Posted on April - 30 - 2011
Blacksburg, Virginia is far from the epicenter of the earthquakes that have rocked Japan over the last six weeks, but resident Kirk Cameron has felt the virtual aftershocks.
Days after the magnitude 9.0 shaker hit, Camerons startup MiserWare tripled the number of downloads for its proprietary Granola energy-saving software.
Before (the quake) Japan accounted for about 5 percent of our downloads in a day and now theyre more like 20 to 30 percent, said Cameron, who prior to the quake averaged about 25 daily downloads. Now weve basically covered the entire island.
The software has clearly resonated with Japanese PC users desperate to keep their computers running longer and preserve their generators, as authorities urged a crackdown in energy usage following the quake that wreaked havoc on the power grid.
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Posted on April - 29 - 2011
If you have received a call from a debt collector informing you that your debts have been passed on to their agency, what should you do? Unfortunately, some debt collection agencies are guilty of violating the provisions of the Fair Debt Collections Act, treating borrowers offensively and some may even use threats to force payment.
How can you be sure that the agency was legally assigned to collect the debts you owe? How can you be sure that the amount being collected is correct? What if you cannot afford to pay your debts at the moment? In this article, let’s discuss how you, as a borrower, can deal with debt collectors firmly.
Remain calm. When you first receive a call from a representative of a debt collection agency, you should remain calm and focused. Instead of denying your debts or making excuses right away, you should let your collector do the talking.
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Posted on April - 29 - 2011
A credit card affiliated with a frequent flier program is only as good as the airline that runs the system. The Citi Gold American Airlines AAdvantage World MasterCard can claim to be one of the best airline cards if only because the American Airlines AAdvanage program continues to be one of the best frequent flier schemes among the major airlines.
Citibank and American Airlines will start you off with a 30,000 mile bonus as long as you make $750 in purchases within four months. Going with a value of one cent per miles, this works out to a $300 sign up bonus. The Citi AAdvantage card also waives your annual fee for the first year, which saves new cardmembers $50 and gives consumers a chance to test out the card without paying a fee. Plus, if you factor in the $300 value of the bonus AAdvantage miles and the fee free first year, these perks offset the cost of being a cardmember for 7 years.
As you use the card, you will receive the standard 1 mile per dollar spent. While AAdvantage miles do expire if your account is inactive for 18 months, any use of this card will reset your mileage expiration date. Th
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Posted on April - 28 - 2011
FOMC Statement: April 27
Bernanke’s press conference unveils FOMC forecasts earlier than usual
The Federal Reserve unveiled a statement characterizing the economy as displaying moderate growth overall, but still facing challenges in a depressed housing market. Labor market conditions are improving gradually, while consumer spending and business outlays on equipment and software remain robust. Indicators of excess resource slack are still elevated. FOMC members believe that recent rises in commodity prices will impart a transitory effect on the headline rate of inflation, with limited pass-through in the long run to measures of underlying inflation. In particular, FOMC members still view underlying measures of inflation as “subdued” and longer-term inflation expectations remain consistent with the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate. The sta
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