Here are some excellent games which were recently made freely available by fileplanet:

• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
  • Mirror (No registration required for download)
• Far Cry
  • Mirror (No registration required for download)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
  • Mirror (No registration required for download)
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
  • Mirror (No registration required for download)

What’s the catch? The games include some advertisement. But who cares? It’s free!

Note: You’ll need to sign up for a ubi account at http://www.ubi.com to install the games.

For Comand & Conquer Gold go here:

http://www.commandandconquer.com/intel/default.aspx?id=61#NewsMain

From personal experience, I can tell you that Far Cry and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time are excellent games.

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Mythbusters is a show on discovery channel where common myths are put to the test and tested to see whether they are true or false. Many different scientific methods are used to go about and confirm or bust the myth.

Some of the myths that have been put to the test have to do with energy/fuel efficiency, which can help you save more money:

1. Is leaving a light on temporarily more energy efficient than turning it off and back on?

Through various tests, the Mythbusters showed that turning on a light only consumes power equivalent to leaving on the light for a fraction of a second. Also, it is important to note that constantly turning the lights on and off does not reduce its life expectancy enough to compensate for the increased electricity usage.

Answer: Turning your light OFF saves more money than leaving it on.

2. Is driving a car with air conditioning on more fuel efficient than driving with the windows down?

Many people wonder if they are able to save more money by having the windows down while driving, and by turning the air conditioner off. The mythbusters tackled this myth in two episodes and reached the conclusion that…

Answer: When driving at a speed that is less than 50 mph, it is more efficient to leave your windows down. However, if the speed is over 50 mph, the drag is increased, and therefore, it is more efficient to leave the air conditioner on.

3. Is it more fuel efficient to drive your pick up truck with its tailgate down, rather than up?

To test this myth, the mythbusters took two approaches. First, they literally drove a car - once with the tailgate up and once with it down - to see which one would run out of gas first. Second, they used a calibrated fuel flow gauge to test the most efficient tailgate setup

Answer: Driving with the tailgate up proved to be most efficient. When the tailgate was down, it increased the drag of the car, which made it consume fuel faster than the same truck with the tailgate up.

Furthermore, they showed that a plastic mesh tailgate is more efficient than a standard metal mesh tailgate.

Recap:

1. When leaving the house for a short while, you will save more money on your bill if you turn off the light, rather than leave it on.

2. Driving with the window down saves more fuel when the speed is less than 50mph. However, at higher speeds, it is smarter to leave the windows closed and turn on the A/C

3. If driving with a truck, you will save more gas when the tailgate is up. Furthermore, a plastic mesh tailgate will save more gas (and money) than a metal one.

Coming up tomorrow: Safety tips that we can learn from Mythbusters, including what to do if you drove your car underwater, curing seasickness, whether driving while talking on the cell phone is comparable to driving while drunk, and more. Subscribe via RSS to be informed.

Photo by Lovely Chenille

eBay is the best source for auctions on the net. However, it can be a buyers best friend or worst enemy, depending on how it is used. Many sellers use dirty business tactics on eBay to sell their items at high prices. Therefore, when buying, you must take into account many factors before placing a bid.

This guide will teach you what to look for when searching for items on eBay, and will provide you with the tools you need to get an item for the least amount of money.

Before Searching for an item on eBay, ask yourself these questions:

1. How much am I willing to spend for this item?

Check various reputable sites (amazon, newegg, etc.) to see what the item is worth.
Once you get an average estimate, set a limit on how much you are willing to spend for this item.

2. Do I want to buy the item new or can it be used?

If you don’t mind buying the item used, set another price limit on how much you are willing to buy the item - if it is used.

3. How urgent do I need this item?

If you don’t need the item as soon as possible, you will have more time to search for better prices. The downside of this is that this might cause you to miss out on a good deal, because “a better one might come up soon”.

Once you’ve answered these questions, use the following tips to help you with buying on eBay:

Searching For The Item

1. Check for Typos

Sometimes sellers misspell the name of the items that they are selling. Therefore, people searching for this item will not find it at all. Use a site like Auctionbloopers to automatically generate a search which will list the various typos for your item.

2. Look at the average cost which the item sells for on eBay

When you search for the item, sort by “Time: ending soonest”. Track some of the ending prices which the item ended at and see how they compare to your spending limit. You may want to tweak your limit a bit here.
However, it is important to note that although many auctions for the same item tend to sell for a similar price, people get lucky frequently. Don’t stop searching for your item just because the item seems to sell for a a high price. Check for a few days, you never know what you may find.

3. Note the ending time and date

If an item ends really late at night, chances are that it won’t sell as well as an item that ends during the day when most people are browsing the web.

Finding The Item

1. Read the title and description VERY CAREFULLY.

As mentioned before, eBay contains some very dirty business tactics.

Sometimes the title and description will word things in a way that will make you think that you are receiving exactly what you want; while, in fact, you are only getting the manual for your item.

Engadget covered how someone paid $900 for three Playstations, thinking it was a new Playstation 3.

2. Look at the shipping cost.

Many sellers use an annoying tactic of setting the item at a really low price, but making shipping costs very high. Be aware of the shipping cost at all times.
If the Shipping costs says “Check item description and payment instructions or contact seller for details”, then do exactly that. It takes less than a minute to ask the seller a question, and most sellers reply very quickly.
People tend to become excited when they see an iPod being sold for cheap, but don’t realize that the shipping cost can increase the price significantly.

3. Check the users feedback

Look at the feedback percentage of the seller, and the feedback score. If it is lower than 90% or so, be weary. Make sure you read the comments that other users left for the seller.

4. Read only the users negative feedback

Use Toolhaus to read only the negative feedback that a user has.

If you have firefox with greasemonkey, get this script.

Bidding On The Item

1. Sniping

If you found an auction worthy of bidding, keep this in mind: it’s the best to bid at the last seconds of the auction. This is known as sniping.

The reason this works is that people like to defend their bids. So if a person bids a certain amount 5 hours before the auction ends, and you overbid him 4 hours before, he has 4 hours to decide whether he wants to continue bidding or not. Many people continue bidding.

However, if you snipe, and bid a few seconds before the end of the auction, he will have no time to rethink whether he wants to follow through with another bid.

How To Snipe:

You can snipe manually or automatically using a program or web site. If you want to snipe manually, you might want to consider getting this greasemonkey script. It puts a countdown clock next to the “end time”, like the screen shot shows.

To snipe automatically, you can use gixen for free. It is a web based sniping tool.

If you prefer using a software sniping tool, you can use baygenie.

The recent not so recent anymore news about Aquafina’s water source being tap water is disturbing. PepsiCo has been selling water which they acquired for less the a penny, and sold it for a dollar or more. This is the same water which anyone can get by turning on their faucet.

An interesting video to watch about bottled water is from Penn and Teller: BS. They show how many companies sell bottled water from local sources but cover it up with fancy names like “Everest” and “Yosemite Water,” among other interesting things.

Note: Some coarse language used in the video.

Instead of buying bottled water from companies that may or may not use tap water, here are some tips you can use to drink fresh water - and even save money doing it.

• Get a water filter:
  There are many water filters out there. Some can be mounted on the faucet for easy access. Others are filtered into a pitcher. Some even come built into a fridge. Most importantly, they will save you money in the long run. Simply fill a pitcher with fresh water at night, stick it in the fridge, and you have fresh water for the next day.
• Simply drink tap water:
  
  • Bottled water generally is no cleaner or safer or healthier than tap water,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Rather than buying into this myth of purity in a bottle, consumers should drink from a tap.” (Washington Post)
  • If you fear pathogens, you can always boil the water before drinking it.
• If you have to have bottled water, check the label of the water bottle before you buy it. Most companies include the source of the water. If it says ‘municipal,’ it uses the cities water source.