Song of the Day – Asian Backstreet Boys

A couple of guys miming to the Backstreet Boys – twice. Number two isn’t quite as good, but still pretty funny. Pete – you’ll love this, I’m thinking we could duet Bon Jovi’s Bad Medicine. Or Brother Beyond….

What a load of bollards

This clip shows how us humans are very clever and come up with some great technology, but for every genius, there is a complete doofus (I love that word)….

Watch out for the white van man at the end of the clip. Seatbelts are another great invention, but they generally only work if you wear one!

Song of the Day – History by Funeral For A Friend

Ok, I know, not the most festive sounding band, but honestly a great song about memories of life. This songs great to listen to over a cold beer after a long day. Enjoy.

Originally formed as January Thirst in 2001, the band changed their name when they recorded their debut EP, Between Order & Model (2002). Taking the name of a song by the band Planes Mistaken for Stars, January Thirst became known as Funeral for a Friend. Though perhaps a coincidence, the band’s name is actually the same as a much earlier Elton John song, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”. Some people believe that the name of the band comes from the second line of “The Dash”, a poem by Linda Ellis. Funeral for a Friend then recorded their second EP, Four Ways to Scream Your Name (2003).

For more info head to the official website.

What is the best video sharing site?

UPDATE: The updated guide can be found here.

If you got a new digital still or video camera for Christmas, you may have some great videos that you want to share with friends and family, or even the rest of the world. The easiest way to do this is to upload your video to a video sharing website, but which one?

“…easily the most useful thing we’ve seen online in a long time

BigBrainBoy

Life Goggles has a free simple guide to getting your videos online, “The Life Goggles Guide To Online Video Sharing Websites”. Based on the popular posts, 4 easy steps to getting your videos online, 4 more easy steps to getting your videos online and Part 3 of 4 easy steps to getting your video online, this regularly updated free e-book looks at 25 of the most popular video sharing sites. The guide:

• Quickly looks at the registration process
• Compares their ease of uploading your own content
• Looks at the quality of the output
• Rates the service
• Provides links to online comparisons
• A summary of the reviews of 25 of the top video sharing websites
• Is FREE!

It’s a must have starters guide for those who wish to publish their own video content and are confused over the number of choices available.

Version 2.6 covers YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Soapbox, Revver, Blip, Brightcove, MyHeavy, Vimeo, AOL UnCut, MySpace, Stage6 (DivX), Kewego, Yahoo Video, Vidilife, Daily Motion, Ning, Eyespot, YouAreTV, Break, One True Media, eefoof, Flixya, myNumo, and VodPod.

Also you can view an enhanced comparison matrix of all 25 sites covered, looking at the storage they offer, revenue sharing, privacy features and more. A one page comparison of video quality is also available. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Year!

John Chow dot com – An interesting fella

You will see from my previous recent post that I linked to John Chow dot com. I had been planning to write a review about his site for a while now, and although he has a PayPerPost deal on (where you get paid $5 to review his site) this blog didn’t meet the topics that were required. However since he offered the incentive of a link on his page I’ve decided to take a look.

John Chow dot com is a great blog, that’s my biased personal opinion, plain and simple. It almost appears to me that when explaining “what a blog is” to someone that his site is the definition of a blog. His tagline, “The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul” sums it up quite nicely. The site is often what is on John’s mind at the time, what is affecting him personally and also his business (John runs The Tech Zone). There seems to be no overall theme besides “interesting” and although some of his tags don’t help (ramblings for example), I find it pretty easy to dip in and out.

He seems to get sent a lot of free gifts, provide tax advice and takes lots of pictures of his dinner. I particularly like his apparent honesty. He seems to say what’s on his mind, and openly discusses the income he gets from the advertising on his blog.

The site is simple in layout and structure, with the simple links at the top, and advertising, links, recent posts etc in a right hand column. Take a look at his site now, or subscribe to his RSS feed. Once again, if you’re not sure what RSS is (it’s the next big thing that is already here….) then please take a look at our “What is RSS?” post.

Some Link Love

I thought it was about time I gave out some links to other websites that are providing great content day in, day out – just like this one If you like them, try reading their feeds in an RSS reader (along with this one), for more details, please take a look at our What is RSS? post. Go on, give these sites a try, what have you got to lose?

• Online Business: Entrepreneur’s Journey – Yaro Starak’s site on how to run a business online, and make money!
• Science: New Scientist’s Short Sharp Science – Sometimes fascinating, sometimes dull, but you’ll always learn something.
• General & Internet: John Chow – “The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul” is always interesting.
• Writing: Copyblogger – Techniques on how to write great copy online or offline.
• Money: MoneySavingExpert – Not the greatest of blogs but a fantastic website on how to save money, and to spend and invest wisely.

Regular reader Russ has sent us links to a couple of interesting websites:

• Football: English Football League grounds from above (using Google Maps).
• Fun: GoogIe is actually www.googie.co.uk and lets you have fun with search results in a Google style. Trying clicking on the link for an example.

If you have any interesting sites you wish us to review or take a look at, please let us know!

What to do with unwanted Christmas presents

Every year we will receive some unwanted Christmas presents. It’s not that we’re being ungrateful, they’re just unwanted. Whether it’s a duplicate item, not your style or simply useless, then there are a few easy ways to deal with this.

Re-Gifting

Forgotten to get some-one a gift? Or going to a New Years party at someone’s house? Simply wrap up the unwanted gift and present it as a new special purchase. Just make sure none of the same people who were there when you received the gift are present when you re-gift it.

Charity

Charity shops are not only one of the best places to donate, they are also ideal for picking up bargains as people like yourself will have been in to drop off their unwanted gifts too.

Selling

Online auction sites such as eBay can often provide an ideal home for an unwanted gift – one person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure. If you receive a new mobile phone and want to recycle your old one, check out companies such as Envirofone.

Swapping

See what your friends and some of your family got, and if they won’t be offended offer a swap.

But most of all, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and be thankful that you get any gifts at all!

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