Tax Day Beauty

April 15th. Tax Day.

Here’s a pretty picture for your Sunday.

Click on image to see more by this artist

“36 Shot Phtowalk”, by Bill Oriani, courtesy of Flickr Commons

(Okay. Maybe that image is not quite “pretty”, but how about “interesting”?)(Or.. a “blast from the past”?)

Quick Tip: The deadline for filing with the I.R.S. is mere hours away. To help you meet this deadline, on the IRS website there is a page called “FreeFile”, and here you will find the “partnership links” to the free versions of 19 accepted tax prep programs (H&R Block’s Free File and also TurboTax are there). To qualify, you must have an Adjusted Gross Income of $56,000 or less: FreeFile at the IRS

Today’s quote: “Don’t be yourself – be someone a little nicer.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin

Bonus tip!! (actually, a hint) Like free software? Like games? Check out the “Comment” section (below).

Okay, here’s your Sunday Ugly:

That Ms Lapointe is very helpful..
I wonder if she works for them?

.. and, no, that’s not weird. I have lots of lawyer friends.
In England.
‘Cuz I go there twice a month, and meet lots of people while I’m there.

(and I have a super-good deal on the Brooklyn bridge right now too.)

Yeah.. that’s it.

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

I Made Over $100 Billion Yesterday.

In A Few Hours.

In My Spare Time.

I know that those of you who are familiar with my writings here at Tech – for Everyone have read that title, and are (probably) expecting me to post some scam emails.. Online Lottery Winner!!!, etc.. thinking that I ‘made’ my billions that way

Or maybe I’ll post samples of the ever popular 419 “Nigerian” scams “Dear Beloved One”, “Private and Confidential”, etc.. As I have – in the past – with my Once Again It’s Time To Play Let’s Count The Typos! game.

But no. Not today. I was not being facetious. I really did win over $102 billion dollars.

See?

Three five-spots put me over the top. (The trick is: don't click on "bet it all" until you have $1,000,000 in the bank. Ha!)

What happened was, I got tired of chess and spider solitaire, and decided to dust off an old fave of mine — video poker. It had been a long time.. and I had forgotten how addicting this timewaster can be. (This game is ancient.. dating back to 2003, or so. But it does work on Vista, and most likely. Win 7.)(Yes folks. 2003 is “ancient” in tech.)

From CNet Editors’ Review:

“This video-poker simulation game earns points on several fronts. First off, Draw Poker Gold Edition is tiny and completely free, two big pluses we always appreciate. The game is not graphically intense, but it gets the point across just fine and looks almost identical to the video-poker machines you find in casinos.“

If you enjoy playing video-poker machines but don’t like feeding them all those quarters, this game is for you. You can download it from CNet, here.

[note: Yes, I did post a Sunday Beauty this week. It’s below. (or, click here,Sunday Beauty XIX.)]

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

Women and Video Games

There’s been a recent “paradigm shift” and all of a sudden women are buying video games.

What happened? Wii Fit. And sales are through the roof.

Wii Fit from Nintendo was introduced in May last year, becoming the best-selling game over its first 12 months and the most successful console title designed for women. Nintendo has sold more than 7 million copies of the game, which retails for $90 with a Wii Balance Board accessory.

Other companies have jumped on the “fitness game” bandwagon. “Everyone has seen that if you put out a good fitness product, you do good business and now everyone is getting in the game,” said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Ubisoft. “There is going to be a lot of fitness games coming to the Wii this holiday.”*

Yes, another inroad on the path to a totally shut in society. Why go to the gym? There’s sweaty people there. Ew!

“When you think of the core level of people wanting to be healthy, as long as the industry can provide a way that’s convenient, fun and cheaper, it’s staggering how big the opportunity can be,” Jordan Edelstein, vice president of marketing at EA Canada, said.

There’s a downside though. As a study in England showed, women exercising indoors have caused up to £1.3 billion in accidental damage in the last year (yes, BILLION), as they increasingly give up gym memberships and use games consoles. (See, Women injured by Nintendo Wii and home gyms)

And last year researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospital identified an injury they called “Wii knee”. Osteopaths have also reported they saw an increase in back patients after Christmas, blaming the trend on fathers trying to keep up with their children on the machines.

I’m not terribly worried about this “paradigm shift” though, as I am kind of a grumpy old cynic, and I’d say that in about a year’s time that Wii Fit pad will be sitting next to the Nordic Track, and StairMaster and Ex-r-Cycle, underneath Sweating To The Oldies and Jane Fonda’s Workout tapes, out in the garage.. or at the back of the closet. About as remembered as “The All-Grapefruit Diet”.

But I could be wrong. Wii Fit certainly looks like more fun than the Nordic Track!

* Quotes from SF Chronicle  Wii Fit taps into new market for video games

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

Share this post :