Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category

Share your transactions with the world via Blippy.

February 11th, 2010

I recently found out about Blippy which allows you to automatically display various transactions in a way similar to that of Twitter in that your purchases are shared via feed to your followers. People can also comment on your transactions too. You can link your Blippy account to credit cards and accounts such as Netflix, iTunes, Woot!, etc. A feed entry will also be generated every time you rent a movie from Netflix or download media from iTunes.

Blippy kind of reminds me of the Facebook Beacon advertising system which ended in a class action settlement except Blippy is op-t-in and entirely voluntary. At this time I don’t particularly want or have the need to share with everyone all my transactions. I also find reading through people’s 7-11 purchases and Netflix rentals rather boring.

However I can see certain individuals making Blippy a useful tool. Perhaps a personal finance blogger or world traveller with truly interesting purchases might make for worthy feeds. Other than that I really don’t care if someone I know spent $57.34 at the supermarket.

Dealbreakers

November 4th, 2009

My friend sent me this hilarious tumblr about “dealbreakers”. What’s a dealbreaker? When you meet someone and something you learn about them that just repulses you. Follow the link and read and you’ll get it. If you watch 30 rock you’re already on top of things as Tina Fey’s character writes a book about dealbreakers.

Here are some of my favorites:

Winning at the airfare game

November 4th, 2009

You’re the consumer, if you’re smart then you realize it’s your job to get the lowest price possible on airfare to get to where you’re going. The airlines are in business to make money, that means it’s their goal to get you to pay as much as possible. Getting the best airfare involves so many factors that’s it’s almost impossible to win at the game (unless you just decide to stay at home).

A month or so ago I’ve been planning a group trip with a bunch of my friends the weekend before Christmas. When everyone was okay with the itinerary I started looking for the cheapest tickets out of the three NYC airports (EWR, LGA and JFK). Generally it’s easy to get the cheapest airfare on any given day but the flight was 2 months away. The tricky part is trying to time when you’ll be able to book the lowest fare between now and the flight.

The first tool I used was SideStep which aggregrates airfare from numerous sources and gives me a pretty good picture at what the lowest fares are at the time. The cheapest flight I found was $325.

The second tool I use is Bing’s travel search engine which acquired FareCast. There you can learn what the chances are if the lowest fares are going higher or lower based on past historical data and other factors. Since the greater NYC airports are in their prediction markets the search gave me an indiction to wait since fares have a good chance of dropping within the next 7 days.

The third tool I use is the website of the airline who was offering the lowest fare. In this case it was Continental. I plugged in the itinerary which I found earlier on SideStep and before you even get deep into the booking process you can see the seat map which told me that over 60% of the seats on the planes were not even assigned! Although people are ticketed but not assigned seats this told me that a good portion of the seats on the plane was unsold. Therefore I could afford to wait.

Over the next couple days the lowest airfares I could find actually rose and continued to rise! Over the course of a week it went from $325 to $380. A lot of my friends started saying that they should just book already before prices rise even higher. I told them to hold off since I firmly believe that those prices are way too high. Over the next couple days prices fluctuated up and down but nowhere near what I was comfortable paying.

Then finally it went down to $269 after two weeks and I booked the flight thinking it was a short term drop so I better lock in the price. It continued to stay at that price for 4-5 more days and then dropped another $15! I’m not gonna cry over $15 since I have the peace of mind that my itinerary is booked already. I’m glad I paid 30% less than originally planned. In the end all it took was patience whichs mean you should plans your vacations and trips as far in advance as possible to watch airfares (but not book them) and it helps if you are flexible with the dates a little bit (I wasn’t).

Upgraded to Wordpress 2.8.5

October 28th, 2009

This blog runs on Wordpress and I recently upgraded to the latest version. Hopefully it went without kinks but you never know.

500 AAdvantage miles for a Liberty Mutual insurance quote

October 27th, 2009

About 5 minutes worth of work for 500 miles. Great way to pad your account and reset the mileage expiration timer.

Offer void in CT, GA, IA, ME, MA, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY and UT.

Unfortunately I’m ineligible for this because I live in NJ but hopefully you guys take advantage of it.

link

List of rare McDonald’s 2009 Monopoly game pieces

October 27th, 2009

I’m sure most people that have participated in the Monopoly game at McDonald’s have noticed that for every property set there’s always 1 rare piece that’s needed to complete the set. Here’s a list of those rare pieces that you should look out for.

  • Mediterranean Avenue (Rare) and Baltic Avenue. 2,000 people will win $50.
  • Short Line (Rare), Reading Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, B&O Railroad. 750 people will win $500.
  • Vermont Avenue (Rare), Oriental Avenue, and Connecticut Avenue. 125 people will win $1,000.
  • Virginia Avenue (Rare), St. Charles Place, and States Avenue. 75 people will win $2,000.
  • Tennessee Avenue (Rare), St. James Place, and New York Avenue. 10 people will win $5,000.
  • Kentucky Avenue (Rare), Indiana Avenue, and Illinois Avenue. Six people will win $10,000.
  • Ventnor Avenue (Rare), Atlantic Avenue, and Marvin Gardens. Eight people will win $25,000.
  • Pennsylvania Avenue (Rare), Pacific Avenue, and North Carolina Avenue. Four people will each win $50,000.
  • Boardwalk (Rare) and Park Place. One person will win $1,000,000.

- Courtesy of About.com

The in-store game ends 11/02/09. While I don’t recommend eating at McDonald’s just for the game pieces I’m sure a lot of people stop by there already. I do stop 2-3 by for a McChicken sandwich and a sweet tea on my commute.

Grab an easy Continental Onepass 100 Miles.

October 26th, 2009

A quick way to get a free 100 miles on Continental’s frequent flyer program.

Get 100 bonus miles for simply learning about Continental’s PetSafe® and PetPass® programs, when you register for this offer before November 30, 2009.

link

My xbox 360 breaks again but that’s a good thing.

October 26th, 2009

My xbox 360 has the red rings of death again (this is the second time). However this time I won’t even bother to call Microsoft to have it fixed. I’m not even sure if it’s still under warranty but that’s not why I’m not getting the xbox repaired.

Videogames are an incredible waste of time. I’ve always realized this but never bothered to do anything about this. Add to the fact that I was really good at them didn’t help. So I’ll leave my xbox unrepaired to hopefully find more productive things to do with my time.

McDonalds 2009 Monopoly Game Free Codes

October 25th, 2009

So the other day I stopped by a McDonald’s to pick up one of their large sweet ice teas. I noticed that the monopoly stickers were on the cup and decided to input the codes at PlayAtMCD.com. After my rolls were completed I noticed that there were offers to get free rolls (via Facebook for the first one). Apparently the rolls are universal so anyone can use them. I found 3 so far.

uonlyricher – From Facebook
I6L6V4N4T09 – Seen on the side of the paper bags.
ONLYPLYRSWN – A free code that’s displayed when you haven’t been to the website in awhile.

I found the first code by actually joining the Facebook group. The other codes I found on retailmenot.com which is normally used for discount coupons and etc.

Good luck. :D

Google Voice invite giveaway

October 25th, 2009

I started using Google Voice when it was originally Grand Central. A couple of my friends were interested in Google Voice and asked me to send them an invite. I realized that I have 3 invites left so if you want one just leave a comment on this post with your name and e-mail (e-mails will not be displayed publicly as usual) and I’ll send out invites to 3 people.

How do I use Google Voice? I’m on my laptop a lot so and rather than have people text my cell phone, I have them text my Google Voice number. The text message does not go to my cell phone but rather gets forwarded to my e-mail inbox.

Note: Google Voice is currently only available to users in the US.

I gave away all of the available invites. I’ll post when I get any more.