Online Observations

If you have a gaming streak, try going online

Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, and a lot of other places in the world are popular destinations for people willing to try their luck in a Casino. Some people do it for fun, others are professional gamers for games such as poker and blackjack. However, its not always feasible to just hop on a plane and go to your favorite casino. And that is where the Internet comes to the rescue – you can go to an Online Casino. Online Casinos (such as the one linked) offer players a chance to indulge in casino gaming from the comfort of their homes and the privacy of their computers.

Most online casinos offer the entire variety of games which you find in a normal casino – slot machines, roulette, various card games, craps, etc. Some online casinos even offer multiplayer games where instead of playing against a computer you play with other human players on the table (as you would in a real casino). Typically, a Casino may ask you to install a software on your computer (which is normal for a lot of the casinos as they use this software to run the games on your computer). Some casinos simply work in the browser using Flash technologies.

If you are a seasoned player, then you can usually just dive right in. But if you are a rank newbie, then you might want to either stick to something simple like the slot machines, or if you really want to make money instead of having fun, there are many strategies to follow that can increase your probability of making money (online or offline in a real casino). Search the Internet for topics such as “making money with an online casino”, or similar. Watch the videos and read the tutorials; try out several strategies using small amounts of wager before committing big money. However, at the end of the day remember that these are still games of chance, and with that there is always a chance of losing no matter what. So, try to have fun while playing.

Typically, most online casinos offer various signup bonuses and loyalty rewards for sticking around on their website. There are several rules, however, which govern the uses of such bonuses to ensure that players are not just cheating by signing up, taking bonuses, and then trying to withdraw away.

On the flip side of things, one should watch out for several things before starting to play online. One thing that you should know is whether this is permissible in your country – if not, you can get in trouble by going to online casinos in your country. You can visit this topic on Wikipedia to see a discussion about the legality of online casino gaming in your country. But remember, the Wikipedia is not a source of legal advice, so double check before engaging. The other thing to watch out for is that some casinos are not honest themselves. They can engage in various mechanisms to cheat the player. Casinos have been known to use unfair game algorithms, to delay payouts for player’s winnings, or change terms and conditions of playing after the player has joined. So, before you decide to spend money on an online casino, do search the Internet for its reputation. Usually, players who have been burned by a casino will post about it on Internet forums and blogs, and so you should scout before you spend.

So log on, and start playing.

If you are a football fan, Direct TV is your best friend

All 32 teams of the NFL are about to hit camp next month so that they are ready for the pre-season in August. If you are a football fan, you don’t want to miss any action this year. You want to watch every game, of every team, complete with player tracking. What can you do? The best thing you can do for yourself is to shake hands with Direct TV. Direct TV is the only provider which can bring you action from every team and every game.

The Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket gives you access to 200 NFL games (14 of them every Sunday), player tracking, and also access to the NFL network. Like I said, if you are a football fan Direct TV is your best friend. Their package is made custom for football lovers. For instance, the player tracker allows you to choose your favorite 18 players, and will send updates to your screen whenever one of these players makes a big play.

The NFL Network access grants you 24 hour information – news, information shows game previews, coaches, players, press conferences, pre-season live games, and much more.The interactive receiver allows you to get detailed player statistics, real-time score feeds, and live updates from other games while you are watching your current game.

Of course, as always there is a benefit for being the early bird (you are getting a discount if you subscribe now). So, what are you waiting for?

Hacking is not supposed to be evil, and can be used to do good

Power doesn’t have to be used to do evil. If you have what it takes to be a good hacker, then you have a power that not too many people possess. You can use this power to either wreck havoc on unsuspecting sites on the Internet, or you can choose to help the same sites tighten their security and prevent other evil hackers from penetrating them.

Well, even if you don’t have this power right now, you can learn it (as long as you have the will to help). IT Security is a hot field, and there are nearly not enough people with the right skill set out there. There is a big market out there for “Ethical Hackers”. Yes, that is an acceptable and recognized term. EC-Council offers courses for learning how to hack ethically. You can gain the skill sets to help companies improve their IT security by finding holes in their security environment (posing as a potential attacker).

As I mentioned, the industry doesn’t have enough people available who are on the good side and are skilled enough to make a difference. Consequently the demand for such individuals is very high, and the pay is good as well. If you are a natural hacker, then this would be a lot of fun for you. It would be like being a gamer and working for a gaming company for testing games. You will enjoy it a lot.

The EC-Council iClass program offers a variety of options for you to choose from. They have classes available on Security Fundamentals, Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, Computer Forensics, Disaster Recovery, and Secure Programming. As you can see, you can choose what suits you the best (maybe you are just a programmer who is learning how to write secure code).

Their courses are instructor led, and they have professionally designed courseware. And you get a certificate which lets every one know that you are on the good side. So, if you are willing to be a hacker, then get started.

Now you can play Sherlock Holmes

I have always deeply enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Actually, I have always enjoyed reading mysteries, period. That whodunit question always keeps me hooked. I always like to stop in the middle of the novel and try to assemble the clues received so far to see whether I can think like the author. Well, it turns out that there are many people who are like me. They love solving mysteries. I would like to introduce The 5 minute mystery.

This website is awesome. Basically, every day, you get a quick mystery story that you can read in under 5 minutes. Now, its up to you to solve it. You can use the clues given in the mystery to either incriminate or exonerate the suspects in the story. Then you submit the results, and wait for the next day when the solution is released. Depending on whether you got the right answer and depending on whether you used all the clues or not, you get points.

If you are really good, then these points help you get ranked on the Leaderboard, where you can show off your power of logical reasoning. Personally, I think its worth joining the site just to read the stories and the solutions alone (even if you don’t want to solve them). It would be fun reading who stole the rent at the detective’s office, or the dilemma of the gift at the white house.

And this is not just a here now, gone tomorrow website. Its even getting covered in news: ABC News.

Travel the world for free

How does this sound for a vacation trip? The Fiji Islands, Australia, India, Africa, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Scotland, and Ireland. From the Taj Mahal to the castles of Ireland; from searching for the monster in the Loch Ness, to laying in wait for the big 5 in Kenya. Are you with me now? Can you imagine the adventure already?

Now imagine doing all this back to back over a period of 3 months. Furthermore imagine that you don’t have to pay anything on such a vacation, you get it all expenses paid. Okay, okay, before you think this is a scam and leave, let me reveal it all.

All of the above is yours to be had because World Traveler Internship is taking two interns to an all expense paid trip to all the destinations mentioned above. This trip is sponsored by STATravel.com, the leading service provider for student travel. Of course, nothing in life comes for free (don’t worry, I am not asking you to pay money here), and so there are some minimum qualifications: you need to have crazy willingness to travel the world and tell stories about it; you should be better than anyone you know in creative writing and speaking; you need to be outgoing and should love adventure sports; you need to have killer photography skills; you basically need to rock.

You think that you have all that? Well, you need to prove it of course. Make a video to show all of the above, and post it on youtube (details available on the Internship site), and if you can show that you are all that, you may be one of the two extremely lucky people to be part of this awesome travel trip. Not that you need more reasons to bring out your handycam already, but I am not done. Here are some more reasons for why you need to get going on this:

Liked it? Need more reasons? Check out what the past Interns say and what they did? Oh by the way, even if you think that you are not all of the above, or you have your doubts, its still worth the try, because there are great runners up prizes (personally, I like the second runner up prize better than the first runner up prize).

Well, don’t wait anymore. Get going.