MousePotatoPower

I just finished the 2nd week of the hundred pushups training program. So far, it has been easier than I thought. Here are a few things that I learned.

• don’t forget that day 2 and day 3 of each week allows for a longer rest period between sets
• the whole program is made of S.M.A.R.T. goals.
  • specific - # of pushups, frequency, lots of details
  • measurable - you can see each day and each week how you are progressing
  • attainable - we’ll see if this one applies
  • realistic - according to the website, at the end of week 6, you should be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. Throughout the program, the most consecutive pushups that you do at one time is only 42-56 (depending on which track you are on).
  • timely - if 6 weeks isn’t timely and specific, I don’t know what is.
• For the first 2 weeks, each session should take less than 10 minutes.

Hopefully you have heard of the official M&Ms website and know that you can order M&Ms in 22 different colors.

But did you know that you can get custom messages printed on your M&Ms?

How about getting a custom PICTURE printed on the back of your M&Ms?

Do you know a business that wants to do some sweet advertising?  M&Ms even has the option to imprint logos and messages for you.

I wonder how long before they offer custom flavors?  Or mix your own colors?

MarkAndAngel.com have a nice, long post about things that you should learn.

These are some of my favorites.

• build a fire
• use google effectively
• drive manual transmission
• change a tire
• travel light
• learn to type

It’s a surprisingly good post with links to get you started. All of the skills on the list are useful and can keep you busy for quite a long time.

There are lots of password checking websites/utilities that can be found on the internet.  And they all use a different set of rules for determining if your password is strong or weak.

Password Strength Checker uses it’s own set of rules, but it is the most thorough set of rules that I have seen.  Check it out and rate your passwords.  My strongest password only rates 38%.

Tip: you get severely penalized for having a chain of similiar characters (lower-case, upper-case, or numbers). abc, xyz, dnr OR MTV, PNP, JKL OR 123, 1982, 143, etc.

Another tip: if your password can be found in a dictionary, change it immediately.  using a word that is in a dictionary is about as insecure as you can get.

You’ve heard of the human genome project, an effort to identify all of the genes in human DNA.  It took 13 years of number-crunching by computers to complete it.

Well, somebody got the bright idea to start a Music Genome Project.  This may not provide any scientific breakthroughs, but it is quite amazing.  By identifying 400 different traits in music and having musicians listen to and analyze songs, a song’s “genome” can be identified.

What good is a musical genome?  Well, take a look at Pandora Radio.  Give the website an artist that you like and Pandora Radio will feed you a few songs by that artist.  Nothing fancy, iTunes can do that.  Well, keep listening and you will get music that is “genetically related” to your favorite artist.  You really have to hear it to believe it…pretty impressive.

I listen to a little bit of J-pop and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Pandora’s database even has Japanese music.

Pandora has partnered up with Logitech and Sonos to give you access to Pandora via Logitech’s Squeezebox and the Sonos Digital Music System.  So you can listen to music you like without a computer.  There is even an option to use your cellphone!  I don’t have an unlimited data plan, so that’s not up my alley.

There are licensing issues and Pandora is only available in the US.  Those of you that are “international” are just out of luck. 

You might as well make money online. My personal checking account doesn’t give me any interest and it hasn’t for over 10 years. My personal savings account isn’t much better.

Last year, I found out about a micro-lending website called Prosper. Prosper is like an e-bay for loans. I signed up as a lender and ponied up $300. 10 months and 7 loans later, I am sitting on $318.71 with no defaulted loans. The math doesn’t quite add up. I know I’m securing interest rates above 14%, but earning $18.71 on $300 only comes up to about 6.25%. Either way, I’m turning a better profit than any bank account I have seen.

As a borrower, you can borrow up to $25,000 per loan, typically at interest rates below what a bank would offer you. As a lender, you must loan at least $50 per borrower. You “win” the loan by bidding the lowest interest rate. I have been able to secure as high as a 17.42% interest rate.

Your mileage may vary. A few caveats that you will want to know:

• Prosper is open to anybody. The typical lender does not fully understand the risks involved with lending and will usually bid too low of an interest rate (based on the borrower’s credit history).
• Low interest rates are good for borrowers.
• Borrowers can sign up without verifying home ownership or even a bank account. To me, this screams high-risk loan.
• The expected annual loss rate that Prosper displays only applies to borrowers with less than 20% DTI (debt to income) ratio. Borrowers with a higher DTI will default on loans at a higher rate.
• Prosper (and micro-lending) is relatively new and unproven. Will you jump on the wave and ride it to potential fortune? Or is this trend headed for disaster?

Sign up by clicking on this referral link by August 31, 2007 and successfully fund a loan within 90 days of signing up to earn $25.

Lifehacker.com

Geek to live, the Lifehacker motto.  Gina Trapani and the crew at Lifehacker.com post multiple times per day, they already have 8 entries for July 13 and it’s only 6:30 am Hawaii Standard Time.

The site is littered with great articles and tutorials that you can use to improve your biological and technological live.