I found the “graphic guide” book concept intriguing, yet reading through multiple of them, I felt like they are more directories – pointers for further readings – rather than something I could use – while having little idea about the subject – as an introduction or overview into the subject.

This idea was further strengthened by Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide to Science’s Most Puzzling Discovery. This one I found rather enjoyable and I think it gives a bit more of “human” face to the quantum theory – but also, I already had basic notion in physics.

• Arcane login procedure
  • that doesn’t support 2FA
  • that prompts you to change your (randomly generated, high entry, kept in a password manager) password, even though the NIST has recommended against this practice for many years
  • which fails to actually log you out (!) – discovered this when I was trying to verify that my updated password worked
• Machine console sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t
• Arcane procedure to attach disks to VMs (to be fair: they show the commands in a popup window)
  • And even with these commands one can’t switch the boot disk of a given VM

They have a generous amount of free credit, but I wouldn’t recommend them for production use.

This is something new for me: protein shakes. Medically I can’t offer advice about it (I’m weary about using foreign substances not recommended by a specialist), but the site certainly is has some positive signs:

• The badges at the bottom are clickable and they go to the respective sites which certify the site
• The domain is registered since 2006 and they are paypal verified since 2007
• They have an active Facebook and Twitter account
• They use paypal / google checkout for payment which reduces your risk considerably

They also have also some less positive signs:

• There is no physical contact address
• The registration details are hidden by proxy registration
• The phone-number is a generic one (I would have liked one which coincides with the physical location)

All in all I would recommend this site for small purchases from inside the USA (they don’t deliver internationally). Also, I would consult a doctor (or multiple doctors) about the possible effect of the substances. In my view (and I’m no doctor) this is more serious than the homeopathic or “natural” substances and it should be handled with care. Then again, I’m also against medicine / medical devices (like glasses) being sold in places without expert supervision (like supermarkets).

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

All in all, while I couln’t find anything explicitly negative about them, it is more the case that I couldn’t find anything concrete about them :-). As far as advice goes, when starting out you are better off with some simple steps, and when you grow you might consider looking into a SEO consultancy, but take care to find a reputable one rather than a cheap one or one which promises you the moon.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

External pavement is tricky in general, so you really need to consult somebody who done it before. It requires some kind of foundation (mostly compacted sand) and manual work to lay each piece. When finished it can look very nice, but it can also be very adversarial to people / children who happen to fall on them. I would recommend grass, asphalt (possibly a small strip of it for the tires if we are talking about a garage) and only after that paving with slabs. Good luck with the construction!

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

I can’t draw a definite conclusion about this. I’m not from the UK and have zero familiarity with the UK law. Probably the only advice I can give at this moment is to try asking your close family or your trusted friends. I imagine that it is painful to do so, but this is the only source I can think of where you can get money without the exorbitant rates asked by payday lenders. All that I can do is hope that you prevail, since I have a deep belief that as long as you have determination, you will find your place.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

I didn’t use any sextoys myself to-date (although I would be open to try some of the lighter versions), but I can see how online shopping and discreet delivery can be a big advantage. A word of caution: always consider the medical implications and don’t force yourself into un-natural situations which could end up hurting you.

Getting back to the store at hand:

• It only delivers inside of the USA, so it is a no-go for me (but there are plenty of local stores here, so I’m not complaining)
• Their site interface is pretty well made and usable, but there are bugs: for example when added one product to the cart and tried to check out, it appeared twice in the cart
• One big plus: their entire site is available trough HTTPS. Even though they default to HTTP, this is still great.
• Unfortunately their contact details are a little sketchy (and I mean it in the literal sense: there is very little information): they don’t give a physical address, just a PO box from San Diego. They are also hosted by a San Diego company, which makes it very probable that they are based there, but again, there is no clear indication of this. Their contact form doesn’t give an email address or a phone number. They are hosted on a dedicated server (good) but with IIS 6.0 (not so good). They are doing their own credit-card processing from what I’ve seen (I didn’t go trough with an actual order) and I would be weary entrusting my credit-card to a company which is not specialized in this domain (the CC processing domain that is).
• The site has no negatives on security rating sites like SiteAdvisor, WOT or Norton SafeWeb.

All in all, I would do only small purchases on this site, at least initially, from a disposable credit-card (PayPal offers these for example)

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

Now back to the idea to blackjack practice: can you really train yourself? Probably, to some extent (hey, even Kent Beck – yes, that Kent Back – has a poker training website). With regular exercise you can memorize basic strategy table (this will help you with any game, regardless if its with a live dealer or with a machine – supposing that the machine is playing fair) and then you can move to more advanced techniques like card counting or shuffle tracking. I doubt however that you can achieve a level where this would be a profitable endeavor.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the
terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in
any way (ie. only post positive facts).

Piece by Piece Full-Size Scentsy Warmer – this a usual warmer (usual for Scentsy that is – it uses a lightbulb to provide the heat, thus avoiding the open flame and smoke) with a puzzle-piece decoration. What makes this item (more) special is the fact that parts of the revenue from it go to Autism Speaks. While currently this is the only one in the Charitable Cause Warmers product line, hopefully there will be more in the future, allowing you to get something for both your body and your soul.

An other item I didn’t talk about in the last article is the gift certificate: if you consider appropriate, you could give a 25 USD Gift Certificate to the person. There are also replacement parts and individual warmer parts if your warmer breaks but you don’t want to buy a completely new one. Also, the light bulbs in the Scentsy products are standard ones (compared to something like a Philips wake-up light) so you can buy a replacement in almost any store, as long as you watch for the socket size and the wattage.

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).

The company is also relatively media-savvy: they have a (Facebook) like button on their website, they have a blog and their site is relatively nice looking (even more important: it doesn’t look like one of the stock templates from designers). The only thing you can’t do is to order online, but probably it’s better this way, since we are talking about relatively large amount of material (and automatically large amount of money) so a personal contact is a better option. Also, I didn’t see any indication that they ship outside of the USA, probably for the same reason.

Thumbs up for a small-medium business which has a good product!

Full disclosure: this is a paid review from ReviewMe. Under the terms of the understanding I was not obligated to skew my viewpoint in any way (ie. only post positive facts).