A few years back when Gas first started to increase in price I wrote something for a “money saving” writing competition, needless to say, I did not win. My topic was gas prices. I believe you had a word limit. Anyhow, I recently stubled across a text file on my hard drive with a copy of it and thought it might be an appropriate thing to post (with a few modifications and corrections from the original copy):

“In this current market of high gas prices anything to save money would be a blessing. Forget buying a new hybrid or even a small four cyliner import car which claims outragious mpg, my vehicle has a large-ish V6 engine and I get a relatively healthy mpg figure and i drive over 350 miles a week! – not all highway either!

There are various tips which you can take on board to get more gas milage and to save money and buying gas.

Maintain your car, every weekend I check tire pressure (if underinflated this can cost you maybe 10%), oil level and give the car a clean and polish (a clean car is more aerodynamic..even those little bugs stuck on the paintwork create drag!) This exercise costs me 45 minutes at most – worth the effort. Not just for personal satisfaction (in driving a clean vehicle) but in savings!

Also change the way you drive, anticipate, rather than brake harshley and pull away fast, take it more leisurly, ease off the gas and pull away gently. This can save loads! Jut because someone at the lights wants to pull away at lightning speed doesnt mean you have to, just smile quietly to yourself and think of the gas they are wasting! Another tip is when buying gas keep an eye on all of the gas stations on your route to work, do not make a special trip to buy gas many miles away unless it is a huge discount (Maybe only a mile or two extra at most – I have driven one extra mile off my route once because gas was 20c’s off because the station had just opened) so once you have mastered this trick of looking at every gas station you will get to know the ones which are generally cheapest. Take advantage of road works (often gas stations behind roadworks keep their prices lower than those around them to keep customers coming in during the construction) Another tip is that gas is normally cheapest mid-week as the oil prices have stabalised from the weekend, but you should buy in the morning (early as possible!) where the gas is coldest, it is sold by volume and you will get much much more for your buck- it is noticable! Also a good tip when you are starting to run low is to check the internet, gasbuddy.com has good local sites that rely on volunteers to report prices. – I saved a bunch on filling up with that new gas station which opened only 6 weeks ago, selling gas at 25c below the average - They even had a competition to win free gas for a year, and as it was a big promotion I got a free sunglass clip for taking part!

Finally there is one tip which I havent tried yet… a gas credit card, giving you 5% back.. thats next on my list!”

In short, I would like to add that I believe that the US should relax importation of good European diesels – there are many diesels (Ford, Audi, Mercedes etc) which are clean and gain in excess of 60 miles per gallon – the Diesel smart car gets 35-40% more miles per gallon than its gas counterpart. Would be a great boost to the economy! In fact, there are some American made cars in here in the United States that are made with diesel engines for the European market only and are illegal here (Chrysler Diesels for instance)

Anyhow..

Good luck all!

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I will report later…once wordpress.tv uploads videos from the events!

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Blogged with my iPhone

Well, it has been a while since my last post. That is for a reason! Been a little busier than usual and then thanksgiving crops up.

Despite being a Brit here in the US, I naturally take part in the thanksgiving tradition. (How does that phrase go? When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Or, more correctly, vīvitō sicut ibi) Thanksgiving went well and I had a friend over from the UK so he joined in the festivities. I trust that if any of the readership here in the blogosphere took part in the tradition that you had a happy, safe and fulfilled Thanksgiving!

Now, on to work matters. I have been experimenting with Podcasting again – when it was in its infancy, the company I worked for at the time toyed with the idea and asked me to run some tests – which were succesful I might add! However they decided not to pursue it. My iPhone has a great audio memo recorder, which boasts surprisingly good sound quality, so I may utilize it fully and start regular updates via a podcast. It took me some time to work out how to get the files off of the iPhone and onto iTunes. Some tinkernig may be required. If anyone knows, please get in touch and advise me!

All projects I am currently working on are running smoothly – which is great news. I do have something in the pipeline which could be great for US small business owners (or even large business owners or even non-US companies!) looking to improve their marketing results and help pull their brand together. More on that later, so STAY TUNED!

The Christmas season is already underway and that means that consumers will be spending, so the economy should show improved figures. All eyes will be on the retailers figures.

Wordcamp is this weekend - my colleagues at Kinetic Knowledge will be there to, so make sure you come and say Hi! I see that the Wordcamp teeshirts are ready! After the few pounds i’ve gained since Thanksgiving I hope the size I requested will still fit!

While on the subject of technology and the iPhone, I bought my first application – up until now I had eben relying on the free apps and lite versions (also free) however, I gave in and bought an unofficial NASA application so I could watch the shuttle launch live on the phone via the Cell phone network! (Very impressive actually, ran perfectly fine) The unofficial application is the only one to my knowledge with an intergrated link to the live TV Channel stream, so what I see on Cable, I can not see on the phone!

Anyhow, I shall leave you to it. More posts coming!I will try to update this from Wordcamp (via the WordPress iphone app!) with pictures from the iphone (perhaps with some after editing on the computer!). I notice that I am updating twitter alot more than the blogsite so please follow me on twitter.

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Mozilla’s open source projects have helped a great many of us in a big way – their technologies aided the development of other Web 2.0 technologies.

This week the browser turned 5 years old!

See this great video by a fan on youtube:

So in short – Happy Birthday to Firefox! (I even tweeted them a Happy Birthday!)

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If you are unsure on what the event is…here is some more information:

WordCamp Orlando is happening December 5, at Rollins College, in Orlando, Florida. We’re bringing together a collection of developers and publishers from around the country to share in their love of words and WordPress. Follow us on Twitter, visit our Facebook page, and Register (it’s only $15 bucks and includes a snazzy after party).

WordPress has taken the the web to the next level and is here to stay. This site is powered by wordpress and it offers a great stable platform for content in a package which is user friendly and very customizable.

So I will see you there…be there or be square!

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Recently I read what I call my best quote of the month - “There is no future for online services aimed at domestic computer users” – Michael Collins, the department head of Prestel/Telecom Gold Business Services, stated in a meeting with Paul Needs. This was referenced in the Wikipedia article for the Micronet800, which was what we may call a very early internet-esque platform.

This quote, of course is one of those which will perpetually haunt its speaker for life as no one could have predicted the growth of technology and online services which has, for want of a better word, been a revolution.

There is a great Brad Paisley song which has the line: “…welcome to the future” while referencing the leap from Pac Man to Youtube! Even a not so subtle smart phone reference (a la my iPhone!) as well as a Video Chat reference – a la Skype! Everyone should listen to this song – regardless of their feelings for country music. It really sums up what alot of us forget! See below:

Sometimes we need to sit back and look at what has changed in the last 25 years. From Pong we now have all these high tech games, from MS DOS to now Windows 7.  Even the Wide World Web, which has been with us for a relatively short time has changed every part of our lives! Now our TV’s are linked in, our phones, fridges and everything in between! With careful planning you can have a high tech home which is future proof!

Despite the lightness of this blog post it discusses a serious point – slowly we are becoming a more online economy and it is very easy for us now to not be able to avoid being online. So, in short, be part of the revolution!

Speaking of where we are going and Microsoft – I have just ordered my free Window 7 Upgrade..I will keep you posted on when I receive it and how the upgrade goes.

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With the news outlets constantly pumping out a huge volume of reports excitedly noting that the US economy is no longer in Recession, the UK Bank of England has pumped an extra £25 billion in to the economy as part of its quantative easing programme. Interest rates were kept at 0.5%.

The bank has already spent £175 billion on the programme.

“A number of indicators of spending and confidence, however, suggest that a pickup in economic activity may soon be evident.” Mervyn King, Govenor of the Bank has said.

The Federal Reserve Board here in the US has decided to leave rates untouched an has hinted that they will remain steady for a long time. The idea of course is to foster economic growth and help the economy to remain back on track until it is more solid.

What is interesting is that having clients on both sides of the pond, I can see both points of view – the US has always been a more optimistic nation, therefore the economic climate is more upbeat, that things are changing. Whereas the UK is wallowing in self pity, convinced that nothing is going to happen any time soon. However the mood need not be that bad there. One only has to look at how other countries have suffered from the downturn to realize that the UK has held up well.

I am reminded of a famous quote by Margaret Thatcher:

“It is not easy, but then our forebears who created the industrial revolution did not have it easy either. But they did not say we must wait for the upturn to come. They went out and created the upturn. And so prosperity spread. And the standard of living rose. Even though Departments of Industry didn’t exist.” (1983)

In short – things can only get better! (excuse the reference to the New Labour 1997 Election motto!)

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It seems like the technology world is buzzing today with the details of the new Droid phone – a potentially huge rival to the iPhone and its dominance. I even tweeted about it.

The Droid is marketing itself towards business users who are used to their Blackberry and who are not ready to compromise with getting an iphone.

I wonder what other iPhone users like myself think of this – have we done the right thing by having an iphone and using it for business? After all the Safari browser is second to none for a mobile device.

Additionally, in the technology news today there were further grumblings about net neutrality - which makes interesting reading. Many like myself are firm believers that the net should stay neutral and its success and or failure should be at the hands of the consumer and what they choose.

With Web 2.0 technologies growing all the time, it is not the time for strangling the enterprising spirit of these emerging companies and technologies.

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Connecting with people is how the world works.

Years ago if you wanted to research a company and its services you would have to rely on the phone book, business pages, word of mouth and their own advertising. Today, you can ‘Google‘ them, read reviews and connect with friends, not just locally, but globally.

Social networking has changed the way business is transacted. Before it would take days to get that invoice to a client in Taiwan, today it takes seconds. You can share data quicker than ever before.

Similarly, as discussed, VOIP technology such as Skype has cut costs of communicating with the world down to virtually nothing.

Take my own example, before attending a meeting last night I grabbed coffee at Panera (free wifi). I proceeded to take part in a Go To Meeting conference call (dialled into the audio using Skype) with a company who was hosting the meeting in New Jersey, then I followed up with a call to a PR Consultant in Serbia – (who has his own blog, the RSS feed is published on the right hand side). All in the comfort of a leather chair and a warm coffee.

Years ago the prospect of conducting business with such technology and in such surroundings, for such low cost and at such speed would have been unthinkable. It helps SME’s conduct business on a global scale by using social networks to connect with professionals worldwide. (Services such as LinkedIn come to mind) The mortgage business is an example where professionals have realised the power of such tools.

As they say, embrace Web 2.0. It is the future.

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I do like to keep tabs on the market and the industry, that way when people ask my opinion on what the market is doing I am well informed. Today I read this news -

Marketwatch has this to say:

Mortgage applications fell a seasonally adjusted 1.8% last week, compared with the week before, as mortgage rates rose, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

This week-to-week drop follows a 16.4% week-to-week gain for the week ended Oct. 2. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.02% last week, up from 4.89% the previous week. The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages was 4.44%, up from 4.32%.

With prices for real estate rising in certain parts of the country, now really is the last best chance to buy.

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