Archive | June, 2007
Posted in Media on 29. Jun, 2007
Personal safety has never worried me particularly but of late I have been impressed at the range of personal alarms on the market. These range from pepper sprays, high decibel screechers and hand held sirens.
I would favour a micro Uzi for use upon any would be attacker but if I were to try to arm my girlfriend for her protection thusly I would be endangered far before any potential attacker may decide to approach her with any evil intent – hence I prefer the deterrent method.
UZI or personal alarm, the choice is yours.
I quite like the look of the unobtrusive wristwatch styles personal alarm, shown right as in a sticky situation you could be sure have access to it, like in the event of attack or even stuck in a nasty avalanche.
The range of personal alarms is impressive and I certain that one of these could help you out as a victim of crime.
Blimey and bloody nora I could do with some ear defenders today.
I get to work and the fire alarm is blaring, Martins lunchbox placed carefully over the siren takes out some of the harshness, some of the more piercing higher notes are muted slightly, but it is still killing me.
Yesterday the fire engines came and spent a few hours not putting out a fire but turning off this errant alarm.
From 8 till 9am I have sat here and tried to work throughout the vicious noise, dreaming of some of those Gwyneth Paltrow type pink ear defender headsets from Peltor, and then the drilling starts. Downstairs they are refurbishing the club – probably pole dancing, who cares, all I know is that I have surround sound now – ear splitting shrieks from the fire alarm and a dull but totally hardcore drumming from the drills downstairs which I can even feel in my feet.
It is not fair, it really is not…
Wow, armed with my new NSeries N95 I was off on a trip last week so I carefully set the mobile on the dashboard and plugged in the destination address. ( I was delivering an ebay sale for a friend- a 100 mile round trip).
What followed was the most dangerous driving of my life as I struggled to zoom and recenter the screen as I drove.
Anyway, it worked and I enjoyed the exercise but was horribly dissapointed to discover that I had spend £7 in data charges – I should read manuals.
Anyway to cut to short I have now loaded maps ( free) from all over Europe onto my phone’s 2gig memory card from smart2go. It is superb, having the maps on your mobile rather than accessing ( and paying ) for each page reload.
You have to enable your phone for disc use rather than Nokia PC Suite for the application to work and the download was nightmarishly slow. But now I can turn on my sat Nav to my hearts content.
I just better not look at it too much.
The Nokia N95 Sat Nav ( satellite Navigation software with integrated GPS) is a wonder
Posted in Travel on 14. Jun, 2007
Riding around in my car I get to thinking about all sorts of things, I slide gears into each other as the car purrs. My vision is all focussed and peripheral at the same time, the whole panorama is a broad and slightly blurred disc which is sucked into my consciousness.
At these times I often I get to thinking back to Greece. Then I had my favourite PI Sigma ( ΠΣ ) greek shirts, I was so proud of its beautifully illustrated Frat type logo amblazoned on my chest.
At times I was asked, by the local Greeks ( as they had little understanding of Fraternity Shirts ( except those who had studied at an American University)if it stood for the Greek Fire Service, which incedentally is Pi Ypsilon ( ΠΥ )anyway,…
Now I never was a Fraternity ( nor Soriority ) boy but last week I purchase a beautiful Greek TShirt for a friend in the USA and they were completely over the moon about it.
The Nokia N95 has been criticised in many corners for not having a QWERTY keyboard, which most smart phones are now shipped with.
The phone, used in conjunction with a bluetooth keyboard comes into its own. This is a great advantage as the phone is, intrinsically a beautiful, compact and fully featured device; coupled with this stylish Interface Device you have most of the functionality of a small laptop/ notebook in your pocket ( well pockets).
The bluetooth keyboard is worth turning on.
On line web directories can serve a beautiful dual purpose for both the businesses listed and the customer.
Initially as many people come to a well made and sensibly structured directory such as the dMOZ they will be able to browse down through categories and refine their search until they land on a page with just what they are looking for.
It can be so much better than using a search engine as with each step you refine your selection.
On the other hand a business owner knows this and will surely want the customer to find them. The customers who eventually land on their site by means of such a business directory will, naturally, be good customers who, rather than randomly dropping in will actually have a real and targetted interest in the site’s products or services.
A further advantage to the business owner is that some search engines base their ranking upon inbound links from trustworthy sources, so a link from a bona fide directory will enhance the website in search engine optimisation terms also.
Directories will contain many useful subcategories such as at the Finance Section of the DMOZ, where one is able to see purely Finance Related Links.
Personal Pension Release is the term given to the process of unlocking or withdrawing funds perviously locked in a Personal Pension Scheme.
The process is open to those over the age of 50 who have either Personal Pension Plans, Stakeholder Pensions or even an “old style†Retirement Annuity Contracts.
Previously it was not possible to release the monies until you were 60, but recent legislation in April 2006 has made it possible to enjoy previously locked up pension schemes at the age of 50.
You can take a maximum cash lump sum, which is tax free, of up to 25% of your pension fund, the balance has to be used to either provide an immediate income or it can be deferred and taken at a later date.
Deferring taking the income was not an option before April 2006 and with a lot of existing pension contracts it is still not allowed. However; there is a way you can achieve this even if your current plan doesn’t allow it.
A benefit of deferring taking the income is that this portion of your pension fund remains invested and accruing interest, which could result in a bigger amount when you decide to take it, although it is conceivable that the fund in which it is invested could also perform poorly and you could end up with less money. Because of the uncertainty there is not always a simple answer and not all people should consider releasing funds from their pension early.
Whether you decide to take income from your pension now or defer taking it until some point in the future, you will also have a choice about how your income is paid. All these choices and options available can seem complicated and confusing, and it is important to make sure you make the right decisions that are going to suit you best.
The Personal Pension Release Website is an information portal on the subject of pension unlocking or pension release and provides an unbiased viewpoint into the process of unlocking funds from personal or private pension schemes with an emphasis on illustrating both the pitfalls and the potential rewards on offer and as a result of careful and sensible financial planning. As it must be remembered that taking funds early may well diminish the amount available at retirement age.
