Reeds jewelry store

Companies like Reeds jewelry store have realized the power of the web when it comes to selling to the current market. The products are well presented and the website gives you confidence in both the products and the retailer.
Using the power of good web design, you can create the right ambiance, just the right level of opulence without having to invest in fine silk backdrops and expensive mahogany display cabinets that would be essential for a High Street retailer. This online shop exudes class even in the all-important 'clearance' section - personally I always check out the clearance section of any online store in the hope of sniffing out a bargain.

'New' iPhone

I have semi-reluctantly joined the 'herd' and now have an iPhone, but would point out in my defence that it is not one that I have bought, but one supplied by my employer. I feel I should explain because I am one of those that have displayed a bit of 'inverted snobbery' concerning Apple products and their marketing strategies for a while...
So, I now have the chance to compare iPhone with Android and will probably from time to time, post about the pro's and cons. Initially then I have to say I did not warm to the iPhone (Mine is the 4S) interface, but then if you are used to one Operating System, there are always going to be a level of resistance at the start. Suffice to say that I am starting to grow a little fonder of this 'little' phone (my Android has a 5.4" screen!), and although others have criticised smart-phones in general for their lack of ability to be a 'phone' - this one works well if you want to make or take calls!! It actually is a better telephone than my Android as far as I am concerned - I find my Android actually a bit too cumbersome to use as a phone and I also struggle to hear callers properly without using the speakerphone.
I am not able to load it up with apps as it is a works device, but the apps for messaging and for email are fine - it connected to my home wi-fi easily. The iPhone is running iOS7, and I quite like the smooth way in which the interface moves from one screen to another. I managed to link via bluetooth to the Nokia in-car system, so am once more hands-free. (I managed the same thing easily with my Android, but running bluetooth all the time drains the Android whereas it doesn't see to drain the iPhone quite as dramatically).
So those are my initial thoughts, I am quite sure I will have more discoveries both good and bad to report...

Tuxedo for kids

Whether it's for a wedding or some other special occasion, it's important to look the part - that's why so many companies make a living providing clothing just for weddings.
So the grown-ups are well-catered for, but what about the kids? It not always easy to find the right tuxedo for kids unless you have a really great selection to choose from.
The website I found had nearly 60 different outfits in the 'tuxedo' section ranging from natty suits to a full white tux with trousers and waistcoat - to suit anything from toddlers to teens.

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....

Swings and Roundabouts...

There is this fantastic company for swing sets in virginia beach that I spotted on the web the other day. Any child would be in seventh heaven just to play on one of these never mind actually having your own to play with at home.

This company makes bespoke playsets to suit exactly the space that you have available, unfortunately in our case, that's not much at all...

However for those with the right sort of space in the backyard, you can create the playground of your dreams (for the kids of course, strictly for the kids...)

Go-Karts for kids

Of course, every child should have a go-kart, but I'm wondering if these are really go karts for kids? With four-stroke, 5.5 horse power engines, running up to nearly 30mph and headlights for night driving??

This sounds like a kids item that would keep some adults I know amused for a lifetime never mind a few hours.

All I can say is if you have the space to run around in one of these, your kids will surely love you forever if you were to buy one!(assuming of course that you allow them to drive it).

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...

LogMeIN update

I have been using the free version of 'LogMeIn' for a couple of years now, but they are now withdrawing free accounts and are now charging for the service.
I have previously written two posts about them here...
This is a real shame as I find the service offered by LogMeIn particularly useful for logging into my Mother's laptop and helping to solve some of her computing problems for her - only last weekend I was able to help her with with a software update, and ran some anti-virus software which picked up and deleted a dozen dubious files. I have also used it in the past to run software in my workplace when I have been at home and unable to get to work.
It's fair enough that free software should expire after a time, so no complaints there, I just thought I needed to write an update seeing as I have blogged about the free version of LogMeIn on this blog previously.
I have yet to try the 'native' Windows remote assistant software, so I guess I will be trying that soon to see if that offers any functionality that I had previously got from LogMeIn.

Jungle Heat - Android Game

Remarkably similar to 'Friendly Fire', a game I reviewed a while ago, Jungle Heat is another 'build up your base and fight the enemy' type game which moves slowly if you are too mean to pay your way...
The aim of these games is really to get you hooked and then frustrate you into paying real cash in order to progress in the game a bit faster. News Flash - I am too mean to fall for this, I will endeavour to keep playing or just let it slide before resorting to actually parting with hard-earned cash. It's not that I think the creators of the games don't deserve a reward, but I see it this way:
I am playing the game and thus contributing to the global popularity of the game in general - I am encouraging others to part with their cash by playing the game, and thus aiding the creators to make a profit - just don't expect me to actually key in my credit card details at any point...
Jungle Heat seems very popular and the game-play is fairly intuitive as far as I can tell, I haven't actually interacted with any other players as yet as I seem to be just plodding through the initial steps even though I have been playing for about 4 or 5 days. I like the game enough to persevere with it, ad would happily recommend it to those who like this type of app.

EGH Law Firm

In business it often pays to specialize in a niche area of a market, and become expert in specific areas. This has been the philosophy of EGH Law Firm in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Success in this type of business often comes as a result of good service rather than self-service. Here is a firm that espouses the virtues of serving the community, recognizing the value of this rather than simply helping the firm itself to flourish.
Whilst there is no doubt that the Law can provide a good living for those that practice it, being a successful local business means being part of the community as a whole.

Premier Fantasy League

It's Saturday night, and you are waiting for Match of the Day to come on the BBC... Normally, you just want to find out how your team did, and how you rivals fared... When you get involved with fantasy Football, almost every game may have an impact on your weekend...

I started playing Fantasy Premier League last season, and got the app for my 'phone so that I could get updates on the go. I loved it so much, I got work colleagues involved and almost the whole office is playing it now. To be fair it works much better on a PC, some of the features don't work very well at all on a phone, but you can at least get your weekly score and see how each player performed.

All in all, the app is not a replacement for the online PC version, but when you get hooked, having the information at your finger-tips is a nice feature. So the game play follows the Premier League, you get to choose a squad of 13 outfield players and 2 goal keepers, and you get points for their performance on match day (league appearances only). You get to sell and buy one player per week, players that are injured in reality, don't earn you any points - you put three of your squad on the bench, and they 'play' if one of your team does not play for any reason. The players get points for clean-sheets, goals and assists, they get docked points for yellow and red cards, they get a point for playing, 2 for the full 90 mins. This will test your mettle as a manager and may leave you as frustrated as Arsene Wenger on a bad day... I love it!

Update on Virgin Media

I mentioned my problems and eventual success in getting a new deal from Virgin Media in a previous post:
http://www.munny4hunny.com/2014/01/getting-better-deal-from-virgin-media.html
Well the other day, I had a survey arrive by email for me to rate Virgin Media on their level of service. I took full advantage of this to let them now firstly how disappointed I was after learning that my original call had been a complete waste of time, and secondly how the situation had been rescued on the second call (which I should really have not needed to make).

I submitted the survey yesterday and am wondering if it will get a response - I will be very interested to see if they will respond, and I will be sure to post any news here...

Music lessons

I hear they have excellent music lessons in Sarasota at guitar center, and finding a good teacher is key when learning an instrument.
A good teacher is not only able to play well, but able to impart the knowledge and skills to others to enable them to reach their potential. Not all pupils are able to reach the same standard and a good teacher will recognize this fact, and be able to discern the best way to teach depending on the individuals capacity to learn and to play.

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...!

dog training collar

Whether you are just starting to train your dog, or you have a dog that is particularly resistant to being trained, a dog training collar might be the solution.
There are a range of remote control collars available that can be remotely triggered to emit a spray (scented or unscented), emit a vibration or give a light electric shock (for the more stubborn animal).
The collar allows you to control your dog effectively, whilst still allowing them the freedom to be off the leash. I know from experience that dog-training can be a frustrating experience, this is one tool that can help to speed up the process and help you to be more relaxed about your animals' behavior.

Fast Racing for Android

I have just three games on my Android phone now, having just removed the ones I don't play (including 'Angry Birds' would you believe?). Two of them I have already written about on this blog, so that just leaves 'Fast Racing'...

I really enjoyed playing this on my smaller-screen phone, but on the larger screen version (my new phone has a 5.4" screen) it really gets far better. The races get progressively more difficult as you go through, and you build up winnings to spend on  advantages such as starting on the front of the grid or tweaks to your car (or even a whole car upgrade).

The control using screen-tilt to steer the car is fun to use and the whole experience gets quite addictive - I can recommend this as a 'keeper'. If you download it, you will be sure to get hooked within minutes. I reckon the fun probably wears off after about a month or so - a months fun gaming and nothing to pay - give it a go...

School for Massage

There's nothing quite like a good relaxing massage, especially when your bones are getting old and tired. If you were thinking about a career change with a difference, maybe you should consider the new school for massage.

With some careful dedicated study and practice, learning from the experts, you could earn yourself a recognized diploma within about 6 months or so, and begin a new and rewarding therapeutic career.

We got Pumps!

With the amount of rainfall we are currently getting, you may find yourself paying a visit to www.WeGotPumps.com especially if your house has a basement that is a little damper than normal.

All types of commercial and industrial pumps are available from this one-stop-shop website. The key to successful online selling for this type of market, is to have a large range of items in stock at good prices, coupled with a fast and efficient delivery service.