Fans often wonder why NBA teams are always willing to gamble on players with ‘potential’, but shy away from players who seem like much safer bets. In the world of horse racing, they’d be betting on the shiniest stallion, not the racer who had come in second in ten races. Why?

For the answer, we can turn to the world of pop music. People either love or hate Simon Cowell, the mogul who rose to fame for his snide remarks on American Idol. But Simon was wealthy prior to being on the show, and he obtained his wealth not by discovering Michael Jackson level talent; he systematically found talent that looked remarkably similar to what was already selling. The reason is because Simon knows that star power like Michael Jackson is once-in-a-lifetime, but you can dress up a pretty girl with mediocre talent to make 20 Brittany Spears clones, and make more money.

NBA owners too often treat their personnel moves like horse betting, where they want to take a chance on a player who could be the next Michael Jordan, rather than just working toward building a solid team of really good players. It doesn’t work in horse racing betting, and it doesn’t bring in championships.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dual Electronics. All opinions are 100% mine.

The past decade has seen an incredible wave of new technology that makes enjoying our favorite music an experience that was, at one time, just a dream. We can load thousands and thousands of songs onto a portable device, such as an iPod, and take it with us wherever we go. Of course, that’s great for exercising or sitting at a desk during work, but headphones are not so great while driving.

That’s why I recently installed the XDMA6630 in-dash receiver from Dual Electronics in my car, because it is compatible with these types of devices, leveraging high speed functionality and Bluetooth® connectivity to let me play my vast library of music while driving.

The XDMA663 features a front panel USB connection that gives you direct access and controls your iPod® and iPhone®, which means that you don’t have to set up another playlist to manage while driving in your car. You literally have access to the playlists and songs you’ve already painstakingly created. This is what I like the most about it, because it means that no matter where I am, I’ve got access to what I want to listen to. It is a fantastic way to enjoy music, in a time where we all know radio has become boring and stale. Just in case you have additional connection needs, I should mention that the XDMA663 also features 3.5mm auxiliary input & 2-RCA preamp outputs.

Getting things done on the road is a real problem for anyone who covers or follows sports closely, because there is a lot of road travel that is involved. It’s not easy to be able to work remotely, but it is essential if we want to be able to work seamlessly regardless of where we are in the world. Another factor is for IT personnel who need to be able to access a computer no matter where it is. The way to accomplish this is by using remote control software, which allows you to control a computer just as if you were sitting in front of it. You should take into consideration how secure the connection between you and the computer you intend to access, and Proxy Networks’ product, Proxy Pro 7, uses 256-bit encryption – the highest in its class. The service is ideal if you have multiple computers that you need to access, as it can handle many target PCs, limit access to IP addresses, and constantly polls the available computers to tell you which ones are available. These are all critical functions for someone trying to manage a PC or a group of PCs from afar.

For people who need to have a custom authorization process, Proxy Networks allows that as well.

This is a sponsored post from Proxy Networks. You can read our policy on advertising and sponsored content in this post. If you don’t like the fact that we have advertising and sponsored content, well, frankly, I couldn’t care less. I’m pretty sure that 99% of my readers are overwhelmingly intelligent and completely get it.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

This is without a doubt one of the coolest grand prizes I have ever heard of. It’s called the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes, but what it really boils down to is that the grand prize winner will get an entire hotel (100 rooms) for 2 days, in other words, a weekend stay for you and 99 of your closest friends.

That is unreal.

Not only that, the winner will get $5000 in cash to help cover the tax for the weekend, so it’s not like you would have to pony up the occupancy tax for 100 hotel rooms. The grand prize and the sweepstakes are not just open to Hilton Honors members or people who have previously stayed at a Hampton. It’s open to everyone.

If I win this prize, I think I would try and bring in my entire family from across the country for a weekend, because I literally have family all over the map. California, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, Texas…it would be a dream to get everyone together for just one big family reunion weekend. To be honest, it would be great to do it anyway, but I sure couldn’t pay for it without winning the prize.

A whole weekend with my entire extended family, with a hotel pool, everyone getting their own room, is just a killer idea. With the entire family not having to pay for rooms, it would be great, and we could probably organize more group activities with the money we’d be saving.

It’s been said many times that sports betting has a dual interpretation; the first being that many fans enjoy it and see no issue with it. However, sports leagues often do not like to be associated with it because of the connotation that the outcome of games could be altered if they actively participated. This means that the leagues must keep their distance in order to keep their integrity.

But one of the key differences between betting on sports and other forms of betting is that fans of sports have a better chance of success, due to their knowledge and understanding of the game. That does not mean this works for all fans, because, quite frankly, not all fans really understand the games they watch.

But for those who do enjoy betting on their favorite sports, the playing field can be leveled a bit with a resource called Online Casino Reports, where dozens of various online gaming options are listed with the exact choices of those options detailed. This means that bettors can review their choices quickly, no matter if they are searching for high limit casinos or just a game of James Bonds’ favorite, Baccarat.

The site includes full reviews of all available types of online betting options, which, naturally includes sports rooms. This gives incredible insight from a community of people who already have used the various listed sites, so you are getting real reviews from actual patrons, not just marketing and advertising jargon. To take it a full step further, the site doesn’t just list reviews, there is a forum with thousands of active users, all discussing the available gaming options in real time. This is an invaluable resource, and certainly loaded with information that simply would not be available on all of the reviewed sites’ own websites or marketing brochures.

You can quickly spot the best offers, and the site has a section for bonus deposits that you can quickly browse to see what’s available at any given time. This is even broken down further by listing the types of bonus deposits and even when no deposit is required at all. This is a great tool for different types of bettors, because the offers are organized so well.

The site also features tons of feature-rich videos, offering detailed information that you can access from anywhere, fully leveraging the ubiquitous availability of an online application. With so many options, it’s easy to see why the betting community is using the site more and more.