One of a collection of shots taken at the annual Warrington Music Festival.

If you didn’t go this year, try to come along next. It’s free and the bands were really great.

I’m a champion of privacy online and believe that the governments of the world are being very wrong in bringing in new laws such as the Digital Economy Act 2010 in the UK.

Now is the time for Internet users to look for solutions to combat the snooping of the Orwellian Big Brother state and get a little privacy back.

Over the past year, I have been trying different Usenet / Newsgroup services mainly because Torrent downloads are not secure.  Even if you are using a secure connection whilst downloading / uploading using torrents, your IP address is still visible to others that are sharing the same file(s).  If you want secure downloads, Usenet / Newsgroup access is the best option for this.

There are many different providers of Usenet / NewsGroup access out there and you may be tempted like I was a first to go for the cheapest option.  I tried 4 providers in the first 4 months of my initial outing into the world of Usenet / Newsgroups and I must say I was disappointed each time.  I knew that there must be a reason that friends told me that I should go down this route instead of using torrents but I had many problems with downloads not completing etc.

I’d seen Giganews advertised around the Internet many times over the past few years but compared to other providers that on paper looked to offer the same kinds of service, they were a little more expensive.  As a last ditch attempt to find what all the fuss was about Usenet I decided I’d sign up for a free trail.

The difference in the service from Giganews to the other providers is amazing!  Since using the service I have never had a download not complete properly – even with very old files that I’ve wanted.  Downloads are always amazingly quick, maxing out my current broadband connection.

The other great thing about Giganews is that if your a Diamond Member you also receive the VyprVPN service.  If you’re looking for a VPN service I’ve found no better.  Of course, ping times are up as for example, when I use it I’m connected from the UK to the US VPN (which is quite a distance).  My down and up speeds however are unchanged.  I can still max out my broadband connection.  Streaming from video sites still works perfectly, just as if I was connected to the video site directly.

Sign up for a Usenet / Newsgroup / VPN Free Trial now!  I personally guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

If you have questions about any of the above, please feel free to leave me a message and I’ll endeavour to get back to you with an answer / solution ASAP.

Just a little something from a day out of photography and testing Photoshop CS5′s new features.

I have recently started to offer my services as a blog theme designer.  Whilst I am new to offering these services to others, I have been working on Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, DotNetNuke and Blogger themes for many years now for myself.

My partners WordPress Blog site (blog.amandanorman.com) was in need of a redesign a few weeks ago so I designed her a new theme.  For a similar theme I would charge just £99 (or equivalent in USD, Euros or other currency) and provide a very fast turn around.

If you would like a blog or CMS theme creating please Contact Me with your requirements and I will endeavour to respond ASAP.