I have a fairly large screen for my computer, not that I’m boasting. This is what I don’t like about Facebook - Applications.

The person whose profile that is shall remain nameless, I’m just glad I can minimize each application and they stay like that across every profile.

I ordered three t-shirts from Threadless on 13th July. They came yesterday with a bill from Royal Mail for £12.03. Here’s how it breaks down.

£4.03 VAT I can deal with, after all I only paid $46, which equates to about £25. It’s only fair I pay VAT, everyone else does for goods over here.
What I don’t like is the £8 clearance fee charged by Royal Mail. Here’s what their website says it’s for.

Parcelforce Worldwide charges a Customs clearance fee which helps cover the cost of additional handling, administration, collection of monies and provision of facilities for Customs clearance of packages.

What the hells that about!? I paid almost £8 to have international shipping over here and now I’m getting charged again for the privilege of Royal Mail clearing my package. Looks like others have the same gripe as me.

The trouble with this is that Royal Mail hold a monopoly over the postal market. They can charge what they want and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t get another company to receive the item for me and then pay them a lower handling fee and the VAT I owe.

I love that little gap in connection time when telesales people call. It means I have a chance to curse in the background as I hang up on them. I think we’ll be signing up to the telephone preference service very soon.

When meeting someone for the first time, I like to shake their hand. There’s nothing worse than hand shaking with a limp wristed pansy. Straight away I know I appear threatening and can walk all over them.

If they’re limp wristed in the second greeting, I give a good squeeze to try and get my point across. Does no one get taught how to greet people anymore these days?

I helped my sister pick out a fairly respectable laptop the other day. She needed one to get her dissertation done whilst she’s home. Unfortunately we had no choice to get a laptop without Windows Vista and she’s currently pulling her hair out with its inconsistencies and annoyances.
Here’s a few we’ve picked up upon since she got it.

1. Accessibility settings hinder you more than help you. For instance, she has her mouse setup to show large pointers. When she navigates over a white area, the mouse disappears.
2. When you apply a larger DPI setting than normal under the accessibility options, not all of Vista adheres to it. For instance, the start menu initially shows large fonts and icons for recently used programs, but click any further and you’re back to the small stuff.
3. If you’re using a USB memory stick to hold your work, if you have it plugged in for a long while, it seems to grow unresponsive and documents you try and save to it die a death. Not good when you’re writing a dissertation.

These are just a few things that have been noted. I’m sure there are plenty more to come. One more reason to go Apple…