They often seem to be inevitable despite efforts made avoid them.

Today’s irritation is the little extra charges that crop up even though you have agreed a price for a product or service.

Just about every time I rent a car there is an extra tax, fee, insurance option. When I use hotels they want a bit more money for local phone calls that I won’t make.

 The latest irritation was a fee for checking my car’s paint and body work when I took it in for service. It was a small fee and “optional” but I felt obliged to pay for it lest I have warranty queries in the future and my refusal is held up against me.

In the past such an inspection has been part of the service, not an extra.

Generally the garage did a good job so far as I can tell, but that was an irritation and cost them some points when they called through today with the courtesy call (which might be the subject of future irritations!).

Looks like Ubuntu’s new look website is using Drupal.

Drupal is now my first choice for creation of websites that need a content management system – a solution where the end users can add their own information without hiring a programmer.

In my last role in industry (healthcare) my employer was spending a fortune on a customised Siebel solution hosted on leased servers. I was underwhelmed by the solution but learned about the features of CRM.

 I have discovered SugarCRM and am going to give it a try for my current situations. Looks like an old PC will easily handle an intranet application for managing members and donors.

 I’ll report back on my findings.