Catching Up

Posting has been tricky lately due to pressure of work, I am behind in all sorts of areas... We are still a bit behind the production curve at work, so I have been working hard to try and cover all sorts of bases at once.
I should have at least started ny online Tax self-assessment, but as yet, have given it very little thought - having said that, I have completed my spreadsheet - I just haven't done any of the on-line submission work yet.
I took most of the week off last week to take part in a half-term Soccer School for youngsters aged between 10 and 13, so that took quote a lot of my energy. Still have lots to do around the house too, and we are considering investing in a new roof this year too! Such a lot of money to spend, but such a weight off my mind to finally have the roof done, it HAS to be worth it in the long run.

Android Update

More and more I am finding that I am using my phone as a mobile gaming device - which is fine as long as it doesn't end up having adverse affects on normal working and family life. I note that the idea of giving up Facebook or some other online site or device for Lent is very popular this year - I don't really subscribe to the 'giving up for Lent' brigade, but it has brought to my attention just how time-consuming it can be when you have access to emails and games an social media 24/7.
I tend not to use my Android much whilst I am at work, there is not really the time because we are so busy - I tend to access games when the rest of the household has gone to bed and I am 'winding down', so it doesn't have an impact on family life (as long as I don't play for hours and lose essential sleep time). All-in-all I don't think it has a negative impact on these two significant areas (family and work), but I can see how it might with some personalities.
I am 'into' my games (currently I access four on a regular basis, two daily and two weekly) but will endeavour to ensure that they do not impact on 'reality' to any significant degree.

iPhone update

I am finding some of the aspects of the iPhone to be quite invaluable, but partly that is because our works IT department have integrated iPhone apps into our network. We have started using 'Outlook' at work for emails, this also incorporates calendars and scheduling - the integration with the iPhone works well and I find that I get emails and meeting reminders directly to my phone which is a bonus.
I am sure it could be made to work just as well with an Android equivalent system, but as I haven't had the chance to compare, I can only report that integration with the iPhone seems to work really well. It frees me up to be fairly mobile around the workspace without having to check emails and calendars on a laptop or PC at regular intervals.
I think we are planning to integrate our long-awaited SAP system with the iPhone and iPad too, so I will be able to report on that once it is done. The SAP system will control every aspect of the business from processing orders, receipting stock, creating production tasks through to invoicing and customer relation management. Quite how it will be able to integrate with an iPhone is not clear yet, I look forward to finding out - I may even end up not needing one of my current devices (I currently have both a laptop and a desktop at work in different locations) if the iPhone can integrate with the essential business tools that we use.

NAS update

Having tried pretty much every trick I can find on forums for kick-starting my NAS, it still refuses to work properly. This is one of the more disappointing aspects of eBay buying - if you need support for a product like this, it can be a frustrating experience. The vendor has been helpful and supplied a link that was used by him when he first started up the NAS, so I will follow that up probably later today.
The error I am getting may be a hardware issue - so I am now wondering if, although the three hard-drives I have put in the NAS are recognised by the system, whether it will only actually be able to format certain drives that are on the list of recommended drives for this equipment.
More to follow, fingers crossed and all that...

NAS update

I was pretty sure from the start that the NAS I bought from eBay would not be straightforward to set up, and in that sense it has lived up to expectations. As soon as I started it up, it went into alarm function because it had detected that the data on the drives was not there. To compound the problem, the software I downloaded for controlling the NAS could not 'see' it on the network.
I have now got to the stage where it is visible and have finally discovered the 'reset' button - unfortunately I now need to force the firmware onto the system before I can get any further and I got a bit stuck at this stage.
I will 'open negotiations' with it again sometime this week and see if I can force the update (may be easier now I have found the reset button) - I have been relying on forums for instructions on how to resolve the issue, but have still got a little way to go. I'm not really sure where I go from here if I can't get it working, but there is a support phone number, so I may try that if I get really desperate....

Virgin Media Update

Just had notification this week of my next Virgin Media bill and sure enough it will be about £10 cheaper than I was paying before which will be a saving of over £100 a year, plus a brand new router makes the phone calls and hassles worthwhile.
I have not received any reply to the survey I submitted a few weeks ago, makes you wonder if they take any notice, although I have heard they usually deal with complaints thoroughly.
Overall I am happy to remain a Virgin Media customer, I get a reasonable deal for phone and internet, plus I am getting a good deal for the mobile phone accounts that I have because I am a media customer (one for me, my wife and my daughter). The two for my daughter and my wife have limitless texts, but for mine I have chosen the go for the large internet data tariff, I get a massive 5GB of data, but if I get into text conversations with the family I end up exceeding my 50 texts a month - I accidentally did this for the first two months, and am hoping not to make that mistake again... I pay £8.22 for my account which included a Sony Experia which is now out of contract, the other two accounts are £7 each - I should probably see if there is a free upgrade for the Experia or switch mine to SIM only, but for the extra 1.22  month, I don't really want to lose the 5GB data even though I never get anywhere near using it up... When I can summon up the energy to ring Virgin again, I will see if I might be able to wangle a new phone....

Network Attached Storage

I finally bought myself a NAS (OK it's the second one I have bought, but the first one was rubbish! so this time I went for a proper brand-name system). It is second hand and winging it's way to me from eBay as I write...

I went for a Buffalo Terastation in the end as I found a reasonably-priced one, but would have liked a Netgear Readynas if they didn't command such high prices. The Terastation I have bought is supposedly in good working order but has no disks, which is perfect for me as I have a bunch of disks that I want to put into it. I now need to recover any of the data that I might want from these disks before the NAS arrives, that way I can start with blank disks and use the NAS as my future storage system.

I think it will take me a while to set it up especially as I will have to download all the software for it before I can start using it - I think I will use the default 'RAID5' setting, that way each disk has a partition set aside for recovery purposes - if any one of the four disks fail, the other disks will have sufficient back-up to be able to repopulate a new disk with all the lost data - neat huh?

I paid £65 (free postage) for the NAS by taking the 'buy-it-now' option on an auction that would have otherwise started at £45 - the trouble is once the bidding starts, I figured it would go for more than £65 anyway, so bit the bullet and shelled out some of my hard-earned PayPal fund... Having done a few cassette to CD conversions recently and had income from some other online sources, I think this will be going down as one of my many 'business expenses' in this tax year.

I will be sure to post an update once I have been able to get the thing up and running and give it a bit of a road-test. I am hoping I will discover some great features to make use of once I start to explore what it can do...

Getting a better deal from Virgin Media

Over the New Year I decided to tackle Virgin Media and get a better deal for the telephone and broadband package that we have. I was paying around £41 a month plus a few extra pounds for calls that weren't covered by the plan, averaging around £46 per month in total.
Checking out the deals for new customers revealed that I should really be paying about £10 less AND be furnished with a new Wi-Fi router.....so... having already been told that the only way I could get the router was to 'upgrade' for another £8 per month, I decided to grit my teeth call them up and push for a better deal.
Sadly, with Virgin, you HAVE to push them to the point of leaving before you get what you want. the first task is to get beyond the first customer representative and get put onto the section that deals with people that are threatening to take their business elsewhere - this is where it pays to have done some research.
The first time I called it was a relatively short call (I hadn't done my research) and I was basically fobbed off with 'there's nothing we can do'. The next time I was prepared with the following: I am paying £41 per month, if I joined as a new customer I would get the same deal (with 'bigger' broadband) AND a free Wi-Fi router for £10 less per month (ignoring short-term deals). If I switched to Tesco broadband, I could get it for £15 less - why am I paying £41 a month?? - this became my much-repeated mantra 'why am I paying so much more than I need to?'.
We went through the same role-play, she telling me I could upgrade for £8 a month and me explaining that £8 a month is even MORE that the £10 a month I am ALREADY paying over the odds.... Eventually I began to break her down, and she started saying, well of course if you leave, you can't re-join for 6 months... well, I can save myself nearly £100 in 6 months by switching to Tesco, so let's see what the disconnections department can do for me shall we? I am put on hold...eventually I speak to a young gent who listens to my tale:
Him - what is it I would like?
Me - I would like the free router please
Him - OK, it will be with you in 3-5 days
Me - OK that's great
Him - is there anything else I can do?
Me - Yes, you can reduce my bill to closer to £30 a month please
Him - after a bit of mumbling about 'applying the discounts' promises a new monthly bill of £32 a month
Sorted - or is it??
11 days pass and no sign of a router... I ring once more and get put through to a young man who is surprised at the offer I was given as he has notes that reflect a very different conversation that I was supposed to have had 11 days previously. His records show that I was offered an £8 upgrade and a £50 installation fee (at no point has anyone mentioned this £50 fee) - and there was no indication of me being sent a router or having a reduction in my bill... I am now pretty shocked to hear this and do my best to convey this without completely losing my rag... I get put through to 'Customer Service' which makes me think 'who was I talking to then if it wasn't customer service??'. Customer Service gets a quick appraisal of exactly how upset I am about the whole scenario - I am at pains to point out that I am really not very happy, which is in complete contrast to how I felt 11 days previously after my supposed triumphant negotiations... To be honest the new guy on the end of the phone doesn't sound anywhere near as shocked as I would hope him to sound and proceeds to go through the process again. I am becoming 'difficult' as I really want him to acknowledge how badly I feel let down - he ploughs on and I realise he is going to try to put things right, so I calm down a bit and we go through my bills step-by-step and eventually after a bit of tweaking 'products' and 'discounts', we eventually come up with a new monthly bill of £33, and a free router. The router duly arrived three days later as agreed, and so far has been fine although I did need to ring technical support to get it up and running as initially it didn't want to connect to the internet.
Martin Lewis of MoneysavingExpert says you have to negotiate tough with Virgin Media and he is right - know what you want, and know what the price would be if you went to a competitor and you should (eventually) get what you want...

update

It's a while since I updated and I am still really busy with the day-job, it's been pretty relentless for just about 2 years now. I am quoting for a regular cassette to digital job at the moment, it could possibly provide a small regular supplementary income - we'll see how that pans out...
I am still looking to reinstate everything since my two PC's packed up over Christmas, we are definitely back and working now, it's just a case of making sure the old software still works on the new operating system and all the backup files are reinstated - I still have yet to start backing up the new stuff yet, but am still waiting to find a suitable housing for 1.5TB of 'spare' hard disks that I now have and plan to use as backup.. I really want a NAS, but they are not cheap, so will have to sell some stuff on eBay first - I have quite a bit of stuff to flog off, but I have been tardy in getting it listed. I am happy enough with the current Windows 7 set-up, but am aware that I should probably think about getting a motherboard that can take more RAM to get the best out of the 64 bit operating system - can't see how I can get it without spending a couple of hundred pounds though, so not going to happen imminently...
The new Virgin router is working well, I am hoping to see the benefit of our newly negotiated monthly charges kicking in next month- have also signed up to a new energy tariff - actually turned out to be lower monthly payments which was a surprise.
So all-in-all everything is looking pretty good at the moment although I am aware that I have not kept my earnings spreadsheet up to date and the end of the tax year is a comfortable distance but will no doubt be looming large soon enough...!

Second Chinese Android Phone..

The phone that I ordered for my wife for Christmas has arrived fairly promptly - I ordered it using the 'standard' free postage, and it arrived in about 10 days or so which I was happy about as the estimated delivery is 15-30 days... It's dual SIM again, which is particularly useful as it means we can put in the old 'pay as you go' SIM alongside the new contract SIM whilst waiting for the number to migrate from one to the other.

The deal is that I am providing the phone and the contract as a Christmas present so my wife no longer has any phone expenses to pay AND she gets a smart phone into the bargain. However, she really wanted to keep her old number, so we obtained the PAC code for the old PAYG Orange phone number and have given the details to Virgin Mobile, they need about 72 hours or so to do the changeover - so at the moment both SIMs are active (on two separate numbers)which can be a little bit confusing....

The new phone is a DOOGEE DG300 (also called 'Voyager'), and I have to say I actually prefer it to my new phone - it's slightly smaller at 5" - which in my opinion is a bit more manageable - it is just dual core rather than quad core, but still as fast as you need it to be as far as I can tell - Android 4,2 runs nice and smoothly and it is a really neat package all told. I chose this model because of the large battery (2500mAh) and the central button. I like the idea of a solid button for returning the phone to the home-screen - but on mine the two 'soft' buttons ('back' and 'menu') sometimes seem a little unresponsive - on this model however, they seem to work every time - It came with a flip cover which comes joined to a removeable backplate for the phone, so you remove the 'orginal' back cover and clip on the flip cover which I think is a really neat touch... The only issue I have (and it's not a big problem) is that there is no spare battery, but there is a charger and USB cable etc.. as you would expect. No SD card as standard, but I have some spare 8GB cards which I think will be perfectly sufficient. The bottom line then? a phone which seems to (almost)perfectly emulate a Samsung Galaxy S4 for just £66 - you can't really knock that can you? The specs are admittedly lower (camera not quote as good at 5MP - still good enough... onboard memory not as large...) but really still an incredible bargain if you don't want to pay five times as much for the branded version!

Cheap Chinese Android Phone

Well, so far so good - I've had my new phone a couple of weeks now and worked out that it is the same dimensions as the Samsung Note 2. I know this because I found a case in Tesco's that matched the phone's dimensions perfectly...
I'm not sure how much a Samsung Note 2 costs, but am pretty sure it is upwards of  £300, my phone was just £96 from McBub, and may not be exactly that same spec as a Note 2, but is pretty tasty all the same. It has 4GB on-board of which 1.7GB is free for storage, and 1GB ROM - it can take a 32GB SD card (don't buy a cheap one!) and most extraordinary of all...has a quad-core processor.

I have now ordered a dual-core phone from McBub for my wife - costing just £66, and have ordered an extra SIM from my mobile provider that will give reasonable use for texts and mobile internet etc.. for £7 a month. Both phones come loaded with Android 4.2, mine has a 8MP camera, and my wife's will have a 5MP camera - you can get better spec cameras but to be honest if I wanted to take brilliant photo's, I would get a decent camera instead of a 'phone.
I have already started loading all sorts of Apps on the phone, so will be reviewing them over the next few weeks - watch this space for reviews of a really addictive game, and some boring but essential utilities for your Android phone..

So busy...

My new Android 'phone has arrived from China, despite the wrong carriage charges being applied and then being charged import duties, despite all that, the phone is really pretty good. It came with a spare battery and a flip cover, and worked straight out of the box - the only thing it needed was a micro-SD card. I had a spare 8GB card from my old phone, so I used that until a new 32GB card arrived from eBay.
My initial mistake was buying a 32GB SD card for £5.99 - I know, it was NEVER going to work, but it was a UK seller, so I thought it might be OK - it was rubbish and started to lose apps after the first day. Every time I switched off or rebooted the phone, all the apps I had downloaded would disappear! So I bit the bullet and shelled out a cool £15 on a SanDisk Ultra 32GB card and that is running far more sweetly - no lost apps yet....
I will have to start reviewing Android Apps again now as I can get a much larger selection on the new phone, plus my massive SD card can hold masses of apps, so I don't have to keep uninstalling them like with my old phone.
Oh, and the phone is HUGE, it's a 5.3" screen which I think is equivalent to a Samsung Note 2, and apparently is a 'phablet' - somewhere between a phone and a tablet. Of course, it's tricky to take a photo as I tend to use the phone itself to take photo's...but I will try and get a photo uploaded soon...
I have delayed writing about the phone because work has been so busy lately - no sign of any let up so I think I am going to have an exhausting run up to Christmas, at least my much-awaited pay-rise materialised this year - fingers crossed for a Christmas bonus...

Latest update

Big week this week... the company I work for moved premises which was really hard work and quite traumatic - It has taken about a week to get the bare bones of a working environment going - the 'phones and the computer network are still not exactly sorted, but most of what we need to carry on working is in place...
Also... I ordered my new quad core phone from McBub, but hit a few teething problems already... I found that their ordering system wasn't totally compatible with the Chrome browser, so when I clicked on 'other delivery options' I found that the total cost would not update when I tried to click back to the 'free delivery option' - so against my intentions, I ended up with the expedited delivery and an extra £11 on my bill. I immediately emailed McBub but got no reply - A day later I received acknowledgment of my order but no response to my message about the delivery costs. I then thought 'well OK, it's supposed to be a 3-5 day delivery so maybe the extra money will be worth it' - nope not really... Turns out there is a 'processing time' of 1-3 days on average. Well how can an average be 1-3 I wonder??? surely an average of 1-3 is 2!
So I checked the processing time and here is the timeline:

Ordered (ie. money removed from my PayPal account) 16th October
Order Acknowledged: 18th October
Order Despatched (According to DHL): 25th October

Already it has taken 7-9 days of 'processing time' as compared to the average '1-3 days' so much for the 3-5 days delivery, although I have a feeling that DHL will probably be able to make the delivery a lot quicker than McBub have taken to process my order.
Not only that, but I have been hit with an import tax bill - OK I hold my hands up to hoping to circumvent customs charges, but I think because the 'expedited' option was chosen for me rather than the free delivery, this probably attracted unwanted attention from customs. In itself, I am not too bothered about the tax, the phone is cheap enough for it not to be a concern, BUT when you consider that I was hoping to get a phone for £96, my bill is already at £120, and I haven't got the phone yet!
I have a feeling that once the 'phone arrives, all the hassle will melt into the background, but I won't be letting McBub get away with this completely, they will get an email from me, and if I get no response I will be leaving feedback for the phone which will highlight issues to future customers.
I intend to buy another 'phone from them as a gift too, so I should be able to use that as a lever to get good customer support, although I have a feeling that they may not value my custom very highly judging on the correspondence received so far...
Watch this space...

Hummingbird

Hummingbird is the latest change to the search algorithm from Google search, but it's not a change to the ongoing algorithm like the Penguin Update and others, this is a NEW algorithm in it's entirety - starting from scratch.
You will read much speculation about how the new algorithm works, and if you are overly-concerned about this, really you have to ask yourself why. Ultimately Google search wants to be the best it can be at delivering accurate 'answers' to search queries. If your website serves it's niche well, and is full of relevant information, then whatever Google algorithm is used, it should rank your site in it's proper position. If however you are trying to somehow 'fool' or 'game' the algorithm, you are part of the web that Google is determined to weed out, and you may well find that you are edged out of search results.
I have no insight as to how the new algorithm prioritizes sites, but then I am no different to anyone else in the respect, these things are kept under wraps for a very good reason, they are Google's main asset of immense value to the company - they are not about to share the goods. However I do know that Google will want to prioritize 'good' websites that provide good information in a structured way, therefore if webmasters provide good content in a well-structured way, then they stand a chance of getting a good ranking.
Carry on doing what you are doing, provide good content and keep it up to date, add good content as regularly as you can - steer clear of anything that promises fast result in terms of Search Engine Result Position, and you won't go too far wrong.

Android - making my mind up

I have now pretty much made up my mind on what I am going to get, but haven't actually taken the plunge yet.. I have been wavering between wanting to buy a tablet PC for using around the house, or getting a new Android phone, and I have settled on getting a 'phone. My current phone is a bit slow and often gets a bit confused. It's only Android 2.1 I and single core, but I have seen a quad-core with Android 4.2 and I reckon that's the phone for me. It currently costs a little under a hundred pounds ($130??) from the McBub website - I am waiting on a cassette conversion job that will bring in around that amount, so I am using that as my trigger, If I get the job, I will use the money to buy the phone.
Can't wait to see how much better it will be than my old 'phone and hopefully I will be in a better position to try out more apps - my current phone cannot hold many apps, and despite the fact that I have a decent sized SD card in there, it cannot move apps to the card, so adding apps always means removing old ones...

Looking for a tablet...

No, not medicine, but an Android tablet is now top of my shopping list - I keep seeing bargains on eBay but not making much headway with actually winning any auctions.
I have come up with a preferred spec:

• Android 4.0 software
• 1GB RAM
• Bluetooth & Wifi
• Preferably a 10.1" screen

I may not achieve everything on the wishlist for the approx £50 I would be willing to part with, but you never know with eBay...
Our laptop was getting a bit over-used and recently died, I have a replacement, but it occurred to me that a simple device like a tablet would be better for the main tasks required of the laptop, which are surfing the net and email. The days of the laptop I think are seriously numbered, which prompts me to think again about the piles of laptop spares that I have hidden away with the idea of restoring them to former glory. I believe the best plan now would be to simply sell off the spares rather than go to the effort of trying to get them working, as the value of a working laptop is probably dropping by the week.
In other news, I have finally got round to completing my tax return....Hoorah!

Making Time

I have been busy decorating this weekend - and it's odd, but I've noticed this before... the busier and more frantic things are in work, the more I feel inclined to do more work when I get home! It should be the other way around, ie. when I am flat-out at work, I should feel less inclination to do decorating.
It's as if I am in work-mode and it just continues when I come home, although to be fair, sometimes I do just flop into the sofa and not budge an inch until it's time to go to bed.
Although the decorating is coming along slowly, I am quite pleased with progress because I am being quite meticulous about making sure everything is done right - it's what I think they mean when they refer to a 'good quality finish' on the DIY and renovation programs I love to watch on TV. I have been finishing the edges of each painted wall with a fine paint brush to make sure there is virtually no overlap - as I said to my neighbour yesterday... it's taken me 17 years to decorate the hall-way and I don't ever expect to do it again!. In other words, the work has to be good enough to last an awful long time.
I expect the finish will still be some months off as I fit the decorating around life in general, but hope to be able to post some photo's when it is finished.. I may have some comparison photo's showing how it looked when we bought the house, so that should make an interesting 'before and after' comparison.

Summer Update

It seems an update is long overdue, but due to pressure of my daily work, there has been little progress in the sphere of my online 'work'. I actually have seen a small upturn in interest for turning cassettes into CD's after a few months with little or no interest at all. Passive earnings have been erratic - but recent activity must have triggered a payment from one of my affiliates that I have had for years without having seen any reward. $35 appeared in my PayPal account without any warning, which is always nice... I think it has taken about 3 years to amass enough to trigger a payment.
I have finally been awarded a log-awaited pay increase at work and am planning to buy my company car which will save me around £1000 a year in tax - things are looking up!
I would love to be able to plan some online strategy and it is always at the back of my mind, however I have to concentrate on work and family before considering online domination... I have lots of half-formed plans and very little time to do anything about them. I haven't even done my tax return yet which is very lax for me.
I hope by the time I come to do my next update I will able to report that the tax return has been completed - I have recently been hankering after a tablet computer to use around the house, so am thinking of offsetting some of my online profits by getting a cheap Android tablet - especially since I have enjoyed my Android phone so much - I have half an eye on eBay although I am not sure it's a great idea to buy a tablet from eBay, as recent experiences have been sketchy to say the least.

Summer Cold!

Right in the midst of the most glorious weather we have ever had in the UK, I had to go and get a cold - thankfully not too severe, but enough to make me feel pretty tired and out of sorts.
This week I was on a course at work, and instead of driving, I decided to walk in the hot weather. So from Monday to Thursday I walked about 3 miles every morning, did a full day of course work and then walked 3 miles back. By Thursday the cold was kicking in - not the best day to have an assessment, but I passed anyway. Felt out of sorts on Friday back at work, and the cold has now come 'out' properly with streaming nose and sneezing.
I am hoping I feel a bit more 'up for it' next week as I have a week to prepare everything at work prior to my summer vacation, plus I need to complete an assignment to go with the coursework.
The weather has cooled off slightly now with a lovely cool breeze for the BBQ we had last night, cool enough to sleep at night thankfully. A cooler start to the day, but the paddling pool in the back garden is back in use this afternoon!

Update

I feel like I have been neglecting my blogging somewhat recently, but I can announce that I have started a new cider review blog recently as I quite enjoy my ciders, and I am enjoying writing about the different taste experiences. I am hoping that others may find the reviews interesting and useful.
I am not sure where I am going with the new blog, but I have stopped adding posts to a couple of older blogs lately, so the new one will be taking up some of that 'slack'.
I am employing some new tactics on this blog, and wondered if I should have done it as a Wordpress format, but blogspot is so easy to get up and running, I opted for yet another one...