Wholesale clothing

Now here's a really great idea to try and beat the credit crunch. OK, let's call it a recession then but let's still beat it. Why not buy clothing wholesale instead of retail? This will also neatly get over the fact that there aren't going to be any retail stores soon to buy from!

OK, so none of us actually want to have 6 copies of the same dress, but that's what buying wholesale clothing will mean. But think of it this way (and click through to this wholesale clothing outfit to see what I mean) what if you can get 6 dresses for $36? That's not each, that's for all 6.

OK, I think you might be beginning to see the merits of getting your clothing wholesale now. It's going to be very inexpensive indeed, just what we need to beat the crunch.

And what you can of course do is create a little buying group. Hey, why not get say 12 people together and buy 6 each of say, 6 or 7 different things. It's be pretty cheap in total and amazingly cheap when you split it out amongst you. And as long as you make sure that you're not wearing them all on the same day you get modern fashion clothes for a fraction of the price you're going to get them any other way.

So why not?

Which web host?

So, we all know that the success or not of our business in these modern times will depend upon how well we manage our web presence. It's just not possible to be successful without using the information superhighway any more.

OK, so we know that. But then comes the question, OK, where should I put my site? And here's a lot more to that than just price. That's why I very much like this series of web hosting articles. They're not there simply to sell you something, they're geniuinely informative pieces which will open you mind to the basic issues that you need to be thinking about. Price against reliability, security against ease of building. That's what a decent series of web hosting articles would be and this is what this is.

Of course, once you read and digest, you'll then be able to work out what are the tradeoffs that you want to make with your own site. And the same site can then help you with all of that. Cheap web hosting, security issues, there's a mine of information and guidance available for you there.

Well worth reading before you decide how to get your business on the web.

Sorting out the trade fair

No, that's sorting out the trade fair, not sorting out fair trade. For someone like me, with a business, one of the things that has to be done is that form of advertising which involves trade show exhibits. It can be a little like standing in a barn and hawking your wares, but a well designed trade show exhibit will make a great deal of difference to how successful you are at it.

Instead of simply having a booth and a table with a few brochures, think how much more attention people are going to pay to you if you had one of these great trade show exhibits to excite them?

OK, something quite that grand might be beyond your budget. It's certainly beyond ine. But it does make the point that if you're going to be at a trade show, you really do want to pay attention to your trade show exhibit: after all, it's you exhibiting yourself to the trade and the better you can do that the more orders you're going to take.

Light fixtures

I've been looking around at light fixtures on the web as I've just got the builders finishing another part of this project. I was getting a little tired of either the near random results being thrown up by the search engines....and also of the very structured results coming from the comparison engines.

Very structured meaning the results from those companies which have paid for addition to the engine. That's why it was so refreshing to find ShopWiki. It uses the best of both worlds.

Essentially, it's like a search engine, in that all results that can be found are included. But they're organised properly. You can, for example, drill down from indoor lights, to wall lights, ceiling lights and hanging lamps.

But ity's alçso liek a shopping engine, in that you can then compare the offers from all of he different potential suppliers. If, like me, you're looking for things to buy then it is well worth your having a look.

Maybe this would have been easier?

Further to the earlier post about how we've been sorting out this new to us house down here. It's always after you've started (or got nearly to the end) of a project that you realise that there might have been an easier way to do this. Instead of our repairing the extant stone and brick buildings, we might have done better by simply demolishing and building anew.

For example, the use of steel buildings makes things a great deal faster...and thus, dependent upon labour costs, a great deal cheaper as well. There are also a number of useful ways that you can make them green buildings. Glass in the ceilings, greater insulation: and of course the building itself is recyclable at the end of its life.

Not to mention that prefabricated buildings are, because they're made in a factory, not onsite, likely to be a great deal better built than what you get when employing the local likely lads.

Hey, maybe instead of converting one of the outbuildings into an office I should simply have got myself one of these mini-storage prefab buildings and put a desk and a heater in it?

As I say, you always find these things out later, don't you? Ah well, perhaps for the next project.

Lighting the house

As regular readers will know we're in the process of sorting out this new to us house down here and we've now got another part of the place near finished. One of the outbuildings, the old washroom, has now been converted into my office. Yes, finally, I will be able to write from a heated room! Rather than what I have been doing for the past year and more, scribbling away in two jerseys and a jacket in winter!

Of course, with another part finished comes the thought of what do we do about lamps?

Of course, the basic set up of the room includes lamps and lampshades in the ceiling, but for an office, something that's going to be used 8 hours a day (for I do indeed work from home) that's not really enough is it?

So I'm roaming around the Farrey's site (very good indeed actually, click through any link to see it) trying to work out what it is that I should supplement them with. Table or desk lamps? Floor?

I have to admit that I've a soft spot for torchieres....maybe that's the solution.

Anyone got any bright ideas (sorry, couldn't resist the pun)?

Or maybe elsewhere?

While I'm thinking about moving perhaps I shouldn't just be thinking about places where I've already lived? Perhaps there are places where I ought to want to live instead?

Looking through the Bushari Group Real Estate site maybe one of the Boston lofts would be the thing for me? Or, if I can swing it (and in today's market that's obviously going to be easier) one of the Boston luxury lofts? Or a Boston condo?

Those all have the advantage that I would indede be in the centre of things, as I prefer to be. There's not much for a childless man to do out in the suburbs....better by far to be where all the action is. Hmm, I'm going to have to keep looking at this real estate in Boston stuff.

Just where is it that I want to be? Fortunately, I'm not tied by work to any one place, so I really do have the opportunity to go where I wish. So where should it be then?

Maybe Moving

I'm thinking about moving back to a place that I used to live in and have very fond memories of. It was years ago that I was there of course and I'm not sure quite how much of my memories are about being a couple of decades younger than I am now and how much is to do with the actual place.

Be that as it may, I'm now interested in a new home Virginia....or a new home in Virginia, to be grammatically correct. I'm still not sure about whether I'd go for a new home or a used one.....I do like being in the centre of town and that argues for an old one.

But if I look around at Richmond new homes, or check out the various Virginia home builders that might change. I guess it really depends upon what they're building at the moment....and, of course, the sort of prices they're looking for.

Those debt problems

This is a site that a lot of people will be able to make good use of in these difficult times. There's an awful lot of us who need help with debts and how to cut them, after all.

There's a lot of good information on how to get out of debt here. Things like how to get credit counselling and so on.

There's also an excellent section here on credit card consolidation. The essential point of that is that you cut the monthly payments you need to make by bundling up your debts and getting a lower interest rate on them.

If that doesn't work then there are a number of innovative ways that you can take advantage of personal bankruptcy. Not something to be done lightly, to be sure, but it can be a way out, to minimise problems.

And of course, for companies there is also always chapter 7 bankruptcy, but that's something more complex and difficult to go through.

But an nice little site with some excellent information you might find useful.

Singers Room

This is an interesting littlesite. Singersroom.com.

It's one of the new breed of web only magazines that are growing up. This is of course the way that the media will all go in he end, there's not going to be any point in killing trees to deliver news and stories to people.

Singersroom.com concentrates on multimedia online stories. It's a long way away from the Wall Street Journal which is what makes it interesting of course.

For example, check out Singersroom.com 's celebrity blog: as I'm looking at it the top story is how Bey and Jey have just spent $70,000 on a table.....that's some realy money there for something to eat breakfast off, ain't it?

Or how about the news feed, the top story of which is Adreinne Bailon's loss of her laptop....with nude photographs of herself on it. Those photos now spreading across the internet.

Sinfgersroom.com also carried music videos, photos and interviews. If you're into hte urban scene looks like a great place to check out.

PK Zip

This will surprise those of us who have been playing on the web and the net for some time, but there really are people out there who don't know about PKZip. As we rich in those years of maturity know, it's simply the essential utility, allowing us to compress and unpack files at the click or two of a mouse.

For the unveiling of SecureZIP Express there's a new site that's been created. DecryptandDrive.com where you can win things by trying out the new system and the great things it can do for you. There are various ways you can win things at the site, things from gas cards and bicycles through Wiis and even a Honda scooter.

Well worth checking out the site for the games alone, but the software is pretty cool too!

The sleeping rapist

Umm, sorry, what?

A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.

Vipul Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two charges of rape by the Auckland District Court Tuesday, court officials told Reuters Wednesday.

The New Zealand newspaper said Sharma met the woman at an Auckland bar in 2006 and later drove her first to a park where he raped her in the back seat of his car.

After the attack Sharma allowed the woman to drive and fell asleep in the passenger seat, so the woman drove him to Auckland Central police station where he was arrested, said the newspaper.

Good grief, it's one thing to be the sort of vicious animal that rapes a woman ,,,,,but to be the sort of idiot that falls asleep afterwards is entirely another.

And yes, I know that a lot of men fall asleep directly after sex but really. Stupidity rulesI suppose.

A new way to shop online

OK, so we all know that shopping online gives us a better choice of products and also better prices, yes?

The better choice os of course because the retailer doesn't need to have hundreds of everything in hundreds of stores: they can just have one great big warehouse. The better prices are because they don't have to be paying for hundreds of stores,, just the one great big warehouse.

Well, that's all well and good, but then we face another problem, how do we find the people who are selling what we want? Search engines, of course, or perhaps a comparison engine? But the problem with those latter is that they normally only include the companies that have paid to be included. Which isn't really quite what we're really after. We want to see all of them, yes, all of the possible deals?

That's where ShopWiki comes in. It's a comparison engine, yes, but as well as those who ask to be included the show the results of crawling the web as well. So you get everyone offering the goods you're looking for.

But again, they go further than that, and provide guides to what is available, then drilling down to the individual offers. For example, here's a search for women's trainers. Then, nested under that you've got the results for women's puma trainers. And so on down to individual styles and the various retailers offering them and at what prices.

It's a very cool way of handling things and it's thoroughly recommended.

Local information

One of the things that this here internet is doing is giving us new sources of information: OK, we knew that, things like Wikipedia and soon. But it's also giving us new methods of having information presented to us. We also know about that, things like Google and so on.

But there's a welcome trend now to giving us local, even hyperlocal, in formation. Local yellowpages, local search, that sort of thing. There's no point in using Google to look for a locksmith for example: the top 10 entires could all be some guy in Yokohama, which isn't of much use to you in Eugene.

So why not check out this local search site. It's like a combination of Yelp, Yellowpages, Citysearch and Superages....excellent stuff and hugely useful if you're looking for something in a particular area, rather than globally or nationally.

Getting this house finished off

As you lucky regular readers will know we've been working on this house for some time now. Lucky us as well, eh? Living on a building site.

However, things are looking good, getting very close to completion in fact. Now it's time to start looking for those light fixtures. Now of course shopping online is the way to go here. Rather than trapising around store after store to see that fraction of the available styles that they have in stock, we can see all of everything at just one store.

But just what is it that we want? Chandeliers? Ceiling light fixtures? Or just home lighting in general?

Somehow I'm sure we'll overcome this embarrasssment of choices and actually find what we want. Fortunately, online, we can do that sitting here with a drink in hand. Good idea, eh?

That Cabo San Lucas Vacation

So, thinking of preparing for Spring Break? Or maybe you're a little older and are thinking more about what you might do at a more peaceful time of year? Well, whatever the age group you're in and whatever it is you're looking for from a vacation you'll want to check out these Cabo San Lucas Vacation Rental offers.

The place has everything, sparkiling blue seas, great weather (just perfect for that winter break)...what about one of these Cabo San Lucas villas for a week or two to recover from (or avoid!) the snow?

Cabo San Lucas accomodations come in every shape size and form, suitable for every pocket, lifestyle and type of vacation. Well worth checking out if you're looking for a little bit of that sun sand and sangria this winter.

And let's face it, who wouldn't like a little bit of sun, sand and sangria in the middle of winter?

Poker Codes

Yes, yes, we all know about the killjoys who would prevent us from playing poker over the internet. For some reason they think that our doing what we wish with our own money is a bad idea.

Fortunately, while they've tried to make it illegal everywhere they haven't succeeded so there are indeed still places....but where are those places? And, more importantly, how can you get great deals on using them?

Again, fortunately, there are people who can help you out with this. Have a look here for example for the PokerStars marketing code, or here for the PokerStars bonus code or, if you prefer, the Full Tilt referral code.

The good news is that not only can you still do what you want with your own time and money, there are people out there willing to help you do so.

Now there's a hefty sentence

We've got (sadly) rather strong laws against organ trading. We all know that a market in them would lead to more people living longer. However, the laws are there and when people break them they should be punished, yes?

Singapore retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung was Wednesday jailed for two hours and fined S$17,000 ($11,850) for lying to get approval for a kidney transplant and for organ trading, the Straits Times newspaper said.

He had been sentenced to jail for a day, but was set free by the end of the business day, the paper said Thursday.

That's one hell of a sentence, don't you think?

Really have them all shaking in their boots?

Reverse Phone Lookups

Do you find that you get problems with phone calls? No, not the usual horrible service that you get from your call plan provider. No, rather, do people phone you and just breath down the line at you? Do you get dropped or missed calls? People who won't leave a meassage?

You can find out who they are now thanks to an interesting little website. CallerBase allows you to look up any number that your caller ID has captured and find out who they are and where they are.

The basic service is free on the CallerBase website and there's paid for services possible for unlisted and cell phone numbers. If you're being troubled by these types of calls then it looks like a great service to help you.

Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers

You've really rather got to go for it to win this prize. Serious hard work is required.

"Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers" benefited from a late surge in public support to win the title Friday of oddest book title of the past 30 years, The Bookseller magazine said.

The book -- a comprehensive record of Greek postal routes by Derek Willan -- grabbed 13 percent of the 1,000 international public votes cast to chose the oddest title from the winners of the annual competition that began in 1978.

It beat "People Who Don't Know They're Dead" and "How To Avoid Huge Ships" into second and third places with 11 and 10 percent respectively.

But it's not so much the title of the book that requires the hard work. Yes, OK, a certain amount of effort has to go into thinking up such a title.

But in order to be entered into this contest you not only have to come up with such a title.....you've also got to go and write a whole book about it.

Think about it, if you think that reading such a book might be just a tad boring, imagine the narcolepsy brought on by trying to write it?