I'm not sure how or where this has been advertised, cos until a mate pointed it out to me I had no idea, but Tivo is coming to Australia!
Tivo is digital video recorder that records your favorite tv shows to hard disk automatically.. It's been in Yankeeland for nearly 10 years now, so it's about time the land of Oz caught up..

As cool as this is, I should probably point out for the less geekier readers that this is easily possible using your current pc, a tv tuner card, and something like Mythbuntu.

Tivo made a fortune by putting that concept into a ready made box, and charging subscriptions for it..

I know I've bagged out Aussie tv heaps, and I don't even watch it at all these days, but who can turn down free trials of new tech?

You can sign up for the beta test here :)

An old mate Dan has just pointed me towards a mad site called free rice. Expand your vocabulary, and give some starving kids a feed at the same time :)

This is legit, its supported by the ad's at the bottom, and its quick and easy to help the cause. As you play, the words get progressively harder and it gives you a rating in the corner. So far, in a few quick sessions I've only made it to level 39 (without cheating), see if ya can beat that..

"Siiiiick!"

I hardly ever have phone credit these days, so I'm always looking for ways to send messages for free. There used to be heaps of online services that would do this for Australia, but over the years most of them have become paid services, Or started going nuts with spam.

I was surprised to find theres still some services that are quick,easy and FREE still available :)

• GoFreeSmsHost1: Has a crap name, but an awesome interface. 2 Minute signup, Shows a 20second flash ad before sending sms, 30second to 4min delivery time. My favorite by far because of the clean, fast interface uncluttered by "GET YOUR RINGTONES/WALLPAPERS HERE" crap like most sites
• Intazaar: Has a good rep at places like whirlpool, 30sms limit per day, fast deliveries but they tag ".Z" after each message.
• Web2Msg.com: No signup at all, but limited amount of messages can be sent to each carrier per day. Just gotta be lucky with timing.

I'll update this if any other worthy services come up, let me know in the comments if you can recommend anyone. Keep in mind I'm looking for services that are fast,free,light on the ads and don't have a history of spamming. This rules out - freesmspup, blueskyfrog,mbox,ozonline,boltblue & redrock.

Update 01/10/07: Since im still getting heaps of traffic for this old article I've rechecked my links - GoFreeSmsHost has died completely, and Intazaar has now sold to Smsfun.com.au but im not sure what the service is like. I doubt they could possibly fit any more ads on the site, so I left in disgust. Web2Msg.com is still running exactly how it was when I first wrote this article nearly a yr ago, so check them out :)

I really feel Cartman's pain here, I'm a big Nintendo fan and im already making plans to hock in a kidney for their new console (and Zelda). Its getting closer, I can taste the goodness already..

By the way, Nintendo Aus is bringing Wii's on tour to different shopping centre's around the place (Tour dates), I'll be lining up for a chance to try it when it comes to Garden city from 27th nov - 3rd dec for sure..

Is that sad? I haven't felt this kind of techno-lust since I first saw a n64 back in the day..

One more thing, if I can refer 10 people to this site they reckon they'll send me a free wii. I'm not holding my breath, but it cant hurt to try. All you need to do is sign up with them, they give you a list of their sponsors to sign up with you take your pick of one, plus sign up 10 mates of your own for your own free Nintendo wii. I normally would never spam marketing sites like this, but I don't see the harm when theres no chance of recieving spam if you do it right.

Handy hints:

• Use a disposable email address
• Make yourself a fake identity + cc details to sign up for free trials (An then just cancel the trial after its accepted) No charges will be attempted to the fake account, no crime has been committed ;)

And BAM! You've technically done everything they want, for free, with no spam making it back to you :) Thank me in the comments ..