Wow I am still having a hard time believing this is not a photograph!

Have a look here to see how it was done

When I first heard of BT Vision I thought to myself what a good idea! You can finally get TV over your broadband from one of the top broadband providers in the country right?

Well not quite exactly. BT Vision advertises that you can get all the free view channels over their set top box plus TV on demand. Ok sounds good, but when you look into it further you actually need to be in an area that can receive Freeview by aerial so basically the BT Vision box has a built in free view decoder and you don't get these channels over broadband. However the box does allow you to record, pause and rewind live TV a bit like the Sky Plus box does except this is for Freeview channels fare enough its a worth while service (they're not the first). So I decided to look at what  was available from the on demand bit of it, the main reason you are basically getting this box and why you need a broadband connection for it to work.

Now if the website is anything to go by you get precious little in variety in comparison to the likes of  Tiscali's newly acquired service which used to be called Home Choice which offers 1000's of movies to watch on demand. Maybe BT Vision has a lot of content to choose from but if they do, they don't advertise it very well. Tiscali are also offering a service called Sky By Wire which gives you access to Sky Movies and Sports Channels it doesn't however give you access to Sky One which appears to get hold of all those top shows such as Battle Star Galactica, Star Gate, Nip Tuck and 24. What I find the most amusing is what a monopoly Sky has on content, they don't have the best delivery mechanism for their content but they pull people into their platform because of what a hold they have on people who want to watch their channels. Sky One used to be available over other services such as Virgin Digital (formerly NTL Telewest) but I am gathering that Sky wants to keep this little gem of a channel very close to its chest. Virgin Digital also offers a great delivery mechanism with loads of channels available to watch on demand, Sky are only just catching up with on demand TV and if you've got a Sky Plus box you may have noticed the Sky Anytime option available on your set top box now. Its a paltry selection of on demand TV delivered to your set top box at night, which doesn't begin to compare to what's available from the other providers out there such as Tiscali and Virgin Digital.

I have found it so heart warming how so many organizations, celebrities and every day people have gone out of their way to help find this little girl. Even huge organizations like Microsoft have made an appeal on their web site to help find her. Even when I went on holiday to Ireland all the check in desks had pictures of Madeleine.

With the amount of publicity out there right now someone must know something and I really hope that they come forward with information to help find her.

Having watched a BBC 1 documentary on Whistle blower about undercover reporters getting themselves jobs at Tesco and Sainsburys meat, deli and fish counters I was literally quite shocked by what they uncovered. All of a sudden I saw these counters in my super market in a whole different light. At the stores they uncovered  the selling of meat and fish products past their sell by dates, cutting off of bad sections of meat and placing them back on the counter, mincing cooked and uncooked meat and selling it as fresh mince and the list goes on...

What I think was more shocking is that not much more has been made about this documentary and that these large super markets will probably get away with it. All of this was caused by super markets cutting corners to make greater profits, but no matter how evident the documentary was none of the super markets will suffer for it. People will still blindly shop at these super markets because it is what we have always done, others will not even have heard about it and some will not even be bothered.

I think what is the most shocking is that a lot of food poisoning people could have suffered may not have been their own fault, but that of their local super market.

To all those spammers out there, do you have any morals? Does it not worry you that you are cursed everyday by thousands of readers of your spamming emails? What do you hope to achieve by entering adverts for fake Viagra sites into blogs when 99% of people on the Internet will just delete them?

Having watched the BBC program Panorma about the dangers of WiFI I have suddenly become very paranoid about my own two WiFI routers in my house. I wasn't aware until I watched the program that several countries have banned the use of WiFi transmitters in schools if even one child feels ill. If  people are sensitive to radiation from WiFI and cell phone masts they get grants for anti radiation paint to shield their homes or have the antennas removed

You could understand what a massive loss on investment it would be if new legislation suddenly came out over night saying that no Cell phone or WiFi antennae's could be located anywhere nears residents who may be affected by it, or schools where children are more susceptible to it.

The radiation from WiFi antennas could have some pretty adverse effects in the long term on human beings, it could even be responsible for:

• DNA breaking up
• Increase risks of cancer
• Headaches and nausea

As a precaution I have made sure I turn off all my WiFi transmitters at night. As I see it, its probably better to be safe than sorry right?

If you've been suffering headaches for no apparent reason, try turning off your WiFi connection for a week and see if it helps, and if it does I would be interested to hear from you. All of a sudden cable running around my house doesn't sound like a bad idea.

I've been away for a few days in Ireland for a friends wedding it was a truly wonderful event set in the lovely county of Carlow in the sleepy little town of Tullow situated an hour and a half drive from Dublin.We stayed in a large 5 bedroom cottage on the grounds of the Mount Wolseley Hotel, the houses in this part of Ireland are pretty large our own cottage was huge by comparison to the little house we have here in Surrey.  One of our friends commented that the living room was so spacious it looked like a bowling alley with its shiny wooden floors.

We managed to a get a great deal that cost us £327.72 which we spread among 5 friends worked out to be very good value for money for a weekend. Why not take a look at their website if you are planning a mini break away?

No this isn't another scam, its something I have read on the Fool.co.uk and have done myself for quite a long time.

Basically there are many 0% interest free credit cards out there trying to lure people who ring up large credit card bills over to them. If you are clever you can make the most out of this introductory rate, as long as your are strict with your finances.

Here's one example of what I do.

• Get yourself a good credit card with a 0% interest free rate on purchases and balance transfers for a year or more (if you can get it)
• If like me, your work pays for your travel expenses, start putting all of your travel expenses on your credit card.
• When your work pays back your expenses, place these in a separate high interest savings account or a cash ISA.
• When your 0% interest rate ends, pay off the balance in full and keep the interest you have earned and if you want, start the whole thing over again.

Now the above works really well as long as you:

• Are not tempted to use your card for any other expense. This card is only for expenses nothing else!
• Make a note of when your 0% interest rate ends so you are not suddenly stung for interest payments. If you use Outlook or some other email organizing program you can put a date reminder in here so you don't forget.

Good luck and if you have any similar tips I would love to hear from you!

We all know that the super markets we go to, give their suppliers a very raw deal when it comes to buying their produce. They argue though, that this is partly to do with us the consumers wanting the lowest prices but the highest quality. Prices are so low in supermarkets that its possible to live off just a couple of pounds a day if you shop frugally enough. But the truth is that when we buy food from our super markets so much of it goes to waste we buy one and get another free but we seldom eat the free item. Portions we buy are large to big for us to consume in the time we have to eat the produce. Would it really hurt us if we paid just a little bit more for our food just that 50p extra that would be the difference between a farmer being able to pay for his farm or going bankrupt.

Many people have already started;

• Getting your milk direct from your local dairy
• Getting your vegetables delivered from box schemes such as Able & Cole
• Getting meats and fresh produce from local farmers markets
• and there are many more

I am not saying supermarkets are bad or we shouldn't use them, but like everything in life things have to be balanced its called avoiding a monopoly. We the consumer, need to reintroduce the balance once again by making sure we have a good alternative to supermarkets and that producers of food products also have a good alternative market for their food. Choice is good and it has to exist in both supply and  demand, when it doesn't certain factions get more power than they should and start to dictate the way we live.

How many times have you seen the above title? Have you seen it so many times that you were about to skip this blog post all together? Don't panic I am not introducing some get rich quick scheme although I am writing about what I really hate about them!

If you have ever seen adverts on TV that show some poor bloke in a so called dead end job and that he can solve all his problems with a career in IT. All he has to do is get some qualifications from them and he will have a marvelous car, large figure salary, a large house or supervising people working for him. So many of my friends in IT laugh at these adverts, the adverts seem to make it seem so easy. The truth of the matter is, is that when people hire people in IT one of the most important things they look out for after qualifications is experience, actual implementation of what you have learnt for at least 2 years min or more. Don't get me wrong we all have to start somewhere and the money you spent on training will take a long time to pay itself back or for you to see the benefits. There are plenty of other ways to get into IT but just like any other profession it takes time and some people will pick it up and others will find they are better suited to other careers.

The other thing that annoys me is work from home scams. We would all like to work from the comfort of our own homes and earn lots of money for it. Scammers know this only too well and prey on desperate people or those who would just like to earn some money working from home. Usually this is mothers who are always at home taking care of kids or our parents have seen it and thought it might be a good idea. Some of these scams are so intricate, one of them was a CD sent to a friend of mine containing a professionally done video showing a happy couple driving expensive cars and living in a house the size of a small shopping mall. The couple went on to talk about how successful their lives were thanks to this scheme they had come up with. The funny thing about it is how they talk about how wealthy they are and how good their life is, but nothing about how the scheme works. This is usually saved until the end, where the scheme is revealed it usually involves buying 200 copies of the CD to flog to some more unsuspecting people for 50 pounds each! So how do you recognize these pitches?

• The scheme talks more about the benefits than it does about the actual scheme
• You need to purchase something
• You hardly have to do any work just sit back and wait for the money to come in.

Just remember working from home or running a business from home is not easy in the slightest, being your own boss, while it enables you to decide what times you want to work or how much you want to work. If you don't work you are probably not going to earn any income and then starve ... its that simple. Being your own boss also means going on holiday or taking time off sick means no income.