Morning Types Crash Faster Than Night Owls, Study Says

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The early bird may get the worm, but there's something to be said about burning the midnight oil. In fact, according to a new study, staying up later and longer may increase alertness and productivity more than being an early riser.

Photo by myyorgda.

According to the study as reported by Scientific American:

An hour and a half after waking, early birds and night owls were equally alert and showed no difference in attention-related brain activity. But after being awake for 10 and a half hours, night owls had grown more alert, performing better on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention and showing increased activity in brain areas linked to attention.

Of course we wouldn't be surprised if another study were to come along touting the opposite conclusion, so it's worth taking this news with a grain of salt, but the post is an interesting addition to the early bird versus night owl discussion. If you're looking to find your peak performance time, check out our previous post on the best times morning people and night owls should get work done.

Fabulous Freebies 2009

It's been said that the best things in life are free -- and we couldn't agree more. That's why we're back with our third annual list of our favorite freebies.
We looked for primo goods and services, no useless junk allowed. And boy, did we find 'em, from financial management and planning helps to entertainment and vacation freebies.
Go ahead. Embrace your inner tightwad:
More from Kiplinger.com: • The Best Buys of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring• Quiz: What Kind of Spender Are You?• You Can Buy That... Or This for a Lot Less
1. Free Video Games
If you're looking for games for the kids -- or an excuse to act like a kid yourself -- head to Kongregate.com, Popcap.com, Pogo.com and OnlineFlashGames.org for thousands of free online and downloadable games of all types.
For educational or just-for-fun games suited to young kids, check out PBSkids.org, DiscoveryKids.com, NickJr.com and Scholastic.com/kids.
2. Free Birthday Goodies
A slew of businesses will give you prime freebies on your birthday that almost make getting older worth it. For instance, anyone can get free admission to Disneyland or Disney World parks in 2009. Join the birthday club at Toys R Us and your child (younger than 10) will get a free toy or gift card every year.
If you sign up in advance to join the club at your favorite eatery, you could score free food on your birthday too. For example, you can get a free meal at Famous Dave's BBQ and free ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin Robbins. Search the Web for "birthday freebies," then call your local restaurants to ask whether they participate in the deal.
3. Free Shipping
Special delivery! Some retailers still offer free shipping on every order, including Alyssagiftbaskets.com (special-occasion gifts), Bluenile.com (jewelry), Piperlime.com (shoes), Shopbop.com (clothes) and Zappos.com (shoes).
Many merchants offer free shipping if you can pick up the item at your local store, including Walmart.com, Payless.com and REI.com. This comes in handy for online-only items, oversize purchases or goods that have sold out at your local store. Or, look for free shipping deals when you spend a certain amount, such as orders over $25 at Amazon.com. See FreeShipping.org for more deals.
More from Yahoo! Finance: • Consumer Spending: What's In, What's Out• The 7 New Rules of Financial Security • 10 Ways Banks Siphon Money From You
Visit the Banking and Budgeting
4. Free Software
For most of your computing needs, you can get free software. For word processing and spreadsheets, go to OpenOffice.org. For antivirus protection, head to http://free.avg.com. For free basic photo editing, check out http://picasa.google.com, or for more advanced touch-ups, try Gimp.org. And to manage your finances, use the free programs at Mint.com or Wesabe.com.
5. Free Stock Trades
At Wells Fargo, you get 100 commission-free online trades per year if your cumulative account balance is $25,000 or more (including your Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, IRAs and brokerage accounts).
Also, Zecco.com offers ten free trades per month if you have $25,000 in your brokerage account.
6. Free Credit Report
By law, you're entitled to one free report once a year from each of the three main credit bureaus. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to find out what lenders can see about your credit history.
7. Free TV and Movies
Head online to watch free episodes from hundreds of TV shows -- old and current -- as well as free movies. And it's perfectly legal.
At OVGuide.com you'll find a list of TV and movie sites including Hulu.com, Veoh.com and Fancast.com, as well as individual network Web sites, such as ABC.com and CBS.com.
8. Free ATMs
A buck or two here and there may not seem like a big deal, but if you're frequenting ATMs outside your bank's network, the surcharges can add up quickly.
Get money from an ATM that belongs to a surcharge-free network. Allpoint has about 200 participating institutions and 32,000 ATMs. Money Pass has 600 members and 8,000 ATMs.
9. Free (and Risk-Free) Interest
Many banks offer free savings accounts, but they won't help your money grow. Instead, use a high-yield online savings account for your short-term savings, such as ING Direct, HSBC Direct and Emigrant Direct. They're FDIC-insured and were recently paying around 1.4%. They have no minimum-balance requirement, so you earn that rate whether you have $1 or $100,000 saved.
And consider the free interest-bearing checking accounts from ING Direct and Everbank. They're also FDIC-insured and were recently paying between 0.25% and 1.96%. (Most traditional banks' free checking accounts pay you nil.)
10. Airline Freebies
Airlines may be scaling back their perks, but some still have freebies for fliers. For instance, Southwest lets you check two bags for free, while most others charge extra for luggage. JetBlue lets you check one bag free, plus gives you access to free TV, satellite radio and all-you-can-eat snacks. Continental still serves free meals on several routes. And all kids under age 2 can fly free on your lap on any airline.
Don't forget about the free flights you can score by signing up for an airline's frequent-flier program (enrollment is also free). See the "Program Guide" at WebFlyer.com for the lowdown on each airline's rules.
11. Free Money for Grad School
On average, a year of graduate school costs $28,375 for a master's degree at a public school and $38,665 at a private school. But free money abounds, from grants and scholarships to assistantships and fellowships.
12. Free Rewards
You have to buy groceries and gas anyway, so why not use those purchases to get a little more green in your wallet? Sign up for a rewards credit card and get free money, gift certificates, airline miles or other perks. (Of course, it's only free if you pay the balance in full each month without incurring interest charges.)
When you have to make a purchase online, start at BondRewards.com to earn another cool freebie: You click on an affiliated online retailer (there are hundreds) to do your shopping as usual, and a percentage of your purchase is given back to you in your BondRewards account. You then redeem your rewards for U.S. savings bonds or cash.
13. Free Financial Advice
Not to toot our own horn (okay, maybe just a little), but Kiplinger.com is a treasure trove of free financial advice. Our tools and calculators will help you get on the right financial track.
Our expert columnists will answer your personal-finance questions. For instance, Kim Lankford answers your general financial questions, Janet Bodnar tackles family and kid topics and Knight Kiplinger advises readers on ethics and money matters.
14. Free Mobile Apps
You spent all that money on a new iPhone. Now download some free apps to help you save money and recoup the cost. For instance, the free Mint.com or Quicken apps help you track your spending and manage your money and investments on the go. AMT Hunter can help you find a surcharge-free machine near wherever you are. And iShop can help you search for the lowest price on an item before you buy.
There are plenty of other useful applications at the iTunes App Store, with free recipes, weather updates, diet help, music, games and more.
15. Free Books, Movies, & Music
If you haven't been to the public library lately, dust off your card. It's your ticket to mounds of free books, magazines, CDs and movies.
Many libraries also offer free lectures, book readings and community clubs to residents.
16. Free Online Bill Paying
Stop paying your bills by check and put their payment on autopilot. At many banks, including Bank of America, BB&T, SunTrust and Wachovia, you get free bill paying with every online checking account. (Be sure you read the fine print -- some banks may require you to maintain a certain balance in your checking account to get the freebie.)
But even if your bank doesn't give you this freebie, you can probably arrange for automatic bill paying directly with the parties sending the bills, such as your utility, credit-card, phone and mortgage companies.
17. Free Kids' Meals
Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch -- or dinner. Kids eat free at Denny's, Lone Star Steakhouse and Roadhouse Grill every Tuesday night (and some Saturdays) with a paying adult. IHOP, Golden Corral, Marie Callender's and Chevys restaurants offer kids-eat-free deals at select locations.
You can search for eateries in your area at KidsMealDeals.com.
18. Free Digital Storage Space
With free online backup storage, you can protect your important files and photos from computer crashes, theft or natural disaster.
For instance, Spideroak.com and Myotherdrive.com each give you 2 gigabytes of free and secure digital storage space. You can also store your cherished photos and videos at sites such as Photobucket.com and Flickr.com. You can also store your pics at photo-print ordering sites such as Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com or Walmart.com, as long as your account is active.
19. Free Tech Recycling -- With Benefits
Not only is it getting easier to keep your old electronics out of the landfill, but you may even get some free cash in exchange. Services such as BuyMyTronics.com, Gazelle.com, MyBoneyard.com and GreenPhone.com recycle or refurbish your old tech and send you a check in return. They take cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, game consoles and more.
If you can't find anyone willing to pay for your dinosaur, look for other free places to recycle. For instance, Best Buy will take many of your tech castoffs at no charge. And keep your eyes open for free e-recycling days in your city.
20. Free Capital Gains
Who wouldn't love to let their investments grow 100% tax-free? Take a pass on paying capital-gains taxes by investing in a Roth IRA. Any money you put into your Roth grows tax-free, and you won't owe Uncle Sam a dime when you cash out in retirement. It's all yours.
See 10 More Fabulous Freebies

Win at the credit scoring game

To get the best deal on a loan, you need some new strategies to bump up your score - and keep it there.

Money Magazine) -- Borrowing money today requires impressing an increasingly hard-to-please crowd. With creditors of all kinds more cautious than ever, you need an A+ application to land the best terms -- and that means an A+ credit score, the number lenders use to judge your risk of default.

The most commonly used credit scoring system, called FICO, rates people from a very risky 300 to a pristine 850. And right now we're in the middle of a credit score crunch: "You need a 750 or better today to have the same treatment you got with a 700 two years ago," says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at Credit.com.

John D'Onofrio, CEO of Autoloandaily.com, seconds that: "Two years ago a 680 was enough to get a great car loan rate. Today it's often the minimum to qualify at all."

Think you're still in the clear? Don't be so sure. Lenders have been making changes that could cause your score to slip from excellent to average. Improve and protect your number with these strategies:

Learn your score. You have three FICO scores, based on your credit reports at the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The numbers tend to be in the same ballpark, so pony up $16 to get one representative score at myfico.com. You can get an estimate free at Creditkarma.com. But the FICO score gives you a better sense of what lenders see.

Scout for mistakes. Your scores are only as good as the information they're based on. And a third of people who've pulled their reports have found errors, according to a Zogby poll. That's good reason to read your report.

When you buy your FICO score, you'll get a copy of the report it was based on. Get gratis histories from the other bureaus via annualcreditreport.com (you're entitled to one free from each bureau every 12 months).

Spot an error? Request a correction, following the instructions on the bureau's website. Let's say the size of a credit line was misstated or an account was mistakenly marked delinquent. Getting the error fixed could raise your score as much as 200 points, says Ulzheimer, who has also worked for Equifax and FICO.

Never, ever be late. As you'll see in the pie chart on the right, the biggest chunk of your credit score comes from your payment history. Just one late payment can shave 100 points off a 750-plus credit score, says Ulzheimer. Lenders can't tattle on you to the bureaus until you're 30 days past due, adds credit expert Gerri Detweiler. But don't risk it. For all your bills, enter recurring due-date reminders on your computer calendar.

Missed a payment? Get back on track within the next 30 days, and you should "get back the lion's share" of points lost, Ulzheimer says. More than 90 days late? The damage can stick for years. If it was a one-off lapse, call your issuer and plea for a good-will adjustment to your credit report. (It's a long shot.)

Remember the magic 20%. The second-biggest factor in your score is how much you owe vs. how much credit has been extended to you. The part of this that's easiest to finesse is your credit card utilization rate, or your total card balances compared with your total credit limits, as well as each card's balance relative to its limit.

Example: If you've charged $5,000 on cards and have $50,000 in credit, your rate is 10%. For the best score today, 10% is ideal, but you can probably creep up to 20% and keep a high rating.

Unfortunately, with banks lowering credit limits and canceling unused cards, it's harder to maintain such a low percentage. In the previous example, if your available credit is cut to $20,000, your rate shoots to 25%. That could sink your score by as much as 50 points, says Ulzheimer. The lesson: Know your limits, watch for changes, and stay under 20% on each card and in total (0% if you'll be applying for a loan soon).

Already above 20%? Paying down debt is the obvious way to lower your utilization rate, but another strategy is to apply for an additional credit card to increase your overall credit limit. That may cause you to lose a few points in the short term -- so don't do it if you're about to apply for a mortgage -- but it should pay off in the long run.

Keep oldest cards in play. As noted, credit issuers these days are eagerly canceling cards that are not in use. Besides reducing your limit and increasing your utilization ratio, having an account closed can hurt you in another way, especially if it's among your older ones.

See, 15% of your score rides on the length of your credit history. The longer you ably manage revolving debt, the better you look. So don't cancel your oldest cards. And don't let them get canceled on you: Move a recurring charge to each so they stay active.

Already ditched or been ditched? A new card (see previous) can help with your utilization rate, but there's little you can do to help the "history" component of your score, except to keep other old accounts in use.

Accept fate on the rest. There are other factors involved in your score, but they're not so easy to manipulate. For example, 10% is based on how well you manage a mix of credit types, such as mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. But you don't want to go out and, say, finance a car just for a score boost; besides, you can easily get 750-plus with just a few well-tended credit cards.

Along the same lines, 10% is based on "new credit," but the effects of a new application can be positive or negative, depending on your history.

In other words, if you want to be among the crème de la credit crème, accept what you can't change, and focus on what you can.

Setting And Achieving Goals The SMART Way

Whether you’re trying to advance your career or achieve something significant in your personal life, at some stage you will need to set yourself some goals and work towards achieving them. But, just being able to set a goal is not enough. Promising yourself that you’ll do something is easy, actually doing it can be a lot harder.

Most of us tend to have many goals at any one time, we want to be happy and rich, we want to lose weight, we want to drink less and quit smoking. While those are all great things to work towards, they are not really very well defined, they are more of an ambition, a statement of intent rather than a concrete objective.

How will you measure your level of happiness? How rich do you actually want to be? Do actually NEED to lose weight? How much less do you want to drink and by what stage do you want to be cigarette free? How will you even begin to do any of this?
Goals need focus and context, and this is where many people struggle and so their ambitions remain forever out of reach.

The SMART System
When I first learned about the SMART system, I was very excited. It crystallized something in my mind, something I believe I always knew, but could never put my finger on. Having learned about it I was almost immediately able to pinpoint where I went wrong (or right) with some of my recent personal successes and failures. Let me share with you what SMART is all about.

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Boxed. You apply the SMART criteria to any goal you wish to achieve and if it does not meet any of the five characteristics you clarify and adjust it until it does.

• Specific
  You jeopardize your chances of success from the very start when you make a goal too general. There is no point just saying you want to run faster. You need to make it more concrete, i.e. “I want to be able to improve my average time for a 5 mile run by 1 minute”, is much better and is something that you can really work towards.


• Measurable
  You need a way to be able to tell that you have achieved what you set out to achieve. Making a goal measurable is directly related to making it specific. The more specific your objective is the easier it becomes to measure it and gauge your progress. If you can’t find a way to measure your progress towards your goal, then you most likely need to make it more specific.
  
  One of the best things about having a measurable objective is having the ability to set yourself milestones. It is much easier to achieve a tough objective when you can break the journey up into smaller increments. It’s a psychological thing, by giving yourself a series of successes along the way, through meeting a set of milestones, you give yourself positive reinforcement and working towards your goal becomes a much more pleasurable experience.


• Achievable
  It is one of the most frustrating things in the world when something you’re really passionate about is simply beyond your power or control. Don’t put yourself in that situation. You may really want to make 1 billion dollars by tomorrow or solve world hunger by the end of the month, but realistically you have no chance of achieving either of those. You need to be realistic about your goal-setting. Some things may simply be beyond your influence, like becoming a Formula 1 driver in your 40s or being close personal friends with the Queen of England.
  
  Be reasonable and make sure your goals are something you can actually accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, it is fine to have ‘stretch goals’ (forgive the management terminology), but when it is physically impossible for you to stretch that far, you need to set your sights a little lower.


• Relevant
  If you don’t believe in something, when you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it is not only extremely difficult to keep doing it, but you also get very little personal satisfaction from achieving milestones or even attaining the final objective itself. Don’t waste your time; make sure your goal is something that really matters to you. This one is perhaps the most difficult of the five as it can require a bit of soul searching to figure out what is really important to you. Do invest the time, zero-in on the things that are truly important to you, don’t set goals arbitrarily.


• Time-Boxed
  We tend to work best when we are working towards a deadline. If we know that we need to achieve our objectives by a certain date we tend to have more focus and prioritize. Without a concrete deadline our goals are at best fuzzy and will tend to always be superseded by ‘more pressing’ concerns. Time-box your goals , more than that, time-box the milestones on the way to your goal it will give you extra motivation and encourage you to push on towards the next milestone on the way to your objective.

Finally remember that you can never set your goals in isolation. Your objectives must make sense in the context of your environment. You may want to backpack around Europe for 6 months, but if you have a wife and 3 young children, is that goal really achievable or even relevant in the grand scheme of things? And even if you did push on with achieving this goal would you be prepared to pay the price (alienating or losing your family)?

As for me, I first learned about SMART from a great book I read earlier this year – “Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware” by Andy Hunt - which by the way is an excellent read if you want to learn more about how your brain works and tap the potential of your mind more fully.

What really got my attention was the fact that Andy mentions that using SMART objectives is “an old favorite from the consultant’s bag of tricks”. I had never heard of it in almost 4 years of doing software consulting, so my curiosity was piqued. Since learning about SMART I have tried to apply it not only in my personal life but also in my work and it has made a noticeable difference. Not only am I more productive, but I am also happier since I am a lot better able to achieve the objectives I set for myself (primarily because I set my goals in such a way as to meet all the SMART characteristics). It just feels like I am getting a lot more done these days possibly because I tend to focus on bite-sized goals that are most important and relevant to me (which is what SMART is all about). Try it yourself, you’re bound to notice the difference

Stock Your Bar for $100

Stocking a bar is a difficult task. Stocking a bar for $100 is even more difficult. Let's take a look at three different methods for gearing up your liquor cabinet for parties of various sizes on the cheap.

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Note: Now is a good time to remind everyone of the dangers of alcohol. College is definitely a time to make mistakes, but please—for the love of God—do so safely. You don't need to be a college student to invite 15 of your closest friends over for some drinks, but like it or not, alcohol is an integral part of most people's college experience and good things (like new friendships) can come from it. This is one of the more popular posts on HackCollege, and it's also one of my favorite. —Kelly

Limiting Factors:

• Cost
• Number of People
• Length of Party

This is a lot of stuff. Take everything with a (margarita) grain of salt and make changes as you see fit. No party is exactly the same; likewise no party has the same requirements. And—depending on your state's liquor laws, taxes, or store rip-off-ness—prices vary.

Building the Bare Bones Bar:

Before having a solid house party, you need a good foundation. If you want a full-out bar, you'll need all of these things, but pick and choose depending on the situation.

The essentials (some of which you only buy once in a blue moon)

• Tonic water
• Sour mixes
• Soda water
• Ginger ale
• Light cream
• Lime juice
• Grenadine
• Triple sec

Stuff that you probably already have but need to get if you don't

• Milk
• Water
• Ice (about a pound per person)
• Salt
• Nutmeg
• Limes/lemons
• Garnishes
• Juices (OJ, cranberry)

The essential liquor combos:

• 2 lights
• 2 darks
• Vermouth

$100 Bar for a Cocktail Party (10-15 People):

With a cocktail clambake, quality of alcohol is key. Dumping Monarch rum into a potentially delicious daiquiri is just plain unacceptable. You won't be able to stock a bar with every alcohol you can imagine and still afford the mid-shelf liquors that any cocktail party needs. We chose alcohols for covering your cocktail party drink bases, rather than providing the ability to make that obscure drink out of your friend's iPhone drink mixing widget. Gin and Tonics, not Sex on the Beach.

For a cocktail party with less than 15 people, you will need 4 to 5 fifths of booze. For a well-rounded bar, we recommend:

First Priority - Spirits:

• Vodka, 750 mL ($14-$19): Smirnoff, SKYY or Finlandia
• Rum, 750 mL ($14-$18): Sailor Jerry's, Captain Morgan, Barcardi
• Gin, 750 mL ($15-$23): Seagram's, Beefeater or Bombay
• Whiskey, 200 ml ($8-$12): Jack, Jim Bean, or Johnnie Walker

Second Priority - Beer and Wine:

• Classy Beer, 12 pack ($16-$20): New Castle, Guiness, or something along those lines
• Kickass Cheap Wine, ($5-$8/bottle): See our interview with Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV at the end of the HackCollege Podcast Episode 18 for some great recommendations.

The spirits here will equate to roughly 2.5 liters of 80 proof booze. That's 56 shots for those keeping track. With the beer and wine, that means each person is getting the D.A.R.E. equivalent of 4-6 drinks per person depending on how many people attend.

The number of fifths bought can be increased if your fans aren't fans of beer. Or if you refuse to serve gin, just balance everything out. Remember though: you aren't building this bar for yourself, but for all of your attendees.

$100 Bar for a Soirée (30 People):

Unfortunately, this is tough. You'll be forced to skimp on quality to come in under budget. So, do one thing and do it well. You'll want to choose 1 or 2 drinks that you'll be serving and stick with those. Long Islands are too complicated. Instead, think Screwdriver or Slow Gin Fizz. Plastic handles will be your best friend for the 30-person soirée. Here is an example:

White Russians

Our target here is 5 drinks per person. Here's your standard White Russian recipe:

• 2 shots vodka
• 1 shot coffee liqueur
• 1-3 oz. milk

Vodka tends to be much less expensive than coffee liqueur. Once the party's over, vodka is going to be much more flexible in mixing other drinks in the future. But if you insist on drinking the Dude's drink, go for it. The results will be delicious.

A note: Kahlua is going to destroy your budget. Side with another coffee liqueur. We prefer Copa de Oro for our wallet-friendly White Russians.

$100 ingredients for White Russians:

• 2 handles Vodka ($20 each)
• 1 handle Copa De Oro ($17)
• 2 gallons milk ($8)
• Remainder on beer ($35) (perhaps the milky Guinness?)

Mix your drinks right, serve in small Solo cups and you've got yourself a soirée.

The 100-Person Rager on a Budget:

Those who have left college needn't read on. If you're just going to get crazy for a night, you can't really have a budget — but you should know what you're getting yourself into. If you're planning on having a rager with 100 people for about 6 hours, you'll spend about $380 in the cheapest situation, given the breakdown below. This allots each person a drunkness of 7-8 drinks.

• 2 kegs ($100-$140 a piece): This is the mainstay of college drinking. You'd rather run out of liquor than beer.
• 9 handles, varying alcohols ($15-$20 per jug): If you really want to class it up, you'd get 19 fifths instead and vary your liquor brands even more. If you're too lazy to tend a bar, buy the same amount, and mix up some Jungle Juice.
• 5 standard box wines ($9-$12 per box): This might offend some people, but it'll only account for about an eighth of the budget/ham-boned-ness at your party.

What does DVDscr, TELESYNC, CAM, R5 etc. mean?

Have you ever downloaded a movie from torrent sites and wondered what those weird code from its filename means? Take for example, this file that I downloaded saw:

Lions.for.Lambs.R5.LiNE.XViD-HLS.avi
Let’s break it into segments:
Lions.for.Lambs is the title of the movie
R5.Line is the release type
XVid is the compression used
HLS is the group that released the video

For the downloader, the important part is the release type for this will tell you the quality of the video.
Here are the rest of known release types and their definitions:

CAMA cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera might shake. Also seating placement isn’t always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor.

TELESYNC (TS)A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality.

TELECINE (TC)A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed.

SCREENER (SCR)A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a “ticker” (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape.

DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good.

DVDRipA copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail (for example, Star Wars episode 2) again, should be excellent quality.

WORKPRINT (WP)A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print (Men In Black is missing all the aliens, and has actors in their places) and others can contain extra scenes (Jay and Silent Bob) .

R5 or R5.Line R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. They take the information from the DVD disc and sync it to an English version of the film, usually a previously released version. Which means that the sound often isn’t as good as DVDRips. In some cases, R5 DVDs may be released without an English audio track, requiring pirates to use the direct line audio from the film’s theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release should be tagged with “.LINE” to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.

More Ways to Eliminate Cellphone Voicemail Instructions

New York Times tech columnist/reviewer David Pogue continues his worthy war against unnecessary, money-grabbing voicemail "instructions," digging up an actual elimination tip for Sprint customers and a few suggestions for everyone else.

As most people know by now, cellphone voicemail systems offer "guidance" to callers on how to leave a message. You do it "after the tone," you see, and sometimes you can even learn how to "send a numeric page." It's all explained to eat up the caller's phone minutes, and each carrier seems to have their own magic button one must hit to skip straight to leaving a message.

Gina compressed those magic buttons into a single "One-Star-Pound algorithm, although it's one that requires a good bit of active work on the caller's part. Pogue learned that Sprint customers could join iPhone owners in having those instructions entirely eliminated:

Access your voice mail box. Press 3, for personal options.
 Press 2, for greetings.
 Press 1, to change your personal greeting.
 Press 3, to add or remove the caller instructions. Follow the prompts to turn instructions on or off.

Pogue's readers suggested those who can't turn off their voicemail "instructions" or "prompts" to record a personal greeting that includes the magic button, as in, "You've reached Kevin, hit star to leave a message." That can come off a bit rushed and informal with the wrong recording, but it's not a bad idea, and can definitely be construed as a courtesy by busy callers.