Kids go free on fun days out!

Theme parks, shopping malls and MacDonalds can all become rather expensive methods of entertaining the kids. And free days out are hard to find these days…

Or are they?

Kids Go Free is a great website which helps you find free (and low cost) days out and activities for the kids. You can search by town, postcode or area for attractions close to you.

This site is becoming invaluable in locating free and cheap days out for the family, especially when it comes to the school holidays! At Kids Go Free, you can find everything from local city farms to museums, walks and historical attractions near you. It also includes directories of “family-friendly” places to eat and stay.

Check it out the next time you’re looking for an inexpensive way to entertain the kids. You could even use this as a bargaining tool so the children will put up with your Christmas shopping over the next few weeks!

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!

Free books for babies

When my little Angel was quite young, we were given a Bookstart token for her to exchange for a pack at the library, which included some free books, a children’s library card and a lovely bag to put them all in. This has been well loved, as my daughter now adores books and is developing quite a collection (she takes after her mum!). Yet I didn’t think much more about the Bookstart scheme until recently.

After having a look at the Bookstart website, I realised that the scheme doesn’t end with that first free pack! Children are also presented with Bookstart+ packs as toddlers, and then a treasure chest when ages 3-4, both of which include free book tokens! Furthermore, there is a scheme run by libraries called “The Book Crawl”, which encourages young children to read by offering certificates and free books when each card is filled with stamps.

This is such a lovely idea to help encourage young children to develop a love of reading. I only wish I’d read about this sooner.

To find out more about the Bookstart scheme, take a look at the website or ask at your local library. I’m sure your little angels will love it as much as mine does!

Technorati Tags: bookstart | free+books | books+for+babies | babies | toddlers | preschool | reading | books

Car Boot Sale!

Despite the weather, we had a really great morning at a local car boot sale! It was just a small, simple one in the car park of our local community centre, but we bagged some great bargains, including this hat and coat for my little Angel:

They’re pure wool, absolutely gorgeous! And the best thing was that they were only 20p, for the set! Can you believe that?

I also found some bargain books: The Cat in the Hat (and also his return), and Sarah Waters’ Night watch in hardback for me, which were only 10p each. We went with a pocketful of change and only spend about £3 in all, though we all came back happy!

When the weather is warmer, we sometimes go to the major car boot sales out in the country, which can take hours to walk around! These sales are such a good place for bargain buys: we’ve built up a huge collection of Disney videos this way as they’re usually around 50p each (whereas new ones are upwards of £10 in the shops), and always look out for mirrors, beautiful vases, fittings and other household stuff that we can buy for next to nothing.

If you ever fancy trying a car boot sale yourself, here’s a few tips to get the most out of it:

• Wear old shoes and trousers: car boot sales can be very muddy!
• Have lots of loose change. When things cost 10p, you don’t want to ask for change from a £20 note! Also, it’s easier to barter when you have the right money!
• Barter for everything! There are no fixed prices at car boot sales, and sellers almost always tell you a price higher than they will accept (even if it is already cheap!)
• Take carrier bags, as sellers often run out!
• Go very early if you want to find the best sales. Later in the day, such treasures will have already been snapped up!
• Go quite late if you are looking for cheap bargains: as sellers are packing up, they are much more likely to sell you that beautiful green glass vase for 20p when their earlier asking price was £2!
• Similarly, going on a day when the weather’s bad will help you bag the bargains, as sellers just want to get rid of their stuff and go home!

Car boot sales are great for buying kids toys too. Last year, money was a bit short so we went to the sales just before the kids birthdays and found loads of great stuff they wanted which we otherwise couldn’t afford. Clothes in every shape, size and design are found in plenty, so if you don’t mind laundering second-hand clothes, there are designer bargains galore.

If you want to find listings of car boot sales in your ares, try CarBootCalendar.com which features all major UK car boot sales, flea markets and antiques fairs. Friday Ads also have regular listings of such sales and you can narrow your search by postcode.

An alternative, If you prefer to keep your boots clean, is to visit visit ibootsale from the comfort of your own home! You can even list items for free if there are things lying about at home that you want to get rid of.

Do let me know if you’re a lover of car boot sales too by leaving your comments below. And if you’re a CBS virgin, why not go out and visit one with the kids? It’s a very cheap day out!

Technorati Tags: car+boot+sale bargains days+out

A blog widget for Mums to be!

I found this gorgeous little widget at WidgetBox.com which I just had to share with you:

The countdown on this one isn’t for me, but shows the due date for my friend who’s recently discovered she’s expecting after a long period of infidelity. I just know she’ll love it when she sees it!

To get your own free baby countdown timer which is fully customisable, visit this link:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/baby-ticker

Technorati Tags: pregnancy baby babies countdown widget free widgetbox

Are you too old to hear this? Try the “Silent Ringtone”

I heard about this on the radio today: a “silent ringtone” which apparantly only the under 30’s can hear. It’s supposed to sound like a very high pitched phone ringing noise (personally, I can’t hear the phone ringing, but I can hear an awful high pitched noise!).

This “ringtone” is used as a deterrent to unwanted youth presence in places such as car parks and shopping centres in the UK.

You can download and listen to it for free here:

Download the “Silent Ringtone” (MP3 Format)

I’m told this may be a good ringtone for those in school who don’t want their teachers to know they have a phone in class! Let me know what (if anything) you can hear.

Lock them up and throw away the key…

Every so often, a subject arises which I simply must air my thoughts about. This may not be something you wish to hear about, and I do apologise for any upset I may cause. But I have to write this post because this evening I saw a news article on TV which upset me so deeply I fear I may have nightmares about it.

The story was in fact good news: an international paedophile ring has been cracked: over 100 arrests have been made in the UK alone, and over 700 suspects worldwide. Over 30 children in the UK have been saved from abuse.

Children as young as a few months old.

This is what distresses me most of all.

Just a few words spoken by the spokesman for the Police paedophile unit, just a hint of what had been found on the “Son of God’s” website, was enough to make me feel utterly sick. It brought me to tears.

As far as I’m concerned, these “animals” are the scum of the earth. In fact, they don’t even deserve to be called animals, for no other living creature would perform such atrocities on their young. In recent weeks, we’ve heard news about voluntary “castration drugs” which could be offered to convicted paedophiles. Why stop at “voluntary”, and even “drugs”?

I hate to write about such a terrible subject. More so, I feel disgusted that such things happen in our world. Yet when I was watching the news feature, I couldn’t switch it over. Like watching a horror film, I had to see it through to the end, to find the happy ending, to know that there are people who fight such atrocious crimes and bring those guilty to justice:

“I’m absolutely delighted with the sentence. He [the coordinator of the ring] could be imprisoned for a very, very long time,” said Michele Elliott, founder of the child protection charity Kidscape. “I am delighted that police forces in 35 countries have come together to ensure that kids are a little bit safer on the Internet.” (Turkishpress.com)

Though thankfully, my family and I have never been victims of such atrocities, I feel so grateful to the CEOP and other agencies for helping keep our kids safe. Let’s hope that these arrests serve as true deterrent.

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Technorati Tags: paedophile | arrests | abuse | protect+children | childrens+safety |

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

Tasty Tuesdays Recipe: Tunisian Brik

Brik is certainly one of my favorite Tunisian snacks! They’re made from spring roll pastry, filled and fried in oil. Unfortunately, not a very healthy snack, though I’m sure you’ll agree they’re delicious and certainly go down well with the kids! We usually eat these when breaking fast during Ramadan (okay, I admit I don’t fast with Hubby dearest, but I do still enjoy our evening meals during this time); though you can buy brik all year round from vendors in Tunisian streets.

Here’s what you’ll need to make around 8:

• A pack of spring roll pastry (look in the freezer department of your supermarket, or try local Arab food shops)
• A medium sized potato, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• A small can of tuna, drained
• 4 Medium eggs
• About 2 dessert spoons of chopped fresh parsley
• 2 dessert spoons of grated cheddar/parmesan cheese
• A dash of salt and pepper
• Oil for shallow frying
• Lemons to serve

And here’s how to make these delicious treats:

1. Defrost at least 8 spring roll slices (perhaps add a couple more in case you tear them accidentally since they are rather thin!). This should only take about an hour; less if you can seperate them.
2. Boil the potato chunks in slightly salted water until tender. Drain and leave to cool for a little while then mash lightly with a fork.
3. In a mixing bowl, break the eggs and mix. Add the parsley, drained tuna, cheese and the mashed potatoes. Mix well.
4. In a large frying pan, pour enough oil so that it’s at least 1cm deep and heat gently.
5. Now, take one of the spring roll slices (careful, they’re easily broken!) and gently fold into a triangle across the middle to make the brik shape. Then reopen and spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the centre of the triangle. Quickly wet the edges of the apastry to seal it together. Hold it by the corner opposite the long side and transfer to the frying pan.
6. Brown the pastry in the oil, then flip over to brown the other side, ensuring the egg in the centre is cooked. Drain on kitchen paper while you cook the rest. Once you get confident, you can cook 2 or 3 at a time.
7. Serve hot with freshly squeezed lemon juice on them.

Most Tunisians prefer the eggs to be broken on top of the other ingredients, and served so that the yolk is still runny when eaten. However, I prefer my method, as I hate the thought that the egg white may still be runny in places too (there have been so many times when I’ve had to abandon a brik because this has put me off!). An alternative to the lemon juice squeezed over the brik is to serve with spoonfuls of chopped boiled onions. Trust me, it’s delicious!

Next week, I’ll be posting my final Tunisian recipe: my version of Koucha, which is traditionally a small lamb roasted with vegetables and tomatoes in a stone oven. But don’t worry, you won’t need a whole lamb or an old fashioned cooker for this one! It’s much easier the way I make it, and is probably my husband’s favorite dish.

For more tasty Tunisian recipes, have a look at these previous posts:

• Tunisian fricasse
• Tunisian Tagine
• Easy Peasy Tunisian Salad
• Tasty Tuesdays overview

Technorati Tags: tunisian recipes brik easy food tasty tunisia pastry

Are we wrapping our kids in cotton wool?

This morning, the BBC news brought an important issue to light: are we too protective of our children?

When I was the same age as my son, I was allowed to roam freely, so long as I was back home to check in with Mum at the times she said. My friends and I used to make dens in the woods, walk to the next village to buy sweets from our favorite shop; go to the best park which was almost a mile away. So long as my parents knew where I was and what time I would be home, they were happy to let me play. And to think I used to complain that they were being overprotective…

But I wouldn’t dream of letting my son go that far alone. He’s almost eleven, and the furthest I let him walk alone is to his friend’s house, just a little way down the street. Even if his school was closer to home than it is (currently 4 miles away, but that’s another story!), I doubt I would let him travel to school without an adult accompanying him. In fact, only 9% of primary school children are allowed to walk to school alone these days, compared to 80% in 1970.

I can only reason that parents like myself and hubby dearest are much more conscious of the dangers their children face these days. It seems almost daily that we hear of children who are hurt in car accidents, abused or even abducted, as in the case of Madelaine McCann. A few years ago, I heard about a young girl who suffered a violent sexual assault just a few metres away from her parents in a local park. My children have not played there since.

Yet, there are many reasons we should feel reassured about the safety of our children: our children’s schools are now safer than ever; there are wardens assigned to our city parks, and many organisations dedicated to the support and well being of our younger generations. Yesterday I had a rather reassuring conversation with a regular patron of my husband’s shop: the gentleman worked for the paedophile unit of our local police division:

“It must be an awful job to be in,” I remarked. I imagined all the terrible things he must be exposed to in his work.

“Far from it,” he explained. “It’s the most rewarding job I could ever have. Making sure this type of person is off the streets and away from our children gives me a great sense of satisfaction. Even helping just one child makes a difference.”

Indeed it does. Despite all the worries I have about our modern society, I am so happy to know there are people like him in the world, and relieved to know things are being done to keep our young ones safe.

Gone are the days when we could let our children play happily in the streets and know they were safe. My son starts secondary school this September, and I imagine he’ll want to travel to school alone. In so many ways, I wish I could wrap him in cotton wool forever…

More information:

• The BBC news feature
• Young “not allowed to play”
• The Children’s Society
• Play England

Technorati Tags: children | safety | overprotective | parents | parenting | concerns | playing+out

Store cupboard staples: a list of essentials you should never be without

After reading Tracy’s article about the freedom of household routines, I remembered a great tip from Marguerite Duras: keeping a list of store cupboard essentials.

This is something I’ve done for a while now. On our fridge we stuck a list of all the kitchen essentials we can’t do without, and tick things off as they need replenishing. That way we never run out of household essentials. There are loads of meals and uses for these items, so even if an unexpected guest arrives, we always have something to cook for them, and have the essentials for keeping things clean.

Here are the basics we list:

• Salt
• Pepper
• Harrisa (Tunisian chili paste)
• Mayonnaise
• Milk
• Tea and coffee
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Butter
• Hard cheese
• Potatoes
• Pasta
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• Tinned tuna
• Onions
• Garlic
• Flour
• Bread
• Olive oil
• Olives
• Lemons
• Vinegar
• Good quality chocolate
• Wine
• Toilet paper
• Light bulbs
• Washing powder
• Kitchen sponges with scouring pads (Spontex)
• Fuses
• Heavy duty tape (gaffer tape)

With these things kept in stock, we’re never caught out. These pantry essentials are also very cheap to buy in bulk, which is great for households on a budget! Lemons, vinegar and cheap washing powder suffice for most household cleaning tasks: vinegar and soapy water for windows, powder and lemons for cleaning dishes, surfaces and floors; lemons for chopping boards (see this post for more ideas). With the food I’ve listed, it’s even possible to create an impromptu three course meal for unexpected guests:

1. For starters, spoon some harrissa and mayonnaise on a plate; drizzle in olive oil and serve with flakes of tuna, olives and slices of french bread for dipping.
2. For the main course, a dish of pasta and home made tomato sauce sprinkled with grated cheese, or an omelet served with potato wedges and flavored with the cheese.
3. Chocolate and coffee for desserts, or if you have the time you can make a cake with these basic ingredients, flavored with the zest of a lemon.

The good quality chocolate and wine can also be gifts for your guests. Toilet paper is undoubtedly essential for any household, and you’d be surprised how useful strong tape can be!

Of course, our list won’t suit every household, but you can always adapt your list to your personal needs. It’s a very useful thing to do, and with such basic store cupboard essentials you know you’ll never be thrown off guard again! In the near future, I’ll also be posting some tasty Tunisian recipes, many of which use these store cupboard essentials with only a few other ingredients.

Please leave your comments if you have useful lists you use for better organisation in your home: I love to read hints and tips about better organising my home.

Technorati Tags: store cupboard essentials pantry basic ingredients meal+ideas cheap+cooking

Save money on your amenity bills (and be more environmentally friendly!)

Hubby was rather wild when we received the electric bill a few weeks ago. He wasn’t impressed yesterday when we had the gas bill…

“We always use more heating/lighting/gas for the cooker/etc in winter,” I tried to explain. But still, our monthly payments have increased by more than 100%.

It’s time to cut down on our use of these facilities. So I’ve been reading up lots about how to use less energy in the home. Not only does this cut down on bills, but it also helps the environment as we use less fossil fuels! So here’s a few of the best tips I’ve found. I hope they help you reduce your costs and environment bill too:

• Use low energy light bulbs. Many companies offer these for free to help reduce the cost to the environment. We were actually given a pack for free by our local housing authority; you can also buy packs of 2-3 from “Poundland” stores.
• Turn the washing machine temperature down to 30 degrees as much as possible. You’ll save 25% of the electricity cost for heating the water, and most coloured washes are still cleaned just as well.
• Switch off appliances at the wall plug, or unplug them altogether. Appliances such as TV’s and DVD players still use energy when on standby mode. So when not in use, make sure they’re not eating into your bills!
• Invest in double glazing if you can. Okay, I know this is an expensive job, but you’ll really notice a difference. Our old apartment had double glazing, and it cost so much less to keep warm than it did at our new house (until we had the new windows installed). In the long run, you’ll save a lot of money!
• Draftproof your home: letterboxes, ill fitting doors and windows can all become more efficient by installing draft-proof fuzzy tape. Many local authorities in the UK will do this as a free service (or very cheaply) if you make an application; in many cases, this includes cavity wall and water heater installation.
• Invest in a washing line and some pegs! Tumble dryers use up so much electricity to get clothes dry. I’ve barely used mine at all these past few weeks. In fact, only once because it rained solid for three days…

When I discover some more tips I’ll be sure to post them here. In the meantime, you should also check out these websites for more information on reducing your bills/making your home a more environmentally friendly place:

• Energy Saving Trust
• Free energy efficiency advice for your home
• The Energy Partnership

Technorati Tags: energy efficiency low+energy light+bulbs saving+money electricity gas bills environment

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

Free Blog Design Giveaway!

Everyday Mommy is giving away a free Blogger or Typepad makeover as a Mother’s Day Giveaway! What a great idea! To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, simply leave a comment on Everyday Mommy’s post here explaining why you’d like the blog design, and including a link to your URL.

Good luck!

Technorati Tags: blog+design| giveaway| free| everyday+mommy| blogging

Using Haloscan to enable trackbacks (only) in New Blogger

Trackbacks are a way of linking blogs to each other when referencing another blogger’s post. They’re quite useful and interesting to use, but unfortunately Blogger has not yet made this an inherent feature of the new Blogger software.

As an alternative, I decided to install Haloscan on my blog, to enable trackback links. So far, I’ve found Haloscan to be very useful! It has a feature where you can automatically install Haloscan comments and trackback features into your Blogger template, which is great for those who have a classic template and don’t wish to use Blogger’s comments system.

Unfortunately, I don’t fall into either category: my template is now heavily modified, and I do want to use Blogger’s comments! So I tried to install only the trackback links. Big problems there…

To cut a (very) long story short, I believe I have found the way to do this. Here’s my step by step guide to what has worked for me:

1. Get yourself a free account with Haloscan
2. Once you have your account (and most importantly, your username), open your Blogger dashboard, then click on Template>Edit HTML. Ensure “expand widgets” is ticked.
   Just before the closing head tag, insert this code, being sure to replace “yourhaloscanusername” with your appropriate UN:

   <script src=”http://www.haloscan.com/load/yourhaloscanusername”
   type=”text/javascript”>

3. Then add this code where you want your Trackback link to appear, again replacing the username:
   

   <a class=’comment-link’
   expr:href=’”http://www.haloscan.com/tb/yourhaloscanusername/” + data:post.id +
   “/”‘ expr:onclick=’”HaloScanTB(” + “\”"+ data:post.id + “\”" + “);return
   false;”‘><script
   type=’text/javascript’>postCountTB(‘<data:post.id/>’);</script></a>

4. I included this just after the comment link as in the following example:
   

   <b:if cond=’data:post.allowComments’> <a
   class=’comment-link’ expr:href=’data:post.addCommentUrl’
   expr:onclick=’data:post.addCommentOnclick’><b:if
   cond=’data:post.numComments == 1′>1
   <data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/>
   data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>
   </b:if> </b:if><a class=’comment-link’
   expr:href=’”http://www.haloscan.com/tb/yourhaloscanusername/”
   +
   data:post.id + “/”‘ expr:onclick=’”HaloScanTB(” + “\”"+ data:post.id + “\”"
   +
   “);return false;”‘<script
   type=’text/javascript’>postCountTB(‘<data:post.id/>’);</script></a>

5. Preview your template first to make sure everything works okay. If it does, then save your template and begin to receive your trackbacks!

Please let me know if this modification works for you by leaving me a comment below. Happy trackbacking!

Related posts:

• How I set up my Blogger custom domain
• My new blog header
• 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: haloscan trackbacks blogger

Creating a 3 column Blogger template

As you can see, my Rounders4 template now has extra sidebars to the left of the main column. This has been the most difficult, and yet most satisfying customisation I have made to my Blogger template yet!

I won’t explain every detail as this would make my post extremely long and boring, so instead I’ll just go through the basics of the process in order to give you the general idea.

1. I copied the CSS relating to the layout of the sidebars, and made this unique by substituting “sidebar” for “left-sidebar” wherever found. So this:
   

   #sidebar-wrapper {width: 240px;float: left;word-wrap: break-word;overflow:
   hidden;}

   Became this:
   

   #left-sidebar-wrapper {width: 220px;float: left;word-wrap: break-word;overflow:
   hidden;}

   Note that I also changed the width of the sidebar wrapper, as I didn’t want it to be too wide!

2. I then added the new sidebar to the left of the main template by ading the following lines of code just before the “main-wrapper”:
   

   <div id=’left-sidebar-wrapper’><b:section class=’sidebar’ id=’left-sidebar’ preferred=’yes’/></div>

3. Finally I changed the width of the #outer-wrapper and #header-wrapper elements to include the width of the new sidebar.

After much tweaking of margins/background images/widgets and such, I finally have the template you see now. It wasn’t easy, but I think it was well worth the effort!

The only “problem” I have with this template is that things look odd when I alter the layout in my dashboard: it looks as though the right hand sidebar should be displayed underneath the main section, but it doesn’t… To make sure everything worked correctly in all browsers and screen sizes, I did check with Browsershots.org (a free and rather useful service), and everything seems perfect ion all formats I have previewed.

If you would like to use my template for your own (New) Blogger blog, please get in touch and I’ll send you the basics as XML.

Related posts:

• How I set up my Blogger custom domain
• My new blog header
• Using Haloscan to enable trackbacks
• Creating a label cloud in the sidebar
• How to add social bookmark buttons to a Blogger template

Technorati Tags: blogger+template customizing+blogger blogger html

Starting a new business

Today I finally decided to start up in business as a freelance web designer.

For some time now I have been toying with the idea: web design is something I love to do, and after several (non-profit) projects, I’ve been asked by so many peoiple why I haven’t chosen to do this for a living. I’ve been a homemaker by choice for almost three years now (since my husband and I wed, in fact!), and love being at home with the children. Yet, I can’t help feeling bored at times: I need something to keep my mind sharp. And of course the extra money this could bring would be a big bonus for us all!

So, today was decision day, and tomorrow I’ll get started. So many things to do in order to get my new business off the ground!

I’m thinking about calling my website AF Designs (my initials, in case you were wondering). Short and simple, nothing fancy, in order to reflect my ethical standards. I really would appreciate any hints and advice along my journey to fully fledged business-dom!

More on this project coming soon…

Technorati Tags: business+startup| web+design| money| self+employment| working+from+home| sahm

How to use lemons to help get the housework done super-fast!

My sister-in-law has a lemon tree growing in her garden, and has taught me some wonderful things you can do with lemons around the home:

• For washing up, fill the bowl with hot water, a dash of soap-powder and half a lemon. Wash in this solution and rinse with clean water. This will clean the dishes much better than any branded washing-up liquid, and makes glass gleam!
• Soak burnt pans in the above solution, then finish with a scouring sponge to restore them almost to new.
• The lemon-soap solution is great for cutting grease and grime on walls and surfaces too.
• Use half a lemon dipped in salt to clean chopping boards.
• To make the kitchen smell wonderful, place lemon peel on a baking tray and bake in an oven heated to 180 degrees farenheight for 20 minutes.

Please feel free to post your ideas for using lemons in the home. I love to discover new ways to use my favorite fruit!

Technorati Tags: lemons| housework| sahm| household| hints| housewife| cleaning

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

My love of designer cosmetics

I have to admit that I’m a sucker when it comes to expensive make-up. I tell myself that since I don’t wear much make-up, it’s worth splashing out a little more on something that will make me feel like a godess when I do wear it!

Unfortunately, designer brands are not cheap. In fact, if I want to buy my favorite Chanel lippy I have to save up my make-up allowance for at least a month! Unless, I manage to get it some other way…

My Boots Advantage card is one of the most prized pieces of plastic in my wallet. Each time I make a purchase from the chemist (nappies, baby wipes, shampoo…), I earn points to spend in store, which I usually save for weeks on end to buy myself yummy goddess treats. Like my lipsticks, for instance. Best of all, the scheme is completely free!

Better still, the counter assistants are always helpful and make me feel well-pampered; it doesn’t matter to them that the make-up is bought with points, since they still earn their comission from the sale! And so, I come away with loads of samples too-perfume, mascaras, lipgloss. Whatever new ranges are being launched. My make-up bag is crammed with these luscious tit-bits, and for the most part, they didn’t cost me a penny!

Now that’s a yummy treat for thrifty mums!

Technorati Tags: designer| cosmetics| freebies| free| chanel| dior| estee+lauder| boots| chemist| advantage+card

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

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…

Site Map

Blog

General discussion, articles and useful information.

Categories:

• Announcements
• Anonymity
• Blogging
• Cryptography
• Education
• Espionage
• General
• GSM/Mobile Phones
• Hacking
• Information
• Internet
• Mind Games…
• Privacy
• Security
• Technology
• Tools

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General

• About the site and author
• Support the site
• Contact Kunoichi

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Forums

The Urban Kunoichi Forums

Use the forums to discuss anything from computer security to GSM solutions, literature, riddles and more…

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Riddle (The Memory Palace)

Play my online riddle, The Memory Palace, a creepy story based riddle which will have you guessing to the very end…

The Memory Palace home page

Begin the riddle

Hall of Fame

Riddle requirements

Hints

Credits

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Tools

Find useful online tools and downloads here (updated regularly)

Tools home page

Free Nokia DCT4 Unlock

Nokia Security Mastercode

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Free online unlocking and security mastercodes on site!

Now you can unlock your Nokia handset for free here on Kunoichi.info! Also, if you hve lost/forgotten your Nokia security code, you can generate a Master Code online to get you up and running again.

Unlock/Security Mastercodes found here

I will post more links and tools in this section shortly. Hope you enjoy these free tools

Tools

GSM Tools now available for your free use here on site!

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:

Transform your iPod into a fully functioning PC!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take your PC in your pocket, everywhere you go? Mojopac have designed a great software application which enables you to store everything on your PC (programs, shortcuts, documents…) on any USB device!

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!

Unlocking Nokia 6630/6680/N-Series etc.

EDIT: Some BB5/N-series handsets can now be unlocked using free software. Read the full article here!

I’ve had many queries asking how to unlock these handsets, so after doing a bit of research I’ve decided to post what I know about it.

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…

Puzzlehacker online riddle

Puzzlehacker is a great online riddle for those of a “hacker mentality”.

If you are familiar with NotPr0n, Zest, Dracula’s Riddle or any other online riddles, you will be familiar with the format. But this one has a twist: it encourages you to learn hacking skills as you play…

Useful blogging/web design tools

Here are some useful websites and tools I have come across while working on new projects. Perhaps they may be useful for you too!

Nokia N80 SMS/Slow Menus Fix

Just a quick note for any of you out there experiencing problems with the Nokia N80 handset. Although it is a great phone, many N80 owners find the menus to be slow, and SMS sending to be ridiculously slow! This is actually a software problem (despite these pesky operators who tell you it is a network problem!!), and thankfully Nokia have released a patch which you can download here:

N80 Software Patch

Free unlocking software for your mobile phone

Why pay someone else to unlock your mobile phone when you can do it yourself for free? Here are a few links to some free unlock software available online.

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:

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:

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.

Now you can encrypt your sms!

We all know it can be important to encrypt your private communications. Now you can even encrypt your private sms messages!

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.

Stopped and searched at customs?

Each year, around 40,000 people are stopped and searched by UK customs officials. A search may take many forms, from a simple pocket search to an intimate body search, or just an examination of the contents of your suitcase.

Of course, such searches are a matter of proceedure for these officials in order to protect our borders and prevent illegal goods from entering the country. However, this doesn’t stop most people feeling distressed or humiliated in this situation, and wonder why they have been targeted. In this post, I will outline the reasons and proceedures for searches at customs, and explain your right when faced with such a situation.

Send “Masked” SMS!

Masked SMS can appear to come from any sender, in alphanumerical form (e.g: 666, 555555555, 1234567890, “Kunoichi” or “kun01c4i”), and can be quite useful for pranks, or if you want replies to be sent to your own phone.

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.

How to “Unlock” Mobile Phones

Most mobile phone handsets are “locked” to a particular network. That is, they are programmed only to work with the sim card they were originaly sold with. This can be frustratin if you wish to change your service provider! Of course, there are many retail outlets who can “unlock” your handset to accept all sim cards for a fee. But it is usually cheaper (and more useful) to be able to do this for yourelf!

Nokia “stealth” phones revealed

Recently there have been a number of “Stealth” or “Spy” mobile phones coming on to the market which can (allegedly) be used to intercept calls and SMS. Readers of my blog may recall my recent post, Intercepting SMS/Text Messages in which I discussed a few of the possibilities for such use. After a bit more research into the subject, I can now detail more information on these “Stealth phones” and their uses.

How to Turn Your Mobile Phone into a Covert Listening Device

You may have heard of Nokia Spy Phones (or “Stealth” phones as they are sometimes known). Here are some examples. So how would you like to turn your own phone into a covert listening device? Here’s how….

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

Finding and Tracing UK phone numbers

Finding or tracing personal phone numbers in the UK is no easy task. I don't pretend to know all the answers, but I can offer a few useful tips.

Let's divide this article into three sections:

• Finding a number, when you know the name of who you want to call
• Tracing a number, for when you want to know who has called you.
• Avoiding your own number being found or traced.

Finding a phone number:

The first place most of us look when trying to find someone's number is BT Directory Enquiries. Despite being charged to call this service, it is still free to use online. Ideally, you will need to know the surname, first initial and the town (or you will almost certainly end up with more results than you can manage!). 192.com also alows you to search the telephone directory for free, and is often more useful if you want to search nationwide rather than just in one place.

However, more and more people these days choose to be ex-directory (their home phone numbers are not publically listed). If you think this might be the case, you could try searching for the name of anyone else who might live with the subject. Also, try searching for the person online as described in my previous article to see if anything comes up. But be warned: if someone doesn't want to disclose their home phone number, you are unlikely to be able to find it!

Finding a mobile phone number is even more difficult as there is currently no obligatory listings directory for mobile phone numbers. However, there are a couple of websites where people can submit their details and consent to being listed:

• Mobile 118
• Mobile Phone Numbers

Tracing a phone number:

In the US, there are several services which enable you to reverse look up any phone number. However, in the UK, this is almost impossible for the average citizen.

BT will look up a number on your phone bill for you if you submit a query, and will trace nuisence calls to your landline. However, they cannot tell you who a number belongs to if you cannot offer one of these reasons for your query.

UK Phone Info can trace landline numbers to a location and offer some basic information about mobile numbers on their website. This is the only UK Phone number lookup I have found which offers services to UK based numbers, and though basic it can be helpful if you already have an idea about who the number may belong to.

Investigative Resources boasts that it can trace any (or at least, most) phone numbers in the UK, including mobiles. But this service comes at a very high price!, so only use this as a last resort!!

You could always try calling the number and ask who it it belongs to!

On that note, a friend of mine believed his girlfriend was cheating on him. He found a particular number on her phone bill and decided to find out who the number belonged to. Concerned that he would get hung up by asking directly who the answerer was, he said that he was Mr. Smith of such-and-such company looking for participants for a paid market research campaign. From this call, he got all the information he wanted: name, address, even date of birth! However, I must warn you careful reader, that I am unsure of the legal integrity of this act, after all, my friend was impersonating someone and elicited the said information by misleading!! (In other words, don't try this at home!).

Avoiding your own number being found or traced:

For any number of reasons, you may decide that you don't want people to find your own number. The first and easiest way to do this is to ask that your home telephone number be ex-directory so that no-one can find you in any directory. Ask BT (or your own service provider) not to include you in the UK phone directory. This is a free service, so you should not be charged.

Additionally, you may like to take advantage of the Telephone Preference Service which allows you to opt out of nuisence telemarketing calls; this is a free service which you can activate online.

With regards to your mobile number, as I mentioned before there is no compulsory directory of mobile numbers, so just be careful that you don't include yourself voluntarily in any! Many Pay as you Go sim cards do not need registration details (Orange always ask before activation, though!) so this gives an extra degree of privacy to your details.

There may be instances where you need people to be able to call you, but you prefer not to give out your personal number, for example, when running a business from home. There are many companies which offer free 0845 numbers and calls to your number are diverted to the landline of your choosing. This can also be useful when moving home as you can take your number with you!

In order to stop your own call being traced, the easiest solution is to key in "141" before the number you wish to call (withholding your number); this can be done on any landline or mobile, though apparantly some payphones do not allow callers to use this function. However, more and more people choose not to accept calls from anonymous callers, and your call may not be put through. There are a few ways around this problem:

• Use a payphone, or another phone which can't be traced back to you.
• Use a calling card: many international phone cards route you through another number so effectively your own number does not come up. Do test this first though, as this is not the case for all such cards.
• Call through a switchboard if you have access to one, for example at work. In this case, the number comes up as "unavailable", rather than "withheld". Again, check this works with your chosen switchboard by calling your own phone first!

I hope the information in this post is useful to you, whatever your telephony need. Below are a few links which may help with any other issues:

• Search for free 0845 numbers
• Trace malicious calls
• UK phone info

Technorati tags: tracing calls,security,privacy,find number,

Finding and Tracing UK phone numbers

Finding or tracing personal phone numbers in the UK is no easy task. I don’t pretend to know all the answers, but I can offer a few useful tips.

Let’s divide this article into three sections:

• Finding a number, when you know the name of who you want to call
• Tracing a number, for when you want to know who has called you.
• Avoiding your own number being found or traced

How to find anyone online

And avoid being traced yourself!

In the days before the world wide web had invaded our lives and homes, tracking people down was a difficult and costly matter. But now, we live in the 21st century: almost everyone has an online presence in one form or another. It has become relatively easy to find someone online, if you know where and how to look. The down side, of course, is that other people can track us down too…

How to find someone online…

…And avoid being found yourself!

In the days before the world wide web had invaded our lives and homes, tracking people down was a difficult and costly matter. But now, we live in the 21st century: almost everyone has an online presence in one form or another. It has become relatively easy to find someone online, if you know where and how to look. The down side, of course, is that other people can track us down too…

By learning how to track people down (long lost friends, relatives, debtors…) you can also understand how not to let your personal information be discovered by others.

********

Let's say we are trying to track down Jolene Bloggs (a fictional name of course!). Note down any information you have about them: full name; aliases and nicknames; last known location; schools and clubs attended; company name, etc… This information is useful when conducting your searches, as we will discover leter on.

But where do we go from here? The first and easiest port of call would be to type the name into a search engine such as Google or Altavista and see what comes up. This is easier and more effective when the person has an unusual name. Otherwise, you may come up with a list of hundreds of people from around the globe who may have no bearing on your search. You should type the name between "comment tags" for best results; you can also search for aliases, nicknames and surname only too. From here, you may find a few leads on your chosen trace: homepages, alumni inclusions and such. If the list is long, you could repeat the search including more information, such as the name of the company they work for, or the last school they attended.

Still no luck?

More information can be found by visiting the company/school/university/club home page (if you know them) of the person you are seeking. It is always a good idea to search Friends Reunited and Classmnates Reunited to see if they are listed too.

You can search the residential phone directory online for free, which details names and addresses. Usually you will need to know the town and preferably the first initial of the person for a good result. However, many people choose not to be listed in the public phone book to ensure that canvessers and unwanted callers cannot track them down at home.

By law, anyone eligable to vote in the UK should be registered on the electoral roll. You can search this online (usually for a fee) at 192.com and Electoralrolluk.co.uk. Searches on these websites can often bring up others who are registered at the same address, and include historical registrations as well as current ones.

Google Groups is an interesting place to search. You can find lots of information in this place as it holds records from bulletin boards from the early nineties onwards. Try searching for names, clubs and societies, places and companies relative to your search to discover any useful leads.

But what if you don't want to be traced online yourself?

The most important thing to do is never post anything personal about yourself online, eg: address, postcode, personal phone numbers, date of birth, and is possible, your real name. This may seem elementary logic, but you would really be surprised how many people actually do open their hearts online, especially on home-pages and chat rooms. Identity theft is a common threat. Be very careful about what you make public knowledge! Here are some further tips:

• Search for yourself online. If you are concerned about the publication of any personal information you find online, ask the web page's webmaster to remove it and check that it has been done.

• Use aliases on chat rooms and bulletin boards. Never give out your personal information in a profile and ensure that any membership details are kept in a secure database.

• Remember that no-one can use or publish your personal information without your permission, so do ensure you read the terms and conditions of online memberships fully before commiting to them.

• Ensure that your telephone numbers are ex-directory.

• If you prefer not to have your details on the public electoral roll (which anyone can search!), then opt to be included only on the "edited register" where your details are kept private. Companies can still verify your address with your permission (for cretit applications, for example), but Joe Bloggs can't find out where you live. However, historical editions of the electoral roll cannot be edited.

I found this post interesting when researching this subject, basically it's a case study of what could happen when someone searches for you online. A little bit spooky for my liking…

In conclusion, here are some useful links to help you trace (and avoid being traced!) online:

• People Search: Search for people in the UK

• Electoral Roll Information: Find out more about the electoral roll, the edited register, and how your details are used.

• UK Phone Information: The only UK based site I have found which helps to trace phone numbers, including mobiles.

• People searching techniques: More information on this subject.

• People search engines: More methods of searching for people online.

Technorati tags: kunoichi,online security,tracing someone,privacy,

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

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!

The importance of learning to hack…

The thing which taught me most about how to use my PC was learning how to hack. To the geeks out there, this will seem obvious, but I can imagine the general population to be aghast at this suggestion. For those of you out there who don't understand why hacking can be helpful to the average computer user, let me say this:

Learning to hack helps you understand entirely how your computer works, and most particularly, how to prevent it from being hacked into!

I am by no means a computer expert. Everything I do know has been self-taught, but for some strange reason, I am the one my friends and family turn to for help when their PC crashes or dies.

Most people I know don't even have anti-virus software installed! So for those of you who don't, here is a free anti-virus program which works just as well as Norton (and doesn't eat all your pocket money either!).

Aside from helping you learn all about your PC, hacking is actually quite fun! And no, you don't need to do anything illegal to learn all about it! Hacking isn't (nescessarily) about getting into the computer systems of major organisations and messing everything up! It can be as simple as changing the start-up screen on your computer, or the look and layout of your website.

Carolyn Meinel's Happy Hacker series is a great place to start learning. And if you already have problems with your PC, try Castlecops for free advice to help you get things right. Believe me, its far better to learn how to do this stuff yourself than pay a small fortune for someone else to do it for you!