It’s a common thing on e-commerce sites these days; we find a product we like, read all about it, but before committing to a purchase, we decide to have a quick search around to make sure we’re getting the best deal price-wise. It’s the online shopping equivalent of trying on a pair of shoes in the shop and then having a quick check on your phone to make sure you can’t get a better deal elsewhere.

Understandably, retailers are twitchy about this. They build sites jam packed full of information, the value-add if you will, to try and encourage confidence in buyers, only to lose the sale on the price point, despite having invested in the customer experience.

I came across a site a few months ago that was fighting back against this post-decision shopping around in a very innovative way.

Now, it doesn’t *prevent* you from doing the copy/paste, but it does ensure you stop and think, as a customer, about the realities of doing business and if, given the level of service you’re getting, if the price is actually *already* fair.

Food for thought for e-commerce operators and customers alike I’d say.

The other day I had cause to turn off my iPhone. Unlike many who leave theirs permanently on, it’s something I often do; restaurants, theatre, cinema, church to name but a few places where it’s simply good etiquette to do so. Anyway, I digress.

When I switched the device back on again some hours later, I was greeted with a request to “re-activate” it using my apple ID. The problem with this is that for those security concious people like myself who place their iCloud password in LastPass, you cannot get access to the the LastPass app if your phone is locked, which a de-activated phone effectively is.

Fortunately I was within easy reach of a PC on which I could install LastPass, login, retrieve the requisite password and unlock the phone.

This could have been so much worse though; with a phone that could do nothing but call 999 and no PC to retrieve my password, I could have been incommunicado while abroad or some other such significant inconvenience.

I simply didn’t *know* that an iPhone could just de-activate its self like that – certainly a risk worth evaluating when you decide what password (random, unknown, in LastPass v.s. simpler, recallable) to utilise for the purpose!

As Grandad was a fan of all things nautical, we thought it only fitting, after his funeral, to make our farewell in the same way he’d done for his boat some years previously – a salute

A small, snatched, selection of photos from around the various celebrations at the end of the year. Occasions include Dad’s birthday, Shweta’s birthday and Christmas, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it looking at the pictures!

Somewhat of a family tradition over the years; everyone posing for a photo at the dinner table before the start of the Christmas meal

Deciding to beat the Christmas holiday crowds we headed up to Yorkshire for an early December break, staying in York and Harrogate for two nights each, we did some sight-seeing and took some time out in the famous Harrogate spa