Bottom line: yes and no.  You can make money, but the catch is that you won’t make much of it.  And be sure to be wary of which survey companies you use – some don’t pay out (or they make getti9ng paid out inordinately difficult) and some are straight up scams.  Make sure to research any company before you sign up and start using your time.  Some factors to consider:

1)      Minimum payout: This is how much money you have to accrue before they will send you a check.  If it’s high, you’ll have a hard time getting paid regularly if ever.

2)      Pay Period: How frequently your check gets sent out assuming you meet the minimum.  Don’t settle for longer than a month.

3)      Check Delay: How long after the pay period before you get your money.  Definitely avoid anything over a month, and shoot for 2 weeks – infrequently may you find a service quicker than that.

4)      Expiration: For most of these services, your money will expire after a certain period of time if you don’t cash out.  If this is even a moment less than a year, bail out.  For many services it’s hard to get paid even that often.

Remember folks, these are actual companies.  They aren’t out there to do any favors for you – they are out to make money for themselves.  Don’t be stupid – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Also watch out for many of the point based services – usually these point can be wasted away on frivolus purchases instead of being converted to cash.  Also remember that most of these services make a pretty penny by selling your information.  That means never, ever, EVER:

1)      Use your original email

2)      Use your real telephone number

Always make an email solely for such spam.  And you should never give out your telephone number online anywhere.  Your address is usually necessary so they can send a check, but all the other info can be falsified for your protection.  If they offer online payment, make SURE they offer paypal.  If they do not, you can be assured with absolute certainty that it is a scam – Paypal is careful to protect its customers, and therefore will refuse to be associated.  Actually, if Paypal is a payment option, you can be assured that that particular service is not a scam.  Paypal knows best, trust me.

Well, good luck on answering surveys.  I wish the lot of you good luck and success!

With a tight little setup, this ultra-portable laptop meets then exceeds expectations (but with a slightly high price point).  With 3 gigs of RAM and a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, it has a solid amount of speed.  The basic package also comes with an 80 gig solid state drive, which can be upgraded to 120 or 160.  This is a little small in my opinion, but of course adds to the speed and general durability.  Just don’t try to do anything 3D with this laptop – it is an ultra portable laptop after all.  The sound is also somewhat weak.  The package also comes with a DVD, not Blu-ray, drive.

Of course like my other HP notebook, the power pack comes off the back about half an inch, which isn’t my favorite design.  Thankfully it isn’t too unweildly, and at least the power lasted a good six and a half hours.  A feature I love is the external power gauge – I don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to just check the remaining battery in one of my machines.  Unfortunately, at 3.8 lbs this is a little heavy for an ultra-portable, but at least with that kind of battery life, you can throw it in a bag and carry it around all day without the need for recharging.

The screen is great, with 12.1″ 1280×800 pixels.  It’s glossy enough to be bright but not terribly reflective – great quality, but not super for outdoor use.  The keyboard is great – it’s spaced well, plus it comes with two ways to use your mouse.  You have the option of using either a touchpad or an eraserhead, and both have their own set of mouse buttons.  There’s even a button to light up the keyboard.  This ultra portable laptop also comes with Bluetooth, a SD card slot, a ExpressCard/54 slot, 2 USB ports (1 powered), and a fingerprint reader in addition to the regular stuff.

It also has a sturdy design for an ultra portable laptop – it can probably survive a small drop, but down’t run it over with your mower or anything drastic please.  It also comes with a little bloatware, but most of it is business-minded and relevant to the laptop’s design as a corporate device.  You might even use some of it.

I do have to mention my prior experience with HP now – good customer service and tech support, but somewhat unreliable devices (I’ve had 2 hard disk failures in a year, sent it in for repairs, and they found nothing wrong aside from the hard disk.  I also have a mystery problem that they can’t reproduce).  Based on this experience, I personally lean away from this particular ultra-portable laptop.  Then again, if your needs lie in the corporate sector, this may just be a fit for you.