Ideas for Christmas presents

Well, Christmas is just round the corner (well, close enough), so I’ve been keeping my eyes open for different ideas as to what we can get him. One idea I came across whas that of personalized books just like the ones down at Frecklebox. You get get ones with all sort of different things in it, like stories and pictures and even personalised placemats (like the picture I’ve included here).

Even though Arthur is still two, he can recognise and even spell out his name, even if he can’t write it out yet. I would prefer to get him something like this than plain baby clothes, as he can build more of an emotional attachment to it and it’s something he can take forward with him; rather than grow out of.

Share your shopping stories

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Here’s how you sign up. Head down to the Registration Page and sign up there. If you’d like to give me credit for referring you, just pop the URL of this blog into the URL field on the signup form (that’s http://www.u-g-h.com). It doesn’t matter if your experience is about Danze faucets, jazz shoes or grow lamps; if you have a great story .. share it! .. It could make you rich!

YouTube launches full-length videos

Image via CrunchBase

Interesting news this morning that YouTube has announced that they are going to start featuring full-length movies and episodes which will include in-steam video ads to keep the broadcasters happy. This seems to be a move directed to counter the threat that Hulu affords them, particularly as they have launched similar features to them in the recent past. It seems that shorter videos will still be ad-free, but the full-length features will need to be monitised to support the model they have pursued with their advertisers.

So, down I popped to give it a try and here’s what I get:

Hmm, seems like they’ve decided to omit 95% of Internet users by restricting usage to just one country. I’m hoping that this is for scaling/trial reasons rather than something their broadcasters are insisting on (which is probably the case). The reality is, if they restrict access to this material, then it will just drive users to seek out other services and this will really prevent users from adopting their services.

So, before you throw away your TV, invest in some new modern furniture and high speed satellite internet and a new giant monitor for your computer, check if the service works in your area. You may be disappointed, I know I was.

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