I’m sorry, I know I’m being terribly dim here, but these adverts: Can someone explain what it means? I appreciate that a physical printed bus timetable is generally made out of paper, and is therefore flexible. But what with online timetables and journey planners, a lot of people never use a paper timetable anymore. Especially, ... [More]
As part of my conversion to a cheapskate, I was comparing low-fat milks. For a while I’d been buying Pura Light Start or Rev. The supermarket brands are a lot cheaper, and maybe my taste buds are AWOL, but I can’t really detect a huge difference in taste. But how do they stackup on nutrition? ... [More]
I was in the barber shop last week getting a hair cut. I’ve been going there for something like fifteen years, and things have changed little over that time. One thing that used to be different is they had ash-trays in the waiting area to accomodate smokers. Those disappeared some years ago. But now for ... [More]
If you’re wondering, yes, the Lasoo.com.au banner advert is due to a sponsorship deal. I was quite pleased to see they produced a graphic that fits in well with the blog — in a similar vein to my post last week on contextual advertising. Lasoo is a web site that compiles and indexes retail catalogues ... [More]
Online it’s all about contextual advertising — figuring out what the viewer is interested in, then showing them ads they’ll hopefully like. It frequently doesn’t work of course; Facebook knows everything about virtually everybody, but still manages to show me adverts for things I have no interest in. In the offline world, contextual advertising is ... [More]
Just when I thought my finances were more-or-less under control, March brought a couple of major unexpected things breaking down. Electric car windows are nice to have. But one stopped working a couple of weeks ago. This involved using sticky tape just to keep it from descending by itself and staying open to the weather. ... [More]
If you’re in customer service it’s good to have some kind of patter worked out to keep your customers entertained. Bad to use the same line twice in one session though. This is why spam fails, actually. One might take notice of a single reputable-ish-looking email, but when a dozen show up at once, it’s ... [More]
McDonalds in Elizabeth Street — at least at busy times — appears to now have someone who takes peoples’ orders while they’re still in the queue. The order is keyed into an electronic gizmo, which presumably goes into the Maccas computer, and the price of the order is quoted to the customer, and a ticket ... [More]
I switched my geeky Galaga ring tone back to a standard ring (Nokia’s “bee”) the other day, when I finally came to accept I just couldn’t hear the Galaga tone outdoors. Also it appears my model of phone can’t handle starting quietly and getting louder with an MP3 tone. Apart from my own utterly superb ... [More]
My Yearly Metcard is almost up for renewal, and I was pondering if I can somehow organise to stagger it and my other biggish expenses for the year? Yearly ticket — $1065. Mine expires in April, so if I want the cheap price I need to order in early-March — about now. If I pay ... [More]
Just so you know, this is not me: Brazen Careerist blogger Daniel Bowen talks about the seven effective habits of highly frugal people. He says frugal types go out of their way to take care of every purchase and spend money on maintenance, as that’s cheaper. Instead of buying, they make things, they set a ... [More]
I just dropped the iron. No, it didn’t cause any kind of comical foot injury, but it did cause a crack in the iron. Time to go shopping for a new one. It’s a Sunbeam iron. Lasted 15+ years I think. I’ll happily buy another one. I wonder if they’re on sale anywhere this week? ... [More]