We live in a digital age, where anything is becoming more possible by the day; the internet dominates the global market. The online super highway contains more content and more information than any of us will ever be able to comprehend. We have fan sites, Social media, blogs, online markets and auction sites. We have gaming sites, film and television sites, businesses of all types, and so much more. There are of course a few that draw more traffic because of their originality, uniqueness, niche, and simplicity. We all know Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and hotmail. We all know about the auction sites as well, the main one's being eBay and Ebid. This post will look at why we love sites like eBay, how so many businesses are turning to the online platform to run their store from and some ideas for would-be entrepreneurs.

For as long as I can remember eBay has been around to assist buyers and sellers. I myself have made a few hundred pounds over the last few years selling my junk to eBay users. However in our new digital age it has become somewhat apparent that online stores like Amazon and Play are contributing to the destruction of the high street market place. Less and less consumers make the trip to their town centres to make purchases on clothes and other amenities.  Many high street retailers have shut down, or are in process of going out of business. Thousands are out of work, and it’s all down to the convenience of the online store.

So the shop keepers and business owner’s hands were forced to play the online game, by starting their own eBay stores and creating seller accounts on websites like Amazon. I have made a few purchases from eBay stores, and to my surprise a lot of store owners had adapted and had created visually appealing eBay pages that in some cases linked to their own websites. So the digital age has forced business owners to learn basic SEO and website design, making our generation and older ones more advanced.

I have a friend who lives on eBay, every day he spends a few hours surfing the auction site for all manner of products. This is the beauty of eBay, you can sell anything you want, provided you add an accurate description and send what you’re selling in a timely fashion. I have seen garden sheds, motor bikes, cars, laptops, phones, clothes, candles, toys, collector’s items, even foreign money for sale. I remember selling less than £10 worth of Falkland Island coins, which are pretty much the same as our coins and being a British colony as well for over £10.

Ok so I promised some advice for you would be eBay sellers, I want to provide some basic information for those of you that wish to either start their own online business or perhaps just want to get rid of their junk. First of all remember that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, I have sold all manner of different items on eBay, I have sold a van, model soldiers, money, coins and notes, old games, old DVDs, even a jacket that I won through a competition. So remember no matter what you want to get rid of you could probably make some money from it.

What if…..?

I woke up this morning to find that my wife was already down stairs with my six week old son. As I lifted myself from my king size bed I thought, What if I could install the machine out of Wallace and Gromit. You all know the device I’m talking about, the machine that tilts you out of bed, showers you and brushes your teeth for you. I know this sounds lazy but just imagine how awesome this would be if you could buy something like this on the market. Or what if a large suction tube descended upon you just after you get out of bed that washes you, dry’s you and dresses you. We live in the 21st century, we can send out unmanned drones to strategically fire missiles right up the back side of anyone unfortunate enough to be on our naughty list. So why can’t I have a device that carries out the tedious tasks of personal hygiene?

Once I’ve grunted, groaned and stretched off, I wrap myself in my dressing gown and head towards the toilet, and then once again I had another crazy machination. What if, instead of wasting time on the toilet, wasting toilet paper and baby wipes, imagine there was a device that can digitally remove your bodily waste as and when requested? I mean, our bowel movements aren’t exactly a pleasant experience for all, not to mention we could save money on toilet cleaner, and air freshener. I saw an episode of Family Guy, this particular story encompassed the possibly of the multi verse theory. The theory states that there are millions of universes all parallel to each other in different dimensions. Well in this particular episode one universe is so advanced that all bowel movements can be requested at will and are digitally removed and sent to another universe. Also AIDS is a curable disease, by simply taking a pill and it is obliterated immediately, also another what if question to think about.

So after carrying out my business, I stumble across the landing and check the stairs to make sure the cats aren’t waiting to trip me down them. Then all of sudden, yep you guessed, a what if pops into my head, much like a random Frisbee when your wandering around your local park, or if you live in my area, a bottle of cheap vodka! Now this idea isn’t exactly new, nor is it a crazy nonexistent piece of tech, but I’ve always wanted to have an escalator instead of stairs. Now I would imagine this would be annoying if you haven’t got room for two sets, so you would have to change the settings to either up or down, but I am just lazy enough to try. I also thought a fun way of getting down the stairs would some kind of a zip wire or inflatable airplane escape slide.

So I get to the bottom of the stairs, walk into the living room and greet my wife who is watching television. She offers to make me a cup of tea and I accept and sit with my son who is currently asleep. I’m sat there with my son when I think to myself what if instead of having to make cups of tea, turning the television on and controlling the heating in the house, what about a universal control system, voice activated and handheld. A controller much like the new WII U’s, and an open voice activation system where you simply tell the house to carry out tasks. Kettle on! Heating on up to 28 degrees Celsius! Television, find me Sons of Anarchy! All these would be ideal pieces of tech and I’m pretty sure something similar does in fact exist today.

When it comes to computers I think I may have searched everywhere online for the best deals. However I believe that I have narrowed down a few sources where you can make the best budget purchase that you can. If you feel that you can beat my comparisons then please feel free to comment afterwards.

Now my first desktop tower I’m going to look at is from Tech Inventory, the Lenovo Think Centre Edge 72 Desktop. This appears to be a nice cheap all rounder, a fairly basic exterior with the as per standard disk drive. The Lenovo retails for just under £300, however it doesn’t come with a monitor, but does have built in speakers. The desktop comes with a dual core Pentium processor, 64 – bit resolution, 500GB HDD and Intel HD graphics card. Accessories include a keyboard, optical mouse and comes with Microsoft Windows 8 Pro installed.  

Redemption is the auto biographic life story of the original leader of the notorious “CRIPS” gang, Stanley Tookie Williams. The book spans life from child hood, the struggles of a young knowledge hungry boy, all the way to death row in America’s most well known prison “San Quentin”. We learn of the violence, drug abuse, sex and crimes that walk hand in hand with living as a “gangbanger”. Stanley Tookie Williams vividly walks and talks us through his dramatic life, and tells his story with horrifying and intricate detail. This book had me shocked, it made me feel sadness and sorrow, some parts made me laugh and some had me in awe. Stanley Williams created the Crips to protect themselves from other gangs and led the West side chapter of the gang. Tookie tells us of his hunger for violence and respect as a youth, all the way up to the point where he wrote nine anti gang books and was nominated four times for the Noble Peace Prize for his work whilst in prison.

I really don’t want to delve too far into the book for the purpose of this review, otherwise I will be writing all night long. Although this man’s life, which unfortunately ended in 2005 when he was led into the death chamber and took a staggering twenty minutes to pass away, is a certain passion of mine I really want to talk about the language and structure of the book.  Once Williams was convicted of murder and sent to spend the rest of his days on Death Row he sought to educate and find himself. He found peace and realised that life as a “Gangbanger” was no life at all, and set himself the mission of trying to save as many young men from the detrimental and hazardous lifestyle he once recruited for and led.

Infantastic is a German online store that specialises in, well you guessed it, products for infants. I recently purchased a travel cot via Amazon, and I must say, I am well and truly impressed. Although it has no formal name, the travel cot from which I bought from this company is simply a fantastic and very practical product. I have been informed that the NHS doesn’t endorse the use of the travel cot as permanent bedding for an infant, however I beg to differ and I really want to emphasize the practicality, the value for money and quality of this particular product.

I am led to believe that the health services advise against the use of the travel cot on a daily basis purely for the supposed facts that it doesn’t do your Childs back any good. The removable mattress provided with this particular product is very sturdy and although has “trenches” every few inches generally feels comfy. Even if this puts you off there is a solution to the issue, simply place a thick quilt over the top of the mattress so your infant can’t feel the trenches.

Best Travel Cots

There are a number of great inovations currently in the travel cot arena. We look at a few videos and give our travel cot review for you.

Visit our best travel cots article now.

Infantastic Travel Cots on Amazon

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Now I’m not one for being completely and utterly biased, I’m also not one to slate a product into the ground, However when it comes to the two brands Pampers, and Huggies there is only one that comes out on top. I have been a father now for five weeks, and I have had the pleasure of using both these brands products extensively. Nappies, and baby wipes mostly, and I would like to explain why one beats the other hands down. But I also would like to highlight some of the downsides as well of the upsides to the products that both these brands manufacture.

Ok so firstly I want to start with the winner of the baby product battle, Pampers. I’m going to explain why as a parent, this should always take precedence when making a decision in your local super market.  Let’s start with the Pampers Nappies range, they appear to be generally larger than their Huggies counterpart, they absorb more fluid and generally look more comfortable to wear. I also believe that the material used in Pampers Nappies is also much kinder to babies’ skin, as Huggies nappies gave my son a nappy rash. Huggies nappies appear smaller; they also have a funky smell about them and do not retain liquid very well. When first using Huggies I found that my son would often be soaked through whilst wearing these non absorbent nappies. As for value for money Pampers are generally more expensive than Huggies, I recently found that on Amazon you can buy two packs of Pampers nappies (132) for less than £20, whereas Huggies was around £18 for 160. So really Huggies actually beats Pampers value wise. However if you want quality, endurance and generally nice smelling nappies you’ll want to invest a few extra pounds for Pampers.