Author: Serkadis

Ever appropriate for the cost consciousness of a near post-recession America, and a greener one at that, is the Advanced Wireless Appliance Manager. This device can monitor up to 8 different household appliances wirelessly. It indicates how much energy is being expended as well as how much it is going to cost to operate.

There really are no catches, but there are a few rules for fairness’ and logistic’s sake:

* $100 max per person (cheating kills kittens)
* You pay shipping
* Limit of $100,000 in giveaways for the day
* Starts 9AM MST January 7th, 2010
* Ends 11PM MST January 7th, 2010 (or when we hit $100k, whichever comes first)
* Rainchecks for popular items will be allowed
* There is no special code to type in. But you get only one order on Free Day, so spend it well!
* Only one $100 credit per household. We ask that you respect this limit and don’t try to abuse this gift.
* There is no minimum or maximum order. You can spend more than $100, the balance of which will be charged to your method of payment.
* Only Credit Card and Paypal orders will be eligible for the $100 credit. We don’t want to have people tying up inventory with POs, wire transfers, checks in the mail, or lost faxes.
* You will see whether or not your order qualifies for a credit in the checkout process.
* Free Day does not apply to our distributors. Sorry!
* Gift Cards cannot be bought on Free Day.
* Any returns from Free Day will be exchanged for the same item.
* Every order isn’t going to ship on Free Day, or for a few days after. We’ve got extra tape guns on hand, but please be patient and give us some time to catch up!
* We are ratcheting up inventory for Free Day, but backorders (a.k.a. rainchecks) are allowed on most items (some items we simply can’t get anymore). We’ll get you your goodies just as soon as we can get them back in stock.”

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he promotion is an excellent idea, however if they can’t execute it, then they may wind up generating more resentment than customer loyalty.
There really are no catches, but there are a few rules for fairness’ and logistic’s sake:

* $100 max per person (cheating kills kittens)
* You pay shipping
* Limit of $100,000 in giveaways for the day
* Starts 9AM MST January 7th, 2010
* Ends 11PM MST January 7th, 2010 (or when we hit $100k, whichever comes first)
* Rainchecks for popular items will be allowed
* There is no special code to type in. But you get only one order on Free Day, so spend it well!
* Only one $100 credit per household. We ask that you respect this limit and don’t try to abuse this gift.
* There is no minimum or maximum order. You can spend more than $100, the balance of which will be charged to your method of payment.
* Only Credit Card and Paypal orders will be eligible for the $100 credit. We don’t want to have people tying up inventory with POs, wire transfers, checks in the mail, or lost faxes.
* You will see whether or not your order qualifies for a credit in the checkout process.
* Free Day does not apply to our distributors. Sorry!
* Gift Cards cannot be bought on Free Day.
* Any returns from Free Day will be exchanged for the same item.
* Every order isn’t going to ship on Free Day, or for a few days after. We’ve got extra tape guns on hand, but please be patient and give us some time to catch up!
* We are ratcheting up inventory for Free Day, but backorders (a.k.a. rainchecks) are allowed on most items (some items we simply can’t get anymore). We’ll get you your goodies just as soon as we can get them back in stock.”

Related posts:

1. Sparkfun Twitter, Sparkfun Twitter 2010 There really are no catches, but there are a few…
2. Sparkfun Down, Sparkfun Down 2010 Nobody gives away a free physical thing. There’s always a…
3. Sparkfun Irc, Sparkfun Irc 2010 This is an excellent lesson in internet marketing, both what…

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See the latest products at quality home expo in Hoffman Estates

The Home Improvement and Remodeling Expo will take place from Jan. 22-24, 2010, at Prairie Stone(TM) Sports & Wellness Center, 5050 Sedge Blvd., Hoffman Estates.

This popular bi-annual show features more than 200 local and national exhibitors in a 40,000 sq. ft. exhibitor space.

The public is welcome, and admission is free.

“The event provides a creative home improvement and remodeling marketplace that gives businesses and potential customers a place to meet face-to-face and discuss options and products in a friendly and positive environment,” said Allen Deutscher, partner with Brilliant Event Planning, Inc., the producer of the expo.

“Always held during the 3rd week of January, the expo appeals to homeowners eager to start on spring projects.”

All vendors’ products range in price from basic to high-end. Most are environmentally friendly.

A partial list of the wide range of products includes:

• basement finishing
• home theater, audio and intelligence
• hardwood, bamboo and tile flooring and carpet
• solar energy, tankless water heaters and other green home products
• interior designers and planners
• granite, marble and quartz countertops
• custom kitchens and cabinets
• opulent bathrooms
• several different windows, siding and roofing options
• building supplies and products
• Tastefully Simple and Homemade Gourmet
• jewelry, crafts and purses
• landscaping, ponds, fountains, patios, gazebos
• sunrooms, hot tubs, saunas
• housewares
• maintenance

What makes a Brilliant Event Planning, Inc., expo a success is its emphasis on quality and involvement for both exhibitors and expo visitors.

To that end, there will be cooking shows, drawings for free products and services demonstrations, do-it-yourself interactive exhibits, ask the experts, pruning classes, live entertainment, good food, kids’ activities, free promotional goods, and live radio and television broadcasts.

“Expect to have fun while gathering new ideas and getting inspiration for turning your house into your dream home,” said Martin Andras, partner, Brilliant Event Planning.

Admission and parking are free.

For more information, call Brilliant Event Planning at 630-468-2237.

Web site: homeshowevent.com/HSE_Flash.html

Prairie Stone Sports and Wellness Center’s phone number is 847-285-5400.

Filed under: Coupe, Europe, Mercedes-Benz, Reviews, Luxury

Marketing does funny things. Recently the word “coupe” has been rendered null and void of meaning by crafty marketing types behind cars like the Mercedes-Benz CLS, BMW X6 and Volkswagen CC, while the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo has sucked every last ounce of truth, honesty and passion from the term “Gran Turismo.” It’s now just advertising flim-flam. The BMW 8 Series was a grand tourer. The 535i Gran Turismo? We hear it’s very practical…

We mention co-opting of the terms “coupe” and “Gran Turismo” because marketers pulled a similar stunt back in the early ’70s with the phrase “Personal Luxury Car.” Some cars did fit the definition well (roughly, a luxury coupe exists where practicality and efficiency are traded in favor of style, plush and image), others did not. For example, in the U.S. where we like our luxury by the yard, a 1971 Buick Riviera is a perfect example of a personal luxury car. An AMC Matador Brougham complete with Oleg Cassini interior isn’t. Regardless of reality, by 1973 every car with two doors and faux-vinyl seats got tagged with the PLC label. As such, the phrase “personal luxury car” became meaningless.

Apropos of all that, Mercedes-Benz was kind enough to let us test its two-door version of its new W212 E-Class, the 2010 E350 Coupe. The new model marks the first time in three generations that Mercedes has offered a coupe version of what’s generally considered to be its sauerbraten und spätzle. You’d have to go back to Bill Clinton’s first term (that’s pre-Lewinsky) to find the two-door W124 E-Class. Obviously, the B-pillarless two-door qualifies as a coupe, but a personal luxury car? Or, dare we say it, a GT?

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Review: 2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe is a worthy companion

Review: 2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe is a worthy companion originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is philanderer Tiger Woods on the Down Low?

Former high-priced call Loredana Jolie Ferriolo is one of the 375,000 Craigslist pussy peddlers romantically-linked to Tiger Woods’ supercrotch. According to RadarOnline.com, Loredana is hoping to land herself a book deal about her romance with Woods. In fact, Loredana’s already begun writing, and there will be plenty of talk about “his healthy appetite for arranged sex, threesomes, girls next door, girl-girl, and an answer to all the rumors surrounding Woods’ sexuality.” Just to ensure her tell-all snags a lucrative deal, the hooker is dishing about Tiger’s alleged tendencies towards other men.

In the book, Loredana claims to have seen Tiger in “gay encounters,” and having sexual relationships with other men. Though this claim has never been made by any of his other mistresses, part of Loredana’s book goes into full detail about his love for group sex that ” included incidents of Tiger with other men.”

Filed under: CES, Ford

As we speak, Ford CEO Alan Mulally is getting ready to take the stage in Las Vegas and give the keynote speech to kick off the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Our sister-site Engadget has an army of reporters on scene, some of which are live-blogging Mulally’s speech for our benefit. So head on over to see what Ford’s captain has to say about technology… and stuff.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s CES Keynote, live on Engadget originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m at CES all day wandering the floor looking for additional devices to wear on my body to monitor all aspects of my life.  In the mean time, there’s a bunch of great stuff in my world that has happened so far this week.  Here are links with a little commentary. 

Rally Software Raised $16m in a Round Led by Greylock: My friends at Rally Software are creating an important long term company in the Boulder ecosystem.  2009 was a great year for Rally – they grew a ton and dominated their market segment.  They didn’t need any additional financing but were approached by several firms in Q409.  Greylock put forth an attractive offer and their involvement, including the addition of our new board member Tom Bogan (Chairman of Citrix among other things), is a huge addition. 

Jive Software Acquires Social Media Monitoring Startup Filtrbox: I’m extremely proud of Ari Newman, Tom Chikoore, and the rest of the team at Filtrbox.  They were part of the TechStars Boulder 2007 class and are now the fourth company from that class to have a positive exit (the others are SocialThing, Intense Debate, and Brightkite).  The team will become the Jive Boulder office and I expect they’ll grow nicely over the next year.

Kidrobot Moves to Boulder:  While I’m not an investor in Kidrobot, I’m a huge fan.  Paul Budnitz is moving with about half of the 45 person company from New York and plans to hire another 20 people in Boulder in pretty short order.  Look for life sized Kidrobot thingies on the Pearl Street Mall this summer.

TechStars Seattle won the Seattle Flashies “Tech Triumph of the Year”: Huge props for Andy Sack and Greg Gottesman for driving the creation of TechStars Seattle which will launch its first class in the fall of 2010.

There’s a lot more coming, but for now I’m going to go touch as many screens and tablets as I can in the middle of the debauchery that is Las Vegas.

In this morning’s Breakfast With Dave newsletter, Street favorite David Rosenberg discusses at length the troubles that still exist in today’s economy and financial markets. One topic Rosie touches on is how despite continued government intervention, growth and credit remain stagnant.

Breakfast With Dave: Look at the charts below and you will see how little effect the policy stimulus is exerting leaving the government continuing with demand-growth policies, such as extended and expanded housing tax credits, and the Fed, Treasury and the FHA doing all it can to keep the credit taps open … and for marginal borrowers at that. So the charts below show what, exactly? That the transmission mechanism from monetary policy to the financial system and the broad economy is still broken fully 2½ years after the first Fed rate cut. Cash on bank balance sheets as a share of total assets is at a three-decade high.

Bank lending to households and businesses has contracted more than 7% from a year ago, an unheard-of rate of decline unless you want to go back to Japan in the 90s or the U.S.A. in the 30s.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Goldman Sachs: The Year Will Be Huge For Big Banks, M&A, And Food Inflation, While Obamacare Will Prove Irrelevant
• David Rosenberg: Government Handouts Are Now 1/5th Of The National Income
• Martin Feldstein: Congress Blew The Stimulus, Beware A Double-Dip In 2010

iWave debuted a new line of accessories for iPod/iPhone embellished with Crystallized Swarovski Elements. Why? Because sparkles never get old. We live in an age of more sparkles then ever. With this affordable line of headphones, earbuds, and cases it is easier then ever to add some bling to your everyday electronics. Why not match your beautiful diamond earrings with some equally sparkly headphones? For more details visit the  iWave webiste here.

By popular demand, it’s time to discuss the last game of the season, the BCS national championship game between Alabama and Texas. Fanblogs correspondant Bama Babe has boots on the ground in Pasadena and we’ve asked her to send in some pictures to post, but all we’ve gotten so far are a few of her and Mickey at Disneyland and a shot of the back of an SUV supposedly driven by one of the Jonas brothers.

On the line tonight is the SEC’s 4th straight BCS championship, and 5th out of the last seven. Also, the SEC has never lost a BCS CG, 5-0 including Tennessee over FSU for the 1998 season. Texas is looking for their second BCS crown of the decade, which would tie them with Florida and LSU with two each. USC also won two NCs during the decade, but only one of those was a BCS crown, the other being split, in 2003.

First order of business, tell us who you think will win the game and who you want to win the game. For me, an Auburn fan, although I know that strategically it’s good for the conference with a win by the Tide, tactically, it might be too big an obstacle to overcome. Good thing I don’t live in the state. I think Alabama wins handily, but the score is low, 24-16. As far as who I’ll pull for: Hook Em!

© fanblogs.com

View the original post or comment on BCS National Championship Game Thread…

Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” carried a title far more provocative than its contents, said the professor who advised her. But it may have given a hint of her career to come, as an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency specializing in hunting down Islamic extremists.

That career was cut short last week: Ms. Hanson was one of seven Americans killed in a suicide bombing at a C.I.A. base in the remote mountains of Afghanistan.
The victims there included the unidentified chief of the post at FOB Chapman, a mother of three young children, as well as two contract employees of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater), and four CIA employees whose families have released their names: Harold E. Brown Jr. of Massachusetts, 37; Scott Michael Roberson of Ohio, 39, a former U.S. Navy Seal; and Jeremy Wise of Arkansas, 35. Brown left behind his college-sweetheart wife and three children. Roberson was a security officer new to the agency, whose wife is due to give birth to their first child next month. Wise, who is survived by a wife and young son, was memorialized in a Facebook posting.

Another slain CIA officer was Elizabeth Hanson, 31, an Illinois native and a 2001 graduate of Colby College. A family friend posted notice of her death to friends on Facebook, describingHanson as “effervescent” and “vibrant.”

I first saw the somber CIA Memorial Wall and book at the side of Henry “Hank” Crumpton, a legendary former CIA officer. Hank’s almost-mythic reputation has been chronicled in bits and pieces – though usually pseudonymously. He was simply called “Henry” by the 9/11 Commission Report and in Bob Woodward’s “Bush at War,” and “Hank” in others. His full name is Henry A. Crumpton, a wiry Georgian who spent the greatest part of his adult life hidden in the covert world of espionage and counterterrorism in Africa and South Asia.

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Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” carried a title far more provocative than its contents, said the professor who advised her. But it may have given a hint of her career to come, as an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency specializing in hunting down Islamic extremists.

That career was cut short last week: Ms. Hanson was one of seven Americans killed in a suicide bombing at a C.I.A. base in the remote mountains of Afghanistan.
The victims there included the unidentified chief of the post at FOB Chapman, a mother of three young children, as well as two contract employees of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater), and four CIA employees whose families have released their names: Harold E. Brown Jr. of Massachusetts, 37; Scott Michael Roberson of Ohio, 39, a former U.S. Navy Seal; and Jeremy Wise of Arkansas, 35. Brown left behind his college-sweetheart wife and three children. Roberson was a security officer new to the agency, whose wife is due to give birth to their first child next month. Wise, who is survived by a wife and young son, was memorialized in a Facebook posting.

Another slain CIA officer was Elizabeth Hanson, 31, an Illinois native and a 2001 graduate of Colby College. A family friend posted notice of her death to friends on Facebook, describingHanson as “effervescent” and “vibrant.”

I first saw the somber CIA Memorial Wall and book at the side of Henry “Hank” Crumpton, a legendary former CIA officer. Hank’s almost-mythic reputation has been chronicled in bits and pieces – though usually pseudonymously. He was simply called “Henry” by the 9/11 Commission Report and in Bob Woodward’s “Bush at War,” and “Hank” in others. His full name is Henry A. Crumpton, a wiry Georgian who spent the greatest part of his adult life hidden in the covert world of espionage and counterterrorism in Africa and South Asia.

Related posts:

1. Elizabeth Hanson Cia, Elizabeth Hanson Cia Bombing Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity…
2. Elizabeth Hanson, Elizabeth Hanson Cia Bombing Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity…
3. Elizabeth Hanson, Elizabeth Hanson Colby College Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity…

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In Balloon World, a lie worth telling is a lie worth sticking to! In his first television interview since shortly after the Balloon Boy saga that captivated the nation last Oct., mad “storm scientist” Richard Heene tells CNN’s Larry King Live he truly believed that his 6-year-old son, Falcon, was in the homemade balloon when it took off from the family’s backyard in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“My motivation is to simply clear up my name, then do my time and get back to my family. That’s all I’m after.”

Uh-Huh…..

The aspiring reality star, who will begin serving a short jail sentence later this month, maintains that he plead guilty to a felony count of falsely influencing authorities to protect his wife, Mayumi Heene, from deportation back to her home country of Japan. Mayumi plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting, and prosecutors insist they never threatened Mrs. Heene with deportation.

“We had searched the house, high and low,” the tearful father of three said in a taped interview that will air Friday. “I knew he was in the craft. … In my mind there was no other place. I’m not disputing the fact that I did have to plead guilty and when I say have to, I had to do it to save my family and my wife. The threat of deportation was imminent…”