Click to visit: W W W . T Y P I N G M A S T E R . C O M

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As it’s been a while, I thought I’d write an in-depth site review today! Enjoy!

Anyone that uses a computer needs to know how to type. Some people are comfortable with a key at a time, slowly typing what they need to, while others want to be able to type quickly so they can get more done in a short amount of time. Today’s website will help if that’s your goal, it’ll even try and make the process fun!

The site’s main goal is to get you to purchase one of their pieces of software or their online course. TypingMaster Pro works as a touch typing tutor which will aid you to press the keys on your keyboard while looking at your monitor. The next program is called QuickPhrase and allows you to store commonly used text to paste into other applications. Finally, there is also TypingMaster Online which is a subscription-based online only course to teach you how to type faster. These can all be bought separately or as specific discounted bundles.

That isn’t all that they have though. If you know how to type but wish to test your speed, TypingMaster will let you do that through its dedicated website, TyingTest. If you’re not up to that level of typing yet, TypingTest also have a bubble game which allows you to just type one letter at a time but will get you used to where all the keys are after a while playing. Thirdly, TypingTest has a certificate you can buy to prove the speed in which you type - it’s simply a case of spending 30 minutes typing to find your best results and then your certificate with your name and details will be shipped to you.

Lastly, I want to point out TypingMaster Typing Test which is a fleshed out free download of the online typing and game. The typing tests work the same allowing you to pick a time limit, piece of text and speed unit (either characters or words per minute). In the software version, however, you now have access to four games including the one mentioned earlier. These games are great fun in my opinion no matter if you’re a pro at typing or if you still need to gain some confidence, one word at a time.

I would highly recommend TypingMaster’s websites for anyone who wants to be able to learn how to type quicker, more accurately or just wants to feel more confident about their typing abilities.

It’s been a while since I last posted due to personal and internet related issues, however I felt it was high time I came back to give an update!

Instead of just focusing on one website as my updates usually do, I decided to make a new page which turns out has lots of links on it! The page is called Acknowledgements and it’s all about my appreciation for the hard work or encouragement from others.

Presently I’ve added a list of sites regarding Hosting & Design - the sites that make it possible for me to have a blog like this at all. I also have a section for Blog Plugins that add much desired functionality. Following this is a small Personal Thanks blurb, where I give my Kudos to those who have helped me specifically.

I intend to also include a list for Blog Widgets & Hacks as I’ve found some to be very useful, and it’s the perfect page to discuss them. Until I get around to that though, enjoy what’s there for now. And once more… thanks everyone.

Click to visit: W W W . J A N G O . C O M

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In just a few keywords I can explain what Jango is about: free, customized, social networking, internet, radio. Sound good? Read on and find out why I’m raving about Jango!

A few days ago a friend mentioned a song that I liked so I was in the mood to listen to it again. It was by chance that on my search I found Jango. I was somewhat taken aback when the song I was looking for started playing! Curious about the site I found myself on, I looked into it further.

Jango is first and foremost an internet radio station that you customize yourself based on artists and songs you enjoy listening to. There are a few ways to go about doing this, but personally I prefer to directly edit my station and add artists to my favourite list manually - this allows me to go straight into rating the songs. Speaking of which the rating is extremely simple with the option of banning a song so it never plays, liking it so it plays sometimes and loving it so it plays often.

It really gives you quite a lot of control over what ends up playing too. My setting is to play mostly artists and songs that I have chosen, however it has other options (found on the “my home” page) should you want more variety. The majority of songs played for me, for example, are ones I have stated an interest in - any others are from similar artists, chosen because other Jango users like that artist as well as some of the other artists from my station.

This is where the social networking comes in. I quickly found out that clicking on an individual song of an artist will start up a users station because they’re listening to it too. On Jango you can send auto thank you for the station, add the user as a friend, send a personal message, bookmark them (you can also bookmark artists and songs, all of which are available on your Jango home page), or send a quick shout that will show up in your player if sent from a Jango friend. You can also comment on a users profile or on an artist page. When you start up a station it also shows what songs people that share the same tastes as you are listening to should you want to tune in to theirs instead.

Other features include a Lyrics button (it opens a new page on metrolyrics.com), a Share option to email a link or paste in directly in an IM client to a friend, and a Buy button in case you like the song enough to get it from iTunes or Amazon.com. Perhaps the best feature of all is that the website states it is legal and pays royalties to the artists or labels that own the songs played.

A few things I don’t want to neglect to mention… You get the best experience if you register which requires an email address and a password, however, you can still listen to music as a visitor - if you’re willing to put up with the nag screen of course! I also want to point out that Jango is in beta so there are missing artists and songs, but they’re constantly adding more. They’ve made a great start so far though and have not just a growing music catalogue but also plenty of users too.

I haven’t been as excited about any “new” website in a while so I am pleased to tell others about Jango. If you like listening to music and social network sites then you can’t go wrong in my opinion.

Please note: I haven’t been posting regularly so I decided todays entry would make up for some of the lost time!

Click to visit: W W W . F R E E - W E B H O S T S . C O M

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Before I started paying for my webspace I tried numerous free web hosts. Some were good and some were a waste of time, but it makes me sympathise with anyone who wants to create a website for free but doesn’t know where it should be hosted. My life was made a lot easier when I discovered today’s site.

Free-WebHosts.com is a directory made up of many free site hosts out there, all of which are given a score based on certain criteria and can be reviewed and rated by users. On their homepage you are greeted with a little information about what their site is about followed by featured free hosts, new features their site offers and the most recently available hosts that they list.

A few sections are worth highlighting. For anyone dipping their toes into getting their site online, I’d recommend reading through the help pages on the right hand side of the page. If you have an idea of what you want from your host you could go straight to their Power Search which allows you to search for hosts that fit your specifications. If you would prefer to see hosts that are scored highly then head on to their Best Free Web Hosting page instead.

There are a lot of great features available that make it a lot easier to find the perfect website provider for you, many of which you will easily discover while surfing the site. I do however feel it’s important to point out that, although the focus is on webspace, the directory does also have comparisons for Free File Hosting and Free Image Hosting too.

Mostly this directory is an excellent resource for anyone that wants a site but doesn’t want to part with any money. Saying that, you should take some of the user ratings with a pinch of salt - I have seen some excellent hosts get low scores because a few people have had bad experiences and the people with good ones rarely feel the need to go on a free web host directory to talk about it.

Click to visit: W W W . F R E E B M D . O R G . U K

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There are plenty of genealogy themed websites out there but I want to focus on one of my favourites for those of us based or with relatives from the UK. FreeBMD is called that because it freely supplies visitors with information of their ancestors birth, marriages and death data. It has a few points that makes the site unique compared to others out there like it.

The majority of websites only have a selection of information they will allow to be seen before you’re asked to pay. To see the original scans usually has a fee and some years are off limits to guests. Not so with FreeBMD. All the records are available for free and date back to 1837 and up to 1983. The original scans can be downloaded and it’s easy to do a search for the family member you’re looking for.

You may wonder how this can be offered for free when others cannot do the same, but there’s a simple explanation for this which has a good and bad side. Each record is manually entered by volunteers from across the world using the scans of the pages the data was originally recorded on. The good thing about this is that no one is paid so it keeps costs low enough to not charge a fee like other places would. The downside is that it’s a slow process and there are still many entries waiting to be uploaded and, of course, human error can sometimes alter records that what they were intended to be.

Overall though it’s a wonderfully ambitious project that has helped me gather more information about some of my ancestors and encouraged me to volunteer my own time to help out. I highly recommend anyone researching their family tree take a look and anyone interested in helping contribute can look on the website for more details.