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