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Your Credit Report Card [Get Rich Slowly]
Each section of the Credit Report Card also contains a detailed explanation of how your grade was derived. These sections contain a couple of paragraphs each explaining how credit scores work and recommending actions you can take to improve your credit. The Credit Report Card isn’t earth-shattering. It’s not a tool that’s going to revolutionize the way you deal with money. It is, however, a useful way to monitor your progress. I’ve added the site to my bookmarks, and I plan to check in every month or two when I’m doing my personal finances.
Each section of the Credit Report Card also contains a detailed explanation of how your grade was derived. These sections contain a couple of paragraphs each explaining how credit scores work and recommending actions you can take to improve your credit.
The Credit Report Card isn’t earth-shattering. It’s not a tool that’s going to revolutionize the way you deal with money. It is, however, a useful way to monitor your progress. I’ve added the site to my bookmarks, and I plan to check in every month or two when I’m doing my personal finances.
If you're not comfortable sharing your Social Security Number to them, don't bother. They'll need it to pull your information together. I was fine with it, and my snapshot is at the top. Unsurprisingly, my full credit cards have a very negative impact on my score. But it also helps to learn the other areas and how I'm performing. For example, I have been on-time with every payment ever since I opened my first account. That helps out immensely! In addition, I got my first credit card five years ago, and it seems that my rating will shoot up once I go past seven years. I don't have a mortgage, so they gave me a lower grade on account diversity.
Inquiries from this service are considered "soft", meaning they do not impact your credit score. The service is free, and you can check in on your score every 30 days. Like J.D., I also added the link to my bookmarks so I can monitor the situation while I pull myself out of debt.
A while back I wrote an article detailing how I have set up a free system to watch TV without sacrificing a whole lot. I made the argument that cable/satellite TV was a broken system – why pay for a bunch of stuff you don’t watch? Even more: you don’t get to choose when to watch something, except for rather limited “on-demand” stuff, in which case you might even wind up spending more money to watch.
My original setup consisted of my laptop, a Netflix subscription, a VGA (monitor) cable, a decent antenna, and a cord to connect the headphone jack to the television. I have a rather nice Dynex 32” HDTV, which is plenty big for my tiny apartment, and puts out a very nice picture. In that setup, I kept my laptop continuously plugged in to the TV by running a long cord behind my furniture. The only drawback is that I never felt like I had an actual laptop – plugging in a laptop all the time kinda defeats the purpose.
I have an XBox 360 that I’ve had for a little over a year now. It’s a great gaming console for the few games I play on it (like Madden NFL 10, as seen above, next to my avatar that looks nothing like me anymore since I shaved the beard, grew my hair out, and stopped wearing contacts). I was excited when I heard that Netflix “Watch Instantly” streaming movies and TV shows were coming to the XBox 360, but I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. See, I share my internet connection with my landlord and connect via the wireless. The router is in her apartment. My XBox 360 had no wireless router, and I didn’t want to drop a then-$100 to buy one. So I plugged the computer in directly.
Well, I recently was given a wireless adapter to borrow, and I’m planning on buying it from the guy, because this is the best non-cable experience I’ve ever had. The interface for the XBox 360 is intuitive, easy-to-use, and with a little set up, it will be a completely integrated solution that has even MORE functionality than my previous setup.
You may not be able to see it, but it says “Presented in HD” up there. For some reason, the folks over at Microsoft do not really push the advantages of the HD streaming: there’s no “HD” category when looking for Watch Instantly content, and they only place a tiny icon that says “HD” next to the titles of the videos. That said, it looks fantastic. To test it out, I bought a month of XBox Live Gold (more on that a little later), and played an episode of Grey’s Anatomy that was available. I hate the show, but the video quality is excellent!
You can almost see the angst in Meredith’s eyes.
When Netflix first debuted the Watch Instantly feature, the content was pretty sparse. They had seasons of The Office and a handful of movies nobody cared about. Since then, they’ve strategically developed new partnerships, including one with Starz, that has literally brought thousands of titles to the Watch Instantly line.
One thing I’ve missed about cable is networks like the Discovery Channel and the Travel Channel. Lo and behold, we’ve got content from there – great shows like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Survivorman, and Mythbusters. And the standard content is also pretty good quality. Here’s a shot of Mythbusters that I watched on my lunch break today:
Very nice! Movies that recently came out on DVD find their way to Watch Instantly, and TV shows are being added all the time. Some movies are in HD, but the majority of HD titles are television shows. Before setting this up, the only true HD content I could enjoy was through over-the-air network television. It was still good, but it was not on-demand.
In addition to the Netflix feature, you can also purchase from the XBox Marketplace. They do, however, use a lousy purchasing system called “Microsoft Points”. But if you are looking to rival iTunes for your need to have the latest episode of Heroes, you can buy them here too.
This is where things got wonderful for me. Without a dedicated DVR, I’ve used torrent downloading to automatically download the latest episodes of certain TV shows to watch them on my own time. To watch them quickly and easily, I used to just hook up the computer to the television (and I still can, if I so choose). Through the XBox 360, however, you can share that library of movies and music with your television wirelessly. Google around to find your situation. I will either be sharing movies through my Zune software or through Windows Media Player.
Above is a picture of my downloaded episode of The Office, streaming from my computer through the Zune software and to my XBox 360. It uses up none of my computer’s resources.
And if you are using Windows Media Center, you can very easily connect that wirelessly with your XBox 360 – and share your DVR library with your television seamlessly. I decided not to go this route, as my laptop just isn’t that powerful to handle the software.
You’ll have to have a computer and an XBox 360 on the same network, either wired to a router or connected wirelessly. Microsoft has made setup a simple procedure, you can just follow the step-by-step instructions they provide to connect. To enjoy high-definition content, obviously, you need a high-definition television!
So, outside of equipment (which is a one-time expense), what price are we looking at? My old cable bill was $70 per month, just for television service. That included a few HD channels, and the networks. So, for a year, I was paying $840 for cable.
This new setup requires a Netflix subscription that allows unlimited access to the Watch Instantly feature. I have a subscription that includes that, plus unlimited DVDs in my mailbox, one at a time. That’s $9.49 a month. In addition, you’ll need an XBox Live Gold subscription, which is currently retailing for $50 a year. [$9.49 x 12] + $50 = $163.88 a year, or annual savings of $676.12. That’s HUGE savings!
There’s a service called PlayOn, which brings more streaming content, like Hulu and YouTube, to your XBox 360 or PS3. I have not yet tested this, but I plan to this evening. They also have a growing library of plug-ins, to watch ESPN and NFL Network videos on your television. If you are a fan of watching streaming television channels like TVAnts for your sports needs, do a Google search for sending those streams to your XBox 360 to be watched on your TV.
What I love about this service is that it eliminates more cords and integrates everything to one remote control. It’s user-friendly, attractive, and has great functionality. Did I miss anything? Do any of you employ this method or something similar? Share in the comments!
A note before we get started with this post: Not every commenter on the Zune/iPod post was disrespectful. There were several commenters who were iPod fans that clearly read my side of the story, and added their two cents thoroughly and respectfully. Thanks to those of you who did!
Last week, on a whim, I wrote a 1:00am post entitled, Why Apple’s Success Makes No Sense to Me, and Why the Zune Breaks My Heart. It was a little opinion piece defending my position that the Microsoft Zune is the best music experience you can get from a portable player, and that the iPod/iPhone was more focused on applications instead – the “jack of all trades, master of none” argument.
Little did I know the can of worms I would open!
As I was sawing wood (sleeping to those of you who don’t get that), my article was linked to on a website called MacSurfer, where the Apple fans of the world congregate and read articles about iPods. As a result, well over 500 visitors came through last Saturday, and many of them had choice words for me, a Zune fan.
Most comments made me laugh. Some made me simply shake my head. I think it’s time we all learn how to discuss an issue with respect to all parties involved. The media has shown us the wrong way all too often in today’s politics. The internet has made it possible for us to talk to each other in ways we would never communicate face-to-face. Our attitudes are shifting, and it’s a problem. Using some of the comments as illustrations, let’s take a look at the right way, and the wrong way, to debate:
Let’s take a step back: a blogger who averages 75 hits a day on a good day made comments on a portable media player. He was not insulting your choice of media player, he was simply explaining his.
I’m a nobody right now in the wide world of the internet. I plan to be somebody, and I am taking steps to do so, but by and large, I hold very little authority in the grand scheme. I didn’t write the post for MacSurfer. In fact, I didn’t even know the site existed! I didn’t market the blog post at all before things started going haywire. In other words, they came to me. All I was doing was expressing an opinion.
And also, think about the topic: portable media players. That’s it. We’re not talking about universal health care, legalizing marijuana, public education, or censorship in the media. We are talking about gadgets that play music and video. This is not earth-shattering stuff. This is not stuff that will cause your children great pain when they grow up. This is a recreational topic. If you are dealing with a topic that really doesn’t affect your life, take a deep breath before entering your response. It’s not that big of a deal!
My favorite comment about the post was from my cousin, Ethan, which he posted on Facebook:
"Tech nerds are not, and never have been, the target market for the post-Macintosh (1984+) Apple. Apple software and hardware just works. Actual people like that. Crawl back into your parent’s basement and keep running Windoze on your self-constructed PC.” “Dear Nerds, Keep using Microsoft programs and products. They are perfect. For you at least. And you can score with a girl too! Because PCs with Windows installed are so crappy that no normal person can figure out how to fix them when something goes wrong (type one of hundreds of problems you encountered with your pc), there must be tons of chicks just waiting for someone to fix that pc for them. If you don’t like Apple, Mac or whatever, just don’t use it. Stop writing bullshit and annoying people.”
"Tech nerds are not, and never have been, the target market for the post-Macintosh (1984+) Apple. Apple software and hardware just works. Actual people like that. Crawl back into your parent’s basement and keep running Windoze on your self-constructed PC.”
“Dear Nerds, Keep using Microsoft programs and products. They are perfect. For you at least. And you can score with a girl too! Because PCs with Windows installed are so crappy that no normal person can figure out how to fix them when something goes wrong (type one of hundreds of problems you encountered with your pc), there must be tons of chicks just waiting for someone to fix that pc for them. If you don’t like Apple, Mac or whatever, just don’t use it. Stop writing bullshit and annoying people.”
First, a word of warning to all of you who comment on The Practical Nerd: if you want to offend me, calling me a “nerd” won’t do anything. That’s a compliment to me. And if you find my writing “annoying”, then don’t read it. There’s a lot of other stuff to read online.
We are not on the playground in elementary school anymore. So many people online today think that they will look like a big shot if they personally insult somebody they’ve never met. In fact, the only thing these people know about me is that I like my Zune. Apparently that is grounds for calling me names, “yelling” at me, and making various insults about my manhood.
Stick to the topic at hand. Don’t get distracted by your personal feelings for somebody. If you want to win an argument, state your case and stick to the facts. Diving head-first into opinions, especially these kinds, won’t help you win anything. In fact, you’ll just wind up looking stupider.
“But, but there is TODAY such a pass on the Iphone: Spotify. So where is REALLY the problem for Apple ? But on my Iphone i Can also have Access to more than 6 millions of music, i can download plenty of really good games, i Can read Ebook, i Can use Genius (far better than Smart DJ), I can use a lot of GPS, I can go on the internet with a far better navigator. It isn’t only a music player, it’s a computer in the pocket… And this computer in the pocket is at the same price than your Zune. So, the conclusion is easy…”
The Apple App Store is a smart piece of business. I never denied that. But my argument was about the music. Responding to my post by saying “iPods are better because of the App Store” misses the entire point I was making. I didn’t ignore the App Store. But that wasn’t part of the discussion.
This is also not the only comment to mention Spotify. I won’t argue it: Spotify looks like a fantastic service. But it’s not available in the United States. At all. Period. To be honest, from the people I’ve talked to, it doesn’t look like it will be any time soon, if at all. I mentioned this in a couple of my replies in the comments section, and guess what? More people kept repeating how great Spotify is.
At least this makes me feel cool: I have a good number of international readers!
Anyway, if you’re trying to make a point, make sure it’s relevant to the argument at hand. You should be countering the arguments that were made by the other party. If you don’t, it shows that you are ignoring what they are trying to say. And guess what? They’ll ignore your argument then, too.
"Zune is Dead." “this is your 3rd zoon you say? lolz. bang the drum and wave that penance.”
"Zune is Dead."
“this is your 3rd zoon you say? lolz. bang the drum and wave that penance.”
You might as well stick your tongue out or shoot spitballs at me in retaliation, because that’s how mature you look when you argue like this. In real life, it’s like repeating what the other person is saying, just in a funny voice. Knock it off.
There is a way to “agree to disagree”, particularly when you are debating about opinions. I didn’t change anybody’s mind, and nobody changed my mind. In this world, you can exchange ideas and points of view and still be honest and respectful about it. Here are two of my favorite comments that make good points while still being respectful to me:
"First, I am a long time Apple user (1979 – Apple ][+) but I have used most micro OS’s from TRS to Commodore to Apple // to Apple /// to Lisa to Mac (OS1 to 9 & OSX 10.2 to 10.4) to CP/M to MS-DOS to Windows 1, 2, 3, 95 & XP plus some UNIX and Linux (not in order of usage). . You think apps are not so important while music is so so important. Your opinion. For me, music is nice, but I don’t go through so much music myself. To each their own, and what turns me on about technology is what the technology can do for me. I use what works, and Apple product most of the time works better for me than what Microsoft product does. I use what works best and I have a pile of Dell’s, have built my own PC boxes and have helped others with theirs. I use a Mac as my personal system for email and web browsing for the safety of not being infected by all the Windows malware out there. . I don’t have a cell phone at present, have only an iPod shuffle (1st gen) that I use periodically. Being in Canada, a Zune HD is reportedly not going to be available, and if true, is just not an option. The radio HD part is US only so the rest of the world loses out on access, which limits the appeal and market share of the product, while Apple makes a product that can be used almost anywhere in the world. The iPhone is a world phone, the Touch can be used anywhere, the Nano with the FM radio can be used anywhere, the list goes on for almost all Apple product. . So, while the Zune has gotten better from its first incarnation, I don’t hold out much hope for you for its future. MS discontinues products that don’t work out in its global domination drive, sometimes replacing them with a new model that instantly obsoletes the previous models, ala the first Zunes, the original XBox, etc. Apple on the other hand has brought the first iPhones and iPod Touches up to date as much as the hardware will allow with OS updates. Other iPods have been firmware updated to allow for bug fixes and feature enhancements. MS with their Windows CE/Mobile is just not that upgradable and other than a desktop PC, most Microsoft product is ultimately not upgradable and is instantly obsolete when a new version of the product appears. . For me for the most part, I like Apple and how they handle their product upgrades and upgradability. Your mileage may vary of course. Good luck with your Zune."
“Actually, Sony makes a rather brilliant MP3 player and even includes an excellent set of noise canceling headphones. that far outmatch both MSFT and APPL. Frankly, even the Zune HD is overloaded with features. Audiophiles want true uncompressed music delivered as purely and as distortion free as possible. I don’t think they need a game or a web browser to go a long with their favorite musician. But, since most of America’s youth suffer from ADD and have a lousy ear for sound, then overloaded players like the Zune, Archos, and iPod will easily get their business. Nice read though."
Thanks to everybody who commented – I’m glad I hit a nerve! Do you have any tips for debating points with others? Share them in our new and improved comments section!
So Gmail is down again today for some of us. Let the onslaught of angry tweets begin:
Gmail contacts have been down for hours now… Why am I starting to feel like Google is slowly turning into Microsoft… the deal with Gmail is: give up your life, gain awesome apps. this morning i’ve fulfilled my side… but now i wait Thanks Gmail…. just another reason to have a Hotmail account!
Gmail contacts have been down for hours now… Why am I starting to feel like Google is slowly turning into Microsoft…
the deal with Gmail is: give up your life, gain awesome apps. this morning i’ve fulfilled my side… but now i wait
Thanks Gmail…. just another reason to have a Hotmail account!
Okay, so it’s easy to bag on Google for this and make you regret your decision to switch to Gmail in the first place. I mean, heck, what good is email if you can’t use it, right? Well, I don’t get too mad about it for a few reasons:
The “what if it goes down” attitude needs to be applied to just about every form of communication. Your cell phone can fall in the toilet. Your internet connection can go down. Mail sometimes gets lost. Your electricity can go out right in the middle of a Packer game (happened over the weekend – neighbors’ kid plowed a 4-wheeler into the electrical box and knocked out the power for the entire block). Your car can break down. The plane you’re in may need an emergency landing. The sun can be blocked by clouds all day, etc.
I could go on and on. The truth is, you always need a backup plan for everything in life. If you are running your life through Gmail (and you should!), you need to have a backup plan for when it goes down periodically. If you are putting all your eggs in the Gmail basket and not backing that up somewhere, you only have yourself to blame if your day goes off the tracks because of a little outage.
A few hours feels like decades in today’s “gotta-have-everything-NOW” world. But in the grand scheme, it’s not so bad. If your computer dies and you use Outlook for your email, it can be days before you get your email back up, and even then, you might not get your mail back, which leads me to…
Even if Gmail goes down for a while, when it’s back up – you don’t notice much of a difference. Email that was sent to you in the meantime is still there. Email that you’ve kept is still there. If you’re storing all your email on your home computer, you run the risk of losing all of it when that computer goes down. Google keeps your mail backed up in several places that are in different locations. If something happens to one of your databases, they can just switch to one of the backups and you’re fine.
If you open up a Web browser, type in “http://mail.google.com”, and you can’t access your mail, you’re not completely out of luck. While not always the case, many times there are several ways you can access your Gmail in the event of an outage and not ruin your entire day:
Your smartphone. Google Sync can push your email, contacts, and calendar to your phone, if you have the capabilities. My Windows Mobile phone can pull email from Google into its own email program. It may not always be the most convenient, but it’s something.
Microsoft Outlook. As much as I hate bloated, overpriced Microsoft products, Outlook is on a lot of computers. You can set up Outlook to grab your Gmail, and, like today’s outage, you won’t miss a beat.
Mozilla Thunderbird. I don’t have Outlook, and many of you don’t, either. Mozilla Thunderbird comes from the same company that makes Firefox, so you know it’s good. It’s like a free version of Outlook. As you can expect, then, you can set it up to pull your Gmail, and it works the same way. It has an Account Wizard, so you just have to tell them you use Gmail, enter in your information, and it will automatically set it up for you.
Set up Gmail’s Offline Access feature. Lifehacker has a great article on setting this up, but it basically allows you to access your Gmail whether Gmail is up or not, and whether or not you have a working internet connection.
You know there’s going to be outages. Everything online has outages (Twitter, anyone? Facebook?). If you rely on this stuff, take a few steps to ensure that it won’t ruin your life. It’ll take five minutes. I understand that a company at Google’s level needs to be more reliable, but I’m not about ready to throw it under the bus yet. As long as I know there are ways to keep using it, I’ll keep using Gmail.
