Help MusicSkins Fight Cancer!

MusicSkins.com, Hopeless Records, Sub City, and The Take Action Tour are joining forces to battle Leukemia. Help the fight by purchasing any product from MusicSkins.com on 1/25/2010 – 5% of all sales will be donated to the Driving For Donors charity.

MusicSkins are premium vinyl skins for iPods, phones, laptops, and much more. Get MusicSkins for all of your favorite bands and artists such as All Time Low, We The Kings, There For Tomorrow, Avenged Sevenfold, Bob Marley, Lil Wayne, The Beatles, and over 500 more. You can even upload your own photos and images to make custom MusicSkins. Support a great cause and become even cooler in the process!

Every year, thousands of people get life-threatening diseases like leukemia and lymphoma that can be treated with cellular therapies such as a marrow transplant. Seventy percent of patients do not have a matched donor in their family so they depend on the life saving action of people who sign up for the National Marrow Registry and it’s as easy as a cotton swab of the cheek and two simple forms.

Driving For Donors exists to draw donors, attention, and funds to the cause. The nonprofit organization is the brainchild of now 14-year-old Patrick Pedraja who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 10. In 2007, at age 11, Patrick and his family started Driving For Donors and traveled around the country in a special “Donormobile” with the mission of signing people up for the National Marrow Registry to help find bone marrow matches for people in need of a transplant. Since then they have added over 22,000 donors to the registry, saved more than 24 people’s lives with matches and helped raise over $100,000 for tissue typing fees and drive expenses by selling advertising on Patrick’s bald head. Patrick has been honored by the United States Congress, CNN Heroes, DoSomething.org and has appeared on numerous television shows to promote this cause.

Check out some of the skins for your iPhone from We The Kings here.

You may be interested to know that you can customize the way you see your google search results by signing up for a Google Account.  If you have Gmail, or if you’re a webmaster or web marketer, you likely already have one.

After you’ve signed up for your Google account, you’ll want to look over in the upper right hand corner.   You’ll see a link that says Settings, which presents you with two more choices when selected:  Search Settings, and Google Account settings.

Click on Search Settings, and you will see  a page which lets you configure how you’d like to search Google.  It’s pretty standard:

• Interface Language / Search Language: Select your language preferences.
• SafeSearch Filtering: If you’re at work you definitely want to keep the SafeSearch filter on!
• Number of Results: I always view 100 results at a time.  It saves me the hassle of clicking next… next… next… endlessly.
• Results Window: You may find it convenient to open results in a new window.  I often do.  And if you don’t like it you can change it back later!
• Query Suggestions: Because my job involves web marketing and data analysis, I opt to keep the suggestions on, as it can be very useful to see what Google thinks are associated with my search terms.
• Search Wiki: this basically lets you give an up arrow to certain pages and domains in search results so that if your domain or page shows up for that search term, it will show up on top of the first page, making it easy to find if you’re doing keyword research or some other marketing research.  However, if you just want to see what comes up naturally, you have to turn it off, as everything you move up to the top will be there for that keyword search in the future, unless you turn it off or move it back down again.

The next thing you’ll want to do is go back to settings in the upper right hand corner, and this time, you’re going to customize your Google Account Settings. Here, you will see numerous options.  I’ll discuss a few of the basics here.

The first thing you should do is click on “Change password recovery options” and make sure that, if you should ever forget your password, you will be able to reset it.

Next, over on the left, click on Edit Profile.  Fill out as much information as you are comfortable with, and select whether your full name should be searchable.  At the bottom, you will find a bio area, as well as a Links area to link to your websites.  (if you’re really cool, you’ll link to GreenWebDesign.com and/or 50StatesClassifieds.com! 

If you have a Picasa, Flickr, or other photo service account, click on the Photos tab to link it to your Google Account.

Back at the main Google Accounts page (which you can always find by going back to http://www.google.com/accounts), scroll down to My Products.

You may already have some products showing here, such as: AdSense, Analytics, Checkout, Google Affiliate Network, Knol, Notebook, Picasa, Sites, Voice, Webmaster Tools, AdWords, Blogger, Docs, Health, Local Business Center, Orkut, Profiles, Subscribed Links, Wave, youTube, Alerts, Calendar, Gmail, iGoogle, Merchant Center, Page Creator, Reader, Talk, and Web History.

If you don’t have any products, you should “Try Something New”, where you can click on things you haven’t signed up for yet.  Try some stuff out and see how it goes!

The rest of this section, you can explore on your own!  Feel free to ask specific questions if you get stuck on something.

Ways to search Google more effectively using custom queries:

When you’re searching for something really specific, try putting quotation marks around it.  For example, “Green Web Design”.

If you’re looking for something and the search results are too broad, try a plus sign!  For example, Green+Web+Design

If you read something on a particular website, but can’t remember how to find it again, try searching just in that domain.  For example, in google, type this into the search box:  site:greenwebdesign.com marketing and you’ll see that you only get results from GreenWebDesign.com which contain the word marketing.

If you’d like to find some pages that are similar to a page, enter this into the search box:

related:http://www.greenwebdesign.com/

Webmasters: If you would like to find out when Google last visited a page on your website, you can do so by entering the following text into the search box at google.com:

cache:http://www.greenwebdesign.com/  OR  cache:http://www.greenwebdesign.com/index.html

There are many other ways you can search using custom search queries, but these will probably be more than enough for most people.

You’ll also find lots of fun Google Goodies at:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

==

Jessica Franke is the owner of Green Web Design, a full service Website Design, Web Hosting, Domain Registrar, and Online Marketing firm.  She is also the owner of 50 States Classifieds, and has been providing Free Classifieds online since 2002.  For more articles written by Jessica Franke, visit her blog.

In addition to a great selection of pre-made skins, Music Skins LLC now offers custom skins online! That’s right: you can make your own custom iPod skins, custom iPhone skins, custom Laptop skins, and more! Made of durable vinyl, these skins will help protect your electronic devices from scratches and dings.

Whether you want to design a skin using a favorite family picture, make something eye catching that will help advertise your business, or showcase your own artwork, you’ll love the easy to use custom skin maker that’s now available online at Music-Skins.com!

You can make a custom vinyl protective skin for over 50 different electronic devices! They peel off easily and leave no residue. Why not get 2 or 3 so you can switch things up and enjoy some variety?

Enter HERE at HotTopic.com to win a FREE iPod Classic and 6 MusicSkins!

Hot Topic is happy to carry a selection of Skins for your mobile devices from MusicSkins, and now you have a chance to win an iPod Classic, as well as 6 free MusicSkins from Paramore, 3Oh!3, Lil Wayne, Bob Marley, Devil Wears Prada and Avenged Sevenfold!

Brand New MusicSkins for Paramore, 3Oh!3, Lil Wayne, Bob Marley, Devil Wears Prada and Avenged Sevenfold are available for purchase now on HotTopic.com for your iPhone 2G/3G/3GS, iPod Classic, and Blackberry Curve!

The MusicSkins Customizer is available HERE. Users simply choose from a wide selection of devices including iPods, MP3 players, cell phones, PDAs, laptops and gaming accessories like Playstation PSP, Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero, then upload a personal photo, logo, artwork, image or pick artwork from MusicSkins collections. Customizer lets them size, position and manipulate the image, and even add background colors and personalized text.

The Customizer skins are priced between $15 and $30 USD to make it affordable for consumers to create personal collections of individualized device skins. MusicSkins are quick and easy to change, giving people the freedom to be as creative and in the now as they want to be.

Like all MusicSkins products, the Customizer personalized skins are made of premium quality vinyl that provides a high-gloss photo grade finish while protecting the electronic device with a durable, scratch-resistant, anti-UV coating. The skins’ patented 3M air release adhesive technology ensures that they apply easily, evenly and bubble-free. Unlike decals, stickers and other kinds of device covers, MusicSkins can also be easily removed without leaving any residue, making it clean and easy to switch skins. MusicSkins add almost zero bulk so the device will still fit perfectly with any case, bag, dock, iTrip or armband.

Here’s some great news from the FTC:

“FTC Cracks Down on Scammers” (07 Jul, 2009) http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/shortchange.shtm

FTC Cracks Down on Scammers Trying to Take Advantage of the Economic Downturn New Public Education Video Helps Consumers Steer Clear of Business Opportunity Fraud The Federal Trade Commission today announced a law enforcement crackdown on scammers trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to bilk vulnerable consumers through a variety of schemes, such as promising non-existent jobs; promoting overhyped get-rich-quick plans, bogus government grants, and phony debt-reduction services; or putting unauthorized charges on consumers’ credit or debit cards.

Dubbed “Operation Short Change,” the law enforcement sweep announced today includes 15 FTC cases, 44 law enforcement actions by the Department of Justice, and actions by at least 13 states and the District of Columbia. During a joint press conference today at the FTC, David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, was joined by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Tony West; Roy Cooper, Attorney General of North Carolina; and a Washington, D.C. job seeker who was conned by a company that made false promises of maintenance and janitorial work.

“Rising unemployment, shrinking credit, record-setting foreclosures, and disappearing retirement accounts are causing consumers tremendous anxiety about making ends meet,” Vladeck said. “But to con artists, today’s challenging economy presents just another opportunity to play on consumers’ worry and bilk them out of money.”

“Thousands of people have been swindled out of millions of dollars by scammers who are exploiting the economic downturn,” Vladeck added. “Their scams may promise job placement, access to free government grant money, or the chance to work at home. In fact, the scams have one thing in common–they raise people’s hopes and then drive them deeper into a hole.”

To help consumers understand how easy it is to be conned–and how to avoid fraud–the FTC produced a new consumer education video featuring a former scammer who hawked phony business opportunities and ultimately served prison time for deceiving investors. To view the video, go to ftc.gov or YouTube.com/ftcvideos. In the video, the former scammer gives an insider account of how these operations use high-pressure tactics and celebrity endorsers to trick cash-strapped consumers, and how consumers can protect themselves by demanding written disclosures on earnings and other sales data.

Operation Short Change: FTC’s Law Enforcement Actions

The FTC today announced that it has brought eight new cases against companies that have conned consumers who are struggling to make a living and pay their bills during these difficult economic times. The Commission brought seven additional cases challenging similar conduct earlier this year.

In each new case, the FTC alleged that the defendants’ practices were deceptive or unfair. In some of the cases, the FTC also charged the defendants with making illegal electronic funds transfers or violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule.

In the law enforcement actions announced today, the Commission charged:

John Beck/Mentoring of America, two principals, and three purported “inventors” marketed three get-rich-quick schemes, duping hundreds of thousands of consumers into paying approximately $300 million. The defendants marketed “John Beck’s Free & Clear Real Estate System,” “John Alexander’s Real Estate Riches in 14 Days,” and “Jeff Paul’s Shortcuts to Internet Millions.” The defendants allegedly made false and unsubstantiated claims about potential earnings for users of these systems. They used frequently aired infomercials to sell the systems for $39.95 and then contacted the purchasers via telemarketing to offer “personal coaching services,” which cost several thousand dollars and purportedly would enhance their ability to earn money quickly and easily using the systems. In addition, all purchasers were signed up for continuity programs that cost an additional $39.95 per month, but which were not adequately disclosed to consumers. Some consumers also continued receiving unwanted sales calls after they told the defendants’ telemarketers to stop calling. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Wagner Ramos Borges, through a host of front companies, including “Job Safety USA,” allegedly systematically targeted people seeking maintenance and cleaning work. Luring job seekers with print and online classified advertisements in newspapers throughout the country, Borges allegedly tricked them into paying $98 for a worthless and needless credential called a “certificate registration number” supposedly so that the consumers could get maintenance or cleaning jobs–jobs that Borges did not provide. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Greenbelt Division.

Grants For You Now and its affiliates and principals operated Web sites such as grantsforyounow.com, grantoneday.org, and easygrantaccess.com that deceived consumers by promising them free government grant money to use for personal expenses or to pay off debt. According to the FTC complaint, after obtaining consumers’ credit or debit account information to process a $1.99 fee for grant information, the defendants failed to adequately disclose that consumers would be enrolled in a membership program that cost as much as $94.89 a month. Some consumers also were charged a one-time fee of $19.12 for a third-party “Google Profit” program. All the defendants’ Web sites falsely offered a “100% No Hassle Money Back Guarantee.” This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Cash Grant Institute and its principals allegedly waged an automated robocall campaign promoting bogus claims that consumers were qualified for grant money from the government, private foundations, and wealthy individuals that they could use to overcome their financial problems. They made similar misleading claims about “free grant money” on their Web sites, cashgrantsearch.com and requestagrant.com. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

Mutual Consolidated Savings, its affiliates, and principals used telemarketing robocalls and the Internet to push a phony “Rapid Debt Reduction” program to consumers in the United States and Canada, according to the FTC complaint. The defendants allegedly convinced consumers to pay them $690 to $899 for the program by misrepresenting that the program would reduce credit card interest rates, save thousands of dollars and enable consumers to pay off their debt three to five times faster than they could under their current payment schedule. The defendants also failed to make good on promises that they would refund the fees paid if consumers’ credit card interest rates were not reduced. Finally, they did not disclose to Canadian customers that the quoted price was in U.S. dollars. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma. In investigating Mutual Consolidated Savings, the FTC received assistance from the Canadian Competition Bureau. Both the Competition Bureau and the FTC are members of the Vancouver Strategic Alliance, a law enforcement task force located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In carrying out the terms of the court order in Mutual Consolidated Savings, the FTC received assistance from the Tacoma, WA Police Department.

Google Money Tree, its principals, and related entities allegedly misrepresented that they were affiliated with Google and lured consumers into divulging their financial account information by advertising a low-cost kit that they said would enable consumers to earn $100,000 in six months. They then failed to adequately disclose that the fee for the kit would trigger monthly charges of $72.21, the complaint states. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

Penbrook Productions, run by Michael Allen Brooks, promoted a work-at-home scheme online that used spokesperson “Angela Penbrook,” and charged $197 for the opportunity to become a “certified” rebate processor, earning as much as $225 per hour. According to the FTC complaint, after purchasing, consumers discovered that the work-at-home “opportunity” had nothing to do with processing rebates, but merely instructed the consumers about becoming an affiliate marketer. Despite Penbrook’s “100% Ironclad, 3-month ‘Make Money Or It’s Free,’ Triple Satisfaction Guarantee,” consumers then found that they could not get a refund. The defendants thus misrepresented that consumers would be hired as rebate processors, made false earnings claims, and misrepresented the refund guarantee. This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Southern Division.

Classic Closeouts, illegally made unauthorized charges and debits to the consumers’ accounts months or years after they bought low-cost clothing or household goods from classiccloseouts.com, the FTC charged. The charges usually ranged from $59.99 to $79.99, and Classic Closeouts charged some consumers’ accounts multiple times. Consumers’ efforts to contact the defendants to contest the charges were unsuccessful. Many consumers also disputed the charges with their financial institutions. After the financial institutions reversed the unauthorized charges, the defendants contested these disputes, falsely claiming that consumers had chosen to join the Classic Closeouts “frequent shopper club.” This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The Commission vote to issue each complaint was 4-0. The Commission has obtained temporary restraining orders barring further illegal conduct and freezing the assets in these cases: FTC v. Wagner Ramos Borges d/b/a Job Safety USA, FTC v. In Deep Services, Inc. d/b/a Grants For You Now, FTC v. Cash Grant Institute, FTC v. Mutual Consolidated Savings, FTC v. Google Money Tree, and FTC v. Classic Closeouts, LLC. The agency is asking the courts for permanent injunctions that would provide for possible consumer redress in each of the cases announced today.

The FTC would like to acknowledge the assistance of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Better Business Bureau of Southland, Inc., Colton, California, in connection with FTC v. In Deep Services, Inc.; and the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection and the Draper Police Department in connection with FTC v. Google Money Tree.

In addition, the FTC initiated, settled or otherwise resolved seven law enforcement actions earlier this year in similar types of cases:

Freedom Foreclosure Prevention Services, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/06/freedom.shtm, an alleged employment and foreclosure-rescue scam.

Medical Billers Network Inc., http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/05/mbn.shtm, an alleged work-at-home scam involving medical billing work.

Network Services Depot, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/04/nsd.shtm, an alleged Ponzi scheme involving an “Internet kiosk” business opportunity scam.

United Credit Adjusters, Inc., http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/unitedcredit.shtm, an alleged credit repair operation that made false and deceptive claims to consumers.

Group One Networks, Inc., http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/groupone.shtm, an alleged telemarketing scam offering consumers with poor or no credit a general-use credit card for an up-front fee of as much as $250.

Global Marketing Group, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/gmg.shtm, an alleged payment-processing scam involving fictitious credit cards and unauthorized debits made to consumers’ bank accounts.

Market Development Specialists, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/01/mds.shtm, an alleged scam involving rebates for computer equipment and other electronics.

The enforcement actions announced today named the following defendants:

Mentoring of America – Gary Hewitt; Douglas Gravink; John Beck; John Alexander; Jeff Paul; Family Products, LLC; John Beck Amazing Profits, LLC; John Alexander, LLC; and Jeff Paul, LLC, doing business as Shortcuts to Millions, LLC. Wagner Ramos Borges – d/b/a, Job Safety USA, Sparkle Industrial, Sparkle Maintenance, Star Maintenance, Aim Janitorial & Flooring, and United Maintenance. Grants for You Now – Ryan Champion and Joseph C.

Fleming IV. Cash Grant Institute – Paul Navestad aka Paul Richard; Global Ad Agency, Domain Leasing Company, and/or Global Advertising Agency; and Chintana Maspakorn aka Christina Maspakorn. Mutual Consolidated Savings – Paul Morris Thompson and Miranda Cavender. Google Money Tree – Infusion Media, Inc.; West Coast Internet Media, Inc.; 2 Two Warnings, LLC; Two Par Investments, LLC; Platinum Teleservices, Inc.; Jonathan Eborn; Stephanie Burnside; Michael McLain Miler; and Tony Norton. Penbrook Productions – Make You Famous Consulting; Process from Home; and Michael Allen Brooks. Classic Closeouts – classiccloseouts.com; ThirdFree.com; and Daniel Greenberg.

NOTE: The Commission authorizes the filing of complaints when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. A complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendants have actually violated the law.

No matter what you thought of the man personally, you must admit, he was an amazing musician and artist.  When I was a kid, Thriller was one of my favorite records.  I haven’t had a record player in years, but I do have several records left.  I would love to listen to my Strawberry Shortcake Disco, Really Rosie, and Sesame Street records again sometime, among others.

At any rate, Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson, and thanks for the music.

This is so bizarre.  Headless zombie ants…

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

The biting, territorial fire ants cost the Texas economy about $1 billion annually by damaging electrical equipment, according to a Texas A&M study. They can also threaten young calves.

But now the researchers are trying a tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants originated. Researchers have learned that fire ants in their home region are kept under control by as many as 23 phorid species.

The flies lay eggs on the fire ants, and the eggs hatch into maggots inside the ant and eat away at the pest’s tiny brain.

The ant will get up and wander for about two weeks while the maggot feeds, said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin.

“There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly,” he said.

About a month after the egg is laid, the ant’s head falls off — and a new fly emerges ready to attack another fire ant.

“They’re not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it’s a way to control their population,” said Scott Ludwig, an integrated pest management specialist with Texas A&M’s AgriLife Extension Service in Overton, in East Texas.

Four phorid species have been introduced in the state since 1999. They don’t attack native ants or other species and have been introduced in other Gulf Coast states, Plowes told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

But it will take time to determine if the flies are effective in Texas, perhaps as long as a decade.

“It’s not an immediate silver-bullet impact,” Plowes said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.