An interesting article about the diamond industry…

An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

I had a hunch, but didn’t know for sure… 8)

Now you’ll get 10mbps (up from 6mbps) on Cablemodem with Time-Warner… for the same price!

Time Warner is quietly notifying some of its customers that it plans to double the download speed of its Road Runner broadband service to 10Mbps starting in Q1 2007

Road Runner Service to Double Download Speed in Q1 2007

Got IM?

Almost half of teens, 48 percent of those ages 13-18, use instant messaging, according to the poll. That’s more than twice the percentage of adults who use it.

Poll: ‘IM-ing’ divides teens, adults

Wow, I made 25peeps…

Hey 25peep’ers!

Check it out: 25peeps.com

I love it when I read about people starting companies…

“Hey Kid… Wanna start a company? Everybody’s doing it!”

They’ve got the smarts and the confidence to get a job, but increasing numbers of the millennial generation — those in their mid-20s and younger — are deciding corporate America just doesn’t fit their needs.

Gen Y makes a mark and their imprint is entrepreneurship

Friend of mine sent me this… the price difference from the standard “usual” market and the auctions are astonishing.

One three-bedroom ranch house with a pool sold for $671,000. In 2005, the same house sold for $809,000. Another house, just steps from Naples Bay, sold for $880,000 at the auction., compared with $1.35 million a year earlier. On average, the houses that changed hands at the auction had fallen about 25 percent in value since 2005, according to Thomas Lawler, a real estate consultant who analyzed the auction’s results.

What Statistics on Home Sales Aren’t Saying

My buddy’s company, Personal Wine, was on Good Morning America this past saturday… Check it out:

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

The introduction of the 3rd generation iPod (the one with the 4 buttons right under the screen) included the ability to sync over USB – previously, it was only possible to sync over FireWire.

Whats odd about this, is that although you can sync over USB just fine, you can’t charge over USB. For that, you need to find a FireWire sync cable and use it!

Puzzling – and very un-Apple like.

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

Quick Tip:

You can switch to a secure SSL connection on Gmail by simply using https:// in your browser…

Try it! – https://www.gmail.com

Probably something you want to do if you’re at a public PC… 😀

This is good stuff… I kinda want to play the Sims expansion pack… 😀

Tired of battling hordes of shoppers for Tickle Me Elmo, the latest Xbox 360 game and other hot holiday items that feed your children’s rampant consumerism?

Eager for a present that gives your kids a financial jump on life and is still, well, fun? See what gifts can help your children learn how to save and spend wisely, with payoffs that last well beyond the season.

5 gifts that will make your kids rich

Here are some tips on getting the most out of your widescreen set when displaying older content.

The main problem with 4:3 sets is getting the rectangular “peg” of wide-screen programming to fit the squarish “hole” of a standard TV. 16:9 TVs have the opposite problem: decades’ worth of TV programming has been produced to fit the squared-off 4:3 aspect ratio, not the luxuriously wide space of a 16:9 display. There are several solutions, but you’ll need to decide which sacrifices you’re willing to make: deforming the picture, losing a portion of the horizontal image, sacrificing the resolution, or a combination of the three.

CNET’s quick guide to aspect ratio

Althought I find the idea of podcasting interesting, it seems that podcasting hasn’t “crossed the chasm” as they say…

The number of US internet users who have experimented with downloading a podcast continues to grow but few remain hooked, research suggests.

Podcast numbers show ‘few hooked’

I’ve posted an entry about this in the past but now it seems that David Pogue has done a full-fledged “Pepsi-Challenge” on the topic….

Anyway, we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses—but were wrong. Only one person correctly ranked the prints in megapixel order, although (a) she was a photography professor, and (b) I believe she just got lucky.
I’m telling you, there was NO DIFFERENCE.

The Truth About Digital Cameras

Someone needs to install one of these in a cocktail lounge… 😀

My buddy Nathan sent this to me – and I find it interesting that even though people are very bullish regarding real estate… people don’t seem very bullish about the people involved.

Journalists, I am sad to say, did pretty poorly in prestige terms, ranking toward the bottom of the list. They beat out only five other occupations: union leader, actor, business executive, stockbroker, and … real estate agent/broker.

It can’t feel good to come in dead last in anything, even a public-opinion survey.

More Bad News for Realtors, Part 819

Wow – its starting to look ugly…

Housing construction plunged to the lowest level in more than six years in October as the nation’s once-booming housing market slowed further.
Housing construction plummets in October

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

A live shot from the camera on my phone.

A live shot from the camera on my phone.