Paying on eBay

Is it just me or does anyone else find the marketworks buying process longwinded? you commit to pay, you fill out your details, you confirm details, you pay, got get sent to paypal, and you get 4 emails telling you that you have paid! I get receipt when I pay by paypal, I can see my past payments in my paypal history screen, and I know I have paid because it's on my credit card statement. So why the 6 pages just to sell a €6 cable?

Junk Mail

I have just had a sticker leaflet thingy shoved through my door, I didn't ask for it and I'm not sure if you have it here but when I lived in the UK we have the mail preference scheme. Whereby you register your name and address on a website and they will stop junk mail companies sending you junk. They get a hefty fine if they do. We also have the same for the telephone sales calls. I actually worked for a company who cold called people and if anyone on the list had TPS next to their name we were not allowed to call them. Again a big fine if we did. The lists were provided by BT so I would assume only BT customers were on it.

Anyway back to this leaflet, the grammar on it was a bit like the 419 Nigerian scam emails you get. Not very good and at the top is said 'breast cancer prevention programm' spot the obvious mistake?! Anyway at the bottom it had a website address, so I decided to see what is was. The URL was http://www.donotdelay.org but the actual URL is this http://www.nedelsk.lt/index.php?set_lang_id=en&show_content_id=573 It looks like it is only for women with breast cancer in Lithuania, now I'm not sure about you, but I lost my natural mother to breast cancer, (I was adopted at 6 weeks and she died before I could trace and meet her) and many women in Ireland and UK die from breast cancer. Wouldn't it be good to support them first?

I am not being cold or heartless, but my mother always said 'charity begins at home' and there is the other saying 'Put your own house in order before trying to straighten someone else's' Also the website is written in atrocious English as I expect they have typed it in Russian and then used babel fish to translate it!

My website has very good English ! Visit it at http://www.discoroyale.net for all your DJ & Mobile Disco Hire in Dublin

Browser Wars

I'll admit, I was a die hard Internet Explorer user. I hated the idea of people telling me I should switch browsers because of "tabs" instead of windows. It worked fine for me, and I was able to surf the web and get what I needed done. Eventually, I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I tried out Firefox. I was slightly overwhelmed, and spent a couple minutes looking through and changing the options. After awhile, I stuck with Firefox, based on its extensions and easy bookmark bar located under the address bar, for quick access to my mainly visited sites. However, Firefox is not for everyone. There are advantages and disadvantages to the three web browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.

Opera seems to load pages somewhat quicker than Firefox. The download manager has more options and better viewing on Opera, and can keep track of torrents at the same time. Firefox and Internet Explorer can load flash movies and animated .gifs at about an equal speed. Opera is somewhat buggy with animations. The movies sometime lags and animated pictures in Opera move very slow compared to the other two browsers. Firefox seems to be a more heavyweight browser.

Another factor to consider is how much system resources your browser is using. Open a blank page and pull up your task manager and see how much memory your browser is using.

Internet Explorer and Opera use a small amount of memory on a computer, and performance would most likely not decrease noticeably. Firefox, however, can use up a lot of system resources, to the point where it slows down other applications. Of course, these numbers are taken while the browser is on a blank home page, memory usage increases greatly depending on how many tabs and windows are open and the sites you are viewing.

Internet Explorer:
IE 7 features tabbed browsing as do the other browsers
Many users have not upgraded to IE 7 and continue to use IE 6
Microsoft is currently distributing add-ons for IE
The choices are somewhat limited and some of the extensions actually cost money.
IE is the most used browser, websites are generally forced to support it correctly.
Since IE is most popular, it is the most targeted for exploits.

Firefox
Supports a wide range of free extensions on the Mozilla website
Sometimes updates aren't always improvements and extensions refuse to run on some versions.
Firefox makes up around 30% of browsers used today, so more sites will support it.
More sites will also target it for exploits now that is has become more popular.
Features adblock extension that will eliminate most advertisements on sites.
Many popups can still get around the Firefox built-in popup blocker. The most effective popup blocker is on Opera.

Opera
Opera supports the flash plugin better on AMD64 linux systems than firefox.
Built-in feature that will download torrents.
There are only basic options for downloading the torrents, most bittorrent clients are better.
Opera is one of the most secure browsers because it has a smaller userbase, so it is less targeted.

Some sites will have problems supporting Opera because of its small popularity.
Many of the extensions for Firefox are built-in features on Opera.
There are more options for Firefox with extensions. Although Opera has widgets, they have little use.

Picking the right browser can be a tough choice to make. I would suggest Opera if you want to have a fast, light-weight browser for just general surfing, instead of Internet Explorer. I currently use Firefox but it does use a lot of memory with multiple tabs open or downloading.

Tips for booking a DJ

When you hire a DJ for your event, whatever it is, please bear these points in mind. The differance between a good DJ and a great DJ can be very small.

Party music DJs cost a little bit more because they have to be knowledgeable about many different types of music and deal with astronomical costs of buying many more CDs/Downloads plus time learning/listening more than someone specialising in just one type.

Make sure the DJ has the right equipment for your event. If you have any guests that are sensitive to flashing lights, make sure the DJ knows this beforehand. Ask the venue if they allow smoke/fog machines. Some hotels use beam technology smoke detectors and these can be triggered by smoke machines.

Make sure that the DJ has the ability to properly mix and blend songs together and will continuously deliver good sound.

In the case of MP3s/music files (computer/laptop systems) ask if there is some type of emergency back-up music playing capability in case of hard drive going bad or a corrupted program.

Vinyl record users require a rock solid floor /stage and might be limited to the amount of music brought to your event.

DJs using CDs should be using anti-skip CD players (when performing, 3 CD players should be available in case one quits working).

After signing a contract, do you want an additional meeting (or meetings) in person before your event to go over details? Not all DJs can do this - especially part-time DJs who make their living from a different line of work.

Does the place of your event (the venue) require the DJ to have liability insurance? It is necessary to hire a DJ service with liability insurance.

DJ start and stop times - BE SPECIFIC - and here's why: though some DJ services charge a flat rate (a set price regardless of the amount of time), some charge by the hour, many charge by the half hour after a basic time (usually about 4 hours).

State for how long you need the DJ service by total hours AND start & finish times to avoid any misunderstanding.

Do you want your DJ to take requests? No requests? Any specific music that you don't want played? Any specific music that has to be there? If it's important enough, get it in writing.

Do you want the DJ to play your requests WHEN you want them played regardless of the effect on the dance floor or will dancing and the mood be most important? If it makes a difference, get it in writing.

At your event, who does the DJ answer to? Too many people attempt to tell the DJ what and when things are to be played. Be clear about this before the event.

Visit my website for more information.

Stop adverts on websites.

Do you hate banners, popups, popunders, and adverts on websites? You do?, good, here are some suggestions on how to avoid seeing them.

Firefox - Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is generally the most recommended method online, so I'll go over that one first. If you are using the Firefox browser, you may have already heard of this very popular extension.

A huge advantage of Adblock Plus is the subscription feature. A precompiled list of most advertising sites is included in that list, and will automatically block them for you if you wish.
Using the subscriptions will enable you to block the ads running on nearly every site. The list can be updated automatically to include new ads that find their way online as well.
Adblock Plus can also block any annoying ad or image you find online by right-clicking it and selecting it. It's a useful tool to have even if you don't care about blocking ads.
Lastly, out of the kindness of your own heart, or because you want to test your own site's ads, there is an exception feature where ads will only show on specified urls.
One thing it also blogs is sponsored Google ads, the ones down the side and in the shaded box at the top of Google search results.

Internet Explorer 7 - IE7Pro

Don't feel left out if you're an IE user! Check out IE7Pro. This add-on contains a huge amount of features and tweaks, including a free ad blocker. You can find the usage instructions on their site and get setup in no time.

Opera - Content Blocker

Opera belongs in this article as well, as they actually have an ad blocker builtin to their broswer. The usage is as simple as right-clicking an empty spot on the page and selecting Block Content... Once you select that, a notice will come up asking you what content you wish to block. Click the ad or element you need blocked and it is done. You can read more info about it at the Opera Wiki.

Alternatives

If you would rather block the ad servers systemwide, you may want to look into blocking based on your hosts file. On Windows it is generally located in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\ and uses the file called hosts. Linux and Mac users will find their hosts file in the /etc directory. A precompiled hosts list can be found here, and will work on any system.

While you're editing your hosts file, why don't you block that shock site your friend is constantly tinyurl'ing you to. Adding the line

127.0.0.1 evilsite.com

and replacing evilsite.com with the bad site you don't want to see anymore will make sure that site doesn't load for you anymore. I would suggest testing this with a more mild site, just in case your first attempt isn't that successful and you accidentally visit the bad site.