Category — Uncategorized

I’m trying out a new theme on Free From Money. I welcome any feedback!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy New Year. Hopefully 2008 was your best year ever, and hopefully 2009 will be even better!

In bad economic times, I hope we can all remember the things that really count. Money comes and goes, but family and friends will be there for you no matter what. Happy holidays!

I thought I should pass these tips along to anyone interested in taking holiday photos.

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas

I saw this very nice graphic at Mint.com. It’s pretty cool for both information and as an interesting flow chart.

By the way, Mint.com is a pretty cool site to check out.

source:

http://blog.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/visualguidecrisis2.jpg

I saw this article about on reuters regarding a new bill on net neutrality and thought it would be a good follow up to my post on how net neutrality affects you. It looks like the lawmakers involved share my opinion that telephone and cable companies should not be allowed to filter content or manage bandwidth.

Regarding government regulation, Jim Cicconi of AT&T says:

The public would not pay for its Internet services if AT&T discriminated against content

This might be true if consumers had a choice of internet providers, but most do not. If I decided I didn’t like AT&T’s DSL service, my choice would come down to AT&T or no internet. (On another note, maybe I should have quoted someone from Comcast since I do use AT&T DSL). I think most consumers have the same number of choices I do, which is none.

As I said before, broadband internet is a classic case of a natural monopoly. It would be too expensive for every internet provider to lay fiber optic cable to every household, so generally a single provider will lay fiber and service an area. This should be an obvious reason for government to step in and regulate how the companies provide service and how much they can charge.

In case you needed another reason to sell your old stuff on Craigslist or eBay, check out this article on the autoblog about a guy who sold a LeMans Tempest on eBay for $226,521. It turns out the car was one of only six LeMans Super Duty coupes and was prized by collectors. I can only imagine how much he would have got if the car actually had the engine and transmission still in tact.

The best part is the original owner had no clue that this car was worth so much. I guess they’re lucky a few intelligent buyers stepped in to ask some questions. It’s a pretty cool story, I just wish I had something to sell for $200k.

We just watched this clip on youtube and I think it’s well worth taking the time to watch

It stunning to see just how big the financial problems facing this country are. This is beyond the current doom and gloom of the current recession. This is a long term problem the country is facing. If you have 30 minutes, watch the clip.

It looks like Senator Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. I think this is great news for the future of our country. I hope Obama can provide the leadership America needs that has been lacking in the current administration. He has a tough road ahead of him for sure. I wish him luck for future.

Whenever there are problems in the stock market it seems like every newspaper and financial magazine likes to print pictures of stock market traders with their hands on there face.

Case in point: The Brokers With Hands On Their Faces Blog. I only wish they would link back to where the pictures came from so maybe we could mock the newspapers for their unoriginality.

Thanks to Credit Slips for the link