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All inclusive vacation packages are great for getting the best price available for a dream vacation. All inclusive however needs to be understood and defined unless you end up at your travel destination and find out then what it doesn't cover.

Many all inclusive vacation packages are simply designed by a travel consolidator who has passed on bulk discount rates to you. A consolidator may book a block of rooms at a favorite vacation destination. They will then contact rental car companies and get a great rate on cars, then finally pre-reserve air tickets to that destination. Because the consolidator has booked in blocks, the overall cost per person is much lower and they pass much of this savings through to the vacationing traveler.

Now this isn't however, in the true sense of the word, an "all inclusive" vacation package. This is why it's important to understand what all inclusive means to the travel group or agent who you are working with.

One of the most popular all inclusive vacation packages is actually the cruise ship industry. Here's they break things into 4 distinct categories.

1. AIRFARE: Your airfare to get to the ship. This can be purchased from the cruise ship company though it's sometimes possible to get lower fares. The trade off here is that with cruise ship airfare, the cruise line takes responsibility for your trip from the very start.

2: ONBOARD Or being on the cruise ship. accommodations as in a cabin or stateroom are a given. But they also include all meals, snacks, and most basic drinks other than alcoholic beverages. Onboard entertainment is also included.

3. GRATUITIES and EXTRAS We're talking about tipping the personnel onboard the ship. This is your responsibility. Though technically optional, it's considered good manners to tip at least according to the recommendations easily obtained from the cruise ship company.

4. OFF SHIP EXCURSIONS: Anything you're interested to do while visiting other places off the ship is your responsibility. It's also not mandatory and there's lots of things to do and see for free.

Many resorts have also been designed around true "all inclusive" offers. some very high end resorts have taken this to an extreme by removing money from much of the resort. Guests use special resort tokens, or simply a card to make it a more enjoyable vacation.

At some of the more popular tourist destinations like disney World in Florida, it's possible to get package deals that also include deep discounts on admission to the various parks in the area.

An all inclusive vacation can be a great way to save big money on a popular destination getaway. Simply understand what is and is NOT provided and plan accordingly. Have a great time and save money while enjoying your all inclusive vacation package!

Abigail Franks writes on a variety of subjects which include family, travel, and Home. For more information on your next vacation visit http://www.4-carrentals.info/san-diego-vacation.html or http://www.4-carrentals.info

One company that's been a big name in video games for years is nintendo. In many ways nintendo revived interest in video game systems that can be hooked up to televisions (as opposed to video games played on home computers). It put out a number of good systems in the late eighties and throughout the nineties.

The nintendo gamecube is the current iteration of this long line of video game platforms, but unfortunately it doesn't really measure up compared to other modern video game platforms like the new Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360. For example the gamecube has a processor with a speed of 485 Megahertz while the PlayStation 3 has a central processor with a clock speed of 3.2 Gigahertz which controls eight other processors, and the Xbox 360 has three processors running at 3.2 Gigahertz each! The differences in memory are just as large with the gamecube having a system memory of 40 Megabytes, while the Xbox 360 has 512 Megabytes of RAM. One thing that might offset the GameCubes slow processor and small memory to some extent is the fact that the processor itself is a 128 bit unit.

The gamecube also lacks a hard drive which both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 feature. While apparent deficiencies in hardware can be made up for to some extent by the unique hardware architectures and software, the lack of a hard drive put the gamecube at a stark disadvantage because of the way being able to store various data allows the user of a video game platform to customize the video gaming experience. For example the Xbox 360 allows users to create their own sound tracks to go along with games and then store that music on the hard drive. Apparently with the gamecube, there isn't that option, so the user is stuck with whatever sound comes with the software.

The gamecube does have a decent amount of networking capability. Besides the ability to support four players on a single unit, the GamCube has an optional 56 Kbps modem adapter and a separate broadband adapter. The broadband adapter allows for playing over DSL and cable modems, with Local Area network play an option on some game titles. It also has parallel and serial ports as well as two Digicard ports and one Type III PCMCIA expansion slot.

Another thing that puts the gamecube at a huge disadvantage when compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is the fact that it's disk drive is designed for Nintendo's proprietary eight centimeter mini dvd. Each mini dvd only holds 1.5 Gigabytes of data which is severely limited compared to the Blu-ray drive that comes on the PS3 which can access discs holding 54 Gigabytes and the Xbox 360's optional HD-dvd drive which can access discs holding 30 Gigabytes worth of data.

The fact that the disk drive only takes the eight centimeter discs also means that the gamecube 360 is not a multifunctional platform the way the other systems are. The inability of this platform to play CD's DVD's and other media limits it to the realm of strictly being a video game platform while the PS3 and Xbox 360 are also CD and dvd players.

In all, while the nintendo gamecube can't really compete with the other video gaming platforms on the market today, it seems to serve well as strictly a video gaming device.

Do you like video games? Almost everyone does (even those people who say they don't but secretly wish they could play them anyway.) And the current craze in video games exists in the area of handheld gaming, which may explain why Sony Inc. has created the PSP mini or handheld gaming system. All PSP units are based on the Universal media disc proprietary technology exclusively owned by Sony Inc.

With the PSP and handeld gaming growing in popularity by leaps and bounds, it is not surprising that emulators would be created. An emulator, for those who don't know, is a hardware or software product that can imitate one system's functionalities when the emulator is installed into another completely different system. Thus, emulators can come in the form of software which will be run on PCs so that a new software application can be run on such machines; or in the form of hardware which has firmware integrated into it. This hardware's firmware would be responsible for telling your PC how to function once specific game software has been downloaded into that PC.

A free emulator software that has been going around is the Neo Geo emulator. This emulator, which is now popularly installed in many PSPs, aims to permit end-users to play games which were popularized in the late 1990s in Japan and are based on the Neo Geo game console. Obviously, Sony Inc. does not officially allow the Neo Geo emulator to be installed on its PSPs, but that doesn't prevent people from downloading the emulator software into their PSP units free of charge anyway.

It should be explained that Neo Geo Emulators don't come in one version only. One source on the internet recommends this version - MVSPSP 2.0.6 - and explains how to install it properly. See below details for the installation process:

* To install the MVSPSP 2.0.6, you need to copy the MVSPSP folder into the GAME folder so that you can proceed to run the program in 1.50 kernel. If you can secure some roms for yourself, look for the other folder dubbed romcnv. The romcnv folder has an exe inside that can change your roms into a cache file. This cache file is necessary (just like the roms zip file) for use on the PSP phat due to its low memory.

* After that, you have to create one folder labelled ROMS and another one labeled CACHE within the MVSPSP folder. In addition, you require the neogeo.zip that functions as the console's bios - this permits you to run the Neo Geo games.

* Once done, set it in the ROMS folder. You don't need to create a cache of that info though.

The Neo Geo emulator described here can play Metal Slug 1, Samurai Showdown, and king of the Monsters with 100% precision and functionality too. This source also disclosed that one can now get the MVSPSP 2.2.0 (applicable for the PSP version named PSP Slim) which does not need use of cache files since the PSP Slim has a doubled memory spanning 64mb.

Thermal carafe coffee makers are becoming more and more popular. As are their one-mug equivalents - the thermal mug coffee makers.

The reason for brewing coffee into a thermal carafe is that they keep your coffee hot, without the need for a hotplate.

Traditional drip brewers have a glass carafe that sits on a hotplate. The hotplate keeps the coffee hot, but it also "stews" the coffee over time. As a result, coffee poured from a glass carafe after half an hour or so has a bitter, stewed and generally nasty taste.

That's why people in offices take one look at the last cup remaining in the carafe, turn up their noses, pour it down the sink and make a fresh brew. (Or wait for someone else to make it.)

How long does coffee stay hot in a thermal carafe? Some manufacturers claim it will stay hot for up to two hours.

Our experience, so far, has been that after an hour or so the coffee no longer has that fresh-brewed, hot taste.

To maximize the length of time your coffee stays hot, "pre-heat" the carafe before you start brewing by pouring hot water into it, swirling it around and pouring it out again.

By doing this you ensure that none of the heat of the coffee is expended on heating the glass interior of the carafe.

You can also buy coffee machines that brew directly into one or two thermal coffee mugs. So if you need to brew-and-run in the morning, you may want to consider a coffee maker designed for one or two thermal coffee mugs.