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Ah Mr Irons, so you thought you were clever eating the office chocolates?

Look what I got through the post today 

That's going to make my kids happy, assuming I don't eat them first

Thank you Nimbus Hosting - Merry Xmas

You have to wonder how an editor deems topics to be newsworthy, or is it just the case of a slow news day in an era 24 hour news, commentary and endless half baked speculation.

Today, 450 miners got laid off as Kellingley colliery, the UK's last deep coal mining pit will close. Merry Christmas lads.

But the breaking news is that it has been announced which nursery Prince George will attend. I must admit this has been troubling me 

Is it me?

According to www.petrolprices.com, round my way it's 99p for petrol, and 104.9 for diesel

Originally Posted by Rebecca (PayforPrecision)

“I guess it's time to realise I will never own a house again then  It makes me sad."

I've got a mate just a bit older than me that bought a gaff recently using the shared equity scheme, where he owns half, and rents half. Can mean best of both worlds, feels like it's his, makes the mortgage accessible and has the option in the future to buy out the remainder so he will 100% own it. 

Seems a good way to get onto the property ladder if raising a mortgage is a problem, at least you will benefit from any value increases.

I know someone else who did a similar thing a few years ago, but unfortunately her scheme only allows her to buy a set maximum amount of the equity, but never fully own it 100%. Know little about these schemes, but concept seems good, but I guess it check the small print and make sure you have the option to buy it completely. My mate bought his through www.orbit.org.uk and seems happy enough with the process.

Dunno if a viable option or worth investigating. By the time my kids have left school, then completed their 12 years military service, me and the missus will be brown bread or dribbling in a nursing home, so they can come home 

Well in the run up to Christmas, post Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there has been little negativity this year about Yodel.

Compare that with 2014 - Yodel buckles under pressure

According to the Yodel blog:

"Yodel handled a record breaking 5.1 million parcels between Thursday 26th November and Wednesday 2nd December, which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday...

..customer satisfaction has remained high with 86 per cent of online shoppers saying they had a positive delivery experience.

..Yodel has invested heavily in its operations in the last 12 months. £30 million has been spent to improve efficiency and capacity, which saw the company introduce a brand new website, mechanical handling systems, sorting equipment, training, a larger fleet and new sites. This was in addition to 7,000 new recruits"

So it would seem at face value that Yodel weathered the storm, licked it's wounds, learned some lessons and invested serious money and energy in resolving them.

Maybe a good lesson in damage limitation and reputation management?

Have you had any experience with Yodel this year?

Pretty depressing reading for those waiting to get on the property ladder. According to a report by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) concludes:

"With the average house price currently around £280,000, the Housing 2025 report predicts house prices will increase by half (50%) their current value by 2025 – reaching an average price of £419,000. It’s even worse news for those living in the capital, as house prices are expected to nearly double in the next decade in London, rising from £515,000 to £931,000.

...For those planning to enter the rental market in the next few years, the news is just as bleak. Rents are predicted to increase by 27% from a current UK average of £134 per week to £171 in 2025. Again, those living in London will be worse off as they’ll need to pay 34% extra in rent per week by 2025, an increase from the current average of £234, up to £314."

Obviously if you are in the property market or investing your pension into rental income, then it's great news. Do wonder how on earth my kids will be able to afford their own home!

After last years spectacular, wonder if Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is tempted to try again!

Hmmm getting bored of xmas songs now  

Wonder what the latest is on this? Seems to have gone quiet.

How's those shares doing Barney?

Remember this?? Windows 8, the operating system Microsoft would rather forget.

With a world dominating desktop position, it's surprising the number of clunkers Microsoft has come out with over the years. Or then again maybe that's the issue?

From the pioneer MS DOS days of the 1980's, then the move to a more user friendly graphical interface in the 1990's called Windows 3.1, Microsoft led the way. Office products, Word and Excel quickly became household names, with experience of them a basic requirement for most office based jobs.

The year 2000 brought Windows 2000, and a look into the future. It wasn't without it's problems and was soon replaced in 2001 by Microsoft's most famous and arguably most popular operating system to date, Windows XP. The software was so popular, that it's replacement Windows Vista had a hard act to follow and failed to live up to the hype. Because of this XP remained popular, it was stable, so if it's not broken, why fix it?

It was only in 2007 when Windows 7 was launched, that a viable replacement to XP was finally found, although support for XP didn't end for die hard users until April 2014, not a bad run at all!

I'm still a Windows 7 user, and it has an XP cult feel about it. Luckily I bought my laptop just before Windows 8 was launched in 2012, so I had no incentive to upgrade. Unfortunately we have since to had to buy a number of Windows 8 machines, and it really is a miserable and unfriendly interface. The only thing that has kept our sanity is the superb application called "Classic Start Menu" which we added to our machines and gives you the ability to make it act and resemble Windows 7. 

The very fact we want to make our software act and resemble versions is a marketing fail in it's own right, plus there is a big enough market out there for developers to come up with these kind of apps. But with the release of Windows 10 this year (not sure what happened to 9?), the biggest marketing fail indicator is from Microsoft themselves who seem hell bent on removing Windows 8 from the universe by giving away Windows 10. 

Admirable though this is to give away your latest and greatest product, it's the way they are bombarding us with messages to constantly upgrade!

One of the multitude of Microsoft hotfixes/updates you installed included one called KB3035583. This is what's responsible for bugging you if you are running Windows 7 or 8.

If you don't want to upgrade (and I don't), then you can uninstall this update (plus choose the option not to reinstall). Just Google how to remove Windows 10 update for specific instructions, but it works.

I've just got a Windows 10 preloaded machine (rather than upgrade) and first impressions are ok. We have the start button back which is a result. It's very Microsoft biased with selective partners, so if like me you don't want Internet Explorer, Edge or McAfee AntiVirus , then it takes a little fiddling.

But I assume the hope is Windows 8 will be a distant memory in 12 months when users are beaten into submission to upgrade, then be relegated to wikipedia for historical and marketing fail stories  

Be interesting to see how Windows 10 beds in, and have no doubt Microsoft will go from strength to strength. But I suspect after Windows 8, engineers will be a little more cautious in future software product roll outs 

Anyone using Windows 10 yet? Any fans of Windows 8? (8.1)