Nonfamily Member

This guest post from Hong Alexander

My coworkers recommended a great site to me yesterday via email. They sent me the link to www.t1internet.net so that I could look into what our boss is planning to move towards. It looks like a good plan. The bosses mentioned the switch in a meeting yesterday, and we were all wondering what exactly that meant, and how it would change our jobs on a day to day basis. If anything, it sounds like it is just going to speed up our work time, and make it easier to work online. I appreciate being a member of a company that is forward thinking and always looking for ways to improve our company. It is a small business, with mostly family members. I’m not related to anyone here, but they have never held that against me and have allowed me plenty of opportunities for advancement. You wouldn’t expect that in a family business if you aren’t a member of the family, but that has always been the case here, and for that reason, I stay.

Magic Numbers In Sports

With the regular baseball season wrapping up, sports articles are listing the magic numbers for teams to clinch a playoff spot or their division. Magic numbers are also used in other sports, such as basketball.

What is a magic number?

The magic number shows how many wins by the leading team and/or losses by the second place team are needed for the leading team to win the division.

How is the magic number calculated?

It is calculated by T - W1 - L2

where T is the total games in the season

W1 is the wins by the leading team

L2 is the losses by the second place team

How is the magic number reduced?

As we can see from the formula, each win by the leading team decreases the magic number by one. Each loss by the second place team also reduces the magic number by one. When the magic number reaches 0, then the team clinches.

For example, assume that Team A is leading Team B in the standings and has a magic number of 4. Today, both Team A and Team B play games against different opponents.

Here are the results from the 4 possible outcomes:

1. Team A wins and Team B loses. Magic number is now 2.

2. Team A wins and Team B wins. Magic number is now 3.

3. Team A loses and Team B loses. Magic number is now 3.

4. Team A loses and Team B wins. Magic number stays at 4.

Converting From Fractions To A Percentage Without A Calculator

Let's convert 5/12 to a percentage without using a calculator:

1. A percentage is simply a value divided by 100. So, we multiply our fraction by (100/12)/(100/12). This leaves us with 500/12 / 100, or 500/12 %

2. This reduces to 250/6 %

3. Finally, we can reduce this to 41 4/6 %, which is 41 2/3 %.

4. So, 5/12 is 41.67%

A Good Credit Rating is Important

In today's world, it is very important to have a good credit rating. A bad credit score can really hurt your financial life.

For example, it may prevent you from buying the house of your dreams. Even if you can get a house or car on credit, you may have to pay a lot more in interest - which is money down the drain. You may also have to pay more for insurance. Insurance companies now routinely check your credit score because they have found a correlation in low scores and more claims.

Fortunately, there are companies that can show you how to rebuild your credit fast. They can help you clean up your history and rebuild it step by step. They have the experience and knowledge to guide you through the process on how to clean up your credit score.

If you need further incentive to take action, you should realize that raising credit score fast can improve your chances of getting a job. With the recent recession and global financial crisis, a lot of people are unemployed, and there is a lot of competition for jobs. A lot of companies now check applicants' credit history.

Going To Work Puzzle

A man jumps in his car and leaves for work, driving at 30 mph.

Half and hour later, his wife realizes that he forget some important papers he needs.

She jumps into her car with the papers and drives after him at 60 mph.

How long does it take for her to catch up to him?

Please click here for the answer.

Ev Bogue and "Minimalist Business" Interview, Part II

Here is part II of my interview with Ev Bogue, author of "Minimalist Business":

http://simple-trading-system.blogspot.com/2012/03/interview-with-ev-bogue-author-of_20.html

New Elegant Website Let's You Shop AND Save Money For College

I came across a new website that is built around a clever, simple idea for painlessly allowing people to build up savings for their children's education.

This site is called Mission Tuition and, when you shop through their site, they deposit rebates into your account, which you can later withdraw or roll over into a state 529 tax deferred college savings account for your child. This page explains how they work.

They seem to have a good number of participating merchants, so people looking to internet shop should be able to find something they want. The website is designed so that browsing the list of merchants is a simple and elegant task.

Ev Bogue and "Minimalist Business" Interview

On my "Stock Market Zen" blog, I have a two part interview with Ev Bogue, author of the best-selling eBook "Minimalist Business".

Here is the link to part I of the interview.

Apple Picking Problem

Three friends went apple picking at a farm.

Together, they picked 65 apples.

At the first tree, each picked the same number of apples.

From the second tree, they all picked 3 times as many as they had picked from the first tree.

After picking apples from the third tree, the group of friends now had 5 times as many apples as they had when they started at the third tree.

They only picked 5 apples at the fourth tree.

Question: How many apples did each person pick from the first tree?

Please click here for the solution.

A Number Puzzle

A number has five different digits, none of which is 0.

1. The first digit plus the second digit equals the third digit.

2. Two times the third digit, plus the second digit, equals the fifth digit.

3. The second digit times two equals the first.

4. The first digit times four equals the fourth digit.

5. The fourth digit minus the second digit equals the fifth digit.

What is the number?

Please click here for the solution.

An Online MBA With SNHU

Since many readers of this blog are students, or people interested in further education, I thought I would mention that I was looking at the Online MBA program at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).

Over the years, I have toyed with the idea of getting an MBA. But, because of work and family (I have two young sons), I don't think it would be practical for me to attend an on-site program.

So, if I did an MBA (or any graduate program), I would want to choose one that offers the option to do it completely online.

The SNHU MBA program meets this criteria. In addition, I don't think it will cost the $50-80k that some other schools would charge. Instead, I think it might end up costing around $25k - but that is just an estimation from looking at the pricing information at their online mba website.

How To "Spring Forward" Without Moving The Clock Hands - The Answer

(Solution Hidden)


The building simply powered off the clock at an arbitrary time (in their case 6 am), and then turned the clock back on exactly 11 hours later.

How To "Spring Forward" Without Moving The Clock Hands

We changed over to daylight savings last weekend. This meant that we had to move our clocks ahead one hour. Now, we have an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Changing your household clocks are trivial, but the "Chicago Tribune" had an article on how several high-rise buildings in downtown Chicago changed their external clocks.

One building did not move it's clock's hands ahead one hour. They adjusted the time in an easier way.

Can you guess how they did it?

Please click here for the answer.

Six Ways To Avoid Online Identity Theft

Here are six ways for you to protect yourself from identity theft while using the internet:

1. Regularly check your credit history and statements to make sure nobody is buying products / services in your name or opening credit cards, checking accounts, etc. with your identity. To help detect any problems, consider signing up with an identity theft protection service such as IdentityHawk.

2. Use credit, NOT debit cards when shopping online. When credit cards are stolen, your liability is capped at $50. With debit cards, you are only liable up to $50 if you catch it within 2 days. Between 2 - 60 days, your liability is $500. After 60 days, your liability is unlimited.

3. Never make online purchases from public computers or Wi-Fi.

4. Don't shop, give your credit card number, or type in your personal information one websites you reached by clicking a link from an unsolicited email.

5. When clicking on a shortened URL (like the kind given out on Twitter), make sure that it resolves to a genuine site.

6. Avoid shopping on unfamiliar sites found on an online search. Identity thieves and hackers work on getting their sites ranked high on search engines. Instead, try to shop only on shopping sites you know and trust.

Jeans Paradox - The Answer

(Solution Hidden)


The $1 she has and the $98 she owes can't be added together. They actually belong on different sides that balance out:

Amount girl owes: $98

Value of what the girl has: $98 ($97 pair of jeans and $1 cash)

Jeans Paradox

This puzzle is from the "Ask Marilyn" column in the 3/4/2012 issue of "Parade" magazine:

A girl wants a pair of jeans that cost $97 and borrows $50 each from two friends. She buys the jeans and gets $3 back. She gives each friend $1 and keeps $1.

Now the girl owes her friends $49 apiece. But $49 plus $49 is $98; when you add the $1 she kept, you get $99.

Where's the missing dollar?

Please click here for the answer.

Your Business' Changing eCommerce and Web Hosting Needs

It's always better to keep expenses low when you first start a small business.

For example, you may have created an internet business and then kept your online costs low by using simple blog software with an easy-to-setup, single item shopping cart.

Well, once your business starts catching on and building, you probably want to utilize a more powerful and robust web site.

However, this does not mean you have to spent a lot of money to hire an expensive web designer. It is possible to have a nice, professional looking website while still keeping costs down.

This can be done by using ecommerce software from eDirectHost to build and host your site. Their ecommerce web design point and click interface let's you quickly and easily build your own, unique web site.