Preparing your digital legacy for when you're gone

We have a lot to think about when it comes to protecting our assets once we have passed away. Ensuring these are protected and passed on to who you want is important, particularly in the case of houses, money and any other large assets you have. This is still the case for any digital legacy's you may own. This can include any online social media sights such as Facebook, Twitter and your email, but also any online businesses you may have as well, particularly if there are many assets tied up in this also.  

After you pass away, the internet stays the same. There is a way to ensure that the people you want dealing with this, know everything they need to. Making a note of all the websites you have signed up to over the years will ensure that these can be un-subscribed once you have gone. It is also useful to note down what you want to happen with these sites and leave it in your Will so that when it comes to dealing with it they will know what it is you wanted. It is also important to remember to leave your login details such as usernames, email addresses and passwords used for these sites so that people can access these.

This is particularly important for sites such as online banking, e-mail and utility sites where there are still ends that need to be tied up once you have gone. As well as this, social media sites need to be deleted, partially because you won't need an account, but also to save the heartbreak of family and friends when things such as birthday notifications or people writing 'Happy Birthday' if they don't know you have passed away. It is also a place where loved ones can see a lot of pictures and may still be grieving too much.

A lot of people make the mistake in that they leave their Wills so well hidden that their loved ones can't find it. Saga.co.uk ensure that it is stored online and they keep a copy so that when it comes to needing it, your loved ones can find it online and be able to deal with the Will accordingly. This also means that they can be accessed anywhere in the world. It is also important to remember to keep this up to date so that when the time comes to needing it, everything is just as you left it.

References

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2471464/Saga-Legal-urge-compose-final-Tweet-dead.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24380211

http://www.saga.co.uk/legal/everyday-legal/digital-legacy.aspx

 

Author: Marc Oaks

The Da Vinci Diamonds Slot is a Game with a Difference

Play enough slots and sooner or later they all begin to look the same. Dedicated slots fans face the unique problem of finding slot machines that will entertain them even after they’ve played a hundred variations of what is essentially the same game, so it’s just as well that the Da Vinci Diamonds slot brings something a little different to the table.

On the surface, the Da Vinci Diamonds slot looks just like any other slot game such as Rainbow Riches, Cleopatra Slot, Monopoly Plus slot and Pixies of the Forest Slot – five reels adorned with symbols based on the Renaissance period and on Da Vinci’s work in particular; beautiful antique portraits combined with bright jewels including rubies, pearls, emeralds and of course diamonds. The slot has 20 paylines which is good news for beginners who may not want to bet too much per spin, but if you’re an experienced slot player then the option of increasing your bet per line is a good idea – there’s a maximum bet of £500 per line which can yield you a whopping jackpot of 250,000 coins.

Like most slots, it also has a wild symbol which can help you complete winning combinations, and a bonus symbol that triggers a free spins round. The free spins round consists of six free spins and is able to be retriggered again and again, up to a maximum of 300 free spins.

So if it’s similar to a lot of slots, why should you choose to play Da Vinci Diamonds slot?

The difference lies in a feature called ‘Tumbling Reels’, which is something that is so inventive that players often don’t want to go back to playing regular slots afterwards! How it works is that every time you form a winning combination, the symbols that make up that combination explode, leaving room for other symbols to ‘tumble down’ from above. With those symbols in place, the slot machine recalculates to see if you’ve formed any new winning combinations. That means that with a single spin you can win multiple times with no extra effort or coins on your behalf.

It’s an incredibly interesting and lucrative game, and with the Da Vinci Diamonds Dual Play version available you can easily double your fun!

Gaming - there’s never been so much choice

The rise of casual gaming over the last few years has changed the face of ‘video gaming’ and made it far more mainstream. Once the sole provenance of teenage boys, gaming has blossomed into a multi-million dollar industry with so many different choices, there is a way of playing games out there for everyone.

The emergence of wifi and hyper fast internet speeds have opened up online gaming to the masses, for example. Not that long ago, you had to be a dedicated gamer to want to get online and play with other people, necessitating as it did waiting for dial ups and tying up the phone line for hours. These days, anyone and everyone can hop online whenever they fancy - and from wherever they fancy with 3G and 4G making it pretty much instantaneous to play games from buses, trains, while shopping, eating and walking. In fact there isn’t anywhere where games can’t be played today!

Consoles are, of course, hooked up to fast internet as well, allowing players to play against people all over the world in complicated games like Call of Duty, requiring skill, dedication and many hours of gameplay.

Smartphones and tablets have given us simple games like Plants vs Zombies and Bejewelled Blitz, which are phenomenally popular with the casual gamer market - the vast number of people who have become interested in playing games, often following first exposure through social networking sites like Facebook. There are literally thousands of gaming apps available, catering to lots of different interests, from sport lovers to brain training experts and the number of people playing them continues to rise.

Added to these are online gambling and casino sites, which offer a different way to play games online. Although poker and casino games have always been popular, with console games and simple card games available for many years, the rise of online poker recently has seen a huge uptake in players. The ability to play professional players and play many hands at once has opened up real life tournament play to dedicated online poker players as well - they can win places in tournaments and go on to advance their game that way.

In a similar way, online bingo sites have also taken off in recent years, with many thousands of regular players discovering a way to harness an old favourite in a completely new way. It’s possible to play online bingo on sites like chitchat bingo and enjoy socialising with other players, as well as play bingo in many different ways.

With online games also aimed at children - for example Disney’s Club Penguin and Mind Candy’s Moshi Monsters proving phenomenally popular and introducing children to the world of online gaming at a very early age, it seems that no age group or interest group has been left out of the rise of online gaming. There really is something for everyone, and it;s fantastic to see something that was once so niche, become so popular and educationally important. You can’t underestimate what can be learned from video gaming and online game playing and, of course, the fun that can be had exploring all the different ways to play.

Nintendo of America retiring several Wii online services on June 28th

Earlier today, Nintendo announced that several of the original Wii's online services will fade to black in the console's homeland. Adding to the carnage, the company confirmed that us yankees are far from exempt. Starting on June 28th, the Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, the Check Mii Out Channel and the Nintendo Channel will all be taken offline. Wii Message Board and data exchange between friends are scheduled to get the axe as well. Now before you start contemplating trading in your system for its leaner, disconnected successor, we should note that the Wii Shop Channel will remain online. So there's still time to snag a copy of Super Mario 64 from the Virtual Console for nostalgia's sake.

[Source: Engadget]

Google adds the scrolls of Genesis and the Ten Commandments to the cloud

Following through on its mission to help digitally preserve the Dead Sea Scrolls, Google announced today that it's working with the Israel Antiquities Authority to bring more ancient text to the cloud. The latest archived entries include an early copy of the Book of Deuteronomy and part of the first chapter of Genesis, which describes the creation of the world. In addition, hundreds of other 2,000 year-old texts outlining the history of Judaism and the life of Jesus will be added to the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library at a 1,215 dpi resolution. Utilizing Google's hosting, this project houses around 900 manuscripts that support commenting, image zoom and fullscreen viewing. Stop by the coverage link below to get up close and personal with these pieces of history.

[Image Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority]
[Source: Engadget]

Disney to shut down its Online streaming site

Ever heard of Disney Movies Online? Apparently not many have, as Disney announced it'll be shutting down the online movie streaming service at the end of the year. It isn't a shock that a movie streaming site that only offers flicks from one studio and no integration with something like UltraViolet (Disney remains the only major studio avoiding that kludge) wasn't a success. People who were actually using it can use the same redeem code that came bundled with their discs, in iTunes or Windows Media Player. Those few who actually paid for access have until the end of February of next year to request a refund. There's talk of a replacement "Disney Movies Anywhere" solution on the way -- possibly based on its KeyChest system -- but joining UltraViolet, in its current form, doesn't seem much better then Disney Movies Online was.

[Source: Engadget]