My Brother HL-5250DN laser printer just stopped printing one day. The toner light came on indicating the cartridge was empty and it refused to print another page. I knew something was up because the last page I printed looked just fine. I reset the cartridge, rebooted the printer and still no cooperation from it. After 5 minutes of Google searching I discovered it’s a known scam and can be fixed by placing a small piece of black electrical tape over the round ink sensor on the right side of the cartridge. Sure enough after covering the sensor it started printing again. What really pissed me off is that it had TONS of ink left. I did this over 3 months ago and it’s still printing dark crispy blank ink with no fading whatsoever. I’ve printed at least 1000 pages since then.
Now here’s the most hilarious part of it all. Check out the tag line on their logo. “at your side” yeah right! They should change it to “guard your wallet” We need a class action lawsuit or at least public mockery of this rip off. Watch this quick video demo of how to beat the SCAM. Happy printing. Fight the power!
Now that mobile computing is really starting to takeoff how many years will it be before 10 digit phone numbers are obsolete? Think about this. You can make a VOIP call on your iPhone using Skype and that doesn’t involve using a phone number. Devices will continue to improve, bandwidth will increase, and connection speeds will get faster. What if Facebook or LinkedIn built a VOIP Phone into their iPhone apps? All your friends are already on Facebook and chances are many of them have a smartphone. What will happen when everybody has a web enabled device in their pocket with VOIP apps installed? Just fire up your VOIP app and call them. No PSTN (public switched telephone network) phone number necessary. My guess is 7-10 years for individuals and 15 years for business until 800-555-1212 phone numbers will be history.
In high school there were only 2 classes that prepared me for life. The first was typing and second was an elective course in computer programming. The rest was filler. OK, yes, the math and English probably helped me more than I realize but our education system in America is severely lacking when it comes to teaching practical life skills. Namely … personal finance.
In my senior year of high school we had to take a semester of economics. We learned about Adam Smith, supply and demand, money supply, etc. Why the hell didn’t our teacher spend even a single day teaching us about credit cards. They could have told us why making the minimum credit card payment never pays down the balance. How 22% interest is a giant scam. Why it’s important to buy real estate at the youngest age possible. Why you should only be an employee until you learn enough to start a business. Why you should always save 10% or your paycheck. How selling your time for an hourly wage is a surefire path middle class mediocrity. They could have taught us how a car loan or adjustable rate mortgage works. They could have taught us the difference between stocks, bonds, treasury bills, and stock options.
High School should be designed to prepare kids for life. Save the Econ 101 curriculum for college and instead teach a semester of personal finance. This stuff isn’t rocket science and it would have a REAL benefit on peoples lives.
Here’s a true story. I own a small company and we employ about 10 young people. They all have college degrees and a few of them from prestigious ivy league schools. One of my employees who graduated from Brown (YES BROWN University!) didn’t know what a T-Bill was. He had no idea how to buy real estate (this kid is 24 years old). He had no clue that you can put 10% down as a first time home buyer and a condo. He has ZERO concept of saving and investing. (I bought him a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad, let’s hope he reads it).
Why are we surprised that millions of Americans got teaser rate adjustable mortgages that blew up in their face (or rather all taxpayers faces)? These are people who don’t even understand how a basic loan is amortized much less an adjustable note tied to LIBOR or PRIME. These weren’t all dumb people. They just weren’t taught how loans and credit work and how to judge a good deal from a scam deal.
If every student in America was taught about loans and credit we could have avoided this multi-trillion dollar mess. Yes, a lot of it was caused by greed but a big factor was ignorance.
Here’s a video review and demonstration of my new GoPro HD Hero camera. This little camera is amazing. I attach it to the nose of my surfboard and it takes super wide angle high definition video footage from it’s waterproof housing. It’s a great camera for capturing POV (Point of view) action. The shots it captures would be impossible to get by a swimmer or even another surfer filming you in the water. Check out my video review below as well as my first surfing video shot with the HD Surf Hero.
The GoPro HD Hero POV Camera is super easy to use. Just 2 buttons. Idiot Proof. One button for on/off/mode and another button to start/stop filming. You can capture video and stills in the following formats …
Wide Angle (16:9), WVGA (848×480) @ 60 frames/sec
Wide HD (16:9), 720p (1280×720) @ 30 frames/sec
Wide HD (16:9), 720p (1280×720) @ 60 frames/sec
Tall HD (4:3), 960p (1280×960) @ 30 frames/sec
Full HD (16:9), 1080p (1920×1080) @ 30 frames/sec
You can also create awesome time lapse footage by setting the camera to snap JPEG’s at 2, 5, 10, 30, or even 60 second intervals. Just pop in a 32GB SD card and capture a boatload of footage.
Check out my first surfing video shot with the HD Hero. I’m not the best surfer but you can still get the idea of how awesome this camera is :)
We just launched the Beta (Alpha really) version of our “Let’s try to build something that goes viral” FaceBook application. It’s a site where you can upload a picture of yourself and see what you would look like with 120 different hair styles. It’s a pretty simple and fun site actually. Check it out for yourself at www.PimpYourMelon.com
"No country has a monopoly on smart people. What differs around the world are the constraints that people live under and the incentives they have to channel their energies." Ted C. Fishman in China Inc.
