I have just completed my fifth kitesurfing podcast. I am focusing on news, events like windfest and incidents in the world of kitesurfing. Whenever possible I will try to get interviews with kitesurfers like Jason Furness who was kind enough to spare me some of his time. He has a great job working for Flexifoil spending six months a year product testing in South Africa. He also works with Aaron Hadlow the current world champ helping him prepare for competitions.

I you want to have listen click here to download any of the shows in MP3 format. You can also subscribe to the show using a podcatching client like iPodder. This method means you recieve new shows automatically when they are uploaded by me.

Like all the best advice this is free and comes without warranty but I have worked the consumer finance world for most of my working life, and done my fair share of borrowing and repaying.

I keep hearing and reading a lot on the topic of people borrowing too much money and getting themselves into financial difficulty. Often the advice they are given is poor or wrong. First prevention is better than cure. If you have trouble managing to spend everything you earn then a credit card is a fantastic device. If like me you spend your time figuring out where all your dosh goes then a credit card is a nightmare. Get an online bank account and arrange an overdraft and use your switch card like you would a credit card. Using this method means all you have to do is check your balance and you get an instant picture of how poor or wealthy you are.

So what about a new car or other substantial purchase? The best type of loan I have found for this is a flexible personal loan like the one Cahoot offers at 5.8% APR. There is no penalty for paying the loan off early and you can vary the repayments if you find yourself having a bad month.

So what should you do if you have over borrowed and are struggling to meet the repayments?

• If you have secured debts like a mortgage which is secured against your house then unless you wish to have the property repossesed you must concentrate on paying these first, this also goes for secured car loans.
• Keep a dialog with the companies you've borrowed from, this is very important as they are legally obliged to try and make an arrangement to help you through a rough patch. It is very difficult for them to take legal proceedings against you if you keep responding to phone calls, letters.
• Don't talk to Debt Management companies they are parasites, they will reorganise your finances for a hefty fee promising you a lower monthly repayment but you will be making that repayment for a lot longer.
• Consider a consolidation loan but be very cautious about taking on a secured loan unless you are willing to lose the property you are securing the loan against. If you do go down this route look for a lower APR than your current debts.
• APR's are king the lower the better unsecured is better than secured. If you are quoted 'Flat Rates' ask what is the APR?
• Talk to your local Citizens Advice Bureau they will offer impartial advice.

If things get really bad you could consider bankruptcy, this is not an easy option there are varying punishments depending on how irresponsible you have been with your borrowing. It does offer a way of getting back to square one but you credit rating will be shot to pieces for at least two years.

I have been a little obsessed with VOIP over the last few weeks. The more I look into it the more it seems that lots of companies and individuals stand to save money by adopting it. Having said that there are substantial hurdles to get over if your needs are more than Skype has to offer (for example call forwarding).

Adoption of VOIP in the US is ahead of the UK, probably due to the larger more competitive market. I get the impression from reading other blogs like Rich Tehrani's that lots of people can see the potential but everyone is just sitting back waiting for someone to come up with an elegant solution that doesn't require uber geek knowledge to implement. There is a lot of energy going into this but it is focused across a broad range of solutions. Possibly the process is not as urgent as it might be if we didn't already have the good old PSTN to see us through in the meantime.

To try and progress things at work I have had my second in command of the broom cupboard download and install Asterisk onto White Box Enterprise Linux and put on the Asterisk Management Portal which is basically just a web GUI. Now we are looking for an IAX2 provider that can offer us some 0845 numbers. I think it is safe to say VOIP is far from being a commodity in UK.

 

I've been listening to podcasts for a few months now and after an initial bout of enthusiasm have cut down to a couple of hours a week. This is partly due to my current routine only offering a certain amount of time for listening and also getting bored with the content on some of the shows I listened to. The shows I still listen to are great, they are relevant to me and nothing similar is available in the UK on traditional radio.
The only way I can see myself consuming more podcasts is if in future my car can automatically download them and play them back. This is not a feature my Ford Galaxy currently offers. The shows that still make the short list are Slacker Astronomy, .Net Rocks, In the trenches and Chuck Chat, no prizes for guessing I’m a techie. I think podcasting is here to stay and will grow and grow, it seems obvious that more pseudo stations like 'Techpodcasts.com' will appear offering themed content from many sources and making it even easier to consume. I wonder if a paid subscription model will appear and be successful, I personally doubt it, the advertising based model seems to be more likely.

I will be drinking beer here...

Attempting to kitesurf here...

If you have ever fancied trying your hand at kitesurfing this weekend is a great opportunity to come along,  learn about the sport and have a go. Lots of manufacturers are demoing kit and there will lots of knowledgable people on hand to give advice.

Windfest Website

EDIT: I just checked the forecast no wind, guess I'll just have to drink beer all the time.

This seems like an odd marriage to me. If Fiat bought Boeing i'm not sure I would want to fly on their planes any more. I guess Adobe could integrate Flash into premier. They could also combine both plugins but this might anger some users.

Press Release

Paid Content - Blog on this

 

The Uk has started the process that will culminate in a General Election on May 5th. For the next few weeks all we will see on the television is Michael Howard or Tony Blair or some other politician.I will probably vote Liberal this time, if I vote at all. I will vote Liberal for the simple reason they opposed the war in Iraq.

What I would like to see and what I feel would make the UK more democratic is the introduction of voting over the internet. If this can be succesfully introduced and shown to be accurate and not corruptable then I would like to see it extended to all major issues, like the Euro.

 

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat

Your actual outcome:

Labour -1
	Conservative 1
	Liberal Democrat 21
	UK Independence Party 6
	Green 33

You should vote: Green

The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Well here it is a UK A-list Blogger called Learn so how do you become an A-List blogger? Simple make people laugh out loud!

If Learn left you confused checkout this blog.

If you want to make simple podcasts or sound scene tours on the move and on the cheap then read on. Buy one of them there portable mini-disc players Amazon are advertising them for £40 and get a mic that can plug into a micro jack socket and you're in business. Once you have recorded your podcast you will need to play it back into the PC and digitize it unless you go for one of the more fancy models that can link to a PC with a cradle.

I created a podcast using this method the other day and was very happy with the results.