When I run across neat sites, I’ll save the link until I get time to post it. Well, its been a busy week, so your going to get them all at once. Enjoy!

- Make your own animated scrolling sign with Signbot!

- This has been floating around blogs this week, I guess I’d be leaving you all out if I didn’t post it. Amazing hand drawn cartoon whiteboard animation called Whiteboard Music.

- Ever have the need to text message multiple people all at once? Check out Zemble. Once your registered, you can send messages to groups right through your web browser.

- Hellish Holidays is a website that combines video sharing of hellish holiday experiences. Choose the holiday, and enjoy the videos!

- Icon Bulk offers hundreds of free downloadable icons, wallpaper and image files for your computer geek pleasure.

AOL to offer 1 free movie download this Saturday 12/2/06 starting at 6:00 a.m. Movies including TechCrunch>

Interesting article from USA today: What would techies do with a newspaper?
I’m not sure I even agree with their first idea of going strictly digital. There’s still something relaxing about sitting down on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and casually browsing the newspaper. Are you ready for an all digital newspaper?

Don’t feel like sending Christmas cards this year? Send someone a GeoGreeting!
Satellite photos have been captured of various places around the world that resemble letters. Type in your message and see the preview as you type. Each letter has a description of where it is located. Click on the Preview link button. A separate page will open and an image of the earth will load. When you select Zoom, the images zoom down from space level onto each letter to create your message. Very cool. Click on the image above to see an example. Type up your own, copy and paste the link into an email and wish your pals a Happy Holiday!

I ran across Wesabe last week, and finally got a chance over the weekend to test it out.
I was instantly drawn to the site, when I read the highlighted words on the home page “Take control of your money”. I’ve been looking for something that I could get a better handle on my spending, and understand where the heck all my money goes.
Wesabe does all of this and more. There is a few steps you need to take to getting started on Wesabe, but you’ll be amazed with the results.
1. Register. This is a straight forward and simple process.
2. Export bank summary from your bank website. This can get a little tricky if your not familiar with your banking site. Mine had an export button right on my account page, and I exported the file with ease. After exporting, you’ll need to import into Wesabe. Pretty easy.
3. After your account is uploaded, you’ll need to tag all of your account withdrawals and deposits. I’d recommend using a one word tag - such as Groceries, Restaurant, Beer, Dogfood, etc.

After you have everything tagged, you can do a Earnings summary or a Spending summary. I was shocked to see the amount I spent on restaurants for the month!
There is also a “tips” tab, where you get tips on spending for each of your tags that others have also used, and a “goals” tab, where you can set a goal for saving/spending or read through other peoples financial goals and comment on them.

Take a tour (video), and give this a try. If your like me - you’ll really start to keep a closer eye on what you spend your money on! Oh yeah, and best of all, the site is FREE! Can’t beat that.

I suppose in some way, this falls in the “tech” category. Control this guys Christmas lights from your web browser. Amazing!

Alek’s Christmas Lights

Here are some of the more popular tech-related gift ideas of 2006.

Game systems: The Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii are probably the two hottest items this year on christmas lists. Other hot portable gaming systems this year include the Play Station Portable and Nintendo DS Lite.
Portable MP3 players are still a hot item. The Microsoft Zune is creating some competition with the Apple iPod. The Zune offers features like, larger viewing screen, better resolution and Wi-Fi capabilities. The Apple iPod is still a great gift, there are some cheaper options including the iPod Nano and for $79 - the Shuffle.

Of course, if your tech geek of the house doesn’t have a DVR yet, it’s for sure a must. I’d recommend Comcast DVR if you have the service available. Tivo is another option, which owns the market in the DVR biz, but from what I’ve been hearing, Comcast is cheaper, has a couple more features and is easier to use.

Along with the DVR, your going to need a flat screen plasma television along with a surround sound system - although, I’m probably getting out of your price range.

A couple cheaper gifts, and perfect for those you aren’t sure what to get:
Netflix: I tried this out last year and loved it. Just make sure you have the time to watch the movies! I cancelled over the summer when I was too busy, but plan to renew my subscription very soon.
iTunes Gift Card - choose from $15, $25 or $50 iTunes gift cards for the music lover in the family. You don’t need an mp3 player to use iTunes, as long as you have a cd burner. Most songs are all .99 cents, albums cost $9.99.

If your really stumped on a gift, check out FindGift.com. This site takes you through a survey for who your buying for, and presents you with a bunch of ideas based on the answers to the survey.
Be sure to check out Black Friday Ads before heading out shopping to get an idea what each store will be offering.

A couple of tech stories in the news this week, as well as links to some cool websites I ran across.

Google just announced their new “click to call” service as part of their Google Maps. Apparently, it will work like this: You Google (map) a business. When the contact information comes up, you click on the phone number. This triggers the system to call both of you at the same time and connect the callers.

Apple computers is “talking” with six airlines to make it possible to watch movies from your iPod right at your seat. Your iPod will be able to plug into the back seat video monitors, and you’ll be able to watch any movie, video-cast or tv show that you have loaded on your iPod.

Musicovery: Interactive web radio. I don’t even know if I can explain this, you just have to try it out - pretty amazing.

American Science & Surplus: Incredible Stuff at Unbelievable Prices - check this site out, all kinds of odds and ends that I probably don’t need, but at these prices, why not?!

I have two real song files on my LG8100 Verizon cell phone that I purchased through Verizon (accidently). They’re pretty neat, but its kind of awkward standing in line at the grocery store, and a song starts blaring from my hip. I always swore I wouldn’t be “that guy”. I usually stick to the ol’ vibrate option.
A friend was telling me a really convoluted way to hack songs onto my cell phone, which was just too confusing for me to even try to attempt.
Welcome PhoneZoo. This makes the whole process easy, well… it should.
You first have to create an account, which is a really simple process. Next, you pick your cell phone/service and confirm that PhoneZoo can reach your cell phone (done with a brief text message). After this, your ready to go.
The first problem I noticed was an error letting me know that my phone was not supported. But, it suggested trying anyhow. My guess is this error comes up for every phone.
I attempted to upload a song. I’m on a Macintosh, using Firefox, which might be the problem. I wasn’t able to clip contents of a song as your supposed to, and upload to my phone.
My next option was to choose from the list of already uploaded songs. I browsed the list. All of the songs, from actual artists, are unavailable due to copyright legalities. I picked some cheesy organ solo (no copyright), and exported it to my phone. Within seconds I received the file. I opened it, and it played loud and clear on my cell phone. I followed the instructions and saved it to my sound files. From here, I tried to select it as my ring tone. No such luck. The file was no where to be found.
I submitted a ticket to the site. If I hear of a solution, I may try this again. Otherwise, I’ll write this off as another “one hit wonder” website, that may or may not be around in the near future. Give it a shot - if you get it to work, let me know!

This is a big week for gamers. Friday the 17th of November is the launch of the Playstation 3, and on Sunday, the Nintendo Wii.
I should start off by letting you know I’m not a gamer. I probably won’t be buying either of these, or even looking in their direction as I pass the store display with 20 kids surrounding them. But, they both have made enough buzz in the news, that I felt it would make for a good blog discussion.
This morning on the news, I saw a clip of about 10 tents lined up at a Detroit Best Buy. The video jumped to a guy in his mid-30’s all bundled up with a microphone shoved in his face. He went on and on about how long he’s been waiting and how excited he is (obviously excited for his kids, when they open this up on Christmas morning.. right?!).
I’ll admit though, I did have some gaming days in the past. My first memory was a game called Pong, which my sister and I later progressed to the Atari 2600. After that was the first Nintendo. I can remember the Nintendo games never loaded correctly, and everyone had their technique of making them work (which usually was taking the game out, blowing inside of it until you almost passed out, then reinserting it - surprisingly, it did the trick). My last attempt at gaming was the Microsoft Xbox. The Xbox online gaming is awesome, but when a 12 yr. old from Canada beat me 22-0 at hockey, I had to give it a rest.
The thing that really throws me for a loop, is the price of these systems. The Wii will cost around $250, with games at $60 a piece. The PS3 has a basic and a premium package, ranging from $499 to $599, games starting at around $60.
If you do decide to head out to your local gaming store to be the first in line, be sure to check out the Seven Tips for Camping Out for a Wii or PS3.