|
||||||
|
I have recently discovered the cashback and discount coupon site called Quidco which makes it easy to get a discount when shopping online. A bit like the Nectar scheme, except you get money back instead of Nectar points. All you have to do is visit sites via Quidco! It’s early days, and I have not yet received any money from them, but neither has it cost me anything to join. Watch this space! If you use Gmail, you will know all about organising conversations using labels. To find all conversations with a specific label, select ‘Show search options’ and choose the label you want from the dropdown list called ‘Search’. Easy. But what if you want to find conversations with multiple labels? For example you are interested only in messages labelled ‘Sales region 2′ and ‘Quarter 3 2010′. Instead of going into ‘Show search options’ simply type your search into the search box at the top of the Gmail screen thus:
and click Search Mail. This will return a list of conversations containing both labels. Note that the label names are case insensitive, but you must replace spaces with a hyphen. What if you are interested in messages with either label? Then you would use:
The OR operator must be uppercase. Alternatively you can use the pipe operator ‘|’ (shift+backslash on your keyboard) like this:
You are probably three steps ahead of me here, and wondering about other compound searches. In fact you can choose from a long list of “query words” to build up a very specific search. In Gmail see Help articles › Using advanced search for the (almost) endless possibilities! I am taking Jamie to a drumming exam tomorrow. “Make sure you aren’t late – they start bang on time” his mum said to me in all innocence. What’s the definition of ‘organic’? Ten years ago it meant shrivelled spotty vegetables you wouldn’t choose to buy even if they were the last ones in the shop. Not least because they were 50% more expensive. Now everything in the supermarket has its ‘organic’ alternative. Still more expensive, but within range of those people who are not on a tight budget and are keen to save the planet whilst eating healthy food. But who defines what is organic and what is not? Shoppers who assume it means food grown without pesticides or fertilizers need to do a bit of checking if they are not to be misled. Here’s an example: Morrison’s Organic Corn Flakes. On the box it says
Such weasely phraseology would make a home-flipping MP blush. I just heated up a mug of coffee in the microwave oven, and did what I always do. I set the timer, pressed the button, waited, watched – then cancelled five seconds before the end. Whatever length of cook time was initially chosen, I invariably run out of patience and grab my coffee before the beep. The Russians have resumed supplying gas to Ukraine. It will take a surprising 36 hours for it to reach some customers, which shows how long the pipeline is. So, how feasible would it be to run a closed pipeline loop from the Sahara desert to Europe and back? Filled not with gas, but water. Imagine
… more →
The road has been renamed Royce Street and, although it isn’t closed to the public, there are men in reflective vests discouraging motorists from slowing down to see what is going on. A coach full of extras is parked nearby, together with catering vans, and a dozen other vehicles. There is an awful lot of standing around! Somebody walked chewing gum in on the sole of their shoe yesterday. Now in most households, a quick scrape of the laminate flooring would deal with the offensive blob. However, we have an old-fashioned floor covering called carpet which is ideal for creating a challenging mess in the middle of your living room. The gum clings tenaciously to every fibre and seems impossible to remove. However, I found that a combination of technology, chemistry, physics and perseverance will triumph over Wrigley’s most obnoxious waste product. Here’s what I did.
… more → The price of rice is rocketing worldwide. This is a very worrying trend, particularly for those countries where rice is a staple. Here in the UK, there isn’t (yet) a shortage. But rice could completely disappear from supermarket shelves. Don’t believe me? It’s already happened with macaroni. I live in England, but I buy my electricity and gas from a French company. (I have just about got my head around this bizarre reality of modern times.) Yesterday I received a reply to a complaint I sent them two months ago. I had asked why we get visits by separate gas and electricity meter readers, with annoying frequency, when they give me (a) a ‘dual fuel’ discount and (b) Nectar points for reading my own meters. They said they didn’t read my meters, that was done by another company. Before privatisation, the meters were read separately. After privatisation, the meters are read separately (by another company!). Nothing physically changed. All the cables and pipes are the same. Having different companies selling us energy is just an accounting construct to introduce competition. I understand that. But what good has this change really done?
… more → |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2010 musings - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
We have been taken over by a Coronation Street film crew! In the road next to ours, they have been shooting a scene with Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall), Mollie Compton (Vicky Binns) and Jackie Dobbs (Margi Clarke). There is also a sinister looking character watching from his car.
Bookmark with:
What are these?