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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Pop-up Campers Van, Truck and Tent Travel Trailers

A family of four can sleep comfortably in the trailer, especially if the kids are young enough to sleep in the same bed.

The basic unit has two fold outs, that are used as sleeping quarters. The main part has a small dinette, a storage area and a cooking area with a tiny refrigerator. Generally there is an outdoor shower and a grilling area.

Notice a toilet is not mentioned. The low end pop-up trailers dont have them. Many people use portable toilets for emergencies and use the campground facilities otherwise.

The higher priced campers often have cassette toilets a shower better cooking facilities and some have a slide out extra room to give you extra living space. The extra room is a boon when everyone is stuck inside due to inclement weather. Remember to pack some games and toys for the kids and a good book for yourself.

Your family should have no problem eating and sleeping in the pop-up as long as you dont have to stay indoors for long periods of time. You are protected from the elements by heavy duty canvas and a metal rook.

One problem new RV-ers have with their pop-ups, is backing into your campsites. Take it slow and have someone guide you in or choose a pull through campsite.

The only other major expense you will have is the cost of the hitch, which is less than 500 dollars. The increased consumption of gasoline is minimal and your insurance and tolls for your camper is much less than it would be for high end RVs.

Our first camper was a Coleman pop-up that we bought used. We used it for two years and had a blast. It was sold to a friend when we bought a camper van.

If you arent sure about whether you would enjoy RV-ing and dont want to hassle with having to get the RV back to the dealer by a certain time, get yourself a used pop-up and I guarantee you will be hooked on RV-ing.

To get discounts on campground and RV rentals as well as RV parts you should join the Good Sam Club. The club also provides a discount RV insurance and an excellent roadside assistance program. This group also has message boards where you can ask questions and make life-long friendships.

There are dozens of websites where you can find places to rent or buy a pop-up camper-trailer. You can also look in hunting or other outdoor sports magazine want ads for used campers.

Auction sites like E-bay often have pop-ups listed either for direct sale or as an auction item. If you shop wisely you can save big money here on your used trailer.

Coleman is one of the manufacturers of pop-ups a.k.a. fold out trailers. They have been in business since 1978. You cant go wrong with one of their campers.

The pop-up actually has some advantages over the bigger more luxurious motor homes. The camper is easier to maintain and store. Also once you get to your campsite and set up, the tow vehicle can be used to go sightseeing, shopping or to visit local attractions. You cant park a big motor home in front of the local mini-mart.

Cost-wise the care, maintenance and use of a pop-up is cheaper than the bigger mobile homes. Enjoy your pop-up camper trailer.

Author Bio - SIG - resource box

Nina Romanov

Would you like to learn more about pop up campers? Visit http://www.pop-up-campers-trailer.com

Nina is an expert freelance writer. She is a cake decorator and a certified naturopath. Presently she is happily RV-ing with her husband.

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A Fat Loss Diet That Doesn't Leave You Hungry

most weight-loss seekers look with furrowed brows at the word "diet". We all know that our diet has to change, but just how that change will, or should, work is frequently misunderstood. Instead of eating foods that make us feel something like an enlarged rabbit, and being hungry all the time, a healthy fat loss diet actually incorporates all types of foods, and we really don't have to eat as little as it sounds like. take a look at 3 diet considerations, and you might just feel different about diets in general.

1.) water: Where It's At
most people, regardless of weight or weight goals, don't drink enough water. But drinking as much water as the human body actually asks for, between 8-10 eight-ounce glasses, can be a significant aid in weight loss, for several reasons. First, if we drink enough, our bodies don't retain "water fat" - stores of emergency water rations. Since most of us spend the day in access to plentiful water supply, there's no reason to retain the several pounds of water stores, and we can shed these pounds by drinking those 8-10 glasses.

Second, our kidneys should process water, but they can't do so very well without enough. Our liver does it instead, but the liver should be converting fat into energy. Drink more water to give the water burden to the kidneys and let our livers burn fat. Last, we naturally suppress our appetite with water - our brain sees no difference between thirst and hunger. So instead of opening the fridge, turn on the tap for your fat loss diet.

2.) Ditch Processed foods
In the name of convenience, we seem to sacrifice a lot. Processed foods, with long shelf lives and often requiring little preparation, are certainly easy, but at the sacrifice of health. They're pretty easy to spot, or at least the ingredient lists are, taking up about half the package. But when all this processing occurs, much nutritional value is lost, and it takes more food to fill us up - more calories.

Moreover, processed foods are filled with chemicals and unneeded fats, unhealthy for your body and weight. Try eating unprocessed foods - fresh fruits, whole grain breads, vegetables. All in all, unprocessed foods are financially equivalent, fill you up more (so you eat less, without the hunger), and help you slim down healthily. Pretty good...

3.) Revamp Your Eating Patterns
Actually, this doesn't mean eat less. Eat more. Just try this: More meals throughout the day, smaller portions. Instead of eating three meals a day, try five or six. This way, you don't feel the need to eat a lot, because once you get hungry, eat a little more. It's also really easy to balance the types of foods you eat.

Try some grain and dairy for breakfast, have a snack of fruit around mid-morning, some protein around noonish, and so on. And the best part? most dietitians recommend eating this way for all forms of healthy living, even if you're not involved in a fat loss diet.

So diet's aren't necessarily quite what we thought they were. It's not so much eating less as it is eating differently, and smarter. So instead of starving yourself, eat more balanced, more frequent meals, with less processed foods, and drink water. Sounds like a fat loss diet we all can get used to.

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Sony Delays Playstation 3

As a result of problems related to the mass production of a key component of its Blu-ray dvd player, Sony (SNE) will delay the European launch of its next generation video game console, the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Sony will also reduce the number of PS3 units immediately available in both the U.S. and Japan.

In the U.S., the ps3 will launch on November 17th, with approximately 400,000 consoles available for sale. The U.S. launch will come almost a week after the Japanese launch which will consist of merely 100,000 units.

Sony's PlayStation 3 is the successor to the PlayStation 2, the world's most popular (and as recently as July, the world's best selling) video game console.

The Number That Really Matters

The fact that there will only be 400,000 ps3 units available for sale in the United States on November 17th is totally unimportant. The launch date itself is unimportant. What matters is how many units will be available for sale in mid to late December.

Sony claims it will have 1 million to 1.2 million consoles available for sale by December 31st. I think it's safe to assume they don't plan to have many arrive between December 26th and December 31st. So, let's assume there will be at least a million ps3 consoles available for sale in the U.S. by Christmas.

Will that be enough to put a PlayStation in the living room of every household that wants one?

No. There will almost certainly be many people who have to go without a ps3 for Christmas, despite being willing to pay the very high price Sony is asking. But, that's nothing new. Other consoles (including the Xbox 360) have been launched without an adequate number of units immediately available for sale.

This isn't like failing to get enough Glad trash bags on store shelves. Once the console has launched, limited availability shouldn't cause many people to switch their planned purchase. If they want it and it's out, they'll wait for it.

A delay is much worse than a mere shortage. There's a promise (and a tangible product) behind a console that has already launched. So, very few people in the U.S. or Japan who planned to buy a ps3 are likely to change their minds because of a Christmas shortage no matter how severe.

The Things That Really Matter

The success of any gaming platform is largely based on five factors:

Available Titles

Relative Launch Date

Price

Predecessor's Installed Base

Technology

Of these five, technology is by far the least important factor. The four most important factors (available titles, relative launch date, price, and predecessor's installed base) are difficult to separate. Clearly, having a predecessor with a large installed base (such as the PS2) can be tremendously beneficial, if you get satisfactory marks in the other three areas (titles, launch date, and price).

Predecessor's Installed Base

The PlayStation 3 dominates when it comes to having a predecessor with a large installed base. So, how does it score in the other three areas?

In terms of available titles, the ps3 scores as well as any of its competitors, if not better. However, none of the three consoles (Xbox 360, ps3, or Wii) does very well in this regard. Unfortunately, the titles are likely to be somewhat segregated by console. There will be quality games on each system; but, almost no one will buy all three. Simply put, there will be some games exclusive to each console that a lot of people would really love to play but can't.

Also, there's the danger that both the ps3 and the Xbox 360 will be seen as the more adult and less casual consoles. microsoft (MSFT) and Sony have Nintendo to blame for this but, let's put that issue aside for now.

Relative Launch Date

Returning to the list of factors that determine a console's success, let's consider the launch date issue. Sony clearly has a bit of a problem in Europe, because it will have one less Christmas season than both the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Some analysts think Sony will lose no more than a few hundred thousand console sales to substitutions. If that's true, lost revenue might be in the hundreds of millions rather than the billions.

Strong sales of the Xbox in Europe during the Christmas season would be a very bad indication for Sony. The combined price of an Xbox and a ps3 is prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, the two consoles are far more similar to each other than they are to the Wii. As a result, while some European Wii sales might be recoverable by Sony at a later date, because individuals will choose to buy the Wii first and the ps3 later, very few Xbox 360 sales would be recoverable. Essentially, every Xbox sold in Europe this Christmas is a ps3 that will never be born.

Three Separate Markets

The U.S., Japan, and Europe are really three very different markets. It's quite possible you could have a console that is very successful in one market and yet unable to get any real momentum in another.

Before this delay, I felt strongly that Europe was the market where the ps3 could come closest to duplicating the performance of the ps2 in terms of market share. There's a long-term danger that microsoft will gain market share in the U.S. and Nintendo will gain market share in both the U.S. and Japan.

Obviously, Europe isn't as well defined a market as either the U.S. or Japan. So, it's much harder to predict how a certain type of console or a certain type of game will go over there. The U.S. and Japan are very clearly defined game markets, largely because they have very clearly defined consumer cultures in general and entertainment cultures in particular.

So, what does the ps3 delay mean for Sony's future in Europe? It's hard to say. I'm more interested in seeing what the installed base of each next generation console will look like in the American and Japanese markets after Christmas 2007, when we'll have the first real chance to predict how this round of the console wars will play out.

Of course, there are some predictions that seem pretty safe even now. For instance, it seems safe to say Sony will lose worldwide market share. Simply put, the ps3 won't be able to duplicate the market share dominance of the ps2.

So, most likely we're talking about Sony's ps3 falling somewhere north of catastrophic failure and south of market share gains. Although I think both of these scenarios are extremely unlikely, catastrophic failure is more likely, simply because improving upon the PS2's market share seems a near impossibility given the much tougher competition this time around.

Is there a real risk that the ps3 might end up being a catastrophic failure? I don't think so, simply because of the number of ps2 systems still out there. Price combined with solid competition on both of Sony's flanks is the only thing that could cause such a failure. If the price prevents widespread acceptance of the system, third party publisher support would be a problem down the line. Nintendo doesn't need a lot of third party support. Sony does.

Although I do think Sony is doing serious harm to its PlayStation line by insisting upon including Blu-ray and charging a ridiculous price, I don't think any amount of managerial ineptitude is likely to cause the catastrophic failure of a successor to such a dominant console as the ps2.

Price

If price isn't the elephant in the room, it should be. Most of the articles I read about the recently announced ps3 delay / production scale-down didn't say much about the pricing of the ps3. That's a mistake especially, because several articles mentioned the laptop battery recall, which has nothing to do with the ps3 and very little to do with Sony (it has everything to do with lithium-ion batteries irrespective of their manufacturer).

The PS3's price is a big problem. One that might have manifested itself in poor Christmas sales, if the number of units available for sale had approached the expected demand. For now, Sony is planning on having so few units available in the U.S. by Christmas that the launch will go well even if the ps3 is ultimately a failure. Sony claims it will have 6 million units by the end of its fiscal year. A few analysts are skeptical, but Sony is sticking to that line.

In the weeks ahead, expect Sony to make a big deal about the fact that it will actually make more ps3 units available by the end of December than the number of Xbox 360s microsoft had made available by the same time the year before. It's a valid point. But, it omits two key facts. The ps3 is launching after the Xbox 360 and there are more ps2 owners out there who will want to trade up for the new system.

Since the ps3 is launching after the Xbox 360, no one is waiting around to see what the alternative will look like. They already know what the Xbox 360 is, what it can do, and what (some of) the games available for it are. As soon as the ps3 launches, the comparisons can begin. That wasn't possible when the Xbox 360 launched and everybody knew the ps3 was on its way.

The second reason why no parallel exists between the demand for Xbox 360s at launch and the demand for PS3s at launch is simply that there are more PS2s out there. As a result, Sony having as many units available by Christmas as microsoft had the year before would be a lot like Gillette having as many new razors available as Schick had produced the year before. The difference in market share obliterates any possible comparison.

So, even though I think the ps3 is far too expensive going into the Christmas season, I'm quite sure that fact won't be evident in the sales numbers, because there will be a severe ps3 shortage throughout 2006. Even if the PlayStation 3 is too expensive, it will look like it's selling well, because there simply won't be enough of them produced in 2006.

Why am I so convinced the ps3 is priced too high?

The ps3 is too expensive to be a Christmas gift. Around Christmas, a lot of these consoles are bought by parents as gifts for their kids. Parents are willing to pay a lot for them, because they're a huge one-time item for the kid (and the parents have been hearing about it since well before the launch). But, the prices likely to be charged in 2006 for the ps3 are simply beyond what parents are willing to spend.

It's not an issue of how much consumers have to spend versus the value they're getting. It's an issue of being psychologically unprepared for paying this kind of price for any gift.

It may be a price older gamers are willing to pay to get a ps3 for themselves. But, it's not a price parents will be willing to spend on their kids.

Geoff Gannon writes a daily value investing blog and produces a twice weekly (half hour) value investing podcast at: http://www.gannononinvesting.com

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