We'd like to thank Google and Blogger for offering this great service to help aspiring bloggers get started.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 10:40 PM
I stumbled upon this podcast recently at AuctionWally.com , and finally had time to listen to all his current and past episodes. A very interesting listen to keep you amused as you drive down the highway I must admit.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 5:26 PM
You look like like these guys ! Thanks to those who organised the media outing for us while attending a recent convention in Las Vegas to attend the Blue Man Group show.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 3:30 PM
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 8:53 AM
Been meaning to write a post exactly like this for sometime, thanks to Newest On The Net for the post.1. Open a new tab by double clicking on an empty space in the firefox tab bar. This is the coolest firefox tip that I have recently learned. I hated going up to the file menu and clicking on the new tab button. Now I don’t have to!!
2. One of my favorite firefox addons is All-in-One Gestures. This firefox add on allows me to make gestures with my mouse and control my firefox browser. By right clicking my mouse and drag it to the left, I can go back to the last page I was browsing. I can close a tab by right clicking my mouse and moving it down and then to the left. I love how this speeds up my web browsing.
3. For those of you with blogs, I highly recommend installing the Scribe Fire Firefox addon. ScribeFire is a great blog editor that integrates with monzilla firefox.
4. You can go back a page by hitting the “Backspace” key. This is a very convenient way to move back a page.
5. Configure your Firefox addons by going to Tools => Add-ons and then right clicking the firefox addon you want to configure. I did not know that Firefox addons had options you could set. I would like to thank Geekenough.com for this tip!!
6. Did you know that you can tag your firefox bookmarks? Simply go to your firefox bookmarks folder, right click on a bookmark and then go to properties. On the properties page, you can assign a keyword to that bookmark. Then you can go to that bookmark by simply typing that keyword into your address bar. Thanks Lifehack.org!!
7. I am sure that many already know this trick, but I recently learned it. You can bookmark a site by hitting “Ctrl + D”. I am a little embarrassed that I did not know this until recently. You will notice that I added this tip to my blog template hoping that people will bookmark Newest on the Net. I would like to thank seologs.com for introducing me to this shortcut.
8. Another cool way to bookmark a site is to place your mouse pointer over the page’s favicon, left click and drag it to you bookmarks folder. This is a great tip. Thanks Techlicious.TV!!
9. The Mozilla Firefox website has a great list of all of the keyboard shortcuts for Firefox. Instead of listing filling up this article with keyboard shortcuts, here is the complete list. I would like to thank WrongAdvices.com for leading me to this list.
10. Do you have several sites that you like to have open at all times? Well, Firefox allows you to open multiple home pages at one time when you launch Firefox. This save me a lot of time. To implement this go to Tools => Options => Main. From the Main menu you can ask Firefox to use a bookmark folder as your homepage. Put all of the websites that you want to automatically launch into a special bookmark folder and then select that bookmark folder to be your home page.
If you haven’t downloaded the latest mozilla Firefox browser, here is the latest download.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 8:23 PM
Here is a great post from the Web Publishing Blog I don't know if you need to go to this extreme, but it is interesting.
I never got around to applying The Four Hour Work Week, but I have followed a few lessons from the book. Most specifically, eliminating distractions and “Become(ing) and Ignoramus.” (page 92)
For a moment lets just forget blog RSS feeds, forums, and CNBC — instead consider your daily personal contacts and work interruptions.
Step 1 — Create an “personal” e-mail address. Its brand new and no one even knows what it is.
Step 2 — Get a new “personal” phone line / number. Again, its brand new and no one knows it yet.
Step 3 — You have two options, either have an employee become your intermediary to filter out the garbage, or give out this personal contact information to only your most important contacts.
For example, a company that you do 5/6/7 figures of business with a month may qualify as high priority. A company that you used in the past does not. This also means from time to time you may need to create a new “personal” contact system.
Have two sets of business cards. If you go to a conference, give one to the people trying to sell you something. Give a second to the important people you need to contact. If you have met me, you know I do not even give out any business cards. I’ll take yours, and contact you on my own time.
Because my company is very tiny (in employee size) I do not have anyone filter my contact information for me. I am sure there are many people who are pissed that I answered their voice mail 2 months after they left it. Thats ok, because if I spent my time reading through every personal correspondence, there wouldn’t be much business left.
Ironically you will notice I have a personal contact email on this blog (as of the time I write this.) Your contact structure does not have to be limited to two tiers. It can be very beneficial to make it multi-channeled. As the business owner, if might be ok for your press contacts to have direct contact information. Or perhaps there is a more “casual” contact point that you can access after work that you know will never contain urgent news to break you away from family time.
Consider these ideas and build yourself a custom solution, if you haven’t already. As always, these aren’t rules; test things out and figure out what works for you.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 7:57 PM
Watching the Grey Cup Today (Go Bombers !) and seen a few different commercials using Fast Talkers to squeeze as much info into 30 seconds as possible. Purolator Courier had a great one, and here is an Expedia.ca spot
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 6:22 PM
(PRWEB) November 16, 2007 -- After successfully graduating from the International Sommelier Guild's grueling eighteen month long Sommelier Diploma Program, renowned charity auctioneer Tom DiNardo is the first auctioneer in the United States to become a fully credentialed sommelier. A sommelier is a person with extensive knowledge about oenology and wine and food pairings. "Completing ISG's comprehensive wine education program was far more intense than my meeting the basic requirements in completing my Bachelor of Arts degree" recalls DiNardo.
Benefit Auctioneer Tom DiNardo is the first auctioneer in the nation to become a sommelier diplomate.Tom DiNardo grew up in a Sicilian-Irish household in which wine was a part of every dinner. Prior to the founding of DiNardo & Lord Auctioneers in 1993 Tom DiNardo had worked within the wine industry in both California and Washington. "It's only natural that my lifelong passion for wine has carried forward into my auction career. Pursuing my sommelier education has been the ultimate education accomplishment in my auctioneer career path so far," said DiNardo.
Unafraid of challenges, Mr. DiNardo has firmly built his nationally recognized fundraising auction firm upon a track record of his achieving many firsts within the benefit auction industry. "I am one of the very few professional auctioneers to date who has pioneered the ultra exclusive niche of charity wine auctions within the United States." Charity wine auctions such as the Naples Winter Wine Festival, Auction Napa Valley and California Winemasters are amongst the top fund-raising auctions events in the nation today. "I was the first charity auctioneer in the country to join the Association of Fundraising Professionals in rallying fellow benefit auctioneers to charge their non-profit clients only a flat fee versus charging them a percentage commission," recounts DiNardo. Charity auctioneer Rowlan Hill of Phoenix, Arizona said, "The results of Tom DiNardo's forward thinking, such as joining AFP and other innovative actions he has chosen, have created many trends that are today being followed by many other successful charity auctioneers."
How did your career as a wine auctioneer begin? Tom DiNardo left a sales career in the wine industry to begin a new career in the auction industry in 1993. Mr. DiNardo said he realized early on that the fundraising auction niche was highly competitive. Tom recalls, "I had to find a niche within the auction industry that set me apart from my competition immediately, and charity wine auctions was the answer." Early on in his career Tom DiNardo remembers that there were far more ambivalent people than clients interested in asking him questions about his auction firm's services. "Ultimately I landed my first charity wine auction gig, but I knew that the road was going to be a steep uphill climb without my earning and possessing more wine credentials" says DiNardo. A huge fan of continuing education, Tom DiNardo received his training and designation as a certified appraiser, specializing in wine appraisal, and today he is a master wine appraiser registered with the US Appraisal Foundation. Tom DiNardo further persevered in building his wine auctioneer credentials by becoming a freelance wine writer for esteemed wine magazines such as Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Santé and Wine Adventure magazines as well as becoming a full time contributor to WineSquire.com and WineandSpiritsJobs.com. Tom DiNardo ascended another career peak becoming a contract auctioneer with ERI's retail wine auction gallery in Chicago.
Your credentials as a benefit auctioneer and charity wine auctioneer are impressive! Why did you decide to pursue a sommelier education and diploma? "I wanted to achieve something that no other charity auctioneer had ever done. I wanted to become the best qualified charity wine auctioneer in the country," said DiNardo. Mr. DiNardo examined the successful careers of many of world's top wine auctioneers such as Michael Broadbent, Fritz Hatten, Ann Colgin and Humphrey Butler in making the choices that would ultimately benefit his personal career. According to Tom DiNardo, "There are many sommelier training programs available throughout the world, but only three sommelier organizations that offer wine credentials that are recognized worldwide. After I discussed the various wine education programs that are currently available with various wine industry colleagues and fellow sommelier David Le Claire, I had narrowed down my program choices to the International Sommelier Guild, the Court of Master Sommeliers, or the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. The International Sommelier Guild's sommelier diploma program is an intense eighteen month long commitment to excellence in learning as much as humanly possible about wine and oenology. I chose ISG's program and I became a sommelier diplomate," states DiNardo.
What made the sommelier training so intense? "Juggling my career and the demands of my company, class studying and homework, and managing a personal life made it difficult, but my commitment carried me through. My first two International Sommelier Guild classes, Fundamentals I and Fundamentals II, were held in Vancouver, British Columbia which also added a bit of an international challenge," says DiNardo. Mark Davidson, the former ISG Vice President and current guild instructor, said "The Sommelier Diploma Program class lasts for several months, one day a week, and each class is eight hours long. Tom faced an incredible challenge completing his sommelier diploma, as he commuted once a week from Bellingham, Washington to Los Angeles, California in order to graduate from the class."
Are all sommeliers credentialed? Tom DiNardo emphatically states, "In my humble opinion: yes! Unfortunately, today there are far too many people laying claim to sommelier credentials that they have not justifiably earned. I have met some people who have taken only one wine course out of a series, or worse someone who possesses no wine training at all, and then these people arrogantly misrepresent themselves as sommeliers. The wine industry refers to these people as "wannabes" or "cork dorks"! Now even in the charity auction industry, there are a few individuals who lay claim to sommelier credentials they simply have not earned. The old adage would appear to apply: the proof is in the pudding, or in an actual sommelier diploma. Don't get me wrong; as I truly wish more people would take wine classes. There are many wine courses offered that are geared to fit a range of experience levels from beginner to advanced connoisseur or oenophile." Will your sommelier training and education continue? "The wine industry throughout the world is literally changing almost on a daily basis. As a sommelier, it is important to keep up with those changes and advances. Being a sommelier is a passionate journey and a personal lifelong experience," says DiNardo.
What are your future career goals, Tom? "DiNardo & Lord Auctioneers is a fundraising auction firm first and foremost. Charity wine auctions are not all that we do, but are a unique area of specialization and a niche that I personally believe that my company caters to best! Of course, I am looking to grow my fundraising auction firm, and I would like to become more involved in some larger charity wine auctions, but I have plenty of time. Currently, I have many other irons in the fire, as I am receiving more frequent requests for wine appraisals, freelance wine writing assignments, wine educator opportunities, and the occasional wine consulting job. In the meantime I will be enjoying a well deserved break."
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 6:03 PM
From the Small Business Trends Blog
If you do a lot of reading of news, magazine and blog sites on the Web, chances are you’ve run across the little orange RSS icons. Maybe you even are a pro at using RSS feeds, in which case you can skip this video.
But, if you are still learning how to use RSS feeds, watch this Commoncraft video. It’s a little over 3.5 minutes long, but interesting and informative — and apparently popular, too, with over 160,000 downloads to date.
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 5:37 PM
From the NYTimes.com
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 21 — In a down real estate market, they came to buy. They came early, they came in numbers and they came with bank checks for $5,000.
By 10 a.m. Saturday, more than 700 people filled a hall in the convention center here for what real estate agents say is the largest auction of foreclosed properties ever in Minnesota, with more than 300 houses or apartments for sale in two days. Opening bids ranged from $1,000 — for a three-bedroom house — to $729,000, for a five-bedroom house on 11.9 acres. The crowd was standing-room only, with more waiting to enter. Some were looking for homes, others for investments.
“It’s a symptom of the foreclosure crisis,” said Jim Davnie, a Democratic state representative in Minnesota. Mr. Davnie said he had concern that areas already hit by the foreclosure crisis would now be hit by investors buying properties to rent them out, “which makes neighborhoods less stable than owner-occupied housing.”
But in the loud, overcrowded hall, the misery of subprime loans, exploding adjustable rate mortgages and slumping sales meant one thing: opportunity.
“Who’s got $150,000?” said the auctioneer, Mark Buleziuk, motor-mouthing the sale of a four-bedroom house that he said was worth $234,000. “It’s a buyer’s market,” Mr. Buleziuk urged.
The auction, like others that have proliferated around the country this year, tapped the contradictory forces of the current real estate market, in which mass foreclosures and sinking home values, along with predictions of more pain to come, still stoke the urgency to buy right now, before it is too late.
“The market’s really low right now, so you can get a good price,” said Lori Crook, a food server at Keys Cafe who said she was looking for a place she could fix up and sell. “Even if you can’t sell it right away, if you just sit on it and sit on it, it will go up.”
The auction involved a tiny fraction of foreclosures in the state. Julie Gugin, executive director of the nonprofit Minnesota Homeownership Center, projected statewide foreclosures at 20,000 this year, up from 11,000 last year, based on data from sheriffs’ sales.
Representatives from two big lenders that have been hit hard by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Countrywide Financial and Bear Stearns, were on hand to provide mortgages — fixed, adjustable, jumbo or interest-only. Both have been criticized for giving loans too freely, leading to a wave of delinquencies and a rush to sell debt securities backed by those loans.
Countrywide and an affiliate of Bear Stearns were also among the lenders selling properties at the auction. Both have been hurt by defaults on mortgages.
“This is such a stark and dramatic illustration of how serious the problem is,” said Ron Elwood, a lawyer at the Legal Services Advocacy Project, which lobbies in the interest of low-income residents. “The reality is, half the reason 300 homes are being auctioned off is that speculators tried to make a killing and failed to do so.” In Minneapolis, 55 percent of foreclosures this year involved houses not occupied by their owners, according to county records.
But instead of alarming buyers about the risks, the auction of so many foreclosures at once was an invitation to speculators, small and large. Some, including Bryan Kihle and Jim Casha, who bought a four-bedroom house for $145,000, bid without seeing the properties. “I just looked at the picture and thought if we got it cheap enough, we could rent it for a year, then sell it when the market goes back up,” said Mr. Kihle, a building contractor. One public interest housing group bought eight properties to restore for low-cost housing.
Others just saw a chance to enter the housing market. “It won’t always be low,” said Pearl Dobbins, who said she was willing to spend up to $50,000. “This is our chance to buy a home and start our financial future.”
What they all found was a mad scene. As men in tuxedos raced around, waving their hands at bidders and goading them to bid higher, Mr. Buleziuk delivered a nearly indecipherable sales pitch, amplified to exhausting levels.
Jeff Groskreutz, shouting to be heard, said it all felt familiar. “It’s just like any other farm auction I’ve been to,” Mr. Groskreutz, a former farmer, said.
For Mr. Groskreutz, 39, the object of his desire was a five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath ranch house in Forest Lake, about 25 miles northeast of Minneapolis, which had a starting bid of $169,000. According to the auction program, the house was “previously valued” to $457,000. But when the bidding reached $250,000, Mr. Groskreutz dropped out. “That was my top,” he said.
The boom in foreclosures has also meant opportunity for companies like the Real Estate Disposition Corporation, based in Irvine, Calif., one of several across the country that hold auctions for lenders that need to unload the record number of properties they have repossessed this year. The corporation, which ran the auction here, started in the 1990s but was dormant from 1998 until this year, said Michael Schack, a senior vice president. When the market was hot, banks sold foreclosed properties without auctions. But since holding its first auction in May, the company now has at least one scheduled every weekend this year except Thanksgiving.
If the winning bid does not exceed an unpublished minimum set by the lender, the seller can decline the sale.
Paul Schoenecker, owner of a local franchise of HomeVestors, the people who post the “We Buy Ugly Houses” billboards, said a minority of the sales were true bargains.
Even so, Mr. Schoenecker bid on some properties. Buyers were required to provide a $5,000 bank check, along with a personal check to bring their contribution up to 5 percent of the purchase price. Upon placing a winning bid, they proceeded to financing tables in the back — with no opportunity to further inspect the property or negotiate repairs.
The bidding for most houses took less than three minutes. Over two days, 85 percent of 340 properties were sold.
Nathan Harris, 23, bought lot 8A, a four-bedroom house near the University of Minnesota, for $80,000. He had been willing to bid as high as $150,000.
Since he is still a part-time student, Mr. Harris chose an interest-only mortgage, which will convert to a 25-year adjustable rate mortgage after five years, the type of exotic mortgage many critics and lawmakers blame for the foreclosure crisis. But he said he was not worried: in five years, when his mortgage adjusts, it will still be on a principal of only $80,000.
For Tina Sunda, though, the day was not to be. Miss Sunda, who is single and works as a facilitator for a special education program, has never owned a property, and paid repeated visits to inspect a duplex house she thought was worth $175,000 to $200,000. She brought a friend who is a real estate agent to advise her.
“It’s over-stimulating, but it gives people a chance to buy low,” Miss Sunda said of the auction environment. “They’re trying to whip everybody up.”
When Mr. Buleziuk called for the opening bid of $99,000, she shot her arm up, and again seconds later, and again after that. But at $150,000 she dropped out, watching the house go to another bidder for $165,000, less than she thought it was worth but more than she was prepared to pay.
The next day, Miss Sunda was philosophical. “I’m proud that I took a risk, and that I didn’t let the excitement push me over my limit,” she said. “I’d do it again, but I was pretty exhausted by the time I left.”
posted by Dwayne Leslie @ 10:26 PM
