The world according to Dan

So you must have been living under a rock for the last month or so if you haven’t heard about the global financial crisis that is destined to destroy the world as we all know it. Well it might be getting out of control in the USA, but on home shores here in Australia we have no need to panic at the moment.

The Australian economy is more intrinsically linked to Asian markets these days, and whilst we still have exposure to the lending crisis that is threatening to throw the USA into a recession, or even a depression we don’t have to worry about losing our jobs yet.

The best advice is not to panic. Don’t start shifting your Superannuation investments in haste. We all know Super is a long term investment and as such will be subject to many peaks and troughs along the way. If you are approaching retirement, your super should already be in more conservative structures anyway, and if you’re young then your investments will have plenty of time to rebound and recover to still show good returns over the long time.

Reckless spending is something else also to keep in check. Now is a great time to honestly look at your spending and make sure that you are living well within your means. Our banks and lenders will be tighter with the way they hand out money. Finance will be even more difficult to come across so don’t get in over your head. Tighten the belt a little bit, pay off credit card debts and get on top of things.

For risk takers, now might be a good time for some smart investments in the markets. Most analysts predict that some form of a bailout package in the USA will be approved in the coming week which will have a flow on effect across world markets. Get some financial advice and try and identify the market sectors that have been unjustly undervalued over the last couple of weeks and you might just find a niche to exploit and get some good returns when the market inevitably corrects itself. The risk is that it is hard to tell when this correction will occur and have we bottomed out, or is there more pain to come. My gut feeling is there is money to be made for those willing to take a calculated risk. Just don’t expect a guaranteed return – you could just as easily lose your cash.

Anways, again that was a bit all over the place, but hopefully in some shape or form it makes a little sense.

Ok, so some of us get quotes and other stuff from Runner’s World, usually they’re half interesting, but today’s has been the best by a mile. You don’t know how true it is until you get out there and start battling the voices.

“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit” – GEORGE SHEEHAN

Speaking of running…. I’ve got two and a half weeks until the Melbourne Marathon and have been holed up in bed with a chest infection for the last 5 days. I think there will be many, many, many voices on the day!

Yes, so Google has rolled out it’s latest world-conquering app – the Google Chrome browser. It’s been out a couple of days now and so far I’m really liking what I see. It’s a beta release, but don’t let that stop you from trying it out – trust me, you’ll be better off.

There are heaps of blogs, reviews, press releases and the likes floating around the place breaking it all down and weighing up the pros v cons of Chrome, but he is my no-nonsense take of Google’s newest play toy.

1. It’s cool. You don’t have to be a tech-head cyber guru to get a kick out of this. Forget how it works (I’ll get to that), it just looks so cool. It’s slimline, it’s minimal and it doesn’t even look like a browser – it’s all about the pages baby!
2. It works. Well, pretty bloody good for a beta release, it’s more of a beta 2.0. The new take of tabs operating fully independently is very clever. This means that if one nasty webpage is crashing out, then it won’t take down the other 43 tabs that you have open watching eBay auctions closing in 2 minutes.
3. It remembers stuff. Top 9 pages you visit, your recent closed tabs and more without having to tell it to – how thoughtful.
4. It spies on you – hardcore. Well at least I’d imagine it would. Google knows you better than you probably know yourself. Hey, I don’t really mind – I trust Google and I’d rather be target marketed than bombarded with crap. So people might take issue with Google’s impending world domination, but not me – I’m all for it and will be cheering them on all the way!

Anyways, there’s heaps more to say, but that’s just a little snippet of what’s going on upstairs.

Speaking of Google….they’ve been kind enough to provide some though-provoking content that should be appearing about 5mm due south of here….

Ok, so who’s seen the latest TVC offering from Cadbury? If you’ve caught a glimpse of Australian Idol this year, then I’d hazard a guess to say you’ve watched the Gorilla hammering away on the drums to Phil Collins. It’s definitely something different. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m always a sucker for a good ad, and this one is no exception – The Gorilla LOVES IT!

The first time you see it, you’re just sitting there, wondering what the hell this massive gorilla is going to do, and then when he starts going off, then for some reason you just can’t look away. Good on Cabdury, a relevant campaign to their Idol sponsorship and definitely one of the more creative, eye-grabbing ads on free to air TV for a while now.

This is the best $320 I’ve ever spent! (JB HiFi – bargain!)

These little laptops are brilliant! I got one with a Linux OS and it runs awesome. The touchpad is extremely accurate and the included apps cover just about everything I’d ever need. 4GB flash memory won’t exactly allow for my music collection, but bumping it up with a big SD card should be more than enough. to handle travel photos, small movies, whatever really.

This will be great for getting small things done on the road or just away from my desk.

Very happy camper!

Hey did you know that the Paralymics are starting in a couple of days? No? I don’t blame you; how would you?

Come on! Fine, we all know that Paralympians aren’t the glamorous superstars of world sport, but surely they deserve a little more attention than the occasional article here and there.

Did you know that the 2004 Athens Paralympics didn’t get 1 single second of coverage on TV in the US? That’s pathetic!

I’ll be cheering on the Aussie Paralympians in Beijing…. perhaps they might be able to restore a little Aussie v England sporting pride.