About Us

David WE Roberts[_2_]

The general advice on this (and other) NGs when someone asks for a supplier
of a tool or component is 'Google is your friend'.

True, but this does impose a filter on the real world where a lot of smaller
suppliers just disappear from view.

I was looking for some plastic channel to go round my new wooden fascia and
although I located a national supplier (who only supplied in bulk) I didn't
find anywhere local.

Whilst visiting ScrewFix Direct and Ipswich Plastics (who didn't do any UV
stabilised stuff) I noticed a small unit with the door rolled up and a lot
of white plastic on display.
Stopped for a chat, and found that there was a supplier of plastic bits just
round the corner.
They had a good stock of the bits that I wanted, and would also have
delivered for free if I was prepared to wait a couple of days, as I was on
part of their regular delivery route.

So a short wander around an industrial estate can turn up all sorts of
useful items. :-)

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:53:48 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wibbled:

The general advice on this (and other) NGs when someone asks for a
supplier of a tool or component is 'Google is your friend'.

True, but this does impose a filter on the real world where a lot of
smaller suppliers just disappear from view.

I was looking for some plastic channel to go round my new wooden fascia
and although I located a national supplier (who only supplied in bulk) I
didn't find anywhere local.

Whilst visiting ScrewFix Direct and Ipswich Plastics (who didn't do any
UV stabilised stuff) I noticed a small unit with the door rolled up and
a lot of white plastic on display.
Stopped for a chat, and found that there was a supplier of plastic bits
just round the corner.
They had a good stock of the bits that I wanted, and would also have
delivered for free if I was prepared to wait a couple of days, as I was
on part of their regular delivery route.

So a short wander around an industrial estate can turn up all sorts of
useful items. :-)

Cheers

Dave R

True. Though the question might be: why haven't they bought themselves a
google sponsored ad for their locality only (you can do that - lots of
tuning available and it need not be expensive).

The other question is: do they even have a website and is it google-
friendly. Even my poxy little website which has very little of
consequence shows up - so there isn't a lot of excuse for "not being
seen".

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some ancient
windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000 different profiles
right up the road - they did have a website, and although it wasn't
shouting itself out in the listings, I did come across it by going on a
few pages in google.

You don't even need anything expensive - a static website with a
selection of your typical stock shown can prompt people to ring and you'd
only need to update it occasionally.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

spamlet

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:53:48 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wibbled:

The general advice on this (and other) NGs when someone asks for a
supplier of a tool or component is 'Google is your friend'.

True, but this does impose a filter on the real world where a lot of
smaller suppliers just disappear from view.

I was looking for some plastic channel to go round my new wooden fascia
and although I located a national supplier (who only supplied in bulk) I
didn't find anywhere local.

Whilst visiting ScrewFix Direct and Ipswich Plastics (who didn't do any
UV stabilised stuff) I noticed a small unit with the door rolled up and
a lot of white plastic on display.
Stopped for a chat, and found that there was a supplier of plastic bits
just round the corner.
They had a good stock of the bits that I wanted, and would also have
delivered for free if I was prepared to wait a couple of days, as I was
on part of their regular delivery route.

So a short wander around an industrial estate can turn up all sorts of
useful items. :-)

Cheers

Dave R

True. Though the question might be: why haven't they bought themselves a
google sponsored ad for their locality only (you can do that - lots of
tuning available and it need not be expensive).

The other question is: do they even have a website and is it google-
friendly. Even my poxy little website which has very little of
consequence shows up - so there isn't a lot of excuse for "not being
seen".

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some ancient
windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000 different profiles
right up the road - they did have a website, and although it wasn't
shouting itself out in the listings, I did come across it by going on a
few pages in google.

You don't even need anything expensive - a static website with a
selection of your typical stock shown can prompt people to ring and you'd
only need to update it occasionally.
--
Tim Watts

But so much of what does show up in google just turns out to be directories
of company listings: most of whom don't have their websites listed even if
they do actually have them: finding them rather than just mentions of them
is a major slog, and getting past all these useless directories is a major
hassle.

Then there are the sites that simply have the name of a product on -
somewhere that google found but you can't - and, lately, sites that simply
list products but don't sell them, or they are out of stock. Then there are
the US sites that keep showing up even when you select UK only... grrrr.
I've been looking for a dvd/cd r/w drive that will fit this old Inspiron
2600 laptop, for a couple of weeks, but there seems to be no way to sift
through the data to be sure of one that will fit and work. And don't get me
started on the ones that don't give an email address and the ones that do,
but don't answer...

Grrr,

S

Dave Osborne[_2_]

Newshound

Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

The Natural Philosopher[_2_]

newshound wrote:
Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

IE is about making money. Why would they?

Firefox is about hopefully better browsers.

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:49:09 +0100, "spamlet"
wibbled:

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:53:48 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wibbled:

The general advice on this (and other) NGs when someone asks for a
supplier of a tool or component is 'Google is your friend'.

True, but this does impose a filter on the real world where a lot of
smaller suppliers just disappear from view.

I was looking for some plastic channel to go round my new wooden
fascia and although I located a national supplier (who only supplied
in bulk) I didn't find anywhere local.

Whilst visiting ScrewFix Direct and Ipswich Plastics (who didn't do
any UV stabilised stuff) I noticed a small unit with the door rolled
up and a lot of white plastic on display.
Stopped for a chat, and found that there was a supplier of plastic
bits just round the corner.
They had a good stock of the bits that I wanted, and would also have
delivered for free if I was prepared to wait a couple of days, as I
was on part of their regular delivery route.

So a short wander around an industrial estate can turn up all sorts of
useful items. :-)

Cheers

Dave R

True. Though the question might be: why haven't they bought themselves
a google sponsored ad for their locality only (you can do that - lots
of tuning available and it need not be expensive).

The other question is: do they even have a website and is it google-
friendly. Even my poxy little website which has very little of
consequence shows up - so there isn't a lot of excuse for "not being
seen".

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

You don't even need anything expensive - a static website with a
selection of your typical stock shown can prompt people to ring and
you'd only need to update it occasionally.
--
Tim Watts

But so much of what does show up in google just turns out to be
directories of company listings: most of whom don't have their websites
listed even if they do actually have them: finding them rather than just
mentions of them is a major slog, and getting past all these useless
directories is a major hassle.

Yes. I did install a link farm filter a while back, but lost it. However,
googling for "google link farm filter" seems to show some promise. Will
investigate.

There are filters that improve matters - the simplest is to use a site
blocking filter that you can trivially add too. Kelkoo usually goes in
there first, followed by the others as they annoy me. I really don;t know
what economic model these people use to publish vast amounts of hopelessy
out of date information.

Then there are the sites that simply have the name of a product on -
somewhere that google found but you can't - and, lately, sites that
simply list products but don't sell them, or they are out of stock.

That, unfortunately is not easy for Google to solve - Maplin are one of
the worst - proving a virtual URL to an item that doesn't exist, but
leading to a page of useless crap and managing to get google to index the
bloody thing.

Then there are the US sites that keep showing up even when you select UK
only... grrrr.

Now that is Google's fault. They even go to the trouble to mask the
dollar price by converting to pounds. It would be far more useful, if
they wanted to be clever, to combine Translate and currency conversion
and show results from the EU, which is usually more practical to order
from.

I've been looking for a dvd/cd r/w drive that will fit
this old Inspiron 2600 laptop, for a couple of weeks, but there seems to
be no way to sift through the data to be sure of one that will fit and
work. And don't get me started on the ones that don't give an email
address and the ones that do, but don't answer...

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:54:04 +0100, "newshound"
wibbled:

Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

It's always time to leave IE ;-

I was about to say "Chrome is good and faster than Firefox" but
OptimizeGoogle isn't available for Chrome.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Man at B&Q

On Jun 10, 1:01*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
newshound wrote:
Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

IE is about making money. Why would they?

Firefox is about hopefully better browsers.

Firefox is little better than IE, it just has a *different* set of
bugs and idiosyncratic bahaviour.

MBQ

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:16:23 -0700, "Man at B&Q"
wibbled:

On Jun 10, 1:01Â*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
newshound wrote:
Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has
something similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

IE is about making money. Why would they?

Firefox is about hopefully better browsers.

Firefox is little better than IE, it just has a *different* set of bugs
and idiosyncratic bahaviour.

MBQ

I'm worried it's going the same way as Nutscrape. Seems to be getting
more bloated and slower. Thunderbird is getting crashier recently too.

I like Chrome, except the range of plugins is more limited and it has its
own bugs more due to newness.

But at least FF foremost and later, Chrome have paved the way for better
standards on the web - and new features that IE eventually copies. It is
no longer acceptable to bang out a website and say "Use IE".

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Dave Plowman (News)

In article ,
David WE Roberts wrote:
The general advice on this (and other) NGs when someone asks for a
supplier of a tool or component is 'Google is your friend'.

True, but this does impose a filter on the real world where a lot of
smaller suppliers just disappear from view.

Absolutely. Wanted a small quantity of steel sheet for car repair, and
Googled on 'steel stockholders wandsworth'. Not one local one supplied
steel sheet, according to them. Nearest - without going through the
thousands of hits - was Enfield. Or mail order with obviously high
carriage costs.

BTW, if you're in a large B&Q look at their prices for plain 1mm steel
sheet...

--
*Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Bob Minchin[_4_]

Tim Watts wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:16:23 -0700, "Man at
wibbled:

On Jun 10, 1:01 pm, The Natural
wrote:
newshound wrote:
Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has
something similar!

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox!

IE is about making money. Why would they?

Firefox is about hopefully better browsers.

Firefox is little better than IE, it just has a *different* set of bugs
and idiosyncratic bahaviour.

MBQ

I'm worried it's going the same way as Nutscrape. Seems to be getting
more bloated and slower. Thunderbird is getting crashier recently too.

I like Chrome, except the range of plugins is more limited and it has its
own bugs more due to newness.

But at least FF foremost and later, Chrome have paved the way for better
standards on the web - and new features that IE eventually copies. It is
no longer acceptable to bang out a website and say "Use IE".

Have a look at Seamonkey Tim. I've been using is since the demise of
Nutscrape. Seems to work for me with only the very rare site that only
seems to be coded to run under IE

Bob

Dave Liquorice[_2_]

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:54:04 +0100, newshound wrote:

Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Construct the search entry line by hand yourself:

-inurl

site1|site2|site3...)

Or use http://www.givemebackmygoogle.com/ which does it for you.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Newshound

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:54:04 +0100, newshound wrote:

Now that really *is* a useful tip. Someone tell us if IE has something
similar!

Construct the search entry line by hand yourself:

-inurlsite1|site2|site3...)

Or use http://www.givemebackmygoogle.com/ which does it for you.

--
Cheers
Dave.

That looks like some sort of solution! Thanks......

nightjar

Tim Watts wrote:
....
True. Though the question might be: why haven't they bought themselves a
google sponsored ad for their locality only (you can do that - lots of
tuning available and it need not be expensive).

A lot of people are simply not computer literate and many don't want to be.

Even those who are might not want to expand. If there is already enough
work to keep everyone busy, expansion could mean taking on more staff,
which is a sudden increase in overheads without necessarily having a
matching increase in income. Rapid expansion is also when a company is
most likely to go bust. Having to buy for next month's needs with last
month's income can be a serious problem.

....
You don't even need anything expensive - a static website with a
selection of your typical stock shown can prompt people to ring and you'd
only need to update it occasionally.

I won't usually bother to contact people who don't give a bit more
information than that, so I wouldn't think that very effective unless
the choice of suppliers is very limited.

Colin Bignell

spamlet

"Dave Osborne" wrote in message
...
spamlet wrote:

But so much of what does show up in google just turns out to be
directories of company listings: most of whom don't have their websites
listed even if they do actually have them: finding them rather than just
mentions of them is a major slog, and getting past all these useless
directories is a major hassle.

Then there are the sites that simply have the name of a product on -
somewhere that google found but you can't - and, lately, sites that
simply list products but don't sell them, or they are out of stock. Then
there are the US sites that keep showing up even when you select UK
only... grrrr. I've been looking for a dvd/cd r/w drive that will fit
this old Inspiron 2600 laptop, for a couple of weeks, but there seems to
be no way to sift through the data to be sure of one that will fit and
work. And don't get me started on the ones that don't give an email
address and the ones that do, but don't answer...

Grrr,

S

Using Firefox?

OptimizeGoogle is your friend.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/52498/

Go to options | filter and paste the following list for a starter for
10: -

http://*.nextag.co.uk/*
http://*.reevoo.com/*
http://*.shopping.com/*
http://*.dealtime.co.uk/*
http://*.reviewcentre.com/*
http://*.shopwiki.co.uk/*
snip

Are they all useless? I have found *some* sites that let you compare prices
useful it's the damn catalogues of catalogues that are the main pain.

Cheers though: this is a useful addition to the ad blocker add on I already
had.

S

dave

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some ancient
windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000 different profiles
right up the road - they did have a website, and although it wasn't
shouting itself out in the listings, I did come across it by going on a
few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange rubber
shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:47:31 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange rubber
shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Sure Dave,

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Dave Osborne[_2_]

spamlet wrote:
"Dave Osborne" wrote in message
...
spamlet wrote:

But so much of what does show up in google just turns out to be
directories of company listings: most of whom don't have their websites
listed even if they do actually have them: finding them rather than just
mentions of them is a major slog, and getting past all these useless
directories is a major hassle.

Then there are the sites that simply have the name of a product on -
somewhere that google found but you can't - and, lately, sites that
simply list products but don't sell them, or they are out of stock. Then
there are the US sites that keep showing up even when you select UK
only... grrrr. I've been looking for a dvd/cd r/w drive that will fit
this old Inspiron 2600 laptop, for a couple of weeks, but there seems to
be no way to sift through the data to be sure of one that will fit and
work. And don't get me started on the ones that don't give an email
address and the ones that do, but don't answer...

Grrr,

S
Using Firefox?

OptimizeGoogle is your friend.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/52498/

Go to options | filter and paste the following list for a starter for
10: -

http://*.nextag.co.uk/*
http://*.reevoo.com/*
http://*.shopping.com/*
http://*.dealtime.co.uk/*
http://*.reviewcentre.com/*
http://*.shopwiki.co.uk/*
snip

Are they all useless? I have found *some* sites that let you compare prices
useful it's the damn catalogues of catalogues that are the main pain.

All useless as far as I'm concerned :-(

spamlet

"Dave Osborne" wrote in message
...
spamlet wrote:
"Dave Osborne" wrote in message
...
spamlet wrote:

But so much of what does show up in google just turns out to be
directories of company listings: most of whom don't have their websites
listed even if they do actually have them: finding them rather than
just mentions of them is a major slog, and getting past all these
useless directories is a major hassle.

Then there are the sites that simply have the name of a product on -
somewhere that google found but you can't - and, lately, sites that
simply list products but don't sell them, or they are out of stock.
Then there are the US sites that keep showing up even when you select
UK only... grrrr. I've been looking for a dvd/cd r/w drive that will
fit this old Inspiron 2600 laptop, for a couple of weeks, but there
seems to be no way to sift through the data to be sure of one that will
fit and work. And don't get me started on the ones that don't give an
email address and the ones that do, but don't answer...

Grrr,

S
Using Firefox?

OptimizeGoogle is your friend.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/52498/

Go to options | filter and paste the following list for a starter for
10: -

http://*.nextag.co.uk/*
http://*.reevoo.com/*
http://*.shopping.com/*
http://*.dealtime.co.uk/*
http://*.reviewcentre.com/*
http://*.shopwiki.co.uk/*
snip

Are they all useless? I have found *some* sites that let you compare
prices useful it's the damn catalogues of catalogues that are the main
pain.

All useless as far as I'm concerned :-(

Well I'm assuming that, like the rest of us here, you still have to search
for things to buy, and are managing well without them: so I've copied them
over.
Cheers,
S

spamlet

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:47:31 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange rubber
shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Sure Dave,

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/
Tim Watts

Hmm like the bit that goes: "Please browse around our website for more
information on our products"

Not really surprising they don't show up very prominently in searches!
:-)
S

dave

Tim Watts wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:47:31 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.
Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange rubber
shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Sure Dave,

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/

Many, many thanks for that. I'm looking for a very obscure profile.

Dave

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:29:19 +0100, "spamlet"
wibbled:

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:47:31 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange
rubber shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Sure Dave,

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/
Tim Watts

Hmm like the bit that goes: "Please browse around our website for more
information on our products"

Not really surprising they don't show up very prominently in searches!
:-)
S

That and having the complete catalogue as a PDF (which I don't think
google yet introspects, though even then if they did, some just scan
images of their catalogue with no machine readable text content).

I did find them by searching Rubber Mouldings Tunbridge Wells - but only
because I know they are there! I'm always up at that estate as that's
where Screwfix are, but that place has little hidden sub estates so you
can go there for 5 years and not know half the non public-retail stuff
that is there.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Tim Watts

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:16:21 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Many, many thanks for that. I'm looking for a very obscure profile.

Dave

If you fill in the form, they send you a paper catalogue with 1:1
diagrams if that helps...

Or just print the PDF page as A4 full page - should get it reasonably
close.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Mike Barnes

Tim Watts :
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:29:19 +0100, "spamlet"
wibbled:

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:47:31 +0100, dave
wibbled:

Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange
rubber shaped profiles as well.

Dave

Sure Dave,

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/
Tim Watts

Hmm like the bit that goes: "Please browse around our website for more
information on our products"

Not really surprising they don't show up very prominently in searches!
:-)
S

That and having the complete catalogue as a PDF (which I don't think
google yet introspects, though even then if they did, some just scan
images of their catalogue with no machine readable text content).

IME Google does OCR at least some such PDFs, but not very well. You have
to give them points for trying.

--
Mike Barnes

The Natural Philosopher[_2_]

dave wrote:
Tim Watts wrote:

I was looking for some odd shaped rubber extrusion strip for some
ancient windows and found a specialist supplier of about 10000
different profiles right up the road - they did have a website, and
although it wasn't shouting itself out in the listings, I did come
across it by going on a few pages in google.

Can you post a url for that site please. I am looking for strange rubber
shaped profiles as well.

Dave

This is another useful site

http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/en/...+sponge+parts/

Grimly Curmudgeon

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Watts saying
something like:

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/

Oh, how marvellous.
All the rubber a boy could wish for.
Must pass the info on - how are they as suppliers? Reliable, speedy,
etc?

Tim Watts

On Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:46:29 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon
wibbled:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Watts saying
something like:

He

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/

Oh, how marvellous.
All the rubber a boy could wish for.
Must pass the info on - how are they as suppliers? Reliable, speedy,
etc?

Sorry - haven't ordered from them yet (it's for my ali windows, internal
glazing seal). But for a very reasonable fee, you can subcontract me to
go and eat curry in their office until they sort your problem out[1]

[1] Offer valid only on days I go to Screwfix or the cinema ;-

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

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