Sponsor's Message

In a week or two, "The Great Kiwi break" kicks in and people start drifting off on holiday, significantly reducing the amount of contract and casual work that's kicking around in the IT industry.

All new projects are deferred until next year, decision makers are unavailable, and most spending is diverted to critical activities such as Christmas parties and boozy lunches.

If you're a contractor being paid by the hour, chances are you'll find those paid hours harder to come by until late January.

Of course it's not just the self employed who feel the pinch at this time of year -- everyone could do with a little extra Christmas cash couldn't they?

Those fibre-optic Christmas trees for the family and the latest in electronic toys or computer games for the kids don't come cheap.

Surely the Net, being the omnipotent force that it is, can help?

Ignoring the obvious dangers of all those great "EARN FA$T CA$H" spam messages that arrive in your mailbox, what are the options for turning the Net to your fiscal advantage?

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Well, despite what some sites will tell you, I'm afraid it's not that easy to earn money on the Net.

Does anyone remember those "Earn cash while you surf the Net" deals?

By installing a little ad-banner on your PC's desktop, you'd get paid a wad of cash for every hour you spent online. Well that was the theory anyway.

Turns out that this idea was a child of the lunacy from which the dot-com crash was made. Some people got paid out, many others didn't, and the whole thing ended in tears.

However, there's a new variation on that theme surfacing -- an invitation to sell your computer's idle CPU time and unused bandwidth.

Yes, by selling your unused CPU cycles and bandwidth, you can "earn cash every time you are online!!" -- even while you sleep!

My goodness, it almost sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Uh Oh!

Now maybe this is all kosher and above board -- I've not found any significant grumbling from disgruntled users, but if you're getting all excited I'd urge at least a little caution.

Of course the concept of building online networks of computers and using their spare processing power is nothing new. A number of such networks have already been set up to provide scientists and researchers with the huge processing resources necessary in some fields.

The things that worry me a little about the "make money" scheme being touted by Gómez include:

• You are effectively installing a back-door onto your PC with only the company's word that they won't be poking around and looking at your sensitive data.
• After you sign up, you may end up providing spare CPU time and bandwidth for free until such time as you are chosen to be an "active" member of the Network.
• There's more money to be made (at least in the short term) by referring new members than there is in selling your PC's resources.
• The monthly payment cap is set at NZ$90 -- but since they're only paying twenty cents per day plus a tenth of a cent per hour (assuming you're designated "active" and spend at least 4-hours per day online), few people will be paid anywhere near this amount.

Other things like the "spam a friend" form on this page are also a little worrying.

I guess the question any prospective member of this network should be asking themselves is: "Would you hand over the keys of your car to any stranger who offered to put a few coins in the glove-box -- simply because they had a website?"

What about other options for being paid while you surf?

Well it seems that there are still plenty of them but once again, don't take everything you're promised at face value.

Just check at what people are saying about Cash Fiesta for instance.

Oh well, time to rummage around down the back of the sofa again and see if I can find enough loose change to buy a packet of Christmas noodles.

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