All you want to do is post a letter. So when did going to the Post Office become such a ridiculous ‘hard sell’ experience?

I ask for 1st class postage. I just want my package weighed and the price. That’s it.

Is it valuable?

None of your business. I asked for 1st class postage, that’s all I want. (Which as I might remind you automatically INCLUDES compensation to the value of £39 should you lose it!)

Do you want it to get there tomorrow?

Well that would be nice. Like in the old days when 1st class meant first delivery next day, and second class meant second delivery. Oh, wait, you’re still trying to push me to buy Special Delivery at £5 a go. No, I still just want 1st class, as I already said.

Would you like to top up your mobile phone?

What? Don’t be silly, I just want to post my bloody package!

Did you know the Post Office now offer credit cards and car insurance?

Yes, I bloody do, because you bored me with them last week when I came in just to buy some stamps. And I’m still not interested because I know I can get better credit cards and car insurance elsewhere.

OK, so did you want any stamps today?

*&^%*$£*.

My THREE nearest Post Offices all now do this same stupid blind irritating ‘upsell’ process. You want a stamp, so clearly you must need a new credit card… round of applause for the idiot marketing manager responsible for that.

I now buy stamps from WH Smiths whenever possible.

Is your local Post Office this irritating?

Yup, it’s true. The UK recession may actually be over.

Are the newspaper headlines screaming out the good news though? Of course not – there’s lots of other far more depressing stories they can fill our day with instead…

Economy Grows Two Months In a Row

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) says that the economy hit bottom as long ago now as March this year. There has then been modest growth in April and May.

Even the property market shows signs of recovering – with both Nationwide and Halifax reporting about 2 per cent increase in property values last month. First time buyers are still being stuffed for huge deposits, but hang in there folks as the times they are a-changin.

Break Out The Sparkling Wine

No it’s not boom time. So stick with the quality sparkling wine instead of that overpriced Champagne version.

It’s just another welcome reminder that reading the daily newspapers makes you depressed! So why not dump the Daily Drudge. Maybe we should subscribe to Positive News instead.

This kind of thing drives me nuts. I don’t know why companies do it, because it screws their loyal customers who just happily renew their subscriptions. Here’s the deal.

Save £27.53 On Your Kaspersky 3 User Renewal

I got a new netbook and needed internet security software for it. I already had Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 on my laptop. But it was a license for just one PC.

No problem, there are Kaspersky 3 user and 5 user (and more) licenses. That lets you put the software on more PC’s.

My existing license was due for renewal in about a month anyway so I didn’t really mind taking the hit of renewing now and upgrading to the 3 user license. It would be way cheaper than buying another new single license.

So I hit the Kaspersky renew button, and off I go to the renewal site. Just to renew my one user license would be £27.99 instead of the full £39.99 price. But I can also renew and upgrade to the Kaspersky 3 user license for £34.99. That’s what I want right..?

Now normally it would be £49.99 for the 3 user. But £35 isn’t such a massive discount so I thought, lets just check Amazon and see how much it would cost me new.

New Kaspersky 3 User License Cheaper!

Yup. And not just a little bit either. It’s £14.93. And that’s a brand new 3 user license including the actual CD in a proper case shipped direct from Amazon.

Even Cheaper Still

And I can save you 50% off that crazy cheap price too. If you spend over £30 on any other stuff from Amazon in the same order, then enter this code: KASPERSK in the Promotional Code box.

A total saving of £27.53

So if you have Kaspersky and your renewal is coming up, buy it here on Amazon instead. Or if you use something else and renewal is coming up, check out Amazon first before paying your renewal fee!

This young internet upstart is causing quite a stir online. By giving away free shares to members when they join (for free), it has managed to rapidly go from 0 to 188,455 members in just 1 month! Before they even know what they are joining..!

The free offer is still running, so you can join the fun too. You’ll get 250 free shares in the company if you join today (more about me2everyone free shares here)

So What is It?

That seems to be part of the fun. We’re not sure. It’s kind of a new virtual online world and social networking site type of a thing. It could be ‘the next big thing’ or a great big ‘what was all the fuss about’.

Members now holding free shares are of course hoping it will turn out to be the next Facebook or MySpace – so their free shares will be worth thousands.

With the kind of growth experienced so far, they certainly have potential. If they can nudge those people who signed up to get the free shares into active users. And if they can deliver a platform that tempts people away from Facebook and MySpace.

It costs nothing to find out. You can grab your free shares by joining here.

Has Google gone nuts today..?

All my search results are showing the dreaded ‘This site may harm your computer’ message.

So either Google is having a funny turn, or my laptop has been taken over by aliens, or worse!

Even Google.co.uk and Google.com are reported as potential harmful…

Aliens, Google or has Kaspersky let me down..?

UPDATE:
Oh dear, I think Google central will be rolling out some serious ass whippings… reports are coming in all over the place of the same dodgy search results… here’s just a few:-

Google search has gone nuts…
Getting a malware warning for every site in Google search results?
Is Google Crazy? Google.com May Harm Your Computer?
This Week in Social Media
How one slash stopped Google search
Google may prove harmful to your computer
How a “/” Sign CRASHED Google Search.

LATEST:
The official word from Google themselves was a technical glitch in the file of ‘bad sites’ they maintain. A tiny error of including the entry ‘/’ in the files translated to the software as meaning ‘every website’. So for a period of only 40 minutes or so, Google panicked us all by reporting every website in the world, including their own, as BAD!