Car Auctions, Are they Worth it?

Posted on September 30th, 2011

Recently my son passed his test and I’d promised him a car of his own. I’d looked through the local paper and the cars there were either over priced or on their last legs. I’ve always
been wary when someone wants to sell a car with only a month or two to go before its next MOT – usually it means that the vehicle has major faults that would cost a fortune to
put right. In the end I spoke to some friends who suggested one of the local car auctions. I wasn’t aware that in many places there are regular auctions of used cars, often ex-fleet
vehicles. Last Saturday we got up bright and early and set off for the auction site, which was just outside town. My friends had told me to go early because it was best to try and
get a look at the cars before they went up for sale, they didn’t tell me how difficult that would be.

I don’t know whether you’ve ever been to a car auction but the vehicles are so close together that it’s really hard to get a proper look at them. I spoke to one of the officials in
charge and he said that most people bid on what they wanted and then paid a mechanic to inspect the vehicle. Apparently you get 24 hours to inspect the item and get it checked
over before you have to pay the full cost. I asked him how much that might set me back and he said it depended on who I used but I could expect to pay at least the equivalent of
an MOT test. I decided that my son and I needed to go and think about this, because the extra cost of inspection would impact on what we had to spend on the vehicle. As we were
leaving the official suggested that I try looking online for UK car brokers as they often had some great deals on used cars. We managed to get quite a decent runabout for my son,
and it was slightly under budget.

Posted in Ramblings

First Time Watching Britain’s Got Talent

Posted on May 16th, 2011

I watched Britain’s Got Talent for the first time the other night and actually quite enjoyed it. It felt very contrived – you can tell how good an act is going to be depending on the music before they start and whether they have a sad past – but there are still some funny acts.

I’ve heard people talk about how much they miss Simon Cowell and I can sort of see why. The Hoff may be quite entertaining but I don’t think he has much to add when it comes to talent – after all he was made famous for acting in a show that was notorious for having very bad acting. On the other hand, he does come up with some funny comments every now and again and at least he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

My favourite act of the night was when a boy made a portrait of Michal McIntyre out of marmite and toast. When it started I was cringing, but by the end I realised the boy really did have some talent – although probably not in the conventional art sense of the word! It’ll be interesting to see what he does next – apparently he uses different household objects each time.

I suppose I will end up watching it again, not because it’s a brilliant show but because there doesn’t seem to be a lot else on! At least it’s a bit better than Xfactor which takes itself much too seriously.

Posted in TV

Music Is Getting Worse (at least on the radio)

Posted on May 10th, 2011

Is anyone else getting slightly depressed at the quality of music that’s in the charts at the moment? I know the charts have never been the best place to find good music, but there always used to be a few songs that I liked. Today it seems like the songs are either rap, covers of old songs or boy/girl bands. There are very few “real” bands in the charts anymore, and it definitely makes listening to radio stations like Radio 1 very tedious.

The worst songs – in my opinion – are the dance track with repetitive looping of a hook with the occasional word or sentence said in the background. These “songs” – if you can call them that – might sound great in a club and are probably great for dancing, but are they really what people want to listen to at 8am on a Monday morning while driving to work? I really doubt it.

The problem is that there isn’t much of a good selection when it comes to radio channels. Absolute radio plays better songs but too often ends up with songs from the 60s and 70s. They rarely seem to play any new music, which makes it quite a stale station. If anyone has any recommendations then I’d really like to hear them!

I think the way to go is probably digital radio but I haven’t got around to fitting one in the car yet. That’s definitely on the to-do list though.

Posted in Radio

Monthly Payment For Photoshop

Posted on April 12th, 2011

I’ve recently seen that Adobe are offering some of their products on a monthly subscription. This is a good move – there’s been several times where I’ve needed to use Photoshop for a small project but haven’t had the money to buy the full version. I think Photoshop is one of the few programs that could charge the amount it costs and not be overpriced (I’ve used it at work in the past and its very powerful) but I don’t have the spare cash to buy it. Now if I need to use it I can pay considerably less and get it on a monthly subscription.

According to several websites I’ve looked at though, to get the best price you need to subscribe for a full year. This is normal for more subscription sites, but does that include all upgrades? If I buy the latest version of Photoshop for a year, then in six months time its upgraded, do I automatically get to use the upgraded version? I haven’t seen a definitive answer to this question, and I’m going to wait until I do before buying.

If you do get an upgrade then I think it’s probably a good deal. Of course, buying on a monthly or yearly basis is going to be more expensive in the long run than just buying the software, but it’s perfect if you just don’t have the money right now but need the software.

It’s also going to be interesting to see whether this has an effect on the number of people illegally downloading Adobe products. I’m sure that’s partly behind the decision.

Posted in Software | Tagged as: ,