Cash Out?

Back in March, we skied in Plagne Bellecote.
Not a very remarkable or innovative sort of place.
So I was surprised when, at a supermarket checkout, my change came showering out of a machine instead of being handed over by the cashier.
First time I have seen such an arrangement.

You also feed your coins into it, but notes still pass via the human interface.
They must have had a good salesperson pass through, as several of the (not many) shops there had the same device.

Yesterday, on a Brompton bike ride, I stopped for coffee & cake in a patisserie in Neuhof.
An even less remarkable & innovative place, to put it kindly...
And there, standing imperiously & incongruously in the middle of the counter, was the same "CashGuard" I had seen in Bellecote.

CashGuard's website http://www.cashguard.com/en/ says they are Scandinavian, have been in business for 20 years & sold over 16000 systems, so maybe I have just not been looking...
They point out advantages in hygiene, security, speed & accuracy.
Not mentioning that cashiers no longer need to be able to count...
I suppose most of what they say is broadly true.

But all of it will be rendered obsolete if Mastercard (& Visa?) get their way.

They just changed my credit card for a new one with contactless, PIN-less operation (http://www.paypass.com/) for amounts under €25.
Aimed at replacing cash for even the smallest transactions.
At participating stores only, of course, which so far is none.

Obviously, the possible success of this venture depends on them being willing & able to operate the system without charging shop-keepers too much.
Time will tell.

Although I strongly dislike the duopoly of Mastercard & Visa, I have to believe this is a more elegant solution than CashGuard's.

And hides a lot less croissants.

Parting thot: "The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled." - J K Galbraith

15 cents a kilo...

We now (temporarily) have what look like "his & hers" wheely bins.

The big scruffy one has been in service for maybe 15 years.
The demure little one next to it is the latest high-tech, low-decibel, computer-chipped miracle which is aiming to curb our profligate tendencies.

It all started with warning salvo(e)s in the letter box.
The Community of Communes (local authority for waste collection etc) had decided to introduce "incitative pricing".
Followed several leaflets giving the general reasoning & rough proposals.
- Preserve the environment
- Reduce incineration
- Reduce costs
- Be fairer
Charge per collection & per kilo...

We were then invited to a presentation & discussion at the village hall.

Never have so many inhabitants been crammed into that hall!
Not even for free beer at the Social & Sports Club AGM.

Never has audience attention been so wrapt.
Certainly not at the Social & Sports Club AGM.

Never have tempers been so near to fraying!
Never has neighbourliness looked more flimsy!

The presentation showed the current situation, with ever-increasing quantities of waste & even-faster-increasing costs for disposal.
The efforts which have already gone into closing tips; providing bottle-banks, paper-&-plastic skips in each commune; opening "déchetteries" where you can take your garden refuse, wood, metal, rubble, batteries, oil, paint etc etc to be recycled or disposed of as well as possible.

Then the new proposals:
- Smaller bins (120L for 1-2 people, 180L for 3+ people)
- Keep the weekly collection, only collecting bins put outside.
- Automatically weigh each bin & record number of collections in the year (each bin has identification chip, as well as big printed address label)
- Allow 12 collections per year free of collection charge.
- Collections over 12 charged at €1.50 each.
- All rubbish (even in free collections) charged at €0.15 per kilogramme.
- Annual fixed charge per house unchanged at €30.
- Annual fixed charge per person, reduced from €70 to €35.

They showed several "typical" cases, indicating that most people will pay less with the new system.
People who take paper, bottles etc to the containers will pay quite a bit less.
Anybody putting all their rubbish in the bin will pay quite a bit more.

The subsequent discussion was very heated.
- "You mean I am supposed to leave my shrimps & fish-heads rotting for a month till the next free collection?"
- "I want a lock so nobody else fills my bin, leaving me to pay..."
- "What happens if somebody dies part-way through the year?" (I think they were worrying about charges, not disposal).
- "We all know lots of houses who don't declare all occupants..."
etc etc.

We left before anybody got hurt.

Now the new bins are here, but we get 6 months "free" trial with dummy bills before the new charges come in - to iron out any difficulties.
The whole thing seems quite well thought out, except it penalizes old/infirm/immobile people who can't run their heavy rubbish to the bottle-banks etc.
I think the lesson is, that you really grab people's attention when you bring their money into the discussion!

Full details:
http://www.kochersberg.fr/Vivre/Dechets_menagers/La_redevance_incitative__RI

Parting thot: "Taxation with representation ain't so hot either." - Gerald Barzan

Need Visa for Germany

Back in February I ordered a horrendously-expensive new bike.
Made in Germany.
Their only outlet in France is in Paris, so I chose to order it from a dealer in a village near Baden-Baden.

The ordering process seemed to go OK, in a mixture of German, French, English & gestures.
Though I was a little surprised & dubitative when they didn't ask for any deposit or ID at that stage.

So I was relieved when they eventually rang to say it was available & I was again surprised when they suggested I take it for a ride, still with no deposit.
Unfortunately, the German/French/English/gestures had failed to get over the message about the non-standard chainwheel I wanted, resulting in a couple of weeks delay while they found & fitted the right parts.

I went to collect it, finally, this week.
Naturally enough, I pulled out my Mastercard.
And was more than surprised to be told they only accepted Visa!
"In fact, Germans usually pay cash" said the assistant, adding that Visa-only was common in small towns, though I don't know how true that is.

Of course I am aware that, in Germany, low-margin supermarkets often don't accept credit cards, instead usually having convenient cash-dispensers available.
But not high-margin sports goods dealers.
That must be the first time in 30 years I have heard of anybody accepting only one of Mastercard/Visa.

The happy outcome was that I left with the bike, merely promising to transfer the money to their account!

All I need now is their IBAN number & I am still waiting for them to e-mail me that.
I can't imagine such trust in France.

The bike is fine, if depressingly black.
The brightest bits are the tyres & chain.

Parting thot: "If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." - Jean Paul Getty

French Burglary 101

I hesitated before posting this, as I don't approve of disseminating potentially harmful information.

But then - anybody can find it in 5 minutes Googling & burglars already know it.

Innocent householders like me though, maybe don't.

And maybe should.

We recently returned from a week's absence to find we couldn't unlock the usual door to get into the house.

Fortunately, AA had stayed home & had found the problem when inside trying to get out, rather than outside trying to get in, and had been able to use a second entrance, which is normally double-locked & chained.

So we had a problem, but not an emergency.

Had we been stuck outside, we would probably have called out a locksmith, which is notoriously expensive & (as I now know) pointless.

I knew nothing about French (or any other) door-locks, but a bit of Googling soon made things obvious.

See top picture.

The lock is in 2 parts:

1. The big rectangular latch mechanism, which can only be removed from the door when the door is open & after the barrel is removed.

2. The lock barrel, which is inserted in the keyhole of the latch mechanism & held in place by a screw which can only be removed when the door is open...

So nice guys can't remove the lock without unlocking it.

I had not previously realized that there are actually 2 separate lock barrels; one for the key from inside & one for the key from outside.

They are joined together by a very small section of metal, the rest of the keyhole section being cut away between the 2 barrels to allow rotation of the lug which operates the latch.

That very small section of metal is then drastically weakened by being drilled & tapped for the screw which holds the barrel into the latch mechanism.

So you don't need to be much of an engineer (or much of a burglar) to see where to attack this lock.

I used an adjustable spanner, clamped it snuggly on the rectangular section of the protruding barrel, and pushed sideways.

The barrel instantly broke at the ridiculously fragile center portion & the 2 halves fell out of the door.

A screwdriver was enough to slide the latch open & we were home.

Sobering to realize that any burglar with 5 minutes theory/practice could break in silently in less than 30 seconds!

I don't think our lock was unusually fragile either.

They all seem to have much the same weak link.

Even the ones with extremely fancy unreproducible keys & astronomic price tags...

Examples borrowed from http://www.hellopro.fr/

http://www.hellopro.fr/cylindre-europeen-abus-et-abloy-2000864-1471981-produit.html

http://www.hellopro.fr/cylindre-europeen-de-haute-securite-satyx-2000864-325088-produit.html

http://www.hellopro.fr/cylindre-europeen-de-securite-fenyx-2000864-325089-produit.html

http://www.hellopro.fr/cylindre-de-serrure-surete-europeen-y200-2000864-325083-produit.html

Conclusion?

These locks will only keep out people who don't really want to get in, or have only bare hands available.

I have to think seriously about getting something quite different.

Maybe you do too?

Parting thot: "Locks keep out only the honest." - Jewish proverb

Tea-for-Two Bags?

I regularly drink Redbush or Rooibos tea.

At least I do when I can find it, as it is not common here.

It is cheaper to order it from UK by internet & pay 50% extra for postage, than to get it locally.

Best is when kind UK visitors bring a few boxes, free of p&p.

It is supposed to have great soothing capacity.

But as soon as I open the box, I am un-soothed by the inexplicable fact that the bags are in twos...

So, in transfering the 80 bags from the original cardboard box to an air-tight caddy, as recommended, I have to patiently tear apart 40 pairs.

They are not even decently perforated, so care is required to avoid ripping them open, especially if you try to do several at once.

OK - this is not one of life's great tragedies, but why on earth would anybody do it like that?

Don't try to tell me it is a significant cost saving.

Do they think it somehow increases customer satisfaction?

Did nobody ever tell them?

Parting thot: "Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone." - Jim Fiebig

Tele(Atlas)Transported

If you look up our address in Google Maps (I am not publishing it - just believe me) you will find yourself some way down a disused road, beyond a No Entry sign.

Likewise, if you are a tradesman trying to find us by GPS, there is a 50% chance that you will get to the No Entry sign & have to phone for guidance.
Actually, we are now so used to this, that we usually manage to warn potential visitors beforehand.
But not always.

It seems that all map publishers (even Michelin) get their information from one of two sources.
NAVTEQ in USA & Tele Atlas in the Netherlands (now taken over by TomTom).

NAVTEQ has us correctly positioned.
Tele Atlas has chosen, taking itself for a tornado or angry deity, to uproot our whole road & dump it half a mile away, in no-mans-land.

Now both providers have special sites where they invite the public to provide feedback to correct errors:
http://mapfeedback.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php
http://mapreporter.navteq.com/
Tele Atlas even sends you a polite e-mail with 32-digit reference number (they expect that many errors?) for your contribution, so you can follow its progress.

The only problem is that there is no progress.
I reported my problem first in April 2007, then again in January 2009 & August 2009.
Then the Mairie (town hall) had a go in October 2009.
And I tried again yesterday.

I am wondering what I need to do to grab their attention.
Immolation is out of the question.

Parting thot: "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." - Tony Robbins

Cam Belts

One of the silliest things the motor industry ever did, if you exclude customer-driven stuff like external sun visors & over-wide tyres, was to introduce belt drive for camshafts.

Previously, camshafts were driven by chains.
I don't think I have ever heard of a camshaft chain failing.

Starting slowly in the '60s, more & more manufacturers were attracted to internally-toothed rubber belts, instead of chains, to drive their camshafts.
Potential advantages included cost, weight, noise, packaging & sealing, though these advantages were not always realized.

The disadvantage is that rubber belts have a finite life.
And the finite life depends heavily on operating conditions, notably hot & cold temperatures, contamination by oil/dust/mud/stones, unscheduled overloads, long periods of non-use, etc.
And belt failure is always serious, usually very expensive & potentially fatal.
As a minimum, the car suddenly stops, which can be less than funny in the fast lane of a busy highway, or in Siberia or Death Valley.
Usually, the engine is severely damaged or destroyed, as pistons & valves crash.
See heading picture, from: http://www.robertsautorepair.com/faq.html
With older cars, that means not worth repairing.
A few engines have been designed so that cam belts can fail without pistons hitting valves, so a new belt can be fitted with no other costs, but that requires design compromises which are expensive or impossible with today's emissions legislation.

In view of the serious consequences, and after numerous court cases, manufacturers have had to recommend belt changes at intervals which should avoid any failures.
But because belt life is so heavily dependant on so many factors & hence so variable, the change interval is a sorry compromise.
Often 5 years or 60,000km, but sometimes 10 years or 240,000km.
Frequent enough to be a significant maintenance cost for most owners.
And a waste in 99% of cases.
Still allowing a (very, very small) number of motorists to suffer a failure inside that period.
And reserving nasty surprises for the forgetful or uninformed.
http://www.auto-museum.net/thread/4453-1.html
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=7920

I think there is now a move back to chains.
There should be.

Parting thot: "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." – Albert Einstein

Open Jars

Over the years, we have acquired a number of tools for opening screw-top jars.
Including the 4 shown here, which are currently in the kitchen drawer.

The complicated-looking one with white handles will always open a lid, but will always damage the lid in so doing.
The green-handled one can open lids if used with care, but will also always damage the lid & can even break the jar if set to the wrong notch.
The Zyliss job is really for smaller bottle tops & is not terribly good at that.
These days, we always go for the Baby Boa strap wrench, which works unfailingly & never damages anything.
But it is fiddly to use as the rubber strap keeps falling out of its wavy slot.

All of the above have the common disadvantage of needing a co-pilot to hold the jar while the chief pilot operates the tool.
Very frustrating on the seemingly-frequent occasions when I desperately need a shot of black cherry jam while DS is out shopping, dancing, learning Spanish etc etc etc.
This has led me to tricky escapades with my Black & Decker WorkMate or dangerous Lotus-like contortions wearing rubber-soled shoes on inadequately-prehensile feet.
So now I have a second Baby Boa (theoretically for the garage) which can be pressed into service as jar-holder in emergencies.
Of course it is even more difficult to keep 2 straps in their wavy grooves than one strap, but when the reward is a jam sandwich, I get there in the end.
Like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo

There has to be a better way & of course there is.

I remember seeing, years ago, a metal wedge-shaped device with one high-friction rubber surface.
This could be fixed under, say a convenient shelf and then you only have to push the lid into the wedge & twist the jar, when the lid should be gripped in the wedge, allowing it to be unscrewed easily.
By one person, or even with one hand.

It took a lot of Googling, but I eventually found the Undo It Jar & Bottle Opener on a couple of sites for the disabled:
http://www.activemobility.co.uk/shop/undoit-jar-bottle-opener-p-328.html
http://www.yooralla.com.au/DVAWEB/AH07-0002_1.htm
I like the look of it, except:
It only handles lids up to 3 inches, which is not enough.
I think the curled-over edge on the low-friction side might be a nuisance on some jars?
It costs £16 (plus postage).

Better, I found the Westmark 6-in-1 Opener available in France for €6.90 (+€5 p&p…) or in Germany for €3.95 (+?? P&p) here:
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B000FDXBMQ/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= http://www.kuecheundhaushalt.de/Westmark-589981-WST1077.html
Supposedly handles lids up to 85mm which could be just enough, maybe.
But not designed to be under-shelf mounted!
How could they have missed that?
If I can find one near €3.95 then I will drill & couple of holes & give it a go.

Otherwise, there is the is the Magic Twist Jar Opener here:
http://www.canopeners.biz/magictwistjaropener-p-5292.html
That looks like a nice job & should work for all our jars.
But it's $32 (+ p&p, if available from USA).
And only stuck on with sticky tape.
And seems to be all-plastic, so maybe not very robust?
And why complicate it to cope with tightening as well as unscrewing?
Who needs that?

Or the Old Fashioned Jar Opener in solid pine (looks like plywood, so much the better) here:
http://cakesbymargaret.com/WTEZ.net%20Page/allevercrafts1.html
Only $6 (+ p&p…)
Simple & robust, not to mention ecological.
Can't see what they use for the high-friction surface.
Hope the plain wood low-friction surface will not wear/bruise/compress…

Plus a number of similar devices, but with metal teeth instead of a smooth high-friction surface, so bound to damage lids.

In the meantime (while waiting to find, say, a Westmark at a good price, including p&p if not in a shop) I have tried making my own Old Fashioned Jar Opener.

This is the MkII prototype, which now functions admirably. (Don't ask about MkI…)

It is assembled from odds & ends from junk boxes (future blog subject?) which may explain/excuse the walnut veneer (old picture frame) & the mock-leather grain (old record-player box).
Less noticeable, maybe, are the stainless-steel low-friction face (old curtail rail) & the hard rubber high-friction face (old ski-stick wrist-strap). The fact that it is MkII may help to explain, but can't excuse, the poor design of the attachment of the rubber strap to its bit of picture frame.
If/when it fails or I feel like making MkIII then I will do that bit properly, wrapping the strap round well-radiused corners & shifting the screws out of the stressed area.

As I said, it works perfectly, so far.
At least with the designer operating it.
How many subsequent disasters have passed that point only too well?
Before crowing too loudly, of course, it would be necessary to get it tested by a panel of adolescents & old grannies.
The grannies, to see if it works; the ado's, to see if it breaks.
I tell myself the appearance does not matter as it is screwed under a shelf in the pantry.

Parting thot:"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." – Steven Covey

Direct Debit – French Style

Here in France, we have a very common method for paying recurrent bills, called "Prélèvement Automatique".

It is similar to other Direct Debit arrangements, in that you sign a couple of forms which then allow supposedly reputable organisations to dig freely into your bank account for whatever amounts they like.
I have used it for years to pay all our bills for Income Tax, Property Tax, Land Tax, Dust-bin Tax, Electricity, Water, Car Insurance, Health Insurance & even, against my better judgement, Internet/Telephone Services.
It has always worked perfectly – the correct amounts being debited at the right moment in every case.

But I have been aware, from forums & consumer magazines & newspaper correspondents, that a very large number of people have considerable difficulties, especially with Internet & Telephone Service Providers.
The problem is that once you have signed papers for a Prélèvement Automatique, you can't switch it off!

I will repeat that, in case it is not clear: You sign a paper to allow somebody to dig unlimited amounts out of your bank account, then you cannot stop it.

If you find yourself in conflict with (typically) an I.S.P. then the proper way of stopping them helping themselves to your cash, is to send them a registered letter asking them to please stop!
Imagine their reaction…

When I switched Health Insurance recently, I noticed the old company made a debit after the end of their time (I later found it was legitimate) so I asked the bank how to turn that P.A. off.
I have Internet Banking & can do almost anything on-line, including keeping track of P.A's, so I expected to be able to control my P.A's from that site too.
The bank replied that it was impossible for them to turn off a P.A.
The only possibility was a temporary opposition at €20.
I know this is true, but still find it hard to believe!

Looking at how things work elsewhere, I found encouraging information on UK & Australian Ombudsman sites:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm
"Customers can cancel a direct debit at any time by writing to their bank or building society."

I particularly like the clear commitment in the Australian Code of Banking Practice:
http://fos.org.au/centric/home_page/resolving_disputes/more_information_for_consumers/cancelling_direct_debit_authorities.jsp
http://www.bankers.asn.au/ArticleDocuments/20040603_FINAL_CODE_MODIFIED_PDF.pdf
"19 Direct debits
19.1 We will take and promptly process your:
(a) instruction to cancel a direct debit request relevant to a banking service we provide to you; and
(b) complaint that a direct debit was unauthorised or otherwise irregular,
and will not direct or suggest that you should first raise any such request or complaint directly with the debit user (but we may suggest that you also contact the debit user)."
So I was beginning to think I could start to agitate with French & European banking/political authorities to drag France into line with "civilized" countries.

Then I discovered SEPA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area
Cutting a long story short, SEPA is introducing common payment systems to 32 countries, including Euro Zone & UK & Switzerland.
Sounds good.
A lot of it is working well already.
Just the new Direct Debit part is running late.

And as far as I can see, that part is based on the French system, not the UK system.

In all my digging, I see no mention of the paying customer being able to just tell his bank to switch off the payments.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/docs/sepa/conf-westerhaus_en.pdf
https://www.ebaportal.eu/_Download/2006-00397_Debit_Transfers.pdf
Supposedly, you can always get a "no questions asked" refund from your bank, at least for a couple of months after any suspect payment.

If I designed a potentially damaging machine without an on/off switch, I would expect to be severely reprimanded & prevented from doing it again.
Do financial organisations not work like that?
I hope I have simply misunderstood the information I read, but I don't think so.

Parting thot: "Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement." – Dan Quayle

Vignettes – 2

The things we do, in the name of science…

Last year, I mentioned the Swiss autoroute vignette & the difficulty in removing it after use.
Not to mention the impossibility of removing it in one piece to use on another car or another windscreen (which is illegal anyway).
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/vignettes.html

Yet the windscreen professionals managed to transfer my old one to my new screen, apparently intact.
I meant to ask them how, but never did.
Googling furiously, I found suggestions about illicit use of hair-driers…

Having bought my 2010 vignette, the time had come to test my new, if fragmentary, knowledge.
After checking carefully that there were no Swiss observation drones hovering nearby (and also that DS was not looking) I smuggled the hair drier from the bathroom & a thin, flexible table-knife from the kitchen, out to the car-port.
Using only the merest of heat & fan settings (& wondering vaguely if there was any risk of cracking the screen) I warmed the 2009 vignette up & easily slid the knife blade behind it.
Removing it in one piece (& apparently fit for hypothetical further service) was a proverbial piece of cake.
Certainly quicker & easier than the usual cold scraping, even if you don't want to re-use it.

C.Q.F.D.

Parting thot: "Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Everyone Gets a Window Seat?

One of the minor adventures in planning our future California trip has been the projected flight over The Grand Canyon.

Yes, I know, The Grand Canyon is not quite in California, but if you have a small enough map it doesn't seem that much of a detour & a pity to miss while you are so near.
Anyway, many people, including unknowns on travel forums & even actual friends, have unanimously (& that's rare) recommended seeing The GC from a helicopter.

Digging around, I found that:
There are several organisations running various helicopter flights (see below).
25 minute flights are expensive & longer flights are very expensive.
There are several organisations (including some of the above) running light aircraft flights.
You seem to get about 50 minutes, starting from the same airport, travel further (good) but a bit higher (bad?).
They are cheaper than helicopter flights (reasonable as helicopters are notoriously expensive to run).
They mainly seem to use twin-engined planes with 3-abreast or 4-abreast seating, so visibility (the whole point!!) may not be very good for some in the middle or for anybody looking/photographing through the propellers.
Air Grand Canyon offers 50-60 minute flights in single-engined planes where "Everyone Gets a Window Seat!" & they are cheaper than anybody else.
http://www.airgrandcanyon.com/
Too good to be true?
Probably…

After some hesitation, partly because, with all the power of Google, I could not find a single forum report of anybody actually using Air Grand Canyon, & partly because their site seems to describe 3 different flight paths but then the booking form doesn't use any of those 3 flight path names, I eventually decided to go for it, & booked for the time & date we wanted – no problem.
Our credit-card account was soon debited with the right amount, but I did not receive the expected & promised Reservation Confirmation.
I e-mailed them on one of the 3 addresses on their site, but the mail was bounced back with:
"I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. The mail system : host mx.papillon.com[209.136.187.9] said: 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for that user"
The other 2 addresses gave the same result.
They all still do.

I tried the phone number on the site, but it rang for 3 minutes with no answer.
Ten times in succession over a couple of days…
I cannot find any other phone number (except a 1-800 one) or any postal address (except a PO box) for AGC.
I did find a related news article about embezzlement:
http://media.www.eraunews.com/media/storage/paper917/news/2008/10/01/News/Skyschool.Closes.Doors-3458077.shtml
Eventually, I contacted the Arizona Department of Transportation - Airport authority, who were extremely helpful & confirmed that AGC is really a bona-fide company & is really operating from the expected airport.
Phew!

They suggested my connection problems might be due to 3ft of snow at the airport, but I respectfully doubt that.
Surprisingly for me, but apparently not for them, they said that reservations are being handled by Grand Canyon Airlines, one of the above competitors.
I contacted GCA about my lack of confirmation from AGC & got a rapid reply with confirmation!
The rapid & friendly reply was under the header "Papillon Airways Inc." – another of the above "competitors" and included the line "Thank you for choosing Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines" – yet another "competitor"…
Encouraged by that success, I asked which airline I would be flying with & for confirmation that the flight would be in a single-engined plane where "Everyone gets a window seat".
That seemed to be taking things too far & replies ceased…

So I am anything but confident in what I have booked & paid for!
The confirmation mail does say "Most tours can be changed or cancelled without penalty" & I am quite tempted, but on the other hand, having struggled so far, I really want to see what's at the end.
Watch this space…

http://www.airgrandcanyon.com/
http://www.grandcanyonairlines.com/
http://www.scenic.com/
http://www.papillon.com/
http://www.maverickhelicopter.com/

Parting thot: "If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." - Erasmus

Long Time No…

I mentioned last year that I was getting a garden shredder, planning to install a photovoltaic system on the roof and preparing a trip to California.
All those little jobs expanded to fill my available time & left none for messing with blogs.
Hopefully things have calmed down a bit now so I can blog anew.

In November I explained I wanted a Bosch AXT 25TC garden shredder & that it was over 500€ here, but under £300 (330€ then) in UK.
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/garden-shred.html
Weighing up the pro's (cost) & con's (internet jiggery-pokery, possible shipping damage, difficulty if needing guarantee work) I decided that it was worth getting it in UK.

I had established that the vendor (Lawson-HIS) really existed & rapidly answered e-mails.
I have, or at least had, a positive impression of Bosch's ability to design & make tools needing little guarantee attention.
A robust-looking garden shredder was not exactly a delicate thing as far as shipping was concerned.

I was seriously wrong on the last item or two.

The shredder was dispatched via City Link & arrived by UPS, which sounded good to me.
The big cardboard box had a slight nick in one side but was otherwise OK so I signed for it with little hesitation.
In assembling it, I noticed a plastic adjusting knob (where the box was nicked) was broken, but thought that could be fixed somehow.
Then another plastic knob seemed damaged, but still worked.
I was relieved to find that the shredder did shred & very well & very quietly too – just as intended.
But it was a bit rough to move around – one of the wheels rubbing intermittently on the frame.
Closer inspection showed the wheel was broken & the axle bent!
By that time, it was dawning on me that the box, though nearly intact, must have been dropped to have caused so much damage on one side.

So I carefully checked the shredder over – and under.
Oh disaster! – One of the main castings was broken in 2 places!

Hasty e-mail to Lawson-HIS with explanatory photos.
Rapid & encouraging reply.
I volunteered to repair the shredder if they could supply the parts (saving double shipping & maybe same-again damage…).
They quickly supplied an illustrated parts list & I picked out the parts I needed – not easy as there were several errors in the Bosch document.
It then took nearly 2 months for Bosch to supply the parts.
Stripping & rebuilding was nothing like as simple as I would have expected for a piece of garden equipment, but finally it is back together & working again.

Lessons?
I appreciated the helpful attitude of Lawson-HIS, though of course I would rather have just received a perfect shredder.
Even reputable delivery services like City Link & UPS don't treat your stuff as you would treat it yourself.
You can't estimate the condition of the contents by looking at the outside of the package.
Even Bosch fails to design equipment which will withstand predictable handling damage in shipping.
If Bosch wants to contest this, I will happily watch as they drop a dozen shredders in boxes onto concrete floors from standard test heights in random orientations!
Very happily!
I shall have to readjust my decision-point for internet purchases as I underestimated the probability & severity of shipping damage.
The considerable combined economic mass of internet sales corporations needs to put some money & effort into developing a reliable & economical delivery network.
That is a necessary extension of the internet.

Parting thot: "Prevention is better than cure." - Erasmus

Google So Far

I have mixed feelings about Google.

On the one hand, they provide some amazing services - free.
On the other hand, they have so much information & so much analytical power, that if/when it gets into the wrong hands it could mean serious trouble for individuals, populations or even nations.
Imagine Hitler or Stalin with Google power…

I love their Search facility – it seems too good & too fast to be true.
We have just got used to it now & take it for granted, but if you can remember what searching was like before…
Well, it was like it still is in my Microsoft XP computer's internal searcher – you put in the search term & watch while it checks through all your quarter-million files before throwing up results in no ranked order.
Or more likely fails to find anything if you made the slightest error in input.
Before Google, we used to say "Junk in – junk out" but now you stand a good chance of finding what you want even if you can't spell it.
So I no longer use MS internal search, but prefer Google Desktop Search, which is instant & brilliant, including e-mails & web-pages as well as the boring MS stuff.
On the other hand, I don't doubt that everything on my computer could now be read & analyzed (& maybe changed or deleted) by Google if they or their successors wanted.
Back on the 'good' side – I can easily live with their unobtrusive & relevant advertising, which I even sometimes follow up, whereas twinkling banners & pop-ups on other sites invariably cause me to leave as soon as possible.

Having tried lots of free photo-handling applications, I keep coming back to (Google) Picasa as being just right for me.
Others do some things better (& I do use others for those some things) but for run-of-the-mill straightening, cropping, tuning, arranging, viewing & exporting, it meets my requirements well.
I particularly like the fact that it never modifies the original photos (unless you ask it to) but saves all the modifications in little supplementary files.
Very comforting & uses less space than competitors which, if you want to preserve an original, need to create another full-sized variant to modify.
But if you ever need help, be prepared for a long & frustrating struggle & lots of forum time.

For on-line maps, I remember starting happily with Mappy, then Mapquest, Michelin, Map24 & MultiMap, but now I nearly always find myself using Google Maps.
The others have irritating inadequacies or cover the page with adverts.

When I heard about Google's Street View project, aiming to let anyone look at any street in the world, I thought it sounded impossibly vast & rather pointless.
Now, it covers enormous & increasing areas (even our off-the-beaten-path village) and I am surprised to find I use it frequently.
For instance to get a preview of turning points when planning a route.
In urban situations, I can easily memorise the appearance of critical junctions, where trying to memorise & then read street names would never work.
I could always get a GPS navigation system, but am too mean to pay the map-updating costs.

When I started thinking about a blog, I looked into the various possibilities and (Google) Blogger came out as the obvious simplest to set up & go.
Others may offer more flexibility, but Blogger is more user-friendly for Dummies.

So, it sounds like I am a Google fan?
Well, yes; I am both a satisfied user of many of their free services, and an admirer of their imagination, determination & sheer firepower in tackling pharaonic projects like Street View & Google Books.
I think they have accelerated technological development wherever they have chosen to go.
And no; although I am naïve enough to believe that Google's current management is well-meaning, I see great potential danger when their capabilities fall into less-well-meaning hands, as seems inevitable.

French Russian Roulette

I come from a land of bayonet-fitting light bulbs.
Never gave it a thought.

In France, some light fittings are bayonet (called B22) but most are screw-in (small-diameter E14 or large-diameter E27).

With the B22, the 240 volt Live & Neutral connections go via the 2 little solder blobs on the end of the bulb, while the metal casing may be earthed, with luck, or more likely just "floating".
Fine!

With the screw-ins, the 240v Live is connected to the single solder blob & the Neutral to the metal threaded case.
Er…

That means that as you insert the bulb & screw it in, your fingers are almost certainly touching the metal thread, which is in electrical contact with what should be the Neutral line of your home electrical circuit.
At that point, you want to be VERY sure that every previous owner, electrician, non-electrician & handyman has been careful to make all the wiring connections in your house in the right order.
Otherwise you are holding 240 volts.

If, as is more than likely, your light bulb is in some kind of mobile fitting (table lamp etc) then it will almost certainly have a 2-pin plug.
That means that whether the bulb case is Live or Neutral depends on which way you happen to have put the symmetrical plug in the socket.
50:50…
That's French Russian Roulette!

Of course, you would never try to change a light bulb without unplugging the appliance, or cutting the power at the fuse-box, would you?
With screw fittings, I certainly wouldn't!

Don't forget that simply switching off is not enough.
Who knows which wire the switch is in?

Parting thot: "Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom." - Phyllis Theroux

Garden Shred

I have been thinking about getting a garden shredder.

Not to shred DS's floral borders or ravage next-door's gnomes, but to deal with all our loppings & prunings.
With a big collection of trees & bushes, this is not a negligible item.
At the moment, everything above compostable size has to be trailered to the dechetterie, where I am a frequent flyer.

Shredder fanciers reckon that not only do shredders make your piles (of branches) disappear, but that the result can then be used to make good compost, especially mixed with grass cuttings which should not otherwise be added over-enthusiastically to the compost heap (particularly not when DS is looking).
Beyond that, the shreddies can be spread on flower beds, where they look tidy, keep down weeds & retain moisture, reducing the need for watering.
Sounds too good to be true.
Which it is.

They forget to mention the noise, the painful slowness, the need to wear all sorts of protection, the doubtful ecological "bilan" (no good translation for that), the frequent jammings, the need for resharpening, the fact that stringy stuff stops the cutter by wrapping round it & hard wood stops the cutter dead, or that the output can be anywhere between mush & chunks.
I learned all that several years ago when I first got interested & borrowed one.
I learned it again last year when my neighbour bought one, then a second, and now passes his loppings through both in succession...
So logically, I should just forget the whole thing & keep on trucking, or trailering.
But logic is boring.
I have let myself be persuaded that the latest & greatest new Bosch AXT 25TC shredder has reached an acceptable level of performance.
It even won a Glee prize (Look it up), for what that is worth.
Unfortunately, there is the price.
Bosch mention 499.99€ & our local DIY store has it for just over 500€.
No way.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find it significantly cheaper on Internet in France, Germany or Belgium.

Then I looked in UK & it is all over the place at less than £300, which is not much more than 330€ at today's rate.
Plus post & packing, of course, for a 30 kg packet.

And that is the point of this post, following on from the previous one about the growing significance of shipping costs for Internet shopping.

I sorted out the half-dozen sites with the lowest take-away prices, around £280, then started digging for shipping costs.
Even within UK, shipping varied between free & impossible (to outlying places).
Not surprisingly, several UK sites do not ship to France.
For the others, the charge varied between £46 & £17.
£17 has to sound reasonable for 30 kg from UK to France, especially compared with 17€ for 48 gm from Germany to France (see previous post).
So I ordered a shredder from Garden Centre On Line, for £279.99 + £17.99 = £297.98

Actually, I ordered it on a Saturday by internet & paid by debit card from a UK account.
I have their confirmation of the amounts.
But the transaction failed because (& that took a long time to trace) our UK bank has been slightly mis-spelling our address for the last 20 years.
Just doubling an "L" which, coming from Lloyds, might have been a natural mistake or an in-joke.
In all that time, nobody had ever noticed & it had never mattered, but for on-line transactions, it matters.
So, after straightening out Lloyds, I had to order it again by phone, still at the same price, and the £297.98 was debited on Monday.
Imagine my surprise, as they say, to get an e-mail on Friday, saying: "Hi, Thank you for your order unfortunately the shipping cost for this item to France is 117.99GBP leaving a balance of £100GBP to pay please advise if you wish to ahead with this purchase and pay the additional shipping. Regards, Customer Service"
Having imagined my surprise, you can now easily imagine my reply, which certainly did not include paying another £100.
I would be interested to find out just what happened there, but I never will.

Next on my shredder-shop list was Lawson-HIS, so I checked their site again & it really did say £281.75 + £17 shipping (up to 30 kg, whereas Bosch says it weighs 30.5 kg).
I e-mailed for confirmation & they confirmed £281.75 + £17.08 = £298.83
Dubious, I asked them to please recheck the weight & shipping charges, which they did, so I ordered it from them.

My conclusions are that shipping charges can vary wildly.
That some sellers (the ones who ship free & publicise that clearly on every page) have understood the significance.
That others still have a lot of catching-up to do.
That there is a big potential for a very efficient distribution system, which has not been invented yet.

Parting thot: "The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck." - Tony Robbins

Fan Mail

One of several reasons for not updating this blog much recently, is that my PC has a temperature.

In the beginning, I thought I was hearing the fan more often, then I was sure I was hearing it more often & faster, then it seemed to be running fast most of the time, then I started to get spontaneous shut-downs.
Hard to ignore it any longer.

I opened the PC & hoovered all the fluff out, especially round the CPU, but it didn't make much difference.
I downloaded a free thing called SpeedFan which lets me monitor various fan speeds & associated temperatures.
It soon became obvious that the CPU fan was not starting up correctly, but I found that I could trick it into starting by rebooting after getting to a certain critical temperature.
That kept me happy for a while.
Running with the PC case open, I could see what the fan was doing & also found I could kick-start it by poking it with a sharp stick after again getting to the critical temperature.
That's how I am running today, with the case open, one eye on the temperature gauge & a sharp stick close at hand…

All of which is just a lead-in.

Without being able to diagnose things further, I felt the best move might be to replace the CPU fan.
Surcouf in Strasbourg, who supplied the PC originally, failed to answer several requests about it.
I managed to find the reference (thanks to a helpful forum) and even located an exact replacement on internet, at GNLA in Germany.
Amazingly, once you can find one, a new fan costs only 6.99€ but when I tried to buy one, the shipping charge was an additional 17€.
For a 46gm item.

Digging deeper, I found another one (new) on eBay France, sold from Germany again, at only 3.90€ plus 10€ shipping.
Hopefully that may fix my problem, if & when it ever arrives, that is…

The point of this post is to highlight the disproportionate influence of shipping in "modern" internet shopping.

When is hardware delivery going to catch up with the rest of the "free & immediate" search & buy process which is suddenly available to us & already seems so natural?
In speed & especially in cost?
I suppose it is a bit of a "chicken & egg" problem, in that there is potentially a huge market volume, waiting for a radically more efficient delivery system, waiting for a volume market to be really there.
Surely letter delivery must be shrivelling up these days, just as hardware delivery is pent up to explode?

Sounds like the sort of challenge Google might take on…
Heaven help the post offices & parcel carriers if they ever do!

Parting thot: "Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed." - Erasmus