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David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

Articles About Off Topic

22/07/09 - Spoterific!

I've recently broken into the world of Spotify. Having found myself playing music videos in the background, I thought I'd try something in the same vein, only more appropriate.

It's a fantastic service although it does have some shortfalls, mainly due to age. Here's a few thoughts on what I would do if I ran Spotify! More

26/06/09 - Michael Jackson Mania On The Internet

If you've not heard about Michael Jackson, you've surely been hiding under a rock. It's everywhere. BBC, Twitter, etc.

Whilst controversial in his latter years, Jackson is often referred to as the king of pop. That said, he's got a huge fan base. Nowhere is that more prominent than on Amazon. I have never seen the top 10 of Amazon dominated by just one man: More

19/02/09 - Honeymoon Photos - Part 3

This is the last of the articles. We took 2,108 photos so it's not realistic to put them all on here! I wouldn't want to bore you either!

I've taken a look at getting to the ship and about the ship itself. Now it's time for the ports of call. We only had a day in each and we generally tried to spend half a day partaking in a RCI excursion and the other half doing some shopping and trying to see a beach!

In a cruise diary fashion, I've picked the best picture to sum up each day of the holiday. More

19/02/09 - Honeymoon Photos - Part 2

Our home for two weeks was the Explorer of the Seas, a Voyager class of ship.

She weighs 138,000 tons, nearly a quarter of a mile long and can hold 3,114 passengers on top of the 1,000 crew. Cruising speed is supposedly 27mph which is only possible when all three propellers work. A mishap on the previous cruise meant one was damaged. Thanks to the Cruise Critic forums, we were already aware of the problems and possible implications a few days before the sailing. Non-forum users found out as they boarded and needless to say they weren't best pleased. We weren't happy when we found out but had a few days to calm down :-)

As a result, we went through 3 captains (!) and we lost one port of call (San Juan) on top of the lost port of call (Tortola) we lost (with no compensation) 3 months prior.

This meant we spent 3 days at sea at the beginning, a 3 at the end. The weather held out for us on every day except for the last where we had very rough seas. More about that later. More

19/02/09 - Honeymoon Photos - Part 1

As promised, here's a few of the highlights from our honeymoon.

We went on a 12 night Royal Caribbean (RCI) cruise which, on the whole, was excellent. Their UK customer service support is terrible but the service on board the vessel was outstanding.

We flew from Heathrow to JFK via BA.

T5 was a smooth process. It was the first time we have flown from Heathrow and expected the worst. It was quiet and empty at stupid o'clock when we arrived. It's more focussed on self service which was a bit of a disappointment, given that we were on our honeymoon. Self service is great if you are on business and need to move fast. If you are a holiday maker, a personal service is preferred, IMO.

The flight left a little late after a couple of passengers failed to turn up and the aircraft stairs truck couldn't start. Oops! For those of you who are interested, plane food consisted of a cooked breakfast - with a lamb steak. The mind boggles. More

16/02/09 - Welcome Home To 5000 Emails and A Stolen Identity

I'm back! Me and the wife (!!!) have returned from our honeymoon to the sunny Caribbean. Pics will follow as I'm currently wading through the 5,000 emails (mostly spam) to find any relevant messages.

I've also just discovered that whilst I was sunning myself, someone else has used my credit card to do the same :-( More

26/01/09 - Wedding Photos

We're married at last - Mr David Fiske & Mrs Cheryl Fiske! A year in the planning resulted in a very smooth and happy day. Everyone turned up (although the bride was fashionably late) and a great time was had by all.

I promised a few people I'd upload a few photos so I'll combine that with a few thanks. More

09/01/09 - Electricity Monitors

I changed my electricity plan months ago after discovering that for the same price as I was paying, I could wangle myself a free electricity monitor. it finally arrived today and since I plugged it in (ironic for an energy saving device), I've been glued to the numbers. More

26/11/08 - Learn From Al Harrington During Uncertain Times

Having a funny five minutes over at this part of the web and stumbled across Al Harrington's Wacky Waiving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man and his spin off, Al Harrington's Crudely Painted Not So Funny Plywood Cutout Folk Art.

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Al's book during these uncertain times and invest (thanks to shipping errors or lawsuits) in Flailing Tube Men or a sort-of Ben and Jerry's looking cow?!

Enjoy! More

30/09/08 - Win Fellows Hall

Kieron first brought this to my attention last week.

Given that the housing market is volatile and us first time buyers have very little chance of seeing the ladder let alone getting on the first step of the ladder, the idea of raffle off a house might seem crazy but seems to work!

A property in Devon (BBC Breakfast Video) seems to have proved the concept can work by raffling off 46,000 tickets at £25 a pop. This netted the owners £1.15 million less costs. The site was registered on 12th May 2008 and by September the tickets were sold out. The reason Brian and Wendy Wilshaw raffled it off was due to the lack of interest in their £1 million home in the current turbulent market. More

01/07/08 - What's The Best Corporate Freebie?

I'm considering getting some stuff printed up in time for Christmas seeing as this year I have worked with some major manufacturers. I may also have some capacity to send some bits and bobs to my account managers / preferred merchants who seem to forget me at Christmas :-(

So my question is what is the best corporate freebie you have received / you offer? More

20/06/08 - Free Berocca Blogging Stress Relieving Pack

Affiliate marketing, let along blogging, can be stressful at times. Thanks to the chaps at Berocca you can get your hands on a free Blogger Relief Pack. More

29/05/08 - A Moan About... Royal Mail

Woo hoo! They've made it to another rant post. After being picky about an envelope flap, various strikes and failed deliveries, you'd have thought they would have made changes, learned lessons and moved on.

Well in reality land, nothing has changed and I've suffered another "Sorry, you were out" attack whilst I was in. In a double blow, their sister company Parcel Force is also dealing blows. More

04/04/08 - Proud Owner of a HV20!

In the wedding budget, April was the time to order the camcorder. Deciding which camcorder was the result of 2 days worth of research plus 2 days hunting down prices. Some would say that's not very productive and... well, I'd agree!

For all those interested, here's what I found on my journey for a camcorder. More

19/03/08 - Sunshine.co.uk Competition Entry

Everyone else has gone for crafty affiliate links on their blog in order to qualify for an entry into the sunshine.co.uk affiliate prize draw (Kieron and John Lamerton) so I thought I would break away from the mould and be more blatent!

Introducing sunshine.co.uk... More

10/03/08 - Backup, and Occasionally Backup The Backup

After 2 years of loyal service, Windows has started to fall over itself on my PC. Running Scandisk after every reset is a tad annoying to say the least.

I’ve backed up everything onto another hard drive (75 GB of virtual tat, work, loads of those ‘free reports’ and other bits and bobs). I’m surprised at how much I’ve accumulated though I have a habit of creating a new folder called ‘sort me’ and throwing everything in there. I do believe there’s around 11 generations of ‘to sort’ folders inside each other. More

24/01/08 - Tesco.com Home Delivery Review

I took the plunge and ordered groceries on the Interweb. For years I have strayed away from online grocery shopping due to the fact that sometimes you don't get what you want, and you have to pay for it too!

But a voucher worth £40 in clubcard deals and a voucher for £5 off (which covered the delivery cost) made me pluck up enough courage. So here's how it went. More

09/01/08 - Recommend a Camcorder?

With digital photographic cameras, I know where I am. I know I need a good brand, with a good optical zoom and high megapixel rating. Job's a good 'un. My current camera was the crème de la crème when I bought it 3 years and it's still a good quality camera today, packing a punch to some of today's rivals.

But when it comes to digital camcorders, I'm not sure where I stand. So I'm asking you to recommend a camcorder! All you have to do is tell me what camcorder is best in your opinion in the comments section below. More

07/01/08 - We're Going To The Chapel And We're Going To Get Married!

Probably not a chapel but nevertheless, I'm on the same bandwagon as Lee and Kirsty and proposed to my other half on Christmas Day.



So now we're planning where and when to get married. Naturally, the first place to look for help was the Internet but it turns out that whilst there are a couple of good wedding websites, there are hundreds of naff ones to. For instance, I searched for wedding locations and one website listed hundreds. It's only when you visit each county's wedding registrar website that you realise that the original list is not just wedding locations but reception-only locations - something the site neglects to inform you about.

Then there's the budget. People are happy to give out prices for meals but not venues. That's just daft! So far, it looks like we'll need merchant sponsorship ;-) Anyone fancy their logo on the stationery for a few grand?! More

04/12/07 - JPM Eco Logistics Ltd

Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden invested in an eco-friendly haulage company called JPM Eco Logistics Ltd on last night's Dragon's Den episode.

Logistics is what I have a degree in so this was certainly an interesting pitch. But was it a smart move by Theo and Deborah?

Nope, and I'll tell you why. More

30/11/07 - Ebay Seller Best Practise

It's not the best blog for this post but nevertheless, it's still blog worthy.

I've been selling on eBay for the last month or so and have developed a short set of best practise rules that I think offers a good buyer experience. More

19/11/07 - Remember My Studio Order?

You may remember a while back I blogged about my Studio order farce. Faster than I could blink, Sean Carter of MediaVest Manchester (Studio affiliate account manager) commented saying he would help chase it up.

Could things get any worse? Did I get my order?

Here goes... More

07/11/07 - Studio Order Farce

I placed an order with 24 Studio (aka Studio Cards aka Express Gifts) back on 29th October 2007. I had received a leaflet with my TV magazine offering a free tin of Roses with my first order. There's an incentive and a half and as I liked a particular item, I thought I would place an order.

Here's what happened thereafter. More

15/08/07 - Calling Anyone Living In Wales Wanting Channel 4

If you live in Wales, you will be familiar with S4C - the Welsh version of Channel 4. Here in Wales, we don't get channel 4. What we get is a BBC channel (S4C) that shows some programmes from Channel 4 and other Welsh language programmes.

Matthew Willis has created a petition to ask for a choice of what to watch: channel 4 or S4C. Matthew doesn't ask for one or the other - his vision of Wales is for both to co-exist.

Please visit http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/WelshChannel4/ and add your voice if you are in agreement. More

21/07/07 - Pricing In Proportion Twaddle

Twaddle's a great word and isn't used enough!

I've just been to the Post Office trying to post my 4 page complaint to BT and now I've ended up with a complaint to Royal Mail!

Here's the offending letter:



Apparently this letter would bring the entire postal system in the UK to a halt. Why? More

16/07/07 - If You Run An Online Shop, Learn From Debenhams Mistakes

I placed an order with Debenhams on July 6th. Ever since, I've been having trouble. Here's why. More

09/07/07 - Royal Mail Problems

Occasionally a good rant helps you calm down! Today's victim is Royal Mail.

The story needs some background so here we go. More

13/06/07 - I'm Kind Of Back

The new telephone number now works and I'm now on unlimited dialup. You don't realise how much you would miss broadband until you revert back to dialup!

BT managed to get everything sorted after my dozen phone calls lasting a total of over 3.5 hours. The crazy thing is that each department cannot help alone and has to transfer calls to other departments. Also, people within the same department read off different sheets. More