Happy new year

Hey everyone,

Sorry for my absence. I have not had great internet access but will be back regularily soon.

Hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Please also make sure that you switch your RSS feed to my new home http://www.therandomforest.com

www.webhostingchoice.com - Review

http://www.webhostingchoice.com offers a very quick and simple to use service. Basically you can use their site to search for a new web host using your desired criteria.
On their front page they have a very simple search which includes monthly cost, setup fee, disk space and bandwidth but then have further options for a very advanced search to suit the needs of anyone who needs a new host.

The site is laid out pretty well but I was initially put off by the bright green. However I do not feel that this small matter takes away from the simple functionality of the service and with the option to add hosts to their database it will continue to grow into a large directory.

Andy does have a heart!

After the dark humour of the last 2 posted Andy and Lou (from Little Britain) videos posted I thought I would show you that he does have a heart!



Matt Lucas who plays Andy had reportadly been cast to play Winston Churchill in an upcoming film. I can't find much info around the net about this so assume it may not be finalised but still..... I am sure he would manage to portray a very humourous version of the man.

I would especially relish Lucas recreating some of Churchill's hilarious quotes.

One of my favourite being:

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

C-Planet Affiliate Program

C-Planet are an affiliate link providing company that say at if you join them you can earn thousands of dollars.

They say:

At C-Planet we only partner ourselves with the highest converting brands on the internet. Affiliates value our partnership for two reasons, higher conversions and higher earnings. We provide honest, accurate and in-depth statistics for your traffic in real-time, our top affiliates earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every month.

The first thing that struck me was the very professional look of the website and it's simplicity. It seems that their program is a casino affiliate program so sadly it does not really fit in with my site but as it is free to join and use, if I ever create sites in this nice I will try them out.

More Andy and Lou!

If you thought the last Andy and Lou video I posted was dark then...... well... you will see!




I hope you still like me for finding this funny!


They guy who plays Lou is a comedian called David Walliams. Last year he actually swam across the English channel for charity.

This feat is an amazing physical challenge and considering the man was not exactly athletic he really gained my respect.

He completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes covering 35 km aided with only a pair of swimming shorts, some grease for his body and a boat that fed him bits of food on a stick.

Ski season is here!

I really hope I get to do some snow boarding this season. In fact I damn right can't wait to get to the top of the hill and look down over the mountains before graceful turning and tipping over the edge and then sub-sequentially falling flat on my face!

I will hopefully be getting to board in Vermont and maybe Quebec this year but have not been on an actual holiday for almost 5 years.

My first ski/snowboarding holiday was in Andorra, a small country just next to France. I had an amazing time and felt like I had contracted the ski bum virus. I went again the following year to Banff in Canada, which again was utterly amazing but sadly missed going to Italy and Austria with frineds in following years.

I'm not very good at boarding but I try hard and have a lot of fun.

Supertravel are a luxury ski and golfing holiday company based in the uk who specialise in providing Luxury Skiing holidays in Luxury ski chalets. I have never stayed in a luxury chalet but really would love to, especially with the fact that your chalet host will be providing you with fantastic food and wine.

Holidays are available in various locations including chalets in Meribel, France and Courchevel, France aswell as St Anton, Austria and all over the world.

I am sure you will here all about my baording experiences from me once I finally get to go again!

Little Britain - Andy and Lou at the pool

Little Britain is a very popular tv series in the UK. Before I left there had been 3 series and there were a fair few memorable characters.

My favourite was Andy and Lou.



Although this humour may be considered borderline I really enjoy it. I don't see it as poking fun at disabled people but what do you think?

Select Blinds

This is a sponsored post

The best thing about the Select Blinds website is the little 3d women that tells you all about them and also follows your mouse pointer around. She is eerily lifelike!

Another cool thing is that they supply the Window Shades for extreme makeover, so you know that they have a wide range of modern and stylish designs.

The website is pretty well laid out with a great quick quote system and easy links to their products.

Pricing seems cheap with very nice looking blinds for standard sized windows available at around $80 - $150. Not bad for such an important part of your room / office.

I have moved

As you may be seeing. I have moved.

This area of the Random Forest will still be in use mainly for reviews and simple posts. I will be aiming to bring most of the traffic here from search engines.

So for my new personal home please visit me at:

www.therandomforest.com
and subscribe to my new feed.

You may not enjoy this site so much from now on as I will be aiming to use it mainly for monetization but the new place will hopefully be better than ever so please stop by and say hi, at very least.

Thanks so much for all your support.

Please also tell your friends about the move.

Calling all visitors and subscribers... I need you opinion.

Hey everyone.

I am very thankful to have people who read and comment on my blog regularily so just thought I would ask some advice from everyone.

I am thinking of updating to Wordpress and updating my URL from www.therandomforest.info to www.therandomforest.com.

I would then use www.therandomforest.info to carry on with paid posts and some cross posting from www.therandomforest.com.

I just wanted to know if everyone would be willing to switch their subscriptions and visit the new site?

I was also wondering if anybody had any ideas for any Wordpress themes that would suit me?

Would the prescence of advert spaces, other than Adsense on my new site deter anyone?

Thanks for you help, it's appreciated.

You can be a Tiger

This is a sponsored post

As a teenager I worked in a Golf Club. I only worked in the kitchen but still had access to all the facilities so used to spend breaks and some time after work on the driving range. I used to spend ages just hitting the balls as fast and hard as I could but never really migrated into playing the full 18 holes.

The regular Golfers were obsessed with their handicaps. I really didn't understand what it was all about and on many occasions had to ask for explanation. I still don't fully understand the whole system but I know it's important!

For those of you that do understand Handicap and are serious about it then you can visit NetHandicap.com. This USGA golf handicap software for amateur golfers, golf clubs and USGA tournaments allows you to get hold of a handicap card that you cna use at official USGA tournaments.

The site is reasonably clean and seems to offer some great services including Performance reports, a league and an online community.

Tutorial - Get new Blogger commenting features & a quick explanation of OpenID

Recently us poor Blogspot bloggers have been hit with a problem whereby commenter's either have to log in to Google or use a nickname / anonymous with no option for their URL.

I ranted about it in my post "What are the big G up to now? Punishing their own?" and Kathy just posted one way around the problem in her post "Google's Being a Poopy Head, Too", by putting a link in the comment.

However it does seem that Google are trying something out and may not be trying to limit us. In an attempt to stop comment fraud Google are updating the commenting system to allow people comment using their Open ID.

This new commenting system is available now and as you can see from the screen shot below it should make it secure and easy for most users to comment.




So what is Open ID?

OpenID.net explains:

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

If you already have one of the following accounts then luck will have it.... you already have an OpenID:

AOL

openid.aol.com/screenname

LiveDoor

profile.livedoor.com/username

LiveJournal

username.livejournal.com

Orange (France Telecom)

http://openid.orange.fr/

SmugMug

username.smugmug.com

Technorati

technorati.com/people/technorati/username

Vox

member.vox.com

WordPress.com

If not then you can go to the OpenID site to learn more or log into commenting using your Google account/Nickname or Anonymous.

Ok, More importantly. How do I enable the new OpenID comment options on my blogspot blog?

Google have a new draft version of blogger so basically all you have to do is log into your blogger blog through this and enable the new commenting options.

• Goto draft.blogger.com and log into your dashboard as normal.

• Click on 'Settings' for the blog you want to update
• Click on the 'Comments' tab

Here are your new commenting options. The important thing is going to the section 'Who can comment?' and checking the option 'Anyone - Includes Anonymous users'.

Then scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save'

Voila!, now hopefully you won't have to worry about losing comments from Google users.

Please let me know if this tutorial was useful and if you think I need to add anything to improve it.

Strange happenings in the forest

This post contains a sponsored link and a little made up story! :)

As I sit up here hanging around on a branch keeping watch over the forest and all it's inhabitants I can always see little shapes fluttering far away in the distance.

At moments I like this I swing down to my work room and grab my binoculars and camera. Many a time you can see various types of birds, snakes and tree dwellers going about their daily life.

One such moment just a few weeks ago lead me to witnessing a bizarre scene. Now being the caretaker of the forest I know many of the beings that reside here but browsing deep into the trees I could see a strange little creature that I had never seen before. The little winged, long nosed animal was looking very nauseous and dazed.

I immediately slid down my rope and made my way by foot to go and find this creature. Luckily I know the random forest very well so it took me no time at all. I found the creature lying down at the base of the tree, looking somewhat disheveled so I picked it up and took it to Bernard the dog for some medical advice.

Bernard was gob smacked. He said it resembled a young pterodactyl and that they had been extinct for millions of years!

We are still unsure how it got here but it is well on the way to recovery and Bernard has taken the duty of care until we can work out how to return it to it's time period.

Anacortes is a website that provides equipment for bird watching and star gazing (or pterodactyl spotting) including binoculars, telescopes and CCD digital cameras. As well as books, bird supplies and a classified section. They stock many major brands including Celestron, Meade and Bushnell.

The site is a little cluttered on first glance but carries a very friendly feel and seems easy enough to navigate and purchase from. If I was looking for anything they carry and the price was right I would have no worries using them.

What are the big G up to now? Punishing their own?

It seems that the big G are pushing their monopolitic ideas to the limit.

Opal @ Vegan Momma recently commented and flagged that she was unable to add her web address to her comment without being logged into Google.

I assumed that it was a glitch with that post but after spending a fair amount of time commenting on other blogs today I have encountered it on EVERY blogspot blog.

As you can see below Google NOW only offers 1 option for you to display a link to your blog/website when commenting on blogspot blogs.


Before hand you had an option to leave your name and a weblink as an alternative to logging into Google. Where has it gone? And more to the point... Why has it gone?

This new Nickname thing is just damn insulting. I would almost rather post as Anom!

The reason I don't like commenting using my Google account is because I have two blogs registered on there and one is inactive. I don't want people going there instead of this blog.

I really think that this stupid new feature is going so push away potential new commenter's who do not use a Google account or only want to comment showing one website address.

Damn Google. Does anyone know how I can convert to Wordpress without losing my PR and all my readers?