Rullion - leading UK recruitment firm

We recently had a problem with our broadband connection and I had to call up their customer service. It was no surprise when the other person at the end happened to be someone from India. So many companies here in the UK are now outsourcing their IT services overseas. Of course it seems to makes economic sense as companies find it much cheaper to outsource these services such as customer service, overseas. Talking to a few managers confirmed this. However, a lot of people seem to hate talking to a person sitting in front of a computer in Delhi in India. A major complaint was that they couldn't understand the thick Indian English accent. I feel this may be over exaggerated as I had no problems telling them what my problem was and they solved it in a few minutes.

I guess that there is indeed a small backlash with several British customers demanding that they prefer to speak with someone British and in the UK. And some companies are taking advantage of this highlighting that their IT services are not outsourced outside the country and that any customer calling up the customer service hotline will get to talk to someone British.

Anyway talking about Recruitment, do check out Rullion Limited's website. The company is one of the country's leading recruitment agencies with nearly 30 years experience. And according to their website, they have an annual turnover around £200m. Do check out their site if you are either looking for a job or looking for staff.

Online community for DIY enthusiasts

Do-it-yourself or DIY in short, has still not picked up as a whole in Asia, including Malaysia, as compared to the more developed countries in the west. This is probably due to the fact that labour is still cheap and you can always pay someone to do the work for you.

It's a different story all-together here in the UK. A call to the plumber to fix a leaking pipe can sometimes set you back by at least £50 - and that's the minimum. My last car service cost me more than £100. It's no wonder that our landlord did most of the repair work in our house, himself.

I am slowly picking up my DIY skills as well and am slowly building up my collection of various tools. I am slowly learning from my mistakes. For example, one of our doors needed repainting. Painting a door sounds simple or so I thought. "All you have to do is take a brush dip it in the paint and swipe it across the wood." I ended up dripping paint everywhere and when the paint dried, there were run marks everywhere. I wish I had gone to DoitYourself.com - an online community with thousands of articles and over 100 active forums on various DIY home improvement topics such as "how to install ceramic tile?"and of course, painting tips and tools as well. This is an open community and totally free to join in. As they say, "knowledge is power" and I would like to add, saves money as well. I would definitely love to get my hands on their "DoItYourself" DVD.

Online safe boxes

I had heard of safe boxes in houses, safe boxes in banks but it was the first time I heard about Online Safe Deposit Box. I am referring to the service provided by KeepYouSafe.Com. They offers digital safe deposit boxes where you can keep your most critical text-based records and files/documents (about 10 items and files) for Free. You also get free access to Secure File Send and Secure Email. All the data is secure and encrypted. However, better not forget your password as they do not keep a copy of it.

Read their press release for more information:

KEEPYOUSAFE.COM ANNOUNCES OPENING OF 10,000th ONLINE SAFE DEPOSIT BOX(SM)

Westchester, NY – September 19, 2007

KeepYouSafe(SM) (http://www.keepyousafe.com), the leader in providing secure, easy to use, online vital record storage for consumers and businesses, today announced that it has surpassed the 10,000 Online Safe Deposit Box milestone and has recently doubled the capacity in its North American and European facilities to keep up with demand.

"We are thrilled to announce that we recently opened our 10,000th Online Safe Deposit Box. This milestone demonstrates that people really trust KeepYouSafe to protect their most important documents, legal records, and other vital information" said Eric Wolbrom, CEO of Information Survival, the company behind the Online Safe Deposit Box.

"Don't confuse KeepYouSafe with a backup service. Our service has been built to ensure maximum security and privacy at all times; in fact we have more security than most online banks. Think of KeepYouSafe as a Safe Deposit Box inside the vault at your bank where you might keep your birth certificate or insurance policy, as opposed to a traditional backup service which is more like the Self Storage place where you put a few boxes and your old coffee table", Wolbrom says.

The company believes that everyone should have the peace of mind that comes from knowing their vital records are protected. KeepYouSafe offers a free Online Safe Deposit Box sized to store the most important information, and large-sized boxes are available for only $4 per month.

About KeepYouSafe.com

KeepYouSafe.com provides Online Safe Deposit Boxes to consumers and businesses to securely store important records and other information and be able to access those stored records from anywhere, at any time, via the internet.

The personal information stored in an Online Safe Deposit Box is available to the box's owners only, unless individual box owners choose to grant access to family members and/or trusted friends. Each box's contents are protected by the same strong encryption and other security technologies used by the U.S. military to secure "top secret" rated data and communication.

The KeepYouSafe Online Safe Deposit Box service is provided by Information Survival, LLC. The service launched in January 2007 and was designed and developed by a team of certified security professionals with decades of deep experience in keeping critical data safe and secure.

Information Survival LLC is a privately held security company based in New York.

Media Inquiries: media@keepyousafe.com
General Inquiries: support@keepyousafe.com

Your own customized calenders with Vistaprint

Vistaprint is one of my favourite online companies for printing services. So far I have ordered business cards and a T-shirt from them. Considering the fact that I got them practically free (I only had to pay for the postage), I was really happy with their quality especially the business cards. They were even better then ones that my friend had made at a shop here in Coventry.

Besides the above two products that I have mentioned, they also make loads of other stuff including birthday cards, labels, envelopes, flyers and print calendars among other products.

Talking about calender, do take a look at their new 2008 calendar. They are available in two styles, namely, Wall Calendar and Photo Wall Calendar with dimensions 11" x 8.5". You can either use one of their preset templates or add your own great photos. Now that we are nearing the end of this year, fully customized 2008 calenders would make excellent gifts for your friends and if you are in business, for your customers as well. The prices start from $17.99 for one calendar using one of their custom templates, with a greyscale grid and standard calendar paper. Just add $4.99 for incorporating your own pictures or company logo. By adding an extra $9.99, you can get it printed on premium glossy card stock. Ordering in bulk would get you better deals.

New show on TV coming soon

Blogs are often the best source of gossip and rumors and I guess my blogs are no exception. It's quite boring when you carry only news. I learnt by reading some of the popular blogs and I realise that putting in some of my own views and injecting some casual or idle talk certainly increases the entertainment factor of a blog. i found out that I certainly get more comments when I do so.

Talking about gossip on blogs, I am helping to create some buzz about a new American TV show that will premiere on Wednesday, September 19, 2007. Based on the popular series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl on The CW is a teen drama about the lives of some rich teens living on the posh Manhattan's Upper East Side.

We see the drama unfolding in front the eyes of the narrator, a blogger with the nick name, Gossip girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). No one knows who this anonymous blogger is but they relies on her blog and text messages for the latest gossip.

The story starts with the news that former party girl Serena van der Woodsen played by Blake Lively, is suddenly back in town. Her best friend is Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) who shares a common romantic interest in Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). Other important characters in the drama are Dan (Penn Badgley) and his sister Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) who come from a middle class background and somehow trying to adjust their new life.

That was just a peek from the drama was created by Josh Schwartz (creator of The O.C.), and Stephanie Savage. Looking forward to having the show shown here in the UK as well.

Selling your house for cash fast

There are a number of reasons you may want to sell your house fast - such as moving to another country, mortgage arrears and divorce among others. Often you have no option as that's the biggest asset you have and you need a lot of cash at hand.

If you do ever consider whether to "sell my property", you might want to consider MPG Investments. This company is specialised in buying people's property quickly and for cash. It was one of the first companies in the UK to enter the property buying market and is well established now.

Of course you have the option of selling your property through an estate agent but the drawback is that you might have to wait for months and then there is the question of invasion of privacy like having potential buyers coming in to view the house. However with MPG, you only have to endure a single home viewing.

Right now the company is offering FREE property valuation anywhere inside the M25. Outside of London, they charge a nominal fee (£200 on average).

Free website hosting

One of my friends recently bought a domain name and I helped him design his website. He's an academic and he wanted a site to market himself - with his CV, some personal info and some of his articles. I suggested that he start a blog but he's not really keen on that.

Even with all the pages and images put together, the total size of the site is less than 2 MB. He also doesn't expect Considering the fact that he also doesn't expect the traffic to be very high, I thought it would be a waste of money paying for some hosting with high specifications and suggested hosting for free on MySite.

Mysite.com offers 50 MB disk space with 1GB monthly bandwidth absolutely for FREE. The only catch is that you have to carry banners. My friend was not really happy with the idea of having banners on his site and was willing to pay a little bit more for their banner free website hosting. For only $3.95/mo, they offer 1GB space with 10 GB monthly bandwidth. This comes with 20 POP email accounts and FTP access as well. Really attractive package indeed.

What's your favourite location based service application

Buying a Sat Nav system was one of the best purchase decisions we ever made. It was not cheap but it is worth every penny we paid for it. We are not scared of travelling anywhere in the UK anymore.

This is but one example of location based services. The technology has grown cheaper and there are so many applications for LBS and of course, so many different vendors.

TruePosition is the leader in location based services with over 15 years of real-world experience in this field. Their strength lies in the fact that they provide complete solutions to support the wireless location needs of the global marketplace. Thus, business owners don't have to look to different vendors for the various location services needs - from navigation to security. As their website mentions,

Today, only TruePosition can offer hybrid location systems that incorporate Cell ID, Enhanced Cell ID, Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, Angle of Arrival, and Assisted GPS to power the next generation of location-based services.

If you are interested in location services and the industry, do take a look at their resource center. It has the latest market intelligence, expert analysis and news related to location-based services. This includes white papers and articles as well.

Armand Rousso responds to Saul Hansell

Here's some business news for a change. Read Internet entrepreneur Armand Rousso response to NYT story by Saul Hansell. According to Mr. Rousso, the story which came out on August 22, 2007 had some glaring omissions and "irrelevant mistatements" regarding his past.

For those who are not aware, Rousso started one of the first e-commerce companies in the World (some consider it to be THE FIRST) called The International Stamp Exchange (1984-1989).

Anyway, in his reply, he sets the records straight. I totally agree when he says that

Having once had a criminal record, does not mean that you can’t become a productive member of the society.

I believe that everyone should be given a second chance. Mr. Rousso has shown that he is actively rehabilitating himself and his involvement in fund raising activities for various charities is an indication of this.

UK Shopping directory

If you live in the UK and want to save on shopping visit Webbyplanet for the best online deals. This online community is updated daily by it's staff as well as the forum members who list coupons, online voucher, sales, special deals, free shipping and much more.

You will find reviews from the users as well. They can prove to be quite helpful in making shopping decisions. When I last checked, there were loads of offers and according to their website, Webbyplanet promotes over 2000 merchant's online deals in the UK market.

Echo Malibu

In this post, I am not going to write about free stuff or about discounts. I just wanted to generate some buzz about a very innovative adolescent rehab center based in Malibu that mainly employs holistic methods to treat their patients.

Teen Rehab ECHO MALIBU is a treatment center targeted at teenagers who suffer from drug addition, alcohol dependence, substance abuse and mental health problems. They believe that empowering the youth and their families is the most effective treatment.

If you want to talk to someone about treatment for drug addiction or alcoholism for yourself or for a loved one, just call the number 800-780-ECHO to talk to one of their counsellors or visit their website at www.echomalibu.com.

Their site also has loads of informative articles as well as links on drug addiction, alcoholism and other related topics.

Save with Coupon Kathy

Coupons have been around for a long time but I only recently discovered that coupons are a great way to save on online shopping. I guess I was not shopping that much online and didn't know that my some of my favorite stores issued coupons and promotional codes. Now I always keep my eye open for them.

Coupon Kathy is another great coupon site for the biggest savings with your online shopping. They carry up-to-date coupon codes for a number of online stores. For example, they have a number of available discounts codes for General Nutrition Centers, Inc. For your information, GNC is a leader in the nutritional supplement industry. When I checked them today, they had three gnc coupons listed. The discounts ranged from 5% Off any order over $50, up to $10 discount + free shipping for product orders above $75. You should note that you do NOT need to fill in the field for promotion / discount code on gnc.com. If you are a regular customer at GNC, this might be a great way to save money. I suggest that you go over the "How To Use Coupon Codes At GNC.com" provided on the page.

I also learnt that GNC is having their semi-annual sale and a chance at winning $5,000. Go over to their site for more details.

Neopets the virtual pets

A lot of people would love to have pets of their own if not for the cost of keeping them. Well you can now have a virtual one at Neopets. You can create and rear up to a maximum of four virtual pets. You then have to buy them food, toys, etc using their virtual currency called Neopoints.

Like in real life, you have to earn these Neopoints by playing games, investing in the stock market, trading and winning contests. There are loads of features like NeoBoards (discussion boards), Neomail, and guilds and everything is totally free.

Lunched on November 15, 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, they now reportedly have over 144 million accounts . When I last checked there were 66,198 players online and a total of 215,099,130 Neopets.

Going to Real Estate School Anyone?

Becoming a Realtor has become an increasingly popular career choice now. Some of the reasons are the flexible work schedule and of course the income. If you are a good real estate agent, you can make tons of money. Personally, I am not quite familiar with real estate business and I just learnt that there is courses specifically design to master the game. If you want to become a realtor, you may want to check out this real estate school directory that groups various schools offering courses that design specifically for real estate business. These schools offer courses such as appraisal, insurance, mortgage, home inspection, securities and many more.

Diadem serpentine & silver?

While browsing for a nice gift for my sister (she is going to have a baby soon), I came across a quite unique Contemporary Jewellery site. Their collections are mostly of their own original designs and they are now offering a FREE jewellery roll if you spend more than £100. My wife has already adding one of the items in their earrings collection, 'Diadem serpentine & silver' into her wish list.

Thousands of Halloween costumes to choose from

Halloween is coming soon and I was thinking that it's been quite sometime since I went to a Halloween costume party. The last I went to one, I went simply dressed as a vampire with a fake teeth and gelled hair. Going out in a full costume is something I have never tries. Maybe this Halloween, I can try it out.

I am tired of seeing the same old typical Halloween costumes - that of ghosts, witches, skeletons. Well come October 31 or any costume parties I am invited to, I plan to go dressed as something different.

This Moria Orc mask similar to that used in the Lord of the Rings movie, also looks really scary.

However, might be a problem if you want to eat or drink.

What about this great "Walking Illusion America SP OR":


This are just some examples of thousands of Halloween costumes listed on Costumecauldron.com, an online Halloween costume store. In fact according to the site, they have 14 000 items in the store when I last checked, including some outrageous ones as well. It's up to your imagination.

Pssst! I got to know about this secret HAUNTED HOUSE backdoor on the website: Go to the homepage halfway down and click on the , in the line that reads:

Our Store now has over 14,000 masquerade items for you to choose from!

Click to get 10% discount.


Well! Do you have a costume ready for this Halloween?

Unsecured Business Loans for small business owners

A lot of small businesses fail because of cash flow problems in the initial stages. Many entrepreneurs found out that the seed money that they had put into setting up the business has disappeared and often securing more capital to keep the business running can be a really challenging task. Most banks and lenders would require your credit history as well as some form of collateral. Searching for unsecured business financing can prove to be a highly frustrating and very time consuming.

Fortunately there are companies like EZUnsecured.com, that are specialized in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs obtain the capital they need to help grow their business. This nationwide Business Financing Consultant has been operating since 2002, help small business owners obtain Unsecured Business Loans and Lines of Credit. They complete and prepare your application so it gets approved the 1st time from their extensive network of financial institutions.

Buying dining room furniture hassle free

When we go to buy furniture we prefer to go to places where we are are undisturbed - shops where there are no salesman following you around and pressuring us to buy some "amazing" furniture. Unfortunately most furniture shops seem to have these men prowling on their shop floor. I wish they could read our minds: "If we need you help, we will ask. Thank You!"

Like many other customers who don't like all the hassle of physically shopping including enduring traffic jams to get to the store and then being annoyed by the salesman, online shopping does certainly appeals to me. If you are looking for dining room furniture, you can buy them online at Wholesale Furniture Brokers. They have a network of physical furniture outlets in many major cities throughout the United States. Even if you are not near an actual outlet, the company says that they will be able to deliver furniture to all customers in the US including Alaska, Hawaii, as well as the Caribbean.

Their Dining Room Furniture gallery has a wide selection of furniture - contemporary or formal, etc. I noticed that they have slashed the prices of many of their furniture, some by more than $100. You can save on shipping as there will be no shipping charges when you pick up the furniture yourself from the nearest outlet.

UK recruitment site launches innovative search engine

While going through various UK recruitment sites, I came across JumptoJobs.co.uk the search engine for jobs. They announced the launch of their innovative job search engine today. This system facilitates the delivery of very targeted jobseeker traffic to job-boards, recruitment agencies and corporate HR departments. When I last checked they had 511,905 jobs listed from various sources.

Recruiters don't have to worry about entering the data or any other administration work as the jobs advertised are indexed from their current location on the internet. Unlike other online recruitment sites, recruiters pay based on pay per click or pay per application (their choice). This ensures that they are paying only for results delivered. Go to JumpToJobs.co.uk for more details.

Buying a used Vauxhall car

Diesel cars are not really my choice. I always thought that they were noisy and smelly vehicles.

I did an about turn recently when I got to drive a Vauxhall Corsa Sxi 1.3CDTi. One of our friends had recently bought it and I gave it a test drive. It is a 5 door, manual car with a 1.3 litre 16V diesel engine. The car comes with all the frills - airbags, air conditioning, alloy rim with low profile tyres, ABS, CD player, etc.

After driving my 1.8 Litre car, I felt that the pick up was a bit slow but it was smooth sailing after that. The seats were quite comfortable and once on the highway, the engine suddenly seem to come to life. My friend told me that it was the turbo kicking in. I imagined that it must be guzzling fuel and I was surprised when my friend told me that that it was more economical than his previous car.

Though it looks quite small from outside, it quite spacious inside. Though I have to admit that I didn't get in the back passenger seats.

I really loved that car and when I upgrade my car, the Vauxhall Corsa Sxi would definitely be in my list. Used Vauxhall cars would be OK for me as well. Vcars.co.uk, one of my favourite UK car classified sites, lists thousands of used cars on their site, which are updated daily. You can also download some great car wallpapers and screensavers from their site for free.