"Tuppence a bag"

Hi gang

Amazing how things work....

Just watched "Mary Poppins" - well, just the TV on in the background actually.. wasn't actually watching.... :)

BUT!

Read the lyrics to the next song very, very, very carefully... and keep an open mind while you look back on what happened in 2008:

Mr. Dawes Sr, Mr. Banks and Bankers:
If you invest your tuppence
Wisely in the bank
Safe and sound
Soon that tuppence,
Safely invested in the bank,
Will compound
And you'll achieve that sense of conquest
As your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors
Who invest as propriety demands
You see, Michael, you'll be part of
Railways through Africa
Dams across the Nile
Fleets of ocean greyhounds
Majestic, self-amortizing canals
Plantations of ripening tea
All from tuppence, prudently
Fruitfully, frugally invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes
Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!


Now, Michael,
When you deposit tuppence in a bank account
Soon you'll see
That it blooms into credit of a generous amount
Semiannually
And you'll achieve that sense of stature
As your influence expands
To the high financial strata
That established credit now commands
You can purchase first and second trust deeds
Think of the foreclosures!
Bonds! Chattels! Dividends! Shares!
Bankruptcies! Debtor sales!
Opportunities!
All manner of private enterprise!
Shipyards! The mercantile!
Collieries! Tanneries!
Incorporations! Amalgamations! Banks!
You see, Michael
Tuppence, patiently, cautiously trustingly invested
In the, to be specific,
In the Dawes, Tomes
Mousely, Grubbs
Fidelity Fiduciary Bank!


After reading that, can you apportion that idealism to any major bank nowadays?
I think you can - if you are an intelligent person that is.

(Upset at that last sentence? - go educate yourself! - then come and leave a comment)

Can you believe those lyrics? They were written (or at least, the film was released) in 1964.

1964.

Now, while I don't apportion any blame to the lyricists or songwriters (the Sherman brothers), they seem to have been way ahead of their time in understanding the banking industry.

Lets forward to 2008:

So many banks went under:

Why? Perhaps it was exactly as the Sherman Brothers wrote about it Mary Poppins:

Lets review some lines from the lyrics:

"In the hands of the directors "

Well, sure - we know that they were the ones who held the fortunes of the bank - obviously, they are the ones to be held accountable. No?

"You see, Michael, you'll be part of
Railways through Africa
Dams across the Nile
Fleets of ocean greyhounds
Majestic, self-amortizing canals
Plantations of ripening tea"

Hmmm - odd investments to be sure.

So your money has gone toward investing in these so-called "hair-brained schemes" (well, hair-brained as far as you're concerned - even if you knew where your money was invested!) but according to the bank - "as safe as houses!" - and that has to be the most ridiculous statement ever.

Back on topic.

Lets take each of those investments at face value:

"Railways through Africa"

and lets see if we can make any money from that.
OK - according to Railways Africa, you might have made some money with that.... :)

What about:

"Dams across the Nile" ?

Ok, so perhaps the Aswan Dam was a good investment too (at the time)

Next! What about...

"Fleets of ocean greyhounds"

Can anyone say "Titanic" (even though it sank before the brothers Sherman wrote Mary Poppins...)

Next! (ok, ok)

"Majestic, self-amortizing canals"

Oh, ok - Suez Canal..... but! Read this:

“

"One thing is sure... our local merchant community doesn't pay practical attention at all to this grand work, and it is legitimate to doubt that the canal's receipts... could ever be sufficient to recover its maintenance fee. It will never become a large ships accessible way in any case." (reported by German historian Uwe A. Oster)

”

(Bold in the above is mine)

"There's your first clue, Sherlock!"
(The above line used without permission from the 1997 film "Titanic")

So lets go back a bit. All the investments that these big banks have made, on your behalf, (remembering that they are using your money) in the hope that they'll make more money (and pay you what they promised they'd pay you, in terms of interest payments) have essentially crashed and burned.

During this period however, they paid themselves huge bonuses on the expectation that their investments would pay off - remember the lyrics: "In the hands of the directors"

So.

Isn't it the responsibility of the directors of these banks to guarantee the investments of their customers?

Apparently not.

And now, taxpayers money is now used to bail-out these "directors".

Does this seem right to you?

Make a noise. Do it now. Right now.

After all, they are using your money!

And they're the ones who have made you lose money!

Are you angry yet?

2009 - will this be your year?

Hi gang

Ok - lets cut the bullshit.

I don't have a job. I have a crap-load of debt to pay off.
I can just manage to pay my Internet access before the end of the month.

Don't feel sorry for me - I'm an idiot. I have been, for a farking long time (just ask my kids)

Well, today, it was so damn hot here, that I went for a swim in our pool. I sincerely apologise to everyone who has gone off to work today - that I can find time to go for a swim. Crap, yes I know.

I am one of those who try to work for myself, and its not always easy, and most of the time, its a pain in the ass, and there's not a lot of money attached to it, but its something I need to do.

But I just wanted to let you know that my first thought was: "I want to do this everyday for the rest of my life"

What do you want to do everyday for the rest of your life?

I have a few things up my sleeve, and will continue to work on them.

But my primary thought was, "Gee, if I could just work at home, without all the stress and strife, and not battle the daily commute, but be able to give something back to the world-wide community.... and earn a dollar at the same time - wouldn't that be something?"

Life isn't all about earning as much money as possible.

Some folks will say it is - but really, can the CEO of the Macquarie Bank really spend all the money he is paid? I doubt it. How many things can you buy, and the bigger question is, even if you can afford to buy all those things, how many things can you use?

It might be nice to have an apartment in the Maldives, a chalet in the Swiss Alps, a hideaway in some remote corner of some forgotten continent. Does having those things make you happy?

Does eating in a fancy restaurant make you a better person than me?

No.

I don't know how these people think, but if I had those things / opportunities? Would that make me happy? No.

My wife and I were given vouchers to dine at a posh French restaurant a few months ago. Our verdict? Posh, smosh. Rubbish! Food was passable at best, service was rubbish, seating arrangements were ridiculous, the list goes on. I have no idea what the total cost was, but whatever it was, it was too much. And for goodness sake, this was in Brisbane of all places, not London, not Paris, not even Sydney for goodness sake. We will not be going back there.

So, even given insane amounts of money to spend, it seems that just being seen is more important than anything else, regardless of venue, food, service.

The ones who earn obscene amounts of money for their day job - I don't know how they feel about themselves, but given our experience with our posh night out, I'd rather stay at home.

All I know is this:

for me, to be happy, is to have enough money to:

1. pay the bills (we all want that)

2. be able to go to the local bottle shop and buy a couple of bottles of wine without worrying about that dreaded "transaction declined" message

3. to be able to leave/give something to my children, so they can have a quality of life that is somewhat shielded from this apparent "global financial crisis".

With all due respect, and whatever you read in the media, I firmly believe this GFC has been "manufactured". It has happened before, and it will happen again. Do the names "Morgan" and "Rothschild" and "Rockefeller" mean anything to you? Perhaps a trip to the library might be in order..... :)

Anyway, from one perspective, this has been an inward looking post.

From another, its a wake-up call to you all.

To hell with all the nay-sayers, the doubters, the dream-stealers who constantly bring you down. To hell with them.

If you want to do something, you just go and do it, regardless.

I applaud you, and wish you all the very best!

And to my children - kids, I love you more than words can express. Take life by the horns, shake it and say "I am the king/queen of my destiny. I may fall down, but I will get up again. I will never be defeated by those who think otherwise."

Say "I am who I am - my life has purpose and meaning - do not detract that from me."

If you do this, you will win - every, single, time.

I love you.

Dad

@Lisa_Nova - "Twitter Whore"...

I don't know what it is about this, but I just laugh my head off every time.

---

"Twitter Whore" Part 1

---

"Twitter Whore" Part 2

---

Hope you enjoyed!

Interesting Twitter Stats...

from twittercounter.com

BarackObama (153,171)
kevinrose (83,353)
leolaporte (70,439)
cnnbrk (70,095)
scobleizer (47,321)
JasonCalacanis (47,296)
alexalbrecht (46,276)
twitter (45,517)
guykawasaki (42,801)
Veronica (41,380)
bradzo (72) ..... :(

Hey Robert, at least you're above JasonCalacanis! :)

Windows XP and "invalid boot disk" message

This happened to the partner of a work colleague on his main computer.

Absolute bummer!

"Oh crap", I thought, "this might need a repair install..... *groan*"

But all is not lost!

Reboot the PC with the original XP cdrom.
Move through the screens till you get to the point of installing Windows XP, or using the "Recovery Console"

DO NOT choose the 'R' option to use the Recovery Console.
Just press Enter to install XP. (Don't worry - this is what this post is all about....)

Eventually, after accepting the license agreement and such, you'll be presented with a screen that shows you the current XP installation.

Here's where it all went wrong for my work colleague's partner.

There were no options to select the current XP installation. Bad news I thought. His disk is crapped out - looks like a new disk at worst, a re-installation at best.

But NO!

Somewhere in that series of screens will be something that shows what the current Setup thinks is the current disk configuration, and the current XP installation.

In the case of my work colleague's machine, his *external* USB drive was showing up as Drive C:
His recently bootable internal hard drive was showing up as Drive D:, and there was no identifiable XP installation.

"This is not right", I thought.

SO! What to do?

....
....
...
....
....
....
....
....
....

Yes. Unplug the external USB hard drive and reboot.

Lo and behold and thanks to whatever diety you worship!

His Windows XP PC booted just fine and dandy.

Plugged the USB hard drive back in, and everything was back to normal.

Good stuff.

Debugging an activex dll called from a classic asp page.....

in the Visual Basicv 6 IDE used to work so easily before all the security updates from MS made it a lot harder.

I had an idea for a web app that I could run on my webserver here, but wanted the flexibility of single-stepping through my code in VB6 instead of having to put lots of response.write statements in the classic asp code.

Basically, calling an ActiveX DLL requires the following code in the asp page:

<%

Dim oObject

Set oObject = Server.CreateObject("Project1.Class1")

Response.Write oObject.DoSomething

Set oObject = nothing

%>

That's all the asp page needs to be - the rest of the code is in the Class1 module of the Project1 project. All fine so far.

So anyway, to be able to actually debug in the VB6 IDE, you need to follow the instructions here:

But I still couldn't get it to work. Here's my solution:

Put a breakpoint on a line of code in your AxDLL.

Start your project (Ctrl-F5)

Start Regedit.

Find the Project1.Class1 key in HKLM\Software\Classes

Right click it.

Select Permissions.

Click Add.

Type "everyone" (the everyone group)

Click Ok.

Select the Everyone entry.

Click the Allow checkbox to the right of the Full Control label.

Click Ok.

Browse to the asp file in a web browser.
With any luck, the VB6 IDE will now be active and you can step through the code.

Press F5 to continue running and return the result back to the asp page.

You should see your results.

Now, stop your project.

Refresh the RegEdit page.

See how the Project1.Class1 entry has disappeared? Bummer isn't it? You'll have to go through the process of granting Everyone Full Control each and every time you run your AxDLL project, but hey, its a small price to pay to get it to break in the IDE from your asp page.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

Oh! And by the way, this is only meant for development on your local machine. Once you've got the AxDLL finalised, you can then compile and register it for real on your web server machine. Once you've done that, you'll need to give full rights to the HKLM\Software\Classes Project1.Class1 key to IUSR_???? and the NETWORK service - I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Glenda will do it herself...

I have heard of Glenda Watson Hyatt before.

I decided to type out the first paragraph of her most recent blog post using just my left thumb, as Glenda does. So here goes: current time: 5:05pm.

"In this economic downturn, it's easy to ignore and forget individuals who are truly in need, those who are struggling to find food to eat and a warm place to sleep. But, this is exactly the time when they are in need the most, to know that they are not alone and that others still care."

Time now: 5:08pm. (Italics and inverted commas added by me at the end) - I have no idea how Glenda manages bold and italics in a blog post.

Anyway, it took me just over three minutes to type that one paragraph with one thumb.

If you think you're having problems, spare a moment to think about all the other people in the world who have way many more problems than you.

He finally did it!

The Nearest Book

"Again, nothing by itself is a huge matter, but it adds up, and it's all non-billable."

from The Software Developers Guide, 3rd Edition.

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall or on your blog.

Its a bit of fun.
Grab another book and do it again.

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Human beings are the most....

pathetic species on the planet.

Why?

The only thing that separates us from the animals is our brain.
So why does that make us pathetic?

A little story first.

I was just outside, having a glass of wine and a cigarette, looking the the rain falling into our pool. (Sorry I don't have a picture - my camera is crap at night-time)

I saw a frog swimming around in our pool.

I thought, "what a great life you have - no societal worries on your back (or on your mind)"

As long as that frog has breath, it'll just do what it needs to do to survive.

Think about that for a moment.

Imagine this:

Don't go to sleep in your bed tonight.
Try and sleep outside (regardless of weather) or even, in the closest hallway or corridor near your bedroom. That's right - no mattress, no blankets, no covering whatsoever.

At the very minimum, I can guarantee that you'll want to keep your socks on (let alone a t-shirt and/or shorts) - trust me - been there done that.....:)

I wonder how long you'll last before you have to come inside into the warmth of your home, or your bedroom, let alone your nice soft warm bed.

Ok, now its a new day. Go out into the sunshine all day - forget the sunscreen, the hat, the long sleeves.

Now go to bed outside in the elements - with only socks, shorts and t-shirt (or as you did the night before)

Wake up in the morning - go out with no sunscreen, hat or long sleeves.

Do this cycle for a week.

Are you beginning to get a picture here?

We humans are completely reliant on our brains to get us through - we cannot survive the way we're made, nor the way our skin is, nor any natural way that you can think of.

If we are left to the elements without protection, we die.

We die.

Its as simple as that.

Yet a little frog in my swimming pool will be there tomorrow morning, just like the birds who sing in the trees, just like the Christmas beetle that flew past me this afternoon.

Their lives may be a lot shorter than mine, but at least they live their lives in the best way they can - to survive and to adapt to their surroundings so that they do survive.

I thought that was pretty special.

Can you survive this current global financial turmoil?
Can you adapt to the challenges that face you?

How?, you ask?

Use your brain, I say!

Your brain is the most specialised instrument you have - don't waste it!
Educate yourself - start today!

You can do it! YOU CAN!

Get out from in front of the TV.
Go for a walk around your local suburb.
Look around you.
Opportunities abound!

They absolutely do - you only need to remove the blinkers on your eyes, and see the world in all its splendour to realise that you absolutely can make a difference - not only to your own life, but to everyone around you.

And your brain is the thing that will bring you abundance.

That small grayish lumpy thing that sits inside your skull is the absolute key to all your dreams. Nurture it, feed it, do anything you can for it to grow and show you a whole new way of living.

You have the capability - you do.

Now, get out there and make the most of each and every day - because you have the most powerful weapon ever bestowed on a human being: the human brain.

You can waste and destroy it, or you can treasure and grow it.

The choice is yours, and yours alone.

So are you willing to move from pathetic to outstanding?

I am.

Come and join the journey - I would love to have you by my side.

Get your head out of your...

asinine thinking.

Global financial crisis?

You work, don't you?
You actually have a job, do you?
And you're doing it tough?

OMG.

You have no idea of how people who have a very limited income survive.

And yet you whinge and bitch about how bad you have it.

I'll say it again - OMG.

Get over yourself.

I had the absolute pleasure the other day of helping a family friend buy a new laptop.

This friend is 86 years old.

Read that again.

86 years old.

I'm "in computers". I don't have a problem helping a family friend buy a new laptop. I'll put in a couple of hours to help this family friend.

What absolutely blew me away was the "compensation" that this family friend paid me.

I was quite willing to do this for nothing, however, I received a card, with an amount of money inside, from this family friend.

Now, understand this.

This is a family friend. Not a relative. No ties to the family at all. And who is 86 years old.

This family friend, 86 years old, still found the money to give me for the work I did.

So I ask: if someone, at 86 years old, who doesn't work, and has no other income source, is actually prepared to compensate me for my time, what does that say about the rest of you who do have a job, or own a business, or have some sort of income, and you need something done?

Why won't you spend your money?

Ok, so you don't know how to do a certain thing. Ok - I agree. (Hell, I don't know how to change a fan belt thingy on my V6 Magna) but do I try and do it myself?

No I don't.

I pay someone to do it for me.

Granted, there are a lot of "cowboys" out there (in every industry), who will make themselves out to be your saviour, but, get some references.

Ask for references. Phone those references. Make your own decision about who you pay for whatever service you require.

But - if you want to keep it in-house, remember this: you're still paying, in time if not in dollars, for someone to do the work. And when the work required is not what you're actually paying that person for, and the result takes a day or two to resolve, have you really saved yourself any money?

What if staff can't print?
What if staff can't access the Internet?
Can you really wait until someone on staff who "knows" something, actually gets around to getting in and fixing whatever problem you have? (And what happens when they have to admit to themselves that they don't really know how to fix said problem, and have to call someone else to help them? Just to save you a few dollars, or more importantly, to hide their inadequacy?)

Its a false economy. And what about out of hours? Do you really want to call someone in of a Sunday evening (who purports to know how to do stuff) at 9pm? Are you willing to compensate them for their out-of-hours time? Are they willing to give up their Sunday evening to help the organisation out, just because they "know" a thing or two?

Probably not on both counts.

Back to our family friend.

Given that our family friend found the money to compensate me for my time, (without me asking) I will now say: "If you want something done, I will charge you."

Our family friend found the money (without being asked) - why not you?

I guess it comes back to my old time rant and rave. Education.

If you want to save money, then go and educate yourself about how to do something.

If you don't want to educate yourself about how to do something, then be prepared to pay someone to do it for you.

If you want a "multi-skilled" workforce, you need to spend money on training (education).

If you don't want to, or don't have the time to educate yourself or your staff, then be prepared to pay someone to do the work you need done.

Just like our family friend did. And who is up and running, with no problems, in the first instance.

Because this family friend called on someone who knew what they were doing, and, at the end of the day, were prepared to pay for it.

Are you willing to do the same?+

DES, the Delivery Express System for Australia Post Parcel Contractors,

is now ready for release!

After months of getting the software ready for commercial release, its now available.

Visit its website at http://des.ath.cx:8080

If you know your local parcel contractor, please let them know (and let me know too, because if they sign up, you win too!)


Cheers all round for everyone I reckon.

Have you seen....

it all before?

"While it’s likely that some people in your audience have seen almost everything, it’s also quite likely that there’s nothing (nothing!) that everyone in your audience has seen. There are going to be people who don’t get this reference or that reference. There are certainly going to be people who, given the needle in a haystack culture we live in now, just haven’t seen the particular idea you’re riffing on."

Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/seen-it-all-bef.html

And for me, this is the best part.

You now have an opportunity to tell your tribe about new stuff, stuff they haven't heard (or even dreamed of!) or stuff they thought was "so far out there".

Nothing is so far out there.

Form a tribe.
Be the voice of that tribe.
(People want to be led.)
Lead them!
Profit!

Can you get a tribe together?

Barack did it.

So can you!


Don't wait - start now!

You know, you really do have some good things going for you, whether....

you believe it or not.

Take me for instance.

I have never thought of myself as someone that others might want to hear what I have to say.

I have always, and I mean always, cowered in the back and tried to take the lowest profile.

In the last couple of days, I have put myself out there, and have had such great responses!

I just can't believe it!

For example:

• I am twittering with Robert Scoble who is in China no less (well, not without some problems)

• I am well on the way to becoming a "Compatriot" (a greyhair "consultant")

• I have an opportunity to become a "Geek on Call"

all because I put my "virtual" voice out there, contacted people, told them about myself.

People - you can do whatever the hell you put your mind to - truly - just get yourself out there.

Sign up for all the social media accounts you can find. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed...

Post your thoughts - interact with others.

You will not believe the contacts you will make.

And the best thing of all, there are others who think like you do! There truly are!

You are not an island - reach out to everyone else.

You'll be surprised (and pleased) where your online journey takes you.

Do it now - reach out with your virtual voice.

There are many who want to hear what you have to say.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China gags Scoble but blogging still lives

Thank you, thank you, thank you.....

Theodore Roosevelt.

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html

Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech:

"It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."


Well said.

We need more people like Roosevelt in this day and age.

Image via Wikipedia

I am really, really, really, really excited because...

I am working on something that I think will really fly.

I used to be an Australia Post Parcel Contractor, and with my background in computers, software and databases, I thought there must be a better way to sequence the parcels that I had to deliver than write them all down on a sheet of paper.

So I started with an Excel spreadsheet, where every location was on a separate sheet in the workbook, and every street was listed in delivery order within that location.

Each morning, I would print out my spreadsheet (20 or so pages), take them to the delivery centre, and then fill it all out with a pen. I would then take these sheets with me as I delivered the parcels, and then cross them off the sheet after delivery.

I thought there must have been a better way, and there was.

What did I have?

A big list of streets within my delivery area.
A set of locations - individual areas, connected by main streets within my delivery area, having a set of streets from the master list.
A delivery sequence, so as to minimise the time needed to visit each delivery point.

I came up with a computer program to help me with this, and I used it everyday from January 2007 to January 2008.

I am now in the process of finalising it for commercial release.

Its been a fun, if sometimes painful ride, (those van seats aren't the best !) but its almost ready to go.

So, if you're a parcel delivery courier, you might want to visit the website - regardless of where you live in the world.

Parcel contractors in Australia are paid per parcel. The cost for my system is just one parcel per day per month.

Keep checking the website, because I'll be putting more and more content there as the days go by.

Leave a comment here if you want to. I would love to hear from you.



What do you think?

If you really want to start a business on the Internet...

NOW is the time.

I've signed up for a no-cost training course called The Thirty Day Challenge #30dc

Its all done and dusted for 2008, but 2009 is looking to be massive!

Join Ed Dale, Dan Raine, Phill Mason, Caro and Robert Somerville (and all the rest!) and all the gang for a no holds barred, completely without cost training course on how to build an Internet business from the ground up.

And today's live broadcast from Ed hinted at much more to come!

So if you're looking to supplement, or even supplant, your current income, you simply cannot go past the 30DC

Check it out now.

Can you believe that these sorts of scam...

emails are still doing the rounds?

And worse still, that people are losing their hard earned dollars to them?

COME ON PEOPLE, WAKE UP!

If you ever, ever, *EVER*, *EVER EVER EVER* respond to crap like this, then you honestly deserve to be fleeced of every single last dollar you possess.

Whenever you get an email like this - DELETE IT.
I cannot be any more plain.

This is my education process to you.

I give it freely in the hope that you won't be fleeced by these.... well, this is a family blog.

Learn from this. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.

(Gee - the name Rothschild should be enough to make alarm bells ring!)

Dear Friend,

This letter may come to you as a surprise due to the fact that we have not yet met. Firstly, I have to say that I have no intentions of causing you any pain.

My name is Mr. Lionel Meyer Rothschild, a European merchant. I have been diagnosed with Prostate and Esophageal cancer that was discovered very late due to lack of caring for my health. It has defiled all form of medicine and right now, I have only about a few months to live according to medical experts. I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone not even myself but my business.

Though I am very rich, I was never generous, I was always hostile to people  and only focus on my business as that was the only thing I cared for. But now I regret all this as I now know that there is more to life than just wanting to have or make all the money in the world. I use to say to my self that if God should give me a second chance I would live differently from how I have lived. I was meditating on my hospital bed and something told me that God is giving me a second chance by keeping me alive though doctors said I
wont last long. I know my time is near, thats why I have willed and given most of my properties and assets to my immediate and extended family members as well as some few close friends.

So far, I have been able to give alms to a few charity organizations in the U.A.E, London, Sudan, Zimbabwe I gave donations to the Global Fund for Children, GCF and I met two people over the internet that have successfully distributed my funds to charity organizations in their country. Now my health is deteriorating so badly, I really need you to help me distribute the last of my fortune. I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth. You might be wondering why I did not pick my close relatives for this task, but I once asked members of my family to close one of my accounts and
donate the money there to a charity organization in Bulgaria. They closed the account but refused to donate the money to the organization, but instead shared the money amongst themselves. From the way they are acting around me, something tells me they want me dead so they can split my last remaining assets and money. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be content with what I have left for them.

The last of my money which is a huge cash deposit that I have with a
security firm will be put in your care if only you will agree and are capable of seeing this through. I want you to help me collect this deposit and dispatched it to charity organizations of your choice and let them know that it is I Mr. Lionel M. Rothschild that is making this generous donation.

I am writing this from my laptop computer in my hospital bed where I wait for my time to come. I pray for you to support and assist me with a good heart. I hope we can build a relationship based on trust because I want to do this by all means possible before I die.

But the choice is yours Please you can contact me through this email
address: 
Be blessed my beloved,
Mr. Lionel Rothschild.

I hate ads on my web pages so much, that...

I've decided to take control of my browser, and just not see them!

If you're running Windows, search for your hosts file.
(It may be in different places depending on your version, but its there. Click Search (wherever that is on your system) and just type "hosts" (without the inverted commas))

When its found, edit it with Notepad. You'll see something like:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost


At the end of the file, type in the following lines:

127.0.0.1 mjxads.internet.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pic.adbrite.com
127.0.0.1 ads.adbrite.com
127.0.0.1 banner.tattomedia.com
127.0.0.1 www.britepic.com
127.0.0.1 ads.socialmedia.com



with tabs (or at least one space between the 127.0.0.1 and the actual hostname)

Save the file.
Restart your browser.

Hopefully, you'll eliminate a good number of ads now.
Faster surfing - that's always good especially on a slow connection.

You can always find out other ad serving sites by looking at the source code of the web page, but I'll leave that as an exercise for you!

Let me know what you think.

Here's to faster surfing (which we'll need if the Australian Government goes ahead with its stupid mandatory internet filtering at the ISP level of sites it deems illegal or otherwise not in the best interests of Australians.....)

I was wrong...

about Barack Obama not winning the Presidency.

Congratulations sir.

Loved your use of social media to galvanise the voters.
That is what democracy is all about.