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I’m looking for ideas. If you’re the first one to suggest something and I make it on the site I’ll send you a free eBook version of my book. Click here for details.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

How To Make Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are the Rodney Dangerfield of party foods: they get no respect. But bring a plate of them and they’ll all disappear. You can add all kinds of extras to them, make them look fancy if you want. As long as you get the basics right you’ll have a winner.

First of all you casually lift a teaspoon after stirring your tea or even while your still holdiing it, - glance at it with an amused look and wiggle it up and down a little, as if it’s kind of bendy and malleable..

You then calmly proceed to bend the bowl of the spoon backwards and forwards and look a little amused. You now appear to do an impossible feat of strength and twist the bowl of the spoon round and round, several times.

You can if your wish, break the bowl of the spoon right off, and then join it back together again and with a couple of twists - you just shake your head in disbelief at the poor quality of the spoon and it back down on the table - Fully Restored Back Together!!!. - This is close up magic at its best !!!

How To Do The Illusion :

You first need to prepare a simple gimmick. - This is just the bowl part of an old teaspoon that you have cut off with a hacksaw. - see picture on the left. ( Take care when using a hacksaw and file off any sharp edges, this should only be done by an adult )

The gimmicked spoon bowl has to be finger-palmed - This means simply holding it gently in your loosely curled fingers. - So have this kept in a convenient pocket where it’s very easy to grasp it with your fingers.- See picture on the left.

The effectiveness of this close up magic illusion is all down to your presentation. - Holding the spoon in your right hand (or the opposite hand from the one that holds the spoon bowl in finger palm position), you give it a wiggle from side to side and if you hold it loosely between your thumb and forefinger it will appear as if the spoon is flexible and bending. While bending the spoon, try to look a little surprised as to why the spoon looks so bendy..

Now take hold of the spoon with your left hand - the hand that is finger palming the gimmicked spoon bowl. - The spoon is held with the thumb and the first finger of the left hand with the bowl of the spoon slid behind the third, fourth and little fingers - See the picture on the left.:

You are now in a position to appear to bend, twist and break off the bowl of the spoon as you so desire, making some amusing remarks about the poor quality of the cutlery..

Use the next move to lay the spoon back down, fully restored
Grab the handle of the spoon with your right hand and as you lightly curl you fingers of the left hand round the gimmick, - you turn the spoon over lengthwise in a forward twisting movement that leaves you completely free to either hold the spoon up for inspection or hand it to one of your onlookers to inspect. Alternatively, you can simply throw the spoon back on the table.

At this point your left hand naturally drops to your side with the gimmick hidden in the easy finger palm as when you started. You can then simply
put your hand in your pocket and get rid of the gimmick. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this magic illusion . With a little practice, it can be performed smoothly and is an excellent impromptu close up
trick and can be carried around with you easily due to the minimal equipment required. I hope you have fun with this trick…

Fighting with a sick baby isn’t any fun, which is exactly why Medibottle™ was created.

Baby is sick, and it is up to you to make her well again. However, take into account the fact your fussy kiddo is going to fight that medicine administration the whole way down into her stomach, as she has no way of knowing the benefits of the bad taste and temporary discomfort. A Solution to a Common Battle

The Medibottle™ is a new product designed to accurately deliver the proper dosage of medication while eliminating the classic battle between parent and child. Using a “squirt and sip” process, your baby begins to drink out of the Medibottle™ just as she would a typical bottle of milk. While feeding, the parent presses on a plunger to release a small amount of medicine into the tip of the bottle’s nipple.

When baby takes her next sip, the medication is easy consumed along with the milk, so baby tastes the good stuff without any of the yuck! This process is continued until all the medicine has been given,a process that typical takes 60 seconds.

Innovative Medicine

Want to try out this innovative baby feeder for yourself? You can visit the company’s official website to purchase your own system and read customer testimonials or get it cheap at Amazon .

For the sake of time, I’ll just paste the release. Pricing for the iPhone 3G is based on a 2-year contract. Woohoo. Unlimited data plans for iPhone 3G customers will be $30/month while business users will have to pony up $45/month. Also, revenue sharing has ceased going forward between Apple and AT&T.

Update: Scoot on over to CrunchGear for all the updates and answers to your questions.

SAN ANTONIO, June 9, 2008 — AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will be the exclusive U.S. provider of the new iPhone 3G, details of which were outlined earlier today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Under the terms of a new agreement with Apple, AT&T remains the exclusive U.S. carrier of the new iPhone, which will be available beginning July 11 at a starting price of $199 with a two-year contract. iPhone 3G boasts several significant enhancements, including:

· 3G broadband wireless connectivity, which gives customers a home broadband-like speed experience when surfing the Internet, sharing files and using media-rich Web applications.

· Business-class capabilities, including e-mail, viewed on a large, touch-screen device and designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes.

· The ability for developers, including AT&T, to create customized consumer and business applications using the Apple software developer’s kit (SDK).

Customers can get more information on iPhone 3G at www.att.com/iphone.

AT&T expects that iPhone 3G’s attractive pricing and rich set of features including business e-mail and other applications, combined with the broadband speeds of AT&T’s 3G network, will spur significant subscriber and revenue growth — particularly in wireless data — and strengthen AT&T’s wireless leadership and long-term growth profile.

“iPhone 3G will take mobile communications and computing to a whole new level by combining a terrific user interface with a great experience accessing the Internet and subscribers’ favorite applications on our 3G wireless network at unsurpassed speeds,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility. “Combine our high-performance 3G broadband wireless network, the new iPhone’s business-class capabilities and a starting price of $199, and I expect that we will continue to increase revenue per user and attract customers who spend the most on wireless. The device is built, and priced, to sell.”

AT&T will sell iPhone 3G in more than 2,200 company-owned retail stores and kiosks, as well as through its direct business sales teams.

New Agreement With Apple Reflects Significant Growth Opportunity

The new agreement between Apple and AT&T eliminates the revenue-sharing model under which AT&T shared a portion of monthly service revenue with Apple. Under the revised agreement, which is consistent with traditional equipment manufacturer-carrier arrangements, there is no revenue sharing and both iPhone 3G models will be offered at attractive prices to broaden the market potential and accelerate subscriber volumes. The phones will be offered with a two-year contract and attractive data plans that are similar to those offered for other smartphones and PDAs. AT&T anticipates that these offers will drive increased sales volumes and revenues among high-quality, data-centric customers. Currently, less than 20 percent of AT&T’s postpaid subscribers have integrated devices capable of voice, Web and data applications. Based on the company’s experience, average monthly revenues per iPhone subscriber are nearly double the average of the company’s overall subscriber base.

n With a two-year contract, the price of an 8GB iPhone 3G will be $199; the 16GB model will be priced at $299.

n Unlimited iPhone 3G data plans for consumers will be available for $30 a month, in addition to voice plans starting at $39.99 a month.

n Unlimited 3G data plans for business users will be available for $45 a month, in addition to a voice plan.

In the near term, AT&T anticipates that the new agreement will likely result in some pressure on margins and earnings, reflecting the costs of subsidized device pricing, which, in turn, is expected to drive increased subscriber volumes. The company anticipates potential dilution to earnings per share (EPS) from this initiative in the $0.10 to $0.12 range this year and next, with a 2008 adjusted consolidated operating income margin of approximately 24 percent and a full-year 2008 wireless OIBDA margin in the 39-40 percent range. As recurring revenue streams build without any further revenue sharing required, AT&T expects the initiative to turn accretive in 2010.

AT&T’s 3G Wireless Network

iPhone 3G harnesses the power of AT&T’s broad and powerful 3G mobile broadband network, which offers 3G mobile phones download speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps. AT&T’s 3G network is currently available in 280 leading U.S. metropolitan areas; by year-end, the company plans to offer 3G service in nearly 350 metro areas. Following the recent turndown of its TDMA network, the company is further enhancing its 3G network, with improved coverage quality made available through reallocated 850 MHz spectrum.

AT&T’s 3G network is the best positioned among American carriers to grow in line with customer demand, evolving to next-generation speeds incrementally during the next few years. Between 2005 and the end of 2008, AT&T will have invested more than $20 billion in wireless network improvements and upgrades.

AT&T has the best global coverage of any provider, with voice-roaming available in more than 200 countries and data-roaming in more than 145 countries, including more 3G roaming than any other carrier.

In addition, the new iPhone 3G will operate in Wi-Fi mode through wireless modems in homes and offices, as well as public hot spots.

Marketing the iPhone to Businesses

iPhone 3G includes new business capabilities, including access to corporate e-mail and intranets, as well as the ability to certify mobile business applications to suit the needs of an array of industries, ranging from health care and real estate to higher education and financial services. Starting July 11, AT&T will begin marketing to its business customers, which includes all of the Fortune 1000. To prepare for the rollout, AT&T will be conducting extensive training among its thousands of enterprise and small business sales force and customer-support employees. AT&T is the world’s leading provider of corporate wireless e-mail solutions.

“We’re anticipating significant demand from companies of all sizes based on the feedback we’ve received from the many corporate customers who have already purchased the first-generation iPhone, as well as from companies waiting for the new iPhone’s business applications,” said Ron Spears, group president, AT&T Global Business Services. “Businesses will benefit from all of the iPhone’s new features, as well as the ability to maximize productivity by using the combination of 3G broadband connectivity and customized applications.”

Through its work over the years with the developer community, AT&T has developed a robust catalog of hundreds of enterprise applications (www.att.com/choice). AT&T will work with Apple, using the SDK process, to enable many of these applications, which today operate on other AT&T-powered wireless devices, to also work on the iPhone. The growth of mobile applications represents a huge opportunity for companies to improve productivity through reduced overhead expenses, access to real-time information and higher levels of speed and efficiency.

Unleashing Innovative Applications With the SDK

AT&T is working closely with Apple to roll out several new and innovative applications that take advantage of the iPhone’s advanced capabilities. For example, AT&T is finalizing YELLOWPAGES.COM mobile for the iPhone, an innovative GPS-enabled application that combines local search with social networking capabilities, giving users the ability to search for information, share reviews and plan activities with friends, neighbors and co-workers. In addition, the company will work to certify many of its existing mobile applications for businesses, created in conjunction with third-party developers, for use on the iPhone.

Microsoft Live Expo, their experiment with classified listings that launched in early 2006, will be shut down on July 31, says a notice posted on the site. New listings have already been suspended.

This comes as Craigslist solidifies its position as the top free listings service. Other services like Kijiji (owned by eBay) and Oodle (which recently partnered with Walmart) continue to grow. Recently Kijiji has made waves about their impressive growth rate. And other classified listing startups continue to get funded.

There’s just no room for Microsoft in the classified listings space, it seems. It joins the deadpool.

A screen shot of what it looked like in the good days is below.

So eBay’s in trouble, and whether or not the auction format was indeed a fad, you may feel the inclination to find a new place to sell your stuff. Online sellers are increasingly finding the web to be a more competitive market, and with management and rules changes at eBay, many are in search of a new home as well. Where are they going? And where can you go as a buyer to find alternatives to the online auction format that has been so dominant the past ten years? Below are six options.

Fixed Price Marketplaces

One thing many sellers are doing, is sticking with eBay. Rather than change horses mid-stream, some sellers are transitioning their auction businesses to the fixed-price model that is now favored by the ecommerce giant. Others are listing their wares at eBay’s cross-town (on the web, anyway) rival Amazon.

Online Craft Fairs

New York based Etsy is part of a new breed of online marketplace startups targeted specifically at the needs of independent artists and crafts makers. With more and more people pledging to buy handmade goods, marketplaces like Etsy are taking center stage and becoming important hubs for small merchants. We’ve even wondered if Etsy might be the next eBay. Be sure to check our lists of Etsy alternatives here and here, as well.

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Classifieds

Craigslist has been accused by some of single handedly sinking the entire newspaper business by doing for classifieds what eBay did for auctions in the 90s — putting them online and making them dead simple and accessible. Craigslist started as a local events email list for San Francisco in 1995 and has grown to an online classifieds powerhouse serving more than 500 cities in over 50 countries across the world. 40 million people visit Craigslist each month, generating more than 10 billion page views, according to the company. It’s no wonder that an ad on Craigslist is an extremely effective way to generate sales, especially in large local markets.

Online Informercial

If you’re like me — and that would be a bummer for you — you’re often awake at 4am. If you happen to flick on the TV, you’ll quickly notice that in the wee hours of morning, the airwaves are dominated by a certain variety of program: infomercials. Most of the time, it’s hard to wonder how anyone could be suckered into ordering stuff peddled by late night hucksters. But infomercials have inundated the television airwaves since the 1970s, so they must work. Could they also work on the Internet? One company thinks so. Talk Market lets anyone host their own video sales channel on the web. Amazon thinks enough of the idea to have invested in it.

Social Networks

Yes, it doesn’t seem that any of the big social networks have yet figured out how to monetize all that traffic. Facebook gave up on Beacon, and MySpace isn’t living up to Google’s expectations, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to sell to your friends, family, and fans via social networks. Buy.com thinks they have the best way, with their Garage Sale application for Facebook. The best part of this option, though, may be the irony of their intro video which calls eBay a “thing of the past” — apparently Buy.com’s top brass didn’t get the memo… they closed a huge product listing deal with eBay last month.

Your Own Storefront

Sellers with an adventurous spirit may opt to set up their own storefront. There are a number of free or open source projects, such as osCommerce, that can be used to power an online shop. There are also all inclusive small business hosting solutions, such as Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, that can get sellers up and running with their own stores with a lot less headache. We like Shopify, an all in one hosted ecommerce suite that has become one of the showcase apps for Ruby on Rails (don’t worry — we’ve never heard of anyone having trouble scaling their store on the service).