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.

To be successful in forex trading you first have to learn about the theory by taking an online course or tutorial. You will then be ready to move onto some hands-on training. Practice forex through a reputable broker on one of the many online forex trading platforms that are available.

There are many free forex options out there for you to begin experimenting with in practice mode. They are known as demo forex accounts and most reputable forex brokers offer them. Visit forex forums to get advice about good brokers who will be reputable, offer good customer service and provide fully functional demo accounts that feature realistic trades.

Open an account with one of the recommended forex brokers and start to execute demo trades without risking real money. You trade just as you would with real money, but you are not risking or losing anything. Instead, you are simply learning how forex works, how to open trades and how to end them. You will learn how to place stop/loss orders, so that you can run your forex trades almost automatically. The software you use to plan and execute trades is identical to that used with live forex accounts.

By the time you are ready to begin trading with real money, you will have the expertise necessary to do so successfully, because you have already had first-hand experience of the forex market.

Time, or lack of it, has been my enemy this summer, so much so that I have been unable to do many of the things that I like to do such as visiting my favourite online casino site. Having a spin of the roulette wheel, playing some blackjack, or one of my favourites, a hand or two of Texas Hold’em poker has been off my agenda for most of the year. With this in mind I decided to make some time and download an online casino site and see what I had been missing.

I have downloaded a number of online casino sites but I still return to 888Games and they continue developing software that has not only had thousands of more experienced online casino gamblers, but newcomers that I had not played against before. I like it because you feel at home and the game play is very easy, with your bets easily accessible through the use of both small and large value virtual chips. Another thing, as well as the usual casino games they have created new and exciting slots games that can only be found on their site, giving more selection than ever before.

So why not join me and regardless of your experience of online casino play, you will be able to quickly and easily get involved in one of the many casino game variations that are available at 888Games.com.