Benefits of Skype

My daughter and her partner have recently moved abroad. I know that with the advent of email, Facebook, Twitter and other stuff even half way around the world isn't as far as it used to be (!). Still - it's good to be able to speak to someone face-to-face. With Skype this is entirely possible. I had to purchase a new web cam - and went for a Logitech C270 - which had been recommended to me. It has it's own microphone and is up to 3.2 mega-pixel. After some fun and games installing it (it didn't like my Canon scanner), it is working fine, and the quality is great.

If you have anyone that you would like to actually see as you speak to them - I thoroughly recommend this system. Perhaps the biggest bonus of all is that Skype to Skype calls are free - even with pictures!

Blackcircles - Job Well Done

I was given a time to attend for my fitting - which is good. The fact that Google maps told me it would take 17 minutes was not accounting for the traffic in Bristol. An 8.30 appointment meant that I had to leave home at about 8 according to Google. I left at about 8 and arrived at 8.50. 

The garage that I chose for the fitting was Roadworthy - which was a good choice. They were very polite and efficient. I can recommend them (and no, I am not being paid for this :-)) The whole process was painless - and I saved a heap of money by not using my first - and most obvious choice of supplier. More than happy.

O2 = Telefonica

My heart goes out to O2 - the mobile network owned by Telefonica - the Spanish Telecommunications Company. They have just announced a profits drop of 47%. This means that they only made a measly net profit of 5.4bn euros ($7.2bn, £4.6bn) in 2011, down from 10.1bn euros in 2010. Shame..........

Energy Price Hikes - Again!

British Gas (or Centrica, to give them their true name) has just announced a 6% increase in energy prices. They have been followed by NPower, Scottish Hydro, Swalec and Southern Electric. The last three have said that their prices will increase by an average of 9% from Monday next week. 

This is Wikipedias definition of a cartel:

'A cartel is a formal agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these. The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members' profits by reducing competition.'

This is the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) definition:

'The term 'cartel' is a catch-all that covers any of the following collusive arrangements between businesses:

• Directly or indirectly fixing prices between businesses - where two or more businesses agree to raise the price of their product or service instead of setting their prices independently of each other and competing in the market place. This is known as price fixing.
• Limiting or preventing supply or production between businesses - where two or more businesses agree to limit or prevent the supply or production of a product.
• Dividing up customers or prospective customers between businesses - where two or more businesses agree that they will not poach each other's customers and/or that business 1 will not compete with business 2 in area A if business 2 agrees to a similar arrangement for the benefit of business 1 in area B. This is known as market sharing.
• In response to a request by a third party to tender for a contract, a secret agreement between businesses that one or more of them will agree not to bid for the contract or one or more of them will put in an artificially high price for the contract to allow another business to win the contract - perhaps for a return of favour on another occasion when another contract is tendered. This is known as bid rigging.'

Cartels are illegal in the UK - so why aren't the Police and the Government doing something about this situation? The Office of Fair Trading offers up to £100,000 as a reward for information about cartels - perhaps if we all let them know about this, we could claim some of that reward? 

To inform the OFT about a cartel you can do the following:
If I have any information about cartels, who should I call?
To contact us you can call our cartels hotline on 0800 085 1664. You will immediately be put through to a voice mailbox. Please leave a message with your contact details and an investigator will try to respond to your call within two business days. Alternatively email: cartelshotline@oft.gsi.gov.uk.

Buying Tyres - National vs. Blackcircle

I have always bought my tyres from National Tyres on the Bath Road in Bristol (close to where I live). However - I thought that I would try an alternative this time - as I need four new tyres for our car. I did the Internet thing for the tyres I wanted - Dunlop SP1s. The price from National was £435.30 fully fitted. That seemed a little steep to me - so I did a search and came up with www.blackcircles.com - who were offering the same four tyres, fully fitted, for £269.24 - that's a difference of £166.06. An added bonus is that Blackcircle also seem to give Tesco Clubcard points on their tyres - so I have gained over a thousand points on this transaction. I nominated a local fitting station to fit the tyres. It should happen next Thursday - so I will report back on the experience.

Regular Posts - Speech Recognition.

I resolve to post more often. I am always picking up little snippets of information that I feel that I should share. For example - I have had my current computer for over four years now - and I learned only today that it comes with Speech Recognition built in. I've tried it - and it's not at all bad. You can take time teaching it - but for basic windows commands it's fine.

Dell Computer Restarting

I recently had to rebuild a computer for the son of one of my friends. It was a Dell Inspiron something or other. Whilst I had it I flashed the BIOS to the latest version, then reloaded the original XP Pro Media Centre that it came with. All was fine. It was taken home and then, a few weeks later,  I was told that it would not turn off. When told to close down, it shut down, paused, and then started up again. Interesting.

When next at their house I had a look. In the BIOS there was a a 'Wake on NIC' setting which was set. I turned this off, and all was fine. Seems that the problem started when the computer was attached to the home network - something I couldn't test on the bench. Seems the network wasn't letting the computer fully shut down. It does now. :-)

Consumerism

Recently our microwave oven died. Now I am the sort of person who likes to fix things. Strangely, my first thought was 'get another one'. I knew that they are inexpensive - under £40.00 in fact, so I went out that very morning, and bought another one - for just less than £40.00.

The broken one is now sitting in my garage waiting for a visit to the dump (sorry, 'Recycling Centre'). 'Free-cycle it' I hear you cry - but, along with the several CRT television sets and piles of videos that I offered, no-one wants it. Despite my best efforts, am I being turned into a true 'consumer'? I hate that term - makes me think of The Prisoner  "I am not a consumer, I am a free man!"  maybe that's not true. I did make one big sacrifice this year. I got rid of my car and haven't replaced it. We are now a one car family. I can't say that I don't miss it. I did have it for ten years after all. Quite hard to just say goodbye to something that has been a daily part of your life for that long.

Aires de Service - France

If you have a motor home and you go to France, then you really should know about these. They are places where you can stop overnight for little or no charge, and many have areas where you can empty waste and refill water. Some are no more than car parks, but many are special areas set aside by town or village councils for people to stay in the hope that they will use the facilities in the area. It works. I wish we had far sighted councils in the country that would do the same.

There are various listings of the sites - for example 'All the Aires' published by Vicarious Books. But I have just downloaded a 'Points of Interest' (PoI) file for my Sat Nav (which is pretty elderly now) from this site. You will need a little French to understand it - but it's fairly straightforward. Once you have made your choice they email the appropriate file to you. I also found this tool useful - it converts between types of  PoI files.

If you are sensible about where you stay, and feel like exploring a different side of France, then give the Aires a go.

Succeeded by a Lamp post

Every now and then, usually when walking or driving along a road I find myself thinking that everything around me will still be there when I am dead and gone. I realise that this is morbid - but it's true nonetheless.

Not everything will still be there - but the lamp posts stand a fair chance of surviving me. I know it's odd, but true. I realise that I am lucky to live where I do, in this time and not another part of the world or another time period where life could tend to be 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' as Thomas Hobbes would have it. Realising this in itself makes me wonder why people like me don't take better care of themselves but often try to, for example, drink themselves to obscurity or even death.

Listening to the radio recently I heard a comment that winners of money in games shows sometimes express the need to improve their bodies by spending some of their winnings on body augmentation or plastic surgery as important. I know that if for some reason I suddenly became wealthy I would invest in getting my dodgy knees and hip looked at - but I don't consider that vanity - more like pain relief. Question is then, why don't I do this now? Perhaps I don't have faith in the National Health Service?