Free stationary and business cards!

I’m always on the look-out for bargains, and this really is one of the best I’ve found in recent weeks!

Vistaprint, famed for their 250 free business cards offer, are now offering even more personalized stationary for free! You can choose from desk calendars, holiday cards, postcards and even more. You only need to pay for the postage!

As Christmas is only a couple of months away, this could be a great opportunity to bag a few free stocking fillers for your family and friends. Or you could choose the free business cards for yourself, and use these to help promote your blog!

My husband yesterday received the business cards he ordered to help promote his cell-phone shop, and he’s rather pleased with how good they look. What’s more, as we are now Vistaprint customers, we’ve been emailed even more great offers (free T-shirts, personalized rubber stamps and notecards) which are only available to customers who have completed an order.

Why not try Vistaprint for yourself? As all these offers are free, you really have nothing to lose!

Blogger Buster – Helping you build a better blog

My main blogging venture of late has been my other blog: Blogger Buster. This is where I discuss and tutorial-ize everything I’ve learned about blogging so far.

I’m so proud that I started this blog now! At first it began as an offshoot from Glamumous, since it was here that I first started blogging about blogging with Blogger. When I noticed that my posts about blogging were the most popular here, I quickly realized that I ought to create a blog about this specific subject, rather than clutter this one up with technical info. And it really paid off! These days I get loads of comments, emails and opportunities from Blogger Buster, which really fuels my desire and ambition to blog.

I’ve also developed a love of creating Blogger templates, and have now created quite a few original designs which you can download and use in your own blogger blogs. What’s more, a few people have asked if I’ll create custom designs for them too!

So if you need any helo with your Blogger blog, or are looking for Blogger templates, head on over to my Blogger Buster blog and you’ll be sure to find something to interest you!

Glamumous meets the Chariband team!

Well, at least some of the team! At the carnival yesterday I was lucky enough to meet Glenda of the charity Chariband who was working the Chariband stall, selling bags and badges and generally getting the message out about how Chariband supports local charities. The photo above is of Glenda and Little Angel (looking not-so amused because I didn’t want her wading through the muddy field in her white shoes!)

We were able to see a display of the new brightly coloured Charibags before their official launch date next week. They really are cute in the new colours (Little Angel loved the hot pink one!), and Glenda explained that each small bag can hold five large shoppers folded flat, so they’re great for storing your shopping bags until they’re needed.

Next Friday the 27th of July, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield will be officially launching the new Charibag range at Crystal Peaks in Sheffield. Much as I would love to go, I’m afraid we can’t be there as we’ll be in (hopefully) sunny Lincolnshire on our holidays… However, I do hope Glenda will email me some pictures of the event so I can post about it here.

Chariband hope to raise £10,000 for the South Yorkshire Flood Disaster Relief Fund from the sale of Charibags. You can purchase Charibags online from the Chariband website.

EDIT: Some more Charibag promotions have been confirmed for the near future:

• Sheffield United F.C. Open Day – Bramhall Lane, Sheffield on Sunday the 29th of July 10am-3pm
• Flood Benefit Gig, Little Man Tate – The Plug, Sheffield, on Saturday the 4th of August.
• Floodstock Charity Weekend – The Leadmill, Sheffield on Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th of August.

Technorati Tags: chariband | charibags | sheffield | south+yorkshire | flood | appeal | charity

We’re all going on a…

Hubby Dearest booked our summer holiday today: we’re spending a week in a luxury caravan on the Lincolnshire coast, close to the beach. It may not seem like the ideal holiday solution, but believe me this will be a welcome break for us all.

My stepchildren will be coming too, which is great as we’ll not be worried about them being bored! I only hope that the weather improves for our holiday at least: it seems to have rained non-stop for the past eight weeks. Some even say that it’s rained ever since Rhianna’s Umbrella has been number one in the British pop charts…

But being British, we are optimistic, and always have a back-up plan for days when the weather is too bad to play out. In this case, Gameboys, paper and pens should do the trick. Oh yes, and wellingtons too…

We set off a week on Saturday, so from then I’ll be posting via mobile phone to keep you up to date on what we’re getting up to. While I am slightly disappointed that we can’t get to Tunisia this summer, I’m still looking forward to spending some quality time with Hubby and the kids. I’m sure we’ll have a great time, whatever the weather.

Post cards by email coming soon!

Technorati Tags: glamumous | summer | holidays | lincolnshire | british+summer | weather

Ooh, look what i got in the the post today!

Quite a while back, I posted about my love of designer cosmetics, and how i rarely say full price for them. Well here’s proof: a free, gratis Chanel lipstick which landed in my mailbox this morning. It really is worth signing up to mailing lists for your favorite brands, which is how I managed to blag this lovely lippie. It certainly made my day!

I think the promotion may have ended now, but you can still sign up for the Chanel email newsletter and receive other freebies/product updates using this link. Also, if you visit your local Chanel counter, you can ask to be included in the mailing list, and will be able to collect a little bag of sample skincare and make-up every couple of months.

See, designer cosmetics don’t always have the designer price tag to match!

Technorati Tags: chanel lipstick rouge+allure free samples cosmetics freebies

Cell phone envy…

I know. I’m a grown up. I shouldn’t be jealous of my husbands new, super-duper, fabulous computer-with-camera-and-video-and-mp3-and-all-the-trimmings that he calls a phone.

But I am. I want one too!

The problem is that these things cost so much, and my current contract doesn’t run out for a good few months yet. So I’m stuck, waiting and wanting one so bad! The things I could do with a device like that… I could finally learn to take great photos; make a video diary of the kids; blog better by phone; check my email while on the school run…

Times like this, I wish I could be reckless again!

To make matters worse, the kids have all asked for mobile phones for their birthdays. Of course, they can’t have something as advanced and grown up as hubby’s N95, but still… Are they still too young to have that sort of responsibility?

Their argument is this: “everyone else at school has got one!”. I’m sure most mums have heard this story before, as we did to our own parents when we were little. My son will be eleven in July, and the twins will be eight in August. I think they’re all too young to be responsible for a mobile phone, and no doubt hubby and I will suffer endless requests for pre-pay top-ups. Unfortunately hubby thinks otherwise.

Should I try to change his mind?

Technorati Tags: cell+phone mobile+phone nokia n95 jealousy kids birthday presents

How I set up my Blogger custom domain

I used GoDaddy to register my domain name, as this company seemed the cheapest dot.com domain provider, and also because they supply a free email address and basic hosting account with each domain, which has come in rather handy.

However, I’d read quite a few complaints about using GoDaddy for custom domains with Blogger hosting, so I was rather careful to make sure I did everything correctly!

Please do note that you can only link your site as http://yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com. Not both. It just doesn’t work that way. My advice is to use the www prefix, and if you can make a simple redirect page in your host root, as I’ll explain later

I followed Blogger’s advice to the letter, and everything works fine. Here are the basics of their tutorial, or you can read the whole thing yourself on this page.

1. Buy your chosen domain name and create your account.
2. Once your domain has been registered, log in to your control panel, and choose to “manage domains”.
3. Click on the area marked Total DNS Control, and then on Total DNS Control And MX Records.
4. Look for a record prefixed “WWW”. If there isn’t one, add a new CNAME record; if there is one, you’ll need to edit this record instead.
5. Insert these settings exactly as they are described! For the “Name” type “www” (as in www.yoursite.com). For the Host Name, you need to enter “ghs.google.com“. Don’t change or enter anything else except for these two functions. If this is a new CNAME, click “add”. If you are editing an existing CNAME, click “update” and “continue”.

Before you link this domain to your Blogspot blog, you may well want to check that all the settings are correct. To do this, you’ll need to “ping” your new domain and ensure the host points to ghs.google.com.

If you’re a Windows user, this is quite simple to do using the “command” feature. Windows 98 and ME have a “command prompt” program in the start menu; Windows XP has the “run…” feature, which brings up a box; simply type in CMD, hit enter and you’ll get your command prompt.

Then all you need to do is enter the following:

ping www.yourdomainname.com

substituting yourdomain.com for your domain name and suffix. Hit enter, and see what happens. It should look something like this:

Pinging ghs.1.google.com [72.14.207.121] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=89ms
TTL=247
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=86ms
TTL=247
Ping statistics for 72.14.207.121:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received =
4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip
times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 85ms, Maximum = 89ms, Average = 86ms

Notice that the ping recognises that my site is hosted with ghs.1.google.com. This means that I can (and indeed, have) followed the next step in telling Blogspot my new domain name. If you don’t notice the host is registered as Google, wait a little longer before following the next step.

Log in to your Blogger control panel. In the settings section, click on the publishing tab. Near the top of this page, you’ll notice “publish to a custom domain”. This is what you want to do.

When prompted, enter the domain name you have directed to the ghs.google.com host, including the www prefix! Continue, and you should see that your new settings have been saved.

View your blog to ensure everything works and looks okay. Don’t worry if at first you get a “404 file not found” page: it can take a few days for DNS settings to propogate across the whole internet. You can always switch back to Blogspot hosting and try again in a day or two. When this does work okay, you’ll see your blog exactly how it is normally seen, with the exception that your new domain name is in the address bar. Blogger takes care of all the inter-blog links, page titles and such for you, and even redirects traffic from your old name.blogspot.com address to your new www.yoursite.com address! This is great as it means it’s unlikely you’ll lose traffic or page ranking stats.

Now here’s the awkward part: as I mentioned earlier, you can only have http://www.yourblog.com or http://yourblog.com. Not both. Blogger/Google simply haven’t recognised that this may be important, and only offer the function of linking one address to your blog. But in a strange way, this is good: you don’t have to worry about having two seperate blogs listed in Technorati, for example.

I advised that you use the www prefix for a good reason. Many domain providers offer a single page (often called a “holding page”) with each domain name. This will show when you type http://yourblog.com, even though www.yourblog.com will link to your Blogger blog.

So make use of it!

If you are able to edit the HTML, you could create a redirect page to automatically redirect visitors to your www address. That way, you won’t lose any visitors at all. To make the page redirect to your www address, you need to insert this code between the head tags, substituting “mysite.com” for your domain name. You can do this using an HTML editor (I prefer Notepad).

<head><meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0; url=http://www.mysite.com” /></head>

The part content=”0; means that there is no pause before the browser is redirected. You can change this to “5″ for example, to give a 5 second pause if you also want to include an explanation for the redirect in the body of the page. It is also a good idea to include a hyperlink to your www address in the body of the page, just in case the visitor’s browser doesn’t recognise the redirect command.

If you look at my redirect page at http://glamumous.com, you’ll notice that there is an 8 second pause and an explanation for the redirect. Play around and see what works for you!

Similar posts:

• My new blog header
• Using Haloscan to enable trackbacks
• Creating a 3 column Blogger template”
• Creating a label cloud in the sidebar
• How to add social bookmark buttons to a Blogger template

Technorati Tags: blogger custom+domain domain+name dot+com+address customizing+blogger+templates blogging

… Soon to be Glamumous.com!

In the next few days, the address for Glamumous will change from glamumous.blogspot.com to glamumous.com!

I’ve decided to buy my custom domain, and maintain Blogspot’s excellent free hosting. An added bonus is that glamumous.blogspot.com will automatically redirect to the new address. I also have a new email address: amanda at glamumous.com!

Great, eh?

Technorati Tags: customizing+blogger domain+name domain dot+com blogger blogging

Calling all UK "Mommy Bloggers"!

To me, it seems as though blogging hasn’t taken off in the UK as much as elsewhere in the world. I’d love to read more Mommy Blogs by mums who are based in the UK, perhaps share stories and links.

So if you’re a mommy blogging from our small islands, please get in touch! Leave your comments or send me an email: I’d love to read more about you!

Technorati Tags: mums mommy+bloggers blogger blogging parenting blogs

Ditch the bags and help a chartitable cause!

At the supermarket today, I encountered a stand selling Charibags: heavy duty, reusable bags for shoppers, which not only cut down on waste from plastic carriers, but help raise funds for local children’s charities and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

“What a wonderful idea!” I said as I snapped some up. At only a couple of pounds each, they’re great value, and most of the expense is driven straight to helping our local children.

If you live in Sheffield, snap them up at your local school/supermarket/Sheffield Children’s Hospital, and know that you’re helping local charities, as well as the environment.

You can also buy these online from Chariband.co.uk.

Edit: Glenda of the Charibags organisation has kindly replied to my email and sent me some promotional pics to post (thank you Glenda!). So now you can see the Charibags for yourself in their variety of sizes:

I’m not plastic… I’m a Charibag!

There is a choice of black or blue charibags in a variety of sizes including the traditional “shopper” at only £2, and the students shoulder bag is a snap at £3!

Visit Chariband online today and show your support for our local children’s charities!

Technorati Tags: charity| sheffield| children’s+hospital| sheffield+schools| charibags| chariband

Ninja Email Encryption!

I just came across these neat programs for email and file encryption which I thought I’d share with you all:

Chibi Ninja Encryption Software is a free, cross-platform email and file encryption tools can be used to send encrypted emails and encrypt files in many different languages, including English, Greek, Russian and Japanese! It was created by Kenji Kojima and can be downloaded free from the homepage.

Let me know what you think!

Kunoichi Tags: encryption, email, freeware, free, programs, downloads

Technorati Tags: encryption, email, freeware, ninja

All about Glamumous!

Contents:

• So… What is Glamumous?
• Categories/Labels
• F.A.Q
• About the author

So… What is Glamumous?

Glamumous is my personal blog, a voyage through the realms of stay-at-home-mum-iness! You’ll find some thrifty hints and household tips, posts about issues which concern me; the quirks of parenting and the occasional personal reflection too.

The title, Glamumous, originated with my daughter trying to sing along to to a song she heard on the radio: her little lips couldn’t quite make the word:”glamorous”! And i liked the word: to me, it means “a glamorous mum”.

I started this blog in April 2007 (so at the moment, she’s still a baby of the blogosphere!), and I post at least daily, more often when I have more to talk about to you readers!

Categories/Labels

My posts are all categorised using Blogger “labels” so you can easily search through the archives for something of interest. You’ll find links to all categories in the right sidebar in the “label cloud”; the weight of the font gives you an idea of how many posts fall into each category (ie: the bigger the words, the more posts associated with this label).

Here’s a description of the categories I use:

• Blogging: General posts about blogging/other bloggers
• Custom Blogger: Tutorials and explanations of the customisations I’ve made to my blog.
• Freebies: Free stuff and offers you may find useful!
• Glamumous: Glamour, style, fashion… All things glamumous really!
• Health: Being and staying healthy.
• House and Home: Housework, clutter, tips and tricks.
• Issues: The things that bother me. Things mums like (or need) to discuss…
• Just for fun: Occasionally I come across a little gem I love to share. You’ll find them here.
• Keeping him happy: Come on ladies, we all know our husbands need molly-coddling!
• Kids: They’re great, aren’t they?
• Love life: I’m a mum for sure, but also a wife and a woman too! This section’s about love and grown up things.
• Me time: All about Amanda (that’s me!)
• Observations: Things I see and think about. Things that hold my interest.
• Tasty Treats: Recipes, food and culinary delights!

F.A.Q

Here’s the answers to a few questions you may have about my site. If there’s anything else you’d like to know, feel free to comment or send me an email!

Do you take all your own photos?

Umm, no. Unfortunately I’m no whizz with the camera. Though I am learning! Some of the photos here were taken by me, though the better ones are copyright-free images sourced from Flickr and Stock Exchange. Hopefully when I get a better camera and learn the basics of good photography, I’ll be able to post only photos taken by me!

Who designed the layout?

The layout is based on an original Blogger theme called Rounders4. However, I’ve made some vast customisations to the layout, including the addition of a second sidebar to the left of the main column, a custom header, custom domain, label cloud, etc… You can read all about this in the custom blogger section.

I designed the header, the “about the site” and email logos using a combination of Photoshop and Publisher. Graphic ads are all created by their relevant owners!

Why are there ads on the site?

Why not? I put a lot of effort into maintaining this blog, and the ads help me to get something back towards my domain costs. I’m trying to target the ads to my readers so you only see the type of ads you’re interested in; eventually it will be a mutually beneficial system.

Why do you use Blogger?

For me, Blogger was the right choice: I can have a custom domain and have my blog hosted for free (no need to worry too much about web space/bandwidth!); the new software is extremely customisable, and very easy to alter fonts, colour schemes and the like. Which works great for me.

In the past I’ve blogged extensively with WordPress, which is undoubtedly a great blogging software. In order to use the full functionality though, I needed to buy my own hosting, and the templates aren’t quite as easy to customise in my opinion. Blogger works for me. In the future, I may change, but for now it’s great.

About the author

You probably know me from my posts as Amanda. I’m a twenty-something married mum of a ten year old boy and a toddling girl, who has weekend visits from her adorable twin stepchildren. I’m a SAHM (stay at home mum), and you’ll find me online whenever I have free time!

I wasn’t always a SAHM though. Until hubby and I were married, I was always busy doing something. For me, college and university came a few years later than everyone else: I studied while working part time and bringing my son up alone. Never a dull moment! For some time I ran my own business, and studied web-design in my own time (which is something of a by-line these days). In some ways it’s a relief to be a housewife, but I always need to have some project or other on the go!

Hubby dearest is the hunter-gatherer of our family. He runs a mobile phone shop close to our home and is always on the lookout for new ventures!We’ve been together for over five years now, and married for three of those. He’s my first and only husband and the love of my life!

My son is currently ten, and he’s such a great kid! He loves raptors and is positively obsessed with computer games! My toddling daughter is two going on twelve! A little princess with a love of Disney, her favorite words are “what!” and “Daddy”.

The twins are both seven: a boy and a girl each with their own unique character. They come to stay with us each weekend from Friday to Sunday; all together my kids make such a great team!

We live in Sheffield, which is one of the largest cities in the north of England. I’ve lived here all my life, as do most of my family, and despite the city’s downfalls, it will always be home. Our house is a two bed terraced in the suburbs which we rent from the local council and will eventually buy when the renovations are complete. After moving from a cramped two-bed flat last year, I think we’re all convinced that that was the last move we’ll make for a great many years to come! And since our bedroom is so big, we’ll be able to make another room for the girls to share, if the council don’t get there first!

Lucky me though, we also have a second home abroad! My husband is originally from Tunisia (though he lives here with us full-time!), so we built a house near his family in a town called Jemmal in Tunisia. We visit several times a year, and it’s great to have a home in such a warm and pleasant place!

Now I’ve found that I can also blog whilst on holiday using my mobile phone, which is great! So there’s never be a dull day here at Glamumous!

Technorati Tags: glamumous blogging amanda tunisian+husband blogger wordpress

Are you a robot?

Most of you will be familiar with “chat-bots”, “chatterbots” and the like as may be found on AIM, chat-rooms and the like. But although I was aware of their existence, I was unaware how much they could be found online until I read this article by Jason Striegel. I’ve never been a big fan of IM and chat-rooms (a case of personal preference), but I would like to think I’d be aware if I was talking to a robot or a real life person online.

How strange it is that people use such bots to imitate “real” conversations. Stranger still that many are unaware that they are talking to artificial intelligence…

Since the Internet has become popular, there has of course been criticism that people spend more time talking online than having real, face-to-face conversations. And it’s probably fair to say that when talking online, be it in chat rooms, via email or on IM, our conversations are stifled and somewhat artificial. There are no “umms” and “ahs”, no pauses, no change in vocal tone and little room for genuine expression. In Striegel’s article, he discusses how he was mistaken for a bot on AIM, and that even a chat-bot failed to recognize him as a human!

So I took the “Turing Test” on MrMind.com. And I’m starting to wish I hadn’t now… The “bot’s” responses made me realize more than ever how limited online conversation can be. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I could easily have been talking to a person! Perhaps the “LiveChat” with a supposed customer service representative wasn’t a human at all…

Try talking to a bot with this article in mind. It may be a striking revelation…

Links:

• Are you a robot? Take the test at MrMind.com
• The Turing Test
• Eliza, the AI therapist…
• A.L.I.C.E, the Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity

Kunoichi Tags: internet, chat+bots, language, email, IM

Technorati Tags: AI, chat+bots, chatterbots, robots, artificial+intelligence, chat+rooms, IM, AIM, conversation

Year Zero-A puzzling phenomenon…

In order to help promote their latest album, Year Zero, NIN have constructed a wonderful and rather sinister online “webquest”.

The first site to be discovered is iamtryingtobelieve.com, after highlighted letters on the latest Nine Inch Nails T-shirt were found to spell out the words “I am trying to believe”. Visit this site and you’ll find yourself immersed in the sinister world of conspircies, Parepin, Opal and missing people…

A sequel to The Memory Palace..?

Those of you who have followed the progress of my first online riddle, The Memory Palace will know that the final levels have now been completed and uploaded for all to play.

Finally, more time for blogging

Thanks to all of you who have played or commented on my riddle! It’s been a great learning experience, and a project I have thoroughly enjoyed.

And the good news? There’s more to come…

A blogger’s guide to HTML

Blogs are great: they are easily customised with templates and layouts; you don’t have to input code each time you want to make an entry; even links and images are coded for you automatically!

But there may be a time when you want to customise your blog personally: add something to the navbar; a colour-coded post; a photo album with thumbnails…

Knowledge of some basic html coding is a very useful tool for bloggers (and even for MySpace users too!). Web design programs are fine if you like to use them, but may prove somewhat tricky when trying to adapt code to paste into a layout or post. With a bit of html, you can easily transform your blog into something unique, interesting, and even easier to use. So here’s a quick guide to HTML code and links to useful sites where you can find out more:

Bye pod? How to get back at iPod thieves

GadgetTrak have developed a great free service to help track down the thief if your iPod (or other USB storage device) is stolen!

The power of the people’s internet

In November 2006, the UK Government launched the “e-petitions” system, which allows people to create petitions online and submit them to Downing Street without having to deliver them in person.

Download free applications, games, music and more for your mobile phone

Mobango is the best site I have yet found for free mobile applications, games, music, videos, etc.

How to recognise a scam

It seems to me that in recent months, the number of scams around has increased dramatically. Emails promising lottery wins, letters encouraging you to participate in get rich quick schemes, and even unwanted calls. Sometimes it’s hard to recognise what is genuine from what is not…

Contact

You can contact me using the form below. Comments and suggestions are always welcomed!

Your Name:

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Your Website:

Your Message:

 

Support

If you like my website, you can support my site in various ways:

• Sign up to the site newsletter to receive notifications when new posts are added.
• Link back to my site or put me in your blogroll
• Email posts to your friends
• Click on my sponsors in the sidebar

I don’t get paid for posting to my blog, so clicking through my sponsors helps me cover the costs of hosting. I appreciate any and all support for my site, and will do my best to reciprocate!

You can help fund your own site by using Google Adsense!

Mind Masher #3

Here’s another, slightly more difficult Mind Masher for the series:

There are three light bulbs in in one room. Adjacent is another room with three switches; each switch operates one light bulb. The bulbs cannot be seen from the room with the switches. How can you find out which switch operates each bulb if you can only enter the room with the light bulbs once?

Answers below, or by Email.

Britons fear cybercrime more than burglary!

A survey released by the UK government has revealed that the British public is now more fearful of cybercrime than burglary and crimes against the person such as muggings.

Top ways to encrypt your communications

Encryption is an ideal solution for those anxious that their private communications may be being intercepted and unmasked. Many of these methods have been discussed in previous posts, so I have brought them all together here in a comprehensive article, listing the best encryption methods depending on your choice of communication:

Mind Masher #2

Since the last mind masher was a bit of a trick question, here’s one which is a little more tricky:

Hacking web based email accounts (hotmail, yahoo, etc.)

I found this great article posted by Darknet which details an exploit previously found in Hotmail, Yahoo and other free web based email accounts:

Top ways to encrypt your communications

Encryption is an ideal solution for those anxious that their private communications may be being intercepted and unmasked. Many of these methods have been discussed in previous posts, so I have brought them all together here in a comprehensive article, listing the best encryption methods depending on your choice of communication:

Mind Masher #1

My local radio station has recently started airing brainteasers, asking listeners to text their answers in. I thought it might be interesting to try some out… So here is Mind Masher #1:

You are in a darkened room. There is a candle, a stove and a gas lamp. You only have one match. What do you light first?

Leave your answers as comments below, or send me an Email

Keyloggers: install, detect and remove

A keylogger is a computer program or hardware device that has the ability to record your keystrokes. It can record anything that you type, including your passwords, emails, credit card number, personal information, etc. Most keyloggers are invisible, so you won’t know if they are running on your system. In this post, I will briefly describe the two types of keyloggers, point you in the direction of free downloads, and explain how keyloggers can be detected and removed.

Kunoichi’s guide to cheating partners

It’s an inconvenient truth that most people will be the perpetrator or victim of infidelity during their lifetime. For some time now, I have been loosely involved with a private investigations agency, and can honestly say that the most frequent ‘domestic’ contracts are to spy on cheating spouses. So whether you are worried that your partner is having an affair, or if you are the one cheating and want to know the pitfalls to avoid, here is my quick guide to cheating partners.

Fed up of cold callers and junk mail?

Are you fed up with unsolicited sales calls, faxes and junk mail? The Mail, Telephone and Fax preference services can help you put a stop to all this.

A quick guide to hacking wireless networks

LAN jacking (hacking wireless area networks) has gained huge popularity in recent years, especially as wireless networks have gained popularity amongst domestic users. LAN jacking is still in the grey area of legality: it is unlikely (though not certain!) that you would be pursued for “borrowing” your neighbour’s unsecured internet access for simply checking your emails, but cracking passwords, or using heavy bandwidth could land you in court!

There are many free wireless access points which you can access legally, but for those who wish to find other ways of securing free internet access, here is my quick guide.

Creating Strong Secure Passwords

In this digital age, we use passwords for almost everything: email, banking, Internet access, blogging… You name it!

It is estimated that around 40% of user produced passwords are easily guessed! (Source: Wikipedia). With more and more security reliant on the use of strong passwords, it is more important than ever to learn how to create them.

A note on the Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses

After Black.Solaris’ comments on my previous post, I thought it best to explain a little about downloading the Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses.

How to Deal With Phishing Emails

Recently a Phishing email somehow slipped through the net and landed in my inbox. Usually I would just ignore and delete them, but this one was particularly devious and would have tricked someone less vigilant into handing over their peronal details to a thief.

Intercepting SMS/Text messages

I recently came across a company which claims to be able to provide a service to intercept text mesages from a specified number and pass on the details to a subscriber’s handset:

Kunoichi’s guide to increasing your blog traffic

Most bloggers want their blogs to attract as many visitors as possible. As a relatively new blogger (five months now) I realise the need to promote my blog(s) effectively in order to increase traffic to my site. So after some hard research, I have compiled this guide to help other bloggers achieve better statistics

Free ringtones, logos and software

These days, advertisements for mobile software is everywhere you look: magazines, tv, radio, the web… These companies make a small fortune out of convincing the general public to pay for services which they could just as easily get for free.

So…

For those of you who don't know how to get free tones, logos, wallpaper and software for your mobile phones, here is an article for you!

This is what you will need:

1. Your mobile phone.
2. A PC with internet access.
3. Appropriate software for your handset. Most mobile phones come packaged with a software CD. If yours didn't, then check out the manufacturers' website, where you can usually download this for free. Alternatively, you could use Logomanager or Oxygen Phone Manager.
4. A means of connecting our handset to your PC (data cable, bluetooth, infra-red). If you don't already have any of these accessories, then data cables are probably the cheapest option. You can pick these up on Ebay for only a few pounds. Also, these can be used to unlock your handset to other networks.

Once you have all this together, it's time to get some free software! The best way to find this is to do a Google search for "free gsm software downloads" or something like that (this is one of the best websites I've found). Alternatively visit GSM Topsitez for quick links. Get what you want and save it to your PC.

With most software, you can drag and drop files into folders on your handset. Just remember to put things in the correct folders! Games may not work if they are dropped into the ringtones folder…

And there you go: it's as simple as that. Better still, it's completely free!

In the near future, I will be setting up a website which will feature many free GSM downloads, links and the like (as well as more Kunoichi stuff!). So if anyone out there is interested, or would like to help out, then send me an email. It would be much appreciated!