Monday, September 30, 2013

Trinidad bad drivers, Sep 2013 (youtube)

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Courts mattress sale

I went in to a Courts sale this weekend. I heard an ad on the radio that said a mattress and base for $1000. I went in to check if I liked the mattress and to maybe buy it. When I got there it only had one CSR for 6 customers all interested in the same sale. I was not the only customer who thought a base with a mattress was for $1000, but the CSR had to explain that it was $1000 each, in a less than cheerful voice. There were a couple people who were there before me so I waited for them to be spoken to and I overheard what they were saying.
I waited approximately 15 minutes before I went up to the CSR. This is after a family who came in after me had approached the CSR while she was speaking to someone else. The particular mattress that was on sale was leaned up against a bunk bed and still in plastic wrap. They did not have the same model lying on a frame/base so that I could sit on it to see it I liked it. When I asked if I could have it put down on a base her reply was "So you have to sit on it before you buy it?",
I said yes,
"Laughs* oh, ok, you could feel it right there you know",
 I asked if she could get someone to put it on a base for me.
"Ok hold on I will try to get someone"
10 minutes later a guy came and put the queen mattress on top of double mattress so I had to line up one edge before I could sit. I sat down and I put my hand down to press some more and I felt the thick layer of dust that was there...and it was too soft for my liking. I then noticed my pants had long streaks of dust from touching the plastic. Then I noticed the same dust on the guy's pants from moving it.
I said to the guy that the plastic is very dirty,
"Yea I know it very dirty"
.. now I would have warned someone who I saw going to sit on something dirty I just put for them, but that is not the norm I guess.When I got up the guy put the mattress back up against the bunk bed and I left.

Lessons Courts should learn: Have more friendly CSRs when a sale is announced
Wipe things people will be sitting/touching/ you have on display
Have a flyer in store with info for your sale, even the simplest printout will do, and have clearer ads


Monday, September 16, 2013

Resize multiple pictures in their existing locations with Irfanview

How to resize multiple pictures in existing locations with Irfanview (v4.35)

I have a few hundred pictures from a digital camera I want to get smaller and save some size. The quality is not really that important so losing image details is acceptable. Most pictures are viewed by zooming out to show the whole picture on the screen so it is a waste to have giant files for pictures that will never be zoomed in to.
I am reclaiming space on a friend's hard drive and the best utility to resize the photos is the Batch conversion utility built into IrfanView.

I wanted to replace the original files in their existing subfolders with existing date and time properties.
To do this I went to:
File > Batch Conversion/Rename

-The 'Output format' is JPG

- Advanced button > 'Set new size as percentage of original' to 30 (this is perfect for me, but it can be whatever you like)
-- CHECK 'Overwrite existing files'
-- CHECK 'Create subfolders in destination folder'
-- CHECK 'Save files with original date/time'
-- Click OK

-The 'Output Directory for result files:' must be the same drive as the one the pictures are on (for most people this is C:\). In my case it was D:\ because I have a partitioned drive where there was a Pictures folder.

I had to CHECK 'Include subdirectories (for 'Add all', not saved on exit)' in order to get all the pictures in any folders deeper than where I was viewing or adding from.

I suggest copying a few folders of pictures to a new folder and test this out before attacking the real job.

The final step is to click 'Start Batch' and wait for the magic to happen. It may take about a second or two for each picture you are processing so be patient, the results are worth it.