Alistair Lattimore

Comparison Shopping Websites, A Consumers Best Friend

Al — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:52:52 +0000

Claire & I have recently been on the look out for a new compact digital camera, to replace our aging Canon Ixus 65. During our research process, we’ve looked a countless cameras on the internet, via the manufacturers’ websites, consumer electronic web sites such as cnet and read countless reviews.

When it came time to actually buy a digital camera though, we were going to buy it in person at a local Gold Coast retailer such as Harvey Norman, The Good Guys or similar. What we found was, while they had prices that were better than the recommended retail price by the manufacturer and some were going to be flexible on price, they were still quite expensive.

Inevitably when people start researching online for a product, they’ll start with a search engine with looking for the best compact digital cameras. The results will yield sites such as a digital camera product round up on cnet and a number of companies will be paying for advertising on Google & co. as well. While possible, it was going to take a lot of time to sift through all those sites to find the best deal and this is where the comparison shopping websites become the consumers best friend!

Comparison shopping web sites crawl over literally tens or hundreds of different ecommerce web sites, cataloging what they find and how much each product costs. Of course, the comparison shopping websites aren’t just for digital cameras – you can buy all manner of things via them from fridges to perfume, pet supplies to furniture, there aren’t a lot of things you can’t find. As a consumer, you enter the product name or product category into these sites and see dozens of different companies selling the same product, with wild variances in price.

In Australia, the three most prominent shopping comparison websites are probably:

They all have a similar feel about them, however the interface and how the products are cataloged and organised differs by site – which makes some easier to use then others. In the case of the Canon Ixus 200 IS digital camera we purchased, it retails for approximately $600 for the bare camera chassis. Claire bought it via Shopping Square, a massive online store that we’d never heard of before but discovered by the comparison shopping sites. For less than half the retail price of the camera on its own, we managed to get the camera, a 16Gb memory card & prompt postage.

Next time you’re looking for a product that you can buy online, I highly recommend that you do yourself and your wallet a favour and visit one of the above sites before you spend a whole lot more money than you need to.

Hugo Getting His Hair Cut

Al — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:48:32 +0000

While sorting through some old photos and videos, I came across this great little video from November 2009 of Hugo getting his first big boy hair cut at Snippetty’s, who are located at Cocos Shopping Centre in Carrara on the southern Gold Coast.

Snippetty specialises in hair cuts for kids and it is fantastic. The store is fitted out with lots of things to make little people feel at home, including toys, things to touch, a giant fish tank and also a secured play area. The hairdressers are really friendly and work around the kids wonderfully, happy to cut their hair on their schedule and accommodate them. After the hair cut was done, Hugo even had his hair jooshed with product!

Having trouble viewing the embedded video, watch Hugo Lattimore Getting His Hair Cut on YouTube.

Windows Live Profiles & Twitter Integration

Al — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:01:53 +0000

Last year I wrote about Microsoft Windows Live getting smarter, specifically that Microsoft were gearing the new Windows Live profiles as a one stop shop for social web site aggregation. In a few quick clicks of your mouse, you could consolidate down dozens of your social networks and personal services into a single place, removing your need to visit each of them independently – fantastic!

One of the social networks that the Windows Live profiles had a web activity for was Twitter. Without any hesitation, I configured the Twitter web activity and all of my tweets were seamlessly imported into my activity stream within Windows Live. My only criticism at the time was that Twitter is a real time service, however my tweets were slow/sluggish to appear in my activity stream – sometimes taking a few hours to show up.

I was disappointed to receive an email on 30 June from the Windows Live team stating that they were no longer able to support the Twitter web activity and that they’d be disabling that functionality, until such a time as they could work with Twitter on their policy change which meant that Microsoft could no longer use the service.

Fortunately, Microsoft provide a generic web activity named “Blog RSS Feed” which will import any valid RSS or Atom XML feed into the Live profile activity steam. Of course, Twitter being the good netizen that they are, also provide an individual RSS stream for each user. Joining the dots and it means that Windows Live profiles and Twitter integration is still possible.

The downside is that because it is using a ‘generic’ web activity, how it is displayed within my activity steam isn’t as elegant and neat as it was prior – bug beggers cant be choosers.

Suncorp Bank, Looking Out For Clients

Al — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:06:36 +0000

Last week I unexpectedly received an email purporting to be from Suncorp Bank. In the last year or so of banking with Suncorp and using their online banking system countless times, I don’t ever recall receiving an email from them about anything.

It doesn’t surprise me that I haven’t received an email from Suncorp before, given the prevalence of phishing attacks these days. For those unaware, phishing is an attempt to fraudulently acquire personal information from someone by getting them to enter it into a web site that looks familiar, that is in fact just a shallow replica of a real site. Phishing attacks are one of the reasons you’ll read and hear major institutions state that they will never ask you for your username and password, ever.

Just to checkout what the latest phishing attempt looked like, I thought I’d investigate the email to see if the spammers had gotten any smarter over the years. First thing I noticed was it was from an email address that was clearly related to their online banking system and at the correct domain. Secondly, the subject had to do with BPay – so I though how fantastic that the spammers now use brands or products related to the local country to garner trust with the user.

After opening the email, I suddenly realised that the email was legitimate and I couldn’t believe it! It turns out that Claire had just paid our rates online, through the Suncorp internet banking web site using BPay. The email was a notification, to let me know that a large payment had just been processed and if I hadn’t arranged it to call them immediately.

What I love about the email though:

The subject was clear, it was a BPay notification
They sent it to both of the email addresses I’d provided Suncorp, not just my primary one in case I didn’t check it immediately.
It was a plain text email, so no fancy images or design – just the message. That meant that you needed to read the content of the email to see what it was about and not blindly clicking on something because it used the familiar Suncorp branding.
The first line stated what it was about (high value BPay transaction), the second contained what action to take (phone Suncorp) and for full details you could check the transaction on their site.
Suncorp include their business name, address, ABN, contact information in the footer
Most importantly, there isn’t a single hyperlink anywhere to be seen in the email. As such, you can’t just ‘click the obvious link’ to go to their site.

A lot of the things above seem pretty small things to a lot of people, however I’m really impressed that they’ve chosen a lot of those options – especially the plain text email. Nefarious individuals and companies that use phishing attacks prey on people reacting to a family company and brand, such as from their bank to take an action. By providing it in plain text, it removes the familiarity aspect away to make you read the email. By no providing any hyperlinks, you need to open your browser yourself and go to their web site.

All round, a great email from Suncorp and they should be congratulated for doing their part in helping keep their clients information private and their money safe. If I were to make a single change to it, it’d be to remove the phone number and tell direct the user to their web site (no hyperlink) to get the phone number if they don’t already have it on hand. That way, all of the contact information needs to be entered by the user on their own behalf, which would all but remove the risk of a phishing attack.

Hogs Breath Cafe

Al — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:52:02 +0000

Another thing that was a happy coincidence after eating dinner at Hogs Breath Cafe last night was they have their 21st birthday celebration on until the 21st August.

The 21st birthday celebration means if you eat at Hogs Breath and order one of their signature steaks, they’ll give you a frequent diners card for free that entitles you to 21% off your next meal at Hogs Breath. If you’re a current frequent diners card holder, you’re entitled to your normal frequent diners card discount and they’ll give you a Hogs Breath steak knife for each prime rib meal as well.

Since Claire and I have had Hogs Breath cards for a long time, they were still happy to give them to us so we signed up Lorraine & Sterle – fantastic. I’m now thinking we should go back before the end of the month, get a couple more frequent diners cards for some other friends that don’t have them and get another pair of steak knives!

Dinner For Four

Al — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 12:41:35 +0000

Claire, Hugo, Evie, Sterle and I went out for dinner tonight to Hogs Breath Cafe. Our intention was to go to Hogs Breath at the Logan Hyperdome, however they were booked out so we booked in at Hogs Breath on Seaworld Drive Main Beach near Marina Mirage on the Gold Coast.

The fact that we went out for dinner might not seem all that interesting, except it was the first time that we, as a family of four, have gone out for dinner since Evie was born in May. Hugo was on his absolute best behaviour, ate more food than I think I’ve ever seen him eat for dinner and helped put our empty glasses onto one of the waiters trays, which was followed up by a couple of high fives. Evie was happy resting in the pram for the first half and hour and was a little grizzly midway through but then had a power nap, which was great.

I remember when Claire and I took Hugo out for our first dinner after his birth, we were really nervous and weren’t sure how it’d turn out. It wasn’t a train smash by anyones standard but with a little more practice, it became easier. Of course, with two children I figured that’d be a completely different beast, however on this occasion it was a screaming success – metaphorically speaking.

Now we just need to find the next place we’re going to grab an early dinner at!

Hugo Kissing Evie

Al — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:11:23 +0000

When arriving home from the hospital after Evie was born, the following weeks were fairly tumultuous. We witnessed all manner of outbursts from Hugo as he protested that we couldn’t provide him our absolute undivided attention.

It didn’t matter what we were doing, Hugo was determined he was going to make a statement – whether it was about going in the car, attending swimming lessons on a Saturday morning, picking up some groceries or going to the shops – there was bound to be an outburst.

In the last four to six weeks, that sort of behaviour has now stopped and in general terms our happy, easy going & tolerant son has returned from the post natal haze. That doesn’t mean that Hugo doesn’t throw a wobbly, he does – every toddler will but they are no where as frequent or severe which is great.

We’re now getting to a point where Hugo is genuinely interested in Evie. If Evie is on the her play mat for tummy time, Hugo will often come over and play beside her. If she is laying on the sofa for a few minutes, he will pop over and give her a kiss, poke her or lift up her shirt and say “belly button!”.

I think in the future, Hugo is going to make a great big brother.

Evie, 2 Months & Gorgeous

Al — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:24:48 +0000

Evie has now been mixing it with Claire, Hugo & I for a whopping two months.

It is a strange feeling in a way, sometimes I think to myself it feels as though it was only yesterday that Claire and I were in at Pindara Private Hospital for the birth and other times, it seems as though it is nearly a distant memory already. Putting a little thought behind why that might be, I think the latter is because we’ve done it before – there isn’t that first time parent panic or uneasiness with everything you do.

During the last six weeks since Evie was 2 weeks old, a lot has happened as you can imagine. Probably the most significant departure from our ‘plan’ is that while Claire had every intention to breast feed Evie for the forseeable future – her body just didn’t want to play ball. Claire battled through a few bouts of mastitis and after the last one we decided to call it a day. While I understand why it’s disappointing for women & mothers, however it can actually be a good thing in the long run as now the men can lend a hand. I love feeding Evie and it lets me get close to her, in a similar way as breast feeding does for a mum – so I think that is great. The other obvious advantage is that we can share the load and it takes a whole lot of pressure off of Claire – she can leave the house without the kids now and that isn’t actually an issue – though I wish that’d happen more often than it does.

Date	Weight	Length	Head Circ
18/5/2010	3.60Kg	49cm	33.5cm
21/5/2010	3.41Kg
3/6/2010	4.04Kg
2/7/2010	4.84Kg
14/7/2010	5.22Kg	57.5cm	37.3cm
21/7/2010	5.69Kg	58.5cm	38cm

When Hugo was born, Claire and I thought ourselves very lucky because it didn’t take long before we had Hugo in a little routine that worked well for him. Before we knew it, I was waking him up for a dream feed, putting him back to bed and we wouldn’t hear a peep out of him until around 7AM. We figured with such an excellent run with Hugo, what’d be the chances that we’d have that sort of fortune with Evie – well it turns out very likely. By about the 4 week marker, we began moving the feeds around to match the schedule in Save Our Sleep that we used with Hugo and badda-bing badda-boom, happy baby that sleeps through the night! There are a bunch of different baby books around and after seeing what can be accomplished by following a schedule, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to a new parent – you’d be punishing yourself for no reason by not reading one.

More to come, stay tuned.

Goodbye Telstar

Al — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:32:05 +0000

After being involved in a car accident on the Gold Coast M1 in late June, my trusty 1989 Ford Telstar Ghia has been written off by my car insurance company.

I’ve been tottering around in the Telstar for the better part of 10 years and only now is the odometer finally approaching 200,000 kilometres.

George & Jude bought it for me as my first car while I was at university, which was a massive upgrade from the family Ford Falcon XM ute with distinctive blue cobra stripes. It was powered by a 2.2L 12 valve 4 cylinder engine, which even in its hay day probably wasn’t the most performant engine, nor particularly free revving – however I suspect that might have been part of its recipe for longevity. I still remember how excited I was, especially when I realised that it had a velour interior, power windows, power mirrors and wait for it, oscillating air conditioning vents in the front!

In that time, I really haven’t had any major problem with the vehicle either mechanically, in the interior or on the exterior of the car. It gets serviced once or twice a year, I put fuel in it and it just goes. On the mileage front, in my mix of highway and city driving to and from work, I get approximately 500km from a tank of fuel and over 550km if its strictly on the highway.

I’ll miss the Telstar, it has been a great little car and served myself and Claire really well over the years. Now I just need to find an adequate replacement and hope that I have a hassle free existence with it as the Telstar has provided.

Hugo Kicking Back

Al — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:07:53 +0000

Not so long ago, Hugo realised that he could climb onto the coffee table.

Initially, he was just laying on it with his chest, which followed by him trying to lift a knee onto it in a climbing action.

Claire & I jumped on that behaviour as soon as he started it, however it hasn’t stopped it completely and Hugo will test the water again every so often.

While Claire & I were at the other end of the house recently, we returned to the kitchen to see Hugo laying or more precisely, lounging on top of the coffee table watching one of his favourite TV shows.

Hugo doesn’t watch a great deal of TV, however there are a few shows that he absolutely adores. I’m not sure what it is about any one given show at a time that captures his attention, but he clearly goes through phrases.

The flavour of the month at the moment are:

Dirt Girl World
Roary The Racing Car
Chuggington
Captain Mack