reservation rewards tiger direct

So I was buying an external harddrive when a window at tiger direct pops up...would you like $20 off next purchase?

Yes please I say and get rediected to Reservation Rewards I get mildly suspicious when they ask for a credit card number to 'refund' me with. Turns out the whole fkin thing is a scam and the only thing you get is a monthly fee of $12. Silly me for not reading pages of small print and assuming Tiger Direct would deal with reputable firm.

What assholes they are...I will complain bitterly.

DO NOT SIGN UP TO RESERVATION REWARDS
****UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND YOU WILL BE CHARGED MONTHLY****

A quick google search will show them up to be total crims. Now I see why the UK card was refused and only residents of canada could apply...because only Canada is so backward that it does not prosecute these peenarses.

Savings Acounts for Kids

RBC = rubbish

Took my 4yo to the bank to get into the concept of saving.

So the deal was no charges, a little paying in book that doesn't even have name on, we declined the bank card......

After handing over our cash we got $5 bonus. Then I asked about the interest...........

wait for it


0.1%

Current inflation rate 3.5%,

So in 10 years of diligent saving the $50 will be worth $35.

Great.

They refused to handle our pot of change unless we 'rolled it ourselves', note to RBC we don't freaking roll. You buy a freaking coin counter or stop being tight and let us use yours..
Go roll your coins......is this a Canadian hobby?

Apparently Loblaws has a coin counter....great we'll just mosey on down to Loblaws, and while we're there we may as well invest our money in propane or food or something that will be worth more in a few years..

Crap.

I looked on the Canada govt web page and they have some bond things that are also rubbish
premium bonds 10 yr bonds that pay less than inflation, canada savings bonds, similarly bad.

This is half decent but not many 4y0 have 500$ saved up..

Green Laser Pointers etc

This place on Cavendish in NDG is pretty good, quite cheap.  Good presents for boffin types.

www.apinex.com

very powerful, locally based so great for last minute purchases etc, 

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

I should have known someone cleverer than me would have done this.

Someone has changed googlemaps to look at running routes and have a calorie burn calculator.

I'd say the only drawbacks with it are
1) it does not snap to the roads so you need to click lots of small segments, it just does a straight line between points.
2) none of the help stuff works so it took me a while to figure out how to use it.
so here you go:
1) press start recording, double click to add a point, double click at every corner etc
2) when finished add you weight

not sure what elevation is doesn't seem useful, what is cool is it allows you to save a route with its own link like this one

*******Update*******
They guy fixed it like he said he would, it is really much better now
You can do snap to road, straight lines whatever..
Very good, thanks Mr gmap-pedometer

Finding distances of running routes on Google maps

Well this is pretty straightforward if you run in a straight line as the directions function will do if for you.

Even if your route is a bit wiggly you can just drag the blue line, but if it is really wiggly it gets messed up.  Tonight I learnt a new feature

lets start with a map of tdm

View Larger Map

First right click and define the start point

then you right click on the next segment and set it as destination

then you go to next segment and add as new destination

then you just keep adding them so you might have a route like this

giving you total distance in miles.

If you want a specific distance then just move the letters about and as you move them a box pops up telling you how far, e.g. 10 miles, see below

Important research on CuNTs

OK forget the ignoble awards and other geeky attempts at self deprecation I have found the most important paper of the new century

entitled Electrochemical synthesis of metal and semimetal nanotube–nanowire

heterojunctions and their electronic transport properties by D. Yang et al. in Chemical Communications 2007 they discuss Copper (Cu) nanotubes (NT).

I show you a figure from the paper, if you don't eant to see broken CuNTs and CuNT roots then please leave this site.

Now either Scientists are so dull they have neutered themselves by years or staring down microscopes or the editors of this english journal had great fun at the expense of their Chinese authors.  Either way makes a very dull paper very funny to a puerile person like me.

Forget grey goo, this may finally make science mildly sexy or sexual, but I doubt it.

injured

Bloody running eh?

So I was just starting the mile build up part of 'the plan' when I got pain in ankle, ran on it again and that REALLY hurt so I am off. However as per usual the answer is on youtube
found a physio video for sprained ankle. In a week I am able to do the toe raises pain free, now need to do them one footed.


I am worried though that there is something weird with the way I run that just makes my ankle sprain because I don't remember any particular event such as a twist or fall that set it off.

I lost 7lb or so from doing the first running training scheme....I actually miss it....

Jon Lajoie

OK my ignorance is over, went to see Jon Lajoie at the National on Ste Catherine last night. Great show, is this man one of the best things to come out of Quebec recently apart from Celine?

Quite possibly



Seems like he can only be caught in Boston and New York this year

ripping youtube videos

So you find a nice you tube video, maybe you want to use it in a presentation or edit it down..who knows..how do you save it?

Well look no further, here is the answer, if you know about firefox and add-ons then go to step 3

1) use firefefox browser, if you never heard of that then it's time you did, it's a browser, better than windows explorer download for free here

2) Next you need to get a thing called an add-on, these are things that add extra functions, so from firefox open you go:

tools--> Add-ons

then a window opens and att the top there are two icons, a jigsaw piece that says extensions and an artist's palate that says themes

click on extensions

bottom right click on Get Extensions

this opens a window with a searchbox for add-ons

type downloadhelper

then restart firefox, skip step 3 go to step 4

3. Fore firefox people just add download helper here

4. go to your youtube page say for example

little britain usa

5. then you'll see an icon that looks like this on the firefox toolbar.

If you dont then fiddle with toolbars customisation

6. Then click on the arrow next to the icon and select the flv file, then save it somewhere

7. flv file>??? what use is that? none. so need to convert it

8. here

9. this program is the dogs with regards to conversion to mpg avi etc

no funny business with watermarks and partial conversions etc

so there you go

more free stuff for nothing as per usual from perrier

by the way, no one has asked me about a family doctor

does anyone want one or not? let me know the guy's not taking new patients foreverer

be good

Song for Dads

Seems like everyone embeds a you tube clip these days to compensate for boring content so here's one that is quite funny, for dads anyway

Anyone want a family doctor? Beat the queue / Tout le monde veulent un médecin de famille? Gagnez contre la file d'attente

I heard on the grapevine of a doctor in westmount who is open to new patients as of now (8th Sept). If you want to know how to contact and you had better call pdq then leave me a comment with your contact email..(don't worry I wont post your email, it'll get emailed to me for moderation. I'll delete the email) I'll delete this post in a week or two too as he'll be full soon.

Edit post...just email me at bonjourgoodbye@ gmail.com

Thank me later, I think I rename quebec queubec..

J'ai entendu à la vigne d'un médecin de Westmount qui est ouvert à de nouveaux patients dès maintenant (8e septembre). Si vous voulez savoir comment vous contacter et mieux extremement rapide appel puis me laisser un commentaire avec votre e-mail de contact .. (ne vous inquiétez pas. Je ne vais pas envoyer votre e-mail, il vous obtenez par e-mail à moi pour la modération. Je vais supprimer l'e-mail) Je vous supprimer ce poste dans une semaine ou deux de trop, il y aura bientôt plein. Merci moi plus tard, je crois que je renommer québec queubec .. 'file d'attente'bec en anglais

Edit post...juste envoyez-moi un courriel a bonjourgoodbye@ gmail.com

Bloody Wasps

Last summer I tried drowning them in my jam-water wasp trap.  This year I try the "get lost wasp" thing.  Basically it is like one of those paper lampshades but shaped and couloured like a wasps' nest.  Apparently that scares them away.  Got it from Canadian Tire, forget how much, $10 or so but I got two.  So far no wasps...but its too early still to say for sure

Best Running Shop

OK OK what do I know having been a runner for about 4 weeks doesn't qualify me to say anything.  But I read it somewhere else and I went there recently, 

Endurance

I'd say it is excellent, they know their shit and take it seriously, my shoes are great..Brooks, feel like I'm barefoot. No surly salespeople here, go there, tell me if you don't agree.  Took a while to choose them had me running around, measurements the lot.  Also gave me a 25% discount.  Why I'm not sure but I'm pleased, a happy camper.

free airline tickets

Well not exactly...have you ever had a return portion of a ticket that you could not use? Maybe it expires befor you can use it or is going the wrong way.
Don't throw it away, here's how to keep it valid:

1. Book your return flight  on or near the expirey date on a day you judge the flight might be full, (friday night, sunday night etc).and turn up at the airport well before departure time with your passport, (no luggage).
2. Go to the ticket desk, (not check in desk) and thell them that you have changed your mind and you don't want to fly today and ask them to issue you a voucher for the flight.  If they agree then bingo and go home.
3. If not then check in and go to the departure gate and tell them again you don't want to fly today and ask for a voucher but tell them if they can't do it then you will fly today.   If the flight is full, don't take the first no, ask again every 30 mins or so.
4. If they refuse then hang around until near take off and then go home.

If the flght is empty it might not work, but remember they usually overbook flights and bump people so having you volunteering is saving them money and time.  This worked at Dorval with air canada on a flight to London, UK.

Best Virus Checker

Well assuming you already have all the usual free ones, AVG etc, the best I found, and by that I mean the one that could find the bloody virus and get rid of it was
NOD32.
You can get a free trial here, I think I had to download it from work and run it from a memory stick my home computer was so screwed..

It was so good I actually subscribed to it for money and I rarely do that.  But if you have had the headache of your computer not working you will gladly pay not to sort it out again

Since installing it I have had not one virus despite many attempts by people hooking up infected drives to my computer

Free music, films, audiobooks etc

If like me you don't like using P2P then the solution would seem to be to google what you are after and add the terms rar and -torrent.
For example

if you type
revolver beatles rar -torrent
into google, you wll after a bit of clicking about find this link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/19284223/Beatles_-_Revolver.rar


some things like films come in many parts and you have to have winrar a free program to unzip

ahh yes you say but there is download limit,

this can be got round by
1) delete cookies/clear private data
2) switch modem off and on again
3) if you know how to access modem you can do this step 2 from the computer without switching off modem
For example if you are with Bell you type
http://192.168.2.1/
click on advanced, enter username and password usually admin and admin, then go to advanced, then internet connection, then click disconnect and then connect, do this in a separate browser to the one you are downloading in, say firefox and opera then you don't need to keep putting your password in everytime

Money for nothing

One of my interests is making money by doing as little as possible, like everyone I guess.

I have succeeded once on a cashback for balance transfers that was a ridiculously generous 5% in the UK and I just kept taking the money out and putting it back again. I managed 3 times before the offer expired and made a few hundred pounds. I recently found this website where the guy is a bit more hardcore and less risk averse than me.

The problem in Canada is getting the guaranteed rate of return. Any ideas on that?

Another quite risky approach is to buy currencies that pay high interest with ones that have low interest. For example buy british pounds with yen and do this in a levered account at say 20 or 30:1. There is a long forum entry on a guy who doubled his account by using a fairly idiot proof method though these days the future is a bit unsettled. The risk is that the currency you buy becomes lower in value despite paying 5% pa...

As the price of gold and other metals rockets so people's catalytic converters become the targets of theft. Less illegal is to strip gold from computers, but you need time and a free source of many, (scores), old computers. There is a place near Eastman where you can go gold panning, always fancied it but I hear Val d'Or is the place...

Not paying for things is another way of achieving the same, for example using a business to avoid paying tax on things or by requesting free commercial samples, though this can enter the grey zone if you do not follow advice or know what you are doing. Living next to the US where sales tax is very low and electronics are better and cheaper I see potential, your entitlement is $400 for 48h outside Canada and $750 after 7 days. Is there such a thing as a service for having goods mailed to a border town so you can pick up easily? Surely these limits will go up as it seems to have been stuck here for years.

Having kids can provide some money for example each one in daycare is eligible for $1000 a year from the fed. it only took me 3 years to figure this out.

Currently I am using Costco with the Amex card. It is a peculiar place... too tight to use video cameras to stop theft despite selling them. I seem to end up spending a fortune there regardless and am suitably disgusted at their lack of italian pasta and tinned tomatoes etc, but then again I was delighted to find kg packs of REAL parmesan reggiano. Not some powdered muck from Ontario...swings and roundabouts. I will let you know how much money I get back but judging on the year so far not much is the answer. It is cheap for nappies though so somehow I came out on top.

Hypermiling..well if you can't afford gas then maybe sell the car. I recently started to try it though, stopping is about the worse thing you can due for fuel efficiency and seeing as montreal uses stop signs and clockwork traffic lights as the only traffic control system this is bad as you will have doubtless watched the dumb significant minority accelerating towards red lights or stop signs only to jerk stop and speed off again. I did question the wisdom in switching my engine off and free-wheeling through about 5 stop signs late one night and wondered whether the police would buy my saving the environment argument. Indeed stopping is pretty hard with no power brakes..It did seem to make a difference but we won't get rich.

Feel free to post more money making/saving tips

Fridges

If you ask me....and you didn't...this person should have won the Nobel Prize, not that Al Gore.
I am sooo tired of the consumer being blamed for wasting resources when it is the manufacturers who give us our consumer choices.

The fridge..not modified since the 50's, open the door...whoosh out comes the cold air. Look what this guy achieved..100Wh per day! Why can't GE manage this? The only choice we have now is the colour. We should demand more efficient products and there should be legislation to enforce it.

I point to the average fuel economy of cars in the states that only went up after Carter made it the law, ( as I learnt from the film "who killed the electric car?") as discussed here.

Manufacturers who design products to fail after warranty should be strung up. It is not buying things that is the problem it is that they are designed to be thrown away and no thought is given to how they are thrown away. I still use an ironing board from my parents that pre-dates me, the other new ones have all been and gone, flimsy crappy things that became unusable and unrepairable in a few months.

On that note I see that propane conversion of SUVs in Montreal seems to be unheard of..my next project is to look into this, I only found this one in Montreal...
Entreprises Climauto Ltée (Les)
11390 Avenue Arthur-Nantel
Montréal, QC H1E 6V2
514-494-7393
514-494-7394 (télécopieur)

I am thinking to get a VW like this guy and convert it... One day.....follow the instructions

Electronic Fax and Message service

The best I found was
Maxemail

For $24 I got a phone number in Chicago with fax and voicemail for a year. You can personalise the greeting and the fax header.
Support reply quickly and at weekends.
Faxes are sent as pdf and voicemail as wav and you can email files to fax numbers
You can include a few email addresses so you can share the account. Plus you can have all messages saved for a year, (costs extra).
In short it's good.

Cheapest way to wire money AND EFT electronic funds transfer

Here is the cheapest way to change money that I have found
1. Open XE trade account
2. Set up your bank accounts to make and accept payments by EFT, (you do this through the XEtrade website)
3. Off you go

Real example, I wanted to change USD to get 10,000CAD, (both accounts at same montreal branch).
With the bank's 'free' transfer I got 10,000
Through XEtrade I got 10, 350.
Wire charge from bank (no EFT) was $50 and XE charged $18 to wire money back..
BUT with EFT all wire charges are gone, finally a free banking service in Montreal..

Oanda has apparently better rates, but is fiddly to send money to, but you get a good rate of interest from them though..might be worth considering as an alternative to the ridiculous ING thing.