The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: Okay, so I made this my break book for work so I could read it slowly. After all, it is the last book for Larsson, ever (unless the rumors are true). That lasted until about halfway through the book because I then spent two late nights reading the second half of the book.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest starts about 40 minutes where the last book left off. Lisbeth is in dire straights and Blomkvist must protect her. The plot revealed in book 2 is a major plot line to this story. There are a few sub-stories that keep the pages turning. I started to get worried at the end because I wanted to see everything wrapped up because there are no more books.

I am so team Lisbeth. This whole series is exceptional. Yes, Lisbeth spends most of her time in a hospital bed in this book, but it is what she does there to free herself that is entertaining. Blomkvist is still a 'ho and Berger has new job blues.

Side note: I called my work roommate at home today to tell her that I had finished and we could now talk about it. She's on medical leave and couldn't talk too much. She had already finished the series and thanked me for introducing her to the series. She in turn, has two others hooked on it.

Marketing companies make huge sums selling your details to other companies, whether your address, phone number, email, salary, preferences, date of birth and more. A new site promises to let you get some of its cut for selling this personal data.

How does it work? First it opts you off all other lists (if you just want to opt out yourself for privacy see the Beat Cold Callers & Junk Mail guide), then you select what you're willing to do, and what information you're willing to go out there.

How much can you get? It's told us you can make anything from a few pounds right up to a few hundred a year if you fill in all its categories (and don't mind getting a lot of spam!)
It's currently free to join and says it'll give you 70% of its profit from selling your data (can take up to 8 weeks). There' s a limited number available, so it's first come, first served.

Is it worth doing? Frankly we've no idea - this is a brand new concept and while it could be a brilliant easy money spinner, equally it could be a total damp squib or worse. We have been using it for over 3 weeks now and will be paid at the end of the month.

We will update this post along with the link as soon as we get paid so you too can sign up.

I will show you how I used one of the free online freelancing sites to generate enough money to cover some of my bills - and still have more to put into my savings bank account.

Now just to let you know that I am not a full-time freelancer, and I don't make anywhere close to Nkem Jana. My main area is software engineering, meaning that I work with companies to help them ensure that their product is developed and delivered on time and within budget. Come to think of it, the whole internet eco-system is developed and run on software applications. So, why is it that many of us software professionals have not really taken advantage of our expertise and start making good decent income online?

To answer this question myself, I thought I would looked around for how software developers make money online. It turns out that most people think that it is affiliate marketers who are the only people that can truly make money online. That is wrong. In fact, there has been a long history of freelancers who have been in the business long enough that they now rake in more money than those who claim to be employed full-time.

To try this out, I signed up with one of the best known freelance websites out there today - Odesk.com; and within weeks was able to start making some cool money on the side.

I work full-time like the rest of you guys, so I didn't have to change anything. Instead what I changed was my bank balance. I now have more money coming in on weekends and evenings that I don't have to worry about things like credit card loan bills, cheap loans and stuff like that. The money I now make simply by taking on some of the millions of projects on the site is enough to cover most of my outgoings.

$750 earned within days

The cool thing about this is that you don't need to have a degree in computer science to start working on any of the projects. There are all sorts of work there from simple data input job, to Accounting, iPhone development, Java, Python....or you if you can't write software, you could think about article writing which could give you anything between $20 -$75/ 500 words.

Have a look - there's something for everyone, so if I can just write a simple 300 article for $50 for someone, you too can do far much more than that. I didn't want to post the screenshot, but thought I should put it up here for those who love to see evidence to give them extra motivation. For the record, I did a simple plug in development for a client and one article. The majority of the income came from that single plug in which took me 3 nights to develop as I work during the day. The article took me roughly a few days to complete - I needed to research it, meaning there was no need to rush. Most clients are happy to give you as much time as you need as long as you are in constant contact.

The gist here is that no matter what sort of background you have, there's millions of opportunities out there, it's a question of how motivated are you about doing something extra in the evenings and weekends to earn some extra cash.

Click here to view all the jobs available....or Click Odesk.com to join now and start making money with your skill!

Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR - If you want to use your ActionScript skills to build mobile applications for the Android OS, this thorough guide will show you how to use the unique programming environment, architecture, and tools in the Adobe AIR for Android SDK. You'll get practical hands-on experience on a wide range of development topics, from device-specific features to optimization techniques and best practices -- including how expand your mobile development experience beyond Android to other platforms.
Developing Android Apps with Adobe AIR takes you through the entire development process, with ready-to-run example code that implements each feature discussed, including:

• Touch and gesture events, and screen orientation
• Saving and retrieving data on the device
• Features such as geolocation and the accelerometer
• Animation, scrolling, device resolution, and vector images versus bitmaps
• Architecture for one screen at a time and breadcrumb navigation
• Advanced topics, such as security, custom views, and optimization

About the Author

Veronique Brossier is Senior Flash Engineer at MTVNetworks and adjunct professor at ITP/New York University. She has worked on applications for the world of art and entertainment, including The New York Visitor Center and the 9/11 Memorial site for Local Projects, NickLab for R/Greenberg Associates, Cartoon Network Online, the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of National History, and many more.

First of all, let me say that I mostly enjoyed this book and the writing style, and think some of the tips/ideas are great. Some of Tim's methods and his personality could rub people the wrong way, though, especially if they have no sense of humor. He's great at exploiting loopholes. Some people call that cheating. Some people call it smart. He definitely dances on that line. Either way, I imagine he makes the victims of these antics either revise their rulebooks, or find creative ways to deal with would-be Tim copycats. Some might say that is helping them improve and innovate. Some of Tim's ideas are not new or original, but he does put a different spin on them. Many of his methods will be hard to apply, especially given our current economy. I'm not sure if his newest revisions address the changes, but I suspect they probably don't.

As many others have stated, despite the misleading (marketing ploy) title, Tim is not trying to tell you a way to sit around and do nothing. Don't ever judge a book by its cover (or title)! On the contrary, I think Tim likely spends a great deal of time (probably more than 40 hours a week) working on things he enjoys. He spends money paying to avoid the things he doesn't enjoy. He doesn't always consider his endeavors work, but some people would. He just tries to outsource anything that bores him. It's not evil slave labor if you're paying a helpful person a livable wage for wherever they live, whether it's India, Indonesia, or Indiana. It's also not taking jobs from more local workers if they can't be as polite, productive, and professional. Tim also measure wealth in more than money and material goods. Most people that adopt this mentality are wise to do so.

If you don't have a personality like Tim's, then some suggestions will be very difficult for you to make work unless you have the ability to look at things differently, or at least sell ice cubes to an Eskimo! There are other books that are similar, but I haven't read them all. I don't have much of a scale for comparison for this type. I appreciated this book more than some I've read in the same category, though, because he does give examples that don't just apply to teens and college freshmen (although they can still use them and would have an easier time of it).

He also points to some resources that many people could find valuable. Tim seems intelligent, driven, and charismatic. He goes after what he wants, and while he's no angel, he seems like a decent, ambitious guy. I say "seems" because I have never met him and don't know him. Those claiming to know him in person seem to be either hate or love him, with very few falling somewhere in between. He does appear to have some noteworthy charity interests, and I like that he offers much of the info for his books on his blog for free. If you don't like his blogs, you may not like the books, though, so I advise checking them out before purchasing. Unfortunately I'm not on Amazon enough to reply to everyone, so please forgive me if I don't see your comments. I'm sure there are others with more time to respond. :)

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard - Wow, I finally managed to sit down and finished this awesome book by the author of Harry Potter.

I first became aware of this book way back in 2008 just before Amazon published the book because it was widely publicised that they bought the right from the author for the sum of $2M. So, being the company that focused primarily on books back them, they were able to use their marketing  muscle to push the book and generate enough buzz for the book to hit the top best-seller list within hours of publishing it days later.

Funnily enough, it was only on Amazon that you could pick up the The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector's Edition - the ordinary version could be bought just about any good book shop.

Being a huge Harry Potter fan, I quickly bought both the soft copy of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard and the Collector's edition. I really wanted to get the piece of the collector's item as well as have the ordinary version that I could read on my commute to work.

And believe me you have to see the author did a marvellous job with The Tales Of Beedle The Bard.
Unlike anything you've seen or read before, this is like five books in one. It covers five different thrilling, wizardry tales; each with a heart-pumping journey through the mystery world wizards and witches.

What I really like about this book is not only the stories it contains, but the book itself as a collectors item. It comes with a leather back disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library, replica gem stone, skull and metal corners - to give it that authentic collector's item look and feel.

Mine is still very new and I just finished reading it - but I won't be lending it to friends, instead, I plan on saving getting a few more copies as they seem to be going up in value. I just checked on Amazon the other day and the number of reviews there have gone beyond 400 - all 5 stars; that goes to show the level of interest this book is still commanding.

So, if you are reading this piece and thinking of buying a copy, I strongly suggest you get one now. If you are not ready and still want to think about it, well, before you finish thinking, all the special offers will have gone. In fact, click here now to give watch the trailer and give you an idea of how fast they are exchanging hands on Amazon.

Or Click here to buy a copy The Tales Of Beedle The Bard.

Working From Home - For some people, working Monday to Friday, 7 days a week is not something they would consider. They would rather not work at all than to be stuck in an office for a whole day, come home tired and not able to read bed time stories to the kids. But for some, they love the routine of daily commute; just soaking up the office environment, networking, generating wealth and pumping up ones ego.

That is all great if you are still single and have no young family to bring up. But once there's a family, the whole plan changes. So, how do you ensure that you keep the job you love and still manage to spend quality time with the family? Well, you could decide to pack it all in and look for something closer to home, ask that your hours be reduced...or you could ask to be moved to a branch office where the work load is less.

How about working from home. Since the explosion of the internet and free VOIP and cheap broadband network, most people have been taking the opportunity to change their working life. Traditionally, most people had to commute to work every single day, but that is now changing. In fact, a recent poll showed that more than 10% of the computing and financial professionals regularly work from home.This of course is still very low when there should be more people doing it.

Why you should consider working from home -
There are many reasons why one should consider working from home; not only does it save you money and stress in the long term, it also allows you to work in an environment that you are most happy - your home. The stresses of commuting and daily round trip is reduced. The time you would normally spend on the road could be spent on something else. As most developers know, a great deal of code can be written within just 2 hours. This is the average time that a typical commuter spends on the road on a daily basis.

Apart from that, it is believed that most people's home computers are in most cases more powerful than their office equipments. You get to use your own computer configuration that you know and trust. Another plus with working from home is that it allows you to focus on working on the problem domain with little or no distractions like noise and chatter from across the cubicle.

The most important reason of all is to be able to spend that vital quality time with your kid(s). For me, my kids are my priority - and to be able to spend time with them means I don't have to live my life in my 17 inch laptop backpack.

Who works from home?
 But you don't need to have a young family for you to work from home. All sorts of people choose to work from home for different reasons - again, these could be because they are disabled and need the flexibility to work in an environment where there's little or no obstacle to their mobility. Others do it because, as mentioned before, they are more productive in their own home office.

So, what are the downsides?
Well, despite the long list of benefits of working from home, there are a few gotchas -
For a start, it is easy to work beyond your normal 9 -5 hours because you are in a home environment. And remember, any extra time you put into your work may not count and won't get paid for it. You may even end up not spending the time working on your office project as there's no one to monitor your progress.

A few people have found themselves working at night because they spent the day on things entirely outside their office project. Because you used your own electricity, broadband, telephone and VOIP, who pays the bills? These are some of the things one needs to consider before working from home.

The Take away -
While working with colleagues together under the same roof in an office is important, you should also consider working from home. Speak to your manager and if possible help put a system in place to encourage flexible working environment. As lots of researches have shown, to be really productive developers need to be in an environments that is not only flexible, but a place where they are free to roam, be creative and feel very much at home.

The Settlers of Catan - When you first open Catan game, you may be a little underwhelmed by the prevalence of cardboard pieces (I wish there was a more durable wood version of the board tiles) and the seemingly complicated rule book. I admit, there were a few minor questions it didn't answer that I had to go to the website to figure out from the Q&A section.

With that being said: Never fear! The positives far outweigh those criticisms.

The rule book covers all of the basics you'll need to know to start playing, and, after giving it a good read through, you should be ready to play, even if only one person has the time to read it. Everyone I've played with learns quickly from my basic description of the rules and picks up the rest naturally and intuitively throughout the game.

For some reason, the new person to play The Settlers of Catan game always seems to win in the games I play. Perhaps that speaks poorly of my Catan skills, but, on a positive note, it has contributed greatly to the game's popularity with my friends. You can use a suggested set-up for new players and then after a game or two you can try more advanced set ups... that is a random set up of the board. The coolest thing about Catan is simply that unlike Monopoly the board changes every time you play if you set up the tiles randomly (see the above illustration provided by Amazon). It makes each game challenging and unique and fun to play.

Warning, the game can be a little cutthroat as you vie with other players to occupy the best areas of the board and as you use the "robber" piece to steal cards from other players. Still, everyone's had fun with it and there are ways to adjust the game to make it suitable for kids to play too without hurt feelings.

The Settlers of Catan is the first "Euro" style strategy game I have ever played and I already think it is much better than Risk, though I'd still give "Diplomacy" the edge in terms of my favorite strategy board game. This game is hands down better than your typical American game, from Monopoly to Life, and a nice change of pace from the games that seem to be most popular with the 20s crowd these days: Cranium, Scene-It, and Banagrams.

Also, you can play The Settlers of Catan game with two players as there is an official variant designed by Klaus Teber himself available online with some searching. Still, I'd recommend playing with 3-4 if at all possible because the two player version is not as interactive in that the voluntary trading phase of each player's turn doesn't exist and is replaced by a forced trading mechanism using tokens.

Click here to buy

I purchased this Garmin Forerunner 405 at the begining of February 2011. I started running in the fall of 2010 and was interested in measuring and monitoring my progress. I purchased the Nike+ Sportband at first and used this as my primary training tool for both indoor and outdoor runs until I bought this.

The problem with a non-GPS unit was some inconsistency in measuring my distance on a treadmill vs my natural outdoor stride. I still use the Sportband for indoor runs but decided I wanted to get more accurate data as I begin to train outside with changes to topography and measurements of heart rates, etc.

I logged my first run (a 7 miler) with quite a lot of variation in elevation and was interested to see how accurate and effective this was tracked. I was very pleased with the results. I have since used this Garmin Forerunner 405 on all but all of my long distance runs (I am up to 10 miles with a planned 1/2 marathon next week) and have found the data to be consistent in terms of my overall pace and I can see how I am progressing.

The device itself is fairly easy to use for its basic functions. I have not yet delved into the mapping/navigation functions. It is very light to wear and you hardly notice it when running despite its size. The heart monitor is not uncomfortable and it does help show you how hard you are working (however the basic screen heart information is quite small although this may be customizable within the settings).

One of the benefits is when uploading to the Garmin Connect site. Not just for monitoring your training but also to look for routes that you want to try yourself. Now that I am training for longer runs I am looking around my zipcode and seeing runs of the distance that I want to run. Having the ability to plan runs ahead of time and print a map (I tuck it into my shorts in case I get lost) is very helpful so you can know your range and direction in advance of getting out the door.

Overall, for an amateur runner this Garmin Forerunner 405 is a great tool and the price is right vs the newer models. Highly recommended.

Keurig Coffee Maker - Been a month, no problems at all. My neighbour has had his for over a year, not an ounce of trouble with this awesome machine.

First off, I'm going to tell you right off the bat, put Filtered or drinking water into the budget when buying this system. I've read people having trouble with their brewers breaking down over time. While not saying every instance for sure, I do think the majority of issues are caused by the type of water they are using. While Keurig said they recommend using filtered water with the Keurig Coffee Maker, I say it should be required. Most water, especially from the tap obviously, will have abnormalities in it, chlorine, fluoride, minerals, carbon, etc. I think it eventually will destroy the intricate mechanisms inside the best coffee makers. I used to work at a coffee shop. The big no no for making coffee was NEVER to use tap water in any type of instant brewer.

I say without question, do not use TAP water out of your faucet, or you may want to consider using a water filter like the Samsung Water Filter. Obviously it depends on your location, but most tap water will eat things like coffee brewers up. My water is really bad. I have instant water heater. I had my previous one replace after 2 years. The water literally ate up the tank and started leaking. It's basically a corrosive over time. This is the same premise for your coffee brewer, any coffee brewer for that matter, especially the ones that use internal heating for the k cups. So if you're going to get this amazing brewer, you gotta consider filtered water into the budget. Yes, you're going to pay more, but it will prolong the life of your Keurig brewer and most importantly, it will taste better too!

About the only things I've had come across, -- occasionally I noticed the Keurig Coffee Maker will give out different amounts of coffee, sometimes it uses more water, sometimes less. But it's very sporadic and the amount is pretty minuscule, so didn't affect the taste hardly at all. The best part about this coffee brewer is the speed. I can wake up in the morning and in about 3 minutes time, I'll have the best tasting coffee in my hand ready to drink. Highly recommended. Just don't forget that water!

First, I would like to say how excited I am about the start of 2011 Formula 1 season. This time we will be having more races than we've ever had - India is joining as a new addition to the already tight list of countries hosting Grand Prix for the first time. With the construction work circuit completed, all they have to do now is to just wait until the race comes to India country in October. At least with two Indians in Formula 1, the popularity and interest is going to be huge; and huge fans in the Asian subcontinent is what the sport has been lacking.

Talking about huge, the level of work we've been doing lately has been massive both here at home and at the office - we recently relocated to a new office building, acquired more companies, I moved home, changed kids schools and recently just managed to sell my house. All these happened within the last three months; within that period, I still managed to find time to talk about the few things I found quite useful. These things have helped me in one way or another so that's why I blog about them in the hopes that other would benefit from them as well.

As if moving home is not hard enough, getting the new place to your standard and decent costs money and time, not considering the stress, pressure and strains it puts on the kids. You don't anticipate them until you start packing - everything begins to turn upside down, with things scattered all over the place. Initially, I knew it would be hard, but I did not think it would be this stressful on the whole family. It's not as easy as just loading the trucks and driving to the new place - a lot of things need to be taken care off like bills, postal redirections, putting the house on the market and lots more.

However, three months on, we are slowly settling into the new house, but a lot still need to be done. Last week we decided to scrub some of the floors and got The Eureka 313A Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer  for the floors. With it we were able to finish the kids rooms and will slowly work our way down stairs are the weather improves.

We also used Shark Steam Mop for those areas that are hard to reach...because of our first time experience using it, I decided to blog about it - be sure to check that out.

Despite the amount of time we were putting into making the house decent, I still managed to find the odd free time to see how my post on Sleep Innovations Pillow and  Samsung Water Filter have been doing since I last checked them. They are still doing quite well which is good news. Although, I have not really pushed them that much, they've more or less been surviving on their own - which is remarkable; only if all other post were doing as great.

Seeing how some of them are struggling, I decided to spruce up some of my old-time favourites like the popular Swissgear Laptop Backpack article I put up not long ago. Funnily enough, more people have taken up the opportunity to get themselves one of the best products on the backpack market. If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you check it out.

Although I have not really found more time to spend on this blog, I think the much needed updates I've made on those post and other sites will be enough to get them moving again until I pop in next week to check on them.

When I first blogged about The 17 Day Diet: A Doctor's Plan Designed for Rapid Results, I didn't think the interest in the topic would take off that fast. Several days after the post, I noticed that most of the traffic to this blog came in through a search on Google. This explains why the book is currently #2 on the bestseller list.

If you don't know what this book is about, it is deals with weight management and dieting. I'm not the sort of girl that require dieting as I hardly have any fat in the first place. But I got it for my sister who has been Dr. Michael Rafael Moreno's fan. She has read many of his work and believe they've helped her. So, when I saw this book on the release day, I just had to get it for her.


Judging by the level of interest in this book, it is safe to assume that most people are recommending it to their friends, colleagues and family. Remember what they say: There's no advertising that's better than word of mouth. I think it is this word of mouth that is generating this huge publicity for free for the author and the publishers. If the book does not live up to the hype, it wouldn't be flying of the shelve this fast.

Click here to see more including interview and clips and buy it!

Have you read the book or any of his other publications? If you've had any experience using his programmes - no matter how small, it would be nice to hear them. Leave a comment.

Shark Steam Mop - I had never used a mop this powerful before this one. We have marble floors both in the kitchen, hallway and the bathrooms - and keeping them clean involved using water in buckets and woollen mop with wooden handle. It took time, effort and energy to cover the whole place..and in some case, you had to scrub hard enough to get rid of the dried-in stains and dirts.

But it was a friend who recommended I get one of these Shark Steam Mop as they work quiet well. And I must say it has not only changed the way I clean my house now, it has also changed my life totally. I had heard people comment on how useful the Shark Steam Mop is, but didn't really pay much attention. I'm the sort of person that rely on word of mouth before I commit on something like this. So, when a friend suggested I check it out, I knew it was well worth it.

When it is delivered, it comes in a pack - assembling it is a breeze, it takes a few moments to put together and you are off. Although it will come with and operation manual, you are like not to need it as all the button and features are clearly marked. One added thing I like about this Steam Mop is the seemingly endless power cord. No matter how big your house is, you will not need to move the socket around.

Swiss Gear Backpack - Last month, I talked about the beauty and comfort of having a durable and quality backpack. If you missed it and would like to see it, check out the Swissgear Laptop Backpack article.

One thing I failed to mention in that post is what makes this backpack one of the best on the market. It comes with a 17" laptop space - meaning that no matter how big your laptop is, this bag will surely take it and still have enough room left for other items.

Specification:

Those among you who are interested in the technical specifications will be glad to know that it comes with air-flow back padding, shock absorbing straps, and padded laptop pocket able to sustain drops up to 3 feet. Equipped with a removable A/C adapter pouch and removable LAN gear storage panel.

The cool thing about this backpack again, is that it's ideal for commuting - with your items locked safely inside. Mine has served me for a number of years and still going strong...with very little complaints. What really got me buying Swissgear products is the high quality backpacks they always produced. Some of us have used one of the products in one form or another, but just didn't realise it. Everyday, on trains, buses and cars around the world, people are commuting with their precious possessions tucked away in one of these Swiss Gear Backpack.

Remember that I blogged about Swiss Gear Laptop Backpack and Heated Blanket last week? Well, as it so happened, the latest big G's algorithm update, or changes (or whatever you'd like to call it) has helped move the page a few places up the ranking.

These are not the sort of things I would be seen to be hanging out on the net for, but could not hold my excitement after I saw it. This is one of those things you just give a try and see how they work. Those who know me know that my focus is on promoting my articles on hubpages. Let me tell you, if you are not already on that site, I strongly recommend you join now. The folks there are some of the coolest people anywhere on the net.

So, it all started when one of the guys there recommended Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich as one of the best books on promoting products. I quickly got a copy and set out to put it through a series of test. My initial plan was to roll out a series of article on how I set out doing that, but I thought against it as the whole process and methods are well covered in the book.

Two weeks later, I saw blown away to see them on the front pages. You know the feeling you get when someone famous knows your name? That was the same thing I felt to see my little tester article doing well for the relatively competitive keyword I used.

We all know how fluid the results are on G can be sometimes, in fact, they could take ages just dancing around the result pages. So I'm not going to hang around and pin my hopes on that little success. It may move off the front page as time goes on, but at least it showed what can be achieved if you follow the rules and played along nicely accompanied with good quality content and campaign.

If you have been struggling to get any of your pages out there in the limelight and would like to give something well tested a good whirl, then Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich may be what you are looking for. It worked for me, not because I knew what I was doing, but simply because I followed simple, yet effective methods that helped show that anyone could do it.

Why don't you try it now and if it does not work for you, at least you didn't just sit there reading great review and not taking any action. Here's the link again... Good luck.