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Business, Daily Life, Gripes

The January Sales

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They don’t even start in January anymore. They start from 6am on Boxing Day, depending on the shop. I’ve never quite been sure about whether or not they’re worth bothering with. I’m skeptical as to whether or not they exist, or it’s just a massive ploy to trick people into buying things they don’t really want. Is anything really any cheaper?

I remember buying a video recorder in the January sales, years and years ago. It was £200 before Christmas, so I waited til Boxing Day to see if it would be reduced. On Boxing Day, I walked into an electrical store and bought it for…exactly the same price it was in December. Maybe there were others discounted, but I had already chosen which one I wanted, so that wasn’t any help to me. Continue reading The January Sales →

Gripes, Technology

Mobile phones OR why people still buy the iPhone

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I went shopping tonight. I say *I* went shopping, I was unlikely to buy anything. I was helping my housemate look at mobile phones. Her sister has bought a HTC phone, so we were going to look at those specifically more than anything else.

We went to the O2 store at Cribbs Causeway (Bristol), followed by a few other stores at Cribbs which were mostly shit. What is wrong with most mobile phone stores (excluding O2), that they think they can put out plastic dummy phones, and that’ll be enough for anyone to sign a 2-year contract at £35 a month? Arseholes. Continue reading Mobile phones OR why people still buy the iPhone →

Daily Life, Food, Gripes

“Jesus! How much?!”

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No, I’m not hiring a prostitute to roleplay as Jesus (there’s a disturbing thought). No, this was my reaction, after I walked into a chip shop 10 minutes ago, considered the pre-fried items relaxing in the “magic-warm-box” section (including some battered fish and a variety of non-battered sausages), and went “I’ll have the fish and chips”.

Immediately, they start on the upsell. “Large fish and chips, sir?” Continue reading “Jesus! How much?!” →

Gripes, Technology

Twitter moan – why do no iPhone developers support Tweetpress properly?

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I realise I’m one of about three people who this affects, but it’s irritating nonetheless, so I thought I’d write about it.

I use Tweetpress with Twitter to upload pictures. Tweetpress is used instead of yfrog or twitpic, to share images on Twitter, but upload them to your own WordPress website. I do this so that they’re on my own hosting, on my own blog, and when people click them from my Twitter feed, they come to my site. I know this has contributed to the visitor numbers here, which have been growing ever since I started this blog on this domain.

It creates a nice photos page, with a load of thumbnails of my recent images. Lovely.

The problem now though is massive lack of support. Continue reading Twitter moan – why do no iPhone developers support Tweetpress properly? →

Gripes, Technology

The Hunt for a New Twitter iPhone Client

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A few days ago, Twitter released an update to their iPhone client. And ruined it. I don’t think that’s too strong – it has less functionality than the old version, and what is there – is more fiddly to get to. Yes it looks pretty, but it’s a chore to use. So it’s time to once again search for a new iPhone client for accessing Twitter when I’m not at home. Today I’m testing Twittelator free, Tweetings lite, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Echofon free, and Twitter for iPhone.

Continue reading The Hunt for a New Twitter iPhone Client →

Random Silliness

Breville it!

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I’ve nothing against the company Breville. I’ve had a Breville toaster that developed a fault, and I went straight out and bought another. I went to buy a kettle a while ago, and the coolest design I could find under £30 was a Breville. So I currently own a kettle and toaster. See:

My kitchen

But this week I went into Tesco, and happened to spot this interesting marketing exercise: Continue reading Breville it! →

Employment, Gripes

JobCentre Plus needs staff

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No, they’re not advertising. I just know this to be the case.

I’ve been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for a few months now, and as part of the agreement, I have to agree to notify them if my circumstances change.

On Wednesday last week, I started a full-time (but temporary for 2.5 weeks) job. I don’t want to be done for fraud, so what’s the quickest way of notifying them of a change? I’d say the phone. Continue reading JobCentre Plus needs staff →

Daily Life, Gripes

Sports Personality of the Year

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If you only have a passing interest in one incredibly pointless award this year, why not make it Sports Personality of the Year?

I’m not a sports fan, but people who like sports, tend to like… sports.
I’ve got friends who are into football, and what they seem to like is seeing good passes, good tackles, well produced goals, and hard-fought victories.
Of all the tediously-dull sport-based conversations I’ve ever stood on the outskirts of, while yawning internally, I’ve never once heard them go “ah but that player x.. he’s got a great personality. He’s shit at football, but what a nice bloke.” Continue reading Sports Personality of the Year →

Business, Gripes

Young Apprentice – Future business brains?

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From the title, you might think I’m about to rip into the contestants, but you’d be absolutely wrong. I’ve disappointed you there, I can sense it.

I used to enjoy The Apprentice, and I’ve blogged before about the show’s questionable moral points and prize. Partly as I’ve been busy, but partly as I think I’d find it really annoying, I’ve not really been watching this series of Young Apprentice. However, I was half-watching something else last night, and switched over mid-way through the episode, to discover they’re still doing that fucking stupid task with the Yellow Pages directories. Does Sugar have shares in them or what?

The task goes like this: Continue reading Young Apprentice – Future business brains? →

Technology

Review – Navfree GPS UK & ROI

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Last week I had been invited to an interview, and I needed to find the company’s office. The office in question was in a village I’d never been to before, and while I can print off some of Google Maps, I’m not very good at following a map (especially when I’m driving). While my iPhone can do me a route via Google Maps, it doesn’t work if you can’t guarantee the signal (as I would find out later, the signal went from full strength to nothing and back within 2 miles of my destination) and it doesn’t do turn-by-turn navigation either.

So what better time to try out a proper sat nav iPhone app?

Continue reading Review – Navfree GPS UK & ROI →