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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 3900 |
| Visitors Out: 3695 |
| Total Visitors Out: 3703 |
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| Earnings August 2008 |
| 2008-09-01 15:15:29 |
If nothing else, earnings are steady for me month in - month out at the moment. I am averaging about $100 a month and this last month brought in $99.60. In a change of pattern, much more of these earnings are now attributed to adsense and I have reached payout again this month. I would still stress that the majority of my adsense earnings are NOT from blogs, but that balance is beginning to change and it seems that a decent niche blog may be able to yield reasonable adsense earnings - it's not going to make me rich unless I can manage 1000 good niche blogs at the same time, but I am seeing much better results even if Google are no longer including 'blogger' hosted 'dot com' blog keywords in their search results.Earnings were scattered around paid blogging, adsense and surveys in that order...
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| Making money online |
| 2008-08-30 10:02:37 |
Since I started my own 'make money online' project about two years ago, the dynamics for making money online have changed considerably. This has come about mainly through Google moving the goal-posts by punishing paid links.Paid posting alone could net you a decent online second income in those days, but those that were doing paid posting are now forced to diversify. I have never been keen on 'paid to click' or paid to read' programs as I can't see any real benefit IE.. I wouldn't feel like I was contributing anything for the payment (also the pay sucks...). So my second stream has been paid surveys and I will talk through the schemes that I use or have used:Ciao - I used to do these surveys and cashed out twice, but I became frustrated by the amount of times I would spend more than ten mi...
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| Am I covered? |
| 2008-08-30 03:37:36 |
If you have seen one of those lists of 'things to do before you're thirty' or 'things to do before you die...' then you will no doubt have considered some of the more risky ventures proposed in those lists. Maybe you are hankering for a bungee jump or want to have a go at sky-diving?If you've discussed it with colleagues or friends I bet somebody has piped up 'your insurance won't cover you for that!'.On a more serious note, some medical conditions can make it very difficult to get insurance cover, and in these circumstances you may have to consider the benefits of high risk life insurance. after all, you can get insurance for more or less any circumstances, it's just that it may be more costly and you may have to shop around a bit to get the best deal...
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| What every man wants... |
| 2008-08-30 03:22:28 |
Call it mid-life crisis if you like, but what man doesn’t get to the stage where he thinks ‘Hmmm a Harley….I could probably afford one of those now…’.That of course is the sentiment of a white-collar worker, a blue-collar worker may already have an almost-assembled Electra Glide in his garage which has been there for a decade already and has just needed those one or two all-important Harley parts for most of that duration. In many cases your white collar worker will move on and end up with a motor home instead, and the blue collar half-built Harley in the garage will probably end up on eBay someday. the few however, could end up like the guy in the picture...Such is the stuff of dreams and romance for your average man entering the middle age.
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| Bedfordshire Uni Clearing 2008 |
| 2008-08-28 11:26:33 |
It’s clearing time again, and a last chance to be considering a course in this coming school year. Once again the University of Bedfordshire will be recruiting via the clearing process from 14th August to the middle of September 2008. The University is rated highly for its’ Sports and Media courses which are proving increasingly popular, but is diverse enough to be very well regarded for its’ courses in Journalism, Law and Business. Over the last few years a lot of investment has gone into the university facilities to make the University of Bedfordshire one of the leading educational institutions in the area.If you are thinking of taking a course, why not give them a ring on their free-phone number and take it from there…University of Bedfordshire - Clearing 2008 on 0800 013 0925
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| Why Acne? |
| 2008-08-28 04:54:02 |
Acne is a subject that most people are aware of without any in-depth knowledge. For instance, we usually associate acne with teenagers going through puberty, but it can have an effect in later life too.The basic cause is blockage of the follicles and can be seen primarily on the face, the back, chest and upper arms. Why it is that some people are affected more than others is not clear but could be linked to genetic makeup, stress, ingested medication (including steroids) and factors affecting hormonal activity.
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| Mozilla Email client |
| 2008-08-25 04:48:21 |
One of the things that I needed to do when I was trying to recover my online life after the failure of my main PC was to retrieve my emails with POP3 access as opposed to internet emails. I set up some accounts using MS Outlook Express, but for my online income mail I tend to use MS Outlook too.It was easy enough to recover connection details (although I couldn't recover addresses or the mail archive) for Outlook Express and was up and running in no time. The version of Outlook that I had on my spare PC though was sufficiently different to my current version for me to end up in a frustrating loop whilst trying to set it up. So I took the step of deciding to dump Outlook and try out Mozilla Thunderbird.Thunderbird turned ou...
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| My PC adventures |
| 2008-08-20 11:15:06 |
I am pleased to report the the PC that I created from old parts and a £10 motherboard from eBay has been working perfectly (if not a little slowly) whilst my main PC has been at the menders...I got a call from the computer shop to say that he had a spare mobo with CPU and RAM left over from a recent upgrade (ironic because the 'old' kit left over from the upgrade was actually better than my original one..). He fitted the new mobo and got it all running for a grand total of £50 which I am more than pleased with.I have three new 512MB SDRAM chips coming from eBay to add the final touches to my spare PC and I am considering putting another GB of RAM onto my recently refurbished main machine. I was mightily relieved to find that we didn't need to reload the Operating system and all my progra...
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| A bit fishy.... |
| 2008-08-17 18:42:42 |
Well everyone has to have a hobby, and if you take your hobby seriously, you will spend time and money in the pursuit of it. Combining a hobby with a pet or pets is a neat way to have a hobby with added interest. If that involves an aquarium, then it's guaranteed that this is a pursuit that will keep you happy at home, apart from those frequent trips to the aquarium store.In fact there is a lot of technology involved in keeping a good quarium going, and my preference is to consume rather than observe sea-creatures. However I can see the attraction of maintaining the best conditions to keep those beatiful tropical fish healthy and happy. There is the cleaning and the aeration of the tank to consider, the lighting and heating too. It's not just a case of whether to go for the sunken galleon ...
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| Formula one push chairs |
| 2008-08-17 18:21:15 |
The culture around children has changed out of all recognition in the last few decades whether it be as targets for the lastest games and gadgets (PSP, Wii, X-Box etc...) or the amount of effort that now goes into producing some thing like the Maclaren stroller. The equipment that your child wears or travels in is now under scrutiny for development in terms of state-of-the-art materials, technology and most of all...fashion.In years gone by, the teenager emerged as a target for producers to create products such as the Sony Walkman. In more recent times, this target has widened to include Nike trainers for those that can't yet walk... As with everything, there are upsides and downsides. On the downside is the proportion of our diminishing disposable income that is now ring-fenced by toddler
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| Moving on from text-speak.. |
| 2008-08-17 12:16:02 |
The latest dNeero survey introduces the idea of using images to convey a meaning for those that find typical internet abbreviations or text-speak a bit of a turn off.The 'talk it up' survey involves a new website that allows you to create visual messages online and then send them to your freinds. Is this the type of service you would enjoy using, are you fed up with text-speak... Well RU ??Have your say by joining in the conversation and being compensated for your trouble...
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| Budget Software |
| 2008-08-14 17:58:51 |
No, not a post about cheap programs, but a post about budgeting software. In the days of tightening finances, we need all the help we can to run a tight financial ship. It's not just our personal budgetting that we will need to be creative with, businesses that don't budget will not survive the coming recession.The current financial crisis will result in less spending which means that the businesses that survive will be those offering the best value for money whilst still being able to make a healthy profit. Businesses that have got fat and lazy in past years will find themselves squeezed out of the market. Sharpen your pencils if you want to be trading in two years time...
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| Strange brew |
| 2008-08-09 17:56:19 |
The world seems full of potions and medications and treatments to correct defects caused mostly by our unhealthy society. Along with the myriad diet plans, come the fat burner, the anti-aging cream and the little blue pill...It is as if we can fix every little quirk with some treatment or other. You can even get a cream for if you have dry skin around the heel of your foot (as if it mattered..). I have noticed that the market has turned it's attention to men in the last few years. In my book real men couldn't care less about wrinkles and grey hair, but it's clear from the advertising that I have got it all wrong.I'm not even concerned about wrinkles openly displayed by the fairer sex and am frankly more disconcerted when confronted with those elderly women who appear to have a face made fr...
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| Looking for another dollar... |
| 2008-08-09 17:39:05 |
Since paid blogging is getting harder and Adsense doesn't really bring home very much bacon, other avenues for earning cash via the internet will no doubt become popular.Maybe you will be tempted into Forex or and futures trading but these particular routes involve an element of financial risk which does not appeal to me. My views on risk investment is that you should only get involved if you are using money that you can afford to lose, and that definitely isn't me!That said, the current financial crisis will prove to be a big earner for some lucky investors, and if you gauge the market right, you could end up profiting from the credit crunch.
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| Ups and downs |
| 2008-08-09 05:02:03 |
I have had one of those 'good news..bad news' weeks this week:Good News.. I reached payout from Google Adsense for the third time this year and am already three-quarters of the way towards my next payout.Bad News.. I lifted something far too heavy at work and have suffered chronic pack pain all week.Good News.. I successfully fitted a 'previously enjoyed' Motherboard and CPU to an old PC, upgrading (just a little project really) from a 300mHz P2 to a 533Mhz Celeron to use as my 'spare'.Bad News.. I managed to 'blow' the Motherboard on my main PC when fiddling with the RAM. So now I am using my spare as my main PC while it is getting fixed by someone who knows what they are doing!!Not such a bad week when considering that I will have had a welcome cash injection (even if I have to pay it al...
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| July 2008 |
| 2008-08-04 18:36:42 |
My blogging earnings for July have been $147 raised from a variety of sources including PPP, PayU2Blog, Creamaid and Adsense. My Adsense earnings have been building nicely, I think last time I got paid, there was already about $30 in the pot towards my next payout - this time there will be $70 already in the pot so I am hoping to get paid out much quicker this time. I should point out of course that the majority of my Adsense earnings comes from sources other than blogs... although my newer blogs have contributed recently.I also get payouts from fixed adverts which raise around another $50 per month, and the occassional privately requested advert/text link which sometimes brings in an extra $40 or $50. I have been impressed this month with the amount of traffic that it is possible to drum
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| Google Widgets |
| 2008-08-04 06:09:30 |
These are, in my humble opinion, one of the coolest things that Google offer. I was bowled over by them when I first came across them, and still love them today... I use a game widget at the bottom of my blog template, currently I am using 'bejeweled', previously I have used 'pacman' and 'invaders' - for some visitors, this is the most interesting thing on my blog...!There are more widgets than you can shake a stick at covering all sorts of subjects and applications, and they are FREEEE for you to include in your blog or website, there are even versions that you can have on your desktop.Check out the website gadgets here...and the desktop ones hereGoogle are far and away the best providers of free software on the internet, even when you consider all the Li
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| Exercise or diet pills? |
| 2008-08-04 04:18:15 |
Whether you believe in diet pills that work or the value of exercise, the Summer months always carry more incentives for getting fit.Lighter nights are conducive to playing sports in the evening, and looking good on the beach is incentive enough for most… There are supposedly numerous ways to perfect your physique, even using muscle toning devices that require no work, but for me exercise is by far the better way – after all good exercise works out your lungs and heart, not just your muscles.
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| PC update |
| 2008-08-03 05:29:21 |
My 'one-step-at-a-time' approach to PC maintenance has proved quite successful so far and I am installing Windows onto my newly 'created' PC today. I still have some extra RAM and a spare hard-drive coming from eBay auctions next week, bringing my total expenditure on this project to about £50/$100. This is not the first time I have embarked on this type of project, and am happy to say that without the cost-cutting advantage that eBay offers, there is no way that I would even attempt this type of PC customisation..There is still the chance that this project could fall flat on it's face, but the fact that I may get a perfectly workable PC that will probably be twice as quick as it's previous incarnation, is worth the £50 spent even if I end up just learning a lot more from the experience
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| TV Lifts |
| 2008-08-03 05:29:08 |
The sheer size of the modern TV means that you have to put some real thought into how you are going to mount the thing in whichever room you intend to view it. The modern TV doesn't just sit in the corner of the room any more, it is often the centerpiece of the room, mounted impressively as the main feature. This is when you might start to consider tv lifts and dedicated furniture and fittings specifically designed to integrate your new modern flat screen HDTV into your living area.
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| Messin' with computers |
| 2008-07-30 10:44:46 |
I have reported before that I have 're-invested' my online earnings into extra bits and bobs for my PC. I have almost (but not quite) optimised my current PC - the last thing I had to buy was a new power supply to cope with the extra drives (internal 320GB, external 250GB, external DVD-RW and internal DVD-RW...). It only remains for me to replace one of the RAM boards to take it from 1.5GB to 2.0...So, while I am waiting for SDRAM to get cheaper, my attention has been turned to my old 'spare' PC - we all have one right? The truth is we spent so much cash buying these PC's 10 years ago that we can't face throwing them out even though they are useless...This PC has been a bit of a playground for my forays into PC ‘frankenstein’ation in the past and sports a 20GB drive alongside the origi...
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| The Housing Market |
| 2008-07-29 11:44:54 |
There is no argument that the housing market is depressed at the moment. UK house prices are dropping, but in the US the problem is even more pronounced. If you are trying to sell a house at the moment, you will have to both offer it at a reasonable price and make sure that the décor is right. Although house prices are not yet plummeting in the UK, it is becoming harder to get a mortgage, and there are less buyers meaning that it takes longer to sell.As far as décor goes, there are two areas in the house that must be right, the kitchen and the bathroom, this means having the right fittings, or kitchen faucets if you are in the US.The look must be clean and fresh if you want to create the right impression to sell your h
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| Munny for Nuthin' |
| 2008-07-26 05:53:27 |
I have embarked on the final leg of paying off my credit-card debt this week. My method for paying off my debt (as I have documented on this blog previously) has been firstly to STOP SPENDING, and secondly to transfer my credit-card debt to a '0% for balance transfers' credit card.Now these offers usually last for around 12 months, so if you have more debt than you can pay of within 12 months, you may have to do the same again. Bear in mind that a small charge (usually about 3%) is charged for the transfer, apart from that every penny you pay comes straight off your debt - no interest!!I have done this twice already over two years and I have just opened my third account this week, with a view to paying off ALL the debt within the next 12 months. I will admit that I use a different card for...
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| Nostalgia in a watch |
| 2008-07-23 11:33:27 |
In days gone by, a pocket watch would be given as a leaving present or a long-service award. It might surprise you to learn that pocket watches are still popular and available today.The pocket watch symbolises a bygone age when trains ran on time (or is that wishful thinking) and you could get a doctor to do a house visit. From the White Rabbit in 'Alice through the looking glass' to the legendary 'railroad watches' second only in quality to a chronometer, the pocket watch has earned it's place in history.
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| Medical Information |
| 2008-07-22 11:28:17 |
The combination of medical research and the openness and vastness of the internet has led to a new way of life for many people. If I need to visit a doctor, I will often ‘google’ for my symptoms or whatever I think is wrong before going so that I know the right questions to ask. I would not recommend relying totally on the internet for answers to all medical problems, but the resource is impressive if you know how to use it.You can read useful articles on mesothelioma if you know of someone affected by asbestos. Or for example, most recently I read an article about tinnitus which helped me enormously. I find that it always helps to listen to your doctor carefully and having an insight into your ailment before you visit helps to provide you with the ri...
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| Financial Health |
| 2008-07-22 11:00:07 |
With the credit crunch beginning to impact on the Western world, now is the time to get ourselves into a financially healthy state. I see the current crisis as a good time to pay off debts and look at outgoings to see where savings can be made. Amongst the options one might consider are debt consolidation loans, 0% interest credit cards and some tough budgeting. The change has to start as a shift in our attitudes before the practical steps can be put in place.I reckon that we are going to experience an economic slow-down at least in some industries, which will last two years so the sooner we start to think about our finances the better off we will ultimately be.
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| Does StumbleUpon work? |
| 2008-07-17 17:45:01 |
I have to say a resounding 'Yes' to that question, but this needs to be qualified by describing exactly what works and in what way.I have previously stuck doggedly to 'Digg' as my preferred method of promoting blog posts, but have found StumbleUpon to be vastly superior in terms of vloume of traffic generated. Some blogs that I have that would normally get traffic that you can count on one hand, have had traffic rocket up into the hundreds overnight, but whilst this is nice to see - what value is it?Certainly I have not seen a massive generation of income from this traffic, but nonetheless traffic has to be regarded as good and demonstrates that what you are writing at least captures the imagination of somebody somewhere. Also I have not as yet seen a huge increase in RSS feed reader subsc...
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| A room for the Summer |
| 2008-07-14 17:34:44 |
I often tell people that the best room in our house is our garden, even now at least half the house has actually been decorated, I would still maintain that it remains the most pleasant place to entertain.Just as you require a sofa, chairs and a table inside your house, if you entertain out of doors, you will require at least some elements of outdoor furniture. For most people that is going to include a decent parasol, plenty of chairs and a big table. In recent years it has been so hot on our patio, that we have bought a gazebo to try to shelter from the sun’s rays.That in itself is an important point – whereas it use to be normal to try to get tanned to a crisp, we are far more conscious of the damaging effects of the sun nowadays, and having a good su...
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| Colorpic free software |
| 2008-07-14 17:12:50 |
I like to highlight free software that I have found useful, and this little tool has proved invaluable lately when I am trying to match up colours to keep a consistent look across a website or blog.Colorpic can identify the hexadecimal code attributed to any colour(color) that your mouse points to. This is particularly useful when you want to match up a widget colour with your already existing header image or some other element on your blog. Equally useful for a website, and becoming increasingly important to me lately as I seem to be creating widgets left, right and centre and it really helps if you can colour-code all the elements of your site to give a great over-all effect.Colorpic is available from ICONICO as a totally free download - ColorPic runs
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| Adequate Insurance |
| 2008-07-11 07:22:08 |
Insurance is a necessary evil, no-one likes paying for it, but then who wants to be caught without adequate insurance?Whether it be budget car insurance, low cost life insurance, or cheap holiday insurance it pays to get a good deal, but it also is vital to get insurance that will meet the circumstances that are likely to occur. Inadequate insurance is a waste of money and you would be better off not paying for insurance that is not going to meet your needs.
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| Detox for weight loss? |
| 2008-07-11 07:14:40 |
There are more weight-loss remedies than you can shake a stick at lately, each one claiming to work in different ways.The argument used by Orovo detox is that much of our weight-gain is due to toxic build-up and therefore an effective detox can help to lose weight. Like many treatments Orovo was discovered by mistake during research into methods of reducing aging symptoms.
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| Latest Earnings |
| 2008-07-06 20:19:04 |
I was very lax with May's earnings report, and still a little tardy doing one for June, nonetheless the figures are in and are showing a general slow-down in paid to blog as expected. A little from PPP - there are still opps if you can get in quick enough....but I usually can't.PayU2Blog is the main source of revenue for this type of earnings for me currently, but ideally I would like to be making enough passive earnings not to have to make forays into the paid to blog world...I have made just about $80 in June from blogs, though I think I may have forgotten to include Adsense earnings, normally these are insignificant in terms of blog earnings, but lately I have been showing some results from niche blogs although nothing to get excited about. On the sub...
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| TV revolution |
| 2008-07-06 18:19:04 |
The tv is becoming one of the battlegrounds for the coming technological revolution, this and the 'phone and the internet. The newest innovations in the home will seek more and more to combine products which we have previously thought of as separate.Why not combine your high-definition television with your Hi-Fi since they have some audio components in common?Why not combine the television with internet surfing and other PC tasks since they share a common visual interface?Why not combine your broadband connection with your phone or mobile phone and interactive television since they all require access to the telephone network?Where will this all end? probably with something like the new media centres coming onto the market which will combine storage of
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| Moving |
| 2008-07-06 18:09:18 |
Everyone knows that moving home is one of the most stressful things you can do – complete upheaval of all you own, your family, pets and belongings, all moved from one district to another or even to another country. In this current economic climate most people will probably beholding onto their property if given the choice, but what about when relocation is not a choice. The solution is to get a team of professional movers, people who know what they’re doing. If you plan to move to NY, then you should be 'Googling' for mover NYC to find a trustworthy team of movers.
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| Stumbled upon an SEO website |
| 2008-07-03 18:52:47 |
I have been getting into 'Stumble upon' lately and my findings will no doubt emerge in a later post, but today I stumbled upon a site worth reviewing. The site has been put together by Stephen an SEO expert who uses the motto 'SEO is a flair not a science - science always gets the same results!'.The more I thought about that, the more it rang true. There are those who say that you can get SERP through following a set number of steps or will guarantee first position in Google search, but really SEO doesn't work like that.The Google search hysteresis that determines your search engine results position for a given keyword or phrase is not written in stone like physics, it is subject to trends like fashion. What worked even 5 minutes ago may not work again... SEO has to be viewed as something ...
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| Adsense referrals programme to 'retire' |
| 2008-07-01 15:00:00 |
I received an important announcement from Adsense today regarding the 'Adsense referral' programme being terminated, or in their language 'retired'. I have two conflicting views about this:Firstly I am disappointed because I like the referral scheme, it allows you to select specific graphical adverts in specific niches, you can select the adverts that look right for your website as some adverts have a number of different graphic blocks of varying sizes.On the other hand, I've had a total of $1 from this programme in around 18 months, so it is not the best of earners for me....I should probably have tweaked these a bit more than I have to find the best earners, it just remains for me to track these ads down and purge them from my sites... here is the text ...
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| PageRank explained? |
| 2008-06-30 19:04:07 |
Each time I do about about Google and/or PageRank, I feel as though I have not gone into enough depth. I cannot gauge how much or how little a reader might already know, and it seems to me, with the confusion surrounding these two mystical entities, that some background might be helpful...Pagerank was originally developed at Stanford University by Larry Page later aided by Sergey Brin. Most people think (myself included) on first hearing the term, that the 'page' part of it refers to a web page whereas in fact this refers to it's originator.The concept behind pagerank is to predict the likelihood of a random click on an internet link finding a specific URL. This is determined by the amount of links pointing to the specific URL, and also the perceived 'qu...
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| More Memory |
| 2008-06-28 17:44:58 |
Wouldn't it be great if we could upgrade our brain memory and processor speed the same way that we can with a PC or laptop? Some time ago I went through the process of upgrading my PC with the proceeds of my internet earnings. I am currently looking to buy a new power supply now as the old one doesn't appear to be able to cope with all my upgrades(!!).There is no doubt that you can seriously enhance your computer by adding in some upgrades here and there, though admittedly there is more you can do with a PC, you can also get laptop memory or a larger hard-disk to help your laptop to keep up with newer models.The desktop offers better opportunities for upgrading, I even had to have a new motherboard at one point, in fact I don't suppose there's much of the
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| Audio Racks |
| 2008-06-28 17:35:25 |
I am a self-confessed audio-phile I just love all things audio from Hi-Fi systems, cd players, tape decks, DAT and DAB. I even had a go at building speakers until I realised that they cost more to make than to buy - still satisfaction cannot be purchased...Audio is still important to me as I run a sideline in turning cassettes into CD's. I am planning (always planning, never doing) to gut my home office and install some nice shelving, some decent office furniture and some audio racks so that I can listen while I work. I have already transferred my entire CD collection to hard disk, so once I link my PC up to my Hi-Fi I won't even have to go and find that elusive CD that I know is around the house somewhere.
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| Diet pills? me?? |
| 2008-06-28 17:25:11 |
I for one am the last person to talk to about diet pills as I seem to be unable to put weight on whatever I eat. I have been the same weight for as long as I can remember and never have to hit the scales, if I do, I am delighted if I happen to be heavier than the last time I looked. I guess not many people can say that…I eat plenty and all the wrong things, but recently I have tried to make the effort to eat less chocolate (as I can’t really afford to eat as much as I would like to!) and more fruit. I am always looking for something to do and relaxation does not come easily – that’s the down-side of burning off all those calories naturally.
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