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The Own Art scheme

turning

Here’s a really nice way to buy some prised pieces of art – be it anything from paintings to pottery.

It’s a scheme run by the Arts Council in England (And therefore only available in England – sorry world.) They provide you with an interest free loan from £100 to £2000 which you pay off in 10 monthly installments.

You can buy whatever you like, and it’s as simple as going to one of the many local arts galleries that are taking part. (There’s a searchable list of participants here).

Take a look at the arts councils website here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ownart/

I just need to decide what to buy now…

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Google Vacking – See the world!

I was going to do some University work today but then I came across the latest Google Hack.

It isn’t as illegal as it sounds though, it just involves you searching for certain terms using google.

Start with this: inurl:view/view.shtml.

You’ll see (mostly) a list of ip address (the four numbers with dots e.g 123.654.12.1) These are actually addresses to numerous surveillance cameras running around the globe. Click on one and you’ll see a live view of where ever its pointing.

Basically this works because one of the companies that sell video cameras has a setup program that creates a path of view/view.shtml. Simple.

You can also use terms like: inurl:”axis-cgi/mjpg”. This one comes up with actual images not live video feeds, but use your imagination and you can probably find the video feed (try this: remove everything after the first part and type in “/view/view.shtml” and see what you get)

Some of these videos have controls so you can pan and zoom them. I’ve noticed a lot of these seem to be actually surveillance cameras (as in Big Brother…) such as watching people in the centre of town – a lot must be controlled at some central base by a human sitting at a bank of screens… have some fun with these nosey people and keep panning the videos all over the place!! (See who givens in first…)

See them before they get locked down! Enjoy.

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Website blog updater.

Last night I added my first real, AJAX + php code to my website. It basically just gets my blog information then adds a list of my last five blogs to my front page.

Look at the bottom of here:
www.akademy.co.uk

UPDATE: The code is in a much better condition now, so please feel free to check it out..

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totd: Registering at Doctors

Do NOT wait until your ill to register at a Doctors.

It will take longer than you think, I’d put aside a week from the point you decided toregister until the time you see a doctor.

You’ll likely need to take in some ID and fill in a load of forms, so you’ll need to know your previous Doctor’s name and address. Once you’ve proved who you are, you’ll probably need to wait another 48 hours for them to process your details and put you on their computer and of course, eventually you’ll have to wait until a doctor can fit you in.

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totd: Purchasing stuff on credit.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with buying stuff on credit, but here’s a little tip about it.

Even if your absolutely sure you’ll get the credit, NEVER put down a deposit on the goods BEFORE you get confirmation of the credit agreement. As, if for some reason (and there’s loads of stupid reasons you might not get it) you’ll have no way of paying for the goods and you’ll have lost your deposit.

Although I personally think it would be a very hard company who wouldn’t cancel the deposit free of charge… (Check my story out)

#flag: tip, credit, purchase.

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totd: Ice cream meltdown.

Hot apple pie and ice cream – my favourite desert. Just pop the pie in the over for 10 minutes if its small, and 20 minutes if its a big one.

BUT! If the ice cream is a bit to hard to scope out of its container, don’t be stupid enough to put it in the hot oven after the apple pie’s, even if it has been turned off for a bit. Ice cream is meant to be kept cold, and apparently so are the plastic containers…

In short: Ice cream containers will MELT even if slightly heated! (Note: it may look cool the way the box folds in on itself, but you just try getting the lid back on…Oh, and I expect melted plastic is poisonous in some way too…)

Doh.

#Flag: tip, ice-cream, food, oven, “Dont try this at home”, funny

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totd: Christmas shop after Christmas

When’s the best time to shop for new Christmas stuff? And I’m talking about new decorations, new christmas lights, wrapping paper, christmas cards and all that stuff…

The end of December of course. All the shops are getting rid of all their Christmas stuff so you can get loads cheap. I just bought some new Christmas lights, that were a quater of the orignal ones.

And if you buy them now you can put them away with all the other Christmas stuff you’ll be putting away soon anyway!

#Flag: Tip, Christmas

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totd: Girlfriends and blogs

I made the mistake of telling my girlfriend I had a blog today and now she wants to know where it is, but I don’t really want her to read it (or in fact anyone I know to read it). But she’s upset that I won’t tell her.

So, if you don’t want people to read your blog – Then NEVER mention it to ANYONE! Its just easier for everyone then…

#Flag: Tip, Girlfriend

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totd: Christmas shop before Christmas Eve.

Always make sure you finish your christmas shopping before it gets to Christmas Eve. There is nothing fun about pressure shopping, not for you and certainly not for the people who receive the rubbish you’ve had to buy them!

Plus, if you shop early, you can have a look around the shops at what you’d like other people to buy you for Christmas – make your christmas list as you go!

#Flag: Tip

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Tip's of the day.

As this is suppose to be an academy of life I am going to try to produce helpful tips to make your life easier than mine. Sometimes they may be silly, sometimes they may be useful, but in the end, hopefully they will be entertaining.

All the tip’s of the day posts will start with “totd” in the title.

Enjoy.

#Flag: Tip, Funny