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Tech Industry News Delivered To Your Inbox

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:39:00 +0000

With Thexyz.in you can get a summary of the latest tech news industry stories that the web is talking about, sent directly to your inbox. This will arrive never more than once a day.
You can see a sample of the news that gets delivered through the twitter feed below or just go ahead and enter your email address in the box below to subscribe. Don't forget to click the confirmation link in the confirmation email.

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Tweets by @thexyzin

Best Toronto City Scene Photo Location

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:28:00 +0000

There are many good locations in Toronto to take a shot of city. This has to be one of my favourites from the Richmond Street bridge over the Don Valley.
Image: PhotoDorks

Here Comes The Sun, Is Your Car Ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:28:00 +0000

This post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

With the warmer weather comes a new season, a new season with new chores and maintenance. It may have felt like such a long time since people felt the warmth of the sun o their faces that they forget the maintenance chores that are done in the summer months. Winter can a real toll on a car, especially in cities that use salt as way to keep snow levels down.

After the snow has melted and the salt on the roads has been washed away it is a good idea to take your car through the car wash as this will also wash the under neath of the car. This will clean all the hard to reach areas underneath the car. After that you can get started with you vehicle spring cleaning.

When the winter tires are off and the car has been through the car wash, the following checklist will remind any car owner, the steps to getting ready for summer.

Winter is messy, what with all the sort and snow that can buildup on the inside of the car. Take these mats and out and vacuum.

Remove all the winter tools such as the scraper to clean the windows, boot brush and so on. These items will not be needed for some time so they may as well be removed.

If you have been a good driver with out any claims on your insurance, it may be a good time to check out some auto insurance quotes, a great place to start is Insurance Hunter as they will search multiple insurance services for the best quote.

Free To Download Facebook Covers

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:01:00 +0000

All is these Facebook covers can be download for free courtesy of Thexyz. The raw source files are also available via PhotoDorks. Just simply click the link underneath each cover image to download and upload to your Facebook profile cover area.

Click here to download

Royal Building Products Virtual Remodeller Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:58:00 +0000

This post brought to you by Royal Building Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

The virtual remodeller is a great website that I have used and recommended to a number of potential clients, I also like to show it it off to Home Stagers, Architects, Builders and other home improvement industry specialists.

It is a great tool, even if you are home owner looking for some inspiration , you can find it with the virtual remodeller at Royal Building Products. Whether you are looking for siding, new windows or a new patio door, the remodeller with give you a preview of your house with the new windows. This is also a pretty neat tool to offer your clients.

You can tell just by using the tool that a lot of work has gone into it. Home owners love to be able to visualize exactly what their home will look like before they make any commitments. Remember that updating the exterior of a home is often an expense that requires the home to give the project some thought. Any tool that allows them to see what it will look like, is going to help aid them in making the right decision, and in turn make you look great as the designer, builder or visionary.

One of the features I like most about the remodelling tool, is the fact that it allows you to upload your own picture of a house and change the colour of the exterior vinyl siding, the style of the windows or see what a new door will look like by placing a number of new style of door over the existing photo.

Visit the Royal Building Products website and check out the awesome remodeller tool today.

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:27:00 +0000

I have recently setup a new YouTube channel for Thexyz, you can find it over at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThexyzHelps

You can find videos to help you get the most of:

Email
Web software
Running a website
Website marketing
Search engine marketing
Web hosting

Subscribe to my new YouTube channel and you might learn something you like!

Tips For Getting Organized This Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Birds are singing, stray cats are out and about, dogs are no longer wearing thier winter jackets and people are happy that they can awake from a prolonged state of hibernation that kept them indoors through winter.

As spring, springs a new start, we usually make changes around this of the year and best of all make summer plans, like planning a road trip, boat trip, canoe trip or bicyle trip. The term spring cleaning is all well known around this time of year as all people begin to dust off the layers of amalgamated dust from the cold season.

Yes this is the time of year when you clean behind the oven and may be the fridge too, when you take a stocktake of all your pots and pans to see which old pan can be spared to make room for your new slow cooker. When you sort the closet out from top to bottom and dust from top to bottom. Spring can also be a very busy time and to help bare the burden of all the spring time chores you want to get done, you might want to check out this post by Insurance Hunter that has complied a list of some Tips for getting your spring cleaning chores organized.

My spring chores, would be sorted into two categories, urgent and not urgent. Some of the urgent choroes usually relate to running of my business but it is important to also make time for the not so urgent chores. I can remember my professer at university saying, "take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves." This is quiet true with chores too, you of course also want to save as much money as you can with auto insurance quotes.

Small Business Guide To Email

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:38:00 +0000

Small Business Guide to Email infographic

Get Thexyz Cloud Email for your business

What is the Cloud? Here I am talking about Thexyz Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:27:00 +0000

I found this video shot by Sustained Media of me talking about Thexyz Cloud on the shore of lake Ontario in Toronto.

Write a review about Thexyz Cloud on:

Also you can like Thexyz on Facebook and Google+ too, not forgetting to like us on Alternative.to

Saddle up with a tree climbing harness and fun hobby

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:11:00 +0000

A tree will grow without restraint, what better way to show this than by watching a tree doctor or trimmer up a tree cutting the branches back. It is not just monkeys that can be found up a tree, other tree-climbing enthusiasts include educators, scientists and recreational climbers. Recreational tree climber? Yes, this is when you realize that you need a new hobby. If tree climbing is for you, you need the professional harness climbing and chainsaw chaps gear to make sure you do not fall and hurt yourself.

The Top Five Premium Email Providers

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

What are the best paid email providers?

Email is very important to most businesses and free email is great but for business users, they often require more. They also need to ensure the service is not going to be cut or changed. For example getting business stationary printed on mybusinessname@hotmail.com does not only look unprofessional, there is always the risk they can change it to mybusinessname@outlook.com.

Also if you have your email with your ISP and then change to another provider, changing your email over to new provider can be a hassle. That is why I think it is a good idea not just for business but also personal email users to spend the couple of bucks each month on a paid email service. Here are some of the Top Paid Email Providers.

Google Apps

Starting $5/user/per month Google Apps is a good service, but getting support can be difficult as you may know, how can you contact someone at Google? Many businesses choose to pass on Google Apps after reading their TOS and are not overly keen on having emails read to find relevant ads to place on them.

Thexyz

A great alternative to Google, with larger storage amounts and a lower price, Thexyz is also 100% ad-free so you get a much cleaner and easy to use interface. The webmail is also really powerful with many features. I have not found an email provider that offers user as much as Thexyz.

Fastmail

Another good email provider but lacks the Mobile sync technology (ActiveSync) used by Google and Thexyz.

Hushmail

Hushmail meets HIPAA Compliance just like Thexyz but does not support SMTP which is a bit of a let down.

iCloud

Even with the paid version of iCloud email by Apple, it does not support POP3, your own domain, nor does it meet government compliance. It is also the most expensive whilst lacking the most features. An Apple fan boy must have though.

Visualise The Exterior Of Your Home With Royal Building Online Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:29:00 +0000

This post brought to you by Royal Building Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

Royal Building Products not only have a great product they have a great website too.

The website has some excellent interactive tools for home owners, designers, architects and home contractors. It allows a user to upload a photo of a house or use an existing house already on the site. This allows you to see how the house will look with the exterior vinyl siding. There are a number of style and colours to choose from.

Marianne Cusato has partnered with Royal Building Products to distribute Royal Moulding & Trim products that come with a lifetime no rot warranty. With Royal Building Products, you can rest assured knowing that your windows are backed by one of the best Lifetime Guarantees in the industry. Once your new windows have been installed you’ll be able to see them last without spending anything more on service or maintenance for as long as you live in your home and that is a fact!

Selling clients, friends or partner on Royal Building Products is quite easy as the products sell themselves. They save money and energy by improving the insulation of a home and significantly reducing the maintenance needed.

Bricks and mortar or exterior woodwork require cleaning, painting, re-painting or staining from time to time where Royal Building Products can easily be washed down with a garden hose to look like new again.

For anyone looking at updating the exterior of a home the online tools developed on the Royal Building Products website are a great way to get to see exactly how it will look before you go ahead making the worthwhile investment.

Looking for Tech Blogs, Cloud Backup review sites to write review

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Are you a blogger? Do you write articles for the web or run a cloud hosting review site? We are looking for reviews about Thexyz Cloud.

Thexyz is a leading web hosting and business email provider that is also changing the way people access their files, photos, music, videos and other digital content. Thexyz is your personal storage space on the Internet. It's unlimited, it's secure and it's there forever.

It supports both Windows and Mac as well as iPhone, Android and Windows mobile platforms. See a full list of Thexyz Cloud features: http://www.thexyz.com/pages/cloud.html

Thexyz was first launched as a web hosting company in July 2007, and has grown to support over 25,000 paying customers around the world. See what the press are saying about Thexyz: http://www.thexyz.com/pages/testimonials.html

The Thexyz management team is made up of respected industry experts and investors, who have contributed their valued experience and financial strength to ensure that Thexyz is both well-managed and well-funded.

Thexyz is looking for reviews and online articles, you can download software package graphics, logos and see other press release here: http://www.thexyz.com/pages/press.html

To get a free account for reviewing the app, please contact support [at] thexyz.com

Would you pay for Facebook, Twitter or Google to cover the cost of free?

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Many people were up in arms last week when Google decided to pull the plug on its free RSS reader after writing on Google Blog saying: "While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader."

Many internet users do not realize the costs associated with running such a service and seem to expect to receive services for free. Like, Facebook and Twitter, most of Googles services are free for the most part. Out of the three of them,they have done quite well selling advertising space to cover their costs, which is the main source of revenue for Google and the only answer to monetize and support such services. This is easy enough for Google to do as they are providing search results, where as Facebook users learn to ignore the ads. Twitter still does not really do much at all to sell ads space but they are starting to now.

The end of free on Internet?

The fact is that Google seems to take the lead when it comes to selling ad space, however they have still managed to axe 70+ Google services in the last year alone. A few months ago Google recommended that Gmail users switch to a service like Outlook or Thexyz to continue using Mobile Sync (Microsoft ActiveSync), as it will be discontinued (source: CNET). Google announced in late 2012 that their email services when used by business will be charged at a monthly cost.

Mark Zuckerberg has always said Facebook, "is free and always will be,"however the service it being supported by optimistic shareholders that Facebook will one day turn a healthy profit. With over 900 million users actively logging in to upload photos, statuses and videos, Facebook runs a hefty hosting bill. It currently costs $83 million a month in hosting costs (source: Facebook) and last year Facebook made a mere $4.84 in revenue per user per year (source: TechCrunch).

Social networks are failing left right and center, through my work at phpFox I see this happen right before my eyes. Running a large social network can be even more difficult, especially if it is a free service. Here is an info graphic of some failing social networks.

Top 10 Social Media Sites That Failed Miserably infographic

Best Google Reader Alternatives

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:52:00 +0000

Netvibes

This dashboard publishing platform for web is organized into tabs that contain user-defined modules. It features built-in modules that include an RSS/Atom feed reader, local weather forecasts, a calendar supporting iCal, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, multiple searches, support for POP3, IMAP4 email as well as several webmail providers such as Gmail, Yahoo!, Thexyz, Hotmail, and AOL Mail. It also supports Delicious, Meebo, and Flickr.

Feedly

An aggregator that runs on web browsers as well as mobile devices running on iOS and Android platforms. It aggregates news from different online sources which the user can customize and share with their peers.

Flipboard

Flipboard is an RSS reader and also very social as well. Flipboard is known for its aesthetic appeal which works great with tablets.

NewsBlur

Available for web browsers, and iOS and Android platform. It brings real-time RSS and allows users to view the article on the original site, share stories with friends, and highlight stories that you are interested in as well as hiding the ones that you can’t be bothered with.

FeedDemon

You can program FeedDemon to inform you when a given tag appears in any feed you are subscribed to, as well as if it appears on feeds you aren’t subscribed to. It can also automatically download audio files of feeds you are subscribed to and save it on your iPod or other media devices.

FeedReader

A free RSS news aggregation solution that provides robust features in an intuitive, user-friendly environment. It comes with the Feedreader Browser, which allows you to setup feeds you want to subscribe to. And then there’s the Feedreader online feature that allows you to view subscribed feeds everywhere you go, using any device, without having to install or setup anything– just log in with your FeedReader account.

How to explain the British Isles

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 02:28:00 +0000

I always end up confusing people when trying to explain the British Isles and the difference between England and Britain etc. This handy little graphic explains it all very well.

Permalink to just the image: http://thexyz.org/K8=

The Polaroid is back!

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:28:00 +0000

Instagram has a logo that is based around the iconic Polaroid camera. A new camera is set to be launched amalgamating the best of old and new. It will come with 3G and WiFi technology and house 16GB of storage and a printer though more detailed specifications are yet to be announced. A release date has yet to be announced.

How to shop online for a new car

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:05:00 +0000

This post brought to you by Insurance Hunter. All opinions are 100% mine.
Buying a second hand car can be a risky business and there a few things you should know before you go about the process of finding your new car. Nowadays when someone wants to sell a car, 80% of time ot is done online and not through traditional methods such as a newspapers and magazines.
Looking to buy a used car? Use common sense when shopping online and following these tips:

Never pay online without seeing the car first, not even a deposit
Make contact with the seller via phone and/or in person, use your instincts
Browse only reptuable websites
Ask questions about the car
Always inspect a vehicle in the daylight
Take the car out for a test drive and play attention to steering, pedals and bodywork
Visit the Ministry of Transportation website for other tips

Insurance Hunter also has many tips and can provide you with an accurate quote for auto insurance so you know exactly how much you can expect to pay on a monthly and annual basis. Car ownership can be expensive so it is important to know the cost of insurance before you make a commitment.
There is no pressure for you to buy a second hand car, make sure the seller is not pressuring you into buying the car. This us usually a cause for concern, remember as the buyer, you have the power to say "yes" or "no" to buying the car, and there is always a steady supply of second hand cars for sale.

Looking at the progress of TweakDorks

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:42:00 +0000

It has been only a few months since I helped launch TweakDorks and we have since helped hundreds of website owners.

"TweakDorks was born through a need to patch a hole in the industry" and continues to grow. We are soon going to be adding a new section to the site that enables SEO to be purchased through the site.

I just completed a new site design for Renaissance Painters

Anagrammer language tool is the ultimate cheat tool for Scrabble

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:18:00 +0000

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of anagrammer. All opinions are 100% mine.

Anagrammer has created the ultomate Scrabble cheating tool and best of all you can install it free as a widget on your website or blog.

The folks at Anagrammer have one simple goal and that is to ensure that bloggers and webmasters alike make the most out of the amazing and free tool, which is why I am helping to spread the word by writing this blog post.

The widget is extremly east to install, jus grab the embed code and paste it on your blog or website while viewing/editing the html code of the page. If you feel your blog is lacking some stickiness to keep your visitors on your blog longer, then may be you should consider installing the widget on your blog. To help win you over, I have made some notes on some reasons why below.

Why should I install Anagrammer on my blog?

Decrease the bounce rate on your site
Ensuring visitors spend longer on your site will improve rankings
Great for gaming sites
Rank your site for a popular search term like "cheat at Scrabble tool"

The possibilites are endless and I invite you to check the tool out for yourself via the below llnk:

Widget Code & Live Demo

Why pay for email?

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:05:00 +0000

When you can get an email account from dozens of providers, you will ask yourself why would I need to pay for an email account when I get email for free. Well, it depends on how you plan to use your email account. Below I have listed the main reasons you should consider paying for an email account.

Privacy

A major concern when using free services like gmail, yahoo or other ad supported email services is that they need to cover the costs of providing the service and do so by serving ads that are relevant to the content of your emails. The only way you can be sure to keep unwanted people viewing your personal emails, is by using an ad free service.

Ensure your email gets delivered

Due to the high volume of usage, and techniques used by spammers and hackers, users of free email services suffer a disproportionately high number of lost mail. In many cases, "lost" messages were intentionally dropped by spam blocking practices as reported in numerous news articles.

Personal domain usage for email

There is no question that using a personal domain name other an over used free service adds credibility and a professional touch. Whether you are looking for your business name or just a personal account. Users have come up with some creative ways to add a personal touch to an email name.

Email security

Paid and premium email providers usually always secure their email servers with SSL and encrypt all mail data that is sent through the servers. If you have your own web server, then adding SSL to the server can be time consuming and costly. It is cheaper just to purchase a premium email account and have them worry about it.

Increased email reliability

With an SSL enabled mail account, additional outgoing mail ports are opened up to send mail. The standard outgoing mail port, 25 is sometimes periodically blocked by certain Internet service providers as a way to reduce spam. By opening up a secure email port like 465, you will ensure your email does not get caught up in these sporadic blocks by ISP's.

Reduce the risk of being hacked

I remember last year it seemed like everyone that used hotmail was getting hacked. Free services from common free email service providers are often hacked a lot easier because the culprit knows the login url for where to access the emails. They just need to guess the password. With a personal domain email address the login url is not accessible as it is unknown by the culprit.

Keep your account active

When you use a free service like gmail, you need to keep using the account to ensure it stays active. If your account is not used for 9 months. There is a good chance it will be disabled. Free email service providers also reserve the right to terminate your account at anytime, without warning. With a paid email provider, all you have to worry about is paying the small monthly fee and your account will remain active.

Leave your ISP

Many people use the free email account provided by their Internet Service Provider. This can become troublesome when you want to switch to another provider and realize that you cannot keep the same email address.

Advertisements at the end of message

Many free email services will automatically add advertisements to the end of your email message. As services like Thexyz are 100% advertisement free. You do not need to worry about endorsing products and services unwilling when sending an email.

Additional features

Premium email providers often put a lot more into their mail platform than that of a free email service provider as they want to keep your business. For that reason you can expect better service, higher reliability and features that you may not get with a free service.

I have worked with many email providers over the years and recommend Thexyz as my provider of choice.

Canadian Penny Gets A Google Doodle Send Off

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Goodbye penny in Canada as today it the last day of penny in circulation. The CBC radio has a piece asking if the penny will be missed here. Some will preserve the penny and CTV has written an article about some people already making Jewelry with the Canadian penny here.

New* Blog Design At ptoone.com

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:42:00 +0000

After looking over my blog a few weeks ago I realized that it wasn't quite working and I needed an update. Before picking an every better theme I looked into my analytics and saw that I am now getting over 600 unique views a day on this site. My French Polishing video has accumulated over 80,000 views and my vector illustrations and photographs have been sold over 3000 times.

From looking at all this information I decided to make the change back to a previous blog design I did. I pulled this CSS template from my archives and adjusted it to fit.

Take a look at my new (or old) design: www.ptoone.com

The Story Of Shellac And The Laccifer Lacca (Lac Beetle)

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:49:00 +0000

The Story Of Shellac And The Laccifer Lacca (Lac Beetle).

llustration & Text: Perry Toone Version: eBook (PDF) File size: 3.6 MB Pages: 18 ISBN: 978-0-9782967-2-8 Sample: View PDF

Once you have successfully completed the secure payment process you will be automatically directed to a 'secure download' folder with all files included. If you have any questions about this process, email pt@ptoone.com.

From the beetle to the tree, 'Shellac' embarks on a remarkable process before it is purified for commercial use. The Laccifer Lacca (Lac Beetle) is a scale insect from the cohiael family. Measuring just 5mm in length when fully grown, it resides on trees in India and southern Asia, such as the Ficus, Palas, Kusum and Ber tree's.

This amazing process requires the precise efforts of man, animals and nature to perfect.

French Polishing Video

noreply@blogger.com (Perry Toone) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:45:00 +0000