Hi, I’m Chris Monty. I’ve been trying to make money online for over 9 months now. I’ve decided that my biggest obstacle is the same obstacle that every one of us faces….MYSELF.

You see, I have trouble focusing on just one ’system’, ‘tactic’, ‘business model’, etc.

My current job is in an industry that’s suffering right now AND we’ve got THREE kids, so my wife wants me to get another J-O-B. After several heated discussions, I told her to give me 30 days!

That’s right, 30 days. If I’m not making enough money to quit my day job and make a living online by JULY 20, 2008, I WILL look for a new job.

So can I go from what I’m making now, to making $200 - $300 or more per day…within 30 days? Well, maybe I’m a little crazy, but…you’re damned right I can.

So stay tuned over the next 30 days. More to come!

Chris Monty

A perfect example of this is The Simpsons movie launch last year. They did a promotional deal with Vans and ended up releasing some pretty awesome Simpsons shoes:

Another great example of awesome promotional computer and tech gifts are all of the promo, specially engraved iPods that have been making their rounds over the last few years. Though they are a higher end promotional product, who is going to throw away an iPod?

There have been many other cool, promotional items over the years. We’ve seen a lot of frisbees with really cool designs, beer can sleeves, and water bottles that people really seem to enjoy and keep around. One of the best parts about these promotional items is that they don’t only promote to the people who get them, they promote to everyone who sees them.

As you can see, the aesthetic link is obvious, but to Jodorowsky, this connection means so much more. He has integrated this ancient process, among others, into his art and the outcome is something that is so surreal and so other-worldly that the uninitiated are often left confused. The “deep psychological search” that Jodorowsky speaks of in this video is, we believe, the precise value of such spiritual practices as tarot. It forces one to look into a mirror of their personality and figure out what lays before them, behind them, and with them right there.

This second issue, that of Quality, is what we’d like to discuss today. When many new website owners are approaching the Internet, they’re often tempted to avoid paying money for a developer and instead choose to do their website, website copy, and SEO themselves. When they realize that their site is still getting no hits, they tend to look in the direction of Pay-Per-Click advertising companies, such as Google’s Adwords. However, what they don’t understand, is that since the quality of both their site and their copy is so poor, they will end up paying a far higher premium than a competitor who has a website that is better designed and has better copy.

Without a doubt, many millions of dollars a year are lost by small, new, or un-hip companies due to poor design, poor copy, and poor SEO. We’d personally like to see that change. This has been your yearly public service announcement. Thank you.

I’ll let Mark Pilgrim do the talking:

So what happens on August 31, 2008? On that day, Microsoft will turn off the servers that they maintain for the sole purpose of validating that the songs that people have already “purchased” through MSN Music are still theirs to play. Those people (hereafter “the victims”) will not notice the change right away. The victims will only notice it when they purchase a new computer, or when they upgrade the operating system on their current computer, or when the hard drive in their computer dies and needs to be rebuilt/reinstalled. At that point — transferring the music files they have “purchased” to another drive or a new computer — the Microsoft music player running on the victim’s PC (like iTunes, but all Microsoft-y instead of Apple-y) will make a call to Microsoft’s validation servers to verify that the music files were legitimately purchased. This call will fail, since the servers are not responding, since Microsoft has intentionally turned them off. The Microsoft music player will then conclude, incorrectly but steadfastly, that the music files were downloaded illegally and that the victim is a filthy pirate, and it will refuse to play them. In this case, the left hand knows exactly what the right hand is doing: they’re both giving you the finger.

Howlin’ Wolf is a great way to start any Friday.

My favorite version of this song is off Wolf’s 1962 album “Moanin’ in the Moonlight”:

Ah, oh, smokestack lightning
Shinin’, just like gold
Why don’t ya hear me cryin’?
Ah, whoo hoo, ooh…
Whoo…

Whoa, oh, tell me, baby
What’s the, matter with you?
Why don’t ya hear me cryin’?
Whoo hoo, whoo hoo
Whoo…

Whoa, oh, tell me, baby
Where did ya, stay last night?
A-why don’t ya hear me cryin’?
Whoo hoo, whoo hoo
Whoo…

Whoa, oh, stop your train
Let her, go for a ride
Why don’t ya hear me cryin’?
Whoo hoo, whoo hoo
Whoo…

Whoa, oh, fare ya well
Never see, ah, you no more
Ah, why don’t ya hear me cryin’?
Ooh, whoo hoo, whoo hoo
Whoo…

Whoa, oh, who been here baby since
I, I been gone, a little, bitty boy?
Girl, be on
Ah, whoo hoo, whoo hoo

I think the title says it all.

Last week, the “Pi of the Sky” (righteous name) telescope in Poland spotted and recorded the very first images of a black hole forming.

From their site:

2008.03.19 “Pi of the Sky” telescope detected the brightest ever optical outburst from a distant universe. The explosion happened 7.5 billion light years from the Earth, halfway across the visible Universe. The telescope is only 71 mm in diameter.

…

The outburst was also detected in gamma rays by “Swift” satellite proving that it was so called Gamma Ray Burst denoted as GRB 080319B (2nd one on 2008.03.19). Probably, it was the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole. Optical observations during the first minute of the burst are crucial to understand the fenomenon(sic). The “Pi of the Sky” observation combined with the Swift gamma-ray data for the first time confirmed with 10s precision that optical and gamma-ray emission start simultaneously.