Do your Christmas shopping on a budget with Local Bargain Finder

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Ignore the rather utilitarian design on localbargainfinder.co.uk – what’s behind the site is surprisingly powerful. It’s a set of custom eBay searches that allow you to find auctions near your geographical location, as well as check for negative feedback on bidders and check commonly misspelled variants of your search items.

The service is designed mainly for big bulky stuff, like fridges, etc, that are a pain to ship across the country, but there’s plenty of money-saving application here for Christmas, too. I can tell you right now that someone I know might be getting a Retro TV stand (pictured) or a Silver Ford Focus bonnet in their stocking this year. It’s amazing how much stuff is listed as ‘Pickup only’. If you find any bargains, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.

Local Bargain Finder

Related posts: Credit Crunch Bargains – gadgets for under £50 | Sony adds local garage petrol prices to its satnav displays

UK government not making democracy easy or fun – no "e-voting" for the UK

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If you want to exercise your demographic right to say you’d rather have a blue politician representing you than a red one, you’re going to have to carry on with the tiresome old ‘ticking boxes with a pen’ system – there will be no “e-voting” for the likes of us any time soon.

Michael Wills, the minister for justice, told parliament that “The Government does not plan to introduce e-voting for the 2009 European or local elections,” meaning it’s off to the local primary school with your little postcard of power…

Another wi-fi detecting thing – this time it's a SHOE

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Clearly the next step in human evolution is to develop a sixth sense that makes the hairs on your arm stand up or your belly button flash green when in range of a wi-fi signal – but until then we’re stuck with rubbish novelty items to let us know when there’s some stealable internet nearby.

And now it’s wi-fi shoes. Or, at least, it’s a concept piece, in which a pair of trainers have had a miniature wi-fi detector stuck on them…

Virgin Media trials complicated new traffic management policies, touting "efficiency". Uh-huh?

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Virgin Media has been throttling its customers’ broadband speeds for at least a year now, but it seems that the traffic management policy wasn’t complicated enough for them, so they’ve started trails of a new one.

Oh, it nicely messes up our Virgin Media Speed Throttling FAQ, too. Thanks Mr Berkett.

From now on, if you’re unlucky enough to be a Virgin Media broadband customer in Preston, Wigan, Blackpool, Camden, Dalston, Enfield and Haringey, you’ll have to get your head around some new policies. Here goes my attempt at explaining it. Let’s see if I get there before my brain numbs…