A Las Vegas Loan Center Blog

Sometimes an item comes out of pawn that we know is a guaranteed sale.

This all metal Locomotive with coal car, riding on a black iron track, by Hinz & Kunst is one of those items. And one of these days, either a train collector or a person who has an interest in metal sculpture will walk through our door and fall in love with it.

We are uncertain where this train was originally purchased. But it’s a well executed sculptural piece about two feet long, that weighs ten pounds or so and looks like it may have come from one of the boutiques in the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace.

As I write this it just occurred to me that it would make an excellent prop for jewelry photography.

I bought an Apple magic trackpad and then found out it won’t work with OS-X 10.5.

Apple being Apple, they show the requirement of OS-X 10.6.4 in teeny, tiny, light gray print, on a white background. –Any other company in the known universe puts a headline reading “system requirements” followed by a list in reasonable print and in plain sight.

The same upgrade to 10.6.4 requirement applies to bootcamp and Windows 7.

Ah, well. the upgrade to Snow Leopard was only $30.

The good part is that the track pad is easy to set up and comfortable to use. –You need the mouse for the initial installation but after that you can throw it in a drawer and forget about it.

We just had two 24″ iMacs come out of pawn (and they are gone already).

Any computer that comes out of pawn has all personal data removed before it hits the sales floor. This includes changing user accounts and passwords.

Ordinarily this is not a problem, but I’ve never done this on a Mac before. Fortunately it turns out changing the main account is easy, providing you have the proper install disk.
(if you don’t have an install disk you should be able to call Apple and request a replacement disk or you can probably pick one up fairly cheaply on eBay)

You simply insert the install dvd and boot the machine while holding down the “C” key, choose your install language, hit the blue arrow, then at the next screen choose continue. Now you should see “utilities” on the menu bar at the top of your screen. Click that and select “reset password” from the drop down menu. Change the password, choose restart and the hd as the restart disk and you’re good to go.

Once the password is changed and you have rebooted and logged in you can change or delete the primary account by clicking on the apple in the top left corner and selecting system preferences. From there you select accounts in the lower left. Click on the lock to allow changes and then click the “+” sign to create a new account. – Check the box that allows that account to administer the computer.- Click on the lock to lock everything in place then log off that account and log in to your new account. From there you return to accounts, click the lock to unlock, highlight the old account, click the minus sign and read the screen.

If you use a pc things can be confusing on a Mac. For instance, you’ll find the buttons for closing whatever is on the screen on the iMac are in the upper left hand corner and look like little gray round bubbles until you run the mouse over them. And the Apple equivalent of the Windows explorer is called finder. It’s that square blue and white face that’s usually on your dock. But all in all they’re simple machines and there’s lots of information on the web.

In the mean time: The boss is taking one home. Not because he likes Mac, but because he likes the design, and found out that he can dual-boot into Windows. –I just need to install Windows and a full version of office and set it all up for him. And the best part is; until his software gets here I get to play with a Mac.

Just a fast note to say that our pawn shop is on twitter – @PioneerPawn.

I just learned that Pioneer Pawn and Pioneer Loan Center are about to join Twitter and Facebook. –The exact date is unknown, but I have started a Facebook page that just needs to be finished and published.

I’m adding Foursquare just as soon as I can talk the powers-that-be into freebees or heavy discounts for the first people to check in. (Foursquare is a location based game where you “check in” to a place and earn badges.)

I know that dealing with all this latest strangeness will fall to me. Fortunately I think I can get some help from one other person. At least I hope so.

And I hope nobody involved takes themselves too seriously or the trolls will have them for lunch.

This is going to be fun…. Really it will…

For shooting small statues, plates or most other products for the web you don’t need a complicated setup.

This one cost less than $40 at Walmart and works fine for most of what we put on our website. (These photos were taken with my iPhone because I left the cable that connects my camera to my computer at home…. )

This is the shooting tent folded up

This is what it looks like unfolded with the lights deployed.

The lights are not very powerful and this setup isn’t exactly great for jewelry, especially my least favorite, plain gold bands that require a full tent because they reflect everything around them. But for most things this setup works well and doesn’t require I drag in a bunch of lights, light stands, reflectors, extension cords, etc.
–Just remember to use a tripod so your camera remains steady during the longish exposure.

Here’s an interesting post in the The Chronicle of Higher Education titled: “What I Did When I Couldn’t Find a Job.”

I couldn’t find a job, but neither could anyone I knew. Now, more than a year after graduation, most of my college friends still live at home, and many of those who have moved out are borrowing money from their parents to eat and pay rent. A few have internships, but most of those are unpaid, and few are likely to lead to jobs. Two friends who studied psychology for four years now work off the books at a sandwich shop. Another, who got her master’s in development studies from Cambridge, became a barista at Starbucks.

The author of this piece solved his dilemma by moving to India, where he works for Sikkim NOW, the most popular local English-language daily newspaper in the state of Sikkim. (For those of you who are interested, Sikkim is located in the foothills of the Himalayas.)

The author makes an excellent point. The cost of living in many places is low enough that you can take a vastly smaller salary and survive quite nicely. Just don’t expect to live like you’re back in the States or expect to make enough to pay off your student loans.

This obviously is not for your “can’t live without a Beamer, a Blackberry and a corner office,” types. But for many younger people who are just starting out, moving to a developing country may provide them with a refuge in which to ride out the current economic troubles.

Besides, it will make for an excellent conversation starter when they interview for a job back in the world.

I haven’t had any hands-on experience with this gadget but it looks like an improvement over the traditional card swipers that require a paper form and roller arraignment or a full blown computer.

If you have some sort of mobile service, are a street vendor or a have a booth at a celebration in the park this looks like a great idea. Not only does it simplify the process of taking credit cards, it will impress your customers because it makes your business look cutting edge with all the latest hi-tech gizmos.

It’s the Macally SwipeIt Secure Credit Card Terminal

Macally’s SwipeIt Secure Credit Card Terminal works with the iPhone and iPod touch. Whether your store is a brick and mortar establishment or your car, SwipeIt allows you to process payments from customers. All swiped credit card transactions are encrypted before they are passed from the card reader to your iPhone or iPod touch. The system allows you to continue using your existing merchant services account and bank’s credit card processing service or gives you the option to sign up with a new merchant service provider. SwipeIt supports the most popular cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. The terminal also charges your touch or iPhone when using an AC adapter or other USB power source, while the security slot securely locks the reader.

This device is powered by your iPhone and doubles as a charger if you use the ac adapter. It also has a spring loaded holder, so if Apple decides to make the iPhone skinnier or fatter it will still fit.

There are only a couple of downsides I can see to using this device. The first is the difficulty of reading the iPhone in the sun. The second is the apparent lack of atm card support. And the third is the lack of a way to attach a printer. It may be possible to run a portable printer off the usb charger port but that becomes yet another piece of hardware with the associated cables you need to haul around.

On the plus side the device includes the capability of emailing the receipt to your customer, which to my mind is an improvement over the traditional thermal paper that quickly fades in the springlike temperatures of a Las Vegas summer.

The Macally SwipeIt is new enough so I haven’t found much being written about it except for the basic sales pitch. But so far the only problem I’ve read about is that the 1 2 & 3 keys are difficult to press since the ios 4 update. –While the company is working on a fix they advise pushing at the bottom of the key. (This is not a unique problem. The touch screens on my 3Gs and one other person’s 3G have gone a bit wonky since this latest update.)

All in all the Macally SwipeIt Secure Credit Card Terminal looks like a cool new toy that will simplify your life by making credit card transaction easier and limiting the amount of stuff you have to drag around when you try to go mobile.

We all get caught short once in a while, but when the problem becomes chronic, it’s time to take a look at what we are spending and where we are spending it.

This is a short version of a page giving advice on budgets that we posted on our Pioneer Loan Center site.

First: Figure out your monthly income. -WRITE IT DOWN
Next: Figure out your basic monthly expenses. Rent, utilities, gas and food -WRITE THEM DOWN

Start an spending diary, save all your receipts and WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU SPEND, whether it be bus fare, gum, or gasoline.
If you go to the movies, write down not only the cost of the tickets, but the popcorn and cokes, and even that box of jujubes.

The reason I keep harping on writing everything down is that once it’s in black and white you can see the difference between what you tell yourself you spend and what you really spend. –Trust me. There are very few of us who pay attention to our casual spending.

Now that you can see how much you have coming in and how much you have going out, you can begin to do something about stretching your paycheck by cutting back on your expenses.

For more details go to our web page.

Here are a suggestion not on our website:
If you smoke switch to generics (I know they suck, but they’re cheaper) and, if possible, buy your cigarettes on an Indian reservation. –Here in Las Vegas there’s one down on Main Street just north of Bonanza, down the hill on your left.

If you don’t think you can make these suggestions work, call a credit counselor.

Click here for Consumer Credit Counseling, a United Way nonprofit agency.

This time of year business tends to be slow in the middle of the day.

With temps expected to hit as high as 115, I can’t imagine why folks aren’t out and about. –The 115 is weather bureau temp, the real world temp could be closer to 120.

However, if you have to be outside during the day and the heat starts to get to you, the county has opened nine cooling stations around the valley.
(These are intended for the homeless but I can’t imagine them turning anyone away.)

Black Mountain Recreation Center, 599 Greenway Road., Henderson.

Cambridge Recreation Center, 3930 Cambridge St., near Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway.

Dula Gymnasium, 441 E. Bonanza Road., near Las Vegas Boulevard.

Hollywood Recreation Center, 1650 S. Hollywood Blvd., near Charleston Boulevard.

Islamic Society of Nevada, 4730 E. Desert Inn Road, near Boulder Highway.

Pearson Community Center, 1625 W. Carey Ave., near Martin Luther King Boulevard, North Las Vegas.

Valley View Recreation Center, 500 Harris St., Henderson.

Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive, near Desert Inn.

Walnut Recreation Center, 3075 N. Walnut Road, near East Cheyenne Avenue.