Well, I tried grabbing 5, one for each family member, but Dixons, in their wisdom, decided to cancel 3 of them. Now I don’t know if it’s because they have a rubbish stock control that let me order them when they didn’t have any in stock; or whether their staff fancied a couple for themselves, but we only have 2 now (which is fun when you have 3 kids!)

Anyway, the HP Touchpads are here now. I’m going to have fun playing with WebOS, but even more fun when the CyanogenMod for Touchpad release starts approaching Beta.

Members of Merchants Discount Health Plan will appreciate the opportunity to access discounts on vitamins, as well as medical appointments and procedures. As a member, you can shop at Vitacost.com and receive an additional 10% savings off their thousands of top brand vitamins, supplements, herbs, organics and natural health care products that are already up to 80% off retail prices. This one-stop shop allows Merchants Discount Health Plan members to select from over 400 brands and 12,000 items in stock. Call 800-319-5243 for any questions about this great program.

Receive Pharmacy Savings With The Merchants Discount Health Plan

Members of the Merchants Discount Health Plan can take advantage of 10% to 85% savings on most medications at over 60,000 national and regional pharmacy chains as well as independent pharmacies. This plan allows individuals to fill acute care medications to treat ongoing illnesses. In addition to neighborhood pharmacies, mail order programs participate in the Merchants Discount Health Plan so members can optimize savings by receiving 90 day supplies of frequently refilled medicines. To use the Merchants Discount Health Plan at a pharmacy, the member simply presents his plan card to the pharmacist when he orders his prescription. The pharmacist then calculates the discount and the member pays the discounted price without having to fill out any additional forms. To find a nearby Merchants Discount Health Plan participating pharmacy or to get a price quote, call 800-319-5243 and a representative will be happy to answer any questions.

NASCAR races in Daytona always attract a lot of attention and this year was no different. A new look to the race plus a controversial finish gave fans plenty to talk about. Gene Haas Tony Stewart Racing gave their fans plenty to talk about with Ryan Newman’s 3rd place finish, showing that his momentum from last year is still in effect. The co-owner of Gene Haas Tony Stewart Racing started the day in the pole position and ran to an 11th place finish. Overall, it was a good day for Gene Haas Tony Stewart Racing. Too bad the day doesn’t count on the score board.

Below The Yellow Line – A Controversial Win

Denny Hamlin grabbed the lead on the final lap and appeared to win the race. However, in doing so, he had passed below the yellow line. This pushed Kurt Busch into first since Hamlin earned a penalty. This put McMurray in second and Ryan Newman in third, while Johnson and Biffle finished in fourth and fifth. Rounding out the top 10 was Gordon, Harvick, Burton, Bowyer, and Labonte. Smoke finished at a respectable 11th place while Hamlin was relegated to 12th by virtue of crossing the double yellow out of bounds line.

Still, Hamlin argued that he made the disqualifying move to avoid causing a crash with Newman’s car. Thankfully, no crash did occur and the overall standings did not change since the annual NASCAR kickoff is an exhibition race. It’s easy to imagine that both Gene Haas and Tony Stewart were happy to have both their car and their driver finish the race intact.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It’s Pancake Tuesday and I ran a quick poll to see what people are having and what they recommend to go with their pancakes. Here’s what I got:

Winners

• Lemon and Sugar – 7 votes
• Maple Syrup – 2 votes

Runner ups

• Strawberries and Ice Cream
• Bananas and Nutella
• Nutella, Bananas and Strawberries
• Sausages and Bacon
• Bananas, Chocolate Sauce and Fresh Cream
• Ham and Cheese
• Peanut Butter, Banana and Ice Cream
• Golden Syrup
• Chocolate Sauce
• Ham, Mushroom, Rocket, Mozzerella and Roulade

I must say the last one does sound pretty intriguing! .. So, there’s some inspiration. What are YOU planning on having on your pancakes?

We’re starting to see some Windows 7 phones on the market (I played with @ProgramX’s HTC one the other day), and a number of manufacturers are starting to enter the market. Here’s a great ad I saw for the LG Optimus 7 which is quite apt for the coming Xmas panto season:

Besides Windows Phone 7, the Optimus 7 also boasts a number of extra applications that can only be found on LG phones including:

• ScanSearch : helping you access real time information on your phone
• LG’s Voice to Text : much better than fiddling with your phone
• Play To : lets you share content on your phone across a variety of devices

The hardware specs on the phone are nothing to be sneezed at. It boasts 16Gb of internal memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with panoramic mode) and an awesome 3.8 inch WVGA LCD. I even hear the battery is great on it.

I haven’t had a play with one of these yet, though looking forward to it. If I do, I’ll post my feedback here. In the meantime, watch the video above or check out their Facebook page: LG Optimus 7 official page

We’re heading down to Malta over Christmas, and the big problem I’m going to have is trying to live without my usual mobile broadband connection. I wasn’t as reliant on it since I got my new Android phone. Sure, I used to mess around a bit with GPRS, but the browsing experience was just unusable; but since I got my new phone and got myself a 3G connection, well, it’s been like opening up a new world. I can browse on my phone, use Twitter, watch Youtube and do all the same things I can do on my computer. To be perfectly honest, I had considered getting a Netbook, but since I got my HTC Magic I haven’t really had the need.

The great thing about my mobile broadband connection is that I can use my phone as a broadband modem for my laptop. It came in great use a couple of weeks ago when I went to a friend’s house to help with a broken computer. Turns out that what he needed wa a driver, but without the driver he couldn’t get online to download the driver. I used the mobile broadband connection on my phone to get an internet connection, downloaded the driver onto my laptop and managed to get him up and running.

Pretty useful I thought!

An interesting case at work today, where a website owner got targeted by a company/individual who had registered a number of domain names relevant to them and was trying to sell them at £3000 a pop. As you can imagine, the website owner was quite concerned about this behaviour and wouldn’t you be? It’s a technique called cybersquatting (or domain name squatting) and is more of an annoyance than a real threat to a business.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say I own a domain called http://www.owencutajar.com. Mr Domain Extortionist comes along and registers the following domains:

• www.owen-cutajar.com (extra dash)
• www.owencutajar.net  (different TLD)
• www.owncutajar.com (misspelling)
• www.owencutajarROCKS.com (derivative name)

Mr Extortionist then emails me and tries to sell me the domains (for many times the price he paid for them). They can use the carrot approach: “It would be a good opportunity to attract more search engine traffic, be relevant to other markets etc” or the stick approach “If you don’t buy the domain, I’ll sell it to your competitor/to a porn site etc”. The initial outlay is pretty low for him, possibly around $5 a domain name, but usually he’ll try and sell them for thousands of pounds each. If he can just sell one, he can easily recoup his costs and make a tidy profit.

So, how should an organisation handle this threat? Here’s some advice:

1. Under no circumstance should you buy any of the domains the squatter is holding. As outlined above, the squatter need only sell 1 domain name and he can recoup the cost of the investment (and then some). This will also trigger off a repeat cycle where the squatter buys more domain names and ransoms it off again. It’s the same thinking behind the “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” approach. Giving in to their demand provides positive reinforcement for their actions and only triggers off a repeat cycle.
2. Realise that this threat won’t go away. The number of combinations that the squatter can register are limitless, so you don’t really have the option of pre-empting the situation by buying up all the permutations before the squatter comes along. It would be immensely expensive and a nightmare to manage. Instead, familiarise yourself with the risks and demonstrate that you will not bow to pressure.
3. Take action. If you are based in the U.S. and the squatter is infringing your trademark, you can take the domain away from them. 15 U.S.C. § 1129(1)(A) states: “Any person who registers a domain name that consists of the name of another living person, or a name substantially and confusingly similar thereto, without that person’s consent, with the specific intent to profit from such name by selling the domain name for financial gain to that person or any third party, shall be liable in a civil action by such person.”. If you’re not based in the U.S., you can notify the Office of Fair Trading or equivalent body that the company that has approached you is seeking to extort money from you using unethical practices. If the situation escalates, you may even want to involve your local Fraud Squad.
4. Alternatively, do nothing! There’s nothing you can technically do to prevent people from registering domain names and the vast majority of squatted domains will just sit there doing nothing and eventually expire. It takes effort from a squatter to register domains and try and sell them, and if they don’t get any traction, they will head off and seek another victim. Non-engagement is a valid technique to deploy in this case, but make sure your own domain is well established and people know where to find you.

I’d be interested to hear from others who have had to face the situation and how you dealt with it. Just drop a comment below.

There’s one for the TV, one for Sky, one for the PVR/DVD recorder and one for for the surround sound. Well, it would be more convenient if I had a single one that I could use for all my devices, something like the Yamaha neoHD. The great thing about this is that instead of having one remote with a million buttons, you have a simple remote with an on-screen selector that overlays on top of the channel you’re viewing, giving you full control of all your other devices.

You can find more information on their website (follow the link above) or look them up on Facebook. It’s not a cheap device, but if you really want one, you can also take part in the Yamaha neoHD Sweepstakes for your chance to win one of these devices and get yourself out of remote control hell. I’m certainly going to try and go for it.

What about you? Do you ever have to suffer through Remote Hell?

I came across a good post that outlines the main differences between using Joomla and WordPress as a CMS. It’s not too long, and goes into what it considers the main differences between the two platforms, notably that Joomla is designed for more complex multi-user content managed sites; when WordPress is more streamlined and lets you come up with something more quickly. Here’s the conclusion that the post reaches:

If your goals call for a blog or even a more interactive website, WordPress could be a viable option.  This platform is highly regarded as the most streamlined publishing tool available, allowing you to get online fast with little to no technical knowledge.  Joomla is better for managing a larger amount of more complex content.  In the end, an expert user should be able to make the most of both solutions.  With all the available plugins, WordPress can be extended to the point where you wouldn’t know the site was power by a blogging tool.  If this platform can’t deliver the functionality you need, a genuine CMS such as Joomla makes a great choice.  The key is knowing what you need to get the job done and making the right choice from the start.

I think I quite agree with that; I’ve used WordPress a number of times, but none of the sites I’ve needed to deliver have had the complexity that would require something more than WordPress. The right choice of software is probably the most important thing to keep in mind; as starting down the wrong route can add time and cost to a project.

The post above is taken from the web hosting blog on Web Hosting Geeks which contains lots of information for anyone looking to learn about hosting their own websites. They have lots of reviews on different services and a collection of great articles that can give you all the information you need to get started.

The data is provided by Twitter’s API and the call can be a bit expensive (takes a few seconds to get a response). For this reason, the results are cached for quick response. The caching also helps the widget scale better and minimises the number of API calls the site makes ensuring we don’t hit any API limits.  Our peak usage so far was around 60-70 widget calls per minute and our server hardly registered any load, so we’re happy that we should be able to take on a dramatically increase load. Bring on!

Time to crack out out our Mizuno drivers and celebrate by sinking a few on the golf course. Well, actually we have lots of plans for Tweetburn, so maybe I’ll just stay in coding huh? By the way, have you noticed that you can now change your size and colours and personalise the tagline on the widget?