Well assuming you already have all the usual free ones, AVG etc, the best I found, and by that I mean the one that could find the bloody virus and get rid of it was
NOD32.
You can get a free trial here, I think I had to download it from work and run it from a memory stick my home computer was so screwed..
It was so good I actually subscribed to it for money and I rarely do that. But if you have had the headache of your computer not working you will gladly pay not to sort it out again
Since installing it I have had not one virus despite many attempts by people hooking up infected drives to my computer
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Free music, films, audiobooks etc
If like me you don't like using P2P then the solution would seem to be to google what you are after and add the terms rar and -torrent.
For example
if you type
revolver beatles rar -torrent
into google, you wll after a bit of clicking about find this link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/19284223/Beatles_-_Revolver.rar
some things like films come in many parts and you have to have winrar a free program to unzip
ahh yes you say but there is download limit,
this can be got round by
1) delete cookies/clear private data
2) switch modem off and on again
3) if you know how to access modem you can do this step 2 from the computer without switching off modem
For example if you are with Bell you type
http://192.168.2.1/
click on advanced, enter username and password usually admin and admin, then go to advanced, then internet connection, then click disconnect and then connect, do this in a separate browser to the one you are downloading in, say firefox and opera then you don't need to keep putting your password in everytime
For example
if you type
revolver beatles rar -torrent
into google, you wll after a bit of clicking about find this link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/19284223/Beatles_-_Revolver.rar
some things like films come in many parts and you have to have winrar a free program to unzip
ahh yes you say but there is download limit,
this can be got round by
1) delete cookies/clear private data
2) switch modem off and on again
3) if you know how to access modem you can do this step 2 from the computer without switching off modem
For example if you are with Bell you type
http://192.168.2.1/
click on advanced, enter username and password usually admin and admin, then go to advanced, then internet connection, then click disconnect and then connect, do this in a separate browser to the one you are downloading in, say firefox and opera then you don't need to keep putting your password in everytime
Monday, June 16, 2008
Money for nothing
One of my interests is making money by doing as little as possible, like everyone I guess.
I have succeeded once on a cashback for balance transfers that was a ridiculously generous 5% in the UK and I just kept taking the money out and putting it back again. I managed 3 times before the offer expired and made a few hundred pounds. I recently found this website where the guy is a bit more hardcore and less risk averse than me.
The problem in Canada is getting the guaranteed rate of return. Any ideas on that?
Another quite risky approach is to buy currencies that pay high interest with ones that have low interest. For example buy british pounds with yen and do this in a levered account at say 20 or 30:1. There is a long forum entry on a guy who doubled his account by using a fairly idiot proof method though these days the future is a bit unsettled. The risk is that the currency you buy becomes lower in value despite paying 5% pa...
As the price of gold and other metals rockets so people's catalytic converters become the targets of theft. Less illegal is to strip gold from computers, but you need time and a free source of many, (scores), old computers. There is a place near Eastman where you can go gold panning, always fancied it but I hear Val d'Or is the place...
Not paying for things is another way of achieving the same, for example using a business to avoid paying tax on things or by requesting free commercial samples, though this can enter the grey zone if you do not follow advice or know what you are doing. Living next to the US where sales tax is very low and electronics are better and cheaper I see potential, your entitlement is $400 for 48h outside Canada and $750 after 7 days. Is there such a thing as a service for having goods mailed to a border town so you can pick up easily? Surely these limits will go up as it seems to have been stuck here for years.
Having kids can provide some money for example each one in daycare is eligible for $1000 a year from the fed. it only took me 3 years to figure this out.
Currently I am using Costco with the Amex card. It is a peculiar place... too tight to use video cameras to stop theft despite selling them. I seem to end up spending a fortune there regardless and am suitably disgusted at their lack of italian pasta and tinned tomatoes etc, but then again I was delighted to find kg packs of REAL parmesan reggiano. Not some powdered muck from Ontario...swings and roundabouts. I will let you know how much money I get back but judging on the year so far not much is the answer. It is cheap for nappies though so somehow I came out on top.
Hypermiling..well if you can't afford gas then maybe sell the car. I recently started to try it though, stopping is about the worse thing you can due for fuel efficiency and seeing as montreal uses stop signs and clockwork traffic lights as the only traffic control system this is bad as you will have doubtless watched the dumb significant minority accelerating towards red lights or stop signs only to jerk stop and speed off again. I did question the wisdom in switching my engine off and free-wheeling through about 5 stop signs late one night and wondered whether the police would buy my saving the environment argument. Indeed stopping is pretty hard with no power brakes..It did seem to make a difference but we won't get rich.
Feel free to post more money making/saving tips
I have succeeded once on a cashback for balance transfers that was a ridiculously generous 5% in the UK and I just kept taking the money out and putting it back again. I managed 3 times before the offer expired and made a few hundred pounds. I recently found this website where the guy is a bit more hardcore and less risk averse than me.
The problem in Canada is getting the guaranteed rate of return. Any ideas on that?
Another quite risky approach is to buy currencies that pay high interest with ones that have low interest. For example buy british pounds with yen and do this in a levered account at say 20 or 30:1. There is a long forum entry on a guy who doubled his account by using a fairly idiot proof method though these days the future is a bit unsettled. The risk is that the currency you buy becomes lower in value despite paying 5% pa...
As the price of gold and other metals rockets so people's catalytic converters become the targets of theft. Less illegal is to strip gold from computers, but you need time and a free source of many, (scores), old computers. There is a place near Eastman where you can go gold panning, always fancied it but I hear Val d'Or is the place...
Not paying for things is another way of achieving the same, for example using a business to avoid paying tax on things or by requesting free commercial samples, though this can enter the grey zone if you do not follow advice or know what you are doing. Living next to the US where sales tax is very low and electronics are better and cheaper I see potential, your entitlement is $400 for 48h outside Canada and $750 after 7 days. Is there such a thing as a service for having goods mailed to a border town so you can pick up easily? Surely these limits will go up as it seems to have been stuck here for years.
Having kids can provide some money for example each one in daycare is eligible for $1000 a year from the fed. it only took me 3 years to figure this out.
Currently I am using Costco with the Amex card. It is a peculiar place... too tight to use video cameras to stop theft despite selling them. I seem to end up spending a fortune there regardless and am suitably disgusted at their lack of italian pasta and tinned tomatoes etc, but then again I was delighted to find kg packs of REAL parmesan reggiano. Not some powdered muck from Ontario...swings and roundabouts. I will let you know how much money I get back but judging on the year so far not much is the answer. It is cheap for nappies though so somehow I came out on top.
Hypermiling..well if you can't afford gas then maybe sell the car. I recently started to try it though, stopping is about the worse thing you can due for fuel efficiency and seeing as montreal uses stop signs and clockwork traffic lights as the only traffic control system this is bad as you will have doubtless watched the dumb significant minority accelerating towards red lights or stop signs only to jerk stop and speed off again. I did question the wisdom in switching my engine off and free-wheeling through about 5 stop signs late one night and wondered whether the police would buy my saving the environment argument. Indeed stopping is pretty hard with no power brakes..It did seem to make a difference but we won't get rich.
Feel free to post more money making/saving tips
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Fridges
If you ask me....and you didn't...this person should have won the Nobel Prize, not that Al Gore.
I am sooo tired of the consumer being blamed for wasting resources when it is the manufacturers who give us our consumer choices.
The fridge..not modified since the 50's, open the door...whoosh out comes the cold air. Look what this guy achieved..100Wh per day! Why can't GE manage this? The only choice we have now is the colour. We should demand more efficient products and there should be legislation to enforce it.
I point to the average fuel economy of cars in the states that only went up after Carter made it the law, ( as I learnt from the film "who killed the electric car?") as discussed here.
Manufacturers who design products to fail after warranty should be strung up. It is not buying things that is the problem it is that they are designed to be thrown away and no thought is given to how they are thrown away. I still use an ironing board from my parents that pre-dates me, the other new ones have all been and gone, flimsy crappy things that became unusable and unrepairable in a few months.
On that note I see that propane conversion of SUVs in Montreal seems to be unheard of..my next project is to look into this, I only found this one in Montreal...
Entreprises Climauto Ltée (Les)
11390 Avenue Arthur-Nantel
Montréal, QC H1E 6V2
514-494-7393
514-494-7394 (télécopieur)
I am thinking to get a VW like this guy and convert it... One day.....follow the instructions
Electronic Fax and Message service
The best I found was
Maxemail
For $24 I got a phone number in Chicago with fax and voicemail for a year. You can personalise the greeting and the fax header.
Support reply quickly and at weekends.
Faxes are sent as pdf and voicemail as wav and you can email files to fax numbers
You can include a few email addresses so you can share the account. Plus you can have all messages saved for a year, (costs extra).
In short it's good.
Maxemail
For $24 I got a phone number in Chicago with fax and voicemail for a year. You can personalise the greeting and the fax header.
Support reply quickly and at weekends.
Faxes are sent as pdf and voicemail as wav and you can email files to fax numbers
You can include a few email addresses so you can share the account. Plus you can have all messages saved for a year, (costs extra).
In short it's good.
Cheapest way to wire money AND EFT electronic funds transfer
Here is the cheapest way to change money that I have found
1. Open XE trade account
2. Set up your bank accounts to make and accept payments by EFT, (you do this through the XEtrade website)
3. Off you go
Real example, I wanted to change USD to get 10,000CAD, (both accounts at same montreal branch).
With the bank's 'free' transfer I got 10,000
Through XEtrade I got 10, 350.
Wire charge from bank (no EFT) was $50 and XE charged $18 to wire money back..
BUT with EFT all wire charges are gone, finally a free banking service in Montreal..
Oanda has apparently better rates, but is fiddly to send money to, but you get a good rate of interest from them though..might be worth considering as an alternative to the ridiculous ING thing.
1. Open XE trade account
2. Set up your bank accounts to make and accept payments by EFT, (you do this through the XEtrade website)
3. Off you go
Real example, I wanted to change USD to get 10,000CAD, (both accounts at same montreal branch).
With the bank's 'free' transfer I got 10,000
Through XEtrade I got 10, 350.
Wire charge from bank (no EFT) was $50 and XE charged $18 to wire money back..
BUT with EFT all wire charges are gone, finally a free banking service in Montreal..
Oanda has apparently better rates, but is fiddly to send money to, but you get a good rate of interest from them though..might be worth considering as an alternative to the ridiculous ING thing.
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