365 Ways to Live Cheap!Are you ready?

Today I am reviewing new books written by two colleagues: Trent from The Simple Dollar and Leo from Zen Habits. As you read these reviews, please remember that I am friends with both authors.

Mary Hunt bills herself as America’s favorite cheapskate. In 2005, she published a little volume entitled Everyday Cheapskate’s Greatest Tips, which contained “500 simple strategies for smart living”. Hunt’s book didn’t offer any sort of narrative or broad overview of money — for that you would need to read her other books. Greatest Tips was just a collection of 500 one-paragraph money-saving ideas.

My colleague Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar has just released his first book, and its approach is similar to Everyday Cheapskate’s Greatest Tips. In 365 Ways to Live Cheap!, Hamm offers a year’s worth of one-paragraph “tactics” for saving money. (Hunt calls them “strategies” and Hamm calls them “tactics” — what they really are is “tips”.) I like Hamm’s tips better than Hunt’s: they generally seem more useful — and certainly more motivational.

If you’re familiar with Hamm’s writing at The Simple Dollar, you know what to expect here: solid, down-to-earth advice with an emphasis on the useful and the practical. Hamm divides the book into 19 chapters offering tips on topics like:

* Appliances
* Banking and investing
* Clutter
* Energy use
* Love and marriage

Unlike Hunt’s book (which is divided into 20 broad categories), Hamm also includes two chapters of general tips for flexing your frugal muscles. Hunt’s tips are much more detailed. She offers tips like how to store paint, how to thicken gravy, and how to clean up soda pop. Hamm’s tips are more general: plan ahead for car replacement, install a programmable thermostat, exercise more frequently. Both books are useful, but I think Hamm’s is more applicable to my own life.

Books like these don’t lend themselves to easy review. They’re not meant to be read from cover-to-cover. Instead, they should be used as resources, as pools of ideas. Looking for ways to save on electronics? Pull out 365 Ways to Live Cheap! for tips like this:

136. Know the features you need before you shop
If you’re about to sink some money into a new electronic item, know what features you actually need before even beginning to shop. List exactly what you’re looking for before you even start looking at research materials. This is much the same psychology as preparing a shopping list before you go to the grocery store. It keeps you focused on exactly what you need instead of being distracted by something else that might come along. Before you even begin to research your purchase, know exactly what you want.

For a book like this to be useful, you have to be able to find the information you want. Fortunately, 365 Ways to Live Cheap! is well-organized. There’s no index, but each section has its own table of contents. As a bonus, Hamm’s book is beautifully designed. And it’s cheap! (Only eight bucks.)

Hamm’s book isn’t for everyone. It’s not trying to be The Tightwad Gazette or Your Money or Your Life. This is a compendium of tips (or “tactics”), and as such, it succeeds admirably.

From get rich slowly

finish exam

after several days final exam,i am almost released.there is only English tomorrow.And finishing exam also means the winter holiday is coming.

Perfect.The holiday,i have planned i would do many significant things and improve myself.

17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with non-removable battery rumored for Macworld

Our folks in Asia are at it again with some pretty startling news. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is going Unibody, like the 13-inch and 15-inch models. That, in itself isn't really that big of a deal; it was widely expected. The big news is that Apple is making a super slim battery pack for the 17-inch MacBook Pros that will last much longer than current models. However, you won't be able to remove the battery pack. It will be inside the machine, just like iPods and iPhones. How?

Those of us with three year old MacBook Pros can attest that these batteries lose a significant amount of performance over time and need to be replaced. It isn't quite clear how Apple will deal with this issue. They may have new technology that can take more charges, or they may offer a service replacement similar to the replacement of a motherboard or hard drive. Maybe swapping out the battery will be as easy as swapping out RAM.

Obviously, these new 17-inch displays are expected to be revealed at Macworld 2009 and will also likely be outfitted with Apple's high gloss screens. Apple has come under fire from graphics professionals for not offering a matte option to their glossy screen Pro models.

Additionally, the 13-inch Plastic MacBook is widely expected to be phased out which might bring the cost of the Unibody MacBook down closer to the $1000 price point. We can't verify this, however.

9to5Mac is reporting that a unibody, 17-inch MacBook Pro will be announced at Macworld, following in the footsteps of the previously released unibody 13 and 15-inchers. The rumor, backed up by some "whisperers" at Macrumors, isn't really an earth-shattering surprise -- though the accompanying revelation that this model is expected to have a slim, extended-life, non-removable battery is rather eye-opening -- and somewhat disappointing, considering the lameness of non-removable batteries. We'll know for sure on Tuesday at the keynote.

Update: Apple Insider is now independently confirming the imminent arrival of the unibody 17-incher, and also corroborating the fixed internal battery theory.

iPhone Gloves,it is fun

ccording to the patent:

“the glove system may include an inner liner and an outer shell. The liner may be formed from any suitable material, including a material that is thin, electrically conductive, has low thermal conductivity, and/or has an “anti-sticky” finish. The outer shell may include at least one aperture through which the inner liner may extend to operate the input mechanism of an electronic device (e.g., on at least one finger tip). In some embodiments, the aperture may be at a finger tip of the outer shell. In some embodiments, a closing mechanism may be used to maintain the aperture closed when the user is not operating the electronic device. For example, an elastic ring may surround the aperture such that, in its non-deformed state, the aperture is substantially closed. The user may elastically deform the ring to allow the liner to pass through the outer shell.”

someone said:"I just ordered these, but I hesitate to even recommend them at the moment since it's been almost 6 weeks since I placed my order and I haven't received them yet. They emailed me and said that it's taking an average of 1 month to fulfill orders (though they haven't bothered to update their site so you know this before you place your order). I'll do a full review if/when I get them...

These black leather or stretch gloves with flick-back fingers called freeland let you “stay warm and keep in touch.” The fingertips stay back with magnets, a handy feature. $40 for the leather version, $20 for fleece. Bike messenger-techno-geek chic.

3 successful technology and business genuis

Dunia web (baca:internet) telah merambah menjadi suatu layanan dan kebutuhan yang sangat penting saat ini. Padahal dulunya, layanan internet juga memiliki berbagai macam kendala dalam pengembangannya. Namun tidak dipungkiri bahwa pada akhirnya pengguna internet akan semakin bertambah jumlahnya dari masa ke masa, dan internet bisa dikatakan sebagai sebuah "kebutuhan" daripada sekedar layanan biasa. Siapa sajakah yang telah membuat Dunia web menjadi begitu prestisius di mata para penggunanya? Inilah beberapa orang yang sangat berjasa dalam menghidupkan Dunia web.

1. Larry Page, Eric Schmidt dan Sergey Brin, Eksekutif Google

Jika harga saham Anda mencapai USD 500 per lembarnya, Anda berarti berhasil mengumpulkan uang sebanyak USD 33 miliar. Anda dapat menjalankan mesin pencari yang paling ramai trafiknya di Internet. Proyek kecil-kecilan Sergey Brin dan Larry Page asal Stanford berkembang menjadi gardu Web yang paling banyak dibicarakan. Schmidt meninggalkan Novell untuk bergabung dalam jajaran direktur Google pada tahun 2001 dan segera menjadi CEO perusahaan itu. Dengan mendominasi dunia periklanan online, Google sepertinya siap melakukan perjalanan akuisisi dan membeli YouTube menandakan langkah besar terhadap dominasi menyeluruh dalam bisnis Web.

2.Jimmy Wales, Founder Wikipedia

Banyak pengunjung online menganggap ensiklopedi Internet Wikipedia sebagai penghentian pertama dan terakhir dalam pencarian sebuah topik. Konten yang dihasilkan penggunanya menjadi sangat dapat diandalkan sehingga majalah Nature mendeklarasikannya sebagai “sumber yang hampir seakurat [Encyclopedia].” Situs tersebut dikutip sebagai sumber informasi dalam lebih dari 100 keputusan pengadilan di AS sejak 2004. Tetapi popularitasnya juga menjadikan Wikipedia sebagai target oleh para spammer, kasusnya sangat banyak sehingga Wikipedia untuk sementara waktu memblokir akses dari seluruh negara Qatar untuk aksi pengeditan. Untuk menggagalkan usaha spammer, Wales putuskan penghapusan tag “nofollow” pada link eksternal, memberitahukan mesin pencari untuk mengacuhkan link dalam mencegah peningkatan buatan terhadap peringkat mesin pencari target link ini. Strategi ini menjamin keunggulan Wikipedia bahwa pencarian akan terus meningkat. Tetapi Wikipedia hanyalah langkah awal Wales. Ia juga meluncurkan mesin pencari pribadi bernama WikiSeek yang melakukan pencarian terhadap situs-situs yang disebutkan dalam Wikipedia.

3. Matt Mullenweg, pendiri Wordpress

Dia adalah founder dari software blogging open source, Wordpress. Setelah berhenti dari jabatannya di CNET, Matt Mullenweg menghabiskan sebagian besar waktunya sebagai pembicara pada berbagai konferensi dan mengembangkan proyek-proyek open source, yang diantaranya adalah Wordpress. Pada tahun 2005, dia menemukan Automattic, yaitu sebuah perusahaan pengembangan web, yang merupakan perusahaan yang mengembangkan beberapa proyek ternama seperti Wordpress, Akismet dan Gravatar.

Wikipedia raises $6.2M needed for its operations

January 2, 2009 (IDG News Service) The Wikimedia Foundation has raised the necessary funds to operate Wikipedia until the end of June, the nonprofit organization announced Friday.

personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, posted in December on the web sites of Wikipedia and The Wikimedia Foundation, raked in $2 million from over 50,000 contributors in just eight days. The financial support will allow the foundation to cover its operating costs for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2009.

In his thank you letter, Wales specifies that donations will go towards the foundation’s day-to-day operations, including servers and bandwith and improvements to open source software, as well as the salaries of its small staff of 23 people. Funds will also go towards supporting Wikipedia’s international network of volunteers and outreach events like Wikipedia Academies, in-person workshops that help attendees learn more about how to use and edit Wikpedia. I’m especially excited about Wikimedia producing online video tutorials to help those who can’t attend Wikipedia Academies.

"This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement.

A personal appeal from Wales -- Wikimedia's chairman emeritus -- posted on the organization's Web site on Dec. 23 triggered a boost in donations: More than 50,000 contributions totaling $2 million were made in the next eight days.

Wikimedia's goal was to raise $6 million to fund its operations through the end of its fiscal year on June 30 of this year.

If advertisements were plastered all over the site, people would likely feel the need not to donate, and Wikipedia would feel too corporate, like MySpace or YouTube — an identity at odds with its free culture ethos. Wales has blogged about his belief that advertising is not right for Wikpedia, preferring that donations come directly from supporters who have a stake in the community.

The Long Tail Theory is wrong?

Research has been cropping up in the last few years to challenge Chris Anderson's modern-classic theory of demand distribution. The Times of London had this to report today in their article - Long Tail Theory Contradicted:

The internet was supposed to bring vast choice for customers, access to obscure and forgotten products - and a fortune for sellers who focused on niche markets. But a study of digital music sales has posed the first big challenge to this “long tail” theory: more than 10 million of the 13 million tracks available on the internet failed to find a single buyer last year.

Personally, I don't think this is terribly shocking. The "Long Tail" demand theory has been questioned again and again in application to sales of popular culture related goods (hmm... I wonder why they call it "popular" culture). However, there's one arena where the Long Tail plays out almost perfectly - search queries. Evidence?

How about Udi Manber, Google's VP of Engineering, noting that:

20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before

Or Google themselves explaining that:

so-called "long tail advertisers" make up half our revenue.

Or Dustin Woodard's investigation into the distribution of search query demand:

It turns out that, at least in this particular three-month data set, the top 100 terms accounted for just 5.7 percent of all search traffic. Expand to the top 500, 1000, and 10000 terms, and just 8.9 percent, 10.6 percent, and 18.5 percent of all search traffic is involved, respectively.
Steve Ballmer
"Top 100 Search Terms by Percentage of All Search Traffic" (Source: Hitwise)

This means if you had a monopoly over the top 1,000 search terms across all search engines (which is impossible), you'd still be missing out on 89.4% of all search traffic. There's so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles.

At SEOmoz, nearly every large client we work for has exactly the same type of traffic graph - I've even shown off SEOmoz.org's own via Enquisite. The long tail is regularly producing 50-75%+ of the search traffic to large sites. Don't be fooled by news that the "Long Tail" might not exist - it's just that it might not be as big or as valuable, particularly in "pop culture" niches like movies & music.

What do you think? Is the long tail dead? Are long tail queries driving the majority of your sites' traffic? What about value - are long tail queries impossible to convert or equally valuable?