You don’t have to just bet on stocks.  Now, inTrade allows you to bet on all types of topics, such as politics, the weather, and other predictions.  Is this legal?  20/20 just spotlighted this website tonight and feels it should not be legal.  That’s probably why the inTrade company is run from Ireland, where online gambling is not guarded by the law.

The news shapes how the value of the stocks are within inTrade.  It’s an easy site to be up and running in minutes.  And you can choose your favorite democratic candidate or McCain.

The site can use some serious computer support though since it is very slow navigating from page to page.  They probably need to increase their Internet speed to allow for good throughput.  Throughput is the width or bandwidth that allows simultaneous Internet users to access the site.  With more throughput, this site can be a force to compete with eTrade.  Ok, well maybe not in the near future.

When eBay first came out, it was the cool thing to do, almost like AOL instant messaging a couple of decades ago.  Then eBay became a bit of a mess since proper payment controls were not in place.  Now, eBay is at the forefront of buying and selling online due to its easy setup and locked down payment and fraud controls.

Should you buy computer equipment on eBay?  Yes, if the seller’s track record is good and you know to expect that the product is probably used.  We are actually in the process of setting up our new eBay store and it is an exciting process.  In minutes, we are able to advertise recertified laptops, desktops, and hard-to-find computer parts.  Not only are we able to sell computers quickly, but we can also put for sale specific AC Adapters that will be cheaper than going directly to manufacturers.

With PayPal, the playing field with payments is pretty much level since buyers and sellers are both protected against fraud.  With good research and a watchful eye, eBay can work for you.

In our busy lives, it might be difficult to stay in touch with the family.  Who’s going where and when are a couple of easy forgetful items. 

Connected Family is a great site to update an online calendar, contacts, memos, and pictures for your family.  This will allow you to jot down birthdays, events, and post messages.  It is easy to forget birthdays and special anniversaries so this is a way for all the family members to put in their own special days for everybody to share.

At $9.95 per year, you can have your own website name and privileged access.  The only downfall is only 1GB of picture storage is available.

Babies can be a lot of fun, and especially if they’re yours!  Sometimes though, just sometimes, Mommies and Daddies need rest to.  So, when you want to stimulate their babies’ minds while taking a snooze, you can queue of the following online sites.  They incorporate fun activities while letting the little one get acclimated to using a computer.

Here are a few sites to keep your little guy or girl busy:

1. Huggy Happy Baby Online Games 
2. Disney Online Fun
3. The Kidz Page
4. Game Aquarium

Keep in mind to have your baby work on an older computer or a computer you don’t care about so much.  That way, you won’t cry when your keyboard has spilled milk, less keys, or needs computer repair.   

The New York Giants have pulled off the most improbable upset in Superbowl history.  They defeated the powerful New England Patriots, stopping them one game short of their almost 19 wins and 0 loss undefeated season.  Now, they are 18-1 and the Giants are champions!

Now, on to the commercials.  Where can you go on the Internet to track down all of the commercial download and reviews?  We’re glad you asked. 

Here are the top websites for Super Bowl ads:

1. Devlib - Check out this year’s and former Bowl commercials.  They even have banned ones.
2. uTube - The master of videos, you can expect good resolution and voting going on here.
3. NBC - Here you may find the 10 best Super Bowl ads of all time.
4. CBS - A nicely, organized quarter-by-quarter preview off all the ads from last years’ big game.

If interested, the Giants will be hosting the ticker-tape parade tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11AM on Broadway at Battery Place and will continue north towards Chamber Street until it reaches City Hall for the ceremony.  Congratulations to the 2008 NFL Champions - New York Giants!

The Giants are going to the Superbowl!  Woohoo!  As avid Giant fans, we are in a total state of shock, but definitely a very pleasant shock.  So, who’s going to Glendale, Arizona to watch the big game?  Where can you get tickets to watch Eli Manning take on the undefeated Patriots?  Most people bought their seats at the beginning of the year so the options are slim at the point.  But, there are still a few tickets available online.

Here are the websites you can visit that are still holding Superbowl tickets:

1. Ticketmaster - an official source where you’ll pay more, but get 100% reliability
2. StubHub! - Where fans buy and sell tickets to each other
3. Razorgater - a newer site offering premium seats
4. GoTickets - offers game seats, parties, hotels & events (i.e. Playboy, Terrell Owens, and John Travolta parties)
5. TickCo - Choose from live inventory or stadium location

Super Bowl XLII tickets are currently on sale from $3,000 - 7,000.  You should check out all of the Superbowl ticket sites since they all offer different seats and pricing.  Check them out throughly, but fast since these tickets tend to fly when a New York team is in the big game.  Go Giants!

Mobile Previews is a cool way to catch movie previews and games on your cell phone.  When first checking out the website, I thought the idea was to check out new previews from movies just released from the theatres.  When further checking out the site, I realized that you can also check out movies from TV and DVDs as well as new video games.  Definitely a nice little tool to allow you to try before you buy. 

Unfortunately, our office blackberries and iPhones weren’t able to tune into the previews; but, that it not mobile previews fault.  The technology of RIM and Apple haven’t allowed applications to run smootly through Flash Player so you can blame that bug on the phone manufacturers.  Luckily, the site allows you to view movie trailers through your computer.  This feature is obviously not new as Movie.com and Fandango have perfected this service.  The resolution on the movies are nice, but the overall picture of it is small on the computer, and should be enlarged in order to compete with other video sites.

Overall, the site was easy to navigate.  Oh…did you know it’s free?  That’s always a good thing.  The site would probably be better if it also expanded to offering free full downloads as specials or just keeping users coming back to the site.  That is the only way it will compete on a grander scale with the free video download sites.  That being said, this is a unique, clean site that easily shoots out previews to your phone.  Nice job!

Websites have been allowing all walks of life from all parts of the world meet up on the Internet.  Commonalities have been similar personalities, cultures, hobbies, and sports.  Now, there is another type of mutuality that can bring people together:  DanceJam.  MC Hammer, the ultimate dance machine, has joined up with others to create a dance site.  This site is geared towards hip hop and is like uTube, but goes a step further to teach dance, provide constant videos of celebrities and commoners showing off their favorite moves.  When you log in, your favorite dance move is flaunted to your buddies.

DanceJam also allows people to join up to compete against others in genres of dance.  So, it will become an online reality show for dancers, similar to dancing with the stars but the online version.  This is way for the site to differentiate itself with uTube and Facebook, however, MC Hammer plans to showcase the best dancers on uTube for more exposure.

The site is currently in beta mode and by invite only.  You may sign up now to attain a pre-release code to get an early dance on the competition.   If you do decide to dance, we recommend backing up your files first since you should be prepared if your left foot trips into your computer.

Are you off from work and want to stay updated on the Veteran’s Day activities?  In our tribute to this special day of those who put their lives first for our freedom, we’d like to provide helpful sites to learn more about what this day signifies.  Below are 5 must-see sites during Veteran’s Day 2007.

1. Watch the 25th Anniversary Wall Celebration with Colin Powell
2. Check out all of the activities, resources, and events from by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
3. Here’s a nice slideshow of Veteran’s Day pictures.
4. See the NYC activities, parade, and timeline of Veteran’s Day.
5. Listen to 1010 WINS Radio for live reporting from today’s events.

Happy Halloween everybody!  As always, we try to see how to fit this little thing we like to call technology fit into the real world.  So, how can you integrate a little “trick or treat” action today?  Below are some fun computer activities for Halloween:

If you plan to have guests visit on this goulish day, feel free to play a free Halloween spooky movie.  You may also load a spooky Halloween screensaver for entertainment.

One of the best sites, Wolfstone, we’ve seen discusses the history of Halloween, how to haunt, and how to create scary props.

For playing a fun Halloween game on the computer, you collect pumpkins before the spiders and creatures catch you in Halloween Heist.

Our last computer site we’ll leave you with is for the kids.  After all, Halloween is for children.  This arts-and-crafts website provides instructions for building different types of pumpkins, critters, and animals.