Baseball Cards - An Investment that got LOST

Back in the 70’s I began collecting anything I could get my hands on. Football cards, Basketball cards and the big fish baseball cards. This collecting forwarded on up to the 90’s. Over this time I have boxed up and protected these cards for safe keeping until someday I knew when I wanted to sell them. We grow out of things sometimes. I have monitored the value of the cards since day one hoping that one day I would have a valuable hoard of cards. In the 90’s I checked the value of my cards, and main group that I knew I had had increased in value very nicely. One set was worth close to $1000, that was then over 15 years ago. Now cards are not a commodity that will last for ever, they are paper and anything at any given time to mess them up and their value disappears.

Now for 2007, you would thing that the value of card, baseball cards to be exact would be worth more now than when they were bought 30+ years ago, do-you-not-think? We I was in for the shock of my life. A card worth book value $90, a 1974 season card, would be worth more now, not this same card that no new ones has been made for 33 years is now only work 23 percent of its value in 1990. About 25 dollars, not sure if the ebay.com gods have bastardized the hobby to what it is or what. The baseball card industry does remind me of the housing marketing, you buy something and hold onto it for 30 years, when it is time to sell the value has gone way down.

What is really bad the new baseball card value books now relay these reduced values. These must be the same folks that made up the new global warming hoax.

Somebody help me out please

A Mike Schmidt MINT 1974 Topps Baseball Card #283, his first card that he is alone on a card, but not considered his rookie card was valued over $90 in 1991, Mike a 500 HR hitter and in the Hall-of-fame, now is card is book value at $25. $90-$25 = $65 decrease in 15 years. Somebody is out of their minds on the value.

Anyone have a story like this????

When Anti-Virus Software does not work

The other day I had a computer get hit by a virus. I have been using AVG free software, with Spybot to control incoming viruses. These two software program work very well and they are both free from the internet. You can get a deluxe version from AVG/grisoft.com that will give you some extras. When I was having problems getting ride of the virus I made a decision to go buy some Norton Software, the 360 version which includes Anti-Virus and Internet Security software.

I removed the AVG and the Spybot because the Norton 360 would have everything included in the software. Loaded on the Software but could not get the virus software to update itself via the internet, It could not find the internet. I spent 4 hours of spinning my wheels with tech support and could not get the software to update itself. Still could not find the internet but I could surf with Mozilla, since IE7 was messed up and the Virus kept my firefox from opening. The hell I went through, by the way I had two computers at the same time that had this same virus. Since Norton would not work, I went back to old faithful and removed the Norton software, downloaded the AVG version 8.0 and Spybot 1.6 free softwares to a CD and installed them on both computers. After complete scans of the computers overnight they cleaned up all the trojan viruses among a bunch of other crap.

Sometimes free is better or Use what works. Just glad to it is over with.

Human Communication gets cheaper

Humans have a need to communicate. Weather they want to communicate with our fiends, family members or business associates, most of us use the least expense way we can to communicate. You can use a land-line, this has no direct cost except a month fee, a cell phone a few cents a minute can be inexpensive. Using smoke signals could be an option. The international calling cards have become a very cost effective method and efficient communication tool to keep you in touch with loved ones and friends, especially if they live outside the U.S.

Due to the changes in the tele-communication industry, the phone calling cards have become an inexpensive way to talk-to your friends outside the country. The india phone cards is one of the most popular calling cards in the calling card industry. Cheap phone calling rates have been none cheaper for communicating to your loved ones in other countries today.

Digital Travel with online travel guides

One of my traveling adventures was during my senior year in High School. There was four of us guys that went to Senior night weekend at the local Six Flags in Atlanta Georgia. At six flags there were lots of rides and lots of seniors from all over at the park for the weekend. My schedule was different than the other three guys, I had to drive a separate car, it was Saturday night and I had to be at work at 5am Sunday, the next morning. It is a three hour drive to Atlanta. I left about 2am, 1am CST, on my way back I went off road, riding on the edge with gravel, scared me very bad and also woke me up. I made it to work at 4:30am took an small nap and went to work. This made for a short vacation

Over the years I been back to Atlanta several times, either going Six flags or for business meetings in downtown Atlanta. The business meetings usually would be dealing with Information Technology.

One of my next vacation visits I will need to go on a complete tour of the nightlife and things to do in Atlanta from the folks at Trusted Travel and Attractions. They offer many discounted tickets for sightseeing tours available from their online travel guides in twenty-one of the best vacation cities across the United States. The next road trip I want to go on would be to the great state of Massachusetts, the home of famous American Boston Tea party, there is even a museum dedicated to it. I know I want to go to Boston in the fall to take in a Patriots football team and a Redsox baseball game, let not forget the Bunker Hill Monument. For something different one day I could take a trip to Madame Tussauds the see the wax figures.

Trusted Travel and Attractions are also offering a chance to win an $150 iTunes gift card when you sign up for the Trusted Travel eNewsletter. Go visit their newsletter sign up page for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter from Trusted Tours and Attractions, and you will be entered to win a $150 iTunes gift card. Offer ends Saturday, July 31st, 2008.

Improving your career with Cisco Certification

My background and training has been in IT for a few years. I started out cutting my teeth on UNIX back when Microsoft had a version of it. That has been awhile. The training include building the hardware, installing and wiring the terminals, also formatting and installing the Unix operating systems with custom setups. I have always enjoyed the support of a Unix system. At some point along came Microsoft and changed the computer networking game for small and mid-size businesses. What most techs liked about Unix was that all of users were feed from their own cable out of the central cpu, enable network troubleshooting and customer support a very quick resolve issue.

The other networking computer comes into the mix is the IBM AS400. This is a really good server box. The server never has to be shutdown, it just keeps on going keeping your business operational. For the last 8 of 10 years I have had the opportunity to utilize an AS400 with Cisco Networking and Firewall. I find the Cisco products functional easy to update and make mods to the script software language that it uses to run the hardware. Most all of my training on AS400 and Cisco products has been hands-on real world business support experience. I have been wanting to get a Cisco certification, especially the CCIE certification. This it the certification that all the IT people I have meet want. The Cisco CCIE Routing and Switching Certification says that the individual inquestion has expert-level knowledge of networking across various LAN and WAN interfaces, knowledge on a variety of routers and switches. This is also call the Expert Level Knowledge and Experience.

You can get your Cisco CCNA network associate certification, this certification test validates that you have the ability to install, configure, and troubleshoot routed and switched networks on the medium size level and implementation the said products along with verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. The in between Cisco certification is the CCNP certification, the professional network is validated wit the ability to install, configure and troubleshoot wide-area and local-area networks with a range of between 100 to 500 nodes. Any of the Cisco certifications are very popular with employers and will put you on top during job interviews along with giving you boost increase to your base salary.

Thunderbird has new life

Looks like the folks at Mozilla are bring new life to it’s Thunderbird product. Thunderbird is an e-mail software product. Mozilla is fixing 9 patched nine security vulnerability bugs. It also looking like that Thunderbird 3.0 will be coming soon. The Thunderbird Alpha 1 preview has been sent for developers for over two months.

The bug patchs for Thunderbird, were fixed in Firefox that rendered the engine’s CSSValue array data structure. The vulnerabilities could be used by hackers to force a software crash along with running malicious code.

I have loaded and played with Thunderbird in the past, I think I will give it another try when they release version 3.

Wine and Digital Printing Technology

Wine is one of the oldest made beverages in the world. Today there are many varieties and brands of wine. Most do not taste that much different from each other. I have noticed that most of the current wine bottles have fancy labels.

Most of the fancy wine labels are made with Digital Printing Technology. The label manufacturer Label World can fix you up with custom digital labels for their niche market of large-scale businesses like wineries, food and medical industries and food companies.

Is there one industry that is not using digital printing technology yet?

Domains.me gold rush Isit.me couldbe.me Itis.me

Today the domain extensions “.me” went on sale at GoDaddy. There was a massive rush to get and register highly desirable .me domain names. I know by noon they were already selling the .me domain sites on forums. Since you had to pay $19.95 a year times two, the opening bids were $50.

The requests for the .ME open registration was so great there were more than a few issues. Like several people buying the same .me domain, thinking they all purchased the domain. I would hate to be the one that sorts that out. Not to mention some law suites I could see popping up. I have used GoDaddy for years and they are super about taking care of you when a problem arrives with a refund. Not sure is will surfice on this issue of the .me domains. The latest gold rush. I should of got the domian “ho.me” for a home furnishing site. Oh well.

Leave.me your favorite.me website.me na.me…….I like the na.me better
There is a lot of great words of.me.

Consumer Financial Digital Portal

You can tell how the economy is going my just watching TV, when the economy is good in the housing or car market, you will be in endated with ads on getting a home mortgage or car loans, no money down just take it off their hands. The other other kind of advertising when the economy is down is help with bills and consolidate your bills to reduce your payments

With the fuel prices rising and now they are having the high risk mortgage business is curling in around all the lenders and large amount of default on mortgages, there is a lot of requests for mortgage help on home loan to refinance or possible use the equity to pay bills, which helps with your taxes, by deducting the finances charges from you TAX bill when a equity loan is done. A sales technique that is used is get out of debt with an equity loan.

I have found a consumer finance portal designed to help people find the best ways to eliminate debt or get a great rate on a loan, save on your mortgage interest or points, Credit counseling, improve your Credit score and even help you Pay your bills, called Bills.com

Bills.com has lots of articles, tools, blogs all for free. I like the part about getting good deals on health insurance, auto insurance and home insurance, this could free up some coins. Their newest feature is the Bills IQ. The BillsIQ test will help you measure your financial health. My financially fit score shows I have some good things and some things that need a little work. I found BillsIQ fast and easy. These kind of free test helps you where you stand on your finances.

Old school Social Networking: Thank You card

In today’s business you will meet and interview with people that will want something from you or you will want something from them, their time or a job. This may sound a little direct and insensitive, but I am a person that like to tell straight forward.

In the process of meeting carbon based lifeforms, we have a tendency to like our ego stroked. One way is to show appreciation to others in a form of a Thank you Cards or a letter. Flowers are nice too. A thank you note or a note of thanks is a formal card that is used when one party wishes to express appreciation to another party. There are two types of thank you cards: personal and business thank you cards.

Business thank you card are used in numerous situations in day-to-day business that will warrant you to send a thank you card. Typical situations can include: your appreciation for special consideration extended by another organization, thanking a speaker for a presentation at a board meeting, organization for a customer referral, customer appreciation letters thanking customers for their patronage, thanks to employees for exceptional service or performance, thanks to an individual or appreciation to volunteer service workers for their personal contributions.

The internet has enabled you to find the latest in old school networking market materials like the Thank You card and Business card. One of the first printing companies to utilize the internet is VistaPrint. They offer a wide array of printing services including thank-you cards, business cards, rubber stamps and checks all of the products can be customized.

Personal thank you card is used all the time in business situations, there are many instances in your day-to-day life that can warrant a formal thank you letter. Examples of typical personal thank you letter situations include: follow-up thanks after a job interview or offer, thanks to a company or institution in appreciation for exceptional customer service received, those are nice to receive, letter to friends and/or neighbors for their support during a difficult period, letters for wedding gifts, thanks to a service club or agency for support given to family members, social occasion thank you letters for a wide variety of social situations.

This is starting to sound like a Heloise moment.

Prescription drug benefits for Seniors: Medicare D Enrollment

Are ready to retire? Are you looking for your Medicare Supplement and Prescription Drug Plan? Are you shopping for Medicare Advantage Plan that will include a PDP? Looking into Medicare Part D.

This is one of the first times that I have seen our US government encouraging our senior citizens to join a PDP as soon as you are eligible. The government is thinking ahead, the law of averages shows a strong probability that as you get older, above 70 your costs for prescription drugs will increase. I know this first hand with parents over 80. From what I can tell the cost of food is running pace with the cost of medical prescriptions, combined with the added costs for any Medicare Part D deductible. Something very interesting from the government is that they will charge you a 1 percent penalty for failing to join a drug plan during your enrollment time frame. What? Why? Third base.

This Medicare prescription drug benefit is in its third year of operation. The government wants you to join a PDP even if you are not currently spending a great deal out-of-pocket money for drugs. Anyone can take part in the Medicare D Enrollment , if you have been enrolled in Medicare Part A plan or Medicare Part B drug plans, currently or before. Plan changes take place between November 15 and December 15. All of these governmenta run drug plans are regulated by the Centers for Medicare.

The Prescription drug plan has differences between traditional Medicare Supplements plans with a separate PDP and the Medicare Advantage drug Plans with a built in PDP. The government even has a Medicare drug assistance program that is designed for limited income and limited resources individuals. The internet online technology enables you to get FREE cost comparisons of Medicare Part D Drug plans online and manage your plan.

Pimp my Video

Over the last several years seems to Pimp my years. There is the every popular MTV show Pimp My Ride. Each episode of the Pimp My Ride show they take a car in bad condition and restore it with all the latest in electronics and any other technogeek stuff you can customize the car. Lets not for get games systems and large screen Tv’s.

Each car is a custom “pimp”, tailored to the personalities and interests of the car owners.

Then sprang Trick My Truck, a TV program on Country Music Television (CMT). The Trick My Truck crew showcases their talents of customizing and enhancing a lucky driver truck with the latest in truck parts and technology, some trucks are built almost to live in.

Trick My Truck, the truck makeover show is intended to better the lives of American truck drivers who are in need of a break. They pick deserving and hard-working drivers whose rigs have seen better days.

The Makeover or Pimp My maddness has taken hold from MySpace homepages, to blogs, to websites, bicycles and even laptops and computers.

Now I have the next thing in Make-overs. How about “Pimp My Video“. This would be where someone comes in and pimps or does a makeover on your videos for YouTube or Home. This I believe is the next big make overs.

Wait, the biggest makeover it Ty and Homemakeover show. Just remembered

DigitaleLife

Playing it Safe in LA

Los Angeles has a lot to offer, nice weather year round, lots of people, lots of businesses and lots of everything along with lots and lots of Traffic. With large populations there are many things to do. If you ever take a trip to Los Angeles, have a good time, see all of the sites and the nightlife. LA is there for everyones enjoyment

If in your LA escapades you get into a stick wicket, it would be nice to have one of the Top 5% U.S. criminal defense law firms in LA. The law firm is Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP. These attorneys are former Los Angeles Prosecutors are Certified Criminal Law Specialists, with a combined 50 years defense experience specialize in defending all misdemeanor and felony criminal & DUI charges in Southern California Courts.

This Criminal Attorneys Los Angeles Criminal Lawyers | California Criminal, DUI Defense is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just a phone call away for a confidential consultation, should you need them.

Now I have know worries if I get off the path.

You are being Tracked. Be afraid

There is service that will allow you to track people and their associated web feeds. There is something called a follower model that tracks the feeds and folks.

The service is Whoisi, it supports the feeds of Twitter, LinkedIn and any RSS or Atom Feed. There is a feed activity interface that makes it easy to track all of your feeds.

The service will allow you track anyone. Go ahead and track me, I dare you.

IT, Computer and Internet companies love the Olympics

The final testing of the computer systems for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, has began, the system testing has been going on for the past year perparing for the big stage on August 8.

As we all know in IT, the computer system testing is key to the success of the IT systems during the games. Each sport, from archery to basketball to sailing and weight lifting has been allocated its own set of IT gear, and each of those systems have been tested for the past year until the start of the Olympic games.

The price tag for IT and communications at the world’s biggest sporting event will run to around $400 million USD and e will use the expertise of thousands of IT managers and engineers.

Atos Origin SA has been responsible for building the IT systems at the past few Olympic Games and is responsible for the design, build and operation of the IT systems in Beijing. Atos has said work on the IT systems used for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, started two and a half years before the event and underwent 100,000 hours of testing.

Beijing and six other cities will host 302 sporting events, meaning the IT systems will have to track all aspects affecting athletes: qualifications, transportation to competition sites, ensuring uniforms and equipment arrive on time as well as tallying scores for press and spectators.

But IT has an even bigger task. That Task is to baby sit close to 20,000 reporters and other media that will attend the Olympic Games as well as workers and fans. All will create demand for IT work, including venue administration, information distribution, network security, e-mail, Internet and mobile access to scores, logistics, commentator information systems and more.

Volunteers and sponsorship will play a major part in the Olympic Games. There will be 2,000 to 3,000 paid IT workers at the Beijing games, and 3,000 volunteers.

The Olympic Games have now turned into the cutting edge of getting information about the events to press and viewers. 400 Million is a lot of bandwith.

* 28 sports (302 events)
* 60 venues (31 for competition)
* 10,708 athletes
* 5,000 person IT team (including volunteers
* 12,800 computers
* 2000 printers

The IT used and maintained during the Olympics is kinda like the Super Bowl of how IT should be utilized at a major international event.