Selling Gold/Silver - A Good Info Article

this is a good article that isn't just another pseudo-help piece written by a biased author wanting to influence your actions

How to Sell Your Gold and Silver

A few months ago, my boss, Kristen, came to me with an assignment: Figure out the best way to unload silver coins and old gold jewelry and write about it. It turns out that this wasn’t just a random story idea, as Kristen’s mother had recently dusted off a box of old coins and jewelry (and a few gold teeth- eeek!) from her attic and wanted to see just how much she could get for them. Despite my pressing questions regarding the origins of those teeth (I have yet to get an answer), I jumped on the research.

Why Gold and Silver are Making Headlines

Pawn shops and jewelers nationwide have reported increased interest in people looking to unload jewelry clanging around in the back of their drawers. Silver’s rapid increase has many looking to pawn family flatware and coins.

It may sound like easy money to slip into a pawn shop, unroll a velvet case full of silverware, and walk away with hundreds in cold, hard cash.”Getting top dollar for your gold and silver goods takes a bit of research, not to mention math skills,” says Doug Eberhardt, a gold and silver broker-dealer and author of the self-published Buy Gold and Silver Safely. “You need to do your homework, and you need to shop around,” he says. “The amount that you will get will vary widely from place to place, and customers are easily fooled, since the price is always given in grams. I don’t know anyone in America who can convert grams to ounces, but many people are pleasantly surprised by the dollar figure offered and take it.”

How to Convert Precious Metals Into Cold, Hard Cash

The first step is to figure out the price of your metal by going to Kitco. Prices are quoted in ounces, and the site also provides historic prices, so you can determine whether you want to sell now or wait for prices to rise.

Once you have figured out the price of your metal, use this tool to convert the price per gram, which a jeweler or pawn broker will likely quote you, to the price per ounce.

Multiply that number times the percent of gold by karat: 14-karat gold is 58.3 percent gold, 18-karat gold is 75 percent gold and 22-karat gold is 91.6 percent gold. Alternatively, you can also plug the figures into a scrap gold calculator found online.

Finally, determine your bottom line. Eberhardt says that 70 percent of the metal’s market value is a good deal, but you should expect most places to offer 30 percent to 40 percent. “You have to make a decision as to what you think the item is worth, and who might give you more,” he says. “Not too many places will give more than 50 percent.” Read more at www.mint.com

clipped from  from www.mint.com

Concept Car has Exterior Display Run from App

The Fun-Vii's exterior surface is actually a user configurable display.

The interior display offers an augmented reality view of the road ahead.

The entire interior can be customized to match the driver's and passengers' moods.

What if changing the color of your car was as simple as tapping an app? Toyota's Fun-Vii concept promises exactly that and more.

The Fun-Vii's skin is actually a massive display that can change its color at will, and display graphics, images, and custom messages for other drivers or bystanders. Toyota gives the visual example of a business using the Fun-Vii to display advertisement livery, but I'd love to be able to quickly throw up a "Back off, chump!" to a tailgater.

The custom graphics aren't limited to the exterior. Toyota also envisions that large interior display surfaces can add augmented reality functionality to the driving experience while allowing the vehicle's interior to be "freely adjustable to match the mood of the moment."

Eye-catching graphics aside, the most interesting bit about the Fun-Vii (Vehicle, Interactive, Internet) concept is that Toyota envisions it would be fully connected to the Internet and to a mobile network of other vehicles. Internet connectivity has the obvious advantages of bringing relevant information to the driver and delivering entertainment content to all of the three-seater's passengers.

Meanwhile, intervehicle connectivity helps the Fun-Vii to be aware of, for example, a vehicle in its blind spot, the car ahead is making an emergency stop, or other potential road hazard. I'd like to see the day when vehicles could automatically exchange insurance and registration information in the event of a minor fender bender.

Of course, most (if not all) of this hypothetical concept car magic will be controllable from outside of the car via smartphone or tablet apps. We'll have more details as they emerge when the Fun-Vii is unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. Read more at reviews.cnet.com

clipped from reviews.cnet.com   

Credit:Toyota Motor Co.

Attach Video Message To Every Gift Tag this Xmas!

click thru with the link and see a video

Amplify’d from howto.cnet.com

How to make personalized QR code gift tags by Sharon Vaknin December 2, 2011 9:27 AM PST

This holiday season, JC Penney is offering Santa Tags, a new option that allows gift-buyers to record voice messages for their recipients to play back upon unboxing their gifts. And it's all done with QR codes.

The voice message is attached to a QR code, which the recipient scans with a QR scanner on a mobile phone, and the voice note is instantly played back.

But you don't have to go to JC Penney to make this happen, because there's an even better DIY option you can tackle right now. With this tutorial, you can customize your own QR code gift tag that leads to a video message when your gift recipient scans it with a smartphone.

Step 1: Record your video message

Step 2: Set up the QR code tag

To make the QR code, head to http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/. From the drop-down menu, select "URL," and paste the link of the video. Then select the size of the bar code, and click "Generate."

Step 3: Make your gift tag

Once your QR code is generated, and you've tested it with a QR scanner on your phone, print it out (any regular printer will work).

Then, cut out the square QR code, and paste it into a greeting card, a traditional gift tag, or directly on the present.

Scan this QR code to see my holiday video! Read more at howto.cnet.com

clipped from cnet

Tires that do not require air

Bridgestone develops tire that requires no air

I don’t think there’s an official name for it yet, but Bridgestone has developed a tire that requires no air and is basically puncture resistant. Best of all, the tire is 100% recyclable since a recyclable thermoplastic resin is used to make the spokes. Read more at www.doobybrain.com

Father, Son and Shuttle Launches

these are two photos of a father and son together -- the first pic is the first shuttle lauch, the 2nd pic is the last shuttle launch

Amplify’d from www.flickr.com

Read more at www.flickr.com

 

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MuteTab -- mute sound on buried tab

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

MuteTab Quickly Finds and Silences That Noisy, Buried Browser Tab It's difficult enough to keep track of all your open tabs, so when one starts playing an ad for mouthwash, it's a pain to root out the source. For Chrome users, MuteTab by Jared Sohn identifies the problem tabs, allowing for easy toggling of any unwanted noise. The extension sits in your navigation bar, and when clicked, displays a pop-up menu with information on all your active tabs. From there, you can choose to mute all background tabs, or single out a specific source. The menu can also be accessed via right-click. MuteTab isn't perfect, though. When used with YouTube, trying to mute all other tabs at once will sometimes mute your current tab as well. Kwame Opam at Gizmodo also points out that the search for specific plug-ins can get complicated. Still, when you're browsing sites that autoplay their ads, MuteTab is pretty useful. MuteTab | via Gizmodo Related Stories Read more at lifehacker.com

 

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High Tech but Old School -- USB Mix Tapes

ahhh the 80s...

Mix Tape USB Stick is a regular shaped flash drive, but the case is shaped like a cassette. The Mix Tape USB Stick is designed to be gifted to someone with a drive full of music. But again, a paltry 1GB and a hefty price of £20. Read more at www.instantfundas.com

Container Car is Beautiful Guest House

This is amazing. There are multi pics on the site. Definately worth the time to click across and look. Unlike anything else I've seen... Beautiful

See more at www.poteetarchitects.com

Beautiful Efficient Sneaker Display

idea for jewelry

iPhone App -- Coundown Timer On Home Page

I use my iphone's built in timer almost daily. It's a great way to force myself to take breaks -- to remember that 3pm conference call -- or to split projects up into timed segments to plow through unpleasant tasks.

This free app adds just a bit of convenience above the apple standard clock. I can see the timer on my home screen like a widget so I don't have to leave the app open to see how far along I am.

Another terrific tip from lifehacker.   lifehacker.com

Timer Minutes to Go Puts a Countdown Timer on Your iPhone Home Screen

One annoying issue with iOS is its lack of home screen widgets, forcing you to launch an app to get simple tidbits of information. Timer Minutes to Go is a free app that solves that problem by placing the minutes remaining in your timer in the badge on its home screen icon. There isn't much else to know beyond that. You set a timer in the app just like you would in the Clock application built in to your iPhone, start it, and watch the badge icon drop down minute by minute. If you want to be warned prior to the final alarm, you can set pre-alarm notifications as well. The notification you get can be customized, too. Overall the app does one thing really well, looks really slick, and is 100% free. That's hard to beat. TIMER : MINUTES TO GO (Free) | iTunes App Store

Power Cord Splitter -- Handy for Charging Multi Devices

Power Cord Splitter Charges Your Devices when Outlets Are at a Premium

Wherever you're short on outlets—whether at home or in a coffee shop, airport, or library—this super cheap, portable power cord splitter will keep all your devices powered as long as you need them.

It's not the newest concept in the world, of course—we've been splitting cables since the dawn of time (or at least since we've had electricity—thanks Ben Franklin). Despite that, it's hard to beat this power cord splitter from Monoprice. Not only is it small enough to fit into any travel bag, but it's only $2. In addition, it's Y shape gives you enough room to plug in even the biggest, heaviest power bricks without so much as a whimper, unlike more ubiquitous adapters. Hit the link to grab a few, and never be without power again.

14inch 16AWG Power Cord Splitter Cable | Monoprice via Cool Tools Read more at lifehacker.com

Milk?

EZ Free way to test Standing Desk

Turn Your Office Chair Into a Makeshift Standing Desk

Whitson Gordon

We've sung the praises of standing desks many times before, but if you aren't quite ready to replace your desk completely, you can try it out with this simple trick.

Step 1: Lower your chair to the minimum. (If you don't have an adjustable height office chair, you can stop here and get yourself a decent chair)

Step 2: Get your fat ass off your chair, put the chair on the desk, and your Mac Air Book Pro on the chair. (Of course, if you have a SPARC server, you have two problems now.)

Step 3: Adjust the height of the chair as needed, and enjoy your new standing desk.

It isn't exactly the most polished hack of all time, but it is the quickest and freest way to try out a "standing desk" for a week to see if you like it. Hit the link to read more. Read more at lifehacker.com

iPad Repair Options

As I am not adept at holding onto a greased eel - I was not able to hold onto the comparably slick iPad. Boy does that screen break easily...

Why didn't I have a case? Think I must have put it with my thoroughly daily pc backups -- filed directly on my to do list.

Anyway... I haven't tried the help offered in this clipping but plan to soon and thought I'd stick it here too in case someone else has butter fingers and needs the info too...

BTW -- even with a shattered screen the touch screen works and I've been using it broken for six weeks or so now with no problem other than the inconvenience of a spiderweb of cracks. Kudos to Apple that at least it has reliably worked even after being dropped.

Problem with the Apple iPad (32 GB) WiFi Tablet PC Broken screen

you should take it to the apple store. If they won't help you, You can try to replace the part yourself, it is available on any auction website. There is an iPad Repair service that can fix it for you, but if you're a little tech savy you should use an iPad repair guide that teaches you how to do the repair yourself.

You may replace the screen yourself for around $129 at www.directfix.com. This Youtube video will show you how to replace the screen. These guys will do the repair for you, parts included, for a total of $159. http://www.missionrepair.com/WIFI_iPad_Service_Repairs_s/478.htm Hope this helps! Thank you for using FixYa! Read more at www.fixya.com

Golden Ray Migration

Golden Ray Migration: "

In 2008, Sandra Critelli shot this excellent photo of Golden Rays off the Mexican coast:

She said: “It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind.

“It’s hard to say exactly how many there were but in the range of a few thousand.

“We were surrounded by them without seeing the edge of the school and we could see many under the water surface too.

Golden Rays grow up to seven feet across and migrate within the Caribbean.

Photo Link and Article Link via reddit

"

Handy Way To See Your Facebook "Likes"

looking forward to trying this one out. looks like a very handy feature..

How to View All Your Facebook Likes

Facebook has made it pretty simple for website owners to add the Like button to their websites so that you see them virtually everywhere you go. As a Facebook user you must have clicked on a few dozen to a few hundreds of those buttons. But where are all those stories and comments you liked?

Unfortunately, it is not easy to keep track of your likes. They appear for a short time in your activity stream but soon get replaced by newer likes.

This is where LikeJournal comes in. It is a new free service that collects all your Likes and puts them together on one page. LikeJournal will access your Facebook account and retrieve all the things that you have liked and then present them to you through your LikeJournal account. You will be able to see all that you have liked in the past, and even share what you have liked with your friends. What’s more, it is fully searchable.

Read more at www.instantfundas.com

Notebook Hack -- Save on PostIt Flags

I use a world of postit dividers, notes and flags to keep my moleskin journal organized. I ran across this Japanese masking tape tip and am curious to give it a try. If anyone else has used this please jump in and let me know about your experience.

 from zakkalife.blogspot.com

All I did was fold a piece of masking tape over both sides of one page to create a tab. One nice thing about using tape for tabs is that it's flexible and will not tear off. Any masking tape will do but Japanese masking tape adds charm.

Read more at zakkalife.blogspot.com

Unusual Dramatic Land Art

from www.darkroastedblend.com

Grand Scale Environmental & Land Art

See more at www.darkroastedblend.com

Found this while looking at various blog posts about standing desks. I'm intrigued...

Amplify’d from www.latimes.com

Sitting Too Much Could be Deadly

LONDON — Here's a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly. Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods - even if you also exercise regularly - could be bad for your health. And it doesn't matter where the sitting takes place - at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV - just the overall number of hours it occurs. Research is preliminary, but several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.

"After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals," Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down. Read more at www.latimes.com

 

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Switch To A Standing Desk??? Girl Geek Extraordinare Gina Trapani of Lifehacker Says Yes

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk

Lifehacker founding editor Gina Trapani recently took the standing desk plunge that she's written up many times before, and, after a few days and some adjustments, is digging her new, healthier setup. Here's how she, and others like her, made the transition.

I spend about 45 to 50 hours a week working on my computer. Up until a week ago, I did that work sitting on my ever-expanding behind.

Last Monday I adjusted my desk to standing height (pictured right). I spent the week working on my feet, and I'm never going back to a sitdown desk again. Here are some questions and answers about the change.

Two reasons: Higher calorie burn and better posture. When I'm sitting at my desk, even in a fancy ergonomic chair, I tend to slump, with my back curved and shoulders forward, which closes my chest and makes my breathing more shallow. When standing at a desk where my forearms are at a 90 degree angle on the desk surface, my shoulders go back, which makes my spine concave and opens my chest. Besides the initial foot pain and muscle aches of engaged thighs and calves, it feels great.

Yes, very much. In fact, the first three days were brutal, so painful I doubted the whole endeavor. By mid-day 2, I had to sit down every hour or so. I was distracted and had a hard time focusing on anything but how much my feet hurt. At night I sat on the couch with my feet elevated. I collapsed into bed totally exhausted. I never appreciated sitting as much as I did the first three days.

Then, on the fourth day, it wasn't so bad. On day 5, I got lost in work for 2 hours before I thought about the fact that I was on my feet once. Now it's my new normal.

Who else uses a standing desk?

More people than I'd realized, especially techies! Former Twitter developer and founder of BankSimple Alex Payne. Creator of Instapaper Marco Arment. Podcaster extraordinaire Dan Benjamin. Novelist Philip Roth. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Lifehacker editor Jason Fitzpatrick. Now, newly, my fellow San Diego techie Mitch Wagner. Who else? Read more at lifehacker.com

 

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SWAT Team Takes Middle School Hostage After Hip Hop But Dial

Amplify’d from news.nationalpost.com

SWAT team swarms middle school after accidental ‘butt dial’

According to the Chicago Tribune, a man accidentally called his wife when he sat on his phone and it called one of the last numbers he dialed. This happens all the time. What happened next is why you are reading about it on the internet.

The wife received his garbled communication, and somehow, this led her to believe that he was being held hostage. She called 911 and soon a SWAT team was deployed to his workplace — a local middle school. Why would she think he was in danger? A school official explains.

“He was listening to music and he had, I don’t know, hip-hop … or music like that, where there were lyrics that were gangster-like,” explained Mark Friedman, interim co-superintendent of District 36. “So there were lyrics on the radio as he was driving home, and she listened to it and became concerned.”

Ah yes, those “gangster-like” hostage takers are always up to no good. The best part was when the team converged on the school and set up a perimeter for three hours, until they found out that the man was safe at home. So they were ready to pounce on an unsuspecting building! Good use of taxpayer money. Read more at news.nationalpost.com

 

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