Financial Zen: Mint vs Wesabi

February 19th, 2008 Poof

When it comes to whipping up webpages, I’m quite adept but as far as managing money, I feel like a monkey banging on a typewriter. So I signed up for Mint to help me get a handle on my spending. Cha-ching! While having all the numbers in front of you doesn’t guarantee riches, it can help you evaluate & control your spending - Below we evaluate two web 2.0 financial software websites.

Mint

Ever wonder how much you actually spend on Starbucks each month? Now you can track purchases down to the penny with Mint…Mint was extremely easy to start up. All you need are your logins for your other websites. I was glad that my business account and personal accounts are linked inside Washington Mutual, and Mint detected both although it was all under one login: I was able to easily integrate my Chase, Bank of America, and Discover accounts just as easily.

The dashboard offered good information such as Cash vs Debt, charts to reign in your budgets, and notifications for bank charges or alerts.

I think the one thing I appreciated most about this site is its clarity. Although basic financial jargon is used throughout - as that is its purpose – the site made financial management accessible both in theory and practical application.
The step-by-step planner covered all of the basics when it comes to a household budget and highlights budget deviations most conscientious people run into no matter how much planning they have put into their finances.

The Spending Trends provides a real financial synopsis of your spending. This is the result of everything you have given the site to work with. One use for this information is it allows you to do month-by-month comparisons versus the entire Mint average. I happened to come in higher for restaurants, but lower for Borders Books.

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Ipod Nano vs. Microsoft Zune

January 11th, 2008 Poof

There’s a seemingly endless debate about which is the better music & video player; Both come in at a $150 price point, and each have advantages. So we set out in a rigorous real-world test to figure out which is the keeper.

At first glance, both players are loaded with features, at an attractive price.

Ipod: $137.99, Lots of available accessories, software easy to use, fashion statement.

Zune: $148.99 (Amazon), FM tuner, Wireless Sync

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The Ipod Nano

The Ipod works like a charm right out of the box; syncing is straightforward, although 3rd party software is needed to backup songs and swap MP3’s. We used Yamipod to share songs with another Ipod. However, only iTunes or Yamipod may access the iPod at one time, not simultaneously. Yamipod ended up clearing all the songs off our Ipod by accident, (probably because the iPod was PC formatted and we synced with a Mac). We tested the 4GB nano, along with the 8GB special RED edition which comes with about 50 songs. The screen is crisp & clear, and can display album art in a flipbook style view (cover flow). Cover flow is fun, but not that practical so we switched to shuffle. 3 games are included with the nano, including Vortex - a 3D brickbreaker type game, Klondike - a remake of Solitaire, and iQuiz a trivia game about Movies & Music.

The Ipod family

Holding Menu + center button resets the unit, a handy feature I had to use more than once when I connected the FM tuner from XtremeMac Airplay.

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The Zune

Microsoft has revised their old Zune and have now released new 4gb/8gb flash based mp3 players. At first glance, you can see that the Zune 2 looks wonderful, unlike it’s competitor, the Nano. The Zune is pretty big compared to the ipod Nano and even the 1st and 2nd generation Nano’s.

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Poofomatic: A History

December 29th, 2007 Poof

20 years into the future, in the Brazilian rainforest a wildlife biologist collecting frogs discovered a giant mutant frog among the dense foliage. This peculiar frog did not eat insects as the others did, but it feasted on oil being dumped into the water from a nearby factory. Wanting to find out more about the frog, the biologist brought the creature back to the United States where it could be studied further. Unfortunately, the frog would eat nothing but oil and as gas prices skyrocketed to $1,000/gallon, the University sponsoring research of the frog had no choice but to cut its funding to the biologist!

On December 28, 2027 the disappointed but determined biologist sought out his digital camera to take pictures of the creature for Scientific American only to find that the camera had strangely disappeared from the lab. Upon opening the creature’s cage, he discovered the empty plastic housing of the camera. Apparently the frog had eaten the electronics inside - it preferred the silicon wafers found in the inner workings of the digital camera because they had an oily taste. The biologist found that the creature reacted differently to the technology fed to it, and it preferred denser electronics which were more technologically advanced.

The public was awed by “Poof,” the giant mutant frog and followed the types of foods it munched on - the biologist, logically decided that it would always feed the frog two types of foods in an A-B test to see which it preferred. Its brightly colored hairdo and face would become brighter as it was fed more delicious gadgets. Scientists observed intelligent behavior behind the frog’s appetite so they created a special transmitter attached to the frog which could make his thoughts known to the world; Poofomatic.com was born!

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