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

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

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

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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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

Goofbay inceases your chances of Winning eBay Auctions

I will try not to make this sound like an advert, because it most definitely is not one.

A little while back whilst bidding on eBay auctions, I was finding I was being outbid in the final few seconds of an auction. I would be winning for quite some time and then time and time again, another user would win the item at the death. Initially I just accepted this as part of the process, but then it just started to get plain annoying!

I decided to try and use the same strategy by bidding right near the end. I found this very tricky to time right, sometimes I wasn't available to bid and other times, I just forgot.

Then I found an Auction Sniping tool called Goofbay.

Goofbay offers a FREE auction sniping service. If you open an account with them and fill in the required details, Goofbay automatically bids on your behalf with your maximum bid. You can even set the bid to happen within 2 seconds of the end. Nobody has much chance of responding to a bid placed 2 seconds before the end.

I was dubious at first and little concerned about typing in sensitive information to people I didn't even know who were running a Free service. To apply the bids for you, Goofbay require your eBay password.

I need not have been worried at all. The service worked beautifully and I was now winning items at great prices!

If you are experiencing similar problems and always being outbid right near the end, I would strongly recommend Goofbay. I found their service to be both safe and extremely reliable.

Placing the snipes is also very easy. You just need the eBay listing number, the amount you are willing to bid and when you want to bid. Not only that, Goofbay will send you emails when the bidding has gone above your entered amount!

Overall, I have been very impressed.

www.goofbay.com

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

YouTube, Video Removed: Copyright Infringement

You have to be very careful what you upload onto YouTube these days. I recently received an email from them a few months after uploading a video clip I had made.

Video Removed: Copyright Infringement

This originally had me baffled. The email said that a third party had complained of an infringement to their copyright caused by the Video and so it had been removed. After a bit of head scratching, I realised that I had used some background music on the video. This was the problem.

Like many people, I had shot a short clip, put some music onto it and then uploaded.

Not wanted to get my account suspended, I then deleted three other videos that possibly could be brought up for the same offence. YouTube were right in removing the videos as they were indeed infringing on a copyright. It just goes to show, with the ease of media use, you have to be extra vigilant.

Incidentally, I did some searches on YouTube afterwards and the amount of Videos that could be removed for the same offence were... practically all of them!

This sort of extensive and widespread media use is impossible to 100% police and I think it's inevitable in the future that YouTube will do some sort of deal with major Music Companies.

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

The Busiest & Most Popular Forums on the Net

The Internet has become packed with many many many different Forums. Their subject matter is varied and covers virtually everything you can ever think of. Computer Games, Roleplaying, Health, TV & Film, Sports and beyond...

But, which ones are the most popular? Which ones see the most visitors and inspire the most web-surfers to join and become a part of?

There is a site called Big Boards which attempts to keep track of them all. It's address is,

http://rankings.big-boards.com/?p=all

The current leader is Gaia Online, an Anime roleplaying community. So far, it has attracted 13,127,069 members... that is quite a few!

Do you have an up and coming board? Maybe you should register it in the Big Board directories and watch it speed up the ranks! :o)

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www.jenkin7.co.uk

The Busiest Sites on the Web - Top 10

Millions upon millions of people use the Internet each day. Where does all this traffic go? Below is the current Top 10 of most visited global Websites.

1. Yahoo.com
2. Google.com
3. Youtube.com
4. Live.com (Windows Live)
5. MSN.com
6. Myspace.com
7. Wikipedia.com
8. Facebook.com
9. Blogger.com
10. Yahoo.jp (Japan)

Source: www.alexa.com

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