Have you heard of fiverr.com? It’s a site that provides interested users with “graphics, marketing, fun and more online services for $5.” All sorts of bizarre services are being offered on the site, from people offering to write messages for you using Indian spices to making soda tab bracelets that they’ll be happy to mail to your home.
In the mix is user givingpraise, who promises to pray for your request for five bucks.
Before you get irate at the fact that someone’s trying to make a few quick bucks off of someone’s faith, the listing adds that the money raised will be used to help others. How, we’re not sure, but we’re hoping they’ll donate it to charity or fund some local programs that’ll help people in need.
I find nothing wrong with wanting to raise money to help others, but it just seems like a roundabout way to pray and ask others to pray for you, doesn’t it? A trip to your local ministry would’ve sufficed – and it would definitely be more meaningful.
When it comes to traveling, half the fun comes from meeting new people, trying out homegrown delicacies, and experiencing the locale’s culture. One thing you can try the next time you fly out is EatWith, which gives you all three of these in one neat experience.
EatWith is a new web-based service that lets wannabe restaurateurs open up their kitchen or dining table to interested travelers. The founders of the site explain that “being a guest in someone’s home is a great way to get an authentic local perspective in a different city or country“, and I agree wholeheartedly.
Basically EatWith will hook up open kitchens with foreign diners and the rest is history. Home restaurants can offer meals that range in price from $30 to $50(USD). It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s still a lot less than what many restaurants normally charge. Cost aside, the experience it gives is more or less priceless.
If you’re sort of anti-social and are just in it for the food, don’t worry because you can check out home restaurants that have hosts that just serve you your food and leave you alone to enjoy your meal. These details are listed under “host style” in the Offering Details section of the EatWith experience page that you’re browsing.
Now before you start raising concerns about safety and security of either diners or hosts, EatWith has arranged for a $1 million insurance policy to protect guests and hosts, and also offers verification services, secure online payments and 24/7 customer service.
This is definitely something I’d want to try out in the future.
It's an answered prayer to many, particularly to heavy users of the social blogging platform known as Twitter. Today, Twitter is announcing the launch of a new security feature to better protect its...
Being a mom is no joke. It’s a tiring role, but with what’s expected of moms, they might as well call it a job. The hardest part is having to discipline the kids. It’s no fun, their hearts might break when they have to punish the kids, but it’s something that must be done all the same.
Mother’s Day may have come and gone, but one thing that was created because of it lives on: the Momtract.
It’s a tool that was created by Mother New York, which essentially creates binding contracts for “sons and daughters to contractually forsake control over one part of their lives.”
The contract goes on to make the following warning: “If you don’t meet the terms of the agreement, she can sue you.” The contract is legally binding for one year and “should there be a default on the contract, penalties include fines of up to $20,000 and a maximum number of 12 non-holiday visits from your wronged mother.”
Check it out here, and draw a Momtract up between you and your mom. Remember, it’s better late than never.
If there’s one thing you can be sure of it is that you can’t always trust the reviews you read on apps on the Google Play store. There a number of reasons why people would post inaccurate reviews from jealousy to downright stupidity. I’d wager that a lot of the negative reviews you see on some applications are people who simply don’t know how to use them. Google has announced via the Android Developers Blog that all Google Play developers can now reply to user reviews.
Clearly that means the flame wars are about to begin. You can bet that when a developer sees someone leaving a idiotic negative review about their application, they will reply. Now the trolls can be trolled. The ability to comment on user reviews for developers also opens the door for developers to respond to good reviews and feature suggestions.
I wonder if the fact that a developer can now reply to a negative review might prevent some people from posting negative reviews. One of the reasons so many trolls troll online is because there is typically no way for people to know who they are so the poster doesn’t have to face anything uncomfortable because of their review.
I think this is a good thing, developers should be able to respond to reviews good and bad. What do you think? Is this nothing but a loss of anonymity for users or a good way to help cut down on bogus reviews?
Many people associate BitTorrent with piracy, and with good reason. But the revolutionary protocol can also be used for legal purposes. For instance, it’s a cheap way to host and distribute large files. Now the company behind the protocol and the first ever torrent client is also pushing for BitTorrent to become a way for artists to hawk their products. It’s called BitTorrent Bundle, and it is weird.
The idea behind BitTorrent Bundle is for artists to release free content – say, songs, movie clips or chapters from a book – that we can download using a BitTorrent client. When you go to the download page, it will show you additional content that you have the option to “unlock” – either by paying or entering an email address. Sounds neat right? Here’s a promo video for BitTorrent Bundle:
You can check out the download page for Kaskade’s freebies right now. At first glance, it seems like a good idea – give people legitimate freebies and hope that they’ll like it enough to buy the rest of your work. However, I don’t think the protocol is uniquely equipped to fill this otherwise honest marketing tactic.
What I mean is, it doesn’t incentivize the act of either leeching or seeding – the two activities central to BitTorrent. Neither does it leverage the number of seeders and leechers as a way for torrent users to see which content is popular. If you go to a torrent site, you can infer what pirates like to download because they are the files with the most number of seeders or leechers, or both. But BitTorrent Bundle seems to have no such ranking or ladder for people to view.
I think that from an artist’s perspective, having a potential customer learn how to use a BitTorrent client is not worth it. It would be a different ball game if BitTorrent Bundle awarded points to devout seeders, which they can then use to unlock premium content from the store. What can BitTorrent Bundle do for musicians and consumers that existing services like Bandcamp can’t accomplish? If I’m a budding filmmaker and I’m giving away a video for free, why don’t I just post it on YouTube or Vimeo so people can watch it instantly – or whenever they want! – instead of making them fiddle with a torrent client?
I keep thinking I’m missing something here, but right now I just don’t see the killer application of BitTorrent Bundle. I guess at the very least it’s an attempt at erasing the stigma behind the protocol. You can also read a bit more about BitTorrent Bundle on TorrentFreak.
Twitter buys Ubalo and both the companies has made the official announcement on Thursday. Twitter has announced that exciting news via a tweet describing that Ubalo joined twitter. While Ubalo made...
Google Drive may be playing catch-up to its competitors in some ways, but the cloud storage team in Mountain View is forging ahead in others. Today, Big G announced a 'Save to Drive' button that allow users to save content directly from websites to Google-fied cloud lockers. Adding the button's easy, as it only requires a few lines of HTML, and a JavaScript API allows web admins to control their behavior. Folks looking to take advantage of the new button can learn more about it on the Google Developers portal, and as for the rest of us, we'll just enjoy the fruits of your labor.
The official account of E! Online is the next to be attacked by hackers days after Twitter sent out an official memo asking users to beware of increasing cyber attacks.The account which goes...
Martha Stewart best known for being the Craftiest Lady Evar is looking for love on Match.com. This is a screen grab of her dating profile. Dayum, Martha! You lookin’ fine as a meticulously planned soiree with all the appropriately themed decorations and delicious finger foods, girl. If you’re a male between the ages of 55-70 and looking for a special lady and don’t mind dating a convicted felon, hit up Martha. The rest of us are gonna wait around and hope she broadens that age bracket and/or starts batting for the other team. What? A girl can dream!
