New Years Resolutions Time

I'm generally not that good at keeping New Years Resolutions, so for 2010, I may as well aim big.

Lets put some big lofty aims and goals in. Not the usual Resolutions like 'Joining a Gym and only going a maximum of 3 times' or 'Drink less Alcohol until the second week in February', no no no, we need something awe inspiring to others and impressive when brought up in general conversation.

"How's your New Years Resolution coming along to install World Peace and Harmony?"

"Give us a chance mate, it's only October!"

Yes well, maybe.

New Years Resolutions then... um, erm, well what about these?

1.Eat more Toast
2.Break the Mens World Long Jump record of 8.95m
3.Win the London Marathon dressed as a Penguin

I'm quietly confident about number of 2. I just have to find another 6 metres.

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How often should you update a Blog?

Well... what's the answer? Once a day? Once a week? Once a month? Once a decade ???

Hmmm, there's no real set rule about this and I don't think there ever will be. I suppose that's good. However, if you can keep to a decent posting schedule, then that's great. Regular readers will always know when you have something new to say and it is probably better for the mysterious Google Search Engine also. If you don't update your blog regularly, then people may give it up for dead. Bad news.

However... it's not good to force yourself to Blog when you haven't really anything of interest to say. That's just going to annoy people. Well, it might interest masochists. Um, if you write a masochists blog then that's probably ok.

So... how have I done in 2009? Well, not that well really. I had planed to update regularly and in some parts of the year was pretty successful. Other parts, the blog did look a bit dead and on my return there were quite a few cobwebs about the place.

US President Barack Obama gave himself a B+ on his first year in office. Seeing as we are now allowed to mark ourselves, erm, I'm giving myself a B+ also.

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All hail the Octopus !

Is it Octopuses or Octopi? I'm never really sure. Regardless of my woeful ignorance for pluralising oceanic tentacled lifeforms, just how intelligent are these creatures anyway?

This one seems to have worked out that a coconut shell can be both utilised as a crash helmet and a handy hiding place. There's clear intelligence here as the Octopus first finds the coconut and then takes it with him to cleverly use later on.

I wonder what he would do if he found something more useful like a Machine Gun. An Octopus with a Machine Gun could really clean up.

Is this Octopus really that intelligent though? If people saw me up our Local High Street hiding under a coconut, I'd be branded an idiot. They see an Octopus do it and suddenly he's a Genius. Octopuses get all the breaks.

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I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of... Blah Blah Blah

Well... the show is back again. I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here 2009! Excuse me why I prevent myself from yawning.

While the show may have once been new and fresh on our television screens, this is now the Ninth series of, what is essentially, exactly the same show. The format is starting to look very tired indeed.

You pretty much know what to expect now. There are no surprises at all as the B-List celebs compete in various tasks (that you've already seen countless times before) in order for food and treats. You know the sort... some one will be covered in bugs, some one will have to eat bugs, some one will have to swim in some snake lake, some one will have to go and find Reward Stars in the Dark or overcome their fear of heights and on and on...

Yes, the show was good initially, but just like Big Brother, it doesn't have much more, if anything to offer the viewing public. I hope in Series 9, that I am wrong.

The reported Celebrities going into the Jungle this time are,

Lucy Benjamin - Former EastEnders Actress
George Hamilton
Camilla Dallerup - Dancer
Gino D'Acampo - TV Chef
Samantha Fox - Former Model
Russ Owen - Actor
Colin McAllister
Justin Ryan
Sabrina Washington - Singer
Jimmy White - Snooker Player
Kim Woodburn - From Kim & Aggie, How Clean is your House

Admittedly, some of these, I have never heard of, but that's pretty consistent with every year. No Celebrity has yet to be eaten by a giant genetically modified Crocodile so perhaps that could be the twist.

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The Simpsons- Online Character Creator

Here's me outside Moe's bar... standing in the middle of the road for some reason... reading a book with no words on. By the look on my face, I think a large Truck is coming along. Hmmm, I guess there's an outside chance that Moe will rescue me at the very last second.

Who am I kidding? I'm a gonner. Curse you Moe Szyslak !



On previous Blogs I have mentioned a Mr Man & a South Park Character Creator. It's only fair then, I also mention a Simpsons character creator I come across at http://www.buzzhumor.com/games/5822/The_Simpsons_Character_Maker

It does what it is designed to, but I think it needs a lot more Choices of design as it's a little limited.

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X Factor Carnage - Jedward sing Ghostbusters

It's X Factor carnage. A mockery of the whole competition. How long can John and Edward go on in this contest?

Forever, I hope!

Jedward are the most entertaining act that have ever been in it and the whole public are seemingly behind them! This week was Movie songs and mentor Louis Walsh selected the theme song of Ghostbusters. It was later revealed to be an idea of pure genius as the below footage proves.

Hats off to these boys. Without a doubt, by far the worst singers in the contest, but so so much fun to watch. They've got to win haven't they? A joke act like this has got to eventually win one year.

If you ask a person on the street to name an Act in this years UK X Factor, they are probably going to say John and Edward. X Factor is quickly becoming the John and Edward Show!

Who you gonna call? Well, it's got to be John and Edward hasn't it?

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Micheal Jackson - 'This Is It' - Movie Trailer

What a series of concerts this would have been. Micheal Jackson was back and seemingly returning to the top of his game.

'This is It' is a movie put together of all the film footage of preparation for the planned 50 Show extravanganza at the O2 arena in South East London.

So far, the movie is said to have grossed $109 Million. It is currently the highest grossing concert movie in history.

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Video hosts of the Internet

What is Video hosting?

Ok, well I'm sure you already know, but to give this amazing entry a proper starting point for a change...

Video hosting or sharing refers to websites or software where users can distribute their video clips. So basically, a website where users can upload their video clips for others to view. Generally they are free of charge, but require you to open an account so all your clips can be properly indexed together.

Of all the Video hosts, YouTube is by far the biggest and most popular. When mentioning Video clips on the Internet, YouTube will be the website that most people have heard of. They also provide a HTML code which enables you to put the clips onto other Websites you own or Internet Forums you are a member of.

Look, on YouTube, here's a Lego animation I once did...

Er yes, so moving on. Besides YouTube what other hosts are there?

Well there are quite a few actually. Here are some of the main ones you might want to try if you're looking to get your clips watched by even more of the Earth people.

Dailymotion, Flickr, MegaVideo, Metacafe, Myspace, MyVideo, Photobucket, Truveo, Tudou (Chinese), Veoh, Vuze, Yahoo! Video.

Happy uploading!

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Driver wages in Formula 1

No matter how much we earn in life, something in our mind always dreams of having just that bit more. Things would be great if I had X amount more of money. Well, in reality that dreamed Utopia isn't strictly a real one. You see, as humans, we will always live to our means no matter how much we have and so therefore, in the long run, will end up feeling exactly the same no matter. As long as you have enough to pay your bills each month and have a decent life then what the hey. Yes, but we are human so... more more more!

When it comes to the wages of Formula 1 drives, this need for more seems to be hugely amplified. The driver wages earned for the 2009 F1 season has just been published. Some of the money flying around, especially near the top, is absolutely crazy.

The wages displayed are in US Dollars.


1. Kimi Raikkonen $45m

2. Lewis Hamilton $18m

3. Fernando Alonso $15m

4. Nico Rosberg $8.5m

5. Felipe Massa $8m

6. Jarno Trulli $6.5m

7. Sebastian Vettel $6m

8. Mark Webber $5.5m

9. Jenson Button $5m

10. Robert Kubica $4.5m

11. Heikki Kovalainen $3.5m

12. Nick Heidfeld $2.8m

13. Timo Glock $2m

14. Giancarlo Fisichella $1.5m

15. Sébastien Buemi $1.5m

16. Rubens Barrichello $1m

17. Jaime Alguersuari $0.5m

18. Vitantonio Liuzzi $Nil

19. Adrian Sutil $Nil

20. Romain Grosjean $Nil

21. Kazuki Nakajima $Nil

Kimi Raikkonen was paid by Ferrari a staggering 45 Million Dollars. No driver can surely be worth this amount of money. 45 Million? No wonder they're getting rid of him and no wonder he has yet signed a contract for 2010 with another team. Nobody is yet prepared to pay his wages. 45 Million Dollars? Still can't believe this. That's over twice as much as 2nd man Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has to make do with just 18 Million Dollars... poor chap, hope he survives the winter.

Think I should have got into Formula 1. I wonder how much money Ferrari pay their filing clerk?

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South Park - Online Character Creator / Designer

As I mentioned the fabulous Mr Men Character creator yesterday, I suppose it would be pure folly of me not to also mention the South Park Character creator too. There are a few of these on the web, but my favourite is, http://www.sp-studio.de/



I don't know who these two characters are that I created, but they are probably up to no good.

The Character creator is quite advanced in the level of design options it gives you. Choose Male or female, body skin colour, hat, accessories, clothes, eyes, jewellery, mouths, legs, hands and probably some other features I haven't found.

The designer is very easy to use and you should be able to come up with some cool new characters within minutes, if not quicker.

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The Mr Men - Character Creator

Who are these two fellas?


It's Mr Idiot and Mr Burglar of course... surprised you didn't recognize them from the popular kids series. Shame on you!

Erm ok, these two aren't actually official characters... they were brought to life about 10 minutes ago using an Online Mr Men character creator.

Great fun. It can be used to create a new Mr Man or new Little Miss character. I very much doubt though that many of your new creations will be fit for the children's series... be careful with those names. :oP

Following the small success of the basic Eric Cartman animation I tried in a previous blog, I'm quite tempted to try the same with Mr Idiot and the Burglar. Wonder what trouble they'll get up to?

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Star Wars: Starring Kurt Russell as Han Solo ?

Like many, I'm a great fan of the Star Wars films. More so the original unaltered trilogy than the prequels and CGI'd edited originals. Although all have their fans. This is Star Wars after all.

What made the Originals so special, in my opinion, is the quality that Harrison Ford brought to the role of Han Solo. He made the character an iconic figure in movie history and without him, who knows how successful the film would have become otherwise. This argument will always remain one of much heated debate.

A lot of Actors auditioned for the role of Han. Below is Kurt Russell's attempt.

Interesting. A bit flat I think and I'm not sure how seriously the young Kurt is taking the audition. If only he then knew how much money it could have potentially earned him. Oh well, i don't think his career has gone too badly despite this.

Not sure what become of the chap auditioning as Luke here... maybe he become a Storm Trooper. :op

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Spoof Emails

Is there no end to these Spoof Emails I receive each day?

What is a Spoof Email? Surely you know. Surely you've received them. You haven't? Well, I guess you must be the only one. I'm kind of jealous.

A Spoof email is an email received that pretends to be sent from somewhere else in order to get information from you. They are predominantly, if not totally, sent by fraudsters looking to steal your identity or take over your bank account to extract funds. Some coding will alter or disguise the email address they've originally been sent from.

These fake emails will be made to look like they're from financial institutions such as world banks, but also heavily include PayPal and eBay. If you suspect a Spoof email regarding the last two you should forward them either to Spoof@ebay.com or Spoof@PayPal.com.

Typically the Spoof email will announce some sort of minor or major disaster that needs your attention. There will be a link for you to click to be taken to the site...

DON'T CLICK IT, YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO A DUMMY SITE THE FRAUDSTER HAS SET UP. THEY WANT YOU TO TYPE IN YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD SO THEY CAN STEAL THEM.

Remember: No financial institution will ever send you an email with a link to click in it that takes you to a sign on screen.

How the Fraudsters obtrain your email address in the first place is one of heated debate, but presumably it must have been leaked from somewhere. Data Protection is supposed to protect all your details given to any company. They are not supposed to give them out.

Be careful. Some of the Spoof emails are a lot more sophisticated than others. Some are riddled with spelling errors, some are very professional. Remember... never click on email links. Instead, go directly to the Financial Institutions website and check your account status there or phone them.

Spoof emails I have received today are from three banks I have no account with and are even based in a different country. Desperate stuff.

Always be vigilant and don't let the Fraudsters win.

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The largest population in the World and Taobao.com

You may have heard of the country, China?

It's a little unknown place with a population of around 1.3 billion. Er yes, the largest population in the world in fact. In fact around 20% of the planet. My basic Maths says that's 1 in 5.

1 in 5 represents a huge market for trade and potential customers wishing to purchase products.

Never a company to miss an opportunity, eBay tried to open a branch of its Auction website in China. It failed. With such a huge potential customer base, I hear you ask, how did they fail? The answer... Taobao.

Taobao is an online market place founded by Ma Yun (Jack Ma) in 1999 and is part of the Alibaba group. A Chinese company, that already has such a strong grip on the Chinese marketplace, that nobody, not even the mighty eBay, can seemingly get a look in.

So... with such a strong marketplace and huge world customer base, why doesn't all and sundry list their items there? The one stumbling block? A pretty big one actually... the whole site is in Chinese.

Want to get rich? Learn several forms of Chinese is my tip. Admittedly not an easy task, but in decades or maybe just years to come, it could well be worth the effort.

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How tough is it to animate South Park ?

South Park is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Ok, you may probably already know this.

South Park has become a huge success around the world. The look of the show seems pretty basic. In this predominantly two dimensional world, Trey & Matt originally animated the show using card construction cut-outs and stop-motion video. This is a very time consuming process and now, with the aid of computers, the process is a lot lot quicker. However, the show still keeps intact the basic look and feel that it did during it's original airing.

Much of South Park's success is due mostly to the ideas and script writing than the sophistication of the animation. If the animation were changed, it would probably ruin the whole feel of the show and there would probably be uproar!

So how hard is it for an individual on a budget of near zero to create an animation of the same level of South Park? Granted, anything of any decent length is going to take quite a lot of time to produce.

I decided to quickly see if could make something pretty basic in limited time using what I had available. I didn't have any cardboard cut-outs to use, but just really a laptop. Using the basic Paint package and Windows Movie maker, I made the below short and very basic animation.

Yes, it will not win many awards, and was created in under an hour. It shows though, if you have quite a bit of time on your hands, it would be possible to create something quite good. And of course... there are much better software packages out there than Paint and Movie Maker!

Kick Ass!

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Family Fortunes - We surveyed 100 people (Honest)

We surveyed 100 people and asked them have they ever been surveyed for the TV show Family Fortunes. The top one answer is up there. Yes, the Top answer is No.

Have you ever met a person who has actually participated in one of these Family Fortunes surveys? My guess is, no. The TV show has been running in the UK on and off since 1980 and in the US as Family Feud since 1976.

Who and where are all these people answering the surveys during this large period? Must be tens of thousands of them. Maybe they're kept on some secret island somewhere. Judging by some of the answers given, some have quite clearly gone utterly mad.

Or maybe it's just the contestants who are mad.



Er yes, it's definitely the contestants, my mistake.

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Dead or not Dead, that is the Twitter Celebrity Question.

The answer is probably "Not dead".

I've noticed a rather macabre trend perhaps starting to develop on the micro-blogging network, Twitter. This is the trend for fake reporting of Celebrity deaths. It is somewhat disturbing.

When Michael Jackson sadly passed away in June of this year, his death was one of the most mentioned things on Twitter for over two months. It became the number 1, "Trending Topic".

After this something really odd happened. A rumour started from an individual or individuals that the actor, Jeff GoldBlum, had died. Although completely false, this topic soon become a top trender also. It became such a problem that Mr Goldblum had to come out and publicly announce that he was still alive. Most people believed him.

It would outwardly appear, that if a user is bored on Twitter, they may invent a story that a famous celebrity has died in order to get it into the Top Trending Topics list. This seems pretty desperate stuff and I hope it isn't something that's going to continue... but alas it probably will do.

The latest fake celebrity death to trend is Kanye West. It's a bit tricky to know what to believe anymore. If anyone reports the death of Elvis Presley, I for one, won't believe them.

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Re: The Y Factor

And so it continues...

Just had to add a further comment to the previously posted Blog after watching the X Factor results show this Sunday. It's got to a point now where nothing really surprises me anymore. The Y Factor is alive and kicking and doing very well for itself thank you. Why? Why? Why? Best not to reason with it.

John and Edward are most probably... no... most definitely the shows worst ever finalists, but they went through as expected. They are with out a doubt, the most talked about act and the reason why a great percentage of the public watch each week. But do they have the X Factor? Are they the most likely to go on and become long-term recording artists? Why am I even asking myself these questions? The answer is staring me in the face in big bright capital letters. They read, No!

Ok, while it is pretty amusing seeing this kind of act progress each week, it becomes rather shambolic when the best act ends up in the bottom two sing off. It doesn't seem that Danyl Johnson is very popular with the voting public, slightly less popular than Gordon Brown in fact. That's not very popular.

Danyl managed to work his way through this week at the expense of Girl band, Miss Frank. This would have been a major wake up call. John & Edward are more popular than the previous bookies favourite to win the whole show.

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The Y Factor

It happens every year with these TV Talent shows. One act is so awful to such an infinite level, that they progress much much further than any sane world would normally allow. But... we don't live in a sane world do we? The proof is there for all to see.

Previous World-Class terrible acts that have featured on the X Factor have included Chico and the Cheeky Girls, but twins John & Edward, this year, have taken the art to a whole new level. When it come to the genre of awful performances, they are surely Galactic if not Universal Class.

But... they are entertaining. This is the Y Factor and they have it in huge great big spades. Each week I cross my fingers they will be voted through, just to see the car wreck they will perform the following week.

If they win the whole competition, Simon Cowell will surely break down in a flood of tears. Good Luck to John and Edward! I probably won't be buying any of your albums though.

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The B of the Bang... and arthritis

The sprinter, Linford Christie, always said to get a great start in sprinting, you had to go with the B of the Bang.

He was referring to the starting pistol and launching yourself on the very same moment that it went off... the first sound... the B of the Bang.

I think the athlete I was controlling in the below game of Athens 2004 launched quite some time after... missed the Bang completely and started instead in some other word some way off camera. The word may have been Crapola. He went with the second a of Crapola.

I've never been very good at these type of video games where your success is governed by how quickly you can repeatedly pound some buttons. On the plus side however, I probably won't be crippled by severe arthritis in my fingers in later life.

Yeah!

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Life the Universe & everything according to two Random People

If you have a mind that tends to daydream, drift away and wonder the biggest questions of the Universe and creation, then the last thing you should do is meet somebody who thinks in exactly the same way.

Trust me on this.

By yourself you would perhaps drift away in your thoughts and hypothesise losing a few minutes of time. With somebody else, you will ramble on for hours and hours and end up with even more confusingly deep questions and ideas than before.

I tend to spend a lot of time on a computer these days. To prevent "Brain Explosion", midday I often go for a walk. This tends to work pretty well. I refresh my mind of all poisons and come back recharged ready for Round 2.

On one of my recent Screen-Break walks, I bumped into Dennis.

After briefly sharing a joke about some Ducks that were feeding, I somehow ended up in one of the longest conversations of my life. Don't misunderstand me, I quite enjoyed it. We discussed everything... the Big Bang, Chaos theory, Linear Time, the Hadron Collider, Planet formation, Solar flares, past lives, curved time, dark matter, reality, human perception, quantum mechanics, spacial wormholes, singularities, mass, gravity, atoms, neutrons, photons, light speed, God, Aliens and maybe a few other things... oh yes, and ducks. Dennis was a very clever and intriguing fellow.

What should have been a brief 10 minute walk ended up lasting over 2 hours. Was a bit behind after that. Should have paid a bit more attention to the concept of Linear Time. :o)

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Video Racing Games - Just how real do you want it?

I recently found myself in a daft conversation (yes it was at the Pub) regarding Formula 1 games and their realism.

The point was made that a certain game was pretty bad as it didn't feel very realistic. Well... just how realistic do you want it? The games can never be 100% realistic otherwise only professional Formula 1 drivers would be able to successfully play them... and they probably have a lot better things to be getting on with... apart from Jacques Villeneuve.

Anyway, as long as they look authentic with cool engine sounds and graphics and are fun to play, I think that's the most you can ask for. If I had to drive a real Formula 1 car, I would probably be extremely tired by the end of Lap 1, fall unconscious on Lap 2 and wake up in hospital 3 weeks later. A game that could provide that level of realism wouldn't be very popular.

A point conceded though, F1 05 on the PlayStation 2 is maybe a bit too easy. Ok, it's your turn to go up to the Bar. Mine's a pint of Fosters.

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The High Street Strikes Back ?

During my regular trips to the Post Office these last few years, I haven't helped but notice the grim emptying of all the shops. One by one it seems, once vibrant store fronts being replaced by empty dead shells with mountains of never to be opened post shoved through the letterbox. It's pretty depressing stuff.

Running a real life bricks and mortar shop these bad economic days seems incredibly tough. The biggest empty store along our Local High Street is the old Woolworths. It's a very large store which probably no Company believe can make work. Along the relatively short stretch there are around 8 or so smaller premises that have not seen life for many many months. You can tell things are bad when even the Charity Shop closes down!

Rents are high and spending traffic is low. This is not a good formula for long term business prosperity.

Maybe it's just because Christmas is looming, but today, I was pleased to see that two of the smaller empty shops had new ownership and were planning to reopen. Brilliant. Could this be the first signs of recovery for the High Street? Too early to tell maybe. The first is a Shoe shop and the second a Toy Shop. Good Luck to both of them. If starting a real life physical shop, this time of year must definitely be the best moment to start.

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Deal or No Deal... still

I've been watching a lot of Deal or No Deal recently. I'm amazed that such a simple concept is still surviving since its first airing 4 years ago back in 2005. Since this time, the show has now given away over 18 Million pounds. Remarkable.

For those that somehow haven't seen it, the show is centered around 1 contestant each day who selects a gradually decreasing number or 22 random boxes with money in them. Future contestants then open the selected box and what ever sum is revealed inside is scratched from the game. Values contained range from 1p to £250,000. At certain stages, The Banker phones in and makes a Monetary offer based on the Money remaining for the Contestant to stop playing. Presenter, Noel Edmonds relays the offer then asks, "Deal or No Deal?". Obviously, the longer you can keep the Big Money Boxes in the game, the larger the offer.

Of course... the whole thing is utterly random, but that doesn't stop Contestants forming strategies and Noel reminding them to think more following a bad run. You're completely in the lap of the Gods with this game unless you resist greed and accept the Bankers offer at some point.

Wonder how you get to be on the Show? Maybe they will read this and I will get a special invite... maybe.

Here's how NOT to play the game. She should have thought a lot harder about her strategy. :oP ---- WARNING: Some Bad language.

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Asda are Great Value... from a certain point of view

As the wise old jedi from Star Wars Ben Kenobi once sad, "Everything is dependent on a certain point of view."

Fictional tripe some may say, but not me however. The Universe and everything in it is totally dependent on your own personal perspective of it. We are all on the same journey from birth through to death, it's just that some people are in First Class travel, some in Economy Class, a few stuffed in the Cargo hold and a much greater number holding onto the wings outside for dear life.

Yes... very interesting.... so why the Asda logo picture? Well... it's all to do with that certain point of view again or more accurately an advertising point of view.

An advert was on TV today for Asda supermarket boasting that around 1400 of their items were cheaper in store than another leading Supermarket. Great, you may say, lets shop there then. But hang on, Wait! 1400 out of how many items are cheaper? 1400 out of 1400 sounds pretty good, but what if it's 1400 out of 10,000? That would actually mean, most items are more expensive in Asda. So you see, these advertised figures mean nothing as they are arbitrary and cannot be compared to anything.

Supermarkets are very competitive in their pricing these days and are constantly changing to stay competitive against one another. So in summary, it's probably best just to go to the closest. At least you save on Petrol.

Er yes, that's what I say.

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Healthy Breakfast of the Future: Chocco Flakes with Fizzy Milk

So then, every drink that it's possible to make has been made by now, so you shouldn't even bother trying. Yes, that's right. Any other possibility that hasn't already been put on the market would be plain gut-wrenchingly horrid.

Hey though, what about fizzy milk?

Fizzy what?

You know, fizzy milk... milk with fizz in. Don't you just hate it when you get some milk from the fridge and it's all flat?

Er... not really.

Erm yes, I'm sure fizzy milk will be just delightful. So delightful in fact that Coke plan to release it onto the market. This can't be a good move can it? In this time of growing World obesity and the health push for our children to eat more healthily, the mad boffin scientists at Coke come up with this.

In the difficult quest to come up with a new revolutionary drink in an over-saturated marketplace and spark increased revenues, this seems to be the answer. We are doomed! Or are we? Maybe it will be nicer than it sounds.

The drink contains skim milk mixed with sparkling water, flavored with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar. It may not be the Real Thing, but will be hitting shop shelves in the near future.

I look forward to Fizzy Cheese, Fizzy Yogurts and Fizzy Mad Cow disease.

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20p or not 20p that is the Question

And what a question. It's amazing when even the slightest snifter of an opportunity presents itself, the shear volume of scammers in this modern day Internet world suddenly emerge. There can only be one world to describe this category of people and that word is, "Scumbags". Ok... well maybe there's another one, "Stupid".

You may remember, a little while back, the Royal Mint (The clever ones who produce all the physical money) made a bit of a technical boo boo. They made and circulated around 200,000 20 pence pieces without a date on. So.. no date. Doh! This made them all extremely valuable for some reason... a great deal more than 20p in fact.

Some experts claimed any of these 20p pieces were now probably worth around £50. Some sources said they were worth Hundreds of pounds, a few silly sources said they could even be worth Thousands of pounds. Fate had seemingly taken the day off and left Captain Stupid in charge.

Ok, so these botched undated 20 pences were very rare and probably worth £50 each to hardened Coin Collectors.

Step in the scammers / Scumbags / Stupid people...

Within hours of all this, 20 pence pieces started appearing for sale on the popular Auction site, eBay. How many of these were the real McCoy? How many of these auctions were for the genuine coins? Well.... none that I could definitely confirm. Many listings even showed pictures of regular 20 pences with the date either photoshopped off or badly scratched away.

One Seller was trying to sell one at a cost of 11 Million pounds, another at a more modest 9 Million. Each said they would take Legal Action if the Buyer didn't pay. That would have been a very interesting Court case.... I wonder what the eBay fees are on an 11 Million pound item?

To their merit, eBay did remove a lot of these listings. You have to ask though, what thought processes go on in someones mind to attempt and think they can get away with this sort of scam? Criminal Mastermind or Epic Fail?

Ho hum, I doubt it will be the last time this sort of thing occurs. Roll on to the next one...

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

My Tropical Fish Aquarium Suddenly isn't big enough...

Any obsessed keeper of Tropical Fish will be well familiar with the term "Multiple Tank Syndrome".

MTS is where your love of the hobby gets to such a point, that you desire to keep more and more different species of fish. You suddenly find your existing aquarium simply isn't big enough anymore for your new growing ambitions. And somewhat inevitably you buy an even larger Aquarium to satisfy your growing fishy addiction. After a while, the cycle then repeats itself and you are now deep inside the realms of Multiple Tank Syndrome. These pretty glass boxes are soon everywhere.

Anything can trigger the start of MTS. Reading about a fish in a book or the Internet, or often just seeing a larger more impressive tank than your own. Anyway, take a look at this...

I hope this has helped any sufferers out there. You can't beat a tank that's so large, the only way to clean it is to put on full Scuba-Diving gear and jump in with a large underwater Vacuum Cleaner.

Care: This size Aquarium may be a bit heavy for some floor joists.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

Supermarkets cutting down on Plastic Bags. Why?

Last year in the UK, Supermarkets used 418 Million less plastic Carrier bags in an effort to cut down on landfill. Apparently, according to Environmentalist types these bags take around 1000 years to disintegrate.

1000 years? 1000 years? How is it then, if I put some in my kitchen cupboard, they've already got holes in within just a few days? With most of them, one of the handles have already ripped even before they've caught sight of the cupboard.

1000 years? Who come up such an outlandish estimate? Some one who was about to clock off for the day and desperately get to the Pub I think. "How long can these plastic bags last?", "Er, um, oh just put 1000 years, nobodies going to have time to check it for real are they? Lets go now.", "Ok lets, its tough being an Environmentalist what with all the outlandish estimating and everything."

What a load of rubbish. If I made a suit from these Plastic bags would I expect it to last 1000 years before it disintegrated? I Don't think so. I'd look cool for all of half a day.

"What's up with your suit?", "Oh, it's bloody disintegrated again".

That's no good.

They say the average shopper uses approximately 13,000 bags in their lifetime. And you know why that is. It's because the bag starts disintegrating the second you get it out the shop.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

"This is It" - Great Jackson YouTube Music Vid

No real need for a detailed description on this occasion. Uploaded in March 2009, 3 months before Michael Jackson's untimely death, this is a great music Remix by Steve Porter.

Great stuff. Keep a close eye on some of those screaming fans, one is particularly amusing. :oD

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

Link your Social apps together with FriendFeed

In this new heady Internet world of Web2.0., there are many Social apps that you can suddenly find yourself using.

You may have Blogs, Picture hosting Services, Video Upload Services such as Youtube, networking services such as Facebook or Twitter, various RSS Feed readers and the list goes on and on...

With an increasing amount of social apps all doing their various jobs and operations, wouldn't it be great if you could link them all together in one central place?

Well good news, now you can with FriendFeed!

It's well worth checking out. Link all your Social Apps together and FriendFeed will provide a single Feed of all updates to anything you may be doing related to them.

Easy to set up, simple to operate, free to use... there's no real reason not to open an account.

If you wish to subscribe to my FriendFeed it is jenkin7Nick. I always subscribe back. :o)

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

Twitter Great... hey, I'm not in Main Search all of a sudden

Having tried some of the micro-blogging competitors including Jaiku and the like, in my opinion, there is nothing really out there that can rival the strength and popularity of Twitter. Used correctly it can be a very powerful tool.

Up until 2009, I hadn't really heard of the Twitter phenomena. I turned on the TV one day and saw Gyles Brandreth talking about it on the BBC's The One Show. Well, good old Gyles made a pretty good case for it so I signed up for an account in February. As is usually the case with these new fangled social Internet things, many user names were already taken and I finally ended with jenkin7nick, whick is made up of my name and the Internet Giftware store I help run.

All has been fairly well ever since. I post some tweets (as they are called) every day (these are status updates with a maximum of 140 characters) and follow a fair few people... yes, including Gyles. He is an all round good egg.

Twitter is fantastic as an information and News source with many News stations having regularly updated accounts like the BBC & ITN. Also Celebrities are using it in every increasing numbers including such huge mega-stars like Keith Chegwin. Yes, it's true.

So why should you open a Twitter account... well, something to do isn't it? Plus you can say you are "With it". You know the score and all that sort of chat that I have a very lose grip on as you can probably tell.

At the moment unfortunately, my Tweets are not appearing in Twitters search facility so I'm a bit invisible. I do not know why this is. I haven't sent any spam or tried to sell weapons grade plutonium to anybody so I'm guessing it's some kind of glitch. Well.. more hoping really. I've submitted a Help Ticket to Twitter support on the 10th July and its current status is, "This request is currently being processed by our staff". Am I worried... well, a little.

If you open an account, take leave of your senses and want to follow me, my account is jenkin7Nick. I always follow back... please don't be a serial killer.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables