There are software that can trace where your laptop is. Problem is … you can only trace it if it is connected to the internet. MacBook also has a built-in functionality that turns on the webcam to captures images that you can view. But chances of you ever getting your stolen laptop is pretty glim.

While there’s nothing much you can do about a stolen laptop, there’s a lot you can do to prevent it from being stolen in the first place. You can always a security lock; but you would look like a fool if you use one in public. I think the best way to protect your laptop in a crowded place is to use a deterrent device that attracts attention; similar to a car alarm.

I found this little software (about 300 kb in size) that would do just that. Laptop Alarm emits a loud alarm when the power cable is unplugged, the mouse is unplugged, the mouse is moved, or the laptop is shutdown. You can set the password and change the mouse sensitivity before you activate the alarm.

Please be warned that you should NOT use a speaker while the alarm is activated because of the risk of permanent hearing damage. This thing is loud. Click the play button below to sample the sound.

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Just this past month, a friend of mine were told to have a repair done on her car because a warning signal came on. She went to her dealer and they told her it’s going to cost her hundred of dollars to have it fixed. Good thing she talked to a couple of friends who suggested she tighten the cap on the tank. And it worked. She complained to the dealer and they told her it could be something else and the fix might work only temporarily. I have no doubt in my minds the car dealership knows the repair wasn’t needed but told her to do it anyway. In this bad economy, I am sure this problem will only get worse.

I am not saying there aren’t any honest auto-repair shops out there but how can you tell the honest one from the crooks? How can you prevent yourself from being taken advantage of? Well, you can get educated about auto-repair but let’s face it, not everyone have the time or the interest to learn about auto repair. You can also talk to friends who know about car. But not everyone have such friends. Myself included.

Or you can do what I do now. I go to RepairPal website and figure out how much a certain repair will cost before I sign the dotted line. The RepairPal Estimator gives a repair estimate based on the make, model, and year of your car, the service type and your zip code. There are over 80 service types listed on the site.

I can honestly say I feel so much better about having this website at my disposal. Not only it allows me to make an informed decision regarding an auto-repair, it also helps me to tell apart the honest auto-repair shops from the crooks.

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Some of the most notorious neighborhood are Russian Hill, North Beach, Cow Hollow, Marina, Mission, Haight Ashbury; pretty much neighborhoods with a vibrant night-life with high concentration of restaurants, bars, and clubs. Not having to worry about parking spot, in my opinion, is a lifestyle enhancer. How nice it is to be able to go anywhere without having to worry about arriving half an hour early just to allow enough time to drive around to find a spot.

Well, now you can. GottaPark, a new online venture, allows you to reserve a parking spot owned by individuals or businesses in the city. You can login to your account, enter the address of your desired destination, enter the time desired, and find availability in the area and reserve it.

And if you own a driveway or a parking spot, you can also make that spot available for rent. You set the available time and the price desired. You provide your contact information and a description of the spot. It will then be made available by GottaPark for other individuals to rent. How much you want to charge is entirely up to you. You will be able to view the individuals and their contact information who rent the spot from you. Payment will be made to you the week after the rental takes place and it will be paid to your paypal account.

Gotta Park Reservation

Although I am hopeful, I can see two potential abuses with the system.

1. Will there be any verification system in process? How does one know the parking spot is really owned by the poster? Any yo-yo can sign up for an account and put their neighbor driveway up for rent as a practical joke.

2. Says a parking spot was reserved for two hours by Person A, and Person B reserved it for the next two hours. What will happen when Person A did not show up in time at the end of hour 2? Is towing warranted? Or a penalty is enough? GottaPark did address this issue on its FAQ but it still causes a great deal of inconvenience to Person B.

This system will only work under the assumption that everyone is playing by the rule. I am hopeful yet cautious. When you sign up, please put me Joey Rosario as your referral. I am not sure what kind of credit I will get but a credit is a credit and I’ll be happy to take them. It won’t be long before New York and other big cities will follow suit.

And the service starts TODAY (at least that’s what the website says).

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In the past 7 days, Bad Behavior has blocked 107 access attempts to my site. I usually receive my share of spam comments but now I only had 2. If you have problems with too much spam comments, you should install Bad Behavior plugin.

No product is perfect; Bad Behavior included. I had to re-type this article because when I saved it, Bad Behavior blocked me from my own site. Bad Behavior uses a third party site to validate the ip address and recently the site has been sending out false positive. So if you use Bad Behavior, please update your plugin with the 2.0.11 version released today so you won’t get blocked from you own site.

Anyway, the above problem was not the reason why I wrote this article. Yesterday, I tried to submit my article to Digg. And I kept getting this error
“This link does not appear to be a working link. Please check the URL and try again.”

It’s not possible. The article’s link works just fine. Did my site get banned? Or may be it was my user id? I don’t remember doing anything that warrants either. I tried submitting an article from a different site, and I did not get same error. That means my user id is ok.

That can only means one thing. My site gets banned. Did I over-submit my article to Digg that resulted in my ban? I don’t think so. Did someone try to get my site banned from Digg? I doubt it.

So what’s going on here? Anyway, I did see the following error when I was in my admin panel.

I knew it was Bad Behavior error. I just didn’t think much of it at the time when I saw it.

So this afternoon I was listening to some music, and all of a sudden it hit me. May be there is a link between the Digg Submission Error and the Bad Behavior Error. I tried it out immediately. I deactivated the plugin and tried submitting my article again and booyah … it works. I was pulling my hair like crazy yesterday trying to figure out what in the world happened to my site that it got banned from Digg. Now I have my answer.

Bad Bad Behavior.

If you installed Bad Behavior plugin on your site and encountered the same problem with submitting article to Digg, try deactivating the plugin, submit your article, and then re-activating the plugin again. I know what you are thinking, and no, I am not abandoning Bad Behavior. It provides more values to me than the little inconvenience it causes.

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If it’s indeed true, then the credit goes to the original author; whoever it is.

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline….

Here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or
in the evening … your gallon is not exactly a gallon.

In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor
return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zeroclearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder. If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

This tips should be in no way shape or form taken as an excuse for you to drive more. If you really want to save more money, you can try to “drive less”; take public transportation one day a week. It is a sure way to save your monthly gas consumption, plus you will be saving the environment by reducing the emission.

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I am sure you can sell your old stuff on eBay but who’s to say you’ll get more money from there? eBay Shoppers are cheap and most of them are bargain hunter. If you want to save the hassle, just sell it to Second Rotation.

Here are the steps to sell your gadget to Second Rotation:

1. Estimate It

Use Second Rotation’s online step-by-step pricing guide to determine the value of your gadget.

2. Ship It

You pack it up and they will pick it up. For FREE.

3. Cash It In

Once your gadget is inspected, they will send you the money either by check or by paypal.

If you don’t agree with their assessment, no worry. You do not have the obligation to sell your item to them, and they will send your item back to you … FOR FREE.

At this point, they are only buying gadgets for the following categories:

1. Camcorders

2. Digital Cameras

3. GPS Devices

4. MP3 Players

5. Cell Phones

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Next time when you want to contribute money to your IRA account, don’t use your cash to fund it. Consider selling your stock that has declined in value, up to the amount you want to contribute; and use that money instead. Your contribution to IRA is tax-deductible and you can write-off the capital loss from the stock sales as well.

And the best part is if you like the stock and you want to hang on to it, you can always buy the stock back in your IRA account. Since the IRS treat you and your IRA account as a separate entity, the ‘Wash Rule’ does not apply.

I wish I had known this earlier. Well, my mistake … your gain.

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