Open Source Blogging

You will read TONS of stuff about Apple’s keynote. I’m watching it right now on several screens.

Why? Because in real time everyone is putting up slightly different stuff.

Venture Beat has a friendfeed room where you can watch in real time like a chat room, or you can view it standard threaded style.

That is very cool. Especially when compared to TechCrunch’s live coverage, which makes you refresh the page manually. So 1994. What, is Arrington trying to increase his page views artificially?

Compare that to Gdgt, which is where the two top guys from Engadget, Peter Rojas … Continue Reading

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Eugene Yiga of Varsity Blah.

Mind, body, heart, and soul: These four elements make us who we are. In order to fully explore our potential we need to constantly nurture all aspects of our lives. It’s not just about being “well-rounded” or balanced; it’s about being anchored in what really matters. And with another year already upon us, now seems as good a time as any to start making some serious change.

The Mind

Everything begins in the mind. Every skyscraper, every painting, and every custom-made Italian suit were once ideas in someone’s … Continue Reading

Recently, my mother celebrated her birthday in her usual quiet fashion. She likely never mentioned the day to anyone, remaining just happy to receive a few calls and a gift or two from the people who remembered on that day. That’s just her style.

When I was young, my mother was always the person in the house that managed the checkbook. She would pay the bills, determine whether or not there was any extra money to spend, and prioritize things. She did this pretty quietly - the bills would simply be paid, the allowances would simply appear, … Continue Reading

JPG Magazine is dead. That’s a bummer because, as TechCrunch wrote this morning, it was a radical idea in publishing: one that used crowd-sourced data to serve the magazine’s readers.

There were a few problems here:

1. They never got a large enough following to make a business viable. That’s because book stores are going away and the ones that are left are not willing to increase the shelf space to magazines. Tim O’Reilly talked about this in the interview I did with him a couple weeks back for FastCompanyTV. To make it in media you’ve gotta be where … Continue Reading

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

At the end of 2006, I thought I’d just had the best year of my life — I quit smoking, took up running, completed my first marathon, became an early riser, became organized and productive, started eliminating my debt and getting my finances in order, became a vegetarian, my youngest daughter Noelle was born, among other things. Not bad, for one year!

At the end of 2007, I knew I’d just had the best year of my life: I’d created Zen Habits and made it a Top 100 blog in its … Continue Reading

2008 was the second full year of existence for The Simple Dollar. Over the course of the year, I posted some 700 articles - some good, some bad, and some ugly. Below, I tried to pick out most of the good ones to create something of an anthology for 2008. Hope you enjoy it! (By the way, here’s 2007’s anthology).

January
The Basics: Eight Tactics To Use When You’re Just Starting To Turn Things Around
The One Month Coupon Strategy: A Really Clever Way to Make Coupons Worthwhile
Online Personal Finance Analysis Tools: … Continue Reading

Tomorrow evening, like billions of people around the world, my wife and I will be celebrating the coming new year. Some people celebrate this by having a big New Year’s Eve bash at their home. Others go out to various parties, enjoying the celebrations put on by others. Still others spend the evening quietly at home with their family - or with themselves.

We tend toward the first option. This year, we’re having … Continue Reading

Each Christmas season follows the same general routine.

Throughout the year, I keep my eye open for good Christmas gift ideas for my family and friends. I’ll glance through flyers, look at sales, and stop in at exceptional events like “going out of business” sales with the idea in mind that I’ll find an amazing gift for someone at a stellar price - and I usually do find one or … Continue Reading

Jen writes in:

Since our son was born, we’ve been trying to function as a one income family, but it just isn’t working. We’ve cut out every expense we can think of and are jumping through every hoop we can find to save money, but we’re simply not making ends meet. What’s next? Surely it can’t be impossible to do this.

You’re not alone in feeling this way, Jen. Many people make a plan for functioning with a low income, then as prices increase at a rate faster than the increase in salaries in your household, it becomes … Continue Reading

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently. Here are some Christmas thoughts from years past on The Simple Dollar.
The Day After: Six Ways to Deal With the Post-Christmas Money Blues - And Plan Ahead for Next … Continue Reading