Tabloid Edition

Online math tutoring

This internet thing is enabling all sorts of new businesses. Some of course aren't all that helpful: others simply cry out to be used. Take as an example the idea of math homework. This has probably caused more tears before bedtime than any other part of the education process. And yet math is really rather simple: if you have something like an individual calculus tutor to help you.

No, not someone waving chalk while talking at the blackboard, but someone who can actually work through the problems with you and explain them individually. And that's just what the internet now allows. Free math tutoring online even is available.

By connecting up math graduates in parts of the world where there are many of them and linking them to the high school students who need the help it's now possible for a company to provide this free math tutoring.

It really appears very easy to get this free math homework help. Sign up, log on and ask appears to be the basic model. There's also an upgrade available, for the higher levels of math. It looks like calculus help doesn't come free but then we all know that it's much more difficult to solve calculus: it's quite a large step up from basic algebra.

But I think it's a great business model and I wish them every luck at it. There are parts of the world with lots of badly paid mathematicians and linking them up with the millions of entirely baffled school children seems to make great sense to me.

Wintering in Alba

It might not have been the most sensible thing I've ever done but it was certainly one of the more enjoyable. Traipsing off to Scotland (Alba of old) in the middle of winter to roam around Inverness and the whisky trail. That of course was way back when when I was a student: now I'd be a little more discerning about where I laid my head at night. Scottish B&B's, at least back then, didn't have a reputation as the most warm and welcoming of places.<br /><br />These days I don't think I'd go that far north. In fact, the place I'd really like to go to as a Scottish winter holiday is Edinburgh. Yes, even in the current weather, in fact especially in the current weather, I think it would be a fabulous place to go. For I've found out that you can rent <a href="http://www.the-edinburgh-apartment.com">Edinburgh apartments</a> for short term stays. That sounds hugely better than either the B&B or even the hotels. Somewhere with a kitchen for example pleases me a great deal better than a place without one. You've simply got so many more choices about what to eat and when.<br /><br />And if I could get <a href="http://www.the-edinburgh-apartment.com">Edinburgh accommodation</a> right down in the New Town (or at least close by) then I'd be even happier. For that's really what I would do if I went up there, roam around the Georgian part of town. Partly because I'm from Bath and would like to see how they differ but more because that's what a winter holiday to me means: being right in the heart of a city and only venturing out for the brief moments it takes to traverse from book shop to pub, or cafe to restaurant.<br /><br />Hmm, excuse me while I go look at making travel arrangements would you?

Shopping on the internet

OK, so I guess we've all internalised the idea that we're going to get a much better deal by shopping on the internet, yes? A site which doesn't have to pay for a series of bricks and mortar outlets across the country (and the stock to fill them) is going to be able to offer us a better deal.

Yes, OK, but how do we actually find the stores which will give us a good deal? That's a little more complex. Say we wanted to buy some comforters. Or maybe a therapeutic pillow is more what we're looking for, or a simple bed pillow. Well, we could try the standard search engine but that's going to throw up every crank that has ever mentioned any of those things.

Or we could try a comparison shopping engine: but that'll pretty much limit us to those suppliers who have paid to be included in such an engine. So what we really want is something with the best of both worlds and the worst of neither: which brings us to ShopWiki.

It's a search engine, yes, but only of those who are actually selling things. It's a comparison engine, yes, but of all those who are selling things, not just those who have paid for entry. So the selection of home furnishings, bed linens, lamps,  desk lamps and home accessories is going to be both larger and more focussed than either of the other two methods.

Oh, and by including everyone of course we're going to get even better deals. Click through a link to try it out.