bioneural.net » shopping

New Zealand tipping over the edge?

Bruce — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:17:44 +0000

Are New Zealanders, the People on the Edge of the World, about to tip off the edge and into cultural homogeneity with the United States? I was surprised to read in The New Zealand Herald that the a new edition of the Lonely Planet travel guide is advising visitors to leave a tip of about 10% for good service. Tipping was not part of the culture when I was growing up, and nor was it an overt practice during my last stint at home during 2006–2007. It would be unfortunate if visitors to Godzone came with the expectation that they had to pay over and above the advertized price. All goods and services in New Zealand are subject to a 12.5% Goods and Services Tax (GST), included in the displayed price. I was also under the impression that most employees (such as wait staff) were adequately remunerated so that they did not need to rely on tips for income, as I believe is the case in the USA and some other countries (where workers aren't properly paid). I don't like the phenomenon of tipping. I've always found it uncomfortable as a traveller knowing when to tip and by how much. I want to look at a menu and know in advance what I'll be paying—just as I can buy a new keyboard for a fixed price without thinking about the 10–15% extra it might cost if the sales assistant demonstrates competence with the card reader. But more than that I resent ...

ATMs should be avoided. The Internet too.

Bruce — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:59:22 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Some cretin recently cloned our debit card, in reflection of rising UK and international rates of card fraud despite technological countermeasures like "chip and pin". Of course it makes us angry, and think of doing all sorts of unsavoury things to the perpetrators if we could confront the cowardly faecoliths. But the good news is we will get a 100% refund from the bank because they acknowledge we were victims of a security lapse; our credit rating is unaffected; and new cards were issued promptly with new numbers. Of course we wanted to know if there was anything we could to reduce the risk of this happening again. We asked the bank if it was safer to use the ATM inside the branch rather than the hole-in-the-wall outside. They said probably so, since it would be harder to attach a device to the machine inside without being noticed. But we would be better still to make over-the-counter cash withdrawals and avoid using ATMs altogether, they said. That's reassuring—not. ATM without (top)/ with (below) "skimmer" attached (© APACS) There are still lots of people out there that won't go near online commerce, because they perceive it to be unsafe. I'd always thought someone was more likely to double-swipe or copy my card out the back of a restaurant than commit fraud online, but actually the risk is around 1:2. Figures from 2007 for UK-issued cards show that phone, Internet and mail order fraud (card-not-present fraud) amounted to £290.5 million, while counterfeit (skimmed/ cloned) card fraud ...

Unravelling Amazon link formats

Bruce — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:25:16 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

According to Mint, most of my blog visitors are American. To reflect this I decided to change my default Amazon Associates links from the UK to the US. In the process I got confused over the link syntax I should be using, but now have this sorted. For managing links to specific items on my site (automatically tagged with my Associates ID) I use Amazon Media Manager. AMM is a WordPress plugin that will randomly show a specified number of product links, categories of which can be matched to categories on your blog. AMM development is not active, however, it is easy to hack the plugin to use the more recent link syntax. Which link to the Amazon homepage? My links to the UK store (as indicated by the -21 in my Associates ID) looked like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect-home?tag=bioneuralblog-21&site=amazon Unfortunately you can't use the same Associates ID for each store; it is necessary to apply for an Associates ID for each program individually. Your referral fees thus cannot be combined. In my first e-mail from Amazon US I was advised that this was my unique Amazon.com homepage linking format: http://www.amazon.com?%5Fencoding=UTF8&tag=bioneuralnet-20 Soon after I received a second e-mail confirming my application had been approved, saying that this was my unique Amazon.com homepage linking format: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/bioneuralnet-20 I contacted Customer Support and was advised to use the following syntax: http://www.amazon.com/?tag=bioneuralnet-20 Hence my confusion. Some more prodding and Customer Service explained: All of the links track to your account. Some formats are not compatible with some web building programs, so we supply a variety of linking ...

Hold off on that upgrade to Vista

Bruce — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:35:12 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

PCWorld says Windows Vista is incomplete; expensive; wants a new PC; is time-consuming; doesn't obsolete Windows XP; and may be the best reason to buy a Mac.

Rounding makes folk cents-less

Bruce — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:44:01 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Daft, I tell you. New Zealand no longer has 1, 2, or 5 cent coins (I've been away for a while), so the smallest denomination coin is now 10 cents (the 5 cent went in July 2006). But you don't find things for sale at sensible prices, like $4.10 and $9.90. Oh no, it's $4.12 and $9.97. Although you can pay such amounts electronically (using EFTPOS), not everyone seems sure what to do when you give them cash. For example, we had an invoice to pay for a reserved car-pack that ended in 24 cents; I wanted to pay it in cash. The booth attendant had to speak to three people on the phone before he could tell we what change I'd get. Would they round it up or down? Luckily I had two 10 cents coins on me, so we were able to overcome that obstacle. New World, where we buy our groceries, publishes a "rounding policy" on each till. It says they will round $x.01, $x.02, $x.03, $x.04, and $x.05, to $x.00, and $x.06, $x.07, $x.08, $x.09, to $x.10 (some shops round $0.05 to $0.10). But this only applies if you pay cash. So a bill of $71.12 paid via EFTPOS costs you $71.12, yet a bill of $29.04 settled in cash costs $29.00. Confused? There are sometimes ways around it, if you consider it a matter of principle not to get cheated out of a few cents. Don't use EFTPOS for charges under 5 cents; do use it for charges ...

Mac user survival guide to Wellington

Bruce — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:42:20 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

One of the priorities for any Mac addict when moving somewhere new must surely be to check out the local scene for suppliers capable of feeding the said addiction. Newly arrived in Wellington, New Zealand's compact capital, I dedicated some time to explore the streets, news-agents, and Internet for all things Mac. Buying online Apple's sole authorized distributor in New Zealand is Renaissance Ltd (Apple Computer Division). Although based in Auckland they have an online store offering what appears to be the full range of Apple products. Update 07.12.06: On 6 December Apple opened an official online Apple Store. Resellers in the City There are a number of Dick Smith Electronics stores in the City—but don't expect to find anything other than the ubiquitous iPod. Tory Street is an easy walk from the CBD and harbours both a Harvey Norman (no. 77-87, with two "Mac guys" ready to help) and a Noel Leeming store (no. 133-139, with perhaps a slightly larger range). But for the best range and the most knowledgeable sales staff, head to MagnumMac at 5-7 Vivian Street, where a large showroom displays both Apple and third-party products. There's no online store, and this is the only AppleCentre in Wellington. Getting support There's a reasonable choice of Authorized Service Providers in Wellington, one of whom is MagnumMac. We'll be taking my wife's MacBook there soon, since it is showing discoloration of the palm-rest plastics (and has one of the affected serial numbers). Need on-site support? Toucan can come to you at home or at work. Magazine MacGuide ...

Apple .Mac membership looking less attractive

Bruce — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 06:53:01 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Once, long ago, being a member of Apple's .Mac seemed like a good idea—even value-for-money. Following the recent Macworld in San Francisco (Jan 2006) I'm left wondering what I'm getting for my money. I use Gmail instead of .Mac for e-mail, because I find it more flexible in use for mail forwarding to and from my domain. I used to make use of Virex, until Apple killed support in recognition that it caused some users more problems than it solved (I now use ClamXav). The .Mac membership area used to make software freebies available (including iBlog); this habit has long since dried up. Occasionally the Pulbic folder on my iDisk sees use as a drop-box, but the only .Mac feature I use regularly is HomePage integration with iPhoto for sharing holiday snaps (although there are excellent free alternatives, such as Galerie). When Mac OS X Tiger was released .Mac users were promised "exclusive" widgets; they never materialised. And now Apple has released iLife 06, together with iWeb, the icing on the cake of disappointment. Apple promotes iWeb as if it's some kind of benefit of a .Mac membership—but it's not. It's not included. whereas it used to cost £70 for a .Mac membership, if you want to enjoy all the features Apple trumpets, it now costs £125 (£70 for .Mac plus £55 for iLife 06). Add your ISP costs to that and you have a fair bit of cash to spend on a more transparent and competitive hosting service. A couple of "first impression" ...

Amazon.co.uk screw Associates

Bruce — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 09:14:23 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I've just received my first payment from Amazon Associates, being commission earned on sales over the past year. It's less than I had expected. A little over half of my reported "earnings" over the last four quarters were deducted as "personal orders", resulting in commission of less than 2% on total sales. Associates are apparently prohibited from earning commission on personal purchases. I wasn't aware this would be the case so attempted to verify it. Amazon.co.uk couldn't be bothered to reply to my customer service request, so I did some digging around on the Associates Central Discussion Board. Amazon make their position on personal orders "clear" in the Associates Operating Agreement (Section 4): You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees or the termination of this Agreement. Personal shopping on Amazon.co.uk for Associates is therefore less attractive: I don't like being screwed like this (Why do I find out 12 months too late? Why are deductions not explained?); A customer is a customer: Why should my orders be less valid than someone else's? For Amazon, surely an order is an order!; Amazon.co.uk continue to list commission on personal orders as "earnings" - presumably to encourage ongoing ...

A conversation with Adobe

Bruce — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 08:38:25 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Why do Adobe products cost more to download than buy off the shelf in Europe? Why do they cost way more than they do in the US? Do US upgrades work with UK products? Why doesn't Adobe respond to Customer Support e-mails? Good questions: now here for the answers... 17 June 2005, Adobe Customer Service 020 73 65 07 33 I'm ringing because I didn't get a reply to my fax or e-mail, which I sent some time ago. I own a licensed version of Photoshop 7 and am interested in an upgrade to Photoshop CS2 for Macintosh. On your Store you are selling the boxed upgrade for £140 and the downloadable upgrade for £144. Can you please explain why it costs more to download than receive the media and printed manual? The Online Store is based in Ireland so Irish VAT is charged on the download. I think that's about 22%. [It's actually 21%, vs. 17% in the UK]. Can you explain why the same product costs $US150 from the Adobe Store in the US (that's approx. £80)? Obviously this discrepancy has nothing to do with exchange rate or tax. I understand where you're coming from. I have a written statement on this which I'm not going to read out to you. Basically what it comes down to is that everything is cheaper in the US. [I asked if he could e-mail me the statement.] He did, and here it is: Why are European products more expensive than UE or American products? The price of software ...

Ads in your iBlog RSS feed

Bruce — Thu, 26 May 2005 21:04:53 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Google are currently beta-testing intergration of AdSense adverts with various blogging systems. A few of the feeds I subscribe to in NetNewsWire now carry ads (e.g. Engadget). Since I already use AdSense and it makes a (tiny) amount of $US, I applied to be a beta tester out of curiosity but was turned down. However, I decided to try and make it work anyway using iBlog... This article refers to iBlog (version 1.x), a Mac blogging client that was formerly used to publish this site. It may refer to design elements and other features that have since been replaced. Google AdSense FeedPage.txt is the file that iBlog uses as a template to generate your RSS feed. It's just a text file so easy to edit. I simply copied the AdSense code I use in iBlog's Navigation Editor and pasted it into the file after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> placeholder tag. It didn't work. I'm guessing because the AdSense code is a JavaScript and/ or contains multiple line breaks. Amazon Associates I also have an Amazon Associates account. With a small amount of editing you can make the iframe code generated by the link builder into valid XHTML. When you're done just paste the code into FeedPage.txt after the <$EntryAbstractOrBody$> tag; you might want to add a break before and after the iframe for cosmetic reasons. Each iBlog entry in the feed displays a different ad. In NetNewsWire the ads appear at the bottom of the abstract (it works in Safari RSS too):