Author: nlpnowcom

Up to £100 trade in off the cost of a new computer from your old computer at PCWorld. Now there is an offer.

PCWorld offer of £100 trade in on an old computer

For a number of years I have visited my local PCWorld, Dixon’s, Dixon’s Digital, (all part of the same organisation), in my local town of Kingston upon Thames , being attracted by the electronics, the gadgets, and I have spent good money with them.

People who know me, know that if there is a gadget, Phillip has to have it, I am compulsed to buy the gadget. I get it to work, understand it, use the facilities it offers, and soon after, it gets regulated to the back of a cupboard, being replaced by the latest gadget.

I travel a lot around the world, giving trainings, seminars, presentations, speeches, and shows, and I need a light, good notebook or laptop to do my work on stage. I use the internet to keep in touch with the world, Skype for telephone communication, Slingbox to watch British TV in my hotel.

PCWorld had in the past their own fantastic laptop badged as the Philip’s Freevent, a really good fast computer, small with a good battery life for use on an aircraft, train or in remote areas. So far I have had two in the last four years, but PCWorld stopped selling them, so the latest laptop I purchased was a HP TouchSmart tx2, not a machine I am especially happy with.

The first Philip’s Freevent served me well, but the keyboard started playing up, which was easy to overcome, I used a USB detachable keyboard, but it was not a good solution for traveling, so I purchased another Philip’s Freevent, again a great computer, cheap but good.

OK, you buy cheap, you get cheap. The keyboard on the first Freevent started failing, the case on the second cracked, but it still functioned, until the keyboard started to fail. No problem, both had served me well, and with effort are still operational, not good enough for my travels. So I brought a HP TouchSmart tx2 from PCWorld about one year ago, I am not 100% happy with it, but I made my bed and I must sleep in it.

Yesterday the second Philip’s Freevent battery detached itself from the computer, the plastic retaining clips had failed, deteriorated,, fell off, meaning the battery would not stay in place, but I can still use the mains supply. No problem as I do not always take it on my travels.

Then I remembered PCWorld’s offer, £100 Trade In, why not upgrade.

I visited the local store and the salesperson said the offer is for “UP TO £100“, I would have to take the machine to the in-house technician who would value my old computer.

I was told my old computer was worth nothing, zero.

The computer did not work I was told (although he did not test it). Well yes it does if I used the mains supply or hold the battery in place, and it would not stay in place as the plastic clips had deteriorated, not by my misuse.

The case was split, well yes it is the poor quality of the plastic Philip’s used for the casing, not by my misuse or dropping thr machine.
 
The keys showed signs of wear, well yes, I have used the keyboard to work, isn’t that what a person does with a computer. I did not use poor quality paint or stencils.
 
The outer casing was marked, well yes I had used it and traveled with it all over the world, that is what we buy a computer for, to work on, it was normal wear and tear.

It seems that PCWorld will give £100 trade in, only as long as the old computer is in pristine condition, or straight out of the box. For every mark, for every fault like missing keys, the price goes down.

PCWorld, why would someone want to change a computer which was pristine, working 100%?

PCWorld you are using a marketing strategy to get people into your store with the offer of a trade in, but then nothing is offered.

I have been a loyal customer of yours for a number of years, and in business it costs a lot of money to gain a new customer, someone who will return and spend more money with you.

PCWorld you have lost my custom, and I wonder how many more customers by your trade in offer that is misleading.

I will now shop it DABS, Maplins or Amazon  in future.

No wonder your stores are empty of customers.

Reading the history of two of the British RAF iconic aircraft, the Blackburn Buccaneer and the Avro Vulcan in Rolland Whites books, Phoenix Squadron and Vulcan 607, plus my past memories and travels coming across the aircraft, I needed more information, to get the feel of the aircraft.

One of the great traditions and part of the culture of the British people, is a sense of the past, the history of the nation.

Rightly or wrongly, we hoard, we hold onto items which are from the past, we rebuild castles, ancient monuments, we store them in galleries, in museums, we preserve history for generations to come. Sometimes these items are from British history, sometimes these artifacts are from other cultures, there for all to see and wonder at.

It was written, a nation is not a nation without its’ history.

History builds the culture of nations, the population has something to build the future upon, to be proud of.

Britain is rich in museums and collections of artifacts of history, and these collections include the armed forces.

I needed to see firsthand a Buccaneer aircraft, to try and understand how a small aircraft manufacturer, the Blackburn Aircraft and Car Company, starting in 1914, could go on and build, design and build, which in its’ time, such a world beating, innovative aircraft.

I needed to witness the size and shape of the Vulcan, that was built not so many years after the end of the Second World War, would only be used in anger after thirty years in service, winning many competitions against the mighty American USAF jets, again with its’ iconic shape and design features which where world beaters.

My first visit had to be to the RAF Museum Hendon, in North London. The free to enter museum is housed in a number of large buildings, The Battle of Britain Hall, Historic Hangar, the Grahame-White Factory, the Milestones of Flight Hall, and the Bomber Hall.

My aim on this visit was to see the RAF Buccaneer S2B which the RAF flew as late as the Gulf War.

RAF Buccaneer S2B on display at RAF Hendon, London
I needed to get a feel of the plane, to understand the shape the size of this world beating plane.



RAF Buccaneer S2B on display at RAF Hendon, London

Parked in a restricted area of the museum due to renovations, I was kindly given permission to enter the great aircraft’s space, to view the plane at close quarters, the folding wings and nose cone, which reduced the area required to park it, especially on an aircraft carrier.

The Buccaneer was designed for low level fast flying to get below enemy radar, and its short wings gave superb handling characteristics, but at low speeds needed for landings on carrier decks, the designers came up with an innovative idea of bleeding compressed gases from the engines, vented through the wings to give extra life, and the tailplane was designed with variable incidence for fast or low-speed flight. The then conventional bomb doors of an aircraft were just that, doors that opened outwards, but the Buccaneer’s doors rotated within the fuselage, and with the Coca Cola fuselage shape reduced drag. The two seater jet was designed in tandem, with the navigator behind the pilot, and in the S2B model the aircraft were fitted with powerful Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines.


        
A RAF Buccaneer S2B RAF Hendon Museum
I then had a feeling to view a Naval Buccaneer, after all, the book Phoenix Squadron was about the British Navy Fleet Air Arm flying from the carrier Arc Royal to reinforce Britain’s right in Belize. The Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm Museum houses two examples of the Buccaneer, the original S1B with the low powered de Havilland Gyron Junior turbojet engines and the updated S2B which the RAF flew.



Folding nose cone on a Buccaneer
Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm Museum
RNAS Yeovilton
I knew that at RAF Hendon they had a Vulcan, but I could not see it. Upon asking an attendant, he pointed over my right shoulder, and it was there, and as I looked it was. Perhaps it was a case of  George Millers’ 7 +/- 2 or the Monkey Video, but there it was in a corner, a massive aircraft, too big to get into my camera lens.



Avro Vulcan, RAF Hendon Museum.
The Avro Vulcan, later with the powerful Olympus engines which were destine to power Concorde, where introduced in 1953 as part of the RAF’s “V” force, being the Victor, Vulcan and Valiant, built to counter the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Block and to deliver nuclear bombs.

The main characteristic of the Vulcan was the Delta Wing.



Avro Vulcan with delta wing
Conceived in 1947, the virtually hand made Vulcan, entered RAF service in 1956, and used as a deterrent against nuclear attack, and was not used for delivering real conventional bombs until it was due to retire in 1982 when it was used to drop 21 bombs on Port Staley Airport runway in the Falklands war, as told in the book Vulcan 607.

Seeing this wonderful aircraft in RAF Hendon, being able to stand under the massive bomb bay, brought home to me the flying skills needed to get from the UK to the Falklands and back again in the Falklands war.

We are lucky in Britain to have such museums, places of interest to visit, to learn, to see, to research, to gain knowledge.

Let us hope that we all learn from all our past history.

In my previous articles of my blog, Timeshare Advisory Service a Scam and I don’t believe it, I write about how I instinctively know when I am getting a “cold”, unwanted call, which makes me mad.

I do not want cold calls.

After my first posting, Timeshare Advisory Service a Scam, I got a telephone call from the Indian sub continent, purporting to be an organisation, TPS, offering to register my telephone number to stop nuisance calls for a fee I expect of over £250, when TPS gives the service for free.

Spooky.

How did that person ring at that precise time to offer their service? I must have bee sending a message out through telepathy and picked up by the hard working call center worker.

Not long after, I had another telephone call from another nice sounding lady, with loads of noise in the background of people talking on telephones. Obviously another call center.

She politely led me through a spiel of how her company could help me resolve any problems with my timeshare. Firing well rehearsed questions and statements, “Was I satisfied with the high increases in management fees?“, “have I seen their advertisements on Chanel 5 (UK TV)?“, all to no avail, as I said I was extremely happy with my timeshare holiday week.

I asked for her company’s’ web address, just in case I needed help in the future, which was www.itra.net. I later find out that this is International Timeshare Refund Action, a “no win, no fee” service.

We ended the call in a pleasant way.

Spooky.

Why did at that moment I get a telephone call offering me a service, when clearly I had been thinking about the potential problems arising from owning timeshares?

Again, my telepathic powers must be working overtime.

This has to be more than coincidence.

I am reading a book at the moment The Psychic Tourist by William Little, is it a coincidence that I am getting more telephone calls on a subject I am working on, unwanted telephone calls, or is it some psychic force?

I must finish the book to find out.

Oh, just before I have finished this article, I have another call from a lovely Indian girl, offering me a five year contract to stop nuisance calls.

To my many Chinese followers Gong Xi Fa Cai, Happy New Year.

This year it is the Year of the Tiger, and the New Year falls 14th February 2009, Saint Valentines Day.

So to my female followers, if you received flowers or a card and you do not know who sent it, think of me, and where is mine? Next year, perhaps you could send me a card or chocolates, as I do not like flowers much.

To my Italian friends. I will be in Milan from 18th February until 21st, and then in Rome from the 22nd until 26th, giving PhotoReading and Mind Maps courses. You can still join the courses by contacting Fabio Cucinotta at E-mail [email protected] or visit the Web www.metodogolfera.com. You can telephone on Numero Verde 800 91.32.64 or Cellulare 334 50.29.667.

You can give me my Saint Valentines Day card and present then.