Filed under: Design, Fun, World wide web, Children, Windows, Macintosh, Social Software

Toonlet is a free web based comic strip creator that allows you to create a comic strip starring a cartoon person or persons that you design yourself and then send your completed strip to friends.

In order to create your own strip you’ve to first create characters. The character builder on the site has a big amount of body parts, hair, and clothing to choose from and unlike other similar character builders all of the parts can be adjusted in size as well as moved around. You’re probably not going to make a character that looks exactly like you, but you can probably get pretty close.

Once you create an original version of your character you have the option to create additional version of the same character experiencing different emotions. For instance after we created “normal” Emily we went ahead and created a “surprised” Emily as well by changing the eyes and mouth on the current creation.

Continue reading Toonlet - Create a comic strip starring you

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Filed under: Budgets, Debt, Shopping, Tax

From all indications, Congress and the President are of one mind (at most) about goosing the economy with a cash rebate to all us taxpayers. It hopes by this largesse to stem the slide toward recession, or, failing that, keep us too sated to call them to account in November.

If this comes through, I’d like to make a suggestion: let’s all spend our bonus on American-made goods and services.

No, I’m not an anti-trade isolationist. I believe in the world economy. However, I’m also aware that our unemployment is growing, and our neighbors could use a job more than a handout. Money spent locally turns over many times, with cascading benefit to the community.

After all, our economic wounds are largely self-inflicted. WalMart is stocked with Chinese-made goods because we chose them at a low price over domestic goods made at a price that would afford American workers a living wage. Perhaps, just this once, we should demonstrate that we are able to look beyond our immediate gratification to the well-being of the wider community.

The sad reality is that, to find the money to fund this gift, the government will have to go hat in hand to the Chinese, the Japanese, the Saudis, who continue to bankroll our growing debt. Our economies are too intimately intertwined to entertain the notion of tariffs or other government-imposed self-discipline without opening a WTO free-for-all.

Let’s not sit back and complain that Washington should do something about our trade imbalance, because the trade imbalance begins and ends with our individual choices. Let’s see what happens when we select to purchase from one another. Just this once.

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Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software, web 2.0

We’re three weeks into the new year, and chances are many people’s New Years resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, if not been totally given up on. If your New Years resolution involved eating superior and being more active, then the site Wellsphere might be able to get you back on track.

Wellsphere is a website designed to connect users with the desire to improve their health with other people with similar wellness goals. It can also help you get connected to local resources in your area that can help them meet their goals. The website also creates groups for massive organizations that want to improve the overall wellness of those involved in their program, for instance BeWell@Stanford for Stanford students. Companies can begin their own similar company wellness program under Wellspheres iBeWell.

Continue reading Keep your wellness goals with Wellsphere

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Filed under: Budgets, Debt, Saving, Tax, The Dolans

Ken and Daria Dolan are widely known as America’s First Family of Personal Finance.

Each time Ken and I hear someone brag about how they got a big, fat tax refund, it’s all I can don’t to scream. A tax refund is NOT a gift…it’s NOT something to celebrate! A tax refund means you let Uncle Sam keep too much of your hard-earned money for the last 12 months!

So this day let’s stop the madness. Put an end to the interest-free loan you’re so generously giving Uncle Sam and give yourself an instant pay raise instead! That’s right, spend five minutes with us now and get a fatter paycheck all year long.

All you need is a pen, a calculator and a W-4 form (which you can get from your payroll administrator or click here to print one now.

Your W-4 is where you claim your allowances. Every allowance you claim equals about $690 in taxes withheld from your paycheck.

So, if you got a refund last year, divide the amount you received by $690. Then, lower your allowances by the nearest whole number (round down). For example, if you got a $1,500 refund, you should lower your allowances by two ($1,500

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AT&T Beefs Up Coverage at Florida Atlantic University for Upcoming
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Middle East speeds up shift to nuclear power
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Blue Square Announces Adoption of a Share Option Plan for Officers and
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Harte-Hanks: PennySaver Is Now PennySaverUSA.com
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Gilead Announces Departure of Caroline Dorsa
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Domino’s Pizza Delivers a Revamped On the internet Image
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Halliburton to Present at the 2008 Credit Suisse Energy Summit
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Royal Philips up on sales and growth
CNN Money - feed://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_international.rss Chief Executive Gerard Kleisterlee said there was “no reason to be bullish in the economic circumstances of this day,” but

Air Products Introduces Two New Epoxy Curing Agents
MSN MoneyCentral - For today’s top Money video click here News Providers Associated Press bizjournals.com Briefing.com BusinessWeek Wall Street Journal Anquamine(R) 721 and 731 Target Civil Engineering Market LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall

A CPA with a rock ‘n’ roll heart
Chicago Sun-Times - Reck, who is also a board member of the Illinois Information Technology Association and the Illinois Technology Development Alliance, laments that it is more difficult for young tech companies to raise money today than it was a generation ago. He

ARCADIS Strengthens Communications Position
MSN MoneyCentral - For today’s top Money video click here News Providers Associated Press bizjournals.com Briefing.com BusinessWeek Wall Street Journal ARNHEM, The Netherlands, January 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — ARCADIS (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the international

NewStar Completes Final Closing of Previously Announced Private
MSN MoneyCentral - For today’s top Money video click here News Providers Associated Press bizjournals.com Briefing.com BusinessWeek Wall Street Journal BOSTON, Jan. 21, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — NewStar Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq:NEWS), a Boston-based specialty finance

Harris Stratex Networks Providing an All-IP Transport Solution for
MSN MoneyCentral - For today’s top Money video click here News Providers Associated Press bizjournals.com Briefing.com BusinessWeek Wall Street Journal High-speed data transport solution to serve expansion of iBurst(R) wireless broadband

Money-Market Rates in Euros Decline for Sixteenth Day (Update2)
Bloomberg - The difference between the one-month dollar rate relative to the OIS rate, viewed as an indirect measure of the availability of funds in the money market, narrowed to 20 basis points this day, from 110 basis points on Dec. 4, and up from 8 basis points

Clarabridge–the Fastest-growing Text Analytics Software Company
MSN MoneyCentral - For today’s top Money video click here News Providers Associated Press bizjournals.com Briefing.com BusinessWeek Wall Street Journal Clarabridge, a leading text analytics software company, this day announced that it tripled its number of customers and

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