Xocai is based on multi-level-marketing, which is a perfectly valid and legal marketing method. However most of the time it is used in a very specific way. To take your money.

While I’m sure that you went to a meeting where they hyped up the product, and showed you some of the people that have made millions off of it. What they probably didn’t talk about are the mathmatics behind it. Most M-L-M schemes work on the principle that in order to make money, you don’t have to sell the product, you just have to recuit a pyramid of people under you, who will then either buy the product, or recruit people under them…. and so on.
However if you look at some simple maths behind it you’ll see that it won’t add up.

So lets say you need to recruit 5 active people to break even, people who will buy/sell the product or recuit new people. Not unrealistic, considering that most of the people you sign up will never really be active. Well do the maths on that. if you have 5 people at each step of the way, After two steps, where you have recruited 5 people and each of your people have recruited 5 people. Thats 5×5=25 people. Now how many steps do you think you are from the origin?

Lets say your 10 steps down. Not unrealistic. The company recuits a few people and they recuit a few people and so on, until the rep comes to ireland. At this stage there are over 282,475,249 people involved 5^10. Going purely on active people. At step 12 there will be 13,841,287,201. 13 Billion people. Double the population of the earth.
While this doesn’t have a major point in and of itself. It shows that the maths that they showed you is unrealistic. It cannot work in the way they have said. However if you get in early, you can make money. But the chances of it happening are very slim.

Also the fact that the boxes cost €150 each. Why do you think it is so expensive? Becuase it is so good? NO. There are plenty of better products that boast the same qualities but they are much cheaper. It costs so much so that the manufacturers can make money off of selling it to you, their distributors. Not the customers. No customer in their right mind would buy chocolate at €5 per 6g (which is the figure I’ve heard bandied about). So they make it mandatory for their distributors to buy a box a month. Thats over a grand a year, which i can gaurantee you is a massive mark up on the cost of the product.

They also require you to buy product so that they just about escape the pyramid scheme classification.

A couple of MLM companies post their distributors income. And over 99% of them loose money. Not even break even. But loose money. Precisely their initial investment, and their monthly purchase. which in your case is over a grand a year. (sourced from the podcast listed above on skeptoid.com)

If I’ve piqued your interest please read/listen to my sources at the top. They go through the details with much more detail and better info than me

I’m trying to learn Python.
I’m trying to learn the Django framework.
And I’m trying to set up my current django project to run on Google App Engine.

Seriously. Why do I have to make things so damn hard? I could be out with friends, spending time with my girlfriend, reading a book… And yet here I am. I suppose its a mark of how much I love what I’m studying. But it still makes you wonder. What makes someone do all this, in their spare time. For fun.

• Well it won’t turn on.

Clean and simple. There doesn’t seem to be any power hitting the motherboard. With battery or AC. So bar a bit of invasive surgery it seems to be gone. From a bit of Googling this seems to be a common-ish problem with Sony Vaios after a while.

And while I’ll miss the old bird, its given me the best excuse to get a new laptop. Don’t get me wrong. It was a brilliant laptop. But to put it in perspective. Its pretty much the same power as my €300 netbook, but with a bigger screen.

So after some research and a bit of searching I brought it down to two options. A customized Dell Studio XPS 16 or a MacBook Pro 13″. And the decision was made just minutes ago. The MacBook Pro has been ordered and should arrive in a few days.

This’ll be the first ‘proper’ computer I’ll have bought myself and a very proper computer it is. Its a very pretty device, but it packs a punch. The specs are pretty impressive, espicially for the weight. I wish I could have gone for the 15″, but money stopped my from upgrading.

I took a quick break from working on the new site and decided to grab some of youtubes recommended links. This was one of them. It really brightened my day, so I hope it does for you.

So as the days drifted by after this I started to get bored, and I decided I wanted to do another website. A good website this time. Not my usual throwing things together with a bit of old glue and see if it stays up. And to that aim, for the past few weeks I’ve been working night and day, (literally about 10 hours a day), on said website. Let me tell you, there is an awful lot to learn when you’re refreshing you knowledge of html, xhtml and css, as well as teaching yourself php from scratch.

By now a couple of weeks have gone past and I’ve got the basic functionality of the system down - Register, Login, Logout, User profiles, e.t.c - all hand coded from scratch using my bare hands and some fancy xhtml, (plus some help from the lovely codeigniter and stackoverflow). Just yesterday I decided that I may as well make a go of it. Actually go for the project for realsies. So I decided on a name (which I shaln’t give out until I have it registered and all set up. But in order to get said domain name I need to register as a sole trader and get a registered business name. (Here’s a link to the iedr as to why I need to register a business to get the .ie domain name that I want). I filled out the online form last night, and once the post office opens this morning, I’m mailing my signed letter and postal order of €20 along with it. Once I get confirmation of the name and an RBN number I’ll be off to buy my .ie domain and some hosting for my burdgeon website and business.

Needless to say I’m rather excited and practically giddy. I’m looking forward to setting the bad boy up officially and actually making logos and the like, instead of just refering to the site as “this site” and using placeholder logos.

Apart from that I’ve just been reading some books for next year of college. I know I know, I’m such a nerd! But sure I love what I do and I find it interesting. Plus the more I know now, the less I have to do next year.

Lately I’ve been working non-stop developing a new website. A good one this time, I promise. So when this little gem popped up in my google reader I was very happy to take a break.

For fans of That Mitchell & Webb Look, it’ll be business as usual. For those new to it. Well enjoy.

Guiness always do the best ads, though now that they’ve been bought out by Diagio who knows what’ll happen to them.

This one pretty much speaks for itself

Overall I’m happy with them and since I put them up on Boards.ie already I don’t see any harm in putting them up here.

• 4 A+’s - (Intro to Programming I, Intro to Programming II, Algorithmic Problem Solving, Software Engineering Project 1)
• 2 A’s - (Intro to Mathematics, Intro to Comp Architecture)
• 1 B+ - (Matrices & Vectors)
• 2 B’s - (Formal Foundations, Spanish)
• 1 C+ - (French)
• 1 D+ - (Intro to Calculus)
• 1 D - (Calculus & Statistics)

For a GPA of 3.57

Greater than 3.68  - First Class Honours — 1
From 3.08 to 3.67 - Grade 1 Second Class Honours - 2.1
From 2.48 to 3.07 - Grade 1 Second Class Honours - 2.2
From 2.00 to 2.47 - Pass

As you can tell from looking at those I’m pretty good on the computers and pretty bad on the Calculus. So next year I think it’ll be time to bone up on the old Calculus.  I’m just shy of the 1st class honours this year. All I needed was a .1 more. If I’d done better in calculus I would of gotten it, sure I can’t complain. I’m happy with the results

Anyways besides the results coming out I’ve been a busy little bee, working pretty much full time. I’ve had the past couple of days off while they sort out their budget but hopefully I’ll be back in next week. Get plenty of moolah in during the summer so that I won’t be stuck come fees time in September.

For the nerds out there.

For the non nerds; when Sudo is typed into a command line it gives you higher privilages to get the computer to do what you want.