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1. Take Notes

Now this might sound patronising, but taking notes is one of the best tips I have ever heard. When I spent a day phoning various providers, I took as many notes as I possibly could on what they had to offer and for how much. At the end of the day, I scanned through all of my notes and in my own time (without having to listen to a pushy salesman) I decided what was best for ME.

Some things that are definitely worth asking/writing down are:

• How long the contract will last?
• How much the monthly bill will cost INCLUDING line rental? (even if you are not interested in using a phone, phone line rental is compulsory for broadband)
• Are there any upfront/one off costs?
• Is there a maximum monthly download limit?

2. Suck Up!

Whilst I was haggling with a BT salesman over the phone, I decided to drop the line of “I really want to switch over to BT but unfortunately Virgin Media are offering a cheaper deal”. Instantaneously, the salesman had “accidentally been reading the wrong pricing” and my offer dropped by £2 from £22 to £20 (not including line rental).

Try this little punch line out next time your talking to a tele salesman as they are more than often scripted to offer you a cheaper deal. As they now know you are aware of a cheaper deal from a different company and will do almost anything to get your business.

3. Local Speed Test

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest/

Before you even bother trying to haggle for the best deal, you need to know which service providers are providing the fastest speeds in your local area.

In advertisements, all providers will tell you a maximum download speed of lets say, 50mb. However, this is only an estimate and you are extremely unlikely to reach speeds that high. For example, my previous provider (TalkTalk) told me i would get an ‘estimated’ 24mb download speed. Various tests show that even in quiet times, i was getting 1.6mb max!

Luckily, Uswitch.com have provided us with a local speed test that gives you an average of what speed you are likely to get depending on which provider you choose in your local area. Click here for the speed test.

As you can see from the picture below, Uswitch have a nice user interface which clearly displays the download and upload speed of each available service provider. If your interested, I switched to Virgin Media for obvious reasons!

Let me know in the comment box below what provider you went for and why!

Having limited room on a hard drive can cause any Mac/PC to run at a slow pace. Luckily, in this short tutorial you will be able to see how much space is left on your drive as well as its full capacity.

1. Open up Finder and right click on Macintosh HD. Select Get Info.

2.  A new window should open (as shown below). Here you can see lots of information ranging from your Capacity, Available space and Used space on your Hard Drive. You can also change the name of your hard drive to whatever you want!

Good news! There is a free application called AppCleaner that upon request, searches for all additional files of the application/widget you wish to uninstall.

Here’s an example of some of the files Appcleaner pulls up when uninstalling Safari:

You can download Appcleaner for free here.

Some people refer to it as a micro blogging platform and others refer it to a mass public instant messaging tool, regardless, while social networking has been expanding and becoming a popular business tool with the likes of Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter has seemingly been looked upon as the distant not so admired sibling of the three popular sites. While many people question whether this social networking tool is a waste of valuable time and energy, the truth is that it is quite beneficial once businesses and professionals learn how to use it.

In order to achieve success with Twitter, it is important to learn different ways this site can be used. After all, the site doesn’t attract millions of successful business owners and celebrities for no reason. It is no doubt that this social networking tool’s tweet is bigger than a lot of people may realize.

First of all, following someone’s tweets is extremely easy. It is simple to find individuals or businesses that interest you and keep up to date on their day to day activities. When you follow someone, you will see their updates and the same goes for when someone chooses to follow you.

When you are allowed to post as many updates as you wish (in as much as 140 characters) to a large network of people, especially people you may not normally have contact with, the opportunities become endless. Effective communication achieves success and this site allows its users to communicate as often or not as often as they wish. Whether there is a new product or service to disclose, interesting news or insightful information, individuals and businesses are consistently keeping followers in the know. It is much like a mini blog feed.

Here are some interesting ways you can use Twitter to tweet yourself to success.

Follow People who Interest You

Search for people and businesses who not only interest you but who may provide some sort of benefit for you. Whether it is beneficial information or possible contacts, you should take calculating steps to follow those who aren’t going to waste your time and who will provide you with something to take away and learn from.

Offer Valuable and Interesting Information

Of course some people will only tweet about what they ate for breakfast or what their plans are for the weekend, but Twitter can be so much more than just a juvenile social tool. The site can open up a land of opportunity for those who are willing to use it as such. Provide useful and interesting information to those who are following you and you will catch the eye of the very people you may have been intimidated to connect with previously. Post informative links and statements throughout the day to remain at the forefront of the very people you are hoping to connect with.

Use the Tools Available to You

Get the most out of Twitter by taking advantage of its many support applications.

Save yourself some valuable time by connecting your Facebook updates and Tweets with the Facebook for Twitter application. Using this tool will allow you to update your status on the two sites at once.

But what if you use several social networking sites? Ping.fm allows you to update your status on all major networking sites including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

If you use FireFox, the TwitterFox will allow you to see updated Tweets straight from the web browser.

Are you going on vacation and won’t have access to a computer for regular tweeting? Using the TweetLater tool will allow you to schedule your tweets for when you are away! TweetLater can also send you emails with any activity you may wish to read up on, allowing you to track conversations and join in when you have a moment.

Take it in Stride

Don’t get caught up in every single tweet that crosses over your page. Don’t waste your valuable time going through every single tweet. Scan, read and reply to information that interests you only.

Seven Reasons Why Your Website Might Be Unsuccessful.

Long Load Times
If your websites takes more than 30 seconds to load, especially on DSL/Cable then visitors will leave your website, it is as simple as that. You must remember that people want information and they want it yesterday (I know, I know). Since it is so easy to get information from many other sites online, you must make sure that they can get it from your site first and that they can get it quickly. This will keep them coming back to your website every day, since it is so easy to get what they want.

Bad Navigation
Your Navigation should be located in a easy to access area that the visitor can easily get to as soon as they reach your site. Areas include the top of the page, just below the header and to the left of the page. Navigation that is hard to find will leave a visitor feeling frustrated every time they come to the site. Even though they may get use to its unusual placement, they may not come back to get use to it!

Un-finished Pages
There is nothing worse than coming to a website that has just had a new design done on it(even if it looks great) and finding out that even though the links are active, there is nothing on those sub pages. Of course a nice “coming soon” text can work to let them know the page is coming soon, it does serve us both best if the page and its content are actually there. So make sure all the pages are ready to go before you upload the new site.

Bad Color Combination
All I have to say about this is live green, blue, brown and red may work in some way on a site design but I can’t imagine it looking good. Make sure to use colors that jive well with each other, that complement each other and that doesn’t hurt or strain the eyes. One thing to make sure is that if you use a light color on the background then make sure to use a dark text and vice-versa. This will make it easier on all of us to read what is on your website.

No Contact Information
We must all be in touch in one way or another. Well sort of! You must have contact information on your site, it doesn’t have to be on the front page, but it should be at least on its own page. This will give visitors a way to get in touch with you if they need to ask you a question about your site or product.

Old Dates/Updated Often
Make sure you update your site often. People come to your site for updated information, if what was on your site last week, is still there today, they probably won’t be coming back. Make sure old dates are taking off as well as new dates are entered correctly. This is extremely important if your site has to do with events going on in the community.

Script Errors
Finally, make sure you test every part of your website, especially when it comes to scripts. Also have it set up so that if a script error happens you catch it before too many of your visitors do. This can be done by either checking the site each day(or a few times a day) or by having an automated email sent to you when someone experiences a error on the site.

I hope these tips help you build a Successful Website!

Fast Loading
One of the most important aspects of your website is making sure that it loads quickly. As long as your website loads fast then visitors will stick around to see what you have to offer. However, if your site takes longer than a few seconds to load then you can say goodbye to your visitors because they will exit out and find another site to visit that loads quicker. So, make sure your site loads fast and you will have part one of user friendliness down.

Layout
Your site needs to have a layout that is very clear so that visitors can easily see where the information is located, any links you may have provided, and all information on your site. Having a confusing layout will send visitors straight to the search engines to find another site that is easy to maneuver. So, make sure your site is organized and laid out in a way that is extremely obvious to web users.

Colors
Use colors on your website to keep visitors interested in what you have to say. Also, be sure to use bold colors that are easy to see like blacks, blues, reds, greens, purples, and the like. Yellows, oranges, and other colors, as well as small fonts, can be very difficult to see and make reading information very difficult. Review your site colors and see if they stand out and are easy to read. If so, then you have no worries. If not, then you need to do some work.

FAQs
Believe it or not, but an FAQ page is one of the best user friendly things you can add to your website. This is because most visitors have a few questions and generally they are the same questions as other visitors before them. So, answer the most frequently asked questions on your website and make your job easier by not receiving tons of the same questions while informing web visitors. An FAQ page is a win/win situation.

Information
Finally, make your site user friendly by providing information that is relevant and easy to understand. Remember that your web visitors are not geniuses and they don’t know your website in and out like you do, so explain information so web visitors are completely aware of what services or products you offer

The storyline of Prototype is rather simplistic though the cut scenes and flashbacks tend to make it unnecessarily difficult to follow. You’re dropped into the shoes of Alex Mercer just as he’s about to get sliced and dice on the autopsy table. You wake up, scare the pants off the shady biohazard-suited monkeys about to fillet you, and discover that you been given some seriously cool powers: absorbing bullets, running up the sides of buildings, and leaping 30 feet in the air without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, you’ve lost your memory (how convenient) and don’t know who you are or how you got there. As the story unfolds you learn Mercer was infected with a new virus that is turning the rest of the city into mutant freaks and there’s a shady Blackwater-style organization trying to crush you under its boot with the help of the U.S. Marines.

Gameplay & Graphics

As you play, you earn points with which you can choose to use in order to evolve Alex into a more efficient killing machine. Want to grow sword blades out of your arms? How about turning your fists into giant tank-slaying hammers? Or maybe you want to coat your entire body in bulletproof armor Spawn-style. You can do all of that and much more. You’ll also develop the ability to heal yourself by consuming others, an ability you eventually use to acquire new skills and access to previously inaccessible areas. Also, once you’ve consumed someone, you can use their likeness as a disguise which is great when you’re being perused by half an armored battalion. Just slip around a corner and morph into an overweight policeman or a suited Wall Street type and the heat is off, instantly.

All of those abilities come in handy as you discover new and more gruesome ways to turn your enemies into paste. Not only will you have military units to deal with (which grow progressively more difficult to defeat as the commanders order out the big guns – tanks, attack helicopters, and super-soldiers — but you’ll also have to wade through hordes of infected which hide their own monstrosities – huge hunters and super-hunters determined to turn you into lunch. Slice and dice, pound and smash, or grab and toss all of your foes around like rag dolls and you’ll find yourself chuckling even as you feel bad about it. It’s great fun. You’ll also earn the ability to control those tanks and helicopters yourself but doing so feels boring compared to using your own super human mutant powers.

Some of those powers can be upgraded to near god-like levels including Mercer’s critical mass attacks. These attacks require you to consume enough people to overfill your health bar. Mercer can then convert that excess life energy into amazingly devastating area attacks including a tentacle spike attack and tentacle swarm attacks that destroy most everything within a large radius around him. These work great when you find yourself in a tight spot, unfortunately, to launch the attacks you need a small amount of “preparation” time and during this you’re vulnerable.
Chances are, for the first few hours of gameplay you’ll be so engrossed in gaining new abilities and discovering just how many pieces you can chop that grenade launcher toting spec-ops soldier into to see the flaws in Prototype. That’s a good thing because once you notice them the game gets old quick.

Chief among my complaints about the game are the graphics. Granted, you would need a serious machine running some heavy duty hardware to render the vast amounts of NPCs, vehicles, and buildings in Prototype’s version of New York City but the character models are all bland with almost no variation among them, and even the cut scenes are sort of last-gen. In that respect, the game very much reminds me of Crackdown but in this case the vanilla visuals feel less like a stylistic choice and more like a product of undisclosed limitations.

The other huge issue is the inconsistent AI. Sometimes you can pluck an enemy soldier out of a crowd and consume him with only one or two people noticing. At other times, if you merely bump into a soldier while walking past him, he’ll raise an alarm and call for backup. This is also reflected on a large scale in the city itself. As the infectious outbreak rages on, parts of Manhattan become festering pits of decay and disease clouded by thousands of zombie-like walking corpses yet just down the street a ways life goes on as if nothing at all is out of place.

Also, as the game progresses Alex must combat more and more types of enemies, each more deadly than the last, but none of them ever get any smarter (in fact, the military super soldiers are really some of the dumbest of the bunch.) To compensate, in the latter missions of the single player story, Prototype throws increasing numbers of enemies at you leaving you overwhelmed. It’s a cheap way to increase the level of difficulty and can really get to be annoying as four tanks, six helicopters, two dozen soldiers, and a handful of hunters are all coming at you at once and you don’t even have to pull yourself off the ground before getting slammed by the next rocket or pummeled by a super-hunter’s lightning fast attack.

Sound

The soundtrack and voice work mimic the graphics and are quite poor and really don’t add much of anything to the game. Alex’s voice in particular sounds cheesy and over-the-top in his cut scenes and the bad guys are so cartoony it’s not even funny.

Value

Taking a cue from (and stealing the map system of) Spiderman, the playable area is huge. In that area you find a ton of collectibles (200 “geography” nodes plus 50 tutorial nodes) as well as a host of mini-game type challenges. Some of these challenges are fun, requiring you glide through the air and land at the center of a bull’s-eye. Some are frustratingly difficult (many of the checkpoint races require precision navigation that Alex’s parkour system just can’t manage.) However, there is no multiplayer version of the game. In this instance, it actually makes sense not to include multiplayer. Competing against similarly powerful mutants wouldn’t be as much fun as cutting paths through weaker enemies.

Final Verdict

In the end, Prototype feels like two separate games smashed into one. You have the excellent freedom and killer destructive abilities of a first-class sandbox title combined with the mediocre graphics and poor scripting and abysmal dialog of a third-rate action title. However, the fun you’ll have totally destroying New York City as a big, brutish jerk with a bad attitude makes Prototype at least worth a play through.

Pros: Incredibly fun superpowers, freedom to create tons of chaos, massive playable area.

Cons: Poor graphics, Annoying AI, clunky storyline and script.

Overall Score: 7/10

Masthead Studios, a leading independent developer of MMOs, announced today that the highly anticipated MMORPG Earthrise will be available through digital distribution on February 4, 2011.

“The Masthead team is thrilled for the fans who have been following Earthrise closely to now be able to play the game that they have been so eagerly awaiting,” said Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios. “We have worked incredibly hard to make Earthrise the best sandbox MMORPG on the market, and we can’t wait for players to fully experience all of our hard work and become immersed in Enterra.”

Earthrise is a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi MMORPG set in the distant future. Featuring a unique skill-based advancement system and player-driven economy, as well as extensive, meaningful player-vs.-player combat, Earthrise gives players countless options to forge their destiny through its sandbox-style game mechanics. Whether a noble soldier in the raging conflict between the Continoma and the Noir, a criminal hiding from the law, or a world-renowned engineer whose power extends into intricate trade and politics, players’ actions will echo throughout the game world. Visit www.play-earthrise.com to learn more.

Top Earthrise features include :
• Unique sandbox environment, allowing players’ actions to influence the entire game world.
• Distinctive, high-tech post-apocalyptic setting.
• Sophisticated Player vs. Player (PvP) mechanics.
• Dynamic third-person combat featuring dynamic targeting, customizable power armor and hundreds of high-tech weapons.
• Deep crafting mechanics that allow players to design and manufacture unique items from blueprints and raw resources.
• Friendly to casual players, with challenges designed for the hardcore audience.
• Single, massive world. Earthrise will run on one server for players in all regions.

Minimum Requirements:

OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7
Free hard drive space: 20 GB
CPU: 2.4+ GHz Single Core Processor
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800GT+ or ATI Radeon 9800 SE 256-bit
High bandwidth internet connection (DSL, Cable)

Fast Loading
One of the most important aspects of your website is making sure that it loads quickly. As long as your website loads fast then visitors will stick around to see what you have to offer. However, if your site takes longer than a few seconds to load then you can say goodbye to your visitors because they will exit out and find another site to visit that loads quicker. So, make sure your site loads fast and you will have part one of user friendliness down.

Layout
Your site needs to have a layout that is very clear so that visitors can easily see where the information is located, any links you may have provided, and all information on your site. Having a confusing layout will send visitors straight to the search engines to find another site that is easy to maneuver. So, make sure your site is organized and laid out in a way that is extremely obvious to web users.

Colors
Use colors on your website to keep visitors interested in what you have to say. Also, be sure to use bold colors that are easy to see like blacks, blues, reds, greens, purples, and the like. Yellows, oranges, and other colors, as well as small fonts, can be very difficult to see and make reading information very difficult. Review your site colors and see if they stand out and are easy to read. If so, then you have no worries. If not, then you need to do some work.

FAQs
Believe it or not, but an FAQ page is one of the best user friendly things you can add to your website. This is because most visitors have a few questions and generally they are the same questions as other visitors before them. So, answer the most frequently asked questions on your website and make your job easier by not receiving tons of the same questions while informing web visitors. An FAQ page is a win/win situation.

Information
Finally, make your site user friendly by providing information that is relevant and easy to understand. Remember that your web visitors are not geniuses and they don’t know your website in and out like you do, so explain information so web visitors are completely aware of what services or products you offer