Screen shots from a little dress-up game coming soon to Fashionmash.com

Xbox 360 live has badges.

Steam has badges.

People love to be acknowledged for their work.  Now you can get a badge for fighting global warming.

Post the badge on your own blog & they will offset 350 pounds of carbon in your name!

[Thanks to Earth & Economy for telling us about it!]

This is a cute little tool. Be aware that it takes a few seconds to go through all the data & come back with a result. This is the result when I ran fashionmash.com.

Sometimes when you work for a small company, you all are so heavily involved in the project that there is no one available to give you level-headed feedback.  It can be nice to have a third-party look at your product or project and give you a solid reality check.  360 feedback is the place you can go to for a thorough appraisal of your work. 

They proceed through 4 key steps.  First you define the project.  Then in the appraisal stage there are questionnaires given to the people involved.  In the Feedback phase, you can track the questionnaire process. Finally, they give you a thorough report.

Big companies use this service to evaluate their projects, but for a small indie company, this could be an invaluable resource and save you a lot of time and headaches.

123rf.com has a large free gallery of photos and graphics.  Right now they are offering a 30% off discount through the month of May to buy credit that you use to get other images from their site. And I can use my Canadian Currency there!  For my blog pics, it will only cost me about $1 CAD each. Yay!

Open Source Web Design (oswd.org) has over 2000 web design templates that you can download for free.  Founded more than 7 years ago, they are still trucking with fun and great designs. 

Back in 2003, I had long discussions with David P. Best, a board member on There.com about their startup and business model.  He was one of those venture capitalists (VCs) that believed in throwing money at something and then watching for the business model to "emerge."  But David learned the hard way as There.com got sold off at a loss.  Now he's thrown himself into the old brick-and-mortar of tangible goods: woodworking and craftsmanship.

Didn't these VCs learn anything from the dotcom bubble bursting?  Apparently not.  Startups are getting money thrown at them and they have no business model, no plan.  I talked about this last year when Badazz was asking how Gloto.com was going to make money.  They won't.  These little startups are all hitting second and third stage funding at this point.  Some of them sell off to other companies & that makes a tidy little profit, but most of them will eventually go under.  But its OK because the CEO of the company had a nice severance package built in- of course he or she doesn't care if the business actually makes money.  No one cares about the wage slaves whose jobs suddenly evaporate.  This system has been working the past few years because there was a high demand of tech jobs.  What is going to happen now as the US economy is tanking? 

For the VCs investing in Tech it is all about the culture of cool.   They could be putting their $40 million into a new yacht, but you can't write off your racing yacht when you crash & burn with it.  A tech company running at a loss is great for a VC.  They can write it off and get that lovely feeling of power from having people fawn for their money.  Have you watched the Dragon Den?  They think they are being all charitable "giving a hand to lift up the little guy."  They love to tear people to shreds- it makes for great TV, high ratings, and good advertising revenues. And they have great pleasure in wielding the power of their money.  They don't really care if they lose half their money- this was disposable cash they would have just spent on toys anyway.

And now, what has happened as a result of all this VC money?  Free content on the net.  There are a few tech hobbyists out there who make free websites, but for the most part, no one charges for their service because they have big VC bucks to carry them through.  There is a lot of debate about the impact of this on the internet economy.  And I think they are right. I think its made a superficially strange bubble again.  Just like the dotcom.

Here are some articles on the debate about the Free internet economy & VCs:

Free is killing us- Blame the VCs

Free 2.0: Don't blam the VCs

Free and Freetardis

Kaushal Sheth is a college student studying engineering in India.  He does custom wordpress themes and websites as a way to supplement his income while going to school.  He recently had a major outage which lead him to do research on the best webhosting available and is looking for your input and feedback on the best web hosting providers. 

I'm often asked by the do-it-yourselfer about how to get started on their own website.  I always recommend that they thoroughly research their local options and ask their hosting provider for references.  It is much easier to get set up with a trustworthy provider than to try to make the switch later when you encounter problems. 

As a small indie business, we understand just how damaging down time can be.  If we even have a minor glitch, we receive many complaints.  For many online entrepreneurs their bottom line is absolutely dependent on their webhosting and having their websites go down can literally put them right out of business.

Last week I mentioned Loudsiren.com and their Identity theft protection services recently and I wanted to into a little more detail today what identity theft is and ways to avoid it.  Identity theft is considered fraud, which is a serious crime. This happens when a person or group steals your personal information and uses it with out your permission or knowledge. Often it is used to get loans, credit cards, cars, or even jobs.  It can wreck your credit and your reputation and is difficult to track down and prosecute. 

You want to deter potential thieves by taking steps to protect yourself. Get a shredder and run all financial documents and paperwork with personal information before you throw them in the trash. Do not give out personal information on the phone or on the internet unless you fully have investigated who you are dealing with.  Be careful of clicking on links sent in unsolicited emails because these can lead you to sites that have viruses on them.  Speaking of viruses, make sure you run anti-virus software on your computer often.   Safeguard your personal information at home in case of a break-in, or if you have work being done on your home, have roommates or employ outside help for childcare or housekeeping services. 

Every single year, millions of people around the globe experience identity theft. One way you can protect yourself is through setting up a system to detect suspicious activity.  Loudsiren has a great service for this because they contact you by phone and get your permission through a special coding system that you set up with them each time there is an inquiry about getting credit in your name. 

If you haven't asked for any new credit you indicate this by phone and the transaction is stopped.  You can even report a fraudulent credit request immediately to law enforcement by pushing a button.  Making a report as soon as you suspect a problem is the quickest way to stop identity theft.  Right now Loudsiren has a $10 off signup incentive going, so get signed up today. 

Having the resources to quickly and efficiently run a Background Check on potential employees or contractors can be a challenge for small businesses.  Many sole proprietors and entrepreneurs just take people on their word because they just don't have the time to research their history. 

It is important to conduct background checks when hiring or making contracts because if your employee or representative breaks the law while doing their duties for your company, you can be held liable in some instances.  Conducting a Criminal Check can help you find out if that person has a history of fraud or theft and can protect you from repeat offenders.  

You might also be looking for a litte more information or verification of what the applicant has told you about themselves.  There are people who give false or leading information in their enthusiasm to work for you and then you end up with a person that may not be actually qualified to do the job.

The National Criminal Background Check by SentryLink gives one report with information on criminal records including misdemeanors and felonies very affordably.  You can run several background checks at once to save time.  They also provide you with a resource center where you can get information about employee screening, including FCRA regulations compliance with printable employee background check release form.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent." - John Donne

Jevon MacDonald has an excellent blog posting, "I love my city, and so should you" at Startup North.  He talks about how open, creative and connected communities could be Canada's own Silicon Valley with out having to clump everyone into one area.  I absolutely agree.

We are an itty bitty startup in Edmonton & just have begun making connections within Alberta. And we are already learning that shared experience benefits everyone, whether it ranges from the simple emotional support of exchanging tips on common problems to all-out business partnerships. And we are hoping that down the road when we are ready for the next step in growing & going for financing, we’ll have lots of mentors willing to give us advice. 

Now that the US is having a recession, Canada's definitely up and coming in tech.  With strong business connections, I think Canada could be a real powerhouse in the world.