Death, Taxes and Spam
Benjamin Franklin said that there are only two certainties in life; death and taxes.
Today he would have added spam.
If I look at my unwanted e-mails and remove everything that is obviously crooked, comes from a foreign source or is related to companies I once signed up to, I end up with a surprisingly short list; Rodial and Heaton Wealth Investments. As I said before, Rodial is a company I have no need for and I find it mildly amusing that they are targetting me. The other company is trying to sell me useless property investments and my financial advisor has told me to steer well clear of them. As most of the properties they seem to be promoting are from places, I wouldn’t visit, if you paid me, I doubt I’d be pulled in by their charms.
What worries me, is that these companies wouldn’t do it, if it wasn’t profitable for them. So perhaps there really is one born every minute.
A Better Way to Measure Blood Pressure
I do hope so, as the current method seems to cause all sorts of problems when healthcare staff measure mine using the traditional cuff, whether it’s connected to a high tech machine or a manual device.
In Hong Kong, they were very worried about my blood pressure and they were always measuring it. Sometimes they changed from the new to old devices.
My previous doctor too, often got a different result to her nurse and another doctor, said I suffered from a classic case of white-coat hypertension.
So a new blood pressure device developed at the University of Leicester is to be welcomed. Especially, as it can measure the blood pressure closer to the heart or the brain.
It also looks to me that after fully researching and sorting the medical principles, instrument engineers have applied modern electronic technology to the problem.
We shall be seeing more devices like this to monitor many bodily parameters in the future.
Dixons Get It Right
I have said that the fridge had been wrecked by the previous tenants and a chippy came round yesterday morning and removed it and fixed the kitchen cupboard doors, which the tenant’s children seemed to use as exercise equipment.
The Wrecked Fridge
Note the broken door and hinges. There also seemed to be evidence of small furry animals behind the fridge, but as the chippy said, there are lots of them round here.
I’d seen the type of fridge I wanted in Currys on the Kingsland Road, so I found one that fitted on the Dixons web site, so I ordered it. I also paid £9.99 extra to get it delivered in a three hour slot on Friday morning, when I know I’ll be here.
About an hour later, I realised, that I would need to do a swap and get the old one humanely destroyed. There was also the problem of the fact that my kitchen is on the first floor. So I phoned them and explained. I was on the phone to their call centre in Sheffield for perhaps a couple of minutes and the instructions for the delivery were sorted. At no extra cost too!
I’ll be needing a new washer-dryer in the next week or so. I wonder where I’ll look first!
John Lewis Gets It Wrong
I’m putting up new blinds in the house, as the tenants of the previous owners, wrecked them, just as they wrecked a lot of other things.
I’ve always liked vertical blinds that you can draw to one side, but have never installed them, as C preferred traditional curtains. The house is modern and I live on the first floor, which has a large living area and my bedroom behind it. There are three big windows, with two in the living room and one in my bedroom.
So I felt the best plan would be to get new blinds fitted in the bedroom and then if I liked them, put them in the living room. As I’m not too sure of some of the things I do, I felt it best that plan would be to get John Lewis to measure them to avoid any mistakes.
The lady came and measured my bedroom and whilst she was here, she measured the living room windows as well, so that they’d have them on file for later.
A few days later John Lewis sent me two copies of each of two estimates; one for the bedroom and one for the living room. It was a total of over a dozen sheets of paper. As instructed I accepted the estimate by signing and returning it. As I thought that there was only one estimate, as I thought the living room was just being kept on file, I signed the last estimate, which as luck would have it was for the bedroom.
Imagine my surprise yesterday, when the fitter arrived with the blinds for the living room and not the bedroom.
At first they said that is what I’d signed for and it was only after some lengthy phone calls, that John Lewis admitted they had made a mistake. They’ve also got two blinds made up, that don’t fit any windows except mine.
It still means that I’ve not got any blinds in my bedroom and in a few days, the sun will be streaming through from about four in the morning.
This is a classic cock-up, that could have been much worse. So why did it happen?
The sheaf of papers I was sent could easily get mixed up. I didn’t, but when I returned the estimate, they did something like put it in the wrong file.
Suerely, in this day and age, there should be an Internet-based system, where everybody can see and check the progress.
Nokia Blows It
I use a Nokia 6310i, as it does everything I want from a mobile phone and more. So where did they all go wrong? As rumours are that they are in serious trouble.
According to this article, they spent too much time in the sauna.
I doubt I’ll ever buy a smart phone, as they just don’t suit my lifestyle. I’m even taking my laptop on trains less, as a magazine or paper and my phone give me all the entertainment I need.
I do wonder sometimes, whether a large part of the population are growing tired of electronic toys. Reality is so much more fun!
The Blog Based Small Business
This blog is absolutely standard WordPress. all I pay for is a small amount of extra storage and the use of VideoPress to put my videos in the blog. I think I pay about thirty dollars a year.
This blog is in effect a complete web site, with a contact form, searching and all the things you’d expect from a professional website. It also doesn’t have adverts or other things that will annoy my readers.
It differs in one way to a professional website, in that updating it just needs a small amount of form filling in a web browser. The difficulty is about the same as sending an e-mail.
So could you run a small business on a blog such as this?
I’ll use the example of a lady who does small repairs and alterations to clothes and household furnishings. There used to be and probably still is, someone like that in Cambridge market a couple of days a week and C got her to shorten and alter clothes for her. I was taught to do all this by my mother, but don’t think I could manage it now, with my hands.
Such a business could work well off the back of a blog. Say she repaired an expensive evening dress for someone in Dulwich, she might post a picture of the repair, with a brief description in the blog.
As Google knows everything immediately from WordPress, someone searching for evening dress mending, Dulwich, may well find the blog.
Gradually, as the blog expands you’ll get more hits and from the statistics, you can find out how your visitors got there.
So the blog does your market research in addition to getting your customers.
Confessions on the iPope
Well not quite, but there is now an iPhone app to help with confession.
Described as “the perfect aid for every penitent”, it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament.
Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first.
The app takes users through the sacrament – in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings – and allows them to keep track of their sins.
It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status – but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely.
Instead, it encourages users to understand their actions and then visit their priest for absolution.
I have a few questions.
- Does the app search your e-mail to see whether you’ve been hinting of doing things that of which the Catholic Church would not approve? This would probably need a Bayesian filter and the Reverend Bayes wasn’t a Catholic.
- Does it look at all of the pictures you’ve downloaded to your phone and react accordingly?
- Does it check that the app associated with your football club is the right colour?
- Could the app be connected to add-on hardware that gives you a prick or an electric shock if you think naughty thoughts?
The possibilities are endless. And obviously the more serious the religion, the more serious the app!
It would also have added a whole new dimension to Clochemerle.
How to turn a Nokia 6310i Into A Smarter Phone
People laugh at me because I don’t have a smart phone like an iPhone. But then apparently Elton John doesn’t even have any mobile phone.
But then my Nokia 6310i can send and receive text messages, tweet and even send and receive normal phone calls to anybody with a number. That last bit is really cool. Or is it Koool? Who cares anyway? The only thing it doesn’t have is an automatic reject of calls that are trying to cheat me out of money in various ways. But no-one has a phone that does that! Yet! But hopefully, it will come in the next 100 years or so.
I’ve had my 6310i eleven or twelve years now and even now, I find new features that I am starting to use. I’ve known about it for some time, but now I’m using the to-do-list feature to make notes as I ride around London, often at the front on the top deck of a bus. Try doing that in a car!
As the phone stores quite a few text messages, when I have information I might need on the move, I just text it to my phone using LiquidDrop. I’ve just picked up my tickets for Barnsley and I’ve texted the itinerary to the phone for Saturday. No hated piece of paper to take, but I suspect W H Smug, will try and load me up. Perhaps, I’ll buy my Saturday paper in M&S or on the way to St. Pancras.
So the 6310i is getting to be a smarter phone. This is what everyone wants! I once said, “Computers make good slaves, but very bad masters!” That applies to phones as well. And especially mobile ones.
How Do You Banish Virgins?
Virgin Media is an frustrating company in that it designs so many things almost to annoy.
I’m using my Samsung Network at a friend’s house and some of the connection software for my home broadband keeps opening Virgin Broadband windows in Internet Explorer. Delete them and they reappear and often seem to replace something I want.
I do wish I’d installed Sky and used BT for my phone lines.
This is not to forget their rather inferior TV system, which is not up to the standard of Sky Plus and the fact that they still haven’t transferred my number from Suffolk.
I’ve just solved the Virgin windows by deleting the Virgin Media hub from this computer. So don’t install it, is my advice. I haven’t installed it on my laptop and that works fine, so I think it’s one of those unnecessary pieces of software companies like you to install, so they can track what you are doing or lead you to spend more money with them.
Facebook Involved in Divorces
It had to happen, that what you write on Facebook, would start to drop you in the mire over your marriage. One of the reasons, I blog rather than use Facebook seriously, as I have total control over what goes up. Also if someone uses bad spelling or grammar, I can remove the worst of the horrors. C also did some of her training in libel chambers, so I know enough to hopefully make sure, I stay the right side of that line. I also choose my targets with care.
This article in the Telegraph explains the problem of divorce and Facebook.
One lawyer is quoted as saying.
Many of divorces came after partners found “flirty messages” on the Facebook wall of their partner – and also “inappropriate suggestive chats” which spouses can see.
Note that I’ve corrected the punctuation in this extract. Times must be bad when you can’t rely on the Tory Party at Gossip.
As a widow, some would be surprised at some of the messages, I’ve exchanged with other widows. Flirting and the odd suggestion are very much part of life and help everybody to keep a balance in the darkest of times.
So that adds another layer of complexity to the problem and puts more icing on the legal bill.
The Anonymous Widower 