‘anti fraud’ deduction made to my commission. Basically, Affiliate Junktion payed me less than half of my commission and said that was because of anti fraud measures and canceled leads.

When you think about it there is no reason for someone to go to the trouble of making a unique ip address and a new email address to sign up through my links. If someone was trying to defraud Affiliate Junktion, then they would do it through their own links wouldn’t they? I was sending Affiliate Junktion traffic I had generated through advertising. Why would someone try to defraud Affiliate Junktion through random advertisments?

But it didn’t stop there… a few months later I was owed just under NZ$12,000.00 in commission, the result? When Affiliate Junktion finally did pay, I only received NZ$4,532.00.

The hardest thing is that Affiliate Junktion was paying later and later. I have been waiting over three months for the currently owed commission and until I actually receive a payment from Affiliate Junktion, I don't know how much they are going to give me.

Perhaps this is part of the plan all along. If Affiliate Junktion can manage to keep people on the hook for long enough then they have months of people advertising their system. This could be long enough for Affiliate Junktion to grow exponentially.

I would like to give Affiliate Junktion the benefit of the doubt, heck, I want it to work so I can make some money using the Affiliate Junktion system.

The thing which is making me suspicious is that the excuse they used last month was pretty dodgy. They claimed they needed to wait 2-3 weeks to get paid by their advertiser before they could pay out commissions. But that’s not the biggest problem. I emailed Affiliate Junktion 4 weeks after this to ask when the payment would be made and the excuse they gave me was the exact same one (word for word) as 4 weeks earlier. I now have to wait until the 28th of February 2009 to get my commission (for over four months earlier).

So, for now I have stopped my Affiliate Junktion advertising campaign. I’m going to wait until I have been paid in full before I continue. Actually I need to wait until I get paid by Affiliate Junktion to know how profitable it was and because, quite frankly, I need the money. I also want to wait because I want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam for sure. I don't want to advertise a program that is not going to work.

I believe that Affiliate Junktion could still be genuine. Perhaps they are just trying to pay out slowly to maximize their income by earning interest on their affiliate’s money for a couple of months before they pay out. I can't imaging this wouldn't actually be hurtful to Affiliate Junktion so don't really think thats it.

In any case I can’t in good conscience promote Affiliate Junktion at the moment. I suggest if you’ve heard about Affiliate Junktion but haven’t joined then don’t do anything right now. Check back here in a month to see what happened.

If you are already an Affiliate Junktion member in the same boat, you might want to consider being cautious and perhaps not investing a lot in advertising at this point.

At the end of the day the only people who really know how this is going to play out are those at Affiliate Junktion.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

No new Apple Mac Mini disappoints, utterly

2009-01-07T14:41:00.005+01:00

I’ve been waiting for a new mac mini. Waiting, for over a year. I’ve always wanted a Mac mini because the mini does what other Macs don't (save for the Mac Pro); the mini allows you to get an Apple Mac and still use your existing monitor and keyboard.

I, like most people was eagerly awaiting a new Mac mini which (we all thought) would be announced at the 2009 Macworld Keynote held yesterday. The new Mac mini (theoretically) was to finally have respectable graphics capabilities (using the same graphics processors in the new Macbooks). We all thought such a mini would be announced, we were wrong.

I’m so disappointed because I was going to buy two minis (one for me, one for my wife).

I have long been a defender of Apples ‘people don’t know what they want until you give it to them’ attitude because (and I really don’t care who wants to argue the point) they make great products. More or less: everything you want, nothing you don’t. The mac mini was (almost) everything I wanted without having to buy a new monitor/keyboard which I already have. So where is the new Mac mini? What have you done with our new mini apple?

Some people even went further and predicted a product between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. Something with more processing power and graphics clout than the mini but not quite up to the specification of the Mac Pro and therefore a better price. That is actually the machine I want because I just need some decent graphic capabilities. I want a little mini computer (not a big ugly tower) that runs Mac OS X and can play games with some respectability.

I also used to defend Apple Mac’s limited product line. Too much choice can be a bad thing, but Apple should realize, not enough choice often IS even worse!

Apple, where is the new mac mini? Or don’t you guys ‘get’ playing games?

Apple, you know what? I am now soooo tempted to build a hackintosh humph!

Funniest Wikipedia Captcha EVER!!

2008-12-07T15:39:00.002+01:00

Hi, I was editing a German Wiki the other day and the funniest thing happened:

In order to make sure your a real person (and stop people using 'bots to create spam), wikipedia uses captcha (or similar). Basically it asks you to type a word that appears on the screen (I'm sure you've seen them before).

The funny thing was the word Wikipedia asked me to type (I absolutely promise I did not use photoshop or anything to fake it, some times fact is funnier than fiction), check it out..:

Next stop $600 a day

2008-09-01T23:27:00.004+02:00

I surpassed my target of $150 a day with Affiliate Junktion a few months ago. As I sail past the $350 mark, I wonder how long it will take to reach $600 a day (my new target).

Find out how I do it here. EDIT>> I am waiting to get paid, read about that here.

Affiliate Junktion Payment Proof (cheque recieved)

2008-08-21T16:45:00.011+02:00

Here is proof of payment from Affiliate Junktion (for those of you waiting for a payment wondering if Affiliate Junktion is a scam or not).

Just because they sent me payment once, does not mean I always received it, please read my latest blog Affiliate Junktion, a scam after all? Only time will tell..

Bellow is a photo of the Affiliate Junktion Cheque I received. To sum up, I have so far been paid:

August NZ$1226.00 (by cheque)
September NZ$4805.00 (by paypal)
October NZ$4568.00 (by paypal)

September payment from Affiliate Junktion was made with paypal. I thought this would be better (its certainly faster than cheque), but paypal charged me $187.85 just to recieve the money! I'm going to get one more paypal payment, then I will simply be getting too much to warrent gettin paid by Affiliat Junktion that way (because paypal charges a percentage) and I'll go back to getting paid from Affiliate Junktion by cheque.

Please note, I got paid ns September for July's commisions, so you need to know thats how long it takes (yes the time period had me worrying as well, for two months I had to wonder is the ceque would arrive). More information of when and how they payout can be found here.

Proof of payment from Affiliate Junktion: Here is the first cheque I have received from them. It would appear they are registered as "E-Work Marketing Limited" perhaps their former name, anyway I was happy to get the cheque from Affiliate Junktion. I will add future cheques to this blog page so come back in a month to see the next Affiliate Junktion payment proof added.

As you can see by the remittance advice of the Affiliate Junktion Cheque, it has the Affiliate Juntktion web address pre-printed. Although my address was handwritten, this is due to their recent system overhaul and Affiliate Junktion also enclosed an apologetic note.

I also videoed open the letter from Affiliate Junktion because is hard to provide proof of payment over the internet. I'm going to post that to You Tube soon (don't have time to today, sorry).

As other forms of proof, I have provided a photo of the Envelope and (what I though was the most important proof that Affiliate Junktion does pay) is a copy of the bank deposit.

If you want more information or want to get a check like this sent to you every month then signup here. The information is free and worth a read, After receiving you instruction feel free to read my blog because Affiliate Junktion probably isn't for everyone. Take a look for yourself.

Funny Adsense Ad combinations.

2008-07-31T14:42:00.006+02:00

Today I came across some funny Adsense combinations.

Found on a hunting and fishing site.

I think it's interesting who the advertiser considers their target market....

Does this mean Hunters and Fishermen are more likely to cheat? (perhaps on their Asian wives..)
And lastly, when the Asian wife finds out about it all...

Perhaps even funnier that these ads appear together.

Saw these at a hunting ad fishing site like Kilwell Sports.

Top Multi Tier Web hosts for making money

2008-07-29T16:58:00.003+02:00

I've got a few small websites now. All have some form of Monetization. One of the best ways I've found of making money with a web site is by referring people to web hosting providers, because its something we (webmasters and we site owners) all need.

I quickly learned that just getting a commission is not enough. You want to be able to build a multi tier network of people generating commission for you.

Here are the top Multi Tier Hosts because...

Multi Tier= more cash

Green hosting provider with $100 first tier, $65 second tier

Free ipods and music cards as well as multi tier

Multi tier hosting a whopping 10 levels deep

Know any more/better Multi tier web hosting providers? Make a comment!

Two great things to do when you're bored

2008-07-27T14:58:00.005+02:00

Cool thing #1 Rastorbation

Printing a large image using you desktop A4 inkjet (or Laser printer) has a name. It's called Rastorbating (and you though no one was going to catch you).

If you don't have software to split an image up into the tiles you need to be able to print the image on a large scale, then here's something cool: The Rastorbator. It's a free online interface to allow you to upload an image and it will split the file into the tiles you need to print them at any size. Whats cool about is that the rastorbator splits images up using a process similar to line screening (used for printing/screen printing) which converts your image inter woven rounded shapes which give the image an arty look and keep the resulting PDF files size right down, allowing you to print them and email them easily.

You can also download a rastorbator stand alone program so you can rastorbate to any photo in the privacy of your own room :P

Cool thing #2: Wordle

Another cool thing to was some of you time is the cloud generator at www.wordle.net

You may have seem words thrown together in a bunch, some big some small. This is called a cloud. Search clouds are the most common example, these show the most searched items larger than the rest and can be a great way to tink laterally on things that misght interest you.

Now you can make your own artistic clouds from any text you like. Music lyrics, web sites, poems, whatever... here are some examples I came up with:

Google is Anal

2008-07-19T10:41:00.005+02:00

Is Google anal? My computer thinks so...

We all know that Google is a stickler for the rules and that going against Google is like going against god, but today I saw something on my screen that seemed perhaps a digital Freudian slip:

PS. In case your wondering, this happen when I opened multiple tabs in Firefox while logged in at Google Analytics, The words Google Analytics were shortened due to lack of space (or perhaps the computer was trying to say something....at least it helps me to remember how to spell analytics!)

The seduction of added value.

2008-07-17T18:21:00.002+02:00

The seduction of added value.

If you want to sell a product, any product, you need to understand value.

Value is the single reason why people buy things.

I don't mean we buy things when they are “good value for money”. I mean we buy because of a perception of value. Many people for example might not buy a Mercedes because you can get a Toyota much cheaper with a similar specification and yet Mercedes sell a lot of cars, they just sell them to different customers. The people who buy luxury cars have their own set of requirements which they value, the price has less of an impact on their perception of value than for other car buyers. What motivates a luxury car buyer might be Brand name, appearance, exclusivity (sometimes by just making a product expensive, you make it exclusive and therefore attract people who have enough money to want to be seen as part of the 'club' of owners of that product).

To sell you product you first have to understand your customer and what represents value to them.

People who buy Apple Mac's have a different set of value requirements than PC owners. This can bee seen by all the Mac vs. Pc comparisons on the Internet. If we all valued products for the same reasons, simply comparing specifications would be valid and perhaps PC's might winout. By Apple adds value to their computers. Apple gives a more stable product with great free software in a stylish all in one package with a unique operating system. This appeals to their customers who don't necessarily care the computer is the highest specification for the lowest possible price, without the ease of use and style that has become synonymous with the brand, there is little value to that customer.

Anything can represent value within a customer base, look at how quickly the world adopted MP3 as a music format. People wanted a small file which would allowed the files to be downloaded quickly, even though it meant the quality was sacrificed a little.

Value = Matching a customers needs (physically or emotionally)

Once you know what motivates your buyers, you can use a killer strategy to skyrocket you sales: Added Value.

Added value is the preferred way of improving the buyers perception of value without having to discount your product. Once you latch on to the motivation of you customer you can use this to add value. Added value is created when you provide some further incentive to make a purchase. You could offer additional products or services that may also be desirable to your customer at a reduced rate (or free) with their purchase.

In any case you should try to provide added value with minimal cost to you. Online services and E-books can be perfect for that.

Discount should be avoided if you can create value some other way, however sometime the best strategy is to offer a product at a premium in the first instance and then after the initial phase of the product cycle where it's new and interesting you will be able to discount it.

Although its always a better strategy to find other ways to add value, discounting is also added value. By establishing the products initial worth you are showing the customer they can now buy something with an already established worth for less money. Getting more for less equates to added value.

And added value is seductive. My wife an I recently walked past an nice looking furniture item in a shop which had been reduce from €129 to €24.95 it looked like it was worth every penny at €129, now it was a bargain. My parents who were with us at the time also agreed and we were ready to buy it until we realized we actually had nowhere to put it and did not need it anyway. We were simply stunned by the value.

Internet markets do the same thing with E-books. Because delivery is so easy and they don't actually have to produce anything, they can give you lots of bonus books and newsletters.

As added value for this article, feel free to download a free ebook on making money with Google arbitrage (a process of making a profit by paying to send people to a website with advertising so they in turn leave through more expensive advertising). Right click here and click 'save link as' to download it.

iMac Contenders threaten Apples title

2008-07-09T12:41:00.006+02:00

Most people agree, iMacs are cool.

Some (generally those that cant afford them) complain that they are too expensive. Many compare Apples legendary 'All in One' to any number of PC's. The biggest problem is that the PC with which people compare Apples iMac are tower pc's (also lovingly referred to as "boxes"), without any consideration to the value and cost associated with making an amazing looking computer which appears to be little more than a monitor.

But there are PC's capable of contending Apple for the all All in One crown. The most interesting thing is,... they are all (spec for spec) more expensive than an iMAC (and don't come with Apples amazing OS X nor iLife). And these aren't computers made by companies who can't produce enough to achieve economy of scale. These are the biggest brand in the business.

Take a look:

The Gateway 'One' ZX190

Sony's Vaio LT

Dell XPS

All in all not a bad lineup, I'm impressed. They just need a Mac OS and ilife....

My dowloadable Apple MAC Wallpapers

2008-06-29T15:32:00.010+02:00

I change my wallpaper frequently and today I decided to make some new Apple wallpapers, you can download the whole lot as a .zip by clicking here.

If you liked them please feel free to tell others . enjoy. PS. download Free Lost and Heroes/4400 Wallpapers here.

7 reasons why you wouldn't bother with Psystar computers

2008-06-28T18:23:00.005+02:00

Psystar is big in the news lately because it's selling computers with hardware compatible with the Apple MAC operating system. Psystar even goes as far as installing the Mac on a non Apple machine.

They charge you for a installing genuine Mac OS operating system, which might seam on the surface quite cool, but really, why would you bother?

I once bought a genuine Apple licensed Mac Clone in the 1998 and I saved over $2,000, I remember at the time I would have rather had a real MAC. How much can you save now? A couple of hundred?

7 reasons why you wouldn't bother with Psystar computers:

1.Psystar open computers don't come with iLife, so even if you save a few bucks you miss out on some top quality software.

2.A Psystar open computer is just another ugly PC.

3.You will get an operating system based on hacked software (and the ones who hacked the Mac OS are pissed at Psystar for taking advantage of their community based effort)

4.Your long term ability to get system updates is very questionable indeed.

5.How good is a Psystar guarantee if Apple closes Psystar down (due to Psystars dubious legal stance which breaches Apples End User License Agreement for OS X)?

6.Who ever heard of buying a Server using a hacked operating system. Servers a built for reliability.

7.Psystar open computers are just simply aren't Apple MACs.

Psystars open PC, still pretty ugly as far as I'm concerned.

It will be interesting to see if Psystar survives and if Apple does anything to thwart their business. Personally even though I am an open advocate of Apple releasing its operating system (OS X) as a software option (with strict license controls to ensure compatibility) I can't see that Psystar is offering any added value.

I do however applaud Psystar bringing the possibility into the public eye, who know's perhaps we'll see OS X for sale in PC shops yet.

How I made online passive income work.

2008-06-22T18:47:00.006+02:00

It was a slow start, but I got there after about six months. Actually, what I did, could be done in a matter of days if you don't have to go through the learning process that I did.

We're all looking for passive income. What could be better than money coming into your life without you having to work for it? Certainly there are plenty of ways of making money online but just taking part in an online money making program (like Affiliate Junktion) is not going to put money in your pockets you need to actually make it work.

I use Affiliate Junktion simply because one day it caught my eye and I decided if ever I was going to give something a go, this might as well be it. But it didn't start off well. I lost money in the beginning. Not wanting to loose much, I stopped trying and thought Affiliate Junktion is a scam.

Later I found out that if you want to bring people to your affiliate site then there is something you absolutely must buy: A keyword tool. Without a keyword tool your online advertising would be like driving without a steering wheel. It simply is a must.

The reality is that by spending an hour a day for weeks I managed to get Affiliate Junktion to payout about €10 a day. Then I bought keyword elite and overnight (literally) my income went from €10 to €110 and it really only took me a few minutes to create top notch keywords.

Without going on and on over the same point, if you can't yet afford Keyword Elite, then use the google keyword tool to get yourself going and then as soon as you can get Keyword Elite, it really is worth the money.

One last little note, you can use all the money you save when you lower the bid amount using a keyword list created by Keyword Elite to pay for Keyword Elite (over and over). If you want to make money online with Affiliate Marketing, Keyword Elite is a must.

Opps, I accidentally started making money online

2008-06-17T23:30:00.005+02:00

<<<<< EDIT: my latest blog on this subject is here - it is far more up to date >>>>>>

We'll it just crept up on me over the last few months.

Almost by accident, I started making money online with affiliate marketing.

The Affiliate program I started a few months ago (and the one I failed miserably with in the beginning) just started to make money for me.

Almost overnight, my account started to fill up, first with €10 a day and then a bit more and then more....

After being inspired, I purchase this keyword tool and a day later my income turned into over €100 a day. I so hope this is real, I don't want more, I just want it to be true. I'm still not so sure it is real, I had dreamed making money could be this easy, but could it really be possible? will it last? I don't really know the answer to these questions yet (I'm not due to be paid until about 16.07.08).

I'm so scared right now, I really hope its true and that it just carries on the way its going.

For those interested this is the affiliate program I'm using. Please note the following:
The information is free (as is a money making website), but you will have to pay to use their chosen web host. You will also almost definitely need to splash out and buy this keyword tool to make it work (best thing I ever did).

In the meantime, I don't know what to feel. I have such mixed emotions. The next month of waiting for my first payment will be excruciating, I'll continue to blog my thoughts, feeling and successes (or failures) here. Take a look at some of my old post to see the rocky road to riches i have experienced with Affiliate Junktion, then get the free information to see if its right for you.

The truth (with a bit of opinion thrown in)

2008-06-09T15:30:00.005+02:00

Please fell free to add a comment (good or bad) comments will only be moderated on this post to stop comment spam.

The truth (with a bit of opinion thrown in)

You can't argue taste
The tragedy of 9/11 was perpetrated or sponsored by the American Government (and realization of this is NOT anti-American)
The rest of your life starts Today
You should work less and play more
Daisy Duck is Hotter than Minnie
Metric is an improvement over Imperial
You are allowed to love yourself
Global warming is a lie (but we should minimize our environmental impact anyway)
It doesn't matter where you were born
The teletubbies are Aliens
Borders exist only in the minds of men
.9999999 recurring is equal to 1
“Allah” is simply a word. That word means “God” in English
Smiles are infectious
You can get all the nutrition you need without eating meat
Those who conspired to falsify safety reports about the air quality in New York post 9/11 should be brought to trial for the resulting deaths which could have been avoided.
It's not the megapixels, its the capture quality.
Patriotism is bigotry
Any charity is good charity
Money can't buy you happiness, but it can take away the problems lack of money causes
Terrorism is ineffectual without media coverage
Tom Cruise only plays one character, Tom Cruise
The invasion of Iraq is based on a lie
Captain feathersword is better than the wiggles
No means no
You are loved
Macs are the new PC's (and PC's are the new Mac's)
Penfold is a hamster
How you act affects outside opinion on your peer group

Apple MAC video games console, the time is now!

2008-05-31T22:49:00.006+02:00

I am in the market for a new PC. Without a doubt I want a MAC. Well to be truthful, I want Leopard with iLife, therein lies the problem.

Apple currently doesn't have a model that fits my needs. This is down to two main reasons. 1^St, I'm a gamer (in a couple of months I will be a profession gamer) and 2^nd I already have a monitor I'm happy with.

The monitor issue is not an uncommon complaint. There are many people who upgrade their computers and monitors separately and who therefor need a new computer but are happy with the monitor they have got. With Apple that leaves two choices the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. While they Mac mini is a great machine, if you want to play games or us any 3D apps it comes up lacking. The Mac Pro is an impressive animal capable of anything you throw at it, but an entry level Mac Pro costs $2799 (at time of writing). What is needed is something in between.

I think the time is right for apple to bridge this gap and they could do by entering a great niche. I envision Apple making a games machine.

Macs have never been the platform of choice for gamers, I put this mainly down to fate. For various reasons (that I'm not going into here) games got off to a better start on the Windows/Intel platform than on the MAC and the PC has never looked back. While there have been some excellent game releases for the MAC, the sheer quantity an quality of windows games out there, doesn't make it a gamers choice.

But with Apple recently switching to the Intel processor thats brought the opportunity back for Apple to get it's game on. Now on a Mac you can dual boot into windows (Apple even help you do it with bootcamp). While this is pretty pointless as far as I'm concerned for any other applications (because the MAC OS and Mac apps are generally much better), it does make sense for games.

Better still, as a gamer I always like to have my system clean for running my games optimally. If all my other applications run on the Mac OS side, that would leave me with a clean windows version strictly for games.

Thats were a new product for apple could fit in. Apple could easily bridge the gap between Mac mini and Mac Pro with a machine aimed at gamers. It could also come up with a funky design that would suit the customers. I'm so sick of the PC game machines which have a 'tattoo' or 'alien' look. Just because I play games, doesn't mean I have bad taste.

Who knows perhaps Apple could buy/license the technology from Parallels or Crossover, put it together with a streamlined version of Leopard (using a Front Row like interface for the installed windows games) as a boot option and the Mac games machine could suddenly be a console! (or is Apple afraid they'll just end up making another “pipin”)

Apple already tried to make a games console once with the pipin (pictured).
Is it too scared to make a games MAC?

This new game orientated Mac wouldn't have to be just for hard core gamers. It could also be for those other people who have a good monitor, but want something more than the Mac mini, and less than the Mac Pro. Just make it look cool and throw a great choice of graphics cards in there, and you've got a winner in my book (can I pre-order?).

Who knows, the mini is not all that far away from another refresh, perhaps this time, it will get decent graphics capabilities which may make my grumblings a mute point.

Macbook Air is old news, here comes the XO-2

2008-05-22T21:27:00.006+02:00

Forget MACbook Air, the coolest thing on the horizon in the computing world might be something bound for the third world.

I long been a fan of the OLPC program. OLPC stand for One laptop Per Child and is basically an initiative to get laptops in the hands of children in developing nations. Bravo I say.

Sure, I agree with my brothers criticism that really impoverished people need clothing, food, clean water, shelter and education far more than they need a laptop. Further more, the donated laptops might just end up being sold on the black market (ebay?) creating a dependency cycle of people needing to get them, to sell them, to survive. Yes, sure that may not solve much, but one would hope that's doesn't end up being the norm. I would think enough units would go into the right hands to make a difference. Isn't something this charitable better than nothing in its absence?

Further more, some of the people getting excited and involved with the project may not be the type to expend so much time and energy helping to provide wells or housing. The people driving this project are tech people, they like tech and it motivates them. It hard enough to motivate people to be charitable as it is.

I've seen other criticism too, but rather than defend OLPC further I just wanted to point out how the project could also benefit the rest of us. The next genration OLPC (the XO-2) is quite innovative and more importantly super cool! Once you put OPLC “give 1-get one” program (where you buy one laptop and another is donated to a child on your behalf) together with the next generation ebook-styled XO-2 (pictured), there are going be be a lot of people buying one for themselves just for the coolness of it. I mean, check it out! Who wants a Macbook air now?

The OLPC XO-2 in Laptop mode

The OLPC XO-2 in book mode

The OLPC XO-2 in Flat mode

The next gernation OLPC (the XO-2) will have:

Dual 16x9 proportioned sunlight-readable touch screens
Keyboard and touchpad both replaced by touch screens
Physically smaller than XO-1; size and weight more like a book
1 watt power consumption
Target price of US$75 to large educational buyers

You can find out more about the OLPC here.