You've gone to the effort of setting up a website for your business, it's the result of many hours hard work and I dare say a reasonable sized financial investment as well. The site looks just the way you want it to, you've spent a small fortune making sure it's search engine optimised (SEO) so that new customers can find you easily. Everything seems to be going well, you have plenty of traffic coming to your site BUT for some reason very little of that traffic seems to be converted into sales.

Of course some of that traffic is going to be an assortment of web nasties looking for various weaknesses in your site, but as a general rule they're relatively easily identified. It's also quite possible that your site design is having an impact on your conversion rate, but the most common reason for lack of traffic to sales conversion is a lack of variety in payment methods. While credit & debit cards remain the most common payment method on the internet, secure, trusted payment gateways to enable your websites to accept these cards often cost in the hundreds, take time to set up and integrate with your payment software & can negatively impact on your overall website design. Wouldn't it be great if there was a FREE way to add a secure, trusted credit & debit card gateway to your website? Even better if it only took a few minutes to place in your website and was already integrated into most popular e-store solutions right?

Enter paypal premier and business accounts. They're free to set up, take minutes to integrate into your site and give you the instant ability to not only accept a large variety of credit and debit cards in more currencies than you can poke a stick at, but you also can accept paypal payments from the thousands of people whom visit your site a month and don't have a credit or debit card. By widening your available payment base you can maximise your traffic to sales conversion ratio which ultimately means more money in your pocket!

So why not bring the power of a secure, globally trusted payment gateway to your web business today for FREE and instantly increase your potential sales? You know it makes sense, so head on over to paypal now to sign up and try it out. And remember if you don't like it you can always simply close your account without fear of cancellation fees.

Please be sure to consider the product disclosure statement and view the relevant fees before deciding if paypal is right for your business.

Do you love bond? Does Bourne feel you with glee? Do you inspire to one day be a super spy? Well now because of Dynaspy you can be! Specialising in tracking and surveillance equipment has you covered whether you want to play bond, you're a Private Detective in need of equipment or if you just want to make sure your partner isn't cheating & the kids aren't on drugs. Dynaspy has everything you need and it's all reasonably priced, available 24/7 from the comfort of your own home and ready to ship direct to your door!

But what about if you think someone might be spying on you? Do change rooms at department stores creep you out? Are you worried your boss might be spying on your in the toilets at work? Dynaspy's range of bug detectors are small enough for a woman to conceal in her purse, giving that extra piece of mind that no one is watching when you don't want them to be! Jump over to Dynaspy now, I dare you...

Links;

http://www.dynaspy.com

I don't know about you, but when I think about cars I can't help but associate them with noise, pollution and rising petrol prices. It's enough that some people have even gone to great lengths to convert their cars to & refine their own bio-diesel. Sure I suppose there is a certain charm and novelty to having your exhaust smell like burritos and French fries but (1) could you imagine the smell on large scale? Or the price of oil? and (2) They're still just as noisy and they're not 100% pollutant free either.

Toyota's Petrol/Electric Hybrid the "Prius" won over a lot of green inclined people searching for a cheaper and less polluting alternative. But the 'Prius' had the fundamental flaw of still running on petrol. Which means you have to pay for 2 fuel sources, plus it's still just as noisy when running on petrol AND it pollutes. Sure not as much as a fully petrol based car, but sustainability means cars can't pollute at all.

Enter Nissan whom have announced the December 2010 US release of their all electric car; the 'leaf'. Nissan are working with other industry players to roll out commercial recharging stations first in the USA and then across other countries around the world. These recharging stations will make owning a leaf viable, as you can always recharge on longer trips. For most people though, recharging will only need take place every 2 or so days as the leaf can get around 160km (100mi) from a single charge, and can even be recharged from home.

Recharging gives you 2 port options, a smaller port for recharging from home which will take 12 - 14hrs on 110v and 8hrs on 240v, so leaving the car plugged in over night to recharge while you sleep would be viable. The second larger plug is for the aforementioned commercial recharge stations which are predicted to take just 30 minutes to fully recharge the car from empty. Of course the question of what would one do during that time comes to mind, and is really the largest flaw I can see with the Leaf. However there is talk of installing the commercial recharge stations in parking garages for work places, shopping centres and so forth, so recharging could take place while you're at work or doing the groceries which sounds somewhat reasonable, although only really suited in that model to suburban & metro areas.

The Leaf also, like the Toyota 'Prius' gets some of it's charge back when braking or coasting & even includes a solar panel to give some extra recharge for FREE! I can see the solar panel coming in handy if you run out of charge in the middle of no where, think about it, wait a day and you're car will be fully charged and ready to drive again. The head lamps are LED powered giving both brighter lights and better power efficiency. But some of the coolest features are inside the car. The dash for example displays not only how much charge you have left but an estimate based on your own PERSONAL driving history in that car, as to how much further that charge will get you.

That's right, you read correctly, this car remembers your driving history and responds. It even has a novelty feature on the dash where you can earn 'trees' over time depending on how efficiently you drive the car. The inbuilt satnav also connects to the internet via a Nissan exclusive wireless service updating the GPS with real time information such as the location of your nearest recharging station, which when you're running low on charge the car will politely suggest you should visit. 6 speaker stereo allows cd/mp3 playback, has inbuilt bluetooth and has ipod/mp3 player connectivity. Under the hood, it even packs 100hp, 210ft.ibs torque!

But above ALL that, the most impressive thing about the Nissan Leaf is the obvious facts about the car. It doesn't directly pollute, being electric it's whisper quiet and it ultimately SHOULDN'T cost the earth to run. Being electric also there are a lot less parts, and a lot less of those parts move, meaning less ware & tare and fewer trips to the mechanic saving you even more cash. The Nissan Leaf, definitely worth looking out for through-out 2011.

Nokia have recently announced the brand new N8 as coming soon on their Australian website and this is certainly not a phone to be snubbed. If when looking at the N8 you were confused as to whether it was actually a rather pointy looking iphone you'd be forgiven, and surely this is an outright attempt by Nokia to grab some of the smart phone market away from Apple. I must say that a lack of physical keyboard be it full qwerty or otherwise is a bit of a disappointment for me, there is something rather annoying to me about virtual keypads.

Another disappointing feature is that the N8 will only ship with a stylus in the box to SOME "SELECTED" countries, meaning those outside of the "selected" countries will have to either purchase a stylus separately or just use their fingers. And while the phone is purpose built to be able to use your fingers to control it, I find it unfair that some countries will have the stylus bundled.

But these two faults are where the negatives end and the N8 really starts to shine. Weighing in at just 135g (with battery) it's light enough to carry in your pocket, and comes in Silver, dark grey and green. The screen will auto adjust it's brightness depending on the amount of ambient light, there is an inbuilt compass. Home screens allow a custom mixture of shortcuts and widgets to make your experience completely personalised, but nokia haven't just stopped there; instead they have given you 3 home screens to customise for different times in your day/life. For example much like you can have different ring tones and sms alert tones for work or personal time on most modern mobiles, the Nokia N8 can now have different home screens for work and for your personal life. This allows you to have the widgets and shortcuts providing the information you need when you need it.

Network wise the phone has GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA (CAT 5 & 9) support with the GSM mode working on 850/900/1800/1900 bands and the WCDMA mode working on 850/900/1700/1900/2100 bands, and automatic switching between GSM and WCDMA modes means this phone can be used basically anywhere on the planet on any network making it perfect for those whom travel. There is support for the brand new Bluetooth 3.0 and HDMI, Micro USB (Data and charging), 2mm charging connection and 3.5mm AV connection ports. The phone has an inbuilt FM transmitter allowing you to listen to music from the phone in your car wirelessly. If of course has an FM tuner as well, although I think a digital radio tuner might have been more fitting. The phone even has Wifi b/g/n support.

With 16GB of internal memory and support for up to 32GB of memory with a MicroSD card there isn't a lot you can't fit on this phone. There is the flexibility to store almost as much music, photos and video as you like. The battery also boasts some pretty impressive stats, with 720 minutes of talk time and 50 HOURS of music play back, this isn't a phone that's going to be warning of flat batteries on that critical call. Software wise the phone comes with a full html (4.1) browser, Flash lite 4.0, Quick time 4.6.2, Java, OMA DM 1.2 and OMA Client provisioning 1.1. And there is of course all the usuals like calendar, contacts, Ovi Store, messaging etc.

Email is supported and rather predictably has a customisable home screen widget. WebTV is supported allowing access to your favourite web shows from anywhere you can get a signal. There is even an office document editor and a VIDEO and photo editor! Chat wise the phone has inbuilt support for Ovi Chat, Yahoo!, AIM, Windows Live, Google Talk and Myspace which covers basically everyone you know right? Get a Nokia N8 and you not only get both GPS and A-GPS receivers, but you also get FREE turn by turn navigation for, wait for it, LIFE! That's right, you never have to pay to update your GPS maps again! And where GPS isn't available, the N8 will attempt to locate you via wifi!

Now for the REALLY cool stuff; the phone comes with a 12 megapixel camera meaning you can take both photos and video in FULL HD!!! Right on your mobile phone!! In wide screen!!! Score!! There is also a second VGA (640 x 480 pixels) camera on the front for video calls. A dedicated camera button makes taking photos and video easy as point and shoot. But why only please your eyes when you can also stimulate your ears? The N8 comes with Dolby Digital Plus! Now music and movies will sound superb where ever you are. Gaming is another winner, with the phone boasting a dedicated graphics processor supporting openGL 2.0, or in otherwords, gaming on the mobile phone just got serious!

Green consumers will be pleased to note the phone 80% recyclable and the full user guide is displayed digitally on the device or on the web. The box contains the N8 smart phone (or mobile computer as Nokia are billing it), a Nokia BL-4D battery, a Nokia connectivity cable, a Nokia stereo headset, a compact travel charger, adaptor cables for HDMI and USB and for "selected" countries a stylus. No word yet on a release date, but the Nokia N8 is certainly a phone to keep an eye and an ear out for.

If you're looking for a job at the moment but haven't been able to get your foot in the door, there's a good chance it's your resume` that's holding you back. Think about it, some poor schmuck in the HR department has to shuffle through hundreds, if not thousands of resume`s attempting to find the right candidate for the job. The person in HR is only human so of course there is also a pretty good chance he's going to skip a few resume`s in there.

So it makes perfect sense then that you need a resume that draws attention and keeps it. A Resume` filled with powerful words that make it impossible for you to not get an interview, but you already knew that right? What you probably don't know if you're having trouble getting a job is just how to create such a resume`. Enter Resume Dictionary, the website that takes all the hard work out of writing a powerful, attention seeking resume`! The site has tons of free resources on how to write a great resume, heck there is even a list of power words to use, their meanings and the impression they'll give! All for FREE!

What to guarantee your resume` is perfectly up to the job? Resume Dictionary offers a free resume review service. All you do is fill in a short simple form about the type of job you're going for, attach a copy of your resume and click send. Within 5 days a real person will have physically looked over your resume and will provide you with a critique, with stacks of tips on how to improve it. Did I mention it was FREE? Seriously what more can you ask for? So go on, visit Resume Dictionary, the worst thing that could happen is you actually get the job.

Our video sharing website project that I announced last month is developing along nicely. The official launch date has now been set for May 15th 2010. The site is currently in beta trials so if you want to get in early and help test out the system just head on over to camzit.com and sign up. If you hurry and sign up for beta testing, you might even find you'll get a reward as a result.

We've decided to launch some new free banner ads for you to place on your website, blog or in your forum signature. To help us spread the word just paste the code from below the banner ad you wish to use to where you want it to be displayed on your site. It couldn't be simpler, we'll do all the hard work, and you'll even save on bandwidth too!

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If you live in Melbourne, are looking for an environmentally conscious mover with great rates and only need to move a one bedroom apartment, two bedroom house up to an average sized office, baby hippo, juvenile elephant or I assume any other form of infant jungle/african plains animal (probably not girafes) then Man with a Van is the mover for you!

Their fleet is a registered part of Greenfleet, which means they avoid & reduce emissions where ever possible and offset the rest by planting native forests to soak up all those green house gases. Being carbon neutral means they're certainly playing their part to sort out the environment.

And with prices starting from just $77 per hour they certainly aren't passing on any offset costs to the consumer. Nope man with a van are just an aussie company with old school aussie values. They're friendly and helpful and do best by their customers. So if you're in Melbourne give Man with a van a call or submit a quote inquiry through their website, you won't be sorry you did.

It's happened to most of us at one time or another, you're walking down the street and someone walks passed wearing a T-shirt with a design, slogan or logo that you just have to have! You look everywhere for the shirt, in the designer shops, in the department stores, in the specialty boutiques but alas you're left shirtless and pondering where they got the damned thing.

Chances are they found it at one of the numerous online T-shirt shops, and with often reasonable prices why wouldn't you open yourself up to the 100's of millions of T-shirt designs on offer online, 24/7. Most fan based websites have their own store and merchandise, including even US! The TJandSarah.com webstore offers loads of great slogan T-shirts and other merchandise so you can show off your wit to the world. But of course, our products aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, nor (unfortunately for us) would you want to shop exclusively with us for your T-shirt needs.

For the younger reader (or their parent/guardian) Emma-Lee Tee is a great place to start. They have a good selection of T-shirts for every type of teen; from the ultra hip to ultra hippie and with their Annabel collection they even have emos and goths covered too. As a bonus if you live in the USA or Canada shipping is free, but here is the best part if you're an international customer shipping is a flat rate $8! No more nasty surprises at the check-out.

After a T-shirt to make passes by laugh? T-Shirt Hell & CharGrilled are two places to find some pretty funny shirts. They offer a wide range of hilarious T-shirts to suit most styles of humor, from the in your face, to the most subtle satire. But of course they are only 2 of many websites offering hilariously slogan tees, so you also might want to hit your preferred search engine if you can't find what you're looking for there.

Of course for some of you the creative bug might hit and you'll want to design your own T-shirt; there are services that offer that too. Zazzle is a printing service which offers a wide range of product, style and colour options on which you can place your own designs, slogans or logos. Incredibly reasonable prices to! And if you feel so inclined Zazzle will even let you SELL your designs to the public too! Custom your shirt is another fantastic service offering things like stubby holders that Zazzle don't. The only draw back is you have to submit for a quote instead of the whole process being DIY.

So there you have it, a new window into the world of T-shirt design. Now you only need go forth and find that T-shirt you've been looking for, for the better half of a decade.

I have been playing around for the last few months with different options for how to host videos I produce. The idea of hosting the videos directly on TJandSarah.com was the dominant thought for awhile there, but after looking further into solutions I am proud to announce I am currently developing a free video hosting service for everyone to use. The service will be launched by May 2010 and will be called CamzIT

More details will be announced as we get closer to the launch, including a specific launch date. Will this service rival YouTube, probably not; but you never know when it comes to the internet do you? At any rate that isn't the primary goal of this service, the goal instead is to deliver free video hosting for users with benefits that will be announced shortly.

Do you like Solitaire? Are you addicted? Then you need to check out world of solitaire! You have the ability to change decks, backgrounds and play around with the animation. So if you're hooked on solitaire or just want something to pass away an hour or so, visit world of Solitaire, you won't be sorry you did. Being that it's java/html based means also that you can play it from any basically any internet connected device!!!

This is a paid post.

Do you enjoy playing flash based games online? funbrain is a new website which caters for plenty of different genres. With classics to ultra modern on offer funbrain surely is a website everyone can enjoy. There is a nice mix of graphics in their games, being that there are games with very simply graphics and those with very detailed and somewhat realistic graphics. There are plenty of addictive and fun games to play so stay off your boredom the smart way, visit funbrain.com today; you won't regret it.

This is a paid post on behalf of payperpost.com and FunBrain.com

I've been asked to write a blog entry, for a company named Lighting Showplace. I've had a look around on their website and they have some pretty nice stuff at reasonable prices. They're a US company though so that might cause a problem for readers in other parts of the world. But look if you're remodeling or just looking for a wall sconce visit their website, it can't hurt to check them out right?

I've been thinking lately about getting some life insurance quotes, see what it would cost me to be insured. I think it will take some looking around though and a lot of reading of "fine print" before I decide on one. I often wonder if it's even really worth it, I mean lets take funeral insurance for example. I know that $5000 worth of cover costs $2.30 a week. If I assume, like the insurance company does that it's most likely I'll live on to at least 86 then I can produce the following equation.

$2.30 per week times 4.3 weeks in a month equals $9.89 paid per month.
$9.89 per month times 12 months in a year equals $118.68 paid per year.
$118.68 per year times the expected 60 years of life left equals $7120.80

That means if I simply put the same insurance fee away in a bank account every week (I could set it up to be automatic for example) for the rest of my life and I did live an extra 60 years then I'd have $2120.80 EXTRA then if I'd gotten funeral cover. I wonder if it's the same sort of savings with life insurance? Never know until I find out I guess. And I suppose there is the fact that I don't know how long I'll live, I could drop dead tomorrow. Hrmmm... lots to think about, best get those quotes.

Today I received an interesting request from one of my readers; they wanted to be able to subscribe to my blog by email. I thought about it for a while and realised it could be a valuable service. So I'm proud to announce that not only can you now subscribe to my the RSS/Atom feed, the twitter feed and the facebook feed but now I'm pleased to announce you can receive blog posts directly to your email!

The service is supported by the wonderful people over at FeedBurner (Now a google asset) who are transferring my RSS feed directly to email subscribers. Never miss an update again, subscribe by email today and get posts in your inbox at 9am (AEST) every day!

Of course if anyone else has suggestions or requests I am open to them and happy to receive them. If I think it's a good idea I'll implement it. Thanks again to all my readers, I hope you continue to enjoy reading this blog.

It's funny to think I spent my childhood until I was 5 in Missouri, I've been to every capital city in every state of the USA, plus much more of the country. But I'd never even heard of the quaint city of Branson Missouri until today. I actually stumbled across it quite unexpectedly, but from what I can see it's a pretty nice place to visit. Peace and quiet, a rest from the busy rat race. Boy could I use one of those, how about you?

If I lived in Missouri still I reckon I'd have to check out some Branson vacation packages or perhaps even just take a random drive there one day. I mean what's not to love about a place that has more than 40 theaters, showing musicals, magic acts and comedy shows? Fishing, swimming and just hanging out in that peace I was talking about earlier. Wow, I think I might shut my eyes for 10 minutes now and imagine being in Branson,

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I'm actually a fan of post modern furniture, I find the whole design concept pretty snazzy. So it should come as no surprise to you that now I've found a website dealing specifically in such furniture that I'd want to share it with you. There is something about the clean sleek lines, mixed with some pretty outrageous colours that just looks really cool.

I'm sure when Sarah and I move to the Farm and start making the guest houses I will have to decorate one of the houses in a modern theme. So, given my excitement at finding such a website I'd love to hear from you on what you think about the style. Is it for you? Not for you? Likes and dislikes... just comment it all below

If you have a website or blog you want people to find you online. Much to the dismay of many you can't just start a website or blog and instantly attract thousands if not millions of views. It's taken me 8 months to get to a point where most of my blog posts get a couple thousand views and it takes work to keep it that way, let alone expand the market.

Fortunately there are many tools available online to help you along the way. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is probably one of the most important things you can possible do to get people to visit your website as most of you traffic will come from Google, Bing or Yahoo. You can of course pay for ads on these search engines or on other websites, but the click through rate could be low meaning you've wasted your money. Another method is to submit your blog or website to some of the hundreds of directories. The free ones are always a honey pot to find, so when you do, you should share it. If you look in the links below you'll find all the directories I've found so far, and I'll try to update this post as I find more. Good luck with your website or blog.

Links;

free directory submission
Blog Catalog
Blog Search Engine
Loaded Web

When it comes to the health of your unborn baby you want to do everything in your power to ensure nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately there is so much confusion out there these days about food, that it's hard for most people to know if they're doing the right thing; nutrient wise for their baby. The good news is that most nutrients the baby needs will go to it, before they go to you. Your baby is also capable of stripping nutrients from you body to ensure it has everything it requires. But there are some nutrients which your body may not contain enough of that the baby will suffer for.

Nutrients like folic acid are important for good brain and nervous system development, including healthy spinal fluid. Iron carries blood around both your and your babies bodies, of which without you're both doomed. Unfortunately most pregnant women are deficient in both of these nutrients. It is for that reason that all pregnant women are recommended to take prenatal vitamins. The old thing is however, even though doctors have been giving out these recommendations for years the rate of uptake aren't anywhere near where they should be.

It's very telling to note that by taking a simple vitamin tablet daily the chances of your baby developing a birth defect such as autism drop to incredibly low levels very close to zero percent. Yet still we have percentages of these birth defects which show people simply aren't taking the medical advice to take a vitamin during pregnancy. It's almost unfathomable to me that anyone could be that careless in today's world.

As the number of obese and morbidly obese persons begin to rise and the United States of America even have to create a new category called SUPER morbidly obese for those people who weigh in the vicinity of a TON (that's as heavy as a small car!) you have to wonder, does the government have a roll to play?

While we all like to think we're in charge of our on destinies, our past influences our decisions far more then we'd like to think. If for example you grew up in a household where it was junk food every night and sports weren't encouraged, then guess what you're likely to be like as an adult? Even more so, guess what you're likely to be like as a parent?

I do agree that the individual needs to make their own decisive changes in their life. Over weight and obese people need to exercise, with an active lifestyle. If you feel self conscious about exercising in public or like Sarah you have in your head that walking places is "scummy" (which of course it isn't, I walk a lot and I'm certainly not scummy) then you could always buy a treadmill or other at home exercise equipment until you feel more self confident. The families of Morbidly and super morbidly obese people; people who can't even get out of bed due to their shear weight; need to stop enabling their food habits. If you can't get out of bed then you'll eat what you're given. People need to get up and move around, they NEED to exercise, daily and develop an active lifestyle so that exercise becomes a part of every day things instead of a chore they have to schedule in separate to everything else.

But I also think government has a role to play. It is clear at this point people are NOT going to change on their own, they need a good hard kick in the right direction which is where government comes in. There are several measures governments in the western world need to take.

(1) P.E. before school for pre-school, primary school and high school students. That used to be a part of schooling in the 70s and it worked well. Governments cut it to free up money, but it was actually a very valuable tool. Not only will it mean every child exercises daily, but it means they will be able to concentrate better in school, be more confident and are far more likely to carry on the approach into adulthood.

(2) The development of more Parks and sporting fields. There are some areas where there is a distinct lack of these sorts of facilities and without them people are unable to include certain activities in their lifestyle which would aide in the weight-loss problem. Sports are a major part of combating obesity, so without a facility to hold sporting events people can't expect to be healthy for very long.

(3) Proper dietary and exercise education. For far to long people have been going on about diet. About cutting foods out and limiting calories. This is a MAJOR factor in why we have the obesity problem the western world is facing today. Our bodies have evolved in a way that requires us to move around and use energy. But our society has evolved in such a way that we don't really move around and use energy anymore. This is the BIGGEST systematic problem of all and the REAL cause for the obesity problem.

You can attempt to blame fast food all you like, but the fact of the matter is the average diet in the 50s contained FAR more calories and FAR more cholesterol then we consume today. Our lack of movement is the huge problem. Food isn't the enemy it has been made out to be, it's simply food. ALL food is perfectly find in MODERATION. Too much of anything even carrots will cause you problems. In this way government should educate at the primary school, high school and adult levels about the importance of MODERATION and ACTIVE LIFESTYLE.

(4) Legislation making it a crime for gyms and weight loss services to give INCORRECT information on weight loss or to misrepresent the facts should be brought forward. It should be a crime for a weight loss service to continue the lie that it's all about diet and you need to cut out foods and calories.

(5) Cooking classes should be reintroduced to schools. One of the biggest reasons fast food has become so popular is people have lost the skill of home cooking. If we teach it to our children in a proper way they are more likely to make good food choices.

(6) Amendments to the child protection laws to include obesity. Children can only become obese through ineffective and neglectful parenting. If you are teaching your child the correct eating and exercise habits then there is no possible way you child can become obese.

(7) Legislating more strongly about the advertising of food. NO FOOD products of ANY kind should be advertised during children's television viewing times for example. Children shouldn't be in the drivers seat, that's the parents job, therefore children shouldn't be advertised to.

(8) Parenting classes, perhaps mandatory, for people with new babies. These classes would address general issues like diet and exercise, conflict negotiation, basic first aide, child development, looking at things through your kids eyes on their level and ideas about games that can be played with your child at different stages of development.

(9) The banning of gastric bypass surgery. It doesn't do anyone any good in the long run and is bound to have some undesirable long term side effects.

As we move closer to March we approach the time when High school and University begin for the year. And whether you're in High school or university you are to be commended for education is of the highest order. Through education we understand our world further and can do great things with our lives. Take for example cures to aliments like cancer, perhaps someone entering university this year or even high school will be the one(s), through building on past knowledge to find it.

Education is after family, one of the most important parts of a persons life. Indeed perhaps education is even more important than family, as it can influence your entire life path, from your career and annual salary, to your our outlook on life and society, the type of house you own, heck it can even influence the type of partner you attract. And it all starts with study, textbooks, a great teacher and an open yet analytical mind.

The data coming out of the United States is showing the economy is beginning to improve, but what does this mean for the average joe? The unemployment rate is showing it's first real signs of beginning to fall, which I can only assume means it's becoming easier to find a job in America. I have no doubts however that there are still a lot of people hurting financially having lost everything.

I find it appalling under those circumstances that the board members of banks and financial institutions who caused this whole mess, the same group of companies that the US government had to bail out in the the order of trillions, received bonuses at the end of 2009. Bonuses for what exactly; crippling the global economy and causing financial distress to billions and causing millions to become homeless? It's moments like these that make government regulation of financial services sound like a good idea.

None the less there are signs of hope on the horizon. Things are improving, and regardless of the distress and pain being caused now, and the loss of the past, the future looks bright. Now is when things can really start to be rebuilt for the individual. With work comes hope and the promise of a better tomorrow. We can only hope.

It seems in todays world just to get your foot in the do for a job interview you must have a university degree; in fact as your career progresses you're expected to constantly be upgrading your skills. The problem is how do you keep your full time job and yet manage to go to university so that you have the desired skills for that big promotion you're hoping for?

Enter the age of the online university, were you can continue your studies online regardless where in the world you are. And these aren't some fly by night institutions either, in fact some of the biggest universities on the planet have realised the power of the internet and offer their courses online. In Australia the most well respected universities have joined forces even to offer a university program called "Open University".

Not only is this of benefit to those already in the work force looking to up skill, but also to those who live in rural regions and thus would otherwise not have access to universities. People like farmers are now able to access higher learning courses which benefit both the farming business they run and the environment they utilise (through better farming methods) to carry out their farming business. Even I am considering doing another degree through online university, this time in journalism.

Of course there are however certain courses which due to practical reasons can not be done by online university, like for example "med school". But there is certainly no denying the fact that online universities are certainly a very positive part of the community.

Links;

Online Degree
Open University

Rockstar Games have taken the engine out of GTA:IV Episodes from Liberty City and have wacked it into their latest feature, due to be released April 2010. Much in the tradition of GUN, Red Dead Redeption is a Wild Western sandbox. Think GTA but with Cowboys and indians instead of Street gangs and cops. Be first to check out the offically released trailer here on TJandSarah.com

TJandSarah.com has gained exclusive insider knowledge that 2 new DJs will be joining the TopHogg FM team. The 2 DJs whom are scheduled to be announced on this saturdays "Saturday Night Feaver" show will join TopHogg FM as hosts of the new Friday night dance party.

Gwen Wilkie and Silas Kato will broadcast their 3 hour show as of the 2nd of October. I am told they are expected to play a mixture of dance, techno, trance and house beats to keep you in the party mood. Between tracks Silas and Gwen will tackle such topics as bad pick up lines and worse first dates.

During their show, listeners are encouraged to write in and participate on the topic. Listeners I am told, will also be able to request tracks. The first show, live at 11:30pm AEST on the 2nd of October will only last for an hour and a half due to technical difficulties. You can then catch Silas and Gwen every friday night at 11:30pm AEST for their 3 hours broadcast.

Links;

Listen to TopHogg FM Live

I launched a net radio station again last week, which will be the first in a line of stations to open. I've named this one TopHogg FM and will install a widget to this blog over the next week so you can listen while you read the blog. Of course, the easiest and preferred option for you to listen is through your media player of choice, be it Winamp, itunes, real player or simply Windows Media Player.

To tune in an listen, you can find the stream on Shoutcast or just click the link below. There is a problem with the software in the server, which has been there since my host created the account, I have been promised it will be fixed shortly however. But for now, it's simply a music loop that repeats every 3 or so hours. But soon you'll find it full of music, talk, weather and news.

Links;

TopHogg FM (listen)
TopHogg FM (Website)
Shoutcast
WinAmp
CaperHosting

Channel 7 continues televisions fine tradition of copycatting shows that work; running ideas into the ground until no one is interested in watching them anymore. With the overwhelming success of Channel TEN's "Master Chef Australia", Channel 7 have announced a casting call for "My Kitchen Rules".

Their casting website states

"This new series will travel the country to find Australia’s best home-cooking team. In a unique twist, the teams-of-two in MY KITCHEN RULES will do battle from their own kitchens in each State.

contestants will also be required to turn their home into a restaurant for one night for their pressure test. Of course this is assuming you'll somehow be able to get some sort of agreement from your local council and your neighbors.

The show sounds very much as the same old, same old from Channel 7, just with it being a cooking competition instead of a renovation, building or gardening competition. It's very uninspired, but given it's from Channel 7 can we really expect anything more?

Links;
Casting Site
Channel 7
ABC News Story

As we head ever closer to the Digital TV switch, consumer demand for lower cost LCD televisions has born a reduction in prices and I predict it's only going to get better. This week Big-W announced a price drop of $200AUD on their Sanyo 40" LCD 1080p televisions, now retailing for $996AUD it's capable of receiving and viewing True HD Digital TV all for under a grand.

Previously to get a TV of that size, for that price you had to buy Plasma, but as we all know Plasma is a poor investment as the gas runs out within 6 years and you're just left with a rather expensive paper weight. We are finally seeing the beginnings of a reduction in LCD prices such that the average Joe Blow can enjoy the technology previously only available to the wealthy or debt inclined.

In an economy which is springing back to life again after a government induced downturn, the timing for LCD prices to drop couldn't be better. And I predict it's only going to get better as we draw closer to the deadline. Over the next 12 or so months, as Digital TV take up increases and the Movie studio's push Blu-Ray expect the price of LCD TVs to drop in general another 2-3 hundred dollars if not more.

This will put the average 40" LCD TV at around $800AUD, which is a very reasonable price and inside the budgets of the average Australian (even if they do have to lay-by it). As the pushers of these new technologies get evermore desperate to upgrade everyone, expect some good things to come.

When having a child one must always answer the 64 million dollar question, what will I name him/her. Whilst answering this question for my eldest son bro many years ago I stumbled across the website of the Kabalarians. The belief here is that through mathematical relationship to letters one can define how a name will affect a person, both in their physical disposition and in their persona.

To my surprise however, it seems to actually work! You can pop in a first name for free at any stage and the website will search it's database for that name and deliver to you it's meaning and what it will create for that person. Until July 20 2009 they are also offering FREE full name reports which are hand done and personalised. Thinking I should test it out whilst saving $30 I did so, and I tell you what, it had me down to a tee.

I think you should definitely give it a go, try it out it won't cost you anything so it's not like you have anything to lose. You might just understand yourself better. And no, this isn't broad terms like a horoscope either. For those of you who are having babies at the moment like Sarah & I, perhaps a little more thought into the name you pick may be in order. After all we want our children to have solid, happy, bright futures correct?

Links

Kabalarians website

About a year a go I started mucking about with the news/current affairs format with my camcorder. My camcorder has broken (by no fault of my own) so I haven't made any new episodes in awhile. After making this episode I did refine the idea quite a lot more however.

I am in the process of getting my camcorder fixed so you can expect episodes to start rolling out again shortly. As my ideas grow obviously the show will evolve and become more refined. It's of course my little experiment, but I'm hoping that one day it will allow me to produce something great.

Links;

Wondering Productions
Scattered Emotions

Just thought I'd let you all know I've updated my myspace page. You're welcome to add me if you want, but only if you want to talk. So if you have myspace, please check me out anytime.

Links

my myspace page

Facebook launched their vanity URLs today changing www.facebook.com/user/profile=324355 into www.facebook.com/yourURL which brings facebook finally inline with the likes of other popular social networking sites such as twitter and myspace. Be quick to snap up your URL they are sure to go fast. Sarah & I have ours already.

It is a shame to find however that pages are only eligible to upgrade to a vanity URL once they have more than 1000 fans. I do assume however this has to do with making sure people are able to get the URLs they want before all the much about pages come and take them up. Of course there are plenty of small to medium businesses out there which have pages on facebook but less than 1000 fans.

Links

Facebook

BOPO used to be the name to know in prepaid visa. They had an awesome service, but unfortunately collapsed. Along come heritage building Society to launch Canvas in it's place. Canvas is pretty much the same thing as BOPO except you pay a fee when you load money on your card.

The fee is quite steep at $3.75 for every load, so you always have to remember to put $3.75 extra on the card, on top of how much you want to load to cover the fee as well. I can see how this coupled with the $2.95 monthly service fee could be annoying, but there is no transaction fees on the card unless you use it at an ATM.

It however does seem like heritage are making a fare bit of money out of this card, so I doubt it will be disappearing anytime soon. Which can give you the confidence to go out and get one, if prepaid Visa is the way you want to go.

And prepaid visa does have a lot of benefits over a conventional VISA, with no interest or borrowing of money involved. There is of course a VISA Debt card offered by many banks, but some banks make these difficult to obtain and the fees can be quite high. With a prepaid visa you only load the money you need to use, which makes it perfect for keeping in budget.

That said, Coles Group and Woolworths Group won't accept Prepaid VISA cards at most of their stores which is a pain. But look, if you're just after a VISA to use to buy things online a prepaid visa might be the best way to go.

Heritage usually charge a $7.95 application fee for their basic card which lets you load up to $1000 onto the card at any one time. You can however get the card for free if you use the promo code "loadcashplay" when you apply.

I've ordered a card each for Sarah and I and we'll test them out to see how it goes. There are certainly plenty of places to reload the card which comes in handy. I'd say, if you just want a basic card for basic things, prepaid might be a go. It's worth a look anyway.

Links

Canvas
Canvas Product Disclosure Statement (pdf format)

There are many, many free blogging services on the web. Some of which better than others. Most of which offering different features. It is generally a rule of free blogs that you get a community along with them. I've listed out the most popular services. These aren't necessarily the best services available (that's a matter of perception and need) instead just want is mostly used or "normal" on the web.

Blogger: Googles very own free blogging community. They offer premade themes, gadgets and more. Blogs are also automatically indexed in Google.

LiveJournal: One of the original blogging communities, Live Journal have kept up with the times and stayed relevant. More features than you can poke a stick at.

WordPress: Not only do Wordpress offer free blog hosting, they also make and distribute probably the most used free blog software on the web. Loads of customisation options here. If you want a snazzy blog give this one a look.

Diaryland: One of the oldest blogging communities on the net. I used to have blogs here years ago. They have loads of features for their members, including html customisation for your page. There is also the ability to upgrade to a paid service to receive even more customisation options.

While TJandSarah.com plans to offer free blogs to our users in the future, we currently don't have the set-up to do so. Our web server just isn't ready for such a service. I'll keep you up to date when we offer a free blogging service, which shouldn't be too far off.

So there a loads of free SMS services around. But not many of them are very reliable, well the ones that go to Australia anyway. SMSFun however is reliable, in fact your messages will take less then 60 seconds to arrive in most cases, unlike with some other services where sms's can take up to a day to arrive.

Add to that the social networking that SMSFun offers, plus sms reminders, jokes and more. SMSFun deliver to Australia, New Zealand and The UK, so if you live in these countries, then it's worth a look in. Give it a go by clicking: here

For everyone who is sick of paying the sometimes outlandish rates of Foxtel just to be able to watch a few extra channels, salvation is here. SelecTv owned by WIN is a real alternative to Foxtel. Their base package comes with the movie one channels, cartoon network, Disney, Playhouse Disney, NatGeo, CNN, BBC World and loads more. A total of 23 Channels and 10 Digital Radio channels, for $37.95/month. Channels which Foxtel charges $12.95/month extra for are standard on SelecTv.

You can also add Discovery Home & Health, Discovery Science, Discovery Travel & Living and Animal Planet to your package for $6.95/month. Of course Foxtel has more channels, but SelecTv are constantly looking for more channels they can offer at a reasonable price to their customers so it is only a matter of time I suppose before SelecTv has the same amount of channels as Foxtel. It won't be a solution for everyone, but if you want to save some money but don't want to lose pay tv all together, SelecTv might be the solution you need.

They currently have a free installation + 2 months free offer running so check them out today at www.selecTv.com

District 9 due out this summer is about a world where Alien beings have come to live on earth and the resulting environment. It's shot in a documentary/news style and seems to be pretty cool. Sarah doesn't like the look of it and bro can't make up his mind on if it's good or not. I reckon it's worth a look none the less, it's not going to be the greatest film you ever seen, but I can think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Watch the trailer and learn more about the movie at d-9.com

Oh my god! Oh my god! I just found out there is a movie version of GI Joe due out this year! How good is that?! Watched the trailer, looks awesome! Can't wait. Bro and Sarah both want to watch it too, so looks like it'll turn into a family outing. Check it out

Looking to make it with an online business but don't have any coding experience? Don't get down, get x10! x10 produce high quality turnkey websites, are bargain prices so you can focus more on making money and less or figuring out how to code.

Evolutionary Minds is an Australian based Life & Business coaching firm which offer a multitude of services to aide you to become more successful, happier, healthier and enable you to have an all round better life.

A few weeks ago the Evolutionary Minds website went down due to a server fault. The backup was corrupted so it had to be rebuilt from scratch, but at Evolutionary Minds everything is a positive. It was seen as a chance to rebuilt the website in a newer, better way which is what has been done. Some sections of the site are still under construction but the new site is Live & Functional

Symantec company Norton has released OnlineFamily.Norton a security utility which is designed to keep your family safe online, all the time. OnlineFamily.Norton works with Windows User accounts, so children should have their own accounts for best results, you download a small 509kb utility which sits in your taskbar and connects to the OnlineFamily.Norton website to update it's settings. So as you guessed it, settings are controlled online which means you can change them on the fly from anywhere on the globe.

The system automatically selects settings dependent on the age of your child(ren) but these settings are also fully customisable. OnlineFamily.Norton isn't just another website blocker either, it stops your children signing up for things with the incorrect age or year of birth, stops them accessing 18+ content if they're under 18, you can set time limits, log chats, select the programs they can use, even the times they can use them! There is so much you can do with OnlineFamily.Norton but the most amazing feature is that it's absolutely FREE!! That's right, FREE!

Nothing however is free forever, and in 2010 after your first year of usage, OnlineFamily.Norton will cost 60USD per year to run across all the computers in your home. Depending on your family situation this could be excellent value. either way I think OnlineFamily.Norton is worth a look and a try while it's still free.

Sign up and download the utility: here

In Australia, we're always teasing our cousins across the sea in New Zealand that they love their sheep just a little to much. We now someone has taken the joke to another level of comedy. Enter Adult Sheep Finder a parody version of adultfriendfinder just for New Zealanders. Check it out for a few laughs.

Do you have myspace? If you've only got a few friends, and your profile is looking lame as a result solve it quickly, simply and free! Check out adderboy to add people to your friend list and make tens, hundreds, even thousands of new friends, the choice is yours! Ad only the people you want to, the more people you refer to the site the more friends you can add to your list. It's that simple!

ADDERBOY for more myspace friends then you can poke a stick at

I'm very much a fan of the web based game genre, I don't need major graphics or whiz bang gaming engines I just need a good story line. And I've found one in Travian. It's a strategy type game, where you chose to be one of 3 tribes, either the Romans, the Gauls (basically Gaelic people) or the Teutons (which are basically the English savages). Each tribe have their own advantages and disadvantages so you play to your strengths.

Like in basically every web based game out there, you get to create alliances with your follow players, plunder what they have and generally interact with them. There is much fun and entertainment to be had on Travian so if you enjoy web based games, or have never tried one, I suggest you check it out by clicking here you surely won't be sorry.

A word of warning though for those who aren't familiar with such games in Travian like most web based games things take time. So if you need heart racing minute by minute adventure then stick with your average PC/console game, but if you have patience and love strategy then lets rock on...!

Just a short post to tell everyone about our forum which we hope to fill with exciting and riveting discussion. Please check out our forum today, sign up and have a great time. Your opinion matters... so have your say on everything from politics, business and finance, to what happened on TV last night, what you thought of the latest blockbuster movie and so much more.

The Dinner Table - The TJandSarah.com forum

I've known about The Sims 3 coming out this year for quite some time, but when I first learned of it, details of how game play where down to just mere speculation. Today I revisited the official Sims 3 website and all that changed! Sims 3 looks like a great game.

I was rather unexcited by Sims 2, while it had some improvements, they where mostly cosmetic; game play remained very repetitive and trapped in your own house, unless you ventured onto a community lot. Sims 3 changes this!

Walk free! That's right, take a stroll outside, knock on your neighbours doors and meet people. Everything is customisable, including your accessories and personality. Find out more and download wallpapers, screenshots and video on the Sims 3 Official website

The best bit is it comes out on my birthday!!!

I'd just like to remind you all that Sarah has a blog as well which you can find by clicking here or clicking the link in the nav menu to the right --->>

I hope you enjoy her blog in addition to mine, the more people who view her blog, leave comments and encourage her the more excited about blogging she gets and the more she writes. So if you want to hear more from Sarah, keep visiting her and she'll write more frequently.

When you think of printing you think expensive. Lets face it 500 business cards can set you back a bit. In a time where we're all trying to save money what would you say if I told you, you could get them for free... yes FREE!

Let me introduce you to the miracle that is VistaPrint. And they don't just deal in business cards! They have plenty of other free or no expensive printing on offer. How about the family christmas card? This year personalise it and still save money! Everything from T-shirts to magnets, stamps to mugs and so much more. VistaPrint do it all and they do it for less then I've seen around. I've ordered a fair amount of stuff from VistaPrint and it always turns up exactly how I ordered it.

So give VistaPrint a go today, you'll have fun and save money and really what more can you ask for?

Just submitted tjandsarah.com including this blog to a bunch of Search Engines and optimised the META tags to get the best rankings. Hoping that should drive a few more visitors which would be great. The site I used to do it all is pretty cool. That have all sorts of tools you can use to make your site the best it can be in terms of search engine selection.

Check out SubmitExpress to get a better search engine result for your website today, and the best news... IT'S FREE