Welcome to Nick's Corner of the Web, Computer based services in Manchster, England providing support for Microsoft Windows, Apple OS & Linux systems, I am looking for my daughters sarah goulden and sammy goulden

Is it a con? have a look - click here

Cash for Gold Complaints - click here

How to avoid the scams - click here

What people have done to claim on a personal injury

click here

How a personal Injury Claim works

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Using a a lawyer - legal advice

click here

A few things about TV Licensing Authority (TVL/TVLA)

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Licnece fee opt out

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Noel Edmonds Says 'NO' to paying a TV Licence

Read Here Youtube

BBC get there PSB fee until 2016

The big retailers rip us off with 2 for price of one offers!! yes.. every little helps them line there pockets more.

(70p x 2 = 1.40p)

What's the saving?

Tesco Pricing Overcharge Links

Another link

Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.
And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of all things foreign!

Only in Britain can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in Britain do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Britain do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.

Only in Britain do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.

Only in Britain do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Britain do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.
NOT TO MENTION...

3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.

142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.

58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.

31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.

19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate. British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after Xmas cracker-pulling accidents.

18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth. A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years after trying to open bottles of beer with their teeth.

5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out-of-control Scalextric cars.
and finally...

In 2000 eight Brits were admitted to hospital with fractured skulls incurred whilst throwing up into the toilet.

Rip-off retailers: How to fight back!

Have you been ripped off by a retailer? Here are seven ways to protect yourself in the future.

1. Do your product research

Make sure you do plenty of product research before you set foot in any shop. That way, you'll come to understand what features really are 'essential', and won't have to rely on the expertise (or lack therefore) of the sales assistant.

I'm not suggesting all salesmen are in the business of deliberate and cynical mis-selling. Much of the time, they just don't know enough about the products. This tends to be particularly true at retailers that 'pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap'.

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Thanks to the net, you can do all your research from the comfort of your own sofa. And sites like Amazon encourage customer reviews, so you can find out about the pros and cons of a product and learn from others' mistakes.

2. Always compare prices online

Once you've decided on the product you want, use price comparison websites like Kelkoo or PriceRunner to see if you can get it cheaper elsewhere.

You may decide not to buy it from the very cheapest retailer, because you value the customer service and aftercare of another - but it's sensible to identify all your options.

3. Ask who gets commission

A Which? Computing study uncovered widespread customer worries that staff recommended products in order to hit sales targets or shift old stock (no, surely not...).

You can never be 100% certain about that friendly salesman's motivation, which is why it's dangerous to rely entirely on what you're being told.

However, it can be helpful to find out whether the retailer operates commission selling. Try asking the assistant who serves you and see what they say! If they do operate on commission, be even more wary about what they're telling you.

4. Dodge dodgy extended warranties

Some of the warranties sold with electrical items provide good value extra cover. Most do not. The majority are over-priced and littered with exclusions. What's more, the 'extra' protection they offer you is often no more than you're already entitled to by law. You may also be covered under your existing home insurance policy.

A busy, fraught shop floor is generally not the best place to read over small print and make calm decisions about cover. If you're in any doubt about whether the warranty is worth it, walk away.

If you decide you do, you can always take out a better-value, stand-alone policy at a later date.

5. What about a refund?

This next one applies to shopping online as well as on the high street. Before you hand over any cash, find out exactly what the store's refunds/returns policy is.

Many shoppers assume that they have the right to return items and demand a refund, just because they've changed their minds or they don't like them.

In fact this is not the case. If there hasn't been a breach of contract on the part of the retailer, they are under no obligation to provide you with anything, not a refund, a credit note or even an exchange.

In practice, many traders do go 'beyond the call of duty' and have refund policies clearly included in their terms and conditions. So if there's any chance you might change your mind about your purchase, make sure you shop with one of them!

6. Your card can protect you

Spend on plastic and you're more likely to be protected if the trader goes bust or provides you with faulty goods.

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, if you use your credit card to make a purchase, you can claim against your card issuer as well as the trader (providing the price of the item was between £100 and £30,000).

And there is also a similar, though less comprehensive, form of consumer protection for your Visa debit card - commonly known as the Visa debit chargeback scheme.

7. If you want to take the matter further...

You can contact Consumer Direct to complain about how a retailer has treated you, and to clarify exactly what your rights are.

Good luck!

Rip off products info read here

Benefit Scandels

Internet Mobile Broadband rip offs

0870 number rip off

Credit Card Rip offs

10. Payment protection insurance (PPI)
Now outed as a widespread abuse of the British public and getting the scrutiny it deserves, PPI has long been priced high and slapped onto credit cards (and loans) for unsuspecting customers. In theory, it is supposed to help cover credit card payments if you become ill or unemployed. In reality you may never get a proper explanation of what it is, how it works, whether it works or why they are saying you need. But you can be sure it will cost a small fortune every month and that a spotty youth somewhere has made commission on it. Check every card application every time to make sure it is not automatically included - something which card issuers hopefully will not be able to get away with for much longer.

9. In-credit fees
Unbelievable though it may seem, some card issuers will charge a fee if you happen to have a positive balance on your card. So although no one will use their credit card as a savings vehicle, there may be times when you get a refund on something after your bill has been paid, putting you in credit. MBNA started the ball rolling with a £10 fee so watch out.

8. Balance transfer fees
Once the credit industry realised they needed to beat the 'rate tarts' the balance transfer fees started appearing. So you may pay 0% interest on the balance for six months but if you want a longer breathing space, or if you pick the wrong card, you will have to pay around 2% of the value of the balance as a fee to the new card issuer. More than half of 0% transfer cards charge something. If you must pay then make sure the fee is capped as not all are. Your transfer fee may even be charged as a 'retail purchase' and attract the relevant interest.

7. Wandering statement dates
Some card issuers set a statement date - say, the 5th of each month - and stick to it. Others may move theirs around a little every month and will even bring their statement dates back if the 'usual' date falls on a weekend. It would be just as easy to push it forward to the Monday but the earlier date allows them the chance to capture more spending - and potentially charge more interest.

6. Shorter interest-free periods
This 45 to 59 days before the interest is charged on the purchases you have made can be all-important if you like to pay your balance in full. Now some card issuers are cutting the time to as little as 15 days. This is just one of many areas where profits are being maximised.

5. Enormous APR
Size matters when it comes to credit and there are more of cards out there than ever before with shamelessly high interest rates. APRs approaching of between 20 and 30% used to be preserve of store cards but now credit issuers are trying their luck. It could be the 'special invitation' that arrives unsolicited in the post just as you were thinking of a new card or the soaring variable rate of the card you had for ages and took out on a low APR. Shop around.

4. Low-use fees
Yes really. Long before Egg decided to 'review' its card holders, Lloyds TSB slapped an annual fee of £35 on anyone who was not using their card enough (to make them a profit). Annual fees used to be the norm until a new wave of card companies scrapped them. Now they are creeping back. If your card issuer introduces one it's time to move on

3. Minimum monthly repayments
Around a decade ago minimum monthly repayments were closer to 10% than the 2% (or minimum of £5) they are more likely to be now. It may be great news for you that the lender is less demanding about the money you owe but tiny minimum repayments can put you - and keep you - in a lifetime of debt. As the years drift by your debt could grow to perhaps three times its original size because of the interest piling up. If you're struggling to pay off what you owe, transfer it to a 0% card or one with a low APR for life, stop using it and up the repayments to as much as you can afford.

2. Cash withdrawals
Only if you find yourself 100 miles from home with no clothes on and nothing but a credit card should you even begin to consider drawing money out on your credit card. That is the only way you can justify pay even higher interest rates than you would on purchases - up to 30% a year. In addition, you'll pay a cash-withdrawal fee of around 2% of the amount withdrawn, with a minimum charge of £2.50. Finally, cash withdrawals don't enjoy the usual interest-free period of between 45 and 59 days, so you pay extortionate interest rates from the withdrawal date onwards.

1. Credit card cheques

I make no apologies for saying that these have no place in our lives at all. You will pay all sorts of fees plus gobsmacking interest from the moment they are used. To add insult to serious financial injury they are sent unsolicited and so if lost in the post they are fraud risk. If you get them, rip them up or shred them and tell your card provider never to send them again. Grrr.

Inflation statistics in UK compared to other countries, shows how much we are really getting ripped of in the UK.

Things got ya down? Well then, consider these...

In a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11:00 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the super natural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11:00 A.M. Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents. The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11:00 A.M. all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11:00, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.

Still having a bad day???

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill in Alaska was $80,000.00. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.

Still think you are having a Bad Day???

A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

Are ya OK now? - No?

Two animal rights defenders were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn, Germany. Suddenly, all two thousand pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding madly. The two helpless protesters were trampled to death.

What?!? STILL having a Bad Day???

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet did not pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with 'Return to Sender' stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. God is Good!

THE switchover to digital TV has caused a boom in aerial installation conmen, an undercover probe by watchdogs has revealed.

Investigators posing as householders were told by one in eight installers they would need new aerials costing up to pounds 200 to pick up digital TV - even though it was unnecessary.

The rooftop rip-off has been dubbed the "digital switchover con" by consumer group Which?

Five million homes will stop receiving analogue TV this year unless they have a digital set-top box. Which? investigators contacted installers in Cornwall, Devon, Lancashire, Liverpool and Cheshire saying they had already bought a Freeview box but had a five-year-old aerial.

Of the 61 installers, eight said a new aerial was needed without checking the signal already available, 18 referred to a "digital aerial" - which does not exist - and six said they would charge a call-out fee to inspect the equipment.

A Which? spokesman said: "Some installers are using the switchover to their advantage."

TV licence will GO DOWN in 2013 after

digital switchover, says Ofcom chairman

Read here

Japan switch to Digital TV in 2011 and they say its a big CON! read here

Most hated at moment!!!

PLEASE SOMEONE - BOYCOTT THIS IDIOT!

I WANT TO COMPARE HIS HEAD WITH A BRICK.

IS HIS FOREHEAD MOVING WHEN HE TALKS?

ONES A IRRITATING RODENT THE OTHER IS A RAT.

BEFORE THE IPHONE, THERE WAS THE IPHONE!

A few pictures to show that APPLE have been tryin before, I still think the APPLE IPHONES Rubbish anyway.

NEW IDEAS FROM APPLE IN 1983

To be honest its the ITUNES program I hate, even Bill Gates has band the IPHONE from his house and family, I feel the IPHONE is just an easy way for APPLE and partners to make money from what is downloaded onto them.

The question was that the original idea?

DOES HE LOOK DRUNK OR IS IT ME?

TO BE HONEST WOULD YOU HAVE INVESTED OR PURCHASED SOFTWARE FROM THIS MAN IF YOU DID NOT KNOW WHO HE WAS?

Well his name is Bill Gates and this photo possibly shows him at the age of around 24, Bill and Paul Allen formed a very successful company named MICROSOFT and there software mainly Windows runs on 97% of PC based computers sold worldwide which makes Microsoft a household name.

Because Microsoft being so popular Bill Gates has become a VERY rich man worth 50 Billion from 2009 Forbes (check rich list)
Which makes Bill Gates III the richest man in the world for over 10 years!

FAMOUS QUOTES & SAYINGS

The big corporations are suddenly taking notice of the web, and their reactions have been slow. Even the computer industry failed to see the importance of the Internet, but that's not saying much. Let's face it, the computer industry failed to see that the century would end
Douglas Adams fun funny computer jokes silly crazy

The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armor to lead all his customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who by peddling second-hand, second-rate technology, led them all into it in the first place.
Douglas Adams

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
Isaac Asimov

HELP: The feature that assists in generating more questions.
When the Help feature is used correctly, users are able to navigate through a series of Help screens.
They end up where they started from without learning a damn thing.

Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing.
Dick Brandon

I invented it, Bill made it famous.
David Bradley (wrote the code for Ctrl-Alt-Delete on the IBM PC)

If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in.
Bradley's Bromide

Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives.
If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you.
If not, why embarrass him?
Tom Clancy

When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web....
Now even my cat has its own page.
Bill Clinton

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Stephen Hawking

Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software.
Arthur C. Clarke (Clarke's 69th Law, The Odyssey File, 1984)

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. ''House'' for instance, is feminine: ''la casa."Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lápiz."
A student asked, "What gender is computer?"
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computadora"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
2 The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval.
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for it.

The women''s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ("el computador"), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.
2. They have a lot of data but still can''t think for themselves.
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
5. If you try to make them do too many things at the same time they crash.
6. Repairing them is usually more difficult than getting a new one.

The women won.

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
Rich Cook

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.
Robert X. Cringely

The only way to make your PC go faster is to throw it out a window.
Robert Paul

Although the Buddhists will tell you that desire is the root of suffering, my personal experience leads me to point the finger at system administration.
Philip Greenspun

So we went to Atari and said, `Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, `No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, `Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer Inc. on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his personal computer.

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?We make tools for these kinds of people. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Apple Computer Advertisement

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter. Nicholas Petreley

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year.
Prentice Hall, editor in charge of business books, 1957

But what ... is it good for?
Anonymous engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Stephen Hawking

What about a well-educated vegetarian cat?

Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft.... and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
Wernher von Braun

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.
Brian W. Kernighan

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Emo Philips

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Pablo Picasso

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.
unknown, Popular Mechanics, March 1949

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
Anon

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
Ken Olson , President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

640Kb ought to be enough for anybody.
Bill Gates, 1981

Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.
Jef Raskin

Andy Rooney
Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose.

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

With all the talk about viruses, worms, giant networks, cyber-terrorism and robot-spiders, don't you ever feel your office is a bad science fiction movie?
Rudyh

Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.
Michael Sinz

In a few minutes a computer can make a mistake so great that it would have taken many men many months to equal it.
?

Software is like sex: It's better when it's free.
Linus Torvalds

The good news: Computers allow us to work 100% faster.
The bad news: They generate 300% more work.

Can I go on SMN please?

Lets go on the Interweb!

Inter-what? Some real-life questions to help-desks.
"I'd like to buy the Internet. Do you know how much it is?"

"Can you copy the Internet for me on this diskette?"

"I would like an Internet please."

"I just got your Internet in the mail today..."

"I just downloaded the Internet. How do I use it?"

"I don't have a computer at home. Is the Internet available in book form?"

"Will the Internet be open on Memorial Day tomorrow?"

"We're getting an Internet from you. Are you guys having any problems sending out your Internets?"

"The Internet is running too slow. Could you reboot it please?"

"We're going on holiday for three months, can you suspend the Internet for us please?"

"I have a problem with my Internet. Anyone know how to get the screens smaller?"

"I lost my Internet. I switched it off last night and turned on this morning, and it's gone. I just paid $19.95 a month, and I have lost it already. Can you send me another one?"

"The Internet site is giving me a busy signal!"

"Every time I call you I get disconnected from the Internet!"

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
?

If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
Gerald Weinberg

We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
Robert Wilensky

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949