Dash.net - Internet-enabled GPS units
TreasuryDirect.gov (aka SavingsBonds.gov) - Buy Series I savings bonds online
OCC.gov- File a complaint against your credit card company
TIAA-CREF.org - Retirement planning for teachers or call 1-800-842-2252

Blind risk pools (also known as blank check investing) are the newest thing going in investing. Clark wants you to be diligent in avoiding these options. How will you know if you're being pitched? You may get a circular touting a new investment brain trust comprised of some of the top minds in finance. The talent is impressive, but there's no disclosure as to what your money will be invested in! That's because it hasn't been determined yet.

People are pouring billions of dollars into this stuff right now. But blind risk pools violate the first rule of investing: Understand the investment. Clark jokes that he'd rather you go to Vegas, take in a few shows, enjoy the Strip and then put on a blindfold and plunk your money down on the roulette wheel. You might get just about the same yield. So be smart about this. Your country club buddies or colleagues at the chamber of commerce may be getting into blank check investing. But you don't have to fall for it.

Clark freely admits that one of his greatest character failings may be that he has a complete meltdown when he faces any traffic. It's gotten to the point that none of his staffers like to travel with him for events in congestion-dense Los Angeles!

The penny-pinching guru has long hoped we'd adopt something similar to what the Germans have on the Autobahn and some secondary roads. They have a system where your cell is tied into a real-time traffic management feed. Your travels can be sensed based on the way your cell signal moves from tower to tower. Drivers can then be notified by text message if they're heading into a tie-up and there's an alternate route available.

We haven't had any similar options available stateside -- until now. About 2 years ago, Clark discussed vaporware from a company called Dash. They were touting an Internet-enabled GPS unit. Each Dash unit would send and receive real-time traffic info. The more Dash users in a metro area, the better the service would work. Well, now San Francisco is one city that's built up a critical mass of users.

How much does it cost? Too much for Clark's taste! Dash units run about $600 and then you still pay a monthly fee to have traffic data sent to you. There would have to be some really painful traffic to get Clark to subscribe at those prices. Early adopters, of course, will help drive the price down.

With oil prices reaching an all-time high, it sometimes gets lost in the ether when something actually gets cheaper. Skype has announced unlimited calling to about 34 countries for $10/month. This includes most of Europe and some of Asia and the South Pacific. Right now there's a special where you can get a third off the price if you buy a subscription before June 1.

Skype started as a VoIP service that appealed to techies. eBay bought Skype because they thought it would facilitate international auctions. But it turned out sellers didn't want to take calls from buyers! So eBay turned things around by positioning Skype as a competitor to traditional long distance.

Finally, Skype also has a new service launching in about 8 countries that will allow people to make ultra-cheap calls back to the United States. The price? Try about 2-4 cents per minute. In the future, we'll likely have free global calling. That's a little bit of good news amid all the bad.

Electronics retailers love to set up Blu-ray DVD players with HDTVs to spotlight the amazingly life-like picture that you can get. Clark's family was recently transfixed when they saw Night at the Museum showing in this manner at one retailer. But then the average consumer is crestfallen when trying to duplicate the results at home using the same equipment with a cable or satellite signal. What's going on?

Comcast is being blasted by techies who tested its HD broadcasts and found the signal was seriously compressed and degraded. The use of compression is not unique to Comcast -- they're just having a lot of trouble with it. Clark is not suggesting there's any conspiracy on Comcast's part; he just thinks they don't have their act together yet. They went from 2:1 compression to 3:1 compression to squeeze more HD channels through the pipeline into your home. That was a business decision they made to compete with Dish Network and DirecTV, which both offer huge numbers of HD channels. But in doing so, Comcast comprised the integrity of its HD signal.

Even under optimal settings, the best you can hope for at home is 720p, which is the minimal HD standard. Compare that to the 1080p image you see at your electronics retailer. The difference in those numbers may not sound great, but it's actually like magnitudes going up on the Richter scale!

To maximize your best picture, you'll want to buy a $30 or $40 over-the-air HD antenna. That way, at least your local broadcast channels will get the true HD representation that you can't get through cable or satellite. Don't fall for the ploy of spending hundreds extra on that new HD set to improve your picture!