• vonage.com - a dying company?
• idtheftcenter.org - help with ID theft

Clark loves traveling to Europe. He goes as often as possible, especially during the cold months when fares are cheaper. But there is another reason fares are so expensive that you may not know about. Setting of air routes to Europe is still sort of a cartel. There are contracts between European governments and airlines to limit the number of carriers and, therefore, the amount of competition. But that is about to change. Soon, our airlines will be able to fly anywhere they want to and European airlines will be able to do the same. The biggest news is that – for the first time ever – discount airlines will be able to fly to Europe. So, over the next few years, airfares to Europe will become much more affordable. Also, according to Dallas Morning News, SouthWest Airlines is installing a new computer system that will allow SouthWest to sell international travel. Ryan Air, a European Airline, is another carrier that will make a huge difference on fares once it starts traveling to the States. Clark thinks it’ll be 2009 before we see this change, but it’s on its way.

Vonage, the well-known Internet telephone company, is in serious trouble these days on two fronts. Firstly, the company is in trouble in the courts. Verizon, which filed a patent violation suit against Vonage, has been given the power to shut Vonage down. Vonage will essentially go dead in one day if Verizon chooses to take action. You’ll know ahead of time if that happens, but hopefully it won’t. The second part of this is that Vonage’s stock has fallen by about 80 percent in value. It’s a bit ironic because the company popularized the idea of Internet phone calls, yet it may not survive. So, even though you create an entirely new industry, you may not survive. Vonage will have changed the course of history with its invention regardless, and we thank the innovative employees for that. We’ll keep you posted.

When you walk down the aisle at supermarkets, do you notice the products that try to be “all-in-one” products? Toothpaste, for example, now controls tartar, whitens your teeth and freshens breath in just one tube. Electronics also try to be a type of Swiss Army knife. TVs with built-in DVD players are one example. And that type of gadget is not worth it. If the TV breaks you have to bring in the entire thing and it costs much more than if they were separate. There is an enhanced value in our minds, but you’re really just giving more money to the company.

Clark had to replace two car batteries recently and it made him start to wonder if something was wrong with the battery industry. It turns out, it’s not the battery, according to the Dow Jones news wires. It’s the driver’s fault for plugging all kinds of devices into the car’s charger plugs. Clark bought a device called an “inverter,” which plugs into his cigarette lighter. It cost him $12 and allows him to plug just about any kind of gizmo into it. But it has ended up costing him much more than $12, now that two of his batteries have died. Portable GPS units are the main culprits, according to the report. And there are soon to be millions more of the devices on the market. That’s because GPS units will probably be $100 or less by Thanksgiving time. So, try to use chargers in your home if possible.