Updates Blog

As promised, here is the Japanese addition to our Famous Quotes parade: Daisaku Ikeda. He’s got about 10 million followers in his Japanese organizations, pretty impressive for a nation of about 100 million people.

~ Attitude ~“When your determination changes, everything will begin to move in the direction you desire.” — Daisaku Ikeda “Determined” by Vernon Wiley • USA   Daisaku Ikeda Daisaku Ikeda (1928 –) is a Japanese Buddhist Leader who founded Soka University. He is a prolific author, poet, humanitarian and peace advocate who received the United Nations Peace Medal in 1983.

All the quotes on this blog are actually going into a special page we’re building called “The Magic Mirror”. It’ll come online in a month or so. Here’s a screenshot showing about one third of its full width, showing about half of the historical figures you would find on the New World part of it:

It will be easy to use, you can just explore the map as you like:

1. Click the top menu (e.g. click on “Artists” to view all the featured writers and painters)
2. Or click on people you find on the map (e.g. you can click on Chief Joseph or Ben Franklin to read a mini-bio)
3. You can click on the pictures and words on the map to pop up a full description
4. You can enjoy enlightened quotes, fine classical art and amazing photographs.
5. As you read more quotes, the pictures and words brighten
6. Press the F11 key to enlarge the PC screen (to downsize, press F11 again)
7. We’ll be spicing it up with lots more cool features

~ Optimism ~“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” — Winston Churchill “Hawaiian Rainbow in a Ravine Between Two Mountains” by Liv • Australia   Winston Churchill Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) led Britain during World War II, defeating the Axis powers. He had also been a famous war correspondent as an army officer, held cabinet positions, and later became a historical writer and artist.

Over the past month we’ve published what we think are the world’s top seven “quick tips” for consumers (well, actually eight tips if we include the oversized anti-crime tip.) We couldn’t make that a quick tip because the mind of the criminal can be complex, and there is no quick and easy defense against it. Consumers must actively and intelligently think ahead in order to combat it.

Today we took those seven top quick tips and put them on one sheet of paper. It’s actually two pages long, but you can print it front-and-back on one sheet. Why not print out a couple of copies of The World’s Best 7 Quick Consumer Tips now? There’s a simple trick to it: Print out two pages as you normally would, then switch ‘n’ flip them right back into your printer’s paper-in tray. Then just print again, maybe stick them in with yor pile of bills, and you’ll always have the most important things you should know as a consumer right at hand.

Oh, and don’t forget to stay safe by checking out the 8th (anti-crime) tip.

~ Forgiving ~“Let us forgive each other - only then will we live in peace.” — Leo Tolstoy “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt (1606-1669) • Oil on canvas, c.1669, Hermitage, St Petersburg   Leo Tolstoy Count Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) was a great Russian novelist who authored War and Peace. He urged non-violent resistance to oppression through works such as The Kingdom of God is Within You, influencing Mohandas Gandhi and Martin L. King Jr.

Every day we Americans are bombarded with commercial messages. Marketers just want your money; Coco is a completely pro-consumer tool that, like the police, is intended to serve and protect the public rather than to get you to buy anything. Here’s why consumers everywhere love it:

1. It saves you money by comparing prices from many shopping sites.
2. It also helps save money by listing alternatives to buying it new (such as borrowing, renting or buying pre-owned.)
3. It helps you search many different consumer-friendly sites so you can get accurate information. You’ll avoid shoddy products and rip-offs.
4. You can use it to search locally for products or businesses in your area and see maps that will help you get there fast.
5. You can quickly check weather and traffic, and get driving directions, or even have the computer plan your bus routes.
6. It’s really easy to use: you can hover your mouse arrow over any link in Coco, and helpful text will appear to explain what the link is good for.

To use it, you only need a recent version of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Firefox.  It’s been extensively tested on IE 7 and Firefox 3, and it will work nearly as well on IE 5 or Firefox 2. If you have an older browser, download an updated FireFox or Internet Explorer browser.

Y’interested? Smart Earthling! To read more about what Coco does for you, visit the Coco Help Page — and if you wanna look right in the horse’s mouth, go check out Coco (a.k.a. “Consumer Radar”) now.

~ Integrity ~“I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.” — Abraham Lincoln “Mount Rushmore and the U. S. Constitution” by David Snell and Ron Chapple Studios • Seattle, WA and Charlotte, NC, United States   Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865) served as President from 1861 until his assassination. He helped preserve the United States by defeating the Confederacy in the American Civil War. His Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 led to the end of slavery.

The Consumer SmartCalendar reminds you of many things consumers can do throughout the year to remember events, improve their finances and maintain the condition of their homes.  When you take just one minute to glance at it each month, you’ll be able to plan the month much better. It’s a public service for which I receive no money, nor does it even have any display ads.

I use it to pop up reminders to brush my teeth because half the time I forget! Next time you forget to do something, come and get the SmartCalendar: you’ll relax knowing you’ve got automatic reminders, instead of enduring the stress of having to remember everything.

Its consumer tips are very helpful.  For example, you’ll remember to inspect your home to prevent ruinous disasters like termites, mold and fires. Tips are divided into five categories:

Financial
   Home
Spending
  Taxes
  College Prep (optional)
(And Coming Soon: A Kids category with dozens of kid-friendly ideas)

It’s really as easy to use as a paper calendar.  This little page tells everything you need to know to enjoy all its benefits.  Simply moving your mouse arrow over nearly anything on the calendar will display a helpful tip.

Scroll down to the “Add Reminder” section of SmartCalendar.  Using this feature, you could add birthdays or an anniversary, or remind yourself of your periodic meetings, tasks or events. You simply fill in a date, name it, and click one button to specify how often it occurs (weekly, yearly, one time, etc.)  After you’ve entered all your reminders, click “Save Changes” at the top of the screen.  This will save the calendar to your list of favorite bookmarks, with all the reminders you’ve entered.

Another very helpful feature you’ll see on SmartCalendar is “Print 3-Month Calendar”. It prints a one-page calendar that will remind you of all your important dates coming up. You can fold it to one-third size and stick in with your bills. Never again will you forget a to-do item that’s important to your finances or home maintenance.

Checking your SmartCalendar each month is automatic:  Simply add it to your list of “home pages.” An article written just a couple of days ago shows exactly how.

~ Dogmatism ~“A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey. (Author unknown)” — Sufi Sayings “Dispute D’Arabes [Arabs Arguing]” by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) • Oil on cradled panel, Private collection   Sufi Sayings Sufi Muslim mystics and poets like Al-Suhrawardi, Rumi, and Hafiz focused on their hearts, with the aim of realizing the “Divine unity.” Sufis are often at odds with zealot-ruled regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran. Shown above is a Persian rug.

If you browse the Internet regularly, you can get a faster start by making your browser appear when your computer starts. By actually following these instructions while you’re reading this post, you’ll be able to see all your favorite web pages waiting for you each and every time you start your computer. It’s best if you have an always-on connection, but dial-up users may want to do it too. It should be easy but if you do run into problems, click the “Comments” link below this post and I’ll be happy to lend you a hand. This post is for Windows users (we’ll try to help Mac users too, if and when we can figure out how.)

The first step is to open a window to your Startup folder. Anything in this folder will start up whenever you start your computer. How to do this depends on whether you have Windows XP or Vista:

• In Windows XP click on Start and then click My Computer. Now double-click the local Hard Disk Drive icon (often called the “C:” drive). (If you see a window saying “these files and folders are hidden” just click on the “view these now” link.)  For a clearer view of the folder, you may want to click the View Menu and click the Details option.

  Now we locate and double-click the Documents and Settings folder. If you want to make a change for all the users of your machine, you should then open the All Users folder (otherwise click your User Name, whatever that happens to be.) Look for and open the Start Menu Folder. Click it and then click the Programs folder, and finally click Startup.

• In Windows Vista, click Start, then click Programs and scroll down until you see the folder labeled Startup. Double-click it to open it up.

Making The Web Page Appear In As One Of Your “Home Pages”:

Your home page is the page that first appears when your browser starts up. In Firefox or Internet Explorer 7, you can have as many home pages as you like. Previous versions of IE allow only one home page.

To add another home page to Internet Explorer 7, click the Tools Menu, then click Internet Options, then type the address of the home page into the Home Page box. Two pages that are great to add right away are http://www.smartconsumertips.com/mycal.htm (the Consumer SmartCalendar) and http://www.smartconsumertips.com/cc.htm (the Consumer Control Center, a.k.a. “Consumer Radar”). You’re not replacing your previous home page, you’re just adding new ones.

To add multiple home pages in Firefox, first click the Tools Menu, then click Internet Options. In the Main tab, where you would normally type a single homepage address, type multiple addresses (or “URLs” in webspeak) separated by a pipe symbol (that’s the “|“, located on the upper right of your keyboard.) Do not type any spaces between the URLs.

Now locate the browser icon on your Desktop (be careful to make sure the icon is actually labeled Internet Explorer or Firefox — don’t click similar-looking icons that are labeled something else.) Press the right mouse button and while you keep holding it down, drag it to the Startup window, and then release the right mouse button. If a little menu pops up, click Create shortcut here. You’re done!

Making Any Page Appear In Its Own Window:

If you don’t want to add SmartCalendar or some other page as one of your home pages, you can still have it appear when your computer starts up. The next step depends on which browser you prefer to use:

• In Internet Explorer, adding a web page is easy: just right-click any blank spot on the page, then click Create Shortcut (it may be labeled a little different) to add a shortcut to this web page to your computer’s desktop. Now find this shortcut on your desktop and drag-and-drop it into the open Startup window. (Tip: to minimize all open windows and see an uncluttered desktop, press the m key on your keyboard while holding down the key with the Windows symbol.)

• In Firefox, it seems that it’s necessary to first add the web page to your Bookmarks. Press Ctrl-B to open your bookmarks in a sidebar, then drag-and-drop the web page into the open Startup window.
• If you prefer using another browser, you can probably find a procedure similar to one of the above methods with a little online research; but it’s probably best to use Internet Explorer for this web page, and continue using your preferred program for browsing the web.

Again, it’s a no-brainer to add http://www.smartconsumertips.com/mycal.htm (the Consumer SmartCalendar) and http://www.smartconsumertips.com/mycal.htm (the Consumer Control Center). They are easy, point-and-click pages that will really help you save time and money. Trust me, I’m in this thing to help the average guy and gal, not make a buck off of them.

Now the next time you boot your computer, your favorite web pages will be waiting for you on your Desktop!