A Clever Phishing E-Mail Supposedly From O2
I just received an e-mail supposedly from O2 asking me to change my user name. This is the body.
Hello ,
We recently asked you to change your O2 Username.
To change the username to email please click on this link below to confirm this email and finish changing your username.
To keep your details safe, this link will only work for 48 hours from the time it was sent, so please click it now.
Sorry, but we can’t write back to you from this address, so please don’t reply to it. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Services.
I am a customer of O2, but I never access them on-line, so I was a bit puzzled to start with. I then noticed it came to an old e-mail address, I only used for support on a company I owned. I then checked the headers and found that the e-mail came from Turkey.
It didn’t fool me, but it does show that phishing e-mails are getting more credible.
Ten Big Mistakes
This piece on the BBC web site lists ten of the greatest mistakes of all time. They do have one from the Liverpool Echo.
The Liverpool Echo, in a rare error, once described Violet, the mother of the Kray twins, as “Mrs Violent Kray”.
I disagree with the statement it was a rare error. Fritz Spiegl, wrote a whole book on the subject of errors in Liverpool’s evening paper.
One I actually saw, was when they referred to the 1697 Arab-Israeli War.
Knowing the city well, as I do, I was always a bit suspicious that some of mistakes in the paper were not as accidental, as many would believe!
My First Real Fish And Chips In Thirty Years
I’ve never been a great one for greasy fish and chips in newspaper and my late wife, C, wasn’t either. Although, when we lived in St. John’s Wood, we did occasionally get a takeaway from Sea Shell in Lisson Grove. But even in the 1960s, that was of a different quality to for example the chip shop. I remember in East Barnet close to my mother-in-law’s.
Yesterday I read in Giles Coren’s restaurant review in The Times of The Fish and Chip Shop in Upper Street, Islington. I passed it yesterday whilst shopping, popped in and found they could do gluten-free fish and chips. So later in the day, I returned with my son for supper.
The Fish And Chip Shop, Islington
I had plaice in a gluten-free batter and my son had a fish curry. We both found the food excellent and I finished off with an ice cream, the quality and flavour of which, probably betrayed the usual source of most good ice cream in restaurants in the northern and central parts of London; Marine Ices in Camden Town.
The one problem with the restaurant was that we were a bit cramped on the bar, so if you’re thinking of going, book early. My son and I usually decide to go for a meal, perhaps an hour or so before, so we tend to end up in somewhere like Carluccio’s, Pizza Express or Côte, where booking is optional early in the evening or at lunchtime.
On the other hand, as it is very convenient for me, with the 30 bus stop opposite, it’s one of those restaurants, where if I need supper because my fridge is empty or the cooking has gone wrong, I’ll go and sit on the bar and partake of a plaice and chips. As Giles Coren said in his review, the chips are nice, proper, potatoey English chip shop chips.
Eating out in my local area has just got better!
Should We Have Unit Pricing For Energy?
Go back thirty years or more and you paid for what you used with energy. I’m not sure if you paid a standing charge, akin to a telephone line rental, but you knew exactly where you stood. If you used more electricity you paid more money.
Now it is not as simple and to be cynical, I think the energy companies like it that way, as customers find it hard to compare prices.
So when EDF suggests going back to simple pricing, as is stated in this report, do I think it is a good thing?
Of course I do!
But there is something we need even more urgently and that is a smart meter, so we can see how much electricity and gas we are using.
I haven’t seen any reports yet, but a smart meter connected to a smart phone and then linked back to smart heating controls, must save a lot of money. Just think of this simple case. Do you switch your central heating on and off, at the most optimum times. Without information you’re just fishing in the dark.
But I doubt I’ll ever see unit pricing and smart metering, as the energy companies will do all they can to delay its implementation.
My Packing List
I’m off tomorrow on the 11:30 British Airways flight to Stockholm. I’ve booked a hotel for the first two nights and then it’s home on the train by way of Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Brussels, although the route might change, as I want to visit places I’ve not seen before.
I will be travelling light, in fact some would think ultra light and everything will have to go in my Mandarina Duck case.
My Mandarina Duck Case
It fits under the seat in front on the plane, even on a low-space airline, and I carry it in my left hand.
I don’t take much technology with me.
- A Nikon CoolPix S8200
- A spare SD card in my wallet, as I always leave the one I’m using in my computer
- A simple Nokia phone
- A Samsung Tab 2 7 tablet computer
- Charging leads for camera, phone and tab. Why can’t they all have the same charger fitting?
- Three simple Bic pens, as buying single ones is often difficult.
- A small note book.
- My Coaguchek device for testing my INR
- My temperature and humidity meter.
My washbag contains the following.
- A battery electric toothbrush
- A small shoe-horn, courtesy of Agnes B. Where it came from, I don’t know, as neither C or myself bought shoes there. But it’s tiny, so it takes up little space.
- My European plug adapter, as I always lose them and this is the best place to keep it.
- A small pot of Vaseline
- 20% more drugs, than I’ll need for the duration of the holiday
I buy a deodorant and toothpaste in Boots after passing through security at the Airport. That way, I avoid the security game that the great and good insist we play.
Clothes are something like.
- Enough underpants and socks for the trip. usually that’s one per day, as if I run out or get some sort of lurgy, I can buy some more.
- One or two spare shirts, often still in the wrapping, as that way they don’t get so creased in transit.
- A jumper if required.
At this time of year, I generally don’t take a spare pair of trousers or shoes, but I might this time. If I need anything, I’ll buy them. After all, it’s not as if I’m going somewhere where good shops aren’t around.
If I do take a pair of shoes, I make sure I pack them with something like underpants or socks.
Other things I always take include.
- Four or five small packs of tissues.
- Plenty of Sudokus printed from The Times.
- Some EatNakd bars.
- Some reading, which being Sunday, will be the comics from the paper.
- A couple of small city guides for places I’m visiting
A New Approach To Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease
Last night, I received my alumni e-newsletter from Liverpool University. There was this article about a new approach to fighting Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a key sentence.
We are using a new approach, harnessing the natural ability of sugars, based on the blood-thinning drug heparin, to block the action of BACE.
BACE is an enzyme, which according to the article causes some of the problems of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Let’s hope that the research succeeds.
Hopefully Farewell To University College Hospital For A Bit
In March last year I spent a couple of days in University College Hospital, after I collapsed at home on a very hot day.
Today, I went for a check-up and they told me to get lost, as my heart had now returned to normal. Obviously, I’ll have to keep taking the tablets for the rest of my life, but it does mean that I can live a much more normal life.
The consultant said that only a third of those, who end up in the hospital with the heart problem I had, make this sort of recovery.
So perhaps, I’ve been lucky. But then, I put it down to the luck that gave me a double dose of survival genes at conception. If the Jewish genes don’t poke a stick in the Devil’s eyes, the Huguenot ones will get her. Egging them on is a good helping of Devonian stubbornness.
I hope, there’s a few more years in this old London mongrel yet!
Free Travel For Children Cuts Road Injuries
This story in the Standard tells how in London, giving children and teenagers free Oyster travel cards, has cut the number involved in road accidents. The research was performed by the reputable London School or Hygiene and Tropic Medicine and as it is published in a learned journal, it surely is to be trusted.
Just as those over a certain age get free bus transport, this research surely says that all those under a certain one should too! In London the eligibility is stated here for what is called a Zip Oyster. it also gives child fares on the Underground, Overground and the DLR
Do You Look At The Mantelpiece When You’re Stoking The Fire?
This story from the BBC reminds me of that very old joke from years ago.
To add another joke, most of the ladies, I’ve seen, who work in this profession, I wouldn’t touch with any barge pole, let alone mine!
Some might think these sayings are a bit sexist, but I’ve heard my late wife more than once, describe one of her male clients as a paper-bag job!
Foreign Libel Cases Are Still Held In London
Despite the new Defamation Act on which I talked in this post, individuals and companies, who are not ostensibly UK-based, continue to fight libel actions in the UK. Here’s a case reported on the BBC web site.
I can’t say I object to this, as I suspect a few nice fees are trousered by a few lawyers and hopefully, they’ll spend it in the UK to give employment to tailors, builders and a few other trades.
The problem comes, when these sort of cases are pursued against a small individual, like an impoverished blogger, who perhaps has said something like Liberace couldn’t play the piano.
The Anonymous Widower 