The past holiday weekend turned out to be a fairly profitable affair for me, mostly because I found a little extra time on my hands and used it to dig through some recent phone bills. What started off as a simple tax analysis turned into something else altogether. I now figure the exercise is going to save me around $700 this year.

Recently, I began using Skype for most of the calls I make from my home office. My idea had been to try it out, see if it worked for me, and then (hopefully) cancel the long distance service attached to my office line.

The timing couldn’t have been better; thanks to an article in the Wall Street Journal, I realized that I’d embarked on a course of action that would save me even more money in excess(ive) taxes. I guessed that – once I’d included long distance service charges – my net savings would be around $240 a year. Not too bad. And since Skype appeared to be working well, I’d made the decision to cancel my long distance services by the 1st of July.

As usual, I was late getting started, and didn’t find the time until Friday…which turned out to be a holiday, of course, so I wouldn’t be able to change my billing until Monday. Frustrated, I decided to take a closer look at recent phone bills and figure out exactly how much I’d be saving.

It was a real eye-opener. Turns out that by the time I add the Universal Service Fund fees, federal access charges, phone company “recovery fees,” and all of the other taxes, my office line is being hit with a whopping 27.8% tax rate.

It all accounts for roughly $15 per month. Now, that may not sound like a big deal to some. Others may feel it’s a small price to pay for what some of those fees supposedly cover. For me, it’s the principle of the thing: why pay taxes when I don’t have to – particularly on something as over-burdened as phone service? At almost 28%, the taxes on my office line are higher than the income tax rates for all but the highest-earning U.S. citizens.

I’ve just spent another $30 over at Skype, and now have a brand new office phone number – for an entire year. I’ve had friends and family test it, and the quality is great. I have caller ID, voicemail and call forwarding included. Sans taxes, sans access charges and sans Universal Service Fund payments, the new number has cost me roughly what I would have spent in two months by just paying the taxes on my standard telephone line.

In a few minutes, when the billing offices over at my phone company open, I’ll be giving them a little call (using Skype, of course). But thanks to the Independence Day holiday and a little extra time on my hands, it won’t be to cancel my long distance service. I’m telling them to disconnect the line entirely; from now on, I’ll be Skypin’ it from my office – and pocketing about $60 every month.

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BestBuy has begun stocking a range of eco-friendly vehicles including an electric motorbike. But the promotion may be as much about attracting curious shoppers as being a serious selling strategy.

The firm has been selling electric vehicles in 21 stores since May. Today it’s giving that scheme a boost by hosting the launch of the Enertia, an “electric urban commuter bike.” While normally you’d expect a motorcycle to launch at a dealership, Best Buy itself has invested $10 million in the firm which makes the bike.

The bike offers a top speed of 55 miles per hour, with a 45 mile range and a three-hour charge time. Clearly nobody’s going to be hitting Sturgis in bike week with the Enertia, but it’s being marketed as a credible option for urban transport.

The hold-up is that it costs $12,000 which, while arguably a reasonable price for a vehicle, is not exactly in the budget of most Best Buy browsers. Douglas McIntyre of 247wallst.com speculates Best Buy is stocking the bikes mainly to get customers to take a look inside stores, a strategy that may be more effective than simply advertising slashed prices.

The Wall Street Journal notes it may also be a response to a logistical opportunity. The widespread switch to flat-screen television sets has left the firm with more space in stores to experiment with new products ranges. It notes successes in giving more prominent positioning to musical instruments such as electric guitars, previously seen by the chain as a specialist good. (No doubt that range has done well thanks to the popularity of games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.)

Brammo, the firm behind the Enertia, insists Best Buy is a suitable outlet for electronic vehicles. It notes Enertia has a built-in web server which could be used for features such as an on-board camera for travel journals and labels the products as “a lot closer to consumer electronics than to transportation.”

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Realized by French 3D Artist Vincent Husset, Haiku is a crazy little short featuring a sheep, a super hero-wannabe, and sheep-kidnapping UFO. I’m not exactly sure why the author named the animation “Haiku“, maybe except for the 3-line poem displayed early in the movie, which doesn’t actually make a lot of sense: “In a sea of clouds, Ouch, There was a sheep!” Video after the jump.

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By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The MMORPG/virtual world Eve Online is no stranger to unsavory behavior; inside the game, having your stuff stolen is pretty much par for the course (watch out for those space pirates!). But as soon as it’s not part of the “game” anymore, things get a lot more serious. Like the trusted banker who absconded with hundreds of billions of other players’ intersteller kredits – and traded them for about $5000 in real money to pay off his real debts.

The 27-year-old Australian player’s character was one of those in charge of the game’s largest player-run banks, and when a black market website that trades real money for virtual cash offered him the deal, he took the money and ran. And it was a one-way trip – exchanging game money for the real thing is against Eve Online’s rules, and so he was banned from the game. However, the effects on the game’s economy seem to be very real; not only did a lot of players lose their (virtual) money, but word of the robbery sparked a panicked run on the bank.

However, judging from past financial scandals in the game it’s possible that some of the stolen kredits were based on real money. Whereas it’s against the rules to exchange kredits for cash, you can exchange kredits for game time – which can be bought with cash. So players can basically exchange virtual money for real money amongst themselves (just not with outside sources like the black market website mentioned above). In fact, not long ago, some players lost some very real money due to an in-game ponzi scheme. A player-run bank offered high returns on investments, and some optimistic players “bought” kredits in order to invest them in the bank… and then those who found themselves in the wrong end of the pyramid were left in the dust when the player running the bank took off and just left the kredits sitting there with no way to access them. The defrauded players complained to the game producers, but they said their hands were tied – the other player hadn’t technically broken any rules.

And the embezzler in the more recent situation? He says he’s not proud of it, but he’d do it again if he had the choice. So what is it about losing your virtual money this way as opposed to losing it to space pirates that makes it seem so much worse? Some legal and game scholars have posited that it’s all a matter of consent – i.e., knowing what you’re in for. For example, when I play an MMORPG I might expect that if I’m not careful a pickpocket might get some of my loot, but I don’t expect someone to hack into my account and transfer all of my stuff to their character.

Still, I think the moral of this story may be that a virtual bank certainly isn’t any safer than a real one. Maybe you should hide your virtual pennies under your virtual mattress instead.

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A good example why dangling your goods above a lit fireworks rocket is a very, very BAD idea.

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A blind man is able to see his wife for the first time – after having a tooth implanted into his eye.

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A funny little 3D short by Valere Amirault from French computer graphics school Supinfocom to brighten up your Sunday morning. Enjoy!

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Another great picture to be added to our previous post featuring chipmunks interacting with various Star Wars figurines. Kudos to Flickr user Powerpig for the great work!

[Picture source: Flickr]

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Since the media is covering black holes more frequently, we figured many of you might like to understand more about the phenomenon. Today, we have an absolutely fascinating video explaining the principle behind the Schwarzschild Radius. The Schwarzschild radius (R_s = 2GM/c²) is defined as the size at which a spherical astronomical object has been so compressed on itself, it becomes a black hole, generating an absolutely incredible gravitational pull on everything around it, including light. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a physics geek to understand this, and we’re sure that after watching the video, you’ll get that warm, fuzzy, I-learned-something-new feeling.

[Picture source: Flickr (CC)]

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* Despite some reports, Apple is yet to officially acknowledge any specific problems with the recently-released iPhone 3G S overheating. While it has published some heat-related tips about the phone (which pretty much boil down to “don’t leave it in direct sunlight in a hot car”), this is simply updating existing advice pages to incorporate the new model.

* After pulling the controversial Hottest Girls application from the App Store (because it introduced topless images after getting approval in a tamer version), Apple has quickly removed an app named Beauty Meter, which was pretty much a Hot or Not clone. The app appears to have been altered after approval to incorporate images from third-party sites, including some nudity. The app quickly attracted attention when it emerged one of the women pictured topless was 15.

* Apple has now launched a service for visitors to its stores to have cracked screens repaired on all three versions of the iPhone. Previously, owners either had to send it off for repair, but the new service, which uses a large suction cup to remove the screen, is a while-you-wait scheme. The service is free for phones under warranty where the crack is a design fault; in other situations it costs a hefty $199.

* AT&T has launched a voice-operated GPS in-car navigation app. However, while free to download and install, it costs $9.99 a month to use, with the charge automatically added to the monthly phone bill. Customers must formally cancel the service as simply uninstalling the app will not stop the charges.

* A security researcher has warned that a vulnerability in the way the iPhone handles text messages is “about as bad as it gets”. Charlie Miller says the loophole could allow remote code execution, effectively giving a hacker complete control over the phone without needing physical access. He’s discussing the problem with Apple and will reveal more details at an upcoming security conference.

[Picture source: Flickr]

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[Via MUO]

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