As the article suggests this is an interesting comparison between the two softwares. One is a new, free, upcoming software option while the other is a well known company.
By David Chartier | Published: October 15, 2008 – 10:40AM CT
Online financial organization has just grown more robust as Mint.com and offline incumbent Quicken both introduced new features to their web-based products. Since Mint.com and Quicken Online have similar purposes and functionality in mind, we thought it was time to take a comparative look at how a company from the new social media realm stacks up against a desktop software giant when it comes to online money management.
What’s new
Kicking off the round of announcements, Mint.com showed new features that provide customizability, investment tracking for all users, and an end to the product’s “beta” status. A Mint spokesperson told Ars that registrations are up 100 percent over the past month and that the site now boasts over 500,000 users. So far, Mint has tracked nearly $15 billion in assets and over $160 billion in purchases, which gives the company “tremendous” insight into trends such as an overall average spending decline among users of $300 per month since January 2008.
Mint’s first new feature is custom budget categories, which has been at the top of the company’s request list for some time. Sub-categories can be added to Mint’s existing set of main categories, though new main categories cannot be created at this time.
The next new feature is a more in-depth set of investment tracking features (just in time!) that were first introduced in beta for a select group of users back in April. Users can see all their holdings across brokerage, 401k, IRA, and 529 accounts, and they can view investment performance across all accounts or drill down into a specific one. Users can now analyze cost basis vs. performance, as well as performance by asset allocation. While Mint can also display over 100 investment transaction types like all buys, sells, straddles, and dividends now, it cannot yet help make any of these transactions.
If you are looking for a money management solution there really isn’t all that much to choose from, especially online services. It is interesting to see these two up close and what works best for you is always up to you.
By Joel Hruska | Published: October 06, 2008 – 09:20PM CT
When security researchers and network professionals announced that they had successfully forced the ISP Atrivo (aka Intercage) offline last month, the celebration seemed short-lived. Atrivo’s web site was back online under UnitedLayer within only a few days, and the consensus from some corners (including certain readers) was that the entire drive to take Atrivo offline was nothing more than an exercise in futility. Whack off the head of a hydra, after all, and it grows back two (unless you’ve got a torch handy). In this case, the ire of the security industry burned bright enough to serve that purpose; UnitedLayer terminated the company on September 25. As of this writing, Atrivo remains offline.
Did it matter? MessageLabs has evidence (PDF) that it did, though possibly only in the short term. When Atrivo fell offline on September 21, botnet activity across the ‘Net dropped significantly. They begin to recover immediately, suggesting that the benefits are short-lived indeed, but dropped again (though not nearly as much) when Atrivo was finally kicked offline for good.
I had no idea that the amount of traffic from spam was so huge. I also had no idea that there was such a large amount filtered before it even hits your inbox! That is just crazy that 90% is filtered before it hits and yet so much still comes through. Imagine the cost your isp pays by having to have so much traffic sent over their networks. Too bad that I firmly believe even if there was no spam the cost to the end user would still remain the same. I don’t see corporations ending their monopolies any time soon, nor do I see them lowering the cost to us if they did reduce spam. Still it is nice to see someone is doing something about all this!
By Joel Hruska | Published: October 14, 2008 – 05:35PM CT
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it has won a major injunction against the massive international spam operation, HerbalKing. A US District Court has issued an order prohibiting the defendants (including brothers Lance and Shane Atkinson, Mike Van Essent, Roland Smits, and Jody Smith) from spamming or making false product claims. All of the various defendants’ assets have been frozen, and authorities in New Zealand (where some of the above apparently reside) have been notified and are working with the FTC. The organization claims to have received some 3 million complaints regarding spam mail connected to the HerbalKing operation, and believes the group may have ultimately been responsible for several billion spam e-mails.
The contents of those emails are so familiar it’s depressing. Herbal supplements, virility enhancers, weight-loss pills, and prescription drugs all top the charts, although HerbalKing may be in particular trouble for one product in particular. The spam outfit advertised VPXL as 100 percent herbal, safe medication that would “naturally” increase the size of one’s penis. Not only did the medication fail to do so, it contains sildenafil—the active ingredient in Viagra. That knocks out the 100 percent herbal bit, and since sildenafil can cause significant drops in blood pressure when combined with drugs containing nitrate, the medication doesn’t exactly qualify as “safe,” either.
I suggest reading the rest of the article. It is a good read. Not only is spam annoying it is severely damaging to the world economy. In order for these people to make money off the spam the cost is creating a terrific amount of worldwide traffic and effectively slowing down the entire internet. It is scary stuff.
On top of that, what they are spamming here is also not good. These kinds of herbal remedies are not cool. There is a reason the FDA doesn’t certify this kind of stuff; it doesn’t work! Also many times these drugs are poorly labeled. They have taken banned substances and simply replaced a few ingredients. I don’t know a solution to this problem because the FDA isn’t going to ban herbal remedies and at the same time companies are abusing this and marketing things they know are harmful to people. There is no scientific evidence for much of the remedies and yet they are still marketed heavily. There needs to be controlled experiments done in a laboratory. If they do not meet a certain set of criteria they should not be allowed to market the products. Many of these are dangerous and should not be consumed.
As more and more spammers are arrested, prosecuted and sued under state and federal anti-spam statutes, there’s one thing you can count on: Someone, somewhere, will invariably call the targeted spammer a “spam king.”
It seems the bulk e-mail industry has more kings than a pinochle deck. But who is really the king of kings? The following 10 spammers are all heavyweight contenders for the crown.
Half of them have done time or are still guests of the federal government. Two are dead. Most of the rest have been fined millions by the FTC and/or private companies for their misdeeds.
Which one truly deserves the title of king? Read on to find out.
On a side note… MSNBC has earned its own title from me. The most annoying pop up ridden, bug infested website ever. I have never seen a website so devoted to making money off their readers! Are you listening MSNBC? It really is a pathetic attempt. You cant even read their articles because you are assaulted with dozens of popups when you enter the site and then further assaulted with popups that hover over where you are trying to read. This is really pathetic. Cant you just make a website and let people read what you have written? You already have the top, bottom and both sides littered with your garbage advertising, must I also click on your stupid ads just to read an article?
–ok rant over–
What I was trying to say is that anyone who has been on the internet in the last 10 years or uses email is probably well aware of the infinitesimal amount of spam. It really is getting annoying. I am going to be writing a few more articles today about spam specifically. You might not even be aware of the extent of the problem!
