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Sports related Facebook apps

A new little Facebook application I've created is a widget that lists current and upcoming events on our sister site Sportomaniac. With the African Nations Cup going on, Six Nations Rugby, SuperBowl and staple of Premiership football, there's loads going on!

Tags: sport, Facebook

31

Online tax deadline today

More than 150000 people filed their tax returns on deadline day last year. Looks like it's a similar story this time round - the website is "temporarily unavailable". So perhaps it's a good time to review some of the common errors made on self-assessment forms:

Common errors:

• Failure to complete a separate supplementary page for each individual employment.
• Entering employee personal pension premiums net instead of gross.
• Entering the figure for capital expenditure allowances in box 3.14 of the self-employment pages instead of the figure for capital allowances.
• Failure to complete Q19 of the main tax return where a repayment is due.If you do not opt for immediate repayment, the Revenue will leave the overpaid amount on your account and set that amount against future liabilities.
• Entering your pay in box 1.8 of the employment pages but not entering tax deducted in box 1.11

Common reasons for rejecting a tax return:

• Entering a "yes" tick on one of the questions 1 to 9 on page 2 of the tax return but failing to forward the relevant supplementary page.
• Failure to complete the self-employment pages, particularly from box 3.74 onwards.
• Putting detailed information on separate schedules instead of including the information.
• Entering handwritten notes, such as "per accounts" or "information to follow", instead of entering actual figures.
• Failure to sign and date the return.

Related: tax, money

30

Watch Live Super Bowl XLII

New York Giants vs New England Patriots is the billing at Super Bowl XLII this Sunday. What with the flu the NY squad got this week (conspiracy anyone?), I don't think they have a hope, so that's who I'm supporting. US folk who are big fans of this annual event will probably be out at some party, but those of us in UK (and most other countries) will just have to be content with the coverage on BBC 2, what with it being on in the middle of the night... If you're up and also following the game (and perhaps trying to work out the rules), check out Sportomaniac for some live sports chat and armchair refereeing! Kick-off 23:15 GMT.

See also: Super Bowl

25

Software to detect plagiarism

I recently saw an article about the growing problem of plagiarism among students and so I've written a little piece of software as a tool to aid teachers in the fight against it. The application is called Collusion and allows users to select a folder on their hard drive that contains the students' essays. These are then checked against each other for evidence of "copy-and-paste".

This is version 1.0. All feedback, via the contact form or the Nimisis software Google group, would be greatly appreciated!

Tags: software, education, Collusion, plagiarism

22

CS Lewis' Mere Christianity

Fans of CS Lewis' writing, such as the Narnia books, might be interested to hear footage of the man himself talking on BBC radio back in the 40's.

A related link is Librivox.org, which provides free audiobooks from the public domain.

Related: CS Lewis, Librivox, audio, books

18

Webuser magazine

PriceCutReview.com got a mention in this fortnight's Webuser Magazine, who claim to be the UK's best-selling internet magazine. There's a feature article titled "Save Money Online" and we're tip number 39 of 60. They certainly know what they're talking about. Thanks guys!

See also: half price, price cut, press

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16

Kindle UK release date

When Amazon launched the Kindle eBook reader in US it was done with little fanfare. The product itself got a lot of criticism yet it managed to sell incredibly well. No wonder really. Users get a free subscription to newspapers like the New York Times which arrives on the device every day, and you're given access to the first chapter of each of the 80,000 ebooks in the store at no cost. For more info, there are some good videos on the product page.

***Discount books***
[continue reading »]

Tags: Kindle, book

[comments 2]

15

Blu ray or HD DVD? Who will win?

The format war over the high-definition video market has been going on for a few years, and it now looks like the eventual winner is pulling ahead. So I'm calling it for the blue corner - it's Blu-ray. Hope I'm wrong though, because I would much prefer HD DVD to triumph. Why? Because it would be better for the consumer.

The main pros and cons for Blu-ray and HD DVD are as follows: Blu-ray can hold more data than HD DVD, 25GB vs 15GB. Compare this with the 4.7GB that a standard DVD can store. However, it's also more expensive to make - an expense passed on to the buyer with a percentage slapped on top no doubt. Blu-ray discs can also be region-encoded. Again, not something the public would have voted for. (To be fair though, about two-thirds of all releases so far have been region-free.)
[in more detail »]

Related: Blu-ray, HD DVD, high definition, hdtv

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