If you’re reading this, you already know you’re screwed. Someone, somewhere has been forgotten on your gift list, and you’re scrambling. As per usual, we at RWW have got your back. Here are five ideas that will not only save you from certain disgrace but just might make you look a little more with it and wired than your loved ones expected. Sponsor 1) Of-The-Month Clubs Flowers, beers, books, even dog treats – for every hobby, there’s a club membership that will bring the recipient monthly or even weekly gifts. With this kind of gift, you’ll be the hero all year round – in fact it’ll give you and the lucky recipient added incentive to communicate more often if you don’t now. 2) Netflix Membership For the movie buff or couch potato in your life, this gift says you condone and embrace the cinematic lifestyle. Memberships are tiered, so you can be as budget-conscious (or as generous) as you like. 3) Pro Apps or Paid Features For all the free web apps we use and enjoy, there are often pro versions with special benefits. I’ve personally enjoyed a pro Flickr account for ages, and the RWW gang love the speedy, unlimited-HD goodness of our pro Vimeo account. If you have new parents in your life, try a kid-centric subscription model web service such as LilGrams . 4) Multimedia Gifts Piracy is a dying art, so for the music, movie and game aficionados on your gift list, look around the web for legitimate sources of multimedia content. Gamers will love Microsoft Points for XBox Live or similar goodies for Wii and PS3. And for the youngsters and musicians, you can’t go wrong with an eMusic or similar subscription. 5) Know Thy Geek: Fonts, Domains, and Software I’ve been lusting after a particular domain name for a few months now. If someone knew me well enough to buy it, that lady or dude would be the most awesome Santa to date. And I won some brownie points myself for buying a special person a very special font he’d been wanting for quite some time. Likewise, if you’ve heard a hobbyist or nerd enthusing about a software update that might qualify as a bit of a splurge, the holiday is the perfect time to surprise him or her with a shiny, new email notification or ZIP file. These kinds of gifts show that you know the person well enough to understand and support his or her need to geek out. And what better gift is there, after all? Discuss

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5 Very Last-Minute Gifts from the Internet Hero/Shopping Mall Zero
Back in the fall, we told you about NYC’s BigApps competition , which encouraged technological innovation to benefit government and civic engagement. Public voting for the submitted applications opened this week. One of the submissions to come out of this competition is Blocks and Lots , an interesting app and API that essentially expose all the property records – more than 5 million records, total – for New York City. For site owners, there’s a customizable widget that can be embedded in just about any kind of site. Sponsor Blocks and Lots’ API allows developers to integrate detailed property information into any web or mobile application. Sample code is available in PHP and JavaScript. Blocks and Lots comes from BlankSlate, an NYC startup offering a web platform and set of read/write APIs for making, sharing, monetizing, and monitoring web apps. The company provides capabilities such as data, file, user and payment management through REST APIs. Using the same platform, BlankSlate was able to gather the city’s data files from 45 file sources from three different city agencies, import them and instantly export APIs. This process took just a few days. For example, you can use the Blocks and Lots widget to dig into the property valuation for Ellis Island, which is apparently worth about as much as Zynga these days. In the near future, Blocks and Lots will add location-aware iPhone and Android apps (i.e., the user’s mobile device will automatically retrieve property data depending on where the user it), and enabling the writable APIs to add user-generated content to the city’s data (e.g., photos, documents or text). To vote for Blocks and Lots – or any of the other apps submitted in the BigApps competition – check out the app gallery and voting rules . Discuss

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5 Million NYC Property Records Available Via Startup’s API
If you have a business today then you know that website advertising is a must for success. Business marketing is much easier than ever to access and it’s affordable also. It would be foolish not to take advantage of website advertising. If you want your business to stand out among the millions of other websites out there then you are going to have to make an impression with your marketing skills
If you would like help in and helping your website stand out then it would be best to use a professional service to help you market your website. If you take the time to look you will notice that there are many different types of professionals to chose from, you would only need to choose which one you want to work with.
Without proper website advertising your future clients will never know why they should pick you over the others. It is always best to look at the different options in advertising before you get started. Some options include banner advertising, linking or back linking, email advertising, targeted marketing, search optimization, blog marketing, and press release and article marketing.
You will most likely want to avoid general website advertising because it is going to be ineffective in most instances. With general website advertising you ad can be seen by thousands of people but out of that group, you may only have 10% of them actually interested in the product or service your company is providing. While some would think that’s a great number think about putting that same ad where everyone who sees it will be interested in it.
With targeted advertising you are finding a commonality among your audience. For example you would be wasting time advertising pet products to someone with pet allergies so you should go straight for the audience that you know will be interested.
The most popular advertising tool used today has got to be search engine advertising. It reaches masses of people and an extremely large audience and best of all it’s simple to use. Every business can benefit from this form of marketing strategy.
You can either help or hinder you business with the website advertising you chose to use. Your best bet is to find a professional marketing service to help guide you in your advertising decisions. It’s also a good idea not to limit yourself to one type of advertising try a few out and decide which works best for your business.
To learn more about website advertising and getting your business noticed, visit www.Majon.com today.
It’s been almost a year since I last worked with DIY repair site FixYa but I still remember the traffic spike we’d see every Christmas. While families would be thrilled to unwrap smart phones, netbooks and flat screen monitors in the early morning, they’d find themselves lost in a sea of instructions by noon. There is nothing worse than having a new shiny toy and not being able to play with it. In addition to FixYa, below are a few resources you can use to help set up your new gadgets. Sponsor 1. How Stuff Works : If you’re looking for a basic understanding of your computer or device, you can always check out this site for some helpful videos. The site offers tips on everything from adding RAM to your laptop to deconstructing your wireless mouse. 2. Videojug : This site offers videos on everything from cooking to cars. The site’s technology and cars section offers a variety of how-to information including how to get videos onto your iPod to how to set up your PlayStation. 3. Aardvark : When in doubt, ask the mob. While not specifically a gadget site, Aardvark allows you query your network for answers via email, instant message, iPhone app and web interface. Named ReadWriteWeb’s Best Little Co. of 2009 , the beauty of this site is that only those with a self-proclaimed expertise will be asked to solve your gadget problems. 4. Gdgt : Gdgt is a social wiki site where users trade tips and tricks on their favorite gadgets. Launched by former Engadget editors Ryan Block and Peter Rojas, the site offers specs and reviews on some of the newest products on the market. If you can’t solve your gadget-related issue on one of the video sites, it’s probably because the product is too new to have how-to videos. Check Gdgt for the listing and look at the discussion page for details. 5. iFixit Teardowns : And finally, if you’re feeling ambitious and you don’t want to wait on the phone for a manufacturer’s 1-800 number, iFixit offers user-generated teardown guides. The guides give a photo documentation of gadget disassembly as well as commentary on parts and hardware. Check your product documentation before venturing into this territory, you wouldn’t want to void your warranty before getting the device working. Discuss

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5 Sites to Help You Set Up Your New Gadgets