Lynda.com -  http://lynda.com/

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Tuts Plus – http://tutsplus.com/

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The Virtual Training Company -  http://www.vtc.com

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Total Training – http://www.totaltraining.com/

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Keystone Learning – http://www.keystonelearning.com

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Video Brain – Videobrain.com

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Killer Sites – http://killersites.com

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PSD Tutsplus
http://psd.tutsplus.com/

Sites Similar To
http://www.similarsites.com/site/lynda.com

15 Tutorial Websites You Probably Didn’t know about
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/07/15-awesome-tutorial-websites-you.html

To stand a better chance of having your Video appear in the Google Search Engine Results as  a ‘Rich Snippet’ here are some terms you should be looking to use for your video title, the  tags and the anchor text used to link to your videos.

• tutorial
• review
• test
• what is
• how to
• demonstration
• explanation
• video

Use these and you’ll be well on your way to getting more eyes on your videos weather it be a self hosted video on your website or on a video sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Currently I am obsessed with Sweded videos. This began when I followed a link to an article on the VideoMaker website where they reported on ‘Swede Fest’ Its a film festival that takes place every six months in the states. Its been running since 2008. The organisers of the festival describe it like this:

“Swede Fest is the only film festival dedicated to sweded films. A sweded film is a summarized, low-budget recreation of a popular movie, starring you!”

A mainstream example of a sweded film is the cinematic release ‘Be Kind, Rewind‘ Starring Jack Black, Mos Def and Danny Glover. IMDB.com describes the film as:

‘Two bumbling store clerks inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars. ‘

I headed over to YouTube to find some Sweded videos. You can find remakes of Monsters Inc, Alien, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many others. My favourite Sweded film I’ve found so far by a LONG WAY is a six minute version of the amazing family film ‘The Never Ending Story‘

I’ve sooooooooooo got to make something Sweded myself. But what?

Neo Sounds
http://www.neosounds.com/

Premium Beat
http://www.premiumbeat.com

Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com

Audio Jungle
http://audiojungle.net/category/music

Jewel Beat
http://www.jewelbeat.com/

Incompetech
http://incompetech.com/

Dan-O-Songs
http://www.danosongs.com/

iStock Audio
http://www.istockphoto.com/audio

Alll MP3 Download
http://www.allmp3download.com

FreeSoundTrackMusic.com

http://freesoundtrackmusic.com/

Free Sound

http://www.freesound.org/

Flashkit.com Sound Loops

http://www.flashkit.com/loops/

How To Use Royalty Free Music In Your YouTube Videos
http://www.reelseo.com/royalty-free-music/

Sky Broadband Routers are a lot like buses………

You wait three weeks for one to arrive, then two come at once.

I’d like to thank Sky from the bottom of my heart to have left me with no way of connecting to my internet connection for the past week. Thank you to all  the cocky, arrogant, lying staff members on the phone, thank you for all the time and money spent on calling Sky on their 0870 numbers. Thank you for ignoring all my emails too.  You really do all SUCK.

Oh, and in my last entry I said I would NOT be amused if my speeds were slower, well….

TWO Mb/s SLOWER and a 100ms ping instead of 35ms.    That ping speed is really going to help me shooting people on xbox live, NOT.

Well I am NOT amused with Sky, I am yet another victim of them activating the broadband line and not sending the router. I say ‘another’ as there are LOADS of threads on the Sky Broadband Ordering Forum on the official Sky website.

My broadband line is changing over tomorrow, I do not have my router. I phoned Sky this morning (Mon 12th March) asking where it is, and they said there had been an error on the system and that it hadn’t been dispatched yet, he even revealed that its been happening a lot recently!  I assumed it would be sent out via next day delivery to ensure I don’t have a break in service. I was wrong, it’s going to take 5 days and the chap said I’d be lucky to get if for the weekend!

I asked if Sky could delay taking over the broadband, to which he said no, I said I cannot be without broadband as I work from home and have websites to maintain and clients to work with.  I was promised when I signed up that there would not be a break in service.  The man on the other end of the line was rather arrogant and clearly did not give a toss, no apology, no nothing. I asked what he was going to do about it, and he said “Nothing” I then requested to complain to someone higher up, he said he can’t transfer me as i’d only be told the same. I was so angry that I hung up before I gave him a mouthful of abuse.

Half an hour later I called the cancellation department to have a moan, the guy was Asian, and I’m sorry, but I could barely understand a word he said, he offered no help and said that to make a complaint I could write a letter or send an email, he said Sky will reply within 72 hours. Why send an email if I’m not going to be able to see the reply!

I did a search on Twitter and have seen MANY  complaints with people suffering the same as me, I also found an @skyhelpteam address and I sent them a tweet.  Following some direct messaging they have revealed that the router has not even been put in for dispatch as there is a problem on my account, I don’t have a clue what is going on.

So far my experience with sky has been piss poor. Should have kept bt. No router, no internet.. Wtf — James Williams (@Cubejam_FW16) March 7, 2012

@sky #poorservice I have line rental, I have broadband, i don’t have router…. According to jeff it was posted Friday????? Comeon sort it

— Mrs Speer (@Mrs_Speer) March 7, 2012

Sky are going to be changing the broadband lines over to them tonight and they haven’t even sent the router yet. That’s just jammin’. — Kyle Bolton (@KyleBolton) March 8, 2012

Nice… #Sky have switched my broadband before sending a router, SkyBB will only work with Sky router. Will be offline 5 days.. #nothappy

— Irvin Aldridge (@_irv) March 8, 2012

This time tomorrow I will have no internet service, I will only be able to contact Sky via phone. Are they going to refund me all the call charges for their mistake? Additionally, are they going to foot the bill if I take out some mobile broadband from another company to tide me over?

The answers will be NO and NO I am sure.

In this day and age, broadband internet is a necessity and not a luxury, how Sky can screw up so many times and leave their customers stuffed is astonishing but in reality not suprising. It is majorly disappointing that they do not have a contingency plan in place to provide a temporary solution for those waiting to use their broadband service. This is not a new problem for them so they *should* have something in place.  Paid Access to BTfon.com would be a start.

There’s another thread I’ve just found on the issue here – http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-broadband-help/47329-switching-sky-broadband-router-dispatch-problems-therefore-facing-no-service.html

Sky are very lucky that BBC Watchdog isn’t currently broadcasting as they’d be featured for sure.

And I thought Eclipse Broadband were the worst Broadband ISP  In The UK – Click to view my video and explanation of that sorry affair.

Oh, and for the record, here are my current broadband speeds as provided by Eclipse internet. If Sky are significantly slower, then they will have a problem on their hands.

Iain Lee is about to unleash a NEW Podcast on us called The Pocket-Sized Podcast! (Not to be confused with the already existing Pocket Sized Podcast already available in cyberspace that covers the Apple iOS devices. ooops!)

Iain’s show will be heavily contributor based and you can take part in many ways.
Here’s how you can contribute:
Skype:pocketsizedpodcast
Telephone:0203 286 1944
AudioBoo:http://audioboo.fm/Iainlee

Unless you live under a rock, you may be aware that 70’s Glam Rock sensation and notorious paedophile Gary Glitter is now on Twitter. You can find the alleged official account here: Twitter.com/OfficialGlitter

Needless to say, the presence of Gary Glitter on the social media website has been met with a mixed response. Some say he should be able to move on with his life, others find it funny, many are outraged, while others are just being plain dumb about it.

Reading through some of the Tweets on Thursday evening, people were being advised by fellow users to delete all pictures of their childen as Gary Glitter may see them and how Glitter could use Twitter to gain access to kids. Heaven Forbid!  This view is extremely shortsighted.

There must be thousands of dodgy men and women using Twitter  to commuicate with younger users or merely to follow accounts without needing one themselves. Why the urgency to see Gary Glitter removed from Twitter? If Gary Glitter was going to use Twitter to pray on children, he’d certainly not be doing it using an account in his own name. A frequently shared tweet over the past few days is —

I’m not surprised Gary Glitter is all over Twitter, after all Twitter is only 6 years old.

For all we know, Mr Paul Gadd aka Gary Glitter has been using Twitter for the past 6 years, praying on children, its also very likely that thousands of other people have been using Twitter for less than wholesome purposes.

At least people can track the @officialglitter account, read his tweets, see who is following him and who Gary himself is following. People should worry about the hidden enemy. Do you know for a fact that everyone following you is who they say they are? I have many followers that I have never met in person, any one of them could be dodgy, but that doesn’t matter, as all efforts should be concentrated on removing the Gary Glitter Twitter account, ironcially this account is probably one of the safest accounts on Twitter right now as so many people are keeping track of it.

This is not a blog post to defend Gary Glitter, it is to point out that he can’t be the only paedophile using social networking sites. If people are that bothered about the safety of children, then they should give up using social networking sites altogether and petition the government to close them all down as its the only way to ensure people are safe from sex offenders. OR Parents could actually monitor their child’s internet activities more closely, have the computer in a shared room of the household and decide which sites they can access.

And finally… Congratulations to Twitter user Kate Stephenson @kateytatie who is using Gary Glitter on Twitter as a way to get exposure for herself. She’s made a petition , recorded a video on YouTube and has been tweeting it all night to celebrites to support her ‘campaign’ Now is this her campaign to get Glitter off Twitter, or to gain herself more followers and subscribers? Her argument about why Glitter should be off Twitter is an example of the stupid people that I have highlighted above.

Words escape me with this young lady. Kate claims to even be very concerned about children reading the sort of content that she tweets, so concerned in fact that she’s not taken the simple step of protecting her tweets from unapproved readers. Great way to set an example Miss Stephenson.

Now, let’s all sign the petition as with Glitter gone from Twitter, everyone is safe again. Hooray! *sarcasm*

You have not been charged for this information. You’re welcome!

Hello Readers.

I thought it might be nice to let you know which confectionary delights that I received for Christmas this year following 2010’s rediculous haul which worked wonders in undoing all my dieting work during 2010.

Here’s what I got in 2011….
A pleasing improvement. One that will see your author being able to maintain his amazing physique.

Exciting news for aspiring Internet Radio hobbyists, for the PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd) have created a licence for small webcasters. The only licence previously avaiable was the standard webcaster licence costing nearly £1000! The small webcasters licence costs just 20% of that sum.

From ppluk.com: The PPL Small Webcaster Licence is for online radio services that generate revenues of less than £5,000 per year and whose annual total streaming does not exceed the streaming limit of 270,000 Performances (ie. one Performance is when one user streams one sound recording broadcast in the service)..

On the face of it, for under £200 you can legally play music on your internet radio stations, which quite frankly is a bargin! There is some small print at the bottom of the page referring to additional costs depending on the amount of listener hours over the year. So I recommend that you read the full page here for all the details.