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.
Leopards Don’t Change Their Spots
I’ve just had some spam, trying to get me to sign up to Coral Bookmakers.
As I have a betting shop near me and an on-line account, I don’t need another.
So who is the Chief Executive of Coral? None other than Andy Hornby, who is one of the HBOS Three.
Some people never learn, how to run a business!
You Should Check Your Tweets
This cautionary tale of an MP, who tweeted a link to a porn site by mistake, should be read by anybody, who just retweets, stories, that they are told to.
At least, as I do all my blogging from my computer, I can check what I point to, before publishing.
Why Do Web Sites Get Redesigned?
I’ve used the East Midland Trains web site, many times in the last few years and have found it excellent.
But now it has had a makeover and I had to have a couple of attempts to get my tickets for the Ipswich match at Derby.
I always book a return in First Class, with the outrun being timed to get to the destination by something like 14:00 and then a fetch after 17:00 to get back to London. Usually, this is because, I won’t find anything to eat in the destination and so go straight to the ground. As Pride Park is close to Derby station, this would definitely be the case at Derby.
But the site kept telling me, I’d put in the wrong times, as I suspect someone had got his checking wrong. It was only, when the site handed me over to the ticketing engine behind the booking site, did I get some sense.
In the end, I’m travelling from London to Derby and back for the extortionate price of £29. And that’s in First Class with tea and drinks! If there are any snacks, I’ll forgo them, as they won’t be gluten free.
I Don’t Care About Cookies
I look at a lot of web sites and every one seems to get more and more strident about asking whether I mind if they store cookies on my computer.
I wouldn’t use their web site if I minded would I?
An aside here is why isn’t the the form of mind, I used in the previous line, mound? After all it’s find and found, bind and bound and wind and wound.
Isn’t English wonderful!
A Survey From Marks and Spencer
I got a survey request apparently from Marks and Spencer this morning. If I entered the survey, I would have a chance to win a prize of £10,000 in my local store.
That sounded generous and as it would be difficult to spend that in the local store at either the Islington or Hackney stores, my spam filter kicked in with a strong positive.
I then saw that it was sent to my old e-mail address and not the one I normally use and it also came from an e-mail address that didn’t shout Marks and Spencer.
But it looked very genuine and professional and even had an unsubscribe link. I clicked that and got a feasible unsubscribe page.
But in Italian!
I have since phoned marks and Spencer and they will investigate.
The e-mail address it came from had clash and clnews8 in the address.
If you get any from these jokers, use the delete key.
P&O Cruises Wi-Fi
I can accept that wi-fi on my P&O cruise was expensive, but quite frankly it wasn’t the best.
They did put in a disclaimer that it was slow and again that I will agree with, as satellites aren’t the best way to connect to the Internet. I’ve used it myself in the past and even that with a dish fixed to the ground had problems.
But I will take issue with the login and the account, which I highlighted here, as it wasn’t the easiest one to connect to, if you accepted the speed. Typing the password on a small Samsung tab device is not easy, especially when it has to use a name it doesn’t usually use. It could have been a lot better, if I compare it with the systems on some of the train companies, which surely have a similar connection to the Internet problem, although they can use the mobile phone network.
I also found a couple of times, that the system didn’t disconnect properly and consequently, I lost some of the wi-fi minutes I’d bought. It didn’t worry me too much, but some will get angry.
If I went on a P&O cruise again, I wouldn’t use the wi-fi, but rely on the normal 3G coverage, I got in the ports, which was generally excellent.
The Same Name Problem
The two names I habitually use aren’t the most uncommon and I’ve met more than a few individuals, who use the same pair of names. I also own the .com domain for the names, which must give me a certain precedence.
But at registration for my P&O cruise, I found that I was not alone and because of this my account was changed to the first name that only my mother, my passport, HMRC and the DWP use. It worked after a fashion, although some staff seemed confused that I was travelling under a different name. But checking my statement after the cruise, there doesn’t seem to be any charges that I hadn’t made.
It did give me a bit of a problem with the wi-fi, as my Samsung tablet computer has my used name in its memory and always used that, which meant, there was a lot of typing at each login.
I have a feeling, that their system hasn’t had the requisite amount of testing.
You can always rely that when you program a computer, there will always be a set of obscure circumstances, that you feel will never happen.
But of course they will!
In this case of course they did, but no financial harm was done to any party involved. I just suffered the login inconvenience.
Unbreakable Passwords
Passwords are one of the things that the Internet and computer systems often get wrong.
How many times, does your chosen password, which is of a type that has been acceptable on Site A, been unacceptable on Site B?
There are two things, I really hate.
The first is sites that generate your initial password as a string of characters, which need to be cut and pasted into the logon. I’ve even found sites, that don’t let you change the password. Is there a better way to piss off your clients? There are several shopping sites, I’ve used in the past that think they are being clever and secure. In fact, they’re being stupid and I’ve never used their sites a second time.
The other is passwords that insist you use the shift key for at least one character. As I have trouble with shift and generally span my right hand to type upper case characters, which is not a reliable process, any site that insists on that type of password is out. So I never use a credit card with Verified by Visa on-line. This would be helped if all sites were like Zopa and allowed you to show the password, as you type it in.
So could we come up with better passwords, we’d always remember, that are totally unbreakable?
Here’s a few ideas!
My first car was a 1946 Austin 8. I still remember the registration, which was three letters followed by three numbers. Not long enough for some sites and rightly so, but this would be totally unbreakable, as how many criminals, would know the registration of the first car you owned. If you were someone like me, getting towards the last few decades of your life, it could be a good password. You could even have the simple password hint of “First Car” If I wanted a secure password, who could break it, if I used the registration number of the first Porsche I owned! I doubt that even my son, would know that registration.
And then there are memorable phone numbers and addresses from childhood. I doubt, there are few people, who don’t know these from where they grew up. Certainly, I was told to memorise them, so that if I got lost, I could find my way home.
I can also remember the address and phone number of my father’s print works as 38-44 Station Road and Bowes Park 2165.
The great things about passwords like these, is that you can write them down or put them in something like Outlook as say First Car or First Married Address and nobody will know them, except perhaps your partner or child.
There is a password strength checker here on Microsoft’s web site. It rated bowespark2165 as a strong password. It’s also easy to type.
In my view passwords must be easily memorable, as suppose you want access to say your credit card account in an emergency and you have to do it by using the memorable data, you don’t want it to be something you can’t recall.
