CatalogChoice.org - A free way to get off catalog mailing lists
Alternative Fueling Station Locator - Find a fueling station near youNLOP.com - Free and legal online poker gaming

Here in the United States, cell phones are controlled by the Big Four carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) with an iron fist. But that may soon be coming to an end. Sprint has entered into a new settlement that will allow you to keep their phone after you finish your contract. You can then go to another provider that runs on a compatible network -- such as Alltel and Virgin Mobile -- and you won't have to buy a new phone!

The old business model where cell phone companies tie you into their phone and their network makes no sense. Most of the world runs on a network called GSM. We are actually one of the only countries with two competing networks -- GSM and CDMA. Meanwhile, public revulsion over the Apple/AT&T iPhone deal is really helping to bring about a new day in the industry. Isn't it funny that with all the talk of smart phones our mobile devices are actually much dumber than the phones people use overseas? In fact, Verizon takes smart phones and dumbs them down on purpose to disable functions that they can't figure out how to monetize yet! So Clark loves the outcome of the Sprint lawsuit because it will really help open things up. Soon we'll buy phones like we do any other piece of technology. You don't buy your computer from your Internet service provider, do you? No, you buy it elsewhere and then hook it up. Cell phones will one day be like this.

Clark recently received an offer in his mailbox to get a mortgage on his house for 1.5 percent interest! It's like 2004 all over again when the weirdo loans were rampant. It turns out this is a new trend among mortgage companies. Lenders have seen the volume of business fall so much that they're getting increasingly desperate -- hence a slew of mailings trying to get you to treat your house like an ATM. Clark received a mailing from Countrywide offering $511,000 for a refinance. Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Times reports that lenders are also sending out mailings about option payment loans again. These are the kind where the balance rises over time instead of declining. What is going on here? When Clark looked closely at the first offer, he saw it was a teaser rate that's only good for 90 days. So beware that these mailbox offers can financially blow up in your face. Remember there is no free lunch. Clark wants you to learn in his school, rather than the school of hard knocks.

Clark is guilty of leaving his cell phone charger plugged in, along with a lot of other equipment that sucks up energy when not in use. These so-called Dracula or vampire electronics account for 5 cents on every $1 you pay for electricity. Clark's staffers recently made him look lousy during a meeting when they admitted they unplugged chargers that are not in use. And he's supposed to be the cheap guy! So think about what you can unplug and do it. Both your wallet and the environment will benefit.

On a related note, there's another environmental nuisance that you can now take charge of for free. Clark's mailbox around the holiday season has stacks and stacks of mail-order catalogs, most of them addressed to his wife. Now he's learned about CatalogChoice.org, a new website where you add your name to a "do not catalog" list. You probably won't be able to stop the influx of catalogs this holiday season because it takes about 10 weeks to process your request. Previously Clark only knew of a site where you had to pay to get your name taken off catalog mailing lists. CatalogChoice.org is absolutely free. Americans receive 19 billion catalogs every year. If you're an environmentalist, that's 53 million trees per year. The USPS also makes huge revenue delivering all these catalogs, so they'll be hurtin' for certain if everyone were to remove their names from the catalog lists.

When Clark recently spoke about online gambling, he heard from a lot of disgruntled listeners who thought he was being something of a nanny. So now as an addendum, Clark wants to share news of a free and legal online site where you can play poker and win real money. The site is called NLOP.com. The Boston Globe reports that about 30,000 people were using this site a year ago and now that number has grown to more than 150,000. NLOP.com is ad-supported, which is how they get revenue to pay the winners.

Clark is not a card player. He only enjoys a game of electronic solitaire on his cell phone while waiting at the airport. His wife, however, likes to play video poker in Las Vegas. She actually made Clark leave because he cringed whenever she put money in the machine and killed all the fun for her. Now they have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when they are in Vegas and his wife sticks to a $100 limit.