2008 March 20 | money news blog

20 03 2008

Mixwit - Make your mix tapes on the web

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Audio, Fun, World wide web, Social Software, web 2.0

Remember when you put together mix tapes on cassettes and lovingly wrote the song titles in microscopic script on the tape label, maybe even including artistic doodles? Remember the recorded intro you did for the recipient? Remember the songs you selected? Each one chosen for its particular meaning - a special code for you and the receiver’s relationship. Yeah, we don’t remember that sappy stuff either.

Well *cough,* not that anyone would do that, but Mixwit is a site where you could if you wanted to theoretically talking, do something kind of, sort of, like that, if you were into that type of thing, which you’re definitely probably not.

Making a mix tape with Mixwit is super simple. You can upload your own artwork for the tape skin, search for songs on the web and drag and drop them on the playlist you’re creating, share by publishing it on Mixwit or even embedding on your blog or website. It’s absolutely free too. We think you’ll love it.

20 03 2008

Diigo 3.0 social bookmarking tool adds recommendations

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Diigo is a social bookmarking service which we covered briefly while it was in private beta. But the service is out of beta, and has launched a new set of tools that make it simple to mark up web pages, save pages to your account, and search through your bookmarks and those of other users.

The service has also added a suggestion engine. Since users are constantly saving and tagging web content, Diigo has a big database of web pages that may feature similar content. So if you like pages about Windows freeware, Diigo probably knows that and when you click on the suggestions feed you should be able to find pages that you’ll like.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

20 03 2008

Mixwit - Make your mix tapes on the web

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Audio, Fun, World wide web, Social Software, web 2.0

Remember when you put together mix tapes on cassettes and lovingly wrote the song titles in microscopic script on the tape label, maybe even including artistic doodles? Remember the recorded intro you did for the recipient? Remember the songs you selected? Each one chosen for its particular meaning - a special code for you and the receiver’s relationship. Yeah, we don’t remember that sappy stuff either.

Well *cough,* not that anyone would do that, but Mixwit is a site where you could if you wanted to theoretically talking, do something kind of, sort of, like that, if you were into that type of thing, which you’re definitely probably not.

Making a mix tape with Mixwit is super easy. You can upload your own artwork for the tape skin, search for songs online and drag and drop them on the playlist you’re creating, share by publishing it on Mixwit or even embedding on your blog or website. It’s completely free too. We think you’ll love it.

20 03 2008

Ping.fm: Post to Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, Tumblr and Pownce

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Ping.fm is a new service that lets you update a bunch of social network/messaging sites all at once. Instead of logging into Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Facebook, and Tumblr and manually posting updates, you can just visit Ping.fm and write a single message which will be sent to each site. So far, it sounds a lot like HelloTXT, right? Well, it is, but Ping.fm has a few features that make it a lot more useful than HelloTXT.

First of all, you can post updates via email. When you sign up for a Ping.fm account you’ll be assigned an email address. Just send a message to that address and the message will show up on all of your linked accounts. You can also enable an IM update option. Right now you need to have an AOL Instant Messenger account to use the IM posting option. But you don’t have to use the official AIM client. As you can see in our screenshot, Pidgin works just as well, as should Adium, Trillian, Meebo or Digsby.

Ping.fm is still in private beta, but we’ve got 100 invites to giveaway. Just enter the code dls on the signup page.

[via Mashable]

20 03 2008

Digsby adds audio, video, and Twitter, drops private beta

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Freeware, Social Software, Beta

Digsby, the instant messaging, social networking, email super-tool we first told you about last month launches its public beta today. That means you can sign up without an invitation code. The latest version of the Digsby client also has ton of new features:

Twitter support
Audio and video chat through a partnership with ToxBox
Spell checking
New “listening to…” status box will automatically update your status with currently playing songs from iTunes or Winamp
Block contacts by right clicking in the IM window

If you’re still not exactly sure what Digsby does, it’s basically a single application that lets you communicate with your IM contacts, friends on Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, or anyone else thanks to email notifications. You can configure Digsby to display a pop up alert each time you receive an email, every time a friend sends a message via Twitter, or every time someone changes their MySpace or Facebook status. You can also see a list of recent updates in each category.

Digsby historically has been a bit of a memory hog compared to lighter weight instant messaging programs like Pidgin. But considering just how many features Digsby has that Pidgin lacks, the memory use doesn’t seem excessive.

The application is available for Windows XP and Vista. Mac and Linux clients are in the works.

20 03 2008

Mzinga : What enterprise companies don’t know about social media

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

SXSW 2008: Mzinga from Download Squad on Vimeo.

Enterprise companies fall into two camps; those who are competent in the social media space, and those who aren’t. Mzinga aims to bring competency to enterprise social engagement. I caught up with Aaron Strout on Mzinga in the hallway at a rockin SXSW, and he gave us the low down on what enterprise users need to know now about managing their social face in the future.

20 03 2008

Use your retirement money to avoid foreclosure?

Posted by: in Money General Talk

Filed under: Debt, Retire

You can’t pay your mortgage? And you’re looking for a way to make ends meet so you don’t lose your home? One option being touted is cashing out a retirement account and using the proceeds to pay the mortgage. Unfortunately, while this is a legal option, it’s often a horrible idea.

It’s become far too simple to shuffle money around without thinking about the tax consequences or the long-term savings consequences. And this option is absolutely terrible in both of those regards. While many retirement plans do have provisions that let your borrow from or cash out of your retirement account to avoid foreclosure, it can be pricey.

Borrowing against your retirement fund is a better option, because it doesn’t create any tax consequences. But it’s not free money — you have to pay it back to the retirement fund with interest. And of course, you’re losing out on the interest, dividends, or increased fund value you could have gotten while the money was in the retirement fund.
Cashing out of the retirement fund is a worse option. Under the IRS rules, you might be able to get a hardship distribution to prevent a foreclosure. But the rules for these vary, and even if you do get to take such a distribution, you’ll still have to pay regular income taxes on the amount you take out.

If you don’t qualify for a hardship distribution, any money you cash out is taxable and usually has a penalty associated with it. By the time you pay all say and federal taxes and penalties related to cashing out early, you typically lose about 50% of what you cashed out. That’s a bad deal all the way around.

Weigh your options carefully before taking money out of a retirement fund to avoid foreclosure. You might also consider selling your home. Sometimes that’s the best bet to help dig out of a bad financial situation.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

20 03 2008

Video : Ian Hogarth of Songkick

Posted by: in Social Informant

Filed under: Video, Web services, Social Software

SXSW 2008: Songkick from Download Squad on Vimeo.

What are you doing Friday night? Songkick is a new service which aims to put live music at the center of your evening plans. Through geolocation, analysis and some old-fashioned Web 2.0 style goodness, Songkick does its ideal to suggest shows worth seeing, highly relevant to you and within your area.

We talked with Ian Hogarth from Songkick while we were in Austin for SXSWi. He does a bang-up job of explaining why Songkick is a relevant service, approaching a problem in a unique way.