20 Sept 2015

And Then Alt S….

I'm guessing you're itching to know what happened when I pressed the Alt plus the S key, right? No idea as that's not wot it applies to. {Note to self; try Alt + S later. Why? Because they're there.} No, the meaning was alternative shopping and I'll explain in words of way too many.

You know when you buy any bit of electrickery kit nowadays, and I'm talkin' phones, flat computers, cameras, MP3 players and the like, the majority come with a baby plug-in mains adaptor for charging and a string with a USB bit at one end and a bit o' kit pluggy-in bit at the other end. This string usually doubles as a data transfer string as well as charging.

If you're still with me and awake, this is where it gets interesting – ish. My little nest of vipers has had, unused for eons, in a draw, an MP3 player which she suddenly decided to use again during her re-introduced exerciser regime. Don't ask. Guess wot? It needed charging. What to do? Go to that draw with all the chargers and connecting strings. Guess wot? I must've had a clean-out and the required lead, the lead to the only bit o' kit with a proprietary connection at the business end, must've been ditched as I had no idea what it was for at clean-out time and decided it was surplus to requirements. Damn!!

Shopping it is then. Hay, it's a USB lead, right? We started at the mega techno stores and met with, somewhat surprisingly, no joy. We tried three as you're never sure of the responses you get in these places. Have they really got a clue or care? Okay, let's try the small specialist techno shops. These guys knew what we wanted but didn't stock 'em as, "Hay nobody throws those out eh?" Damn!! The last shop was the best with the guy going into a ten minute description of the lead, what it did, how it did it and the kit it was for. However, it was his last bit that grabbed my attention, "And no, we don't stock them. Hay, nobody throws those out eh?" Damn!!

Okay, the story's getting short now. What to do? Why the Web-a-Net of course. A little hunting and I found him on the kit makers site at a price that was kind o' eye wateringly up there. But, and this isn't an advert, there was a selection on, you guessed it, Amazon.

I picked one at a ridiculously low price and discovered that for a price roughly twice that of the item, I could get next day delivery. {This was a Sunday evening.} If we could contain our excitement for five to seven days, delivery was free. Let's go for the free option. Free always works for me.

Ten of the clock next day, not five or seven days later, the next day, Monday, it was delivered. Even better, it worked just fine and I figure, compared to total time and gas and parking charges run-up running round the shops on Saturday, it pretty much works out as free.

The few times I've resorted{?} to online shopping, they've all resulted in far earlier than expected delivery and the items have all been top-hole at doing as advertised and expected. And they wonder why the high-streets are dying…

The moral of the story? That draw you've got that's crammed full of wires an' plugs an' adapters an' stuff is there for a reason – don't mess with it. Just keep adding to it, okay?

Quote;  Joan Rivers.

"Thank God we're living in a country where the sky's the limit, the stores are open late and you can shop in bed thanks to television."

6 comments:

Grandad said...

Nothing is ever needed until the day after you throw it out.

Mac said...

Grandad,
So very true.
We may forget what kit that stuff was for and bin it. But the kit that stuff was for never forgets and one day that kit’s going to ask you, “Hay! Where’s my stuff gone?”

A K Haart said...

This is worrying. I recently chucked out loads of electronic bits and pieces merely because I couldn't remember what they were for. Sod's law says I'll be getting a reminder.

Mac said...

A k Haart,
My apologies, I should have posted this a good while ago in the hope of preventing others from parting bits o’ kit from its rightful stuff. Having said that, if I hadn’t thrown that stuff out, I wouldn’t have needed to post about it and, with no post, you would have no cause for concern. And that thought opens the door to many lines of thought.

Ripper said...

Mac, if you just need a USB cable:

PC World
Tesco
Sainsbury's
Maplin
Asda
Argos

To name a few. The mains adapter can be any, as long as it has a USB port on it, even the adapter to your e-cig. Failing that you could charge the player with the cable alone, plugged into a PC or laptop. That is, providing that the player isn't an iPod.. Go on - it is, isn't it?

Mac said...

Ripper,
Went to all those places good buddy.
No, it’s not an iPod, it’s one of they Sony Walkman jobbies from long, long ago with a regular USB at one end of the cable and a dedicated Sony connector at the business end; a connection that’s almost as wide as the player. The sort of connector you look at when ‘cleaning out’ and, after years of not using it think, “Mmmm - no idea” and bin it.