* Posts by Bruce_c

6 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2015

TomTom bill bomb: Why am I being charged for infotainment? I sold my car last year, rages Reg reader

Bruce_c

A car is something that is going to be sold on at some point, maybe a few months down the line or maybe 10 years later. With more and more personalised services built in there needs to be a simple straightforward 'do this when you sell' process detailed either in the handbook (if you have it) or in a menu on screen. It needs to be simple enough for your mum to use - think about all the people you have to support with (simple) tech issues. I also needs to either kill any linked online accounts or deregister itself as a linked device from them either automatically or indicate to you what they all are and how to do so manually.

Remember not every car will be traded in to a dealer (who you would hope would be able to do this as part of the selling on process) but you could be selling/buying it as a private sale.

£99,999, what's your emergency? Paramedics rush to OAP's aid after shock meter reading

Bruce_c
Mushroom

I'm just waiting for a big bill

My recently installed not very smart meter occasionally takes the notion of displaying realtime readings that are a factor of 1000 out (in their favour obviously). I have a handy photo of it showing 10MW usage (on an 80Amp supply) should it ever come up.

Icon cos that's the state the cable head would have been in

Payday lender Wonga admits to data breach

Bruce_c

Re: APR! = interest

Very much so. APR is very deceptive when looking at short term loans now that all fees and charges are rolled into the calculation - but it does make a good comparison tool between products.

Although no fan of Wonga and their like, I do think they get a lot of undeserved stick for their APR figure, the example given on their front page is not too unreasonable:

Borrow £200 for 14 days

One repayment of £222.40

Representative 1,509% APR

Would you offering loans as a commercial service really do it for much less?

Reseller offered $$$ for old tech gear – then stiffed thousands with suddenly lower quotes

Bruce_c

Read slower

"typically between 3 and 10 per cent of the original amount offered."

So that is 90%-97% less.

Back to school: Six of the smartest cheap 'n' cheerful laptops

Bruce_c

Hardly worth buying new...

When there are plenty of much higher spec ex business lease refurbs out there.

I recently picked up a refurb lenovo W520, 1920x1080, i7, 16GB, 500GB HDD for sub £300 with 12m warranty to boot. Couldn't be happier with it, though i did go and add a 250GB mSata SSD just to make it perfect.

1366x768 was just not a consideration as my previous laptop sported a 1920x1200 screen from 2007 vintage!

MOUNTAIN of unsold retail PCs piling up in Blighty: Situation 'serious'

Bruce_c

I have recently had my 7 years old Lenovo T61P die - and it sported 1920x1200 resolution. I am really struggling to find anything like it. No way would i take a step down to 1366x768