Wednesday 29 September 2010

This is a very interesting article on the things that Old media is doing wrong about the web. The comments from other web users are also very interesting.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2JrzGp/www.techi.com/2010/06/five-things-old-media-still-dont-get-about-the-web/

I very rarely buy a newspaper, the only newspapers I read are free ones in London, when I'm there. I get my news through Radio 1, BBC news website, RSS feeds, Twitter and Facebook. Oh yeah and I occasionally go to the sites of newspapers when there is an interesting article I've heard about.

If there was a decent micropayment system for high quality articles I'd probably consider paying if it was integrated and easy to use, maybe integrated into my iTunes id?

One user talks about all users over the age of 50 not getting the web. Well I don't think that's true at all. For example my parents are all into the web, facebook and youtube. Why would they pay for cable? - They can get all the TV they want from freeview, iPlayer and youtube.

"5: File sharing doesn’t always represent lost sales: Are you out of your damned mind?" - Loads of people buy stuff they've seen file shared - as long as it is better quality and has lots of special features e.g. Blueray. Spotify allows me to listen to so much more music then I'd ever used to get to hear, and I spend a lot more money on new music then I ever used to spend. I don't this person's argument holds for a lot of people.

Really good builder

I needed the lead flashing done around my chimney. I gave myhammer (http://www.myhammer.co.uk/) a go and had mixed results. I didn't know fully what I needed doing, so maybe a was a bit vague in the job description. But whilst I got good information from the respondents, the quotes were a bit high.

Quotes ranged between £1000 and £2000 (based on my entered budget of £2000). One respondent visited to see what needed doing. They seemed to know what they were talking about, explained to me what needed doing - and that the lead might need replacing. I got two quotes from them; £780 to fix, and £1070 if the lead needed replacing (including £400 for scaffolding).

I wasn't hugely happy with the quotes. I contacted the company that did my cladding (Alpine Cladding http://www.alpinecladding.co.uk) who did a great job, and asked whether they would quote. They recommended a guy that works with their company. He came round and quoted £100 to fix and £170 if the lead needs replacing!

I accepted, they did a fantastic job, and also sorted out some of my pointing that had come off. It only required fixing as the lead was all intact, so it cost me £100. They did a fantastic job, I couldn't recommend them higher.

What I want to know is how did those others quote so much, if this company could do it for £100 with a profit, how were the my hammer quotes asking for £780+. This company wanted £70 for new lead, one of the myhammer quotes was going to charge £300!

Saturday 11 September 2010

We've become bin emptiers

At work they took away everyone's bins. Now there are a few communal bins which we all have to visit.

So its cheaper for high cost IT professionals to make several trips to the bin rather than employ a couple of low cost resources to do it.

I estimate that everyone takes about 3 minutes a day in trips to the bin, with 200 people that is 600 minutes or 10 hours a day. If on average we are earning 50 pound an hour that is 500 a day, 2500 per week, 10,000 per month. That's £120,000 per year. Wow I don't see how that is a cost saving.

Location:UK

Friday 10 September 2010

BBQ at work

At work yesterday I went to a different building. The people there invited me to the canteen for lunch. On the way there, there was a frigging BBQ outside, friggin awesome!

So I had a cheese burger with onions and salad for about 2.40. Friggin marvelous, cheaper than sandwiches at our buildings canteen....



Location:UK

Thursday 9 September 2010

Wrong theatre!

Went to The Black Veil play at the Palace Theatre. Only I thought it was at The Cliffs Pavillion. Googling "The Black Viel Cliffs Pavillion", gives The Cliffs Pavillion website, which is why I made the mistake and where I turned up, only they were showing The Rocky Horror show, and I should have been at the Palace Theatre.

What was also annoying is when parking at The Cliffs Pavilion the heavens opened and the pay machines wouldn't take my money. It took 15 minutes to get a parking ticket. Then I couldn't find anywhere to park at The Palace Theatre.

Upside is we had to sit at the back, which was much cooler than our actual seats and allowed us to move around.



Location:UK

Sunday 5 September 2010

BBQ, full English and mixed grill

Did a BBQ and full english breakfast and mixed grill, all in one weekend. Very pleased with myself, because they all turned out well.

I may start practicing my roast dinner again.



Location:UK

Thursday 2 September 2010

Stop watching tele

I've been struggling with getting house work done, and when having a free Saturday I all to often will rather fall asleep in front of the tele.

I read an article that talked of the benefits of not watching TV. I can say its worked for me, in the last two weeks I've managed to tidy and declutter my house and make progress with a load of projects I wanted to do. I'm also waking up very easily in the morning before the alarm goes off.

Don't get me wrong I still watch my favourite programmes, but instead of just turning the tele on being the first act of the day, now I turn the tele on for a specific show, and turn it off afterwards. And I pay attention to it, and so I find it a lot more enjoyable, and use it as an opportunity to relax.

Try turning the tele off for a week, it'll change your life.



Location:UK