When we think about gadgets, the first thing that comes in mind is Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget or any other huge information source in latest technology news. These sites are good, but the news are updated very frequently and it will take all day to read them all...
This is why I like Gadget Advisor. The site is pretty new but growing very fast. The reason for this is they are not only well informed in latest tech news, but they know how to highlight only the best and most useful news in this area and make a good review of it. Looking for new universal remote or network media player? Gadget Advisor reviews many, but recommends the most valuable.
They not only review gadgets and computer hardware, but also computer software and many online services, e.g. the best online backup service.
This is what authors say about Gadget Advisor: "Rather than presenting every bit of news from each day, Gadget Advisor focuses on the products and news that are the most significant, useful, and/or cool so that visitors can quickly view the top gadgets and tech news without wading through pages of mediocre news".
Staying in touch with Gadget Advisor is simple- subscribe to their feed or just visit the site and get the latest (best!) technology reviews.
Cutting Through The Cutting Edge
Most Unusual Festivals Around The World
The Chap & Hendrick's Olympics
The Chap and Hendrick's Olympics is a hilarious annual London event held in July. Some of the unusual 'sports' include the Three Trousered Limbo and the Hendrick’s Martini Knockout Relay, where three teams compete to mix the perfect dry martini on a bar at the end of a running track. It's a chance for the British to show what they do best: dress inappropriately, drink G&Ts, and make complete buffoons of themselves.
Zombie Walk
A zombie walk (also known as a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, zombie shuffle or zombie pub crawl) is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls in a somewhat orderly fashion and often limping their way towards a local cemetery or other public space
Holi- The Festival of Colors
Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemmoration of a legend from Hindu Mythology. The story centres around an arrogant king who resents his son Prahlada worshipping Lord Vishnu. He attempts to kill his son but fails each time. Finally, the king's sister Holika who is said to be immune to burning, sits with the boy in a huge fire. However, the prince Prahlada emerges unscathed, while his aunt burns to death. Holi commemorates this event from mythology, and huge bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi as its symbolic representation.
The Summer Redneck Games
As legend tells it, Mac Davis and a host of volunteers put together a ridiculous schedule of "Redneck Games" for locals to compete in. They expected a small turnout, some decent weather, and a few laughs..
What they got was a little slice of Dixie magic. "The first year," Davis reminisces, "we expected 500 people to show up. We got 5,000 instead."
All in all, the Redneck Games are just a silly, good time. Though it's gradually expanded in attendance and in popularity over the past decade, the yearly tradition is still as wholesome and pure as it was back in '96.
Tomatina
La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a brutal battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
Up-Helly-Aa
Up-Helly-Aa is a relatively modern festival. There is some evidence that people in rural Shetland celebrated the 24th day after Christmas as "Antonsmas" or "Up Helly Night", but there is no evidence that their cousins in Lerwick did the same. The emergence of Yuletide and New Year festivities in the town seems to post-date the Napoleonic Wars, when soldiers and sailors came home with rowdy habits and a taste for firearms.
Ivan Kupala Day
Ivan Kupala Day is celebrated in Russia and Ukraine on 7 July in the Gregorian or New Style calendar, which is currently 24 June in the Julian or Old Style calendar still used by many of the Orthodox Churches. It is opposed to the winter solstice holiday, or Korochun.
Monkey Buffet
Every year, all of the province's approximately 600 monkeys are invited to eat fruits and vegetables during an annual feast held in honor of Rama, a hero of the Ramayana, who, it is said, rewarded his friend and ally, Hanuman the Monkey King, with the fiefdom of what is now Lopburi.
Naked Men Festival
The festival is bizarre. There is an erotic element (after all, Shintoism is a religion of fertility); thousands of men clad only in fundoshi (a type of loincloth) and sandals. One source describes it as "homoerotic." The festival is also brutal. Steam rises off of the skin of participants as they wash in freezing water to "purify" themselves and then stand stand, jog, or hop around on one of Japan's coldest nights. The festival can be bloody as well as brutal. Fighting is common among the participants. Japanese beer and rice wine both flow freely and there is party atmosphere complete with fireworks.
Tapati Festival
It involves sliding down a steep hillside on the trunk of a banana tree, wearing little more than a hami (loincloth) and body paint. The contestant who stays on his log to the bottom and who goes the farthest is the winner.
HomePagle
The following is a paid review
Search engines such as Google are what people use almost every day to find information. Sure, this is nothing new and we know it. And what we also know Google has never changed background.
This is where HomePagle comes in. They allow you to change the background of Google search. You can choose your favorite background from many different categories, such as
female celebrities
cars
sports
and many more.
The best part is you can upload your own image and use it as default background. Hit «Use as a Homepage» and next time starting Firefox (yes, only Firefox users) picture of your family, favorite pet or car together with search bar will open in front of you. In my example I uploaded picture from my previous post, and it looks wonderful!
Direct link is here and you can use it for your own needs :)
Below you can see more screenshots to personalize your daily internet browsing
Thanks to HomePagle
More Than a Photo
It looks like an e-card poster design, but after a quick look I figured out they do web-to-print. Lots more designs here.
One Million Page Views!!!
According to Histats, today Flickzzz.com reached amazing and beautiful number- one million page views! What's more amazing it took less than one year to reach this. Flickzzz's very first post was made on 28 July 2007. This means it took even less than 7 months to get million page views! :)
How did this happen? Flickzzz photo blog became very popular after reaching the front page on Digg with this post. I don't know the person who submitted that post, but many thanks to him! Anyway, because of this more than 300'000 visitors popped here and we got almost half million page views.
These were amazing news for me and I must admit- I could never imagine there will be over 5'000 visitors online. I am happy that many of them have bookmarked Flickzzz.com and are coming back to see more pictures and updates.
But not everything is as good as it looks- after reaching the front page on Digg I got banned from Digg.com at all. And I can't get back there. Maybe someone knows how to do it and can help me? :)
After all- I want to thank to all my subscribers, new and returning visitors, and special thanks to people who submit my posts to Stumbleupon!
When will this site reach one million visitors? Who knows- it's up to you, my friends!
That's all for now!
-Flickzzz-
Beds For Your Best Friend
I don't live in big appartments so I can't afford dog. Also we have neighbours who wouldn't resist dog's barking. But as animal lover I have two cats. They are silent (sometimes) and they don't bark :)
But this story is not about cats. When I lived with my parents I had a very cute dog named Buffy. She still is my best friend! And that is the reason I do the best I can for my dog's pleasure. What do dogs like? Running, barking, playing and... Yes- sleeping. It's very important that dog has a good sleep and he is healthy. I noticed Buffy wasn't sleeping well- she woke up at night (she slept in my room all the time) and wasn't in good mood. I didn't know the reason- I thought it's the food she doesn't like anymore or something like that. A friend of mine advised me to buy a dog bed for my pal.
He recommended Mammoth outlet, because his grandparents bought extra large dog beds for their three labradors.
Well, after reading positive comments from customers, I decited these beds should be good enough for my dog. 
She is not very big- Welsh Springer Spaniel. To give the best for her I bought orthopedic dog bed. I don't know if that is the reason but I think Buffy sleeps better now.
I wish I could ask her how she feels about her new bed, but sadly dogs don't speak. Anyway, I see my dog looks happier now and I know she sleeps in good quality bed.
Now I don't live with my parents (and my pal) anymore, but I know Buffy still enjoys the same bed I bought her :)
Thanks to http://www.mammothoutlet.com
5 Smallest Countries in World
1. Vatican City
Size: 0.17 sq. mi. (0.44 km²)
Population: 783 (2005 census)
Location: Rome, Italy
The size of a golf course, the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It's basically a walled enclave inside of Rome, Italy. It's so small that the entire country does not have a single street address.
The Vatican City may be small, but it is very powerful. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See, or the seat of the Catholic Church (basically its central government), which has over 1 billion people (about 1 in 6 people on the planet) as constituents.
The Vatican City was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty (which was signed by one of history's most repressive dictators, Benito Mussolini) and is ruled by the Pope, basically a non-hereditary, elected monarch who rules with absolute authority (he's the legislative, executive and judiciary all rolled into one) - indeed, the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.
Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican (as well as their spouses and children) and is revoked when they stop working there.
The Vatican City is guarded by the smallest and oldest regular army in the world, the Swiss Guard. It was originally made up of Swiss mercenaries in 1506, now the army (also personal bodyguards of the Pope) number 100, all of which are Catholic unmarried male Swiss citizens. The Swiss Guard's Renaissance-style uniform was commonly attributed as to have been designed by Michelangelo - this was actually incorrect: the large "skirt" pants were a common style during the Renaissance. Only their uniforms seem antiquated: most of the Swiss Guards carry pistols and submachine-guns.
The official languages of the Vatican City are Latin and Italian. In fact, its ATMs are the only ones in the world that offer services in Latin! And here you thought that Latin is a dead language…
For a country that has no street address, the Vatican City has a very efficient post office: an international mail dropped in the Vatican will get there faster than one dropped in Italy just a few hundred yard away - in fact, there is more mail sent annually per inhabitant from this country (7,200 mails per person) than anywhere else in the world.
The Vatican City has a country code top level domain of .va - currently there are only 9 publicly known .va domains. It also has a radio broadcasting service, called Vatican Radio, which was set up by Guglielmo Marconi (the Father of Radio) himself!
The country's economy is unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide (called Peter's Pence - hey, even the Pope accepts credit cards!), the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.
Lastly, as an ecclesiastical paradise, the Vatican City has no taxes.
2. Monaco
Size: 0.8 sq. mi. (1.96 km²)
Population: 35,657 (2006 estimate)
Location: French Riviera on the Mediterranean
Monaco is the second smallest country on Earth (it's roughly the size of New York's Central Park), yet it's the most densely populated (23,660 people per km²). Actually, Monaco used to be much smaller than it is now - about 100 acres were reclaimed from the sea and added to its land size. At the narrowest, Monaco is only 382 yards wide!
The Principality of Monaco, its formal name, means that the territory is ruled by a prince. For the last seven centuries, Monaco was ruled by princes of the Grimaldi family from Genoa. (The whole thing started one night in 1297 when François Grimaldi disguised himself as a monk and led a small army to conquer the fortress guarding the Rock of Monaco. The coat of arms of the Grimaldi bears the image of monks with swords!) Now, the Prince shares legislative authority with a National Council.
In 1861, Monaco relinquished half of its territory to France in exchange for cash and independence. When the reigning prince realized that most of Monaco's natural resources were on the land that got bartered away, he decided to bet the whole economy on … what else, gambling (see, casinos aren't only for American Indians, it's a time-tested, universal solution!)
And so began Monte Carlo, a region of Monaco well known for its glamorous casinos (a setting for Ian Fleming's first James Bond Novel Casino Royale) and its Formula One Grand Prix.
In 1918, Monaco entered a treaty with France for military protection - the treaty, however, also stipulated that Monaco would lose its independence (and become French) should the reigning Grimaldi prince died without leaving a male heir! When Prince Rainier III took over, he was a bachelor and most Monegasques (that means people of Monaco) were gloomy about the country's future. However, he ended up marrying Hollywood actress Grace Kelly - the marriage not only produced a male heir, it also helped burnish Monaco's image as a glamorous place to be for the wealthy. (Monaco can rest easy now, a new treaty with France stated that the Principality will remain independent even without a male heir).
For a long time, Monaco had no income taxes and was a tax haven for wealthy foreigners and international corporations. This caused a unique thing about Monaco's population: most of its residents are not native - in fact, only about 1 in 5 people are native Monegasques. After a long dispute with France, Monaco started to impose income taxes on all of its residents who are not born there. Its natural citizens are forbidden from entering casinos, but to make up for it, they do not have to pay any income taxes.
3. Nauru
Size: 8 sq. mi (21 km²)
Population: 13,005 (2005 estimate)
Location: Western Pacific Ocean
Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, the smallest independent republic, and the only republic in the world without an official capital.
Nauru only has one significant source of income: phosphates from thousands of years' worth of guano or bird droppings. This proved to be both a boon and a bane for Nauruans - for a long time, its residents enjoyed a relatively high level of income as the country exported its phosphate like there's no tomorrow.
The government employed 95% of Nauruans, and lavished free medical care and schooling for its citizens. Most didn't take advantage of this offer: only one-third of children went on to secondary school. The adults didn't really work, either - office hours were flexible and the most popular pastime was drinking beer and driving the 20-minute circuit around the island. For a while, Nauru was a paradise - for a brief moment in 1970s, Nauruans were even amongst the richest people on the planet.
Nothing lasts forever and sure enough, Nauru's phosphate reserves soon dried up and left 90% of the island as a barren, jagged mining wasteland. Wasteful investments (like buying hotels only to leave them to rot) and gross incompetence by the government (former presidents used to commandeer Air Nauru's planes for holidays, leaving paying customers stranded on the tarmac!) didn't help either.
As if that's not bad enough, Nauru is also beset by obesity problem. Decades of leisurely lifestyle and high consumption of alcohol and fatty foods have left as many as 9 out of 10 people overweight! Nauru also has the world's highest level of type 2 diabetes - over 40% of its population is affected.
So now, Nauruans are poverty-stricken and fat - but they are trying to turn things around. With no natural resource left, in the 1990s, Nauru decided to become a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee. This attracted the wrong kind of money (but a lot of it): the Russian mafia funneled over $70 billion to the tiny island nation. Things got so bad that most big banks refused to handle transactions involving Nauru because of money laundering problems.
This led Nauru to another extraordinary money-making scheme: it became a detention camp for people applying for asylum to Australia!
4. Tuvalu
Size: 9 sq. mi. (26 km²)
Population: 10,441 (2005 estimate)
Location: South Pacific
Tuvalu is basically a chain of low-lying coral islands, with its highest elevation being 16 feet or 5 meters above seal level. With total land area of just 9 square miles, Tuvalu is not only a teeny tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, it may not even exist in the next 50 years if sea level continue to rise (a controversial claim, nonetheless there were evacuation plans to New Zealand and other Pacific Islands). Even if the sea level does not rise, other problems such as population growth and coastal erosion still make Tuvalu a very vulnerable country.
During World War II, thousands of American troops were stationed on the islands of Tuvalu and the island became an Allied base. Airfields were quickly constructed and after the war, abandoned. In fact, today rusting wrecks can be found on the islands, a constant reminder of its role in the War.
Today, Tuvalu also derives income from renting out its Internet country code top-level domain .tv, as it is the abbreviation of the word 'television'. This scheme got off to a rocky start (the original company who tried to do it failed to raise the necessary funds), but finally proved to be the largest source of income for the country.
5. San Marino
Size: 24 sq. mi. (61 km²)
Population: 28,117 (2005 estimate)
Location: North-central Italy near the Adriatic coast.
With the formal name of The Most Serene Republic of San Marino, it's not surprising that San Marino has got lots of charms. Founded in AD 301 by a Christian stonecutter named (what else) Marino (or Marinus, depending on who you ask), who along with a small group of Christians, was seeking escape from religious persecution, San Marino is the world's oldest republic.
Its history belies its simple motto: "Liberty." Indeed, San Marino was such a good neighbor that it was hardly ever conquered by larger enemies (it was briefly conquered in the 1500s and the 1700s, for like a month each). Even when Napoleon gobbled most of Europe, he left San Marino alone, saying it was a model republic!
San Marino takes its government seriously: for such a tiny country, San Marino has a very complex government structure, based on a constitution written in 1600. The country is ruled by an elected Council of 60, who appoints 2 captain regents (from opposing political parties, no less) to administer governmental affairs for six-month term. Talk about preserving liberties through division of authority!
Before World War II, San Marino was amongst the poorest countries in Europe. Today, with more than 3 million tourists visiting every year (half of San Marino's income is derived from tourism), the people of San Marino are amongst the world's richest people.
