Welcome to Smuggle Me

As a person working in technology I have tons of people at work that come up to me and ask me for some help in purchasing a computer. Generally I find this a painful experience because there are a zillion options and people don’t generally know what they want. However, if it is someone I like then I usually pull up my big girl panties and help them out, because I know that if I don’t then they are going to get ripped off and pay twice what I could find for them.

Even for people I don’t really care to help I always direct them to a site I’ve been using since I was in college called Tech Bargains. My favorite addition to their site was their easy link to Dell Deals. I love purchasing a dell computer and using various tricks that Tech Bargains has to get the best discount. My wife recently bought a digital camera on a whim. I wish she would have checked out the cheap digital camera list that Tech Bargains has. I think we could have saved some money, but oh well. At least she got a good discount where she got it and it looks like it should be a pretty nice camera.

I highly recommend watching tech bargains for good deals on computers. That’s what I’ve used for buying my computers and many of my friends. Sometimes you have to watch for the deals to come around, but I’ve been able to find some good ones.

I’m sure that most of you that are reading this already know that you really only need to find one of the set of McDonald’s Monopoly pieces. If you get the rare McDonalds Monopoly piece, then you are essentially a winner. Find the rare piece and I’ll find you the rest of the pieces if you need them. In fact, you can just go and purchasedthe McDonald’s Monopoly pieces on eBay if you need them.

Either way, I still love McDonald’s monopoly game. Mostly because of the free food that you can win. I just love McDonald’s sausage egg mcmuffins. So good!!

Here’s the list of McDonald’s monopoly pieces for 2007 and the ones that are rare are in bold. Good luck!

#801 - Mediterranean Avenue
#802 - Baltic Avenue

#823 - Reading Railroad
#824 - Pennsylvania Railroad
#825 - B&O Railroad
#826 - Short Line

#803 - Oriental Avenue
#804 - Vermont Avenue
#805 - Connecticut Avenue

#806 - St Charles Place
#807 - States Avenue
#808 - Virginia Avenue

#809 - St James Place
#810 - Tennessee Avenue
#811 - New York Avenue

#812 - Kentucky Avenue
#813 - Indiana Avenue
#814 - Illinois Avenue

#815 - Atlantic Avenue
#816 - Ventnor Avenue
#817 - Marvin Gardens

#818 - Pacific Avenue
#819 - North Carolina Avenue
#820 - Pennsylvania Avenue

#821 - Park Place
#822 - Boardwalk

Looking for free McDonald’s monopoly pieces? Send a hand-printed, self-addressed stamped envelope to The Monopoy 2007 Game at McDonalds, Game Piece Request, PO Box 49308, Strongville, OH 44149-0308.

I have to confess that I personally have been a huge slacker in proper use of a savings account. I’m an idiot for doing it, but I fall in the same boat as the most of you. It’s just so convenient for me to have my money in the same bank as my checking account. Who cares if I’m not earning crap for interest. Well, I think I’ve had about enough of that. Look at this offer from SavingsAccount.com

Compare high yield online savings accounts and find a new savings account or checking account and earn more interest today with SavingsAccounts.com

SavingsAccounts.com is a new site on the internet, but they have all the big name banks right there. It’s not like they are trying to have you sign up with Bank of Nigerian Scam Artist. These are big name banks. I’m an idiot for not switching my savings over earlier. The interest rates for online savings accounts really is a great deal and 6% is much better than the banks less than 1%. It’s nice to have a teller, but it’s nicer to have more money in my savings account.

This post sponsored by SavingsAccounts.com

I’ve always tried to follow a simple rule about money management. Avoid debt like the plague. Seriously, I abhor it. I’ve seen what it did to my mother and father and I absolutely hate it. I understand that it is sometimes a necessary evil. However, credit cards are really risky if you don’t know how to manage them correctly. Take a look at this website that teaches about credit cards.

It’s a pretty straightforward site that is packed full of information. In fact, I’d almost say that there is too much information on the site. I’ve got a large screen and I had to scroll a full 10 screens to get to the end of all the information they had on credit cards. Since I’m a technology guy, there is some layout things that could be done to improve the page. However, the information on that site is good. The most important thing it said was to look at your credit card as a high interest loan. That’s exactly what it is. Why do you think credit card companies can afford to send you thousands of letters trying to get you to sign up for a credit card? Easy, they are making stacks of money from the high interest rates.

My best advice to you is to Pay Off Your Credit Cards ASAP and Avoid Debt like the PLAGUE!!

Once you do this, you’ll feel so much better. Not to mention, without debt you might actually have some savings. With savings you can start looking at various Banking Investment Services that will actually start paying you interest as opposed to having to pay interest. That’s an awesome feeling when your money starts working for you rather than your credit eating at you. It will be one of the best days of your life.

This post sponsored by Credit Loan

I saw this great article on how to get discounts from your Verizon store. It says it came from a past Verizon rep, but my guess is that it is just clever writing. Either way it has some great things to think about. I would have to personally get a cell phone to use this. However, for all the rest of you out there with cell phones you might like this.

I should mention that I think some of them are unethical and you shouldn’t do. Like saying that your phone was lost or stolen. Like we tell children. That’s a lie. Of course, unless you really did get your phone lost or stolen.

Getting the right gift for the holidays is important. My personal favorite gift for a husband or wife is called Spoil My Spouse. However, there are also a ton of online discounts available for those who want to buy something a little more traditional. Let me help you out by taking a look at a number of online coupons that you might want to consider if you are planning on buying your husband or wife something online.

A dell coupon would be a nice gift for almost any husband and many wives. Buy just about anything at discount rates from Eddie Buaer and you’ll have a happy wife. The pet loving husband or wife will love one of these PETCO deals. Finally, want not save a little money and use this coupon to Old Navy to buy your husband or wife something nice.

There are so many options out there that you just have to look around and you’ll find deals and creative gifts. They’re worth the extra effort. I guess that means I better get started shopping for my wife.

UPDATE: This is the list for 2006 Rare McDonald’s Monopoly pieces. Here’s a link to the 2007 Rare McDonald’s Monopoly pieces.

While in Dallas at the Educause Conference, I decided to run down to McDonald’s to get a little something to eat. I upgraded my 10 piece chicken nugget combo meal to a chocolate shake. Well, that means I got the medium chocolate shake and much to my surprise I had the McDonald’s Monopoly pieces on it. I guess that shows how much I go to McDonald’s that I didn’t even know that their Monopoly promotion is going on.

Well, a while ago my friend ruined the Monopoly game for me because he informed me that really you just need to find the rare piece for each color and then you can find the rest of the pieces. For example, Boardwalk is the rare piece you need to win the big bucks from McDonalds. So, if you find Boardwalk you’ve as good as won. Finding a Park Place will be simple since there are thousands and thousands of them out there. However, there is only one boardwalk in all the world (or is McDonald’s Monopoly only played in the US?)

Well, I decided that someone has probably figured out which of the Monopoly pieces were the rare ones that would let you win. Indeed there is a site that has all the info on McDonald’s Monopoly pieces. I’ve copied them below for your convenience (rare in bold):
#3601 - Mediterranean Avenue
#3602 - Baltic Avenue Rare
Common Purple $50 5,000
#3603 - Oriental Avenue
#3604 - Vermont Avenue
#3605 - Connecticut Avenue Common
Rare
Common Blue Gray $500 500
#3606 - St Charles Place
#3607 - States Avenue
#3608 - Virginia Avenue Common
Common
Rare Maroon $1,000 250
#3609 - St James Place
#3610 - Tennessee Avenue
#3611 - New York Avenue Common
Rare
Common Orange $1,500 100
#3612 - Kentucky Avenue
#3613 - Indiana Avenue
#3614 - Illinois Avenue Rare
Common
Common Red $5,000 50
#3615 - Atlantic Avenue
#3616 - Ventnor Avenue
#3617 - Marvin Gardens Common
Rare
Common Yellow $10,000 10
#3618 - Pacific Avenue
#3619 - North Carolina Avenue
#3620 - Pennsylvania Avenue Common
Common
Rare Green $50,000 2
#3621 - Park Place
#3622 - Boardwalk Common
Rare Blue $1,000,000
($50,000 per year for 20 years) 1
#3623 - Reading Railroad
#3624 - Pennsylvania Railroad
#3625 - B&O Railroad
#3626 - Short Line Common
Common
Common
Rare White $5,000,000
($250,000 per year for 20 years) 1

My past posts on coupons and discounts to popular places like Eddie Baurer and Gap have been so popular that I’ve got more online deals, coupons and discounts for you. There are so many out there that soon it’s going to be standard for someone who wants to purchase an item online to do a search for coupons from that company. Today’s coupons and discounts come from Extreme Halloween, Target, 1800Contacts, Snapfish and Lerner.

Extreme Halloween Coupons
Target Coupons
1800Contacts Coupons
Snapfish Coupons
Lerner Coupons

How about that variety? A little seasonal coupons for Halloween, a little department store and some online photo coupons from Snapfish. I wonder how many people are paying full price to use Snapfish.

I’ve been really amazed at the cost of development tools these days. Companies like IBM, BEA, Exadel are all charging thousands of dollars for their tools. I think most people don’t know any alternative and so they just pay for it.

Well, there are alternatives out there. One example is the product offering from MyEclipse. They have AJAX Tools, Swing UI, Visual Web Designers, Application server connectors, and more. Plus, they only charge you $29.95 for all that software. The best part is that it is available for immediate download so you don’t have to wait to get the product either.

I had been looking for a good AJAX Tool and this looks like it has everything you could ever need for coding. Here’s just a few examples of the features available in the AJAX tool:

* Editor
o
Web 2.0 Browser with source code view
o
Syntax highlighting
o
Integrated outline and property views
o
Validation and syntax checking
o
Code assist for common JavaScript elements, functions, and variables
o
Code assist documentation for functions
o
Source formatting
o
Toggle comments
* Debugger
o
Instant-on JavaScript Debugger
o Debug any web page containing JavaScript source or included JavaScript files, or standalone JavaScript files
o Operations: Pause, Resume, Step Into, Step Over, Step to Return, Terminate
o Views:
+ Web Browser View
+ Call Stack View
+ Variables View
+ Console View
o Set JavaScript breakpoints in:
+ JavaScript files
+ HTML with embedded JavaScript and linked JavaScript files
+ JSP files
o Integrates with Eclipse Launch Manager
+ Quick launch from context-menu using ‘Debug As’
+ Launch from Eclipse Debug toolbar action
+ Use Launch Profile to modify launch configuration
+ Launch JavaScript resource from project location or deployed MyEclipse web-application

That’s what I call a good deal!

I don’t know how many of you have tried to win a free iPod before. Most sites that offer free iPods have a lot of fine print and lots of hoops to jump through. Well, there is a solution for you. It’s called iPodSweepstakes.com Go there and get your free iPod and download all the mp3 music you can handle and enjoy listening to it for hours. I also love how the iPod you get doubles as a memory stick. Very useful!!

Get a Free iPod from iPodSweepstakes.com Now