MarcForrest.com

Month: June 2010

  • Bet on World Cup Games – 15 & 16 June

    Well the World Cup is in full swing now and South African’s are loving every second of it. Apart from the Vuvuzela debate waging on, I think everyone is having a good time. I was a the Germany vs Australia game on Sunday night, which was out of this world. The atmosphere at the game was incredible, and I would highly recommend getting to a game if you can.

    The next 2 days see a couple of interesting games ahead as the 1st round of games end and teams go into their 2nd round. Bafana Bafana take on Uruguay in an all important clash for both teams, after drawing in the first round of matches against Mexico and France respectively. I honestly think we can pull it off, with the support that we all saw on Friday, and a few extra paarps on the Vuvu, will def help our boys on the way.

    The Guys from GreatOdds.com have got all the betting worked out for the next couple of games, so I thought I would take a look at whats happening over the next 2 days to see who the favorites are. There are some really good odds here, and the minimum bet for all the games is only R8, so almost have nothing to lose.

    The big one for all of us is our boys, who are stacked at 2/1 which means R100 will get you R300 should we take it. Uruguay on the other hand are at 13/10 meaning you will take home R230 if you place the same bet.A draw will net you R320

    All the other games below: – All the bets below are worked out using R100

    Teams

    Home

    Draw

    Away

    All Bets
    New Zealand v Slovakia – 15/06/2010 13:30 7/1
    – R800    		 11/4
    – R375    		 9/20
    – R145    		 All Bets (73)
    Ivory Coast v Portugal – 15/06/2010 16:00 43/20
    – R315    		 11/5
    – R320    		 6/5
    – R220    		 All Bets (74)
    Brazil v North Korea – 15/06/2010 20:30 1/16
    – R106.25    		 17/2
    – R950    		 28/1
    –R2900    		 All Bets (78)
    Honduras v Chile – 16/06/2010 13:30 5/1
    – R600    		 3/1
    – R400    		 1/2
    –R150    		 All Bets (76)
    Spain v Switzerland – 16/06/2010 16:00 2/9
    – R122.22    		 9/2
    – R550    		 11/1
    – R1200    		 All Bets (77)
    South Africa v Uruguay – 16/06/2010 20:30 2/1
    – R300    		 11/5
    – R320    		 13/10
    – R230    		 All Bets (75)

    I think we in for a cracker couple of games over the next couple of days. Let’s see how it all works out :)

  • Finger 2010 iPhone game

    With all the Soccer World Cup madness going around at the moment, I came across quite a cool little game, called Finger 2010 – $0.99 (iTunes Link), developed by the guys from MarsApp to keep myself entertained during those dull moments in the games, while watching it on TV.

    The game is a pretty simple concept. First you choose your country (Go South Africa :)), and then you simply play a game of 1-touch. You have to keep tapping the soccer ball and keep it in the air for as long as possible, without it touching the ground. It may sound rather simple, but trust me, there is quite a bit of skill involved.

    There is also a fantastic soundtrack to keep you entertained during your game, as well as Open Feint scoring integration, which allows you to compete against a global leaderboard as well as against your friends.

    The Finger 2010 features:

    • Simple Control
    • Over 90 Countries to choose from
    • Integrated with OpenFeint
    • High Scores Leaderboard
    • Total Scores Leaderboard
    • Music Control
    • Auto Submit Score
    • Accumulate Country Score

    Overall the game is brilliant, and well worth the $0.99 price and is  a must have for the next couple of weeks to keep the soccer vibe going :)

  • Let’s get this party started – Bafana vs. Mexico

    They opening game of the world cup takes place tomorrow afternoon. I simply can’t wait. For me, this is one of THE biggest moments in our countries history, and I am overwhelmed by what is going down in our country at the moment. To be honest, I won’t be surprised if a little tear is shed tomorrow :)

    So, The first game tomorrow is out beloved boys in yellow,Bafana Bafana. They take on the Mexicans, at 16:30, and the game promises to be a cracker. With 90,000 fans behind them in the stadium and another 40 million behind them out in the streets, I am pretty confident that we have this one in the bag. It is going to be very tight I reckon, but I honestly think that the Mexicans will be pretty overwhelmed by the occasion and the noise from our national instrument, the Vuvzela.

    Greatodds.com, by far the best online sports betting site in South Africa, has some fantastic odds for tomorrows games.

    In the first game of the day,  South Africa has odds of 7/4 if they win. What this means is, if you put down R100, you could possibly get back R275. Bargain. Mexico is at 6/4, so you would get back R250 if they win. If it is a draw and you put down R100 you could get back R315 at 43/20. I would def put my cash on Bafana for this one.

    The 2nd game of the eve is France vs Uraguay. Uruguay are the underdogs for this game with 15/5 odds. R100 will get you R340 if they win. France being the favorites will net you R215 for 100 bux at 23/20. A draw will score you R310 if you part with R100 at 21/10.

    To check out all the other games betting odds for the games going forward, check out GreatOdds.com. I will be putting a few of my pennies down on our boys. I will also try and do a couple more of these posts during the big celebration that is going to be the World Cup.

    VIVA BAFANA BAFANA !!!!!

  • How to setup your own Blog

    Ever since I setup my first blog almost 6 years ago, I get asked the same question all the time, by all sorts of people; “How do I set up my own Blog ?”

    There are a couple of options available, including a couple of free options, as well as your own hosted blog. The 2nd option is probably the best option, as it gives you complete control of what you want to do, as well as the opportunity to use different plugins and themes.If you have any questions, please holla and leave a comment below. Again, there are loads and loads of options out there. I will put a couple of the platforms and options that I use below.

    Free Blog options

    • Blogger – The Google product. It is a bit limited in terms of functionality and customization, but hey, I started on a Blogger Blog
    • WordPress.com – A great hosted option for you, but limited in terms of ability to add plugins and different themes

    Self Hosted blog options:

    I think I am only going to focus on one option here. WordPress. You can’t go wrong. This blog is hosted on WordPress, and given the community out there, there are loads and loads of different themes and plugins available to make your site as customisable as possible.

    To get started  on a self hosted blog, you need to have hosting. There are a loads of different hosting options out there, with the overseas hosting options being much cheaper and offering more value for money, but it is a bit slower if you have a South African audience. That said, it really doesn’t make too much of a difference, and works out much, much cheaper. There are a couple of South African options, but you are looking at about a R100 per month for hosting.

    I highly recommend Bluehost hosting, which for $6.95 a month ( about R55) you get a full on hosting package, INCLUDING a free domain. This is a bargain, cause a domain itself is about R80. You also get unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth.If you want to register another domain, I would suggest using GoDaddy.com and I use a site called retailmenot.com which offers all sorts of discounts. You can usually pick up a .com Domain for about R50

    Once you have hosting space. Using the control panel in your Bluehost hosting, you can setup a WordPress blog, like this one, in about 2 mins. Really. You can also download the install files for WordPress from WordPress.org, and install it yourself. I promise you, the setup of WordPress is so simple.

    The wordpress interface is also really easy to use, and is always been updated. In fact, WordPress 3.0 is due out any day. So, once you got your WordPress hosting setup, you need to decide on a theme. There a are literally millions of WordPress themes out there. I am a huge fan of Woothemes & Templatic. Both these theme providers have premium themes which you can pay for, as well as some really great free themes. I am using a theme from Woothemes called BusyBee on this site.

    Right, so you almost ready to rumble. Now you can add a couple of plugins to your site, to enhance it, such as a contact form etc. I highly recommend Contact7 for contact forms, and All In One SEO which will help you make your site visible in Google rankings etc.There are thousands of plugins available, which can help enhance your site. You can even create a full blown e-commerce site using WordPress and a couple of plugins.

    You also need to add a stat counter to show you how many people are actually visiting your site. I use Google Analytics, which is free, and Statcounter, which shows you live up to the minute stats.

    Once you got your site all setup, You need to start adding some content. You can write about pretty much anything. If you have a niche you would like to concentrate on, even better. Remember out there, there WILL be someone who wants to read about what you writing about. I think the key to a successful blog is that it constantly has fresh content. That is probably the biggest lesson I have learnt with my blog. Keep the content going, and your visitors will return.

    And that’s about it. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, and I will see what I can do. Good Luck :)

  • How to use Google Streetview on the iPhone

    Since Google Streetview launched in South Africa earlier this week, I have had a couple of people ask me how to use it on the iPhone.It isn’t that obvious and even I struggled the first time.So I thought I would quickly share on how to do it.

    1. Open the Maps Application on your iPhone

    2. Search for your location using the GPS button (Blue button in the bottom left) or using the search bar. You can also click the “fold” button on the bottom right, and tap “Drop Pin” which you can move around

    3. Once the pin has been dropped, you will be presented with an information bar. On the left of that bar is an Orange Man. Click the Orange man, and you will be presented with Google Stretview. If it is greyed out, then it means Streetview is not available.


    Remember to check out some of the cool finds on Google Streetview in South Africa on StreetviewSA.co.za