Is your News Limited?

titch of sydney Posted at 2:40 AM Today

to the critic open your eyes alot more iraquis would have died at the hands of the taliban regime if we did not intervene

Only the smartest make it through the filter at news.com.au

Spreets: a bit shonky, a lot badly organised

The concept of the Groupon has been going on in Australia for a bit. Essentially it's a "deal a day" idea where, if enough people sign on to the day's deal, it happens. Suppliers can use it to build interest or get rid of stock. Bargain hunters can get good deals.

I've followed a few of them and yesterday bought up an offer on Spreets for some good quality meat.  The offer looked good at $99 for a fair selection of good quality meat.  Sneakily there was an additional $25 delivery charge, which is pretty shoddy (and likely illegal under the Trade Practices Act) behaviour. I spotted the sneaky fee and still thought it a good deal at $124.

When the coupon arrived this morning, I tried to check out only to find the seller's site didn't recognise the coupon code. To be fair to Spreets, they responded to my enquiry pretty quickly, and it seems the problem was sorted out.

Next problem comes when I can finally pay for the goods, they now want to add a payment fee to the delivery fee! There's three payment methods, all of which incur additional fees.  Now we're getting into the territory of completely out-of-order. This is like the airlines charging a "credit card fee" while providing no other mechanism to pay.  It's just not on.

I'll be getting my money back thanks Spreets.
Posted

Dunraven

I know the feeling. I bet this sign went up on a Tuesday.

This is a house around the corner on Illawarra Road that had an open house on Saturday, so we went and had a sticky. Turns out it's a house I lived in for two weeks about fifteen years ago.  As I was moving into the house, I noticed a copy uniform jacket hanging on a hook by the front door.  I asked my new flatmate whose that was and it turns out her boyfriend was a cop, and he stayed most nights.  That hadn't come up when I was deciding whether to move in!  I immediately started looking and was out two weeks later.

Sun, beer, friends

We had a wonderful afternoon down at the Concordia Club, drinking German beer, eating schnitzel and pork knuckle, hanging out in the sun.  A fantastic, lazy Sunday.

In the photos are Matt's pork knuckle, an "after" shot when Louis picked up and sucked on a lemon (I wish I'd had the video camera rolling), and Jameson and Maz with pilfered flowers.  Videos are material for the documentary that will be made when Louis is a world famous footballer, and Jameson grooving to the Schlager.
Posted

Child bike seats are problematic

Louis is in daycare and Holly starts back at work two days a week on Monday, so our attention has gone to a seat on our bikes for the boy to help with the daily commute.  It's a bit problematic.

To start with, Australians get royally ripped off. The Weeride, pictured below, costs US$60 in the US.  In Australia? $170. On current exchange rates the price should be around $61.

kanga.jpg

WeeRide is a front seat, so the kid sits in front of you but behind the handlebars. That means you can chat with them, and the bike is a bit more stable than a rear seat.  When I tried a friend's WeeRide, my knees hit the seat. Not ideal, though I'm told if it's properly installed that's less a problem.

media.nl?id=6848&c=980629&h=f0c370a4c463c6edf1ea&resizeid=-1&resizeh=180&resizew=180

So we've been looking at rear seats. Problem with those is that you can't generally use panniers with them, so how do you carry all your kid and work stuff?

One seat range that might solve this problem seems to be the seats from Hamax.  They have rack-mounted rear seats and a matching pannier that will fit underneath.  Alternatively they have the "Kiss" seat, which hands from its own frame-mounted carrier and looks like it might have space for a pannier!

hamax_kiss.jpg

Anyone got any experience with these seats?  Ideas? Opinions?

Erm, thanks but no thanks

Being invited to attend a company's "Customer Advisory Board" is nice.  It recognises my real-world experience with their products, and hopefully means some of my ideas will end up in the product, making my work life easier in the future.  I'm not surprised that I've been asked to sign an agreement, since I'd be giving them ideas that might end up in their product. However I most certainly don't expect that agreement to include the following clause:

You further agree that you shall not make, via private blogs or any other communication method, negative or misleading comments about <company> or our products

If that's the way you want it, you'll have to live without my attendance.