Lost Your Job? 4 Tips to Generating Fast Cash during Financial Uncertainty
Even though the “financial powers that be” insist the job market and economy are slowly but surely improving, unexpected layoffs, downsizing, and companies going out of business still occur. Financial stability isn’t what it used to be and the threat of unexpected job loss remains a harsh reality. Many already teeter on the edge of barely meeting financial obligations. An unexpected job loss could throw you into a cyclone of financial chaos. If that happens, knowing how to hunker down and access cash quickly becomes a matter of survival.
#1 Budget Down to Bare Necessities
Most people already follow a loose budget of sorts, knowing what they can and can’t afford to spend. When you lose a job and there’s no income, you have to hold on to as much as you can for as long as you can. That means following a budget on steroids.
First, identify the things in your budget you can’t live without like food, rent and transportation. Focus only on necessities – that is, the things you can’t live without. Anything that’s not a necessity is a luxury you can’t afford right now so you’ll need to get rid of the extra expense. You may be looking forward to the season premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” but your cable service, let alone the HBO premium channel, is not a necessity. No more wasting money on extras that can eat away existing funds like cigarettes, Starbucks, and fast food. Time to get into survival mode.
#2 Sell Items Online
A lot of people don’t believe they have anything of value that someone would want to buy. You’d be surprised. Take a look online at websites like Craigs List or Ebay to get an idea of the types of items people are looking to buy. Then take a look around at your own belongings using a scrutinizing seller’s eye. Do you have an old mobile phone or DVD player that’s still in good condition? Do you still have a box of baby clothes packed away? A designer purse, jacket or shoes? Chances are if you once loved them, someone else will too.
People love getting a great deal which is why selling items online is such a lucrative way to earn fast cash. Craigslist is an especially great way to connect with people and sell your items locally. Whether you decide to meet up and conduct transactions with interested buyers at home or in a public location, be sure to observe safety precautions at all times.
#3 Sell Your Services for Pay
Do you have a marketable skill others would be willing to pay you to perform? Writers, graphic/web designers, virtual assistants, advertising/marketing professionals, IT programmers and other professionals sell their services online to a global market in exchange for cash daily. Some advertise their services on local directories and websites like Craigs List, while others turn to freelance bidding websites like Elance, Guru and Odesk. Some freelancers make a full-time living utilizing these sites so there is definitely earning potential.
Start by completing the website’s professional profile and posting a few samples of your work so employers get an idea of what you can actually do. As you win job bids and earn good ratings from employers, you’ll build a reputation which leads to more paid projects. Most of these sites offer both free and paid membership levels. These freelance gigs can help you keep your skills sharp. You may even develop new skills along the way. Freelancing can be a great way to generate reoccurring income until you find a new job.
#4 Turn Your Car Title into Cash
Do you have a car that’s completely paid for? It could be your ticket to instant cash if you apply for a title loan. One big misconception about title loans is that applying for one is the same as selling your car. Not true! You can borrow up to $10,000 dollars and keep driving your car. There are a lot of title loan companies to choose from, but it’s always best to deal with a reputable company like TitleMax.com.
Losing a job can be an intensely stressful experience, but facing the situation head on and creating a plan can get you over the hump until the next job opportunity comes along.
About the author
Carl Tanner writes about budgeting and money saving tips for frugal families. He draws inspiration from his own experience of finding himself unexpectedly unemployed as a sole income earner with a wife, five kids and a mortgage. He is deeply committed to helping others dig themselves out of financial uncertainty.
Which gadget changed your life?
When we ask readers like you to help us rank the top gadgets, we usually focus on the best (and sometimes the worst). Recently, you selected our Readers’ Choice winners for the 2013 Engadget Awards, but in the spirit of our 10th birthday, we wanted to try something a little different.
Do you have a gadget that’s changed your life? Perhaps you made a leap from the LG enV VX9900 feature phone to the mystifying world of smartphones and scooped up an iPhone 3GS (like this author did in 2009). Or when you decided to move to the other side of the world and your Mom bought a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 to keep in touch and see your darling face over Skype.
Whatever it was, we want to know what gadget it was for you. It can be as simple as the gadget that made your everyday routine better or something a little more sentimental. In the form below, please try to use the proper name of the gadget and the version (for example, “Kindle DX” tells us more than simply “Kindle“). If you’d like, share with us why you chose this gadget and your Twitter handle.
In about two weeks, we’ll sort through the results out and showcase five of the most life-changing gadgets from the last 10 years. (If you have a picture of this gadget, share it on Twitter or Instagram, tagged #Engadget10 — we’ll be posting some of our favorites.)
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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt
Felix Baumgartner is the man who fell to Earth and lived to tell the tale
“I would not do it again because there’s nothing else to accomplish … The fact that it worked once, does not mean it will work again.“
Felix Baumgartner is a rock star. At least, he is to the bright-eyed group of tween boys crowding his Red Bull Stratos exhibit at the Smithsonian, the pieces of which are now set to become part of the museum’s permanent collection. Baumgartner could also probably be an action movie star. He’s brimming with braggadocio in that way only men who’ve dared and triumphed over the impossible can be; ruggedly handsome in a way you wouldn’t expect from a daredevil. And he’s also very stylish.
Baumgartner refers to himself as the “fastest man in the sky,” and the distinction is well-earned. In October of 2012, the Austrian stepped out from a custom-made space capsule 24 miles high and space dove toward terra firma, breaking the sound barrier along the way. As you might imagine, a free fall from the edge of space is not without significant risks. “I heard a lot of nightmare stories about flat spinning,” he told me. “Which, if it happens too fast, you’re facing too many RPMs; you cannot stop that spin anymore. And, at a certain point, the blood has only one way to leave your body and that’s through … your eyeballs. That means you’re gonna die.”
As history and this interview reflect, Baumgartner not only survived, but he also broke several world records for the “longest, fastest and highest skydive in history.” The achievement seems a dubious and frivolous one until you take into account the wealth of valuable scientific research data that the Stratos project yielded — all of which the Red Bull Stratos team has made freely available. Not since US Air Force pilot Joe Kittinger took a similar jump in 1960 has any information on the physiological effects of a safe bailout from high altitude on the human body been made accessible to scientists.
“I heard a lot of nightmare stories about flat spinning. Which, if it happens too fast, you’re facing too many RPMs. And, at a certain point, the blood has only one way to leave your body and that’s through … your eyeballs. That means you’re gonna die.”
The beneficial applications of this data, however, aren’t anything consumers will see in the short term. It’s more geared toward the advent of space tourism, an industry that’s very nearly about to become a reality, albeit initially for a privileged few. It’s this inevitable future that Baumgartner anticipates with the pragmatism of someone who’s willingly faced death from the hostile world of our upper atmosphere. That is to say, he knows the risks involved. “We all know that one day … there’s going to be a spaceship that will blow up. And our equipment can save a lot of lives if they use it.”
The equipment he’s referring to includes the custom-built, pressurized capsule, suit and helium-filled balloon that ferried him to his 24-mile-high diving point. Of the bunch, Baumgartner’s suit is perhaps the key piece that could easily be adopted for star-gazing space tourists. Based on a standard U2 pilot’s suit, this next-gen pressure suit was heavily modified to make it more flexible for someone in a free fall, and featured an emergency jump chute, triggered by a G-force meter, to help arrest any potential free spin. None of which, thankfully, Baumgartner had to rely on as his jump went off mostly without a hitch — that is if you don’t take into account his 55-second free spin.
One other world record Baumgartner and his Red Bull Stratos team unintentionally broke was for YouTube. The space dive was streamed simultaneously by more than 8 million viewers. From the outset of the project’s planning, his team knew that they wanted to share the experience live with the world. To accomplish that, a custom “flying studio” was developed with a special cooling system to manage the cameras’ heat in the vacuum of space. Baumgartner also had a few GoPro cameras on-hand to record the dive, but he admits these were only there as a backup plan. The bulk of the communications equipment was housed within a large box mounted to his chest, while antennas for contact with ground control were laced into the pant legs of his suit.
“We all know that one day … there’s going to be a spaceship that will blow up. And our equipment can save a lot of lives if they use it.”
You’d think that an adrenaline junkie like Baumgartner would literally jump at the chance to once again hurtle toward Earth at supersonic speeds from an impossibly high point up in the heavens. But the plain truth of it is there won’t be a space dive part two. Baumgartner’s moved on, but not without a little perspective: “I’ve been doing difficult stuff around the world for almost 25 years. And even if I was always prepared in a very good way, you still need a lot of luck. And at a certain point, you run out of luck. This is the top. I cannot top this one and I don’t have to.”
Fair enough.
Photos and video by Zach Honig
Filed under: Science
A new Gmail experience could be coming soon
Gmail designed has evolved over the years and it seems Google is about to take the design and feature-set of the popular email service to the next level. On the horizon is potentially more tabs, a new pin system, and the ability to temporarily quiet an email.
In addition to the Social, Promotions, Forums, and Updates tabs Gmail currently includes, the updated version is going to include Travel, Purchases, and Finance, which falls incidentally into the speculation that Google Now could start tracking your credit cars and financial information.
In addition, there’s also a pinned feature that will allow you to pin an email to the top of your inbox – very useful for marking an important email to come back to it later.
Whilst the leak screenshot isn’t potentially what Gmail will end up looking like, it does give a taste as to the direction Google are heading, and hopefully we’ll see some of the new features integrated into our Gmail clients soon.
[Via Geek]
The post A new Gmail experience could be coming soon appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Backflip Madness is flippin’ awesome [App of the Day]
If you ask us, there’s nothing wrong with spending countless hours on your Android playing a mindless backflip game. (We’re not alone, right?) Well, if you don’t think so, you’re in the right place. Backflip Madness will have you flipping over and over and over again.
The aim of the game is simple: successfully land a backflip in the coned-off area. You’ll need to practice landing backflips from the ground, benches, cars, and even buildings. Each level consists of a certain number of flips you need to complete, without falling more than 2 times. And trust us… it’s very easy to fall.
Doing a flip is easy. There’s only one button to press, and that button controls everything. Keep tapping to bend your knees, jump, tuck, and extend your legs for landing. Timing is everything when completing the process.
And that’s about all there is to it. You can enter free play mode to test a level before completing the challenge, or you can dive right in. This game may not sound like much, but you won’t want to put it down once you begin.
Every game in the Play Store has its place. File this one under “I spent $.99 on this game and I don’t regret it.” Download it and tell us what you think!
The post Backflip Madness is flippin’ awesome [App of the Day] appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Stream specially curated channels to your TV with Flipps
There are already a ton of TV streaming services for Chromecast, but it wouldn’t hurt to visit another one.
Flipps has upwards of 100 specially curated TV channels waiting for you to stream to your television. After you download the app, connect to your Chromecast, and choose a channel you’d like to stream. There’s a pretty good selection including music, movies, news, sports, kids, educational, and more.
The app is free, but you can upgrade to Flipps HD for $4.99. The premium version gets rid of ads and offers unlimited HD streaming, as opposed to the handful of HD channels in the free version. You may want to hold off on upgrading to the pro version, though. It has recently gotten more than enough poor reviews regarding force closing, difficulty connecting to the device, and much, much more. In our experiences so far, we haven’t had any problems with the free version.
The post Stream specially curated channels to your TV with Flipps [App of the Day] appeared first on ChromeWatching.
Read the rest at the source, ChromeWatching.com
The post Stream specially curated channels to your TV with Flipps appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple Joins Lobbying Group to Influence Patent Legislation [Mac Blog]
Major US companies from various business sectors have joined together to form a lobbying group that opposes pending patent reform legislation proposed by Congress, reports Reuters. The new Partnership for American Innovation includes Apple, DuPont, Ford, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft and Pfizer.
The change proposed by Congress would target patent assertion entities (PAEs), which purchase patents with the sole intention of licensing them to other companies or suing non-licensees for infringement. Companies, like Apple, want to limit the ability of PAEs to sue for infringement, but they are concerned that the proposed legislation may hurt actual innovations that need patent protection.
“There’s a feeling that the negative rhetoric is leading to a very anti-patent environment,” said David Kappos, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 2009 to 2013, who advises the group. He is with the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP.
In particular, the group would oppose efforts to make software or biotechnology unpatentable.
Rather than limit what ideas are patentable, the group supports efforts to penalize patent trolls for filing frivolous lawsuits. Apple, Google and other technology companies recently asked the Supreme Court to make it easier for companies to collect attorney fees when patent holding companies lose infringement lawsuits. This allocation of fees, companies argue, would cut down on the number of frivolous suits.
Apple reportedly is the number one target for patent trolls with an estimated 171 cases filed against the company in the last five years. Apple recently confirmed it has been sued 92 times in the past two years and faces 228 unresolved patent claims still in the court system.
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The Future will be Encrypted
The revolution may not be televised, but many believe it will be encrypted. Privacy activists are calling for more rigorous methods in data security, from initiation – to – the end of data transmission, across the globe. From corporate espionage, to governmental encroachment, data security and integrity, is at a critical juncture. Getting the “Big Dogs” of data transmission – Google, Facebook, AT&T, and Yahoo, among other smaller fish, to pony up and join those who want to lock the backdoors to data they leave open, will be key.
From the Horse’s Mouth
At this year’s South by Southwest music festival (in Austin, TX), someone who intimately knows how vulnerable global data is, Edward Snowden, went on record endorsing end-to-end encryption. This contrasts with the encryption methods currently supported by Facebook, Google, Skype and others. Snowden and others point to the glaring fact that all government agencies have been able to obtain individuals’ communication records through these data intermediaries by simply presenting a court order or hacking into them. In either case, the integrity of individual data is not something to be trusted to any third parties. It must be protected by decisions and technologies that put it in the hands of individuals.
Moreover, the New York Times reported that the NSA has been actively working to circumvent encryption by compelling companies to hand over private encryption keys, manipulating third-party software or hardware (i.e., creating backdoors or Trojan horse’s in data encryption of cloud service providers), or stealing encryption keys. The jury’s still out on the proposed restrictions the Obama administration has recently proposed to scale back the scope of NSA spying. But, as Snowden remarked, end-to-end encryption can eliminate the vulnerability inherent in the Google, Facebook, etc. models, by encrypting messages the second they begin to travel from a sender’s computer, rather than after it has reached a third-party’s data center (as in the case of Facebook, et. al).
What this means is that if the government wants your records, they’ll have to get them the good old-fashioned way, by asking you. “The result is a more constitutional, more carefully overseen enforcement model,” Snowden said. “If they want to gather each user’s communications, they have to go to them specifically.”
Author Bio: Tracy Watson l is the author of this article on “The Future will be Encrypted”. She enjoys sharing his thoughts and ideas with readers from across the globe on encryption. While writing this article she gathered resources from WinMagic.com and CMSWire.com.
The first of Europe’s new Earth-monitoring satellites launches today
If the first step in fixing a problem is knowing about it, then Earth’s worry-list is about to get a lot longer. The European Space Agency is launching the first of six satellites designed to monitor the choppy environmental conditions down here on our fragile planet. Sentinel-1A will blast-off later today, where it’ll track flood waters, deforestation and other natural disasters. When its partner, Sentinel-1B, arrives in 2015, the pair will be able to grab a radar image of anywhere on the planet within six days. Four more satellites will come online before 2020, each one tasked with observing a different element of our ecosystem, including air quality, land changes and sea levels. Think of them as kinda like the team from Captain Planet, only without a “heart” and with more terrifying consequences if they mess up.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Via: BBC
Source: ESA
Apple confirms WWDC 2014 will begin on June 2nd
Apple’s just announced that its annual developer conference, WWDC, will commence on June 2nd through June 6th. In a departure from its traditional application process, the company has already opened ticket sales on its website, but will now select attendees randomly instead of a first-come-first-served basis. That means we’re no longer likely to see the super-quick ticket sellouts we’ve witnessed in previous years, but a lottery will ensure there’s a fairer chance for all. We can expect to see all of the latest iOS and OS X developments, and anything else the company might have up its sleeve in a few short months.
Filed under: Apple
Source: Apple WWDC
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