Matt’s Journal

Threadless Sale

Posted by Matt under General

Threadless.com have another awesome sale on their T-shirts, with nearly all of them reduced to $10. Take advantage of the good prices if you live in the US or take advantage of both the good prices and the super exchange rate we have at the moment if you hail from the UK.

Click here to visit Threadless.

Save Money Shopping Online

Posted by Matt under Spendage

I know this is going to sound like I am on some sort of affiliate scheme but I can assure you I am not and I just want to share with you how I save money when I am buying online.

I use two methods to get money off my purchases, let me explain what they are and what they do:

1. Quidco
Quidco is referral site that provides links to your favourite online retailers. The links contain a unique identifier that allows the retailer to provide cashback on your purchase by tracking you from the Quidco site right through to the checkout of their site. Quidco does this in a friendly and non-sleezy manner by keeping £5 a year from the cashback you earn (therefore never charging you) and presenting it in an easy to use format.

I tell you what, let Quidco explain for you

The idea of a site that used referral commissions to fund cashback was not a new one. However, we were tired of these cashback sites making promises of big cashback while they kept half the commission to themselves. We were tired of the endless spam links for these sites pasted across forums and newsgroups.

We wanted a cashback site with a heart (that didn’t look a pound sign).

And from these passions Quidco was created. An ad-free cashback cooperative that passes on all referral commissions in exchange for keeping £5 a year as an admin fee.

And thats it, you can be paid straight into your bank account or through Paypal, its as simple as that!

2. Hotukdeals
Hotukdeals is a forum full of savers who post the best deals on products and ways to get money off purchases. I signed up to their RSS feed using Google Reader and get updates into my reader when new deals are added to the site. Hotukdeals was actually how I managed to find out there were Nintendo Wii’s in stock at Amazon, I promptly bought one.

This is a more simple approach, the site is simple to use and has a great community feel, have a look!

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There is one other honourable mention, MoneySavingExpert.com is a site dedicated to finding ways to cut bills, transfer debt and also save money much like Hotukdeals. Even if it only saves you £5, thats still £5 more than you had before!

Man Shot In Armed Robbery (in Rayleigh!)

Posted by Matt under General

I came into work this morning as there was a discussion about a possible shooting at the Rayleigh train station (about a two minute walk from where I work). As the day goes on, various news sites report it, including the local paper, the Evening Echo.

It reads:

Police believe a man shot by armed raiders had been trying to help security guards who were being robbed.

Detectives said the victim - who has not been named but is in his 20s - suffered serious injuries in the incident in Station Road, Rayleigh.

Two robbers attacked two security guards loading a cash machine at Rayleigh railway station shortly after 7am, said a spokesman.
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The man, who lives locally, was injured when the raiders opened fire shortly afterwards.

Police sources said officers were trying to verify reports that the man was shot as he attempted to intervene and help the security guards.

Officers said the two robbers made off in a white Ford Escort car which was later found abandoned.

They believe the pair probably got into another vehicle after dumping the Escort.

Police have not said whether any cash was snatched during the raid.

A spokesman said the security guards were not seriously hurt.

Wow, big time crooks have made their way to Rayleigh, that poor bloke tries to help some guards and the tossers shoot him. Hopefully they have the CCTV footage and quite a few witnesses have left comments on the article so Police might be able to interview them. Still, its shocking to see gun crime only 2 minutes from your own door.

Take a look at the comments left below the article here.

Additional Resources
BBC News

Did you see it? Have any thoughts? Why dont you leave a comment!

Concluding LOST..

Posted by Matt under TV

Did you see the final two episodes?

Did you expect that (mouseover to see spoilers):

• Jack would sacrifice Sayid, Jin and Bernard for the sake of the group?
• That Charlie would actually die?
• The flashforward would take us to when Jack and Kate had gotten of the island?
• Penelope to gain contact with the island?

So many questions to answer, oh well, at least we know that LOST will be here for another three seasons!

Using Captcha’s to Digitize Books

Posted by Matt under Tech

On my travels, I came across Ben Maurer’s blog detailling his new project, ReCaptcha, to help fight blog/website spam but also help digitize old books that OCR can’t accurately translate.

As Ben says:

You might notice that reCAPTCHA has two words. Why? reCAPTCHA is more than a CAPTCHA, it also helps to digitize old books. One of the words in reCAPTCHA is a word that the computer knows what it is, much like a normal CAPTCHA. However, the other word is a word that the computer can’t read. When you solve a reCAPTCHA, we not only check that you are a human, but use the result on the other word to help read the book!

Luis von Ahn and myself estimated that about 60 million CAPTCHAs are solved every day. Assuming that each CAPTCHA takes 10 seconds to solve, this is over 160,000 human hours per day (that’s about 19 years). Harnessing even a fraction of this time for reading books will greatly help efforts in digitalizing books.

I think its a great idea, if Askimet wasnt so good, I would implement this on the comments system here.

edit: Did you know that CAPTCHA is the acronym for - “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”? I didnt!

Busy

Posted by Matt under General, Update, Work

I havent been able to update much lately, life has been a bit of a blur. Whilst work hasnt been busy customer wise, the office is still a hive of activity. Preparation for courses, making sure that people are being certified once they have passed their course are just a couple of jobs that keep us busy. I have been working on some new projects for the company, trying to increase market visibility via the web and also giving us an overall branding for all the services we provide.

I like the sort of job that I have at times like this, I am able to research and implement new ideas and techniques and see if they work on a very specific target audience. It allows me to indulge in technologies and services that I would have no concept of using if it was a personal project.

Outside of work, I have been busy trying to chase clients (who never want to return calls or emails), sort out birthday parties and squeeze in a little personal time. I helped the preparations for Katie’s Dad’s 60th birthday party, decorating the marquee, getting the balloons pumped up and fixed, attaching numerous 60th Birthday banners all over the place. The party itself was a laugh, 100+ people turned up and her dad received his own weight in Whisky by the looks of it!

To all those I havent spoken to or replied to, I wholeheartedly apologise!