OneWorldLightbulbs.co.uk

Project:OWLB

The latest project of mine is developing a website around LED light bulbs. LED light bulbs are the future and if I am honest I am a super fan type geek of them. I bought one of these halogen replacement bulbs and frankly they are just sexy. Even better they use just 3.6w of power compared to the old bulbs which used 50w. Plus they last so much longer as well, the old bulbs you had to replace every year, these may last up to ten years. OK so they are quite expensive but you will soon make your money back especially if electricity prices keep rising. You are also saving the world, less electricity means less CO2, you really cant go wrong.

So the idea is that I am going to build a web site at first concentrating on led bulbs that can replace all your existing bulbs. Much better than Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs they don't contain mercury, last longer, use less electricity, are easy to dispose of and are instantly bright. Its a win / win for the consumer, the difficulty for the consumer is knowing which ones to buy. Hopefully, my new website will solve that as it will contain my personal recommendations which have been tried and tested.

At first the website is going to be links to other stores such as Amazon where you can buy such bulbs but over time I would like to start selling my own bulbs and developing new product lines in this market place.

For now the website is just a collection of amazon product links which will start to build traffic as I develop the site. Next up will be a blog to build up some articles and different pages for different types of bulbs eg, bayonet replacement and halogen replacement.

Watch this space as they say.

Some news articles that caught my eye...

Facebook juror sentenced to eight months for contempt

When jurors go bad...

Yes, this is a story of a juror who thought they knew better than the judge and not only contacted a defendant via facebook but carried out her own internet research into the case.

The whole point in a jury is that you try the case on the information presented to you in court, to do anything else however tempting is just not fair justice for the defendant.

It may seem a bit harsh for this woman to spend up to four months in jail but I agree with the Solicitor General a message needs to go out to jurors that this is not acceptable. The whole foundation of our justice system can be contaminated by actions like this. Every defendant has the right in fairness to them to be tried only on the information presented to the court i.e. past history wont affect the burden of proof.

Banks must ring-fence retail operations, Osborne to say

This is about tighter regulation of the banking system to ensure the credit crunch doesn't happen again. Step1 is that Banks must hold more capital reserves, the international recommendation is 7% and in the UK the chancellor has gone for 10%, reminiscent of Gordon Brown's prudence. Step 2 is that the retail arm of a bank will be ring fenced from the investment arm. In practical terms this means that if a bank does fail the government could save the retail arm whilst letting the investment arm fail.

One criticism of this policy is that the banks will pass charges and costs on to the public. Well in my humble opinion you either make regular small payments or one big payment when we bail the banks out when they fail again. What we need to accept is that safe banking may actually cost us a bit more than it used to. The benefits are that we wont loose our money and we wont have to go through what has been an awful credit crunch again.

Another criticism is that the ring fencing doesn't go far enough, banks will still drain a retail arm to prop up an investment arm. Without all the technical details it may be difficult to work exactly if this might happen, but I look on this as more of a positive. A looser ring fencing policing will mean that the banks are not in a rigid straight jacket and can work within loosely defined boundaries to the benefits of the banks and the customers. For us, the customers, if we leave the banks with some flexibility then the costs for the retail banking side will be slightly lower.

To implement both of these policies seems a very sensible incremental policy change and not a knee jerk reaction that is unnecessary or costly.

Misheard lyrics: The Script, Breakeven

This song plays on the radio all the time on the way to work. Although this isn't technically a misheard lyric its a reworking which makes more sense to me. Bear in mind that this in fact is making sense to someone who is a bit off the wall.

Original lyric

I'm falling to pieces yeah
I'm falling to pieces

Off the wall lyrics

I'm falling to pieces yeah
I'm talking to mices

(mices pronounced mieces)

It makes more sense to me as if your were talking to mice then you definitely would be falling to pieces.

UK rural broadband plans move on

Great idea, super fast broad band in UK rural areas.

However, what is slightly depressing is the lax approach to putting a photo against the story. Obviously a story needs a pointless picture for those people that cant manage a full page of text. So the BBC thought we need a picture that says rural, there is nothing that says rural like a tree line road. Good so far although again a picture for this story is just going to be window dressing, something to look at then you get bored of the story.

Unfortunately the picture of the BBC chose has nothing to do with the UK, I suspect it is a road in America. How have I come to this conclusion, well in the UK we don't paint double yellow lines down the middle of the road even in the most rural areas of the country. However the US do, see here for a google image search of double yellow lines in the US.

Come on BBC if you are going to put a pointless picture in at least make sure it is in the same country as the story.

AV Vote results in a resounding no from the public

Well we was robbed, to use a sporting quote.

In a 70/30 split the public voted NO to AV, only several London constituencies voted YES. I personally believe that the vote was lost because the public was mislead by the no campaigners, the Yes campaign wasn't strong enough and it was a protest vote against Nick Clegg and the liberal democrats.

The no campaign was about horrendous costs, the winner being the winner and no one uses AV so why should we.

In terms of the costs even David Blunkett from the No campaign admits they were made up. Sadly as with most lies once they are out there they are difficult to retract.

The Yes campaign needed to create a real need for change similar to Barack Obama in the presidential campaign. They should have got us all voting for AV because it was the right thing to do. Sadly the fact that it was fairer never seemed to be the one message. Although one good thing about the Yes campaign which cannot be said about the no campaign is that it was very clean and fair. They didn't tell lies they hoped the truth would speak for itself. Alas it was not to be.

Finally no one uses AV, again a message that got lost somewhere in the maelstrom is that actually the political parties uses AV to elect their leaders. David Cameron was actually elected by a type of AV election.

Time to leave it there and move on.

Vote Yes for fairer votes, 10 reasons to vote Yes to AV

First up, my political affiliation decleration. I am very firmly in the YES camp, having experienced the unfairness of first past the post elections as a lowly liberal democrat voter I want my second vote to count. In previous elections my vote was counted for the Liberal Democrats, they dont get first past the post and my vote is lost, no real democratic power in my hands. In any new AV vote my second vote would count for Labour which could change the vote and keep the Tories out, real democratic power returned to my hands.

To put it simply AV works for me.

Ten reasons to vote for AV:

1. It makes MPs work harder

Seriously are you actually considering voting against something that makes MP's work harder to earn your vote. Under AV they would have to appeal to the massess (over 50%) not just a minority to guarantee an election win.

2. Its simple

For the voter it is simple rather than one cross, you rank the candidates in order of preference i.e. 1,2,3,4. You can rank as many or as few as you like. So unlike first past the post you can actually say more than just I want them, you can say I like them second and I really hate them and they would be my last choice. Really who wouldnt want the opportunity to say that in a vote.

The counting side of things is slighty more complicated, but not by much. Everyone is capable of understanding it and that is why the no campaign dont want to focus on how it works. In therms of first past the post, the simplest solution is not always the best.

Dont take my word for it, take a poll for the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)

As IPPR Director Nick Pierce says: “This poll appears to show that when people engage with AV and are given a chance to try out the system of voting preferences, their support for change grows. It also shows that people can readily understand how AV works and don’t find it too complex.”

3. One opportunity for political reform

This is probably the one opportunity in our lifetimes to make a stand and change the political landscape. Just because first past the post has been here for years doesnt mean we shouldnt change it. AV is inherently fairer so lets vote for fairness, change is good, ask Barack Obama.

We do not need to stick with a 19th century voting system that it is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century. Time moves on and things change, the time for change is now!

4. The people against change

Just look at some of the people in the no campaign. The BNP are in the no camp, if they dont think its a good idea is that not something we should be voting for.

5. The people for change

Yes, Nick Clegg is for it and the No campaign would tell you that a vote against AV is a smack in the face of Nick Clegg. Nick Clegg may have done many things but on this he is just supporting a system which is fairer. Don't make a vote for change a vote for a personality. This is a vote for our democratic future not to a vote to settle a score.

Dont forget this is wider than just one party, the AV voting system has cross party support. Many politicians have put aside their differences in order to stand on the same platform and explain why changing to AV is more important than party political differences. This alone should make us, the electorate stand up and listen. If it is that important we need to vote for change.

6. AV is not a new system

It is already in use in other countries although not many and it is in daily use in other elections such as trade uninions, charities, businesses and other organisations.

Although AV isnt used by many countries this should not be a reason to vote against it. Remember politicians like the status quo and dont often give voters the chance to change the system. We, thanks to the Liberal Democrats have been given the opportunity, so lets not waste it. After all someone has to lead, so why not Britain?

7. The weak arguments of the No campaign

The NO campaign cant justify the first past the post system as the fairer system. They dont even try, they sling as much mud as they can and cause as much confusion as they can. One of their best arguments is that the "winner should be the winner" using a sporting analogy. Politics isnt sport and a winner should have more than 50% of the vote.

Vote for a system where the winner actually is the winner with the majority of the electorate's votes not a system where the winner is the winner due to "lies, damned lies and statistics". A winner should have majority support not minority support.

8. MP's use AV

So it cant be that unfair or unworkable if MPs already use AV or a similar system. If its good enough for them surely its good enough for us.

9. Vote AV, vote local

In any election you are voting for your local representive, under the AV system you will have more of a say on who that person is or isnt. Vote for a system where you can elect the person that you really want to represent you.

10. Vote for a fairer vote and fairer politics

The NO campaign has been a dirty campaign, lets tell the politicians that we see through their pathetic smear campaigns, that we are not as dumb as they think we are and vote for fairer, clearer less polarised voting campaigns. Under AV alienating voters by using smear campaigns would loose them more votes, AV would be more about appealing to all voters so even if they are not their first choice you become their second of third choice.

In summary, vote for change, vote for fairness, VOTE FOR AV on May 5, 2011.

References:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hardeep-singh-kohli-ignore-cricketers-listen-to-er-a-comedian-2268939.html

http://www.yestofairervotes.org/content/

http://www.ippr.org/pressreleases/?id=4435

http://www.yestofairervotes.org/pages/speaking-notes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/16/av-vote-ashdown-osborne-tactics

A Human Psychology Premise

This is something I was discussing on-line in some high brow chat room. Yes, they do exist if you know where to look.

The discussion was about morality and whether a moral issue was black or white. My argument was that no issue could be purely black or white because of the human factor, in reality every issue was a shade of grey. It could perhaps look black or white but if you looked really closely there would be a hint of white or a hint of black.

There is a test for this premise:

"For a moral issue to be pure black or white every (sane) person on the planet must unanimously agree that it is so."

Now as no moral issue can pass this test moral issues can only be a shade of grey.

Now before anyone says what about this, just think would every single person in the world agree that it was 100% right or wrong.

I am not saying you cant get close I am just saying you will never be spot on. It is a hypothetical thought premise, nothing more nothing less. It really doesn't effect whether a moral issue is inherently good or inherently bad. All the premise really states is that you cant have unanimous verdict only a significant majority verdict.

Libya No fly zone - some quick thoughts

I do think this is a positive move, a no fly zone is a step to protect civillians and is a proportionate response to the situation. I am slightly concerned about the wiggle room Resolution 1973 gives member states to protect the citizens of Libya short of putting an occupation force on the ground. There is a lot of room basically to wipe out Col Gaddaffi's forces wherever they congregate in any numbers under the Resolution as whilst he remains committed to wiping out the opposition any attack on his armed forces would reduce the risk to the civilian population.

However, just because a power is given under a resolution doesn't mean it has to be used. Sensible heads will hopefully prevail.

Of course David Cameron has been at the forefront of efforts to impose the no fly zone. If you were being cynical you would suggest that he has spotted an opportunity to save himself by being the international statesman. In history the Falkland Islands gave Margaret Thatcher the same opportunity. Of course even if he has spotted an opportunity it doesn't really matter as long as the civilian population are protected.

Another cynical comment is that what would be really handy to operate a no fly zone would be an aircraft carrier full of harrier jump jets. It is such a shame we mothballed one last month. Still Mr Cameron, probably not the time for a full u-turn.

Uplifting Songs

I thought I would start linking to songs that make you feel good, that uplift your soul.

First up - Katy Perry - Firework



"You just got to ignite and let it shine!"

The video is good too, it has me thinking about creating a video of some sort. Think short film or something.

Second - Bruno Mars - Just the way you are



Again excellent video, love the way they have used the tape thread in an animation sequence.

"When I see your face, there is not a thing that I would change, cos your amazing just the way you are"

Now don't you all feel better.

The humle red band part 2

The infamous red bands I have previously blogged about have been the subject of a magazine article on the BBC.

BBC News: 10 uses for the humble red band

Who would have thought it, other people think about these things too.

Save our forests update

Well as usual I got stuck on the Tony Baldry specific issue mailing list. Tony stuck to his guns saying that privatisation of the forests was the right thing to do, even sending me an email debunking the 10 myths spread about by the press. One day later the Secretary of State cancelled the sell off.

Funny isn't it how someone can be so adamant that privatisation is so right and then have to flip there position because their leader do so. At least I assume Tony will now say that he is listening to the will of the people and joining with David Cameron to support the public in keeping the forest in public hands. He hasn't yet sent me an email telling me this but I am sure this is his new view.

One of the big issues I have with party politics is that it prevents individuals doing what they think is right or having independent thought. If Tony disagrees with David then fine, please come back to me and say that you still support privatisation of the forests. At the moment I suspect that you only follow the party line and I have no real evidence that you truly stand up for what you believe in,

As a voter I want to know you are voting with your head and heart on behalf of your constituents not just being a loyal supporter of David.

Anyway the next issue coming up is Alternative Voting (AV) - the transferable vote. Watch this space. I am leaning towards the "Yes" camp but I do want to explore the issues fully first.

Save our forests

Over 230,000 people have put their name to a petition calling on the government to save our national forest for future generations. If you haven't already signed the position, do so now, come back and read the rest of this article later.

The Tory government have as usual gone for the privatise everything that moves method of politics, the fact that they can do so under the guise of essential cuts is all the better. Basically they have already sold off 15% of the Forestry Commission land (the maximum they can do without new legislation) without asking or consulting with the public and now they want to sell of the other 85%. Unfortunately they do have to put it into legislation in order to get rid of the remaining woodland.

I like many others are absolutely disgusted that David Cameron can sell off the nations heritage. David will sell anything worth selling to greedy private investors who are not capable stewards working in the public interest. David and the investors just see cash instead of trees, they have no interest in nature, no thought of nurture, no interest in public access and no regard for a sustainable future. They want to steal our woodland and David Cameron is basically holding the gate open while they drive off with it.

As well as signing the petition you should write / email your MP, it is what they are there for, to represent the will of the people.

My MP already has my email, we shall see what he has to say.

Shakespeare's Monkey

Most people have heard of the theory that a monkey given an infinite amount of time and a computer will eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare.

I of course wanted to test the theory, I do random things like that sometimes.

Rather than digitise the complete works of Shakespeare I thought I would start with the famous phrase:

"To be or not to be"

So programmed in perl with a mysql database attached a random number generator tries to recreate the famous phrase. With a bit of calculation it works out the percentage match and records the monkey world record.

Try it for yourself here - Monkey Shakespeare.

Snow Watch Leg 3

According to the latest met office weather warnings there is a good chance of snow across most of the country on Thursday.

Updates will follow

Source: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/images/snow-depth-2-Dec-2010-0900.jpg

Check this out for a map of the lying snow. Adding insult to injury at Snow Watch Headquarters is that we are right in the middle of that small finger of no snow in the middle of the country. 50 miles in either direction and you have piles of it but nothing here.

Current update: little lying snow left with the odd flake in the air, bitterly cold.

Snow Watch Leg 2 update

Well the blizzards did not materialise, believe it or not I am in the small part of the country which has got away with only 1 / 2 cm of snow. Yet travel 50 miles east, south or north and you see feet and inches of the stuff.

The main roads are completely clear and even the estate back roads are only slightly icy. Its hard to reconcile the tv news saying the whole country has come to a complete halt when all of us in Oxfordshire are going about our normal hum drum lives.

Of course next week the situation could be completely reversed.

I am sure it is absolutely terrible in Scotland and in the north east but I cant help secretly liking the idea of 100cm of lying snow. A once in a life time experience, one you would perhaps rather reflect on by the pool in 32 degrees of sunshine but an experience none the less.

All we can expect round here over the next few days are a few night snow showers.

Snow Watch Winter 2010/11 - Leg 1 Update and new Leg 2

Well this season has got off with back to back legs.

Leg 1 Update

This was the snow that was due today. The warnings were quickly downgraded over the last couple of days and in the end we just got a "shake" of snow overnight. For non snow watch regulars a shake is what you would get if you get an icing sugar duster and give it a shake. It has already almost vanished. Judging by the cloud cover although snow like, it does not have that heavy pregnant look so it seems that is pretty much the end of leg 1.

1254 hours: Very slight flakes in the air

Leg 2 - Blizzard Watch

Yes, you heard it right the met office put out an early warning for Tuesday yesterday with a chance of blizzards:

Rain is expected to spread northwards during the day, turning to snow widely as it does so. Strong northeasterly winds will also be a feature, perhaps reaching gale force in exposed areas. This will lead to the potential for blizzard conditions in places, with significant disruption a possibility. At present, these conditions seem likely to continue into Wednesday.

Issued at: 1144 Fri 26 Nov

This is expected to cover the whole of the south of England. A couple of technical weather points for you. Snow usually comes down from the north, when it comes from the south it turns from rain to snow as it moves to the north. In addition if the new low pressure overwhelms the cold high pressure (already in place) then it may warm up increasing the likelihood of rain. Basically for the best snow fall you want to be on the cold side of the pressure battleground giving maximum snow. Of course if it is cold enough and the pressures are finally balanced you also get a heavy snow fall.

So snow could be on the way up from the south but it may fall as rain, or fall as rain first. Only updates from the met office will give us a better idea of what is going to happen.

For a bit of fun, here is an artist's impression of me standing in a blizzard. If you look very closely you can see me waving.

Of course while I have been writing this article the met office have given their daily update, blizzards has been changed to heavy and drifting snow on Tuesday for the east and not the south of England. The good news is that I am still due to get some.





Latest met office update is:

There is a moderate risk of severe weather affecting northern and eastern parts of the UK. Strong north-easterly winds and heavy snow showers will lead to accumulations of 5 to 10cm quite widely and up to 20cm in places. There may also be some drifting of snow in the wind.

Issued at: 1158 Sat 27 Nov

There are also warnings out for Wednesday for snow although not for Oxfordshire although that could change over the coming days.

More analysis and news from North Oxfordshire Snow watch in due course.

Snow Watch Winter 2010/11 - Leg 1

Snow is on its way.

For a very early start to the season we have our first weather advisory issued for North Oxfordshire this Saturday there is a moderate chance of heavy snow with potential for accumulations of 1 - 5 cm.

Now as many seasoned snow veterans know a weather advisory does not automatically mean a blizzard especially 4 days out from the actual event. This could be downgraded or upgraded as we get closer to Saturday.

The good news is that snow showers are forecast from Thursday onwards.

Watch the met office for an update tomorrow lunchtime. Watch this space, will the season start with full on snow or will it turn into a damp squib. Only time will tell.

Train overcrowding: how to fight back.

Ever since this article on the BBC a couple of weeks ago thoughts have been running through my head about how the humble commuter, fed up with being treated worse than a sardine can fight back.

Of course we are only in this position because the companies themselves and the government refuse to do anything about it. Mind you, I am guessing if they were all faced with having to travel by train on a daily basis and not in first class they would quickly do something about it. Lord Young and others are probably at least privately thinking that commuters have never had it so good.

As far as I can work out there are only two ways we can attack the problem.

Breach of Contract (Small claims court)

This I envisage working similar to the banking charges saga. The BBC article linked gave me the signpost.

Under their franchise agreements train operators are required to use "reasonable endeavours" to give peak passengers "a reasonable expectation of a seat within 20 minutes of boarding"

Not exactly great legally crisp wording but there is something here we can work with. Essentially if the conditions are not met you could perhaps claim that the train operator has broken their contract with you which was made when you purchased the ticket based on all relevant legislation and contracts including the franchise agreement.

All we have to do is sort out the test of reasonableness to see if you can make a claim. First we need a reference period. The train operator would clearly be able to wriggle out of a claim if it was based on 1 or 2 journeys or the train was late, weather delays, other delays or delays outside of its control. So lets say 5 journeys on the same train or at around the same time would constitute a reasonable reference period. This is a week of commuting or five regular journeys over a different period.

Now the line states that you have a reasonable expectation of finding a seat within 20 minutes. So any journey under 30 minutes (must be scheduled journey time not actual journey time) is not going to be worth claiming for, again you would need to take into account any delays, which would not count towards the 30 minutes.

Next a reasonable expectation of finding a seat, in order to prove this you would have to walk up and down the carriages looking for a seat, so the best thing to do is only claim when you cannot walk up and down the carriages as clearly in this circumstance you do not have a reasonable chance of finding a seat.

Again if you wanted to be really clever and possibly evil you could find a railway employee and ask them if you have a reasonable expectation of finding a seat on the train (use that exact wording). This would be extra juicy evidence against the company as they are a representative of the company giving a professional opinion. You could also consider collecting witness statements from people on the same train. Don't worry too much about witness statements as the onus would be on the company to prove you wrong, plus as long as overcrowding is regular if they contested it you could take a video camera on the next journey. The company cant make the problem go away over night.

You would also need to submit evidence of tickets, at least the photocopies. If it is not a season ticket you may wish to consider submitting the originals or at the very least offering to surrender the ticket if your claim is subject to refund. Obviously with a season ticket you can submit a copy. Also note that any claim should only be for the contested journeys, you cant claim a refund of a season ticket based on five journeys. In this case you must work out the proportion of the ticket that relates to those journeys.

So in summary to make a claim you need to fulfil these pre-requisites:

• Scheduled journey time of over 30 minutes
• 5 journeys on the same train or 5 journeys at roughly the same time over a regular frequency
• a valid ticket
• details of the trains travelled on
• Unable to walk up and down to find a seat

If you have fulfilled all these requirements then you can start a similar two step process to the reclaim of bank charges.

Step 1 is write to the train company, perhaps something like this:

Dear Customer Services,

I am writing to complain about the state of overcrowding on your peak time trains. As a regular user it is clear to me that you are doing nothing to address overcrowding and are therefore in breach of the commitment in your franchise agreement:

"train operators are required to use reasonable endeavours to give peak passengers a reasonable expectation of a seat within 20 minutes of boarding

Here are the details of the trains I travelled on, the journey times and my comments on the availability of seats:

etc etc

I have also enclosed a copy of my ticket/s for your reference.

You have 28 days to reply to this letter detailing the steps you will take to solve the overcrowding issues on these trains. In addition, I am claiming a full refund for the price of the tickets attached as you have clearly and persistently failed to fulfil the terms of agreement under which they were bought.

If you do not provide satisfactory recompense within 28 days then you will leave me with no choice but to pursue the matter through the civil courts.

Yours sincerely etc.

Sit back and wait for a response, the options here are that you get ignored, fobbed off or offered some compensation.

If you get ignored, check their customer service agreement and write one more time quoting their customer service agreement and giving them a final 28 days to reply. You may wish to copy in the Managing Director, chances are the letter will just get forward on the customer services department and match up with your other letter, but you never know. If the ignore you a second time then you have now made every reasonable endeavour to resolve the matter with the company (this will be important in any legal claim) and you can now put in your claim with the courts for full compensation.

If they fob you off, reply re-iterating your position detailing the breach of agreement and detail any more subsequent experiences. Then as above head to the small claims court.

If you get offered some compensation my personal advice would be to take it, even if it is not the full amount. The fact that they have offered you compensation and you have refused to take it would count in the company's favour in any claim. So best to take what's offered and make a new claim in the future if they do not take "reasonable actions" to avoid overcrowding.

Of course the first few claims will be hard but if one ends up at court and the commuter wins then like the bank charges that is a legal precedent which will pave the way for everyone to claim and companies will start paying up at the letter stage. They will also quite quickly start addressing capacity issues as it now hurting their profits.

At the moment this is an idea, but you never know it just might work. If anyone does try the above approach can you keep us up-to-date with any responses etc. I am quite happy to post any rail company responses, good or bad.

Health and Safety

The other approach I have thought about is claiming a fundamental breach of your health and safety if you are required to stand. However, anecdotally there seems to be no research which shows you are at higher risk in an overcrowded train. So this seems to be a non starter unless anyone knows of any research or can commission some.

Finally, I should also mention that I am not a regular commuter on trains, but have on occasion had to commute into London where the train has been totally rammed with people. So despite a good idea I am unable to follow up on it myself.

How to... compare salaries

Another how to article for thesalaryconverter.com

How to ... compare salaries

So you want to compare several different salaries. Let say you are looking at a number of jobs where the salaries are listed as £14,000 per annum, £250 per week, £1200 per month and £7.85 per hour.

Job Number	salary
1	£14000 per annum
2	£250 per week
3	£1200 per month
4	£7.85 per hour

You could sit down with a pen and paper, scratch your head any maybe find a way to compare them or you could let thesalaryconverter.com take the strain.

Step 1 is to decide what rate you feel most comfortable with, do you want everything converted into a per hour rate or an annual rate. Which is better for you, for most people they want to compare it to their existing salary so it would be whatever you know you current salary rate to be.

Let's say we have decided to convert everything to per hour rate.

So using the calculator we put in "14000" select "Annual" and press convert. Looking at the hourly rate it converts to £7.26.

Using the calculator again we put in "250" select "Weekly" and press convert. The hourly rate turns out to be £6.76.

Using the calculator for the third job we put in "1200" select "Monthly" and press convert. The hourly rate turns out to be £7.46.

We don't have to convert the last salary as it is already in per hour.

So we now have the following conversions:

Job Number	salary	Per hour conversion
1	£14000 per annum	£7.26
2	£250 per week	£6.76
3	£1200 per month	£7.46
4	£7.85 per hour	£7.85

It turns out that that the job number four is the best paid job but of course pay isn't may not be the only reason to take that job.

Try the online calculator for yourself.