Getting Fed Up With Tax Refund Spam
For the last few days, I had several of that old chestnut the Tax Refund Alert spam message.
Obviously, it must work with idiots out there as why do they persist, but now it is just boring.
It’s a pity, there isn’t a simple way to get back at idiots like this.
For those who phone me trying to scam me, I usually say can you phone me on my alternative number and give them a suitable alternative, like the Fraud Reporting Office of the Metropolitan Police. They never phone back!
Banks Don’t Do Parties
It’s many years, since I had any hospitality courtesy of my bank. It was probably a meal from David, when we were getting each other out of various scrapes.
But last night, one of the peer-to-peer lenders I use, invited me to a party.
One important thing was said, which addresses one of the problems of the peer-to-peer lending market and that was that the major peer-to-peer lenders had asked the government to legislate and bring them under the wing of the Financial Conduct Authority. It will probably happen in the spring of next year, but as with most government legislation, who knows? How many organisations or groups of companies have actually asked to be regulated? I can’t think of one, even outside of the financial area.
There was also a feeling at the party, that the various high-profile payday and short-term lenders cause confusion in consumers’ minds and this didn’t help. Let’s face it, judging by the number of bus and television adverts for these higher cost lenders, the public might even think that peer-to-peer lending didn’t exist or was a very niche product
It would be interesting to know, how many possible borrowers, never check that they might get a better deal from a peer-to-peer lender than their current bank, simply because they don’t know of peer-to-peer lending or don’t know how to contact the lenders? For instance, it would also be interesting to know such things, as how many people with excellent credit ratings, who regularly borrow money, don’t use the Internet!
If I ran a peer-to-peer lender, I’d get someone like YouGov to do a survey! After all, the party last night was a convention of believers, so anything obtained there would be statistically skewed.
The party was also a great place to exchange ideas and investigate how your money was handled. When did your bank last explain to you personally, why they were giving you such a poor rate on your Deposit Account? No one, probably gets decent service out of their bank these days, until they pop their clogs, as only then will the bank lose the easy money they make from that customer.
Happy Hundredth Birthday To Isotopes
I was having a cup of tea in a cafe, when the geologist I was talking to, said that isotopes, were first discovered a hundred years ago, and that there was a bit of a celebration.
I learned about isotopes in my physics many years ago, but now all that I seem to remember is that two isotopes of the same element, have the same numbers of electrons and protons, but differ in the number of neutrons. Carbon for example has three forms, Carbon 12, Carbon 13 and Carbon 14. The three forms all contain six protons and electrons, but 6, 7 and 8 neutrons respectively. If you ever have heard of the Carbon 14 dating of objects, there is an article here, which describes the process.
I used the different isotopes many years ago, in one of the first pieces of decent software I wrote. I was trying to analyse the compounds in the output of a mass spectrometer. The samples contained lots of carbon compounds and I was told that the two common isotopes of Carbon 12 and Carbon 13, were in the ratio of ten to one, which meant that if you had a compound with several carbon atoms, you got a particular pattern. Experienced operators could identify the patterns. So I worked out how to calculate the patterns and match them to the compounds.
So that is how I learned about one of the uses of isotopes in the analysis of compounds.
This was in 1969 and the mechanics of writing the program on a machine with only 4 Kb of memory, were much more difficult than the methods involved.
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.
The Real On-Line Criminals
This article about unfair terms and conditions in agreements with on-line retailers is enlightening.
The companies they name and shame are Microsoft, Netflix and Apple. I never deal with any of these on-line.
I think the only company, I regurlarly give money to over the Internet, that doesn’t have physical presence, is WordPress, where I host this blog. I just give them a few dollars for extra storage and so I can use video. But as Facebook found with Instagram, I would vote with my fingers and move, if they did something I really didn’t like.
The article on the BBC, does give the name of a project that rates the Terms and Conditions of web sites call TOS; DR. It’s here.
ARM Fire Another Shot
My trawl last night picked up this news item about ARM. ARM’s chief marketing officer, Ian Drew, is reported to have said:
Mobile users expect a range of devices at different price points, and for a mid-range mobile experience to include some high end mobile features. With a billion smart phones predicted to ship in 2013, and tablets projected to out-ship notebook PCs, device-makers can now provide quality, high-performance mobile products with the features that matter the most, at a range of price points.
I probably would agree. I for instance don’t use a smart phone, but carry a £10 Nokia phone and a Fuji Coolpix camera. For notes, I carry a small notebook and a couple of pens. So I don’t need a smart phone. I just want something to make and receive calls and text messages. In London, I’m never far from home and there are maps everywhere, so who needs on-line information and maps and the constant terror of e-mail, much of which is spam?
So a mid-range phone might just be the right one for me. But what would be better is a camera, that was wirelessly connected to my phone, so that I could post pictures quickly. If a camera is part of the phone, you inevitably end up with something that is just too big and the sort of device, that is regularly nicked.
I don’t think I’m alone either, in that several of my friends don’t have smart phones.
So have ARM come up with a winner in their new range of processor designed for smaller smart phones and tablets?
I think they have!
Are Google Adverts Sometimes A Waste Of Time?
I buy a lot of things on-line.
Three companies I deal with this way are East Coast Trains, John Lewis and Southern Railway.
As when I want to go to any of these companies web site, I know where to look, surely displaying their embedded adverts in other web sites is a waste of time for me and that advert won’t get me to use their company, as I would anyway.
So they are just preaching to the converted!
Interestingly, I’ve only ever got train company adverts from companies that I use.
So how much of the money paid by companies to Google to promote companies and products is wasted?
Incidentally, I think, I’ve only ever bought one product because of an advert on a web page. I have though thought, that I won’t use that company or product because of their intrusive adverts.
But then i like to think I’m not susceptible to advertising. Or at least in the way that advertisers want me to be!
Don’t Have Your Operation On A Friday
This report on the BBC, about research by Paul Aylin at Imperial College, says that you are more likely to die, if you have your operation towards the end of the week.
Some years ago, my software Daisy, was used to examine the outcomes of surgery in a Regional Health Authority. They found, that the longer a patient was in hospital, the more likely there would be complications.
This data needs a lot more analysis.
I Know How Kevin Phillips Feels
It is being reported that Kevin Phillips penalty kick in the Championship Play-Off Final was worth £120,000,000.
I know to a certain amount how he feels today.
I was part of the team that sold Metier Management Systems to Lockheed for a similar sum in 1985., although with inflation it’s probably worth a lot more today.
As we went about the pre-sales process, we realised we had good methods and software, but everything was rather boring. So I was asked if I could create a version of Artemis with style and charisma. I did nothing else for six weeks, except write software, eat and sleep occasionally, but the result was that we received a lot more money, than we had decided we would accept.
It was the software and business equivalent of Kevin Phillips’s spot kick.
I also have two other characteristics that I share with Kevin. We’re both about the same height of 1.70 metres and we both performed our most important feats at just under forty years of age. He also is a man from North Hertfordshire, whereas I was brought up in that part of London, that used to have a Barnet, Herts postal address.
Spam From H & M With An Italian Unsubscribe
H & M just crossed themselves of my list of shops to use! Not that I actually have done!
I just got spam from them and when I unsubscribed it was all in Italian.
Hopefully, it’s the last I’ll hear from them!
The Anonymous Widower 