The Raging Tech

New Venture: ‘Tech Jaws’ Technology News Site

Tags: Blog, tech jaws, Technology, venture, web site

Hotel Free Wi-Fi: Luxury or Standard?

This weekend I stayed in two different hotels, a Holiday Inn Express and Embassy Suites Hotel. The differences are staggering as far as the quality of your stay. The Holiday Inn Express is somewhere that strikes me as an economical solution if you are with a family or on a budget. It’s not a bad place to stay at all. But the Embassy Suites trumps it in almost every facet. Except one - the Holiday Inn Express has free, unsecured wireless internet access.

Unsecured Wireless is not safe, so be sure to secure your own system if you get on it. However, this seems to be the most hassle-free way to get people connected who are unfamiliar with wireless internet technology.

The Embassy Suites? They have a pay service where you purchase blocks of time on the wireless internet access. This seems utterly ridiculous for an upscale hotel. They did have a business center, but due to the size and location of the hotel, it was always in use. Not to mention the few times I walked by and saw someone else using it, it looked like it was loading slow.

Do you expect to receive free wireless access in the hotels you stay in, or do you consider it more of a luxury that you don’t mind paying for a few hours of access? Tell us your opinion in the comments!

Tags: amenities, hotels, internet, wireless

JustTrade: A New Digg for Stock Trading Tips?

If you’ve been looking into ways to save or invest your money lately like I have, you might have taken a daunting look over at the stock market exchange. If you’re already familiar with trading stocks, you may already have been helped or hurt by OTC (over-the-counter) stock trading tips, or maybe a shady broker.

JUSTtrade is a neat site because you can rate individual tips and posters to the site, meaning that their future tips might be rated higher and be considered more trustworthy. Also, you can pick up some good advice on how to trade and what to trade.

A post on the homepage, for example, hasn’t been rated much yet, but sounds like a neat tip on buying gold low this morning and if the price holds, could see a huge rise later in the day for a nice profit. If I had the money to invest, I’d have gone through to the exchange mentioned and invested in gold and made a killing by this afternoon.

I don’t have the stock savvy or the finances to lose while learning right now, but maybe some of you who do own stocks could take a look at this site and gain some more insight into OTC trading, or maybe even offer some to others.

Tags: exchange, investing, market, OTC, stocks

Shop For a New Credit Card Online

There are lots of people who play the credit card game - using it to their benefit and not just their downfall. A lot of people are firm believers in not using credit at all, except for maybe a house or student loans. It is a smart idea to save up cash to buy the things you want, but what about the things you need?

I’ve had lots of situations in my life where maybe I blew out a tire or had to pay for something for school, or needed emergency gas money to get home to my family for a funeral or something similar. Sometimes you run into these unexpected situations, and even the most savvy of people who have savings accounts and emergency funds may find that they don’t have enough when the need arises.

If you’re responsible and don’t abuse credit cards, you might find that you can improve on your current interest rate just by calling your credit card company and asking for it. If they won’t do it, call up another company and tell them what you’ve got and what you’d like to be offered. Once you have the offer, you could either accept it and do a balance transfer (many banks do this with a 0% interest rate for 12 months) or take the offer and call your company back and use it as leverage.

Whether you’re new to credit cards or just looking for a lower interest rates, or a rewards card, or just a different bank to deal with, you can comparison shop online by reading up on credit card reviews and find the one that best fits your finances. If you travel a lot, you might want an airline rewards card. Or if you talk on the phone a lot, you might want one that gives you free long distance minutes.

Be responsible, don’t buy things you don’t need on credit, and pay off balances as early and as soon as you can without making yourself stressed out.

Tags: amex, comparison shop, credit, credit cards, discover, finance, mastercard, visa

Do Auto Service Like a Pro Mechanic

I know a lot of guys that are either really into car maintenance and service, or at least wish they were. It’s something manly I think to be able to work on your car for most small things - it saves money and you don’t have to feel sheepish or like you’re getting screwed at the mechanic.

It also feels perfectly acceptable if you’re not a skilled mechanic to take your car in for larger repairs or difficult and time-consuming maintenance. And ladies, it’s also perfectly not unladylike to know how to work on your cars. In fact, it’s kind of impressive to me!

If you’re serious about your car maintenance and repair, you can have the same tools and products that mechanics use in the shop at your home garage. Lane’s Auto Care products and Professional Car Care sells only top-quality covers, cleaners, brushes, car wax and other maintenance and care products.

The products Lane’s carries are high-quality, concentrated industrial strength cleaners, which should get out any tough stain or grime in your vehicle. With the right set of detailing tools and supplies, you should be able to restore your car back to it’s factory sparkle. (It does not, unfortunately, remove dents and dings and cover up scratches, but you’ll at least have a sparkly dented car!)

Tags: car care, cleaning, detailing, Lane's, maintenance