Apple Has Become Exactly What They Used to Be Against

I still remember the old “1984″ commercial that rolled out the Macintosh and made Super Bowl commercials what they are today. It also stood for going against the status quo and standing up against the powers that be.

Then today I see that Apple has sent authorities to seize property from the home of Jason Chen, a blogger on Gizmodo. I have been following the “lost iPhone prototype” ordeal since it first began when an Apple employee left his iPhone prototype behind in a bar after a night of drinking.

Apple has tried to turn this into a “stolen property” case but the thing is, they have already received the iphone prototype back according to what Gizmodo’s side of the story has claimed.

I understand Apple wanting to protect their property and not let the cat out of the bag too soon, but why does it seem like, more and more, they are acting like the very industrial powerhouse that they used to stand against?

Honestly, if this keeps up, I will have no problem whatsoever turning my back on them. Sure their products are technological breakthroughs but their recent practices need to be stopped and we can all vote with our wallets!

For the story about Jason Chen, go here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10480702

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Not Bad For a Beach Bum - #69 in Top 100 Blogs!

I would like to send out a thank you to Iron Blogger for naming mrbeachbum.com on his top 100 make money online blogs. There are some big names in there and I am proud to be on the list. Thanks to everyone who comes here regularly. I have been very busy lately but I intend to really get cracking on making some good changes here soon and bringing you some regular and helpful posts in the coming weeks. 

Here’s the link to the top 100 list. John Chow, I’m coming for you, ha ha!

 

http://ironblogger.com/100-bloggers-that-will-help-you-make-more-money-online/

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The Year of the Chinese Democracy

I never thought this day would come, to be honest. After waiting nearly 17 years for a full studio album from Guns N Roses, coupled with all the delays over the years, it seemed like it would never come to fruition. 2 years ago, Axl Rose announced that the album was going to come out, only to later announce more delays. It became a pathetic joke really. So when I heard that the album was coming out in November 2008 I said “suuuuuuuuurrrrrre”.

Only this time, Best Buy was actually selling pre-orders for it. I figured what the heck, I’ll order it. I was a big fan of the original Guns N Roses and despite the fact that it’s basically just Axl Rose and a plethora of guitarists, drummers, etc who’ve joined and quit the band over the last 17 years, I was really in the mood for some new music. The album actually releases on Monday but it arrived in my mailbox today and I set aside some time to listen to it start to finish. So here’s my take so far:

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Times They Are A-Changin’

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the format is going to change around here a lot over the coming weeks. It’s time to start blogging about anything and everything. Don’t worry, we’ll still cover advice on working from home, etc. But it’s time to start sharing the true life of a future beach bum with all of you and anything goes. Thanks for keeping us in your favorites list and hopefully you’ll find some entertaining bits of info in the coming weeks. Aloha and thanks for visiting!

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Is Fixya your perfect money fix?

I’ve recently come across an interesting website called Fixya.com. And lest you be concerned, I am not affiliated with them in anyway other than the account I created specifically for the purpose of this review.

Fixya.com is a community where people who need help with just about anything can float a question and “experts” on various subjects, who are also members, can answer them. It’s the mother of all forums in a lot of ways, but there is a nice little “make money” hook to it all which is what makes it so compelling.

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Can You Really Make Money at Home with Inbox Dollars?

- Allow me to introduce a guest blogger, Pele, from Wicked Attitude who has an excellent review to share with all of you fellow beach bums!

I wanted to put these make money from home deals to the test to see if it really works.  I found a pretty common one with a low join fee called Inbox Dollars and all you had to do was read emails they sent you and confirm you read them.  I think it was about $35 to join.  I wanted to see how long it would take to make my money back doing the minimal amount so here’s the lowdown.

I joined on September 23, 2006 and when I joined you could only get your money once you earned $25.00.  They give you a $5.00 sign up bonus but this is not how much you’re going to make.  They tell you you’re going to get bombarded with mailings from them so you may want to set up a separate email account specifically for their stuff, which I did.  They weren’t kidding either; you got a lot of offers.  For each email you read and confirm, you get 2 cents.  Now the surveys are kind of a joke because you have to qualify for them and there always seems to be some reason why you’re not the demographic they’re looking to survey.  So after a while they stop sending you as many if you’re not doing every single one they send you.  They also try to “entice” you with 50 cents here and a buck there if you buy something from one of their advertisers.  Like I was going to buy Entertainment books as gifts anyway so when their ad came up, I bought two and got $8.00 put into my account.

It was taking forever to see any return so I requested payment when I finally reached $25.00.  Surprise, they upped the minimum to $30.00!!  I was less than thrilled.  I kept on clicking and after one $5.00 bonus, $8.00 in “cash offer earnings” for the Entertainment books, $0.75 for doing two surveys I actually qualified for and 574 clicks almost two short years later I was able to reach their minimum!!  I wanted to hurry up and request it before they bumped the minimum up again.

Then came requesting payment.  I did so and it told me it would send out my $27.00.  Uh…huh?  But I reached the $30.00 minimum, what the hell??  Oh yeah, they charge a $3.00 “processing fee.”  For what, I’m not sure.  Color me irritated.  Not done.  I requested that payment on June 6, 2008 and was informed the payment will not released until August 1, 2008.  Not only that but you have to continue to click on EVERY ad they send you or they reserve the right to cancel your payment and I assume keep your money.  So in the end, I may not even get this money if there’s some technicality they can screw me on.

So I didn’t make my money back (not surprised), it’s not technically a scam but it takes forever to earn their bare minimum unless you want to shell out money to their advertisers but I suspect the whole reason you’d be interested in that is to make money, not see more of it leave your wallet.

If after that you’re still intrigued after knowing the lowdown, feel free to click below and see if you can do better! - Pele

 

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Coming next week, we’ve got a new series of posts to give you some great car buying tips. Even if you aren’t in the market right now, you’ll want to keep all the tips in your pocket for future reference. I believe that everyone will benefit from using some of these great tips, so check back next week for this exciting new series.

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Amazing Dolphin Saves Beached Whales

Moko, a dolphin in New Zealand, given the name by residents, has amazed the beach community by offering his help to 2 stranded pygmy whales. Moko helped a stranded mother and her calf by guiding them to safety after several failed attempts by the locals on Mahia beach. 

Locals managed to unbeach the whales but the whales would simply strand themselves again. This happened 4 times and residents were losing hope. But Moko came to the rescue and guided the whales out to safety before all hope was lost.

Read the rest of this amazing story here.

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