Lots of quick snippets for you today – from scams, to the Olympics, to little rascals…
Olympics and the Internet
Don’t worry, it’s not a bizarre new sport – competitive web surfing! But if you’re interested in the Olympics, it’s worth knowing about this website: http://www.london2012.com/ It lists the schedules for everything along with the results so far, so it’s a handy place to catch up. There’s also www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer where you can watch all the TV coverage online – useful if you miss something you wanted to see.
Does this mean 18-25 year olds are Luddites?
If you’re someone who wants to get away from the Olympics, you might read a book instead. Or you might decide now is a good time to go on holiday.
And there’s an interesting set of survey results out which suggests half of all people going on holidays take ebook readers like Amazon’s Kindle instead of paper backs. I can see the advantage, especially on a holiday (despite my tongue in cheek article last time) – it means you can take lots of books without it taking up lots of space.
What I did find interesting was that it was people aged 40+ who were most likely to use an ebook reader instead of taking paperbacks – and 18-25 year olds were least likely. So much for it being youngsters who are into technology.
Then again, I know Alastair like paper books, so maybe youngsters do like paper… Edward on the other hand has yet to move beyond cloth books you can chew…
Scams that tie in with current news
I’ve warned about a few email scams lately, but there are two that are particularly sneaky at the moment. They tie in with current news to make them sound more plausible.
One of them is an email that looks like it’s from Nat West, apologising for the recent trouble they’ve had with current accounts and saying that due to it, they need you to log in to their website. It might be because they have compensation due to you for the problems or it might be just to “unlock” your account.
But whatever they say, it’s a scam. The email isn’t from Nat West and if you log in, it’ll just give your bank details to the bad guys.
Similarly after O2 had problems with thousands of mobile phones recently, there was a spate of emails along the lines of “Dear O2 customer, sorry for the problems recently, in order to sort them out, please log in here…” – again, they’re just trying to get access to your details – ignore it!
So if you get either of these emails, just delete them.
Half price for this month only and free Little Rascals
Don’t worry, I don’t mean I’m giving Alastair & Edward away (rascals they may be but they’re my rascals…). It’s something different.
I mentioned last month that we’re having a bit of a clear out of the warehouse. And another pair of books I want to clear out is “Microsoft Word One Step at a Time” and “Microsoft Office One Step at a Time”.
We’ve only got 292 copies – and we’re not planning to reprint them. So I’m going to offer the last few at half price – but only until they’re gone, and only until the end of the month. After that, if there are any left, we’ll scrap them.
When we launched the book, I did a little survey of people who bought them and on average they were rated 4.6 out of 5 – pretty good! Lots of people found them useful – after all Word and Office (including Excel for spreadsheets, Powerpoint for presentations and so on) are some of the most popular programs in the world. And although they have lots of nifty features, some of them are a bit, well, hidden away until someone tells you how to use them – which this book does, in plain simple English.
Anyway, you can read more (and if you like, order) here: http://www.helpfulbooks.co.uk/WordOfficeClearout.htm But only until 31st August. (You can also read about the free “Little Rascals” at that link, too)