Although we have the option of leaving our computers at home while we enjoy time out with friends or family, have you ever wondered what things would be like if SPAM followed you into real life? This video portrays a rather disturbing possibility…

Though computers aren’t to the point where they can program a human brain, people are susceptible to the power of suggestion. Marketing and advertising play a huge role in this, but the prospect of making money online too has caused some people to, although not to this extent, sound rather SPAMMY in their conversations.

Has anyone ever SPAMMED you in person? Have you done it to someone and not even realized you did it?

Next, I committed the big “slap on the hand” by answering Don Jr.’s question that I am the current founder and CEO of Zoodango.com. In the real world, this statement would be 100% okay. But on television, especially on Donald Trump’s show where companies pay millions of dollars for product endorsements…..any reference to a company is treated as an endorsement for promoting the company. To be 100% honest with you, I did not intentionally bring up the name Zoodango.com…..it just happened. Zoodango.com is literally a part of who I am now. I eat, sleep, drink, and wake up to Zoodango.com. It’s just part of my every day speech.

Wow. It feels great to be SOOOOO right!

Don’t worry about it James! I totally would have done the same thing, consciously, or subconsciously. We’re both cursed with strong entrepreneurial genes! Besides, you’re a Dot Com Mogul and the driving force behind ZooDango! Those are things that Trump can never be. You also live in the most beautiful part of the world and you have a great family that loves being together. Trump should be envious of what you have.

Remind me to put James on the guest list for next years “Night Before CES Party“. I should invite Nick Warnock too.

First Impressions

The Autotropolis site is clearly devoted to cars.  The ashphalt screams of hitting the road, while the yellow paint reminds you to stay on it.  The site offers research tools for new cars and used cars.  They even offer buying advice, and when you’ve finally made up your mind, the site can even help you with financing. Today we’re going to concentrate on their Interactive Car Dealership Finder.

No Canadians Allowed!

Well, at least not yet. The site only works for Dealerships in the US, so slimey car dealerships with subpar service in Canada are safe…for now.   This area allows you to search for dealerships by Zip Code or by Location.  They’ve even tied in the power of Google Maps so you can check out dealerships on a map.  Just check out the what they’ve got on Guntersville, Alabama. Don’t ask me why I picked that  You can even narrow it down by car make.  Unfortunately, it’s not specific enough to allow narrowing by model.

Once you’ve located a dealership in your area, selling the make of vehicle that you want, you can click on them and see what other people have said about them or rated them.  If you have an opinion about a dealership, you can go ahead and rate and leave your comments right away.  Unfortunately, it looks like anyone can just leave a comment or rating, which is good and bad.  It’s bad because some people believe everything they read on the Internet.  It’s good because dealerships that deserve to be crucified can be.  I guess you’ll just need to take them with a grain of salt, though it is possible that competing dealerships can sling mud at eachother.

Get A Deal

After getting the information that you need about a car you’d like to try out, and heading out to dealerships in your area for a test drive, it’s time to find a deal on your dream car.  That’s where their TIP (True Inernet Price) service comes in.

The TIP service puts you in contact with dealers in your area that sell the make and model of the car that you want. Once you’ve plugged in the make and model, you can then further customize your choice by year and configuration, even color.  You’ll be able to see MSRP as well as Invoice Pricing on the vehicle you’re looking for so that you know if the dealer is BS’ing you if they say they’re only making $100 on the sale. Ready to pull the trigger? Punch in your info so that dealers in your area can give you their rock bottom pricing. 

Autotropolis works directly with those dealers in your area to get you the best prices so you don’t have to shop around.  But what if you want to shop around?  No problem!  You’re under no obligation to buy from any of the dealers so you can continue kicking tires if you want to, but at least you’ve got a price to work with if you feel like pulling the trigger and want to wheel and deal. Do keep in mind though, that if do request a quote, according to their privacy policy, the dealership will get your information, so near the end of the month when salespeople are hungry to make their quotas, you could get a call begging you for the sale.  Actually, this isn’t such a bad thing because you can grind them for a LITTLE more

What’s the Verdict?

I haven’t bought a car in over 7 years, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not in the market. I’m always kicking tires. I’m actually starting to get that itch… Hmm… When I went shopping for my car, there wasn’t nearly as much information out there on the Internet as there is today.  A service like the Car Dealership Finder could have saved me a lot of time and a lot of phone calls. It’s just unfortunate the service isn’t available North of the border, but our Southern neighbours now have another great tool at their disposal.  Instead of having to haggle for a price at every dealership, I could just pick a dealer that had a good rating and I’d already have a price I’d be willing to pay (or start negotiations at). Once I got there, I could do my final interview to make sure the dealership had the service level I was looking for.

As the service grows and includes more dealers, I can see this being a great starting point for new car buyers.  You’d have dealerships that rate well to start at and you’d have a price to begin your negotiations with.  Of course, you can still haggle if you want, but time is money, and if you can save that and get a reasonable price, I’d take that any day. Autotropolis is definitely off to a good start at trying to save people time, money, and from those Slimey Car Dealerships. It’ll definitely force dealers to work harder and give better service. Hopefully, those Slimey Days are numbered.

More information never hurts when it comes time to spend your money. It’s definitely easy to use, and their tools including a forum and blog are helpful. If you’re in the market, give them a spin.

It looks like someone decided that the “Other” Stephen Fung didn’t deserve ALL of the spotlight and decided to deflect some of it my way. Thanks! Now if someone wants to make it MORE ACCURATE, they can add the following:

• Name: Stephen Gar-Lun Fung (馮家倫) – Stephen Fung IS my Legal Name and it is on my Birth Certificate so I am the REAL Stephen Fung
• Date of Birth: January 24, 1977
• City of Birth: Nanaimo, BC, Canada
• Education: I graduated with a Diploma in Business Management from Douglas College
• Music: I was an Alto Sax player in High School and was in both the stage and concert bands.  I was also in the Concert Choir so this Stephen Fung can play music and sing too! I’m convincing doing country since I grew up in a small, somewhat Redneck, little town.  I am contemplating a Solo Spoken Word Album… NOT!
• Film and TV: I did commercials on Public Access TV when I was in high school

I still don’t like that Dot Com Mogul thing, especially since I didn’t actually make the Number Two for February.  How about Dot Com…Mentor?  Thanks whoever you are for the additions.  That was a really cool surprise today

Before I tell you why MegaTechNews exists, I’d like to point out the outstanding work done by some ReviewMe (aff) Virgins. After making a deal with the Root of All Evil to have him do a review of MegaTechNews, I really needed to do something that would allow me to exit the darkness. Thanks to an awesome Half Off Promo, I picked three ReviewMe Virgins and “Devirginized” them. ReviewMe virgins have never done a ReviewMe review before, and I thought I would spread some blogosphere cheer. Here’s what they turned out for me:

• Taking A Look At MegaTechNews by MyNewChoice
• ReviewMe: MegaTechNews by Stephen Fung at Beyond The Rhetoric
• Just Exactly How Mega is MegaTechNews at the.[ED]ition

Thanks again for the great reviews. You are now officially no longer ReviewMe (aff) virgins I’ll definitely be putting some of your suggestions into practice at my earliest convenience. So now the burning question…Why MegaTechNews?

I Was Bored?

Actually, that isn’t far from the truth MegaTechNews was born at my local coffee shop on a snowy December 2006 afternoon. I was surfing for tech news and I really wanted a way to just consolidate everything in one place. I remembered that I had this domain name registered, so I decided to do something with it, thus MegaTechNews was born! I actually set it all up and PhotoChopped the logo together while I was finishing off an Americano and a Cookie. MegaTechNews was never actually supposed to go anywhere. It was really just for me and the search engines to chew on. However, a great Half Off Promo and the opportunity to help some ReviewMe Virgins was something I couldn’t pass up! So now the world knows

I started posting cool tech and gadget news that I would come across on occasion. I often just used it to bookmark news that I wanted to come back and look at later. This also allowed me to stop cluttering up my own blog with tech news, and allow me to focus on talking about business, blogging, and personal stuff.

Soon, I built up a nice little library of cool techie news, but it was taking too much of my time, so I found some Ninjas and asked the Futurelooks Team to pitch in whenever they could (Thanks Alex!). I still post a couple things everyday, but a lot of the news comes from everyone else. It’s sort of like a DIGG without the juvenile behaviour. Now I’ve got a place to go everyday for something new and techie to read about.

Last month, I decided to ditch the old affiliate news feed I was using at Futurelooks, and replaced it with the one from MegaTechNews. You can see it in full syndication right here. The reason I did this was to have more control over the news posting and to really get some interesting technology news over there, rather than just the regular Affiliate News and Reviews. It’s working out quite nicely.

So there you have it! There’s MegaTechNews in a nutshell. If you have any suggestions, please pass them my way. If you want to volunteer to be a MegaTechie Ninja, let me know too. I can always use a fresh perspective