CATCH-ALL HOOKS

Black Friday, (an American import) Cyber Monday, Special Loyalty Event, you name it, someone has thought of a myriad of catch-all retail hooks to bolster up consumer spending.

Online, where a high percentage of shopping is done in the UK, according to retailers with an online presence, there is more than a flurry of business; it sounds like there is enough shopping on one day, on Black Friday, to stabilise the retail accounts  for the year!  This is according to those in the know, like accountants and economists.

Basking Shark-Cetorhinus Maximus

I have yet to be convinced that there are mountains of real bargains sitting waiting for an impatient internet shopping population, who have  waited for the one day in the year when we are told 'it' is all there for the taking. I did my own little pot survey, (not at all scientific) by choosing a couple of things some months ago that I was interested in buying.  No doubt, there are stock clearances, no different from any sale at any other time of year.






Scanning around the comparison sites on the internet for the two things I was following was very dull. The big boys definitely did not play ball. I was offered a similar product once, nominally cheaper and definitely not of interest. The best I could say was, for the exact products some prices, not all, stayed static. With the current political insecurities, this may well change. I would expect all prices to rise.

INTERNET JUNGLE

My jungle walk with the Internet today was hard going; I had to cut through it, chopping masses of horrid creepers advertising all sorts of irritating things;

The worst of it was, I am still unsure how I got into that French knitted knotted root system.  I am pretty sure I started out clear of all under and over growth.








A signpost for Chrome loomed out of the gloom.  Go for it, I thought, so I did. I looped the loop, transferred all I wanted to the other side, or so I thought....did I heck, nope. I was caught in another darn knot.

Like the weary Prodigal, I went back, returning metaphorically, home.    I had another bash at clearing the path of creepy adverts, and this time, I seem to have succeeded, or, maybe, partly succeeded.  It's a good start.  There's just one little niggle, I defaulted my loyalty; now I have to find my way out of that one.

WE DO NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORT YOUR EMAIL PROGRAMME

Wouldn't you know it...now I come to think of it, no, you would not.  Our broadband super duper cabling was installed on the 24th January, any disruption forecast by the internet provider did not include cocking up our email settings.  So far, I have managed to re-configure hubby's email client, (we are not using the same platform) with the guidance of the provider's technical help section.  There were quite a few changes to make.  It was like magic, hubby's email hurtled back and forth like an energetic tennis ball.

My email, however was intractable.  Two guys this morning gave different advice, while telling me their company did not support my email application.  I promise you, it is not out of this world, I have been using it for a long time without any hassle whatsoever.  By the time they had finished, I could no longer receive mail and I was still blocked from sending mail.  Wonderful! 

The nice guy from my computer manufacturer tried all sorts of tricks and decided it was a server issue. An internet provider technical guy, (a rare species) spent an hour working through various permutations, and by the way, "We do not officially support your email programme."  I was given Microsoft's support line number.

The most wonderful woman spent the remainder of the afternoon problem-solving on my software, we even had a three-way conference call with the internet service provider- that was a waste of time he had not heard of the clutch of other companies served under the same umbrella- his information was useless. My software programme was operating perfectly, the service provider's connection issues were at fault.  The lovely lady is going to talk to them tomorrow, and I expect a further chat with her too. Meanwhile, my email is all one-way.   :(

MUSINGS FROM AN INTERNET OUTAGE

An area the size of the country of Wales suffered an internet outage which lasted at least 18 hours for some people, and 22 hours for others, like me. There was a problem at the telephone exchange (how old fashioned a term is that). The general and cynical suggestion is, that the technicians and engineers were trying to 'improve' something. It is certainly the simplest and most likely explanation. The next simplest ones would be either a failure in the system or incompetence. Of course, there's no denying that it could have been all of those factors.

What did we do with the space, the temporary internet hole in our lives?

I messed about in the kitchen preparing nosh, nothing unusual about that.

Hubby watched TV. That has become an unusual activity.

We had talked about the endless possibilities that caused the failure of our internet service, and
re-booted the router several times.

I phoned a friend, also affected by the outage, who really wanted to chat for a change. His day was not the best day ever.

My most recent digital photos were uploaded onto my P.C. and sorted a bit sooner than they might have been.

This morning, I was awake early and crept in to the living room to see if hubby was surfing his blog and auction sites. There wasn't a computer to be seen. We were still without an internet connection. Hubby was contemplative, it went like this:

If an internet communication system fails, what else can fail. Wind turbines are remotely controlled, is there some backup support system for them? (They aren't a major provider of fuel, they don't work if there is no wind or if there's a gale).

Next, what if the major stores lost their central 'nervous' systems. What arrangements have they got in place to remain functioning nationwide. they would lose automated stock control, but what else? So many of the major stores these days, provide services over and above domestic food shopping; optical health provision, prescription pharmacy, financial services. You never know, they may have to go back to basics, and be food provisioning stores for a while, that's if people could get access to their own money during that time.