Entrecard taxes to high.

All these new rules that have been shoved down our throats on Entrecard are a bit pathetic. The one that really gets me are the rules set down for sending EC to another person. They are as follows:-

A transaction fee of 12.5%, which is deducted from the sender. Limited to14 transfers outside your linked blogs in a week. You cannot send more than 1000ec total outside your linked blogs in a week.

We are already taxed 75% for running ads on our blogs and now a further 12.5% for transfering EC. This is getting pathetic, I honestly had no idea that the state of the Entrecard economy was that bad. I would have thought banning the external sales of Entrecard credits would have been enough to increase the sale value of Entrecard.

I honestly don't think there is any appreciation to all of us for making Entrecard the success that it is (or was). Many of us have been with Entrecard for many months and have seen so many changes and most have been really good for the community, Now this.......

When sports go professional its all about money, Not the passion or the pride for your country/state etc. Same has happened to Entrecard unfortunately.

I can see future contests stating that you can win 50,000ec less a 12.5% transaction fee, Or potential sponsors sponsoring 875ec instead of 1000ec.

I like the new pricing structure though.

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Internet @ work.

I was reading an article the other day stating that most people spend over 25 per cent of their time online at work on personal activities, The most common online activities include online trading sites, instant messaging/chat services and peer-to-peer sharing sites (allowing movie, music and software sharing) and of course personal e-mails (80 per cent of emails sent by volume in the workplace are personal).

Some company directors and/or managers are often unaware what was happening on networks under their control, Then there are bosses that know what goes on and there attitude is a happy worker is a good worker, But then there are those bosses that just take and take from the workers and make assumptions that their staff are up to no good, because thats what they would do.

Is reading, writing and sending personal e-mails at work wasting company time? What about online banking? Is it more time efficient to let staff do their banking online than having them leave the office for half an hour?.What about illegal downloading?, Its the company (not the employee) that would face the legal implications if investigators tracked who was downloading movies and music, But im sure employers will get a lot tougher after the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act is brought in to force later this year. The act says that internet service providers should think about implementing a policy providing termination for customers who have not respected copyrighted material.

I guess it all comes down to how much the boss respects his or her workers because studies have shown that social networking can be an asset to a company.
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Husband makes lunch.

I received this e-mail today, It is supposed to represent the typical male, I will let you be the judge. I'm betting that the women will agree.


One night, a young wife asks her husband, for the 1st time in their 3 year marriage, if he minds making the next day's lunches for them both.

He is devastated by this request, and has a short power nap to gain the energy required to undertake such a strenuous task.
After all, his wife has only worked during the day, went shopping after work for groceries, cooked him dinner, cleaned up after dinner and ironed a shirt for him to wear to work the next day.
Surely, she can do this. After all, he did go to work today.

The young husband finds the strength to begin lunch. After all, he is the stronger of the two, and is willing to carry the heavy burden, if only to give his wife more time to rest.
Shortly afterwards, he informs his beautiful young wife that he has conquered the impossible, and has prepared lunch, despite the lack of energy his tired body has. Don't forget, he did work today.
Surprised, his wife went to the fridge to see what he had prepared so quickly. Looking inside, she couldn't find the lunch he so proudly prepared.

'Where is our lunch honey?' The young wife asks her loving husband.

I placed it on the second shelf of the fridge. My lunch is the one on the left, and yours is on the right' He responds from the bedroom, the task having tired him out, he is already recovering in bed.

Can you see the lunch he 'prepared'?

Look closely at the last picture, What a legend.





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Project Wonderful, Monetary gain or advertising?

I have project wonderful on my site and its usually full, Ive set all my prices to advertise on my site at 1 cent or free. Prices range from 1 cent up to 50 cents per day at the moment depending where the ad is situated and of course how much other people are bidding, In the past ive had people advertising that were paying $2 per day. I will put approximately 50% of my daily revenue back into advertising. I usually try and have a mix of sites that are with Entrecard as well as those that don't, this way it will bring new traffic.

My advice is to set your price low, Let the advertisers decide what they think your site is worth to advertise on, Ive seen many blogs that have a PR0 and an Alexa in the millions that are wanting 20 cents per day, And they wonder why people aren't advertising.

How many of you are with project wonderful? Do you treat project wonderful as revenue gaining or do you use it for advertising purposes? or maybe a bit of both?

There has been several other sites trying to do the same as project wonderful but seem to be failing (show your ad here and performancing ads) The only reason i can see for the failure is they have a minimum of $2.50 per month to advertise, This does not allow the advertiser to try before they buy, where as with project wonderful you can advertise for a day or even an hour to see how the ad is going to work for you before deciding on a longer term bid.
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Qantas to receive A380.

Australia's Qantas Airways is to take delivery of its first Airbus A380 today, making it the third airline to induct the superjumbo to there fleet after launch customer Singapore Airlines and recently Gulf carrier, Emirates.

A Qantas spokesman said it will ''welcome its first A380 aircraft into the Qantas fleet at a ceremony at the Airbus factory in Toulouse", It will fly to Sydney via Singapore, It is due to land on Sunday morning the 21st of September.

Qantas will put the first A380 into service on October the 20th, And it will be flying between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and its first Sydney-Los Angeles service on 24 October. Services from Sydney to London via Singapore will commence from early 2009. Qantas has 20 A380s on order, three of which are supposed to be delivered by the end of 2008, However Airbus have had some unexpected delays once again.

Qantas had said that laptop power will be available in every seat of its new Airbus A380s, Which will also include standard economy class. It had also said that it would offer wireless Internet throughout the A380, as well as web and email access via seat-back inflight entertainment systems.

Qantas had built a reputation for excellence in safety, operational reliability, engineering and maintenance, and customer service, Qantas was regarded as one of the worlds leading long distance airlines, However recent maintenance problems and close calls have damaged there reputation with several problems over the past 2 months.
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Ferrari to power A1GP.

Preparations for the coming A1GP World Cup of Motorsport are well on track taking into consideration the fourth season of the series sees the introduction of a new car, Which has been designed by Ferrari and is powered by a V8 Ferrari engine producing in the region of 447kW. The chassis is based on the design of the F2004 chassis but it has been modified to meet A1GP regulations

In October 2007, Ferrari signed a contact with the A1GP to supply all engines and design consultancy services from 2008 which will run for 6 years.

There have been some concerns that an engine designed for sports car racing may be overstressed by the demands of single seater racing. The car has come through over 3500km of race-pace testing at Mugello, Italy, Jerez in Spain and finally in the heat at Guadix near Granada.

Scuderia Ferrari test driver and former Formula 1 driver Marc Gene was impressed with the car and said "It's an interesting car and I had a lot of fun. It's not an F1 car but it's not intended to be one. It will produce exciting racing, allows overtaking and is an extreme drive." Other test drivers have said the car is well balanced, the tyres worked well with the modified chassis and the electronics are now working and are reliable.

The 2008 / 2009 A1GP season starts on 05 October 2008 at Zandvoort, Netherlands.

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Tri-Nations and Bledisloe champions.

The All Blacks have beaten Australia for the Tri Nations aswell as the Bledisloe Cup. The All blacks were down 10-7 at half time but manged to win 28-24.

In the 12th minute of the match, Sitiveni Sivivatu makes a run through the line and gets a free kick. The ball is quickly run up by Jimmy Cowan and the All Blacks quickly passed the ball to the right, Muliaina gets the ball and scores in the corner which is converted by Dan Carter. In the 39th minute Australian Ashley- Cooper skips through a tackle and scores in the corner which is converted in the 40th minute by Matt Giteau converts which gave the Wallabies the lead.

Four minutes after half time, Matt Giteau runs hard at the All Blacks line and the subsequent ball to Brown gets the ball to Horwill on the touch line who crosses to score and Giteau converts easily, This gave the Australians a 17-7 lead. Four minutes later, All Black Conrad Smith makes a great break down the touch line as he dummies between to players and only just before the touchline he offloads to Tony Woodcock who amazingly outruns the Wallaby defenders for 20metres to score in the corner, Dan Carter Kicks the conversion again to make the score 17-14 to the Aussies.

In the 62nd minute, All Black Rodney So'ialo makes a break in the middle of the field but as he cuts back to the outside looks to have butchered the opportunity. However, the ball finds its way to Weepu's hands and he puts down to put the ABs back in front at 21-17. The 66th minute gave us the next try which was scored by Dan Carter, He then goes on to convert his own try making the score 28-17.

The last try of the game came in the 77th minute when Wallabie Ryan Cross barges over the try line. Matt Giteau then kicks the conversion to make it 28-24.

This was definitely one of the best games seen between Australia and New Zealand. There is still one more game between these two great rugby nations, This game will be held in Hong Kong, It promises to be a great game aswell.

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The value of the EC.

What is the true value of the Entrecard credit, Ive seen sites selling 1000 for $2, Others sell 1000 for $3, There are also a number of site selling 5000 for $10. How can Entrecard actually expect to sell any when they are selling 1000 for $9.50? Have they sold any? I would like anyone who has bought any from Entrecard for $9.50 to expose themselves. All those sites that are selling Entrecard credits, Have you sold any and at what price?

The true value might be $9.50, Maybe Graham (Entrecard founder) should ban the sale of EC to protect his investment, The more people in this community that sell EC, the less value it has.

I believe that Entrecard credit is used for advertising purposes, Not for monetary gain. Afterall Entrecard is supposed to be about promoting your blog. Obviously US$2 is alot of money in some currencies, but does it pay for your internet connection? Or the internet cafe assuming you can sell 1000ec everyday, And if you can sell 1000 everyday, how much of that is actually profit? I guess im just interested to find out how many people think that the Entrecard credit is making them money?
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Air race world series.

I don't know how many people follow the Red Bull Air Race World Series but these pilots that fly these planes are amazing. The pilots have to navigate a challenging obstacle course at speeds of around 200Mph (320Kph) and approximately 60 feet from the water.

The pilots must pass each of the air gates correctly while completing a required aerobatic maneuver. There are three different gate types, They require a specific manner of crossing. The blue gates must be crossed in level flight, red gates must be crossed in vertical flight otherwise known as "knife-edge" and the slalom gates as their name implies.

If a pilot doesn't pass through a gate correctly he will incur a time penalty. A 3 second time penalty is received when the pilot flies too high above the gate, An Incorrect turning maneuver, Incorrect level (horizontal) crossing or knife (vertical) angle or an incorrect knife direction. A 10 second penalty is imposed if a pilot touches a gate. And you can be disqualified for dangerous flying, For example Flying too low, Course deviation, Not executing the prescribed aerobatic maneuver and crossing the crowd line.

The Aircraft used are high-end aerobatic planes like the Extra 300SR, the MX Aircraft MX2 and the Zivko Edge 540X, These Aircraft have a wingspan of less than 25 feet or 8 meters.

The airgates that the pilots must pass through are are approximately 65 feet (20 m) high, and spaced 33 to 49 feet (10 to 15 m) apart. The pylons are made of a fabric that will shred if a pilot hits it. If a pylon gets hit it will replaced at the time of the incident and usually takes a matter of minutes.

Points are awarded for finishing places. 1st receives nine points, 2nd receives eight points and so on through ninth who receives one point. A pilot must compete in all eight races and the pilot that has earnt the most points is the Air race champion. The eight venues for the red bull air race are Abu Dhabi, San Diego, Detroit, Rotterdam, London, Budapest, Porto and Perth.
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Qantas problems continue.

Over the past 6 weeks the national carrier of Australia (Qantas) have had several mechanical problems affecting the fleet.

Just the other day a Qantas Boeing 747-400 en-route from Singapore to London landed in the German city of Frankfurt after its crew shut down engine four because of a vibration. Flight QF31 landed without incident. At the moment Qantas engineers are investigating the cause of the engine problem. Passengers were diverted to other carriers, either flying direct to London or to other European destinations.

On July 25, a faulty oxygen bottle blew a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne. The blast caused the aircraft with 365 people on board, to depressurize and it rapidly descended several thousand feet before making an emergency landing in Manila.

On July 29, a Adelaide- Melbourne flight returned to Adelaide when a wheel bay door failed to close, while a hydraulic fluid leak forced a Boeing 767 to return to Sydney.

On August 4 Hydraulics caused a flight to be delayed almost three hours in Sydney.

On August 7 a noisy air-conditioning fault forced the grounding of a jet that had recently returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia with 95 defects.

On August 12, Qantas announced it would temporarily pull six Boeing 737-400s from service after discovering an irregularity in maintenance paperwork.

On August 13, a Qantas Boeing 747-300 from Melbourne was grounded in New Zealand after an engine shut down on approach to Auckland. Also on the same day, Qantas flight QF31 to London - the same flight affected by the incident - was delayed because a crucial screw needed urgent maintenance, while a Boeing 767 jet had a hydraulic failure that affected the plane's steering as it landed at Sydney on a flight from Melbourne. The plane left a trail of hydraulic fluid as it touched down, forcing the runway to close for 40 minutes as the spill was mopped up.

On August 15, a technical problem delayed a Brisbane to Melbourne flight for more than 30 minutes, while a small body panel fell from a Qantas jumbo en route to Singapore from Melbourne .

On August 17, a rudder problem delayed the departure of a Sydney-bound plane at London's Heathrow Airport by more than 16 hours.

On August 20, two flights were canceled between Perth and Sydney and Perth and Melbourne because of technical problems.

Qantas has a near perfect safety record, However, they have had more near misses than any other airline. Is Qantas still a safe airline to fly?


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BMW Oracle testing the limits.

BMW Oracle Racing hopes to sail against two-time defending America's Cup champion Alinghi sometime next year with a new 90-foot trimaran. This trimaran is the only one of its kind and has enormous potential. It will be known as BMW Oracle Racing 90. The trimaran has a space-age look and a mast, boom and mainsail that dwarfs its crew, It was launched last week and was tested to make sure the three carbon-fiber hulls would be able to handle the enormous loads the rigging will put on it under full sail.

On Monday August 25, 14 sailors - including a New Zealander who is also a three-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts - and eight designers and builders were aboard for its shakedown cruise. During the shakedown cruise the wind ranged from 6 to 12 knots, Fortunately nothing broke and the testing went well, However they didn't do any serious speed tests. It is estimated that the boat can hit 36 to 40 knots in the right conditions. Which is around 66-75 Kph or 41-46 Mph.

The boat is 90 feet long by 90 feet wide (Which is the equivalent to two basketball courts), and the mast is 158 feet tall and has a 500 m2 mainsail and a 700 m2 gennaker. It has been said that the trimaran cost more than $10 million to build, And even though the time, effort and money has gone into the trimaran, It might not even get the chance to sail for the oldest trophy in international sports due to all the political rubbish that goes on in the Americas cup

Sea trials will continue for the next few weeks.
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Thanks for 600.

I don't like thanking people on Two posts in a row but its just tough luck, I had a post ready but it can wait. I just want to thank everybody who has dropped on me on the 3rd of September, It was my most successful day yet from Entrecard and my first day ive received over 600 drops. A special thanks has to go to Modern Glam aswell as Software Outsourcing to China for such successful ads. I look forward to my first 700 day.
Obviously i cant reciprocate everyone unfortunately but never mind, I'm sure everyone understands.



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Thank you everybody

I decided that this month i wouldn't publish my most successful ads that ive had running for the month, I will just announce the number 1 most successful, and as a thank you, That person will get there 125X125 widget in my sidebar for a month. So if i did advertise with you and you want to know how many visits i received from the ad, Just contact me. Another blog will get there 125X125 in my sidebar aswell, this person is my biggest commenter.

This months most successful ad goes to Chica & Pumuckl - 2 Egyptian Cats in Germany.
Biggest commenter for the month is Beamer from BMW Rules ... The world as I see it. Read More......