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I have been looking at different avenues of marketing for my company.  I have found many different resources, some good, some bad.  Some expensive, some affordable.  This site seems to be of interest… www.clicksmart.com.  They are a very straightforward localized search agent.  They have categories of contractors, florists, home and office services, massage therapists, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and wedding and event services.  It seems like they are focusing on professions that have difficulty marketing, due to independent statuses and small size.  It looks like an interesting opportunity.  I will have to take talk with them to see what is required for me to advertise / list my company there…  They have good resources for real estate, and are market specific. For instance, you can find a tucson realtor and quickly get their information.

Well Gustav is back down to tropical storm strength.  It looks like it is going to end up to the west of Florida.  Thankfully.  There is a high pressure ridge above us that it will ride along, and hit New Orleans.  Again.  At a cat3 hurricane.  Why oh why would you A. build and B. live in a below-sea-level city in hurricane alley?  Looks like another summer of Katrina/Gustav (ironically it SOUNDS like a couple you would expect to meet in New Orleans) news and comparisons…

My web hosting is currently with Godaddy for all three of my sites.  I have to admit, that I am pretty satisfied with then thus far.  The one problem with them, though, is that they upsell a lot of sutff.  They do offer a decent amount of free applications, but the addons that they sell me are expensive.

A good resource for researching web hosting is webhostinggeeks.com.  They have a nice table of what they feel are the top hosting providers, the features, the prices, the amount of usage you can have at those rates, and reviews of those sites.

They also have a nice assortment of links and information to resources about hosting.  I have always found customer reviews the best resource for what companies are truly like.

If you are looking for new web hosting, you should take a look at Web Hosting Geeks - they may be a good resource for you.

okay, okay so I have been running on a bit about this software for cellphones.  Well I really like the palm OS and compared to with windows mobile platform it is significantly easier to use…  I think that there should always be as many competitive forces in a market as possible to drive creativity for the end user.

Android Developer Challenges - this is a competition that Google is offering for 10 million in total prize money to developers that create the most innovative applications for Android.  50 entries will receive $25,000 to fund further development.  Those 50 are then further eligible for 10 $275,000 awards, and 10 $100,000 awards.  It is slpit into 2 phases, 1 ending on April, 2008, and the other ending later this year.  I wonder what kind of apps won?

Jen and I keep looking for places to visit on our cross country drive, and this amusement park in Wildwood, New Jersey, on the Jersey shore looks pretty interesting!

Morey’s Piers “The Best Amusement Park in New Jersey”, is an amusement park that offers three different piers full of entertainment, and two waterparks.  It is definitely a good destination for a family beach vacation.

The Surfside Pier features the SkyCoaster, the Sky Scraper, as well as quite a few children’s rides, and many rides for all ages.  Jen and I rode a SkyCoaster in Orlando and it was really neat - I bet it would be even more fun at the beach like at Morey’s Piers.

The Mariner’s Landing Pier is the featured pier of the park.  It features The Sea Serpent, The Maelstrom, Rollie’s Coaster, the carousel, tea cups, Serpent Mini Golf, and over a dozen children’s rides.

The Adventure Pier has more rides than attractions, and not as much for kids as the other piers.  Some of its rides are The Great White, The Spring Shot, The Screamin’ Swing, the Grand Prix Raceway, and the Climbing Wall.  It does have about six children’s rides and a handful for everyone.

If you are interested in going there, but it is a bit too far for a day trip, there are some hice places to stay there at the shore as well.  You can make a whole weekend out of the trip, not just a daytrip. Wildwood hotels motels offer a nice selection of resorts and motels along the shore for your enjoyment.

Here is some information about android that I pulled from wikipedia…

The primary developers of android are google and the Open Handset Alliance. I know that google was trying to offer a free cellphone service, but were outbid for the contracts. I guess this is their next foray into the cellular market.

The first prototype device looks alot like a blackberry/moto Q.. flat, widescreen, full keypad.

T-Mobile announced in August that they would deliver the HTC Dream with Android - the first production phone to come to market with the software.  Now I understand why Apple released its sourcecode for everyone to use.

Now that Fay is gone, and I am back outside, I am quickly reminded what the Florida weather can truly be like.  Hot and humid.  It reminded me of when I used to drive around in my mustang convertible that dd not have ac.  OK well it had air conditioning, it just did not work.  Probably it had not worked for twenty years…

I widh the internet was nore that telnet when I had that car - I would have been able to find websites like Discount AC Parts.com.  This is a nice company focussing on auto ac parts, air copmoressors, ac evaporators, and more.  They have parts for many makes and models, including Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen ac compressor.  They offer free shipping on all orders over $50 too.

You should check them out - I wish I could have when I needed them!

Android is the framework for the open source phones.  It is a framework / API for integration of telaphony and data and applications for the phones.  It contains a database, a browser, a vm, gsm telephony, bluetooth, wifi, 3g, camera, gps, compass, media support, 3D support, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE.  The basic functionality - display driver, flash memory, camera driver, and audio driver is in the linux kernel.  The android runtime contains the dalvik vm and the core libraries. These are nested in the standard libraries - ssl, sgl, sqlite, etc.  The application framework sits atop of this, and finally the apps reside at the top for the end user.  It is a very solid archetecture to develop upon.

I think it will be a tremendous success.  Now lets see how the phones are.  As we know, and the iphone is a good example, is that form oftentimes wins over functionality…

So as our cross country trek approaches, I find myself doing more and more travel research.  I was searching for online travel guides and found quite a bit of good information.  A really nice company that I came across is Trusted Tours and Attractions. They are an excellent travel group resource.  Jen loves group travel like this, and has looked into them a few times.  They have a nice newsletter that gives occasional updates on their offerings.

It reminds me of the first time I went to Vegas on a Las Vegas Tour.  I was 19, Damo was 15, and we were with mom and Bruno.  Of course the first few days we just walked around the resorts admiring the spectacle of the place.  It was simply amazing - the size of the buildings, the scope of the design, the uniqueness of each casino.  By the third day, Damo and I were dying to play some games.  As we would walk around with our parents, we would drop a quarter in here, a dollar there.  Reach in mom’s tub, and grab a few more quarters.  Win a bit, lose a bit.  The next day, damo and I had about ten bucks each.  He put it in one machine and I put mine in another.  After about five minutes, Damo hit the jackpot.  Quickly I run around to try to find the parents so they can collect the prize for us.  I come back about a minute later, and mot only is the attendant there with Damo.  He is ghost white with fear.  He tries to tell them he is watching it for our parents but to no avail - the attendant calls security.  We see three coming towards us, from every direction.  We panic and truck it for the front door.  They are chasing us like we robbed the joint.  We get outside and hide down the street a bit.  We start laughing and realize we ill never find our parents so we have to go back!  So we actually go all the way around the hotel to the pool and go in the back entrance.  Low and behold one of the gurads is RIGHT THERE and we have to split again!  We had to go back to the front of the casino, each stake out an entrance door, but far enough away to not be seen, to wait for our parents.  We finally found them, and went back to our hotel.

If you sign up for Trusted Tours and Attractions newsletter, you can be entered to win a $150 gift certificate from Magellan. Kennedy space center discount

now this is pretty cool 30 tech companies to make a better mousetrap.  Okay actually a better cellphone, but you get the picture.  There are companies such as HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sprint, NTT DoCoMo, Intel;, Broadcom, and Google that are contributing.  I wonder if they are more concerned about apple and the iphone or really want to build really good phones??

Android is what they have developed.  It is the first open, free mobile platform.  It used Apache’s open source license, so it is linux based - built completely on the kernel.  I think that on the right phone, this can truly be the iphone killer.  Open source is the way to go.