Let me say some words about .tar files. TAR is a really old file format. It harkens back to the bad old times when HDD’s were a pricy oddity and tapes ruled over the field of long-term data storage. In fact, “TAR” is an acronym for tape archive. However, despite it’s suggestive acronym, it probably woun’t be considered a “real” archiving format by most modern users because it offers no compression. A .tar file is basically just a bunch of different files concatenated together.

Since a TAR file offers no compression functionality of it’s own, the files are usually compresed with an external archiver. Common examples include Gzip (produces .tar.gz) and Bzip2 (file extension .tar.bz2). So usually you might need more than one program to extract a .tar file - for example, a rar converter might come in handy.

Lets get down to the important question. To unzip a “plain” TAR archive on a Unix-based system, use this command : “tar -xvf filename.tar”. This will unzip the contents of the file in the current directory. In case the archive has been compressed with gzip (.tar.gz), you need to add the “z” flag to the aforementioned command; like this : “tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz”.

If you’re using Windows, have no fear - most semi-decent archivers know how to deal with .tar files. For example, WinRAR (commercial) and 7-zip (freeware) can both unzip .tar, .tar.gz, and several other archive formats easily. With WinRAR unzipping a TAR file is as easy as right-click followed by “Extract here”.

The techniques explained in this article should be enough to deal with most .tar archives you’ll ever come across. If you encounter something that wasn’t addressed here, there’s always Google, ready to answer every query.

I had arranged a day out with my sister who I had not seen for over six months, she lives in Northampton which is where I used to live until I moved away some 20 years ago.

Northampton was once had the biggest boot and shoe industry in the country, supplying a high percentage of the UK with its foot wear needs. This is where Northampton Town Football Club also earned its nickname ‘The Cobblers’ from.

I arrived by train from Birmingham, the journey was quick and easy and on arrival at Northampton Station , I jumped in a Northampton Taxi which took me to Delapre Abbey and Gardens. I arranged with the driver to pick me up later and then I met up with my sister and went straight to the tea rooms for coffee.

Delapre Abbey (about two miles from the railway station) was built in 1165 by the son of 2nd Earl of Northampton and was named The Abbey of St Mary De La Pre, meaning St Mary in the Meadow. We spent some time in the abbey, and then wandered through the lovely old walled garden wondering how many generations of gardeners had worked here.

Beyond the walled garden is another beautiful garden where there are several named gravestones of pets belonging to the abbey many years ago. We then went back to the tearooms and had a lovely lunch and a good old natter, catching up since our last meeting.

We then walked up Delapre Hill to visit Queen Eleanor’s Cross which was built in 1291. The hill is really only a slight incline and was a pleasant walk on a path lined either side with horse chestnut trees. After her death, Queen Eleanor had spent a night in Delapre on her way to Westminster Abbey.

As arranged earlier, the Northampton Taxi driver picked us up and took us to the town centre where there is a very large market, I think it is the largest remaining permanent market in the country. We had deliberately picked on market day and had a good look around there before stopping off for a cup of tea and made a quick phone call to our Northampton Taxi Driver to take me back to the railway station. The day went so quickly and I promised myself another visit very soon.

Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. Surveys of human populations and institutions are common in political polling and government, health, social science and marketing research. A survey may focus on opinions or factual information depending on its purpose, and many surveys involve administering questions to individuals.

A paid or incentivized survey is a type of statistical survey where the participant is rewarded through an incentive program, generally entry into a sweepstakes program or a small cash reward, for completing one or more surveys.

A paid survey is used to collect quantitative information about the participants’ personal and economic habits set against their particular demographic. Incentivized surveys are considered to be more likely to catch a wider and more representative range of respondents compared to unincentivised surveys.

You’ve probably already had an experience where a company has phoned you up or stopped you in the street asking you to take part in a quick survey? Smart companies do this all the time, in fact they spend BILLIONS every year conducting this kind of research.

Why?

Its simple, they need to get the opinion of the people on the street, regular people like you and me so they don’t waste money on products and advertising campaigns that people don’t want!

More and more companies are turning to the internet to collect this essential research. And they’re willing to PAY YOU for your opinion! People in the know are taking advantage of this to easily earn money taking online surveys

If you can type your name and click a mouse, you can do it too!

If earning an easy part time extra income doesn’t interest you, how about learning some simple ways you can fool your friends and family performing mind blowing card magic tricks you can learn today?