If you tried to look something up on Wikipedia on Wednesday (18th Jan) you would have been unlucky as the site had closed its English language version for 24 hours. Instead of a database of more than 3.8 million articles, visitors were greeted with an open letter encouraging them to contact Congress in protest. So what was it all about?

Well it would seem that there are two bills being considered by the US legislature, the House of Representatives is considering the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) is the parallel bill being considered by the Senate. The proposed legislation is designed to tackle online piracy, with particular emphasis on illegal copies of films and other forms of media hosted on foreign servers. The bills propose that anyone found guilty of streaming copyrighted content without permission 10 or more times within six months should face up to five years in jail.

Everyone will have their own opinions about this of course, but do you really need Wikipedia which has tons of information and I do use it but, I do not understand how this protest will achieve anything. It has just proved to me how little I need Wikipedia and how much info is available on other sites. It is always necessary to check what it says against other sites, anyway, because it is free and anyone can say anything on it so there is no guaranteed accuracy.

Supporters of the bills include television networks, music publishers, movie industry bodies, book publishers and manufacturers. Critics include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, AOL and Zynga.

It is one of those names that when you think of photography the name of Kodak has to crop up in the conversation. I remember not that many years ago when I went to photographic classes the debate about which film was the best one to use and if you did your own developing and printing, which papers did you prefer. In those days there was always a lively debate about whether Kodak was better than Agfa or Ilford; it became even hotter if you favoured transparencies against printed pictures. Then along came digital photography and using film simply faded away. No longer then did we experience the excitement, or disappointment, when you opened up the packet of pictures at the chemist or photographic shop. Why did I take a picture of just Sally’s feet!

Although Kodak did manufacture cameras and other photographic products it made all its money from selling film, then the digital camera came along and now no-one’s buying film. I have managed to find some interesting facts about Kodak and I’m sure that everyone has at least one Kodak product in their home, even if it’s an old black and white print.

Kodak founder George Eastman produced the first camera film in rolls in 1883. The firm Kodak is set up in 1888 and launches the first consumer camera in 1888 with the slogan: “You press the button, we do the rest”. In 1900 Kodak introduces a consumer camera for $1 called the Brownie, which goes on to become a best-seller in America and I had one of those, so did most people I imagine. This I found very interesting, in 1969 a Kodak camera is used by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to record the first Moon landing. Farewell Kodak!

People’s perception of life at university is often well wide of the mark, in the eyes of many it all about drinking and having fun away from the gaze of your parents. Well it’s true to say that in the first year at university, youngsters who have “flown the nest” for the very first time can get carried away by the newly found freedom. However reality soon sets in when they must begin to produce results, or face the prospect of being sent down. My niece came to see me recently; she is in her second year and wondered if I could give her any advice on how to write university essays.

She has admitted that during her education she has always found this part to be the most difficult and wondered if I was able to help. In my work we have published many books which offer coursework assistance help, but what she was really looking for was an online site which could perhaps illustrate up to date material and examples of essays which she could access. Looking around I was amazed to see so many sites which offered student essays online, but as I pointed out to her there is little if anything to be gained through just copying these examples and submitting them. I said that I would actively look for a site that was UK based, recommended by educationalists, and has plagiarism prevention software which is used by the university. So my friends, I must get to work and see what I can do to help my niece on her way to obtaining a good degree. Wish me luck!

People do not like change and I have to admit that I am one of them and one of the changes that I am not too happy about is the BBC’s new look website and it would appear that I am not on my own. Many people have felt the need to complain, however despite people’s protestations that the new site makes them feel ‘dizzy’ and ‘sick’, the page’s design is unlikely to change. As is so often the case with many redesigns, a great deal of thought and research as well as money has gone into a new look and feel. Although website owners, including the BBC, often ask for feedback while a new site is in the beta testing phase, rarely does it amount to much change.

If you remember, Facebook didn’t get rid of the ‘News Feed’ when users kicked up a fuss; nor did MySpace change its new look, when it finally began innovating around music again last year, so why bother to complain I ask myself. What I do know is that when you create a website, or refresh an old one, you need to figure out what people actually mean when they say what they want and how to make that a reality. For instance, Henry Ford famously said: ‘If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse’, which means they wanted to get to their destination faster and so he made a car.” I like that! One thing that I think that I can say is that whichever way you access the Corporation’s new homepage, don’t expect it to revert to its former self anytime soon. Remember, Auntie knows best. Happy searching!

You may recall that I work for a book publishing company and following a recent meeting I was charged with the task of finding a good reliable company that offers website hosting, so that we could move forward with a new project. It goes without saying that we needed total reliability, and also a publishing platform that would be easy to use. I did some research and started digging around for information and was recommended to a company 34SP which fitted all the requirements that we wanted.

I have to say that I was agreeably surprised at the slick and professional way that they set about tailoring our special requirements for a business hosting package and it was soon clear that 34SP.com delivers the very best in a safe and secure online presence with exceptional service and support to help us grow our online business. I certainly picked up some “Brownie Points” when it was seen just how reliable the website hosting, with a publishing platform that is extremely easy to use. They automatically installed WordPress and we were up and running within a few minutes of ordering. An all round success I’m pleased to say, all at a very reasonable monthly charge.

If you are like me and millions of other shoppers you will probably be doing it online. If this is so then it’s likely that you will have started this on Monday 5th December, or ‘Cyber Monday’ as it is being dubbed. This was expected to be the UK’s biggest pre-Christmas shopping online day, with 85 million visits to retail websites expected. The figure is a 15 per cent rise on the year. How do I know this, well it’s all according to new data entitled: ‘12 insights of Christmas’ from internet analysis firm, Experian Hitwise. Apparently ‘Lego’ is going to be the most searched for toy in the UK during the festive period and Monday December 19th will be the busiest day for online food shopping as people scramble to do some last minute grocery shopping before the big meal.

The figures are pretty mind boggling as sources are predicting 85 million visits on the 5th December, 15 per cent up on last year’s figures. Boxing Day could be another big day for retailers as more people go online to check out which stores have the best deals on offer. This year they are expecting to see a massive multi-channel marketing push as brands look to win online to drive web purchases.

All of this of course depends upon just how good your broadband connection is and that is a debate which is beginning to attract the attention of Government, who are looking at the possibility of more telegraph poles with fibre optic cables on them. Broadband will be stretched by the social media in the lead up to and on the day of Christmas, as this expected to be the highest yet, with UK web users expected to spend a total of 25 million hours on the site during Christmas day alone. Oh well, roll on New Year I say!

Those that follow me know that I like a visit to the online casino, but above all I love a game or two of online bingo. I usually play at 888.com but I discovered a new online bingo site recently when I was trawling around the internet, it went under the name of XBingo and I soon discovered that it had a number of familiar features, possibly because it is powered by the 888/Dragonfish software. However, this is a very different site to the one that I usually play at, for a number of reasons.

When you play online at XBingo  immediately you will find that the games brings a different feel to that of many other online bingo sites and the Out of This World/Sci-Fi theme is one that appeals to both me and to my partner too.  You have a set of options in the bingo rooms that you can change to suit you when playing bingo, such as the colour and style of the dabber you prefer to use, as well as Chat Room preferences.

My partner loves it in particular because of the use of social media and XBingo has integrated much of this into the features of their internet bingo site. Another plus is that you can invite your friends to join you by simply clicking on the ‘invite friends’ button in the bingo room and sending them an email or a link. Registration at XBingo is an easy process and there is currently a £5 free no deposit bonus available to all new members. There is also a 300% first deposit bonus for new online bingo players on a deposit as little as £10, followed by a further 50% bonus on subsequent deposits. So why not join me and have some fun at this exciting new online bingo room?

The game of bingo can trace its origins back to Italy in 1530.  The original form of the game evolved as a type of lottery and rapidly spread throughout Europe and eventually to the US in the 1920s.  In the UK the game was first played in the Elizabethan era but with successive political changes (the Puritans abolished gambling) it varied in popularity. It didn’t become widely popular until 1716 and was a game devised specifically for working women.  Within the UK, the game of bingo today is based on a random number selection system.

Queen Anne established a state lottery in the eighteenth century.  The game of bingo, which entails the player buying a card with a set of numbers and then matching the caller’s selection to win, didn’t actually become popular in the UK until the time of World War I, when a Parliamentary Commission mentioned the prevalence of ‘Housey’, which is an older name for Bingo.

The online internet bingo websites are a continuation of the popularity of this game of chance.  Current bingo sites, which include www.888ladies.com and Foxy Bingo, illustrate the huge enjoyment that many players get from the game. They also show how the social interaction between players is sometimes as important as the game’s gambling aspects.

As most people who read my blogs realise I love to play at the online casino and have a game of poker, but above all it’s playing online slots that I find simple and entertaining. Just about everyone that I know has at some time spun the reels, either down at the pub or the golf club, going back to the time of tic tac toe, you must remember that!

Nowadays, the amount of slot games is wide and very far reaching and the rewards when you play slots can be pretty mouth watering as well. Online slots are uncomplicated and are lots of fun and as I have mentioned for the price of a penny you could win $100 or more. There are hundreds of different themes for the slot machine which can include including traditional reel slots, video slots, single line slots, multi-line slots, and as I have seen more and more appear every time I play online! For me I do love the progressive jackpots and also one I tried last night video poker slots.

So if you have not played online slots, which you will find the easiest casino games to learn and win at, why not join me and play online at 777.com and try your luck on the slots today and imagine what you’d spend your winnings on! Have fun!

The news that Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chief executive of US technology giant Apple, has died at the age of 56 has hit the world of technology when the news broke here in the UK today. Like most people I suppose I have one Apple product, mine is an iPod and I know that many in our office have a number of Apple products including iPads and iPhone’s.

Steve has certainly been the driving force behind the revival of the Apple brand which at one time looked as though it would go under, many including myself thought that it was the iPod mp3 player which was their saviour, just about everyone I know has one. Steve Jobs was apparently a forthright and demanding leader who could take niche technologies – such as the mouse and graphical user interface, using onscreen icons rather than text – and make them popular with the general public. He introduced the colourful iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad to the world. His death came just a day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4S model.

He was a remarkable man in many ways an example being that he dropped out of college after being there for only six months and went travelling in India, where he became a Buddhist. In 1976 he and a school friend Steve Wozniak launched Apple and produced the first Apple computer which sold later that year. Following some disputes he left the company in 1985 but returned in 1996 and became CEO in 1997. Jobs announced he was suffering from pancreatic cancer in 2004 and the technology world has lost a remarkable man.