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Since the success story of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh with their MicroFinance model hit the mainstream media, several organizations have specialized in making available small loans to people all across the world to help start their own income and employment generating enterprises.

MicroFinance, as the name suggests, is a concept of tiny loans that are made to people who need the money to start a small business and who otherwise would not have been able to get a loan from a bank. In many countries where the per capita income of people is very low, loans are hard to come by and more often are made at the hands of loan sharks. Grameen bank has proven that small amounts of money given to people are usually paid back and are as safe as conventional loans.

But MicroFinance today, offers the added advantage of allowing anyone to make a loan get the advantage of creating a social benefit.

Kiva.org, MicroPlace.com, GlobalGiving.com are three such entities who are leveraging the internet to allow people (primarily from the US) to select projects around the world and loan as little as $10 towards a project. For example if a person in Pakistan requires $100, the amount loaned can be given by 4 people with a $25 contribution each.

You may or may not get your money back. But if you do, then you can loan the same money to someone else. A couple hundred bucks really does not matter one way or the other for a person in a developed nation. And that’s why MicroFinance may possibly be the easiest way to help people globally.

ATI (now AMD) offers a trade-up program for its range of graphic cards. Just send them your old graphics card and get a $50 credit. They even make it simple for you to first order your ATI card online and allowing you to send in your old graphics card later.

For example if you wish to order the Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB AGP for US$199, just purchase the card using the trade-up program. You will be charged the trade-up price plus the trade-in rebate. Once you send in your old card, you get the difference. Your total cost will be about US$149.99.

Great marketing idea? You bet! However if you are ok using another graphic card manufacturer such as Diamond, or VisionTek, you should be able to get a price even lower for a similar card using the same video chipset with no rebates involved.

If demos and video previews of games such as Crysis convince you to splurge to buy the latest in gaming software, you would be smart to get your PC checked out for compatibility with the minimum requirements of the game.

Here’s where a very handy tool from www.canyourunit.com comes into play. After installing an ActiveX control, the software checks out your whole system and identifies compatibility by individual part. It also tells you how above or below the minimum recommended specifications your system is.

Sometimes just adding some RAM or a new processor is all that it takes to ensure a good gaming experience and you can experience 85% the gaming experience of a $2000 gaming rig at 20% of the cost.