BT Are Making A Big Play For Customers
BT seem to be pulling out the stops to get customers to use their broadband services to get sporting TV, and especially football.
BT Are Making A Big Play For Customers
As I’m a customer of BT Vision, I don’t need to do anything.
100,000 Downloads And Still Counting
The 3D-printable gun has now been downloaded over a hundred thousand times according to this report on the BBC. Here’s part of the report.
Californian senator Leland Yee said he wanted a law passed to stop the manufacture of 3D-printed guns.
“I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check,” he said in a statement.
According to Defense Distributed, most of the 100,000 downloads have been in the US, followed by Spain, Brazil, Germany and the UK.
The blueprint has also been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, where it has become the most popular file in the site’s 3D-printing category.
Calls to make such a gun illegal and stop the downloading, will fall on deaf ears. After all to create an illegal gun factory, all you need is a few thousand pounds or dollars to buy a quality 3D printer. Many aspire to have a weapon for personal protection or to settle scores with rivals or neighbours.
This gun is still crude and what worries me is not this gun, but the follow on designs, that will be possible as 3D printing gets more affordable and a lot better.
How long will it be before a crime is committed using a gun, that has been downloaded from the Internet and printed?
American Express Password Problem
I should say first that it wasn’t AMEX, who had the problem, but me, as I’d forgotten, what my login to their site was. I never write anything down or store it on the computer, so I had a problem, as the Mark One brain had forgotten it.
But their site is very professional in the way it dealt with someone like me.
Firstly, it asked me to enter my card details, and then it sent me a temporary password to login to the site.
This password was a six character alpha-numeric code, with the alpha characters in upper case.
On typing this in to the site with my customer ID, I was able to get in and change my password.
AMEX passwords are simple and must be a mixture of alpha and numeric characters, where case is irrelevant.
All very simple and as it’s AMEX, I suspect it’s a lot more secure than it looks in the first instance.
If all websites had such good security and simple passwords, on-line systems would be much more secure.
Ed Balls and Twitter
You can read what you like into this story about Ed Balls handling of Twitter.
I would just ask one question. Would you like to see this politician in charge of the economy?
How Not To Deal With Deceased Customers
Virgin Media is called over the coals in this article on the BBC web site, where they messed up over the account of someone who’d died.
When C died, I didn’t have anything similar although dealing with some organisations was more difficult than others. I actually had a letter published in The Times about it.
I was widowed last year, and it is only now that I’m starting to get my life together. The response of the various government and local authority departments in handling all the paperwork involved has been very patchy.
Registrars: excellent, very sympathetic and efficient; Work and Pensions: bereavement allowance came through with a few hiccups, but not too difficult; Premium Bonds: system worked but could have been better; council tax: this was reduced automatically on signing a form by St Edmundsbury — totally painless; DVLA: its online systems worked well; winter fuel payment: found difficult to claim and missed it for last year.
The private sector wasn’t that much better, with some companies having people whose sole job appeared to be to deal with bereavement faring much better than those that didn’t. Some wanted death certificates, some accepted faxed copies and others took my word.
We need a lot more joined-up thinking in this important area, as, with nearly a million deaths in the UK every year, it would surely help the bereavement process for those left behind if every company, organisation, government department and authority were automatically notified. After all, if St Edmundsbury can do it here in supposedly sleepy Suffolk, then surely everyone else can.
The best private company was undoubtedly Carphone Warehouse, who had a dedicated person dealing with the accounts of customers who’d died. They even sent me a refund, which I spent on a good bottle of wine.
More From The Institute Of Economics and Peace
the web site of the The Institute Of Economics and Peace is fascinating.
Shown here, is a comparison of the various US States. As most would expect, Maine and Vermont are at the top, but to me, there are some surprising states in the bottom ten.
And here is a global terrorism index.
Both reports have very good interactive maps.
I think research like this is invaluable, when it comes to sorting out the world.
So What Is M-Pesa?
In the post on the Scottish currency, I mentioned M-Pesa. So what is it? I started by reading the Wikipedia entry. Here’s the initial paragraph.
In April 2007, following a student software development project from Kenya, Safaricom launched a new mobile phone based payment and money transfer service, known as M-Pesa. The service allows users to deposit money into an account stored on their cell phones, to send balances using SMS technology to other users (including sellers of goods and services), and to redeem deposits for regular money. Users are charged a small fee for sending and withdrawing money using the service. M-Pesa has spread quickly, and has become the most successful mobile phone based financial service in the developing world. By 2012, a stock of about 17 million M-Pesa accounts had been registered in Kenya.
The initial work of developing the product was given to a product and technology development company known as Sagentia. Development and second line support responsibilities were transferred to IBM in September of 2009, to where most of the original Sagentia team transferred.
It sounds a lot more sophisticated than anything we’ve got here! Especially, as it works on the humblest of Nokia mobile phones!
It’s developments like this, that will empower individuals and kill off the unnecessary wunch, that some still call bankers.
Looking Under A Friend’s Mouse
From Cambridge yesterday, I was picked up by a mate to have a drink before I went on to the football. I found this mess under their mouse.
Looking Under A Friend’s Mouse
It is no wonder the computer wasn’t working too well.
But then as you can see it’s an Apple and they never work for me. I must be allergic to them!
Dalston Junction Station Gets Free Wi-Fi
My local station now has free wi-fi.
Dalston Junction Station Gets Free Wi-Fi
Not that I had my tablet with me this morning!
Bitcoin
A Leader in today’s Times has alerted me to Bitcoin. this is a sort of mission statement from their web site.
Bitcoin uses peer to peer technology to operate with no central authority; managing transactions and issuing Bitcoins are carried out collectively by the network. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment systems.
As a software man, I think it could be a good idea.
But according to The Times, it has been a preferred method of payment for drug-related transactions.
They also think is could be another bubble, as does the Telegraph.
But the thought of a peer-to-peer transaction network, unencumbered by credit cards and bank charges has a certain appeal.
I shall be watching, but I don’t think I’ll be using it yet!
In the meantime, ideas like this, are just another reason to get rid of your bank shares.
The Anonymous Widower 