any bargains to be had?

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


sorry ...I see now it is only Wednesday.......

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message ...


"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


sorry ...I see now it is only Wednesday.......

Get a refund on that TARDIS.

Sorry i don;t buy stuff in black not enogh colour contrast.
:-)

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?

On 23/11/2016 17:33, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
any bargains to be had?


I'm offering a half days work for my half day rate.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On 23/11/2016 18:08, David Lang wrote:
On 23/11/2016 17:33, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
any bargains to be had?


I'm offering a half days work for my half day rate.

I'm going to watch TV for twice as long and only claim the same pension.

Bill

On 23/11/16 17:33, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
any bargains to be had?



I want the whole stupid thing to die. It's an Americanism tied to
Thanksgiving that makes **** all sense here. It's effectively their
version of the January Sales. Sort of.

On 23/11/2016 17:33, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
any bargains to be had?


Well you can buy a HP pavilion 24xw monitor in Currys
for £149, or you could pop over to the USA and
buy the same monitor for $119.

So that's the worst £/$ fx rate ever.

"Richard" wrote in message
news
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message ...


"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


sorry ...I see now it is only Wednesday.......

Get a refund on that TARDIS.

one day is much like another when you are retired....tee hee

On Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:55:13 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:
Sorry I don't buy stuff in black: not enough colour contrast.

But everything would co-ordinate and you'd look very stylish.

Owain

wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:55:13 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:
Sorry I don't buy stuff in black: not enough colour contrast.

But everything would co-ordinate and you'd look very stylish.

No he wouldnt. You havent actually seen him, have you ?

wrote in message
...
On Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:55:13 UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:
Sorry I don't buy stuff in black: not enough colour contrast.

But everything would co-ordinate and you'd look very stylish.

Owain


and black is very thinning .....

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

I didn't buy last year but this year I need both (well not necessary the
50in version) so I'm hoping for similar again

tim

On Thursday, 24 November 2016 11:36:42 UTC, tim... wrote:
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

99 or 199 quid.

On 24/11/16 11:37, tim... wrote:

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?


Well. I decided I needed a laptop mainly so I could lie in bed an watch
TV and read books and play games on it.

I paid 199 IIRC - a Tosh satellite.


The good news: It had bags of RAM (4GB I think) a TB of disk, a rather
better than expected sound system wit speakers in TOP of the keyboard.
Underneath, with a a duvet there, is not cleaver.
It also runs Linux perfectly.
The keyboard is not bad.

The bad news: a year later one of the plasticky USB sockets has fallen
to pieces, and the LCD screen has the worst viewing angle and contrast
of any LCD I have ever seen. I can JUST about watch a video if I have it
a JUST the right angle...

So be warned. Build quality, sound quality, keyboard usability, screen
quality - tehse are all things you need to check are adequate for YOUR
intended usage.

I didn't buy last year but this year I need both (well not necessary the
50in version) so I'm hoping for similar again

Large TVs are getting alarmingly cheap. Mostly the pictures are very
good. However again be warned. I grabbed a panasonic smart TV, and the
picture quality was great. Sound was good. but the user interface is
from hell. Designed by a teenager in all probability. It wouldn't stream
Iplayer properly either, Or didn't. Yesterday I pointed it at the beeb
and it suddenly seems to be working. That may be more about the beeb
moving away from Flash to HTML 5, or maybe the set firmware has upgraded
itself over the internet.

So once again, test and try before you buy.

Currys is actually these days a decent store to visit.


tim







--
Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.

"whisky-dave" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, 24 November 2016 11:36:42 UTC, tim... wrote:
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

99 or 199 quid.



Well I've already got a branded PC that cost 350 that because it doesn't
like running W10 is a a pile of scrap

so next time I'll only be risking 99 pounds

tim

On Thursday, 24 November 2016 16:36:18 UTC, tim... wrote:
"whisky-dave" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, 24 November 2016 11:36:42 UTC, tim... wrote:
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

99 or 199 quid.



Well I've already got a branded PC that cost 350 that because it doesn't
like running W10 is a a pile of scrap

so next time I'll only be risking 99 pounds

tim

I've not risked a single pound :-)

On 24/11/16 16:36, tim... wrote:

"whisky-dave" wrote in message
...
On Thursday, 24 November 2016 11:36:42 UTC, tim... wrote:
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

99 or 199 quid.



Well I've already got a branded PC that cost 350 that because it doesn't
like running W10 is a a pile of scrap


Oooh. give it to me and I'll put Linux on it!


so next time I'll only be risking 99 pounds

tim





--
Canada is all right really, though not for the whole weekend.

"Saki"

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda 40-43in TVs @149 50in @ 199. Mid range Brands Had
to read the box very carefully to find out if it had internet "catch up"
capability. Both had WiFi ticked but only the smaller one said that it came
with an internet browser. The larger one majored on using the WiFi to
"pair" with your PC, but as my PC isn't capable of paring in that way such a
feature is useless to me. If it did have catch up via an internal browser,
the info on the box didn't say so.

Offers on small goods. That new smaller Dyson was also on an offer, but
still cost about 300 pounds more than it is worth. I guess that it isn't
selling well.

Paltry offers on Laptops (including at ****y World)

Garmin dash cam for 80 quid- 50 quid off at Sainsbury's

Nothing else of interest (to me)

tim

In article ,
tim... wrote:
Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda 40-43in TVs @149 50in @ 199. Mid range Brands
Had to read the box very carefully to find out if it had internet
"catch up" capability. Both had WiFi ticked but only the smaller one
said that it came with an internet browser. The larger one majored on
using the WiFi to "pair" with your PC, but as my PC isn't capable of
paring in that way such a feature is useless to me. If it did have
catch up via an internal browser, the info on the box didn't say so.

I tend to think of sales as being surplus current excess stock sold off at
a discount. Perhaps to make way for the latest models. As in traditional
New Year etc sales.

But so much of it in this sort of sale seems to be old or inferior spec
stuff brought in specially to sell at what seems a low price.

I looked at customer reviews for one of these. Got 4.8 (out of 5) for
picture, and 4.6 for sound. I don't know of any TV on the market at any
price that deserves 4.6 out of 5 for sound.

--
*Generally speaking, you aren't learning much if your lips are moving.*

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

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:
Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda 40-43in TVs @149 50in @ 199. Mid range Brands
Had to read the box very carefully to find out if it had internet
"catch up" capability. Both had WiFi ticked but only the smaller one
said that it came with an internet browser. The larger one majored on
using the WiFi to "pair" with your PC, but as my PC isn't capable of
paring in that way such a feature is useless to me. If it did have
catch up via an internal browser, the info on the box didn't say so.

I tend to think of sales as being surplus current excess stock sold off at
a discount. Perhaps to make way for the latest models. As in traditional
New Year etc sales.

But so much of it in this sort of sale seems to be old or inferior spec
stuff brought in specially to sell at what seems a low price.

I looked at customer reviews for one of these. Got 4.8 (out of 5) for
picture, and 4.6 for sound. I don't know of any TV on the market at any
price that deserves 4.6 out of 5 for sound.


Misprint, probably should have been 0.46!

On 25/11/2016 14:45, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I looked at customer reviews for one of these. Got 4.8 (out of 5) for
picture, and 4.6 for sound. I don't know of any TV on the market at any
price that deserves 4.6 out of 5 for sound.


Most people don't have HiFi and are happy with 128kb/s MP3.

On Thursday, 24 November 2016 11:36:42 UTC, tim... wrote:
"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?

How things change. I remember getting a laptop that was over a grand new. And desktop pc ditto.

If they still work somewhere they aren't worth a penny now.


NT

On 24/11/2016 16:55, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 24/11/16 16:36, tim... wrote:

Well I've already got a branded PC that cost 350 that because it doesn't
like running W10 is a a pile of scrap


Oooh. give it to me and I'll put Linux on it!

Linux isn't always the answer, but this time it may be!

Andy

On 23/11/2016 17:33, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
any bargains to be had?


I called in local Tescos and loads of people were buying large screen TV
... they had huge piles of LG and Blaupunkt

On Fri, 25 Nov 2016 12:34:51 +0000, tim... wrote:

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Tesco/Sainsbury's/Asda 40-43in TVs @149 50in @ 199. Mid range Brands
Had to read the box very carefully to find out if it had internet "catch
up" capability. Both had WiFi ticked but only the smaller one said that
it came with an internet browser. The larger one majored on using the
WiFi to "pair" with your PC, but as my PC isn't capable of pairing in
that way such a feature is useless to me. If it did have catch up via
an internal browser, the info on the box didn't say so.


I wouldn't normally be tempted to buy stuff just for the sake of taking
advantage of the "Black Friday Specials" but we (me and the missus) had
been looking at the HD and UHD TV sets in our local Tesco superstore a
couple of weeks ago. We got as far as picking up three of their "Buy
Tickets" just as an aide-memoire, writing the prices down on each card so
we could do an on line search at our leisure in the comfort of our own
home.

Yesterday (Friday afternoon), my missus reminded me that I *still*
hadn't gotten around to pursuing the "promised research" into buying a
'modern telly' to replace the Panasonic widescreen CRT telly (bought 2nd
hand by my son a few years before and which he had donated to his mum as
an upgrade to replace a smaller 28(?)inch Panasonic set (still working
but then begining to show symptoms of its 20 odd years of faithful
service) that we'd bought off the rental company (a legacy from before we
were married) a couple of decades earlier for the princely sum of, afaicr,
fifty quid.

I had just observed the service engineer repair "The Stock Fault" - a
high wattage resistor that had unsoldered itself from the board and
figured that the next time it did this would be another two decades later
and a simple enough repair that I could apply if the set were to last
that long, so it seemed a good deal at the time. :-)

Anyhow, that sets the scene for our trawling through "Black Friday
Deals" on t'internet (just a convenient coincidence afaiwc but maybe not
so much for the missus). At least we were armed with three pre-Black
Friday price benchmarks from our earlier visit to the Tesco superstore to
verify whether or not any of these Black Friday pricing deals were as
good as all the expected hype would be trying to make us all believe.

Our three "Tesco Contenders" had been a Sharp LC-43CFF5111K (43" 1080p
HD) at £219, another 43" 1080 HD, the LG 43LH5100 at £299 and an LG
43UH61V 4K Smart TV for a mere £436. By then, we'd decided to include an
element of "Future Proofing" so were only looking at 4K UHD TV sets.

Since we like J Lewis's 5 year warranties and exemplary customer
service, we found the LG43UH610V priced at a mere £370 but spotted the
better specced version of this model, the LG43UH620V also at £370 in
Currys PC World but only 1 year warranty and *exclusive to them* so a bit
more research uncovered the LG43UH661V an even better specced set at £449
from Richer Sounds who were out of stock locally and suggested another
43"UHD LG TV set which seemingly didn't deserve to be blessed with an
actual model number when we checked out the Richer Sounds site.

In the end, we had another look at J Lewis's site and discovered they
were selling the LG43UH661V with a 5 year warranty for just £399 a whole
50 quid cheaper than Richer Sounds' 300 quid saving on the RRP of £749.
Since that seemed to include all the basic functions I'd expect plus a
few more, we decided to place our order with J Lewis and take advantage
of their 5 year warranty and free delivery service.

I know that despite all my searching for the hidden caveats and my best
efforts at *not* reading more into the implied promises of the marketing
blurb, I'll find something that'll prove to be an annoyance. To be fair,
I suspect this would be the case no matter what make or model of
reasonably priced 43 inch 4K Smart (assed) TV I choose to buy. It seems a
case of "Damned whatever you choose" to paraphrase Bart Simpson's,
"Damned if you do, and damned if you don't" summation of his philosophy
of life which speaks to us all.

It seems to me that all the TV manufacturers are determined to overwhelm
their customer base with a needlessly vast repertoire of model variants
designed with the sole purpose of confusing the **** out of their
customers so as to disguise the one decent VFM (value for money) example
[1] that may or may not be hidden in each model class in order to force
their customers into buying something they'll become dissatisfied with
sooner, rather than later so as to create a 'need to upgrade' just a
short year or two later in order to bolster demand for 'newer and better'
product.

Anyway, I should know about "The Disappointments" hidden in the spec of
that LG43UH661V by late Wednesday evening according to the delivery
schedule confirmation call. As far as the missus goes, this is going to
one hell of a giant leap out of the late 20th century into the second
decade of the 21st! Whether it's a leap for the better is another
question but I guess I'll have an answer to that one soon enough.

[1] You might wonder why the manufacturers would even bother with such a
VFM option at all. The answer I think is so the customer can take all the
blame for not taking sufficient care when selecting from the more than
generous range of options so kindly provided by the manufacturer. After
all, the manufacturer can defend their position by pointing out that such
a VFM model was actually available if only the customer had been
sufficiently circumspect in their choice (and prepared to pay a modest
premium both in research time and price).

The manufacturing company protects itself from accusations of providing
every possible model variation *except* the one desirable variant that
would have met the customers' reasonable expectations for just a tiny
price premium by actually making such a variant (and cunningly hiding it
amongst all the other model variants on offer). A marketing technique
that's probably best described by the phrase, "Having your cake *and*
eating it." :-(

--
Johnny B Good

On Thursday, November 24, 2016 at 12:44:25 PM UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 24/11/16 11:37, tim... wrote:

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
news
any bargains to be had?


Last year in Tesco

they had Laptops for 99 pounds and 50in TVs for 199

OK they were no-name brands but at that price what's to lose?


Well. I decided I needed a laptop mainly so I could lie in bed an watch
TV and read books and play games on it.

I paid 199 IIRC - a Tosh satellite.


The good news: It had bags of RAM (4GB I think) a TB of disk, a rather
better than expected sound system wit speakers in TOP of the keyboard.
Underneath, with a a duvet there, is not cleaver.
It also runs Linux perfectly.
The keyboard is not bad.

The bad news: a year later one of the plasticky USB sockets has fallen
to pieces, and the LCD screen has the worst viewing angle and contrast
of any LCD I have ever seen. I can JUST about watch a video if I have it
a JUST the right angle...

So be warned. Build quality, sound quality, keyboard usability, screen
quality - tehse are all things you need to check are adequate for YOUR
intended usage.

I also once bought a Tosh Satellite, for a lot more than that. First the touch screen stopped being touchy, then one hinge seized up which I fixed by dismantling and silicone grease (seems to be an common problem). Since then the screws holding the base all come loose regularly because the chassis flexes a lot. On the other hand it still goes like the clappers with Win10 as a computer so worth keeping going.

Johnny B Good posted
It seems to me that all the TV manufacturers are determined to
overwhelm their customer base with a needlessly vast repertoire of
model variants designed with the sole purpose of confusing the **** out
of their customers so as to disguise the one decent VFM (value for
money) example [1] that may or may not be hidden in each model class in
order to force their customers into buying something they'll become
dissatisfied with sooner, rather than later so as to create a 'need to
upgrade' just a short year or two later in order to bolster demand for
'newer and better' product.


This is also true of TV recorders and no doubt many related products.

The trouble is that you do not actually know what software features the
machine does and doesn't have until you get it home and play with it for
a few days. Nor do you know how reliable it is in terms of
crash-resilience. IME the recorders released in the past couple of years
are in both respects far worse than the earlier generation. In
particular the broadcast programme guides are extremely poorly designed.


--
Jack

Johnny B Good wrote:

It seems to me that all the TV manufacturers are determined to overwhelm
their customer base with a needlessly vast repertoire of model variants
designed with the sole purpose of confusing the **** out of their
customers so as to disguise the one decent VFM (value for money) example
[1] that may or may not be hidden in each model class in order to force
their customers into buying something they'll become dissatisfied with
sooner, rather than later so as to create a 'need to upgrade' just a
short year or two later in order to bolster demand for 'newer and better'
product.

After much scrutiny of information I decided on the Samsung
UE43KU6000, which I think may be my best VFM. I found a "Black
Friday deal at Curry's for £449, but if I had waited until
yesterday, I could have saved an extra £20. :-(

Only time will tell how it performs.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:
Yesterday (Friday afternoon), my missus reminded me that I *still*
hadn't gotten around to pursuing the "promised research" into buying a
'modern telly' to replace the Panasonic widescreen CRT telly (bought 2nd
hand by my son a few years before and which he had donated to his mum
as an upgrade to replace a smaller 28(?)inch Panasonic set (still
working but then begining to show symptoms of its 20 odd years of
faithful service) that we'd bought off the rental company (a legacy
from before we were married) a couple of decades earlier for the
princely sum of, afaicr, fifty quid.

If you are replacing what was a decent CRT set that you were once happy
with, look very carefully at what you buy.

A decent CRT was capable of giving extremely good rendition of the flesh
tones. Many LCDs struggle to do this well. Possibly down to the quality of
the backlight. Samsung of the common TV makes in particular seems to give
all faces that sun tanned look. And can be very tricky to adjust to give
even their not too good best in this respect.

If you're the type where 'vibrant' colours are all that matters, any will
probably do.

But all these things change by the day, as backlight LEDs improve. So
difficult to say what to go for. Except that most of the 'bargain' ones
from 'unknown' TV makers are far more likely to be poor in this respect.

Oddly, my not so new computer monitor is better than any of my TVs in this
respect. But then it did cost rather more than a TV with the same size
screen.

The really big problem is it's impossible to assess a picture in a store.
You need to view a big variety of stuff over a long time to find the one
that suits you best.

--
*If God had wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees

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

On 26/11/2016 09:59, Chris J Dixon wrote:

After much scrutiny of information I decided on the Samsung
UE43KU6000, which I think may be my best VFM. I found a "Black
Friday deal at Curry's for £449, but if I had waited until
yesterday, I could have saved an extra £20. :-(

Only time will tell how it performs.

topcashback has 7.7% back on some TVs in currys.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 09:06:12 +0000, Handsome Jack wrote:

Johnny B Good posted
It seems to me that all the TV manufacturers are determined to
overwhelm their customer base with a needlessly vast repertoire of model
variants designed with the sole purpose of confusing the **** out of
their customers so as to disguise the one decent VFM (value for money)
example [1] that may or may not be hidden in each model class in order
to force their customers into buying something they'll become
dissatisfied with sooner, rather than later so as to create a 'need to
upgrade' just a short year or two later in order to bolster demand for
'newer and better' product.


This is also true of TV recorders and no doubt many related products.

The trouble is that you do not actually know what software features the
machine does and doesn't have until you get it home and play with it for
a few days. Nor do you know how reliable it is in terms of
crash-resilience. IME the recorders released in the past couple of years
are in both respects far worse than the earlier generation. In
particular the broadcast programme guides are extremely poorly designed.

It's all down to the ease with which manufacturers can now produce a
whole plethora of model variations using modern computerised
manufacturing techniques, compounded in this case by the product itself
being largely 'computerised' requiring nothing more than variations of
the firmware coding with none to almost no hardware changes being
required. The ease with which such variants can be created is taken full
advantage of in order to befuddle the poor defenceless consumer and
maximise market potential.

I guess there's always been a "Consumer War" ever since the advent of
mass production of 'Consumer Goods' at the end of the 19th century where
said manufacturers have been waging battles, initially against their
competitors but now, in this post modern world of globalisation, against
the very consumers themselves.

The battles have been organised by the marketing divisions who employ a
mercenary army of advertising agencies from Maddison avenue where the
favoured battlefield has been TV advertising ever since the middle of the
last century in the UK (and, from where it was imported from, the USA a
couple of decades earlier as a natural evolution of sound radio
advertising).

The advertising agencies were very quick to recruit psychology expertise
in their battle of wits with their clients' target demographic. When it
comes to "A Battle of Wits", the ad agencies have an unfair advantage
over their 'adversaries', the 'consuming classes'. It's as if the
consumers are re-enacting the "Battle of The Somme" by charging across no-
mans'-land into a psychological hail of machine gun fire from the more
than amply armed Marketing divisions of the enemy (aka, the globalised
manufacturing conglomerates responsible for most of the crappy consumer
goods they're being fobbed off with).

Each time you settle down in front of your TV to watch a commercial
channel it's an analogue of fighting a skirmish in this never ending war
of globalised consumer goods manufacturing versus the great unwashed
consuming masses.

For the younger generation, this is a Battle of Wits they are ill
equipped to win (the education system failed them by not providing
"Cynicism 101" as part of its core curriculum from year one onwards).

The older generation, for the most part having attended the University
of Life, will have picked up valuable hard won lessons in how to deal
with the "Lying *******s" of the advertising industry so aren't nearly
so vulnerable to the flood of marketing bull**** promises being poured
down upon them from on high every 5 to 20 minutes whilst watching what is
effectively "Bait" entertainment.

Even so, such 'battle hardened veterans' of the consuming classes will
eventually succumb to the relentless pressure and make ill founded buying
decisions in spite of themselves (these days, it's enough for the
advertising agencies simply to raise awareness of a brand name to tip the
balance in their clients' favour). None of us are entirely immune to the
effects of advertising so we're all at risk of being conned into making a
less than optimal purchasing decision. It's just an inescapable fact of
life in our modern consumer based western society.

Despite the inescapable consequences of living a consumerised western
lifestyle, it's still worth keeping in mind why we're so often left with
that deep rooted feeling of dissatisfaction with almost every one of our
latest "Must Have" purchases. In short, that feeling is 'By Design' since
the marketing/advertising industries' are serving their client's needs,
not yours.

--
Johnny B Good

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:
Despite the inescapable consequences of living a consumerised western
lifestyle, it's still worth keeping in mind why we're so often left with
that deep rooted feeling of dissatisfaction with almost every one of
our latest "Must Have" purchases. In short, that feeling is 'By Design'
since the marketing/advertising industries' are serving their client's
needs, not yours.

The fault tends to be ours. Taking advertising at face value. A 'new'
model must automatically be better than the previous one. It may well have
differences - but only you can decide if it is better.

--
*Geeks shall inherit the earth *

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

On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 16:18:41 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:
Despite the inescapable consequences of living a consumerised western
lifestyle, it's still worth keeping in mind why we're so often left
with that deep rooted feeling of dissatisfaction with almost every one
of our latest "Must Have" purchases. In short, that feeling is 'By
Design' since the marketing/advertising industries' are serving their
client's needs, not yours.

The fault tends to be ours. Taking advertising at face value. A 'new'
model must automatically be better than the previous one. It may well
have differences - but only you can decide if it is better.

That's pretty much the case. When it comes to examining the marketing
blurb, we are often our own worst enemy. We (as a species that has become
so highly evolved to take the power and benefits of group organisation to
its ultimate limit) are, as individuals, always seeking guidance and
reassurance from our peers, especially the older more experienced
authority figures amongst our peer (or tribal) group.

It is this feature of our psychological make up that's being so roundly
exploited by corporate marketing divisions worldwide through their
Maddison Avenue Minions.

This built in willingness to go along with the group has been Humanity's
key strength in gaining ascendency over all other species on the planet
but, as with everything, such a key characteristic, like technology, is a
double edged sword that generally benefits society as a whole but which
so often is a detriment to the individual in one way or another.

Like every such 'fact of life', there is nothing inherently evil in such
'double edged' solutions. It simply boils down to establishing an optimum
balance between the good of society and that of its individual members.

Our inherent need to be assured that we are making the right decision
whenever we're faced with a non-trivial choice, is exploited to the max
by the advertising agencies who use phrases and imagery designed by
psychology experts to make us want to believe that what is being offered
is all benefit with absolutely no downside (or, to express it bluntly,
put us all in a more gullible or receptive frame of mind).

If you wish to gain a little more immunity against the effects of
'advertising', a key 'fact' to bear in mind is that the only difference
between "Propaganda" and "Advertising" is in name alone. It's quite
telling that the advertising industry uses the phrase, "Advertising
Campaign", acknowledging the "War of Words" military aspect of their core
business activity.

The key thing to remember when shopping around for any product is that
it's not so much a case of buying the most satisfactory product so much
as buying the least unsatisfactory product at a given price point. Also,
keep in mind that these advertised "Gift Horses" not only need to be
looked in the mouth, they should also, metaphorically speaking, be
examined with dental X-ray equipment for good measure.

A mere cursory glance will often suffice to save you the embarrassment
of buying a thinly disguised turkey but it's no guarantee that a more
cunningly disguised one might still land up joining the rest of your
flock instead of adding to the herd. "Caveat emptor" in this case means
in essence, "Don't be your own worst enemy!"

--
Johnny B Good

dennis@home wrote:

On 26/11/2016 09:59, Chris J Dixon wrote:

After much scrutiny of information I decided on the Samsung
UE43KU6000, which I think may be my best VFM. I found a "Black
Friday deal at Curry's for £449, but if I had waited until
yesterday, I could have saved an extra £20. :-(

Only time will tell how it performs.

topcashback has 7.7% back on some TVs in currys.

I do use TC, but the set I bought had a rather lower percentage
cashback.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

The really big problem is it's impossible to assess a picture in a store.
You need to view a big variety of stuff over a long time to find the one
that suits you best.

For this reason I based my choice on assessment by Which. I know
that they are fallible, but I didn't really have any better
ideas.

One upon a time "Which" results tables could be readily filtered
by facilities or particular aspects of performance. Sadly this is
now much reduced, I am guessing it is the inevitable downside of
the drive to make everything readable on smartphones.

Faced with so much information, having a mind set that my major
decisions are based on data, I simply set to and transcribed a
subset of their data to a spreadsheet, where I could readily play
with criteria to my heart's content.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

In article ,
Chris J Dixon wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

The really big problem is it's impossible to assess a picture in a store.
You need to view a big variety of stuff over a long time to find the one
that suits you best.

For this reason I based my choice on assessment by Which. I know
that they are fallible, but I didn't really have any better
ideas.

I certainly used Which at one time (many years ago). And was never
disappointed by any of their 'Best Buys' But having got most of the things
I wanted, decided it was an unnecessary expense - given that with the
internet developing, I no longer looked forward to reading it as before.

One upon a time "Which" results tables could be readily filtered
by facilities or particular aspects of performance. Sadly this is
now much reduced, I am guessing it is the inevitable downside of
the drive to make everything readable on smartphones.

I too found they'd changed into not telling me what I wanted to know about
something easily.

Faced with so much information, having a mind set that my major
decisions are based on data, I simply set to and transcribed a
subset of their data to a spreadsheet, where I could readily play
with criteria to my heart's content.

Excellent. Not sure I could be bothered. ;-)

--
*If you can't see my mirrors, I'm doing my hair*

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

On 27/11/16 11:50, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I certainly used Which at one time (many years ago). And was never
disappointed by any of their 'Best Buys' But having got most of the things
I wanted, decided it was an unnecessary expense - given that with the
internet developing, I no longer looked forward to reading it as before.


'Which' dumbed down selections into a top ten list.

A friend, probably well meaning but ultimately misguided, became a
famous reference for his near folks in selecting good appliances to buy.
He'd typically suggest the top of the top ten, ignoring the rest of the
supporting article, which may have had good reasons for some folks not
going for that choice.

So one pensioner bought a rather posh plasma TV just on his
'recommendation'.

This had a picture dynamic range superb for dark goth horror movies, a
remote control with zillions of buttons for intended geek tinkering and
a pretty high enthusiast price tag. But scored highly in Which, so must
be OK. Generally OK for everyone. Right.....

Er, nope.

Her TV interests strayed nowhere from watching coronation street, and
although I would have loved to show her some of the fantastic unused
features on her set, it was sadly all too complicated for her to fathom
out. She had particular concern on how to switch the input to video, to
replay old video tapes of family weddings. It was fiddly.

If he could have just given her Which to read, she might have chosen a
more suitable set. Or she could have just asked me.

--
Adrian C