Aug 14, 2008
I suspect most have their results by now, suddenly it is decision time.
For those of you lucky enough to get the results that allow you to go to the uni of your choice, congratulations, you may as well stop reading now and go to the pub.
If your results didn’t go your way there remains 2 options, change direction/resit or clearing.
Since the first option is totally up to you, I’m going to look at the clearing process. [Read more]
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Jul 21, 2008
A bit of positive news after last years shocking interest rate rise. Student loans may see the rate fall from currently 4.8% to 3.8%. Although not confirmed yet, it looks like it will fall. This is most likely to change in September.
But how is the rate calculated? Well the Government’s aim is to set the rate so it mirrors the rate of inflation. Therefore the money you borrow remains the same value. Or at least thats the plan, the problem, how do you calculate the rate of inflation? The two current methods are Retail Price Index (RPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI). Before September 07 the rate was set by the CPI method, without going into the finer detail this gave the lowest rate of interest. But since September 07, RPI has been used. The difference is disgusting. For the year 06/07 the rate was 2.4% but this year it is 4.8%. Yep doubled. [Read more]
Feb 23, 2008
Now I fully know students like me don’t want to pay for anything, if they can get away with it. As is said the best things in life are free.
This is true of software, but trying to find viable replacements to the expensive mainstream software such as Microsoft Office can be hard. But over the last few years there has been a small revolution. Initially free software was poor or well below standard. This is still true in some aspects, but there are some cracking freebies that nearly or more frequently than not, out perform there expensive competitors. I always use free software, here are my favourite free essentials:
Browser
Well, no competition here, it has to be Firefox, why? It is more reliable, less likely to let viruses through and in my opinion more aesthetically pleasing than Microsofts equivalent - Internet Explorer. [Read more]
