Now Lloyds And The Co-op Drop Us In It
Captain Mainwaring would not have been amused, as yesterday Lloyds and the Co-op seem to have had system errors, or as I prefer to call them programming bugs, in their computers. It’s here on the BBC.
It may have been unrelated but one of my credit cards wouldn’t work on-line yesterday and they asked me to phone them. They said they were just rebooting the computers, and it should be OK in a couple of hours. Do we reboot computers, as we generally give them a good kicking first?
How To Find Those Born On Your Exact Birthday
I was searching for those, who were born on or around my birthday and I’ve found a pretty sure way. Suppose, you’re looking for someone born reasonably famous born on the 30th September 1960. You just type.
wiki “born 30 September 1960”
into Google. Make certain you get the quotes right.
A Stray Airliner?
In my exploration of the Gospel Oak to Barking line, I decided to follow the line on Google Maps. All went well and I was able to see where the electrification stopped and kicked in around South Tottenham. And then I found this image, as the railway passes south of Seven Sisters station.
I wonder how many stray planes are available to view on Google Maps?
Can anybody identify the tail to determine the airline? Judging by the silhouette, it looks like it’s some variant of Boeing 737.
If you want to find it, type “Seven Sisters station” into Google and then select maps. The plane is just south of the station.
As someone, who has over a thousand hours in command of an aircraft, you are taught under Visual Flight Rules to fly with the line feature on your left. So it could be they’ve taken off from Stansted and they’re following the railway. But then, they wouldn’t be under these rules over London, except in very special circumstances.
Identifying the airline would help solve the puzzle!
Bank Transfer Traceability
One thing that annoys me about on-line banking, is that when you pay a bill like a credit card, you often can’t trace it at both ends, as often the reference doesn’t appear for some days. So now, I usually pay them making sure the last two digits are the day of the month. That way it becomes obvious, if the transfer has been made and what it was.
It really all comes down to the fact that banks do not provide full information on their statements. And when they’ve not got it, they don’t even give you a clue!
I would be ashamed if I’d designed such a poor system.
An Interesting Slant On Apple
I found this article on the BBC web site. I like this interesting snippet.
This is what happens when a company is too cheap to invest in research and development. Did you know that Apple spends far less on R&D than any of its rivals – a paltry 2% of revenues, versus 14% for Google and Microsoft?
I’ve run R&D and you must spend to keep ahead of the game. Perhaps, Apple are too interested in making money?
But mugs will still queue up for the iPhone5. I won’t!
Dwelling On Loneliness
I do think that people will admit that my life can be rather lonely.
Although, as someone, who has often worked alone in his life, my state is little different to where I have been before.
As a child, I used to spend hours with my Meccano or just with my father down at his print works in Wood Green.
I was also very much a solitary programmer for much of my working life. Or if I did work with someone, it was just with one person. The only time I really had someone to work with was when I was writing software in the few years after I’d left ICI. And that was our third son, George, who used to sit in his chair, whilst I bashed away on an old Teletype. Occasionally, he’d get taken over to Time Sharing in Great Portland Street and sometimes, the girls in the office would take him away and play with him.
I sometimes wonder what happened to all those girls; Maeve, Maggie and and the Australians; Crystal Hendricks and Marie Thorpe.
But then I’ve always discarded friends throughout my life. only a couple of my school friends are still in touch. But what happened to Sheena Findley, Susan Portch, Caroline and the other girls from my year at Minchenden? C was just as clumsy with friends, as her best friend from school, Ruth Mason, is just a name in the past. She got married and moved to Ruislip, but where is she now?
I did bump into my first girlfriend at Liverpool; Marilyn Garland, once at Swiss Cottage, a few years after leaving University. She had a baby then and is probably a granmother now.
Some of the Metier people I still know, as I must have got better at keeping in touch as I got older.
But I never really was a team player, and that has stood me in good sense, since the death of C.
I do many things I want to on my own. And in some ways, I like it that way.Although I do miss the company of a good woman. A bad one would probably be good to!
Nokia’s Critical Handset Launch
Not my headline, but one on the BBC’s web site, that links you to this story.
Sadly, it’s not a new version of the legendary 6310i, that many want, but some smart phone that they don’t.
It’s apparently based on Windows 8. Come to think of it what’s with Vista that I use.
I’m no technophobhe, but developments in hardware and software should be like men and women. As people have developed, the next generation is always perfectly understood by the previous one.
Hard Man Bruce Takes On Apple
According to the Sunday Times, Bruce Willis wants to leave all his downloaded music to his kids and the iTunes agreement doesn’t allow this.
Why would he want to do that?
Obviously, after he’s gone, he wants to have control of his kids’ musical taste.
How arrogant!
At least though for once, Apple have got it right.
Disruptive Innovation
I’ve not heard the term before, but read this article. It starts with this question and answer.
Question: what do these companies have in common?
Skype, Spotify, Marks and Spencer, Whipcar, Zopa, Zilok, Kiva, Patagonia, Kickstarter, Café Direct, Taskrabbit, Buzzcar and InterfaceFLOR.
Two of my favourite innovators; Zopa and Kiva are mentioned in the same breath as quite a few companies like, Skype, Spotify and M&S.
If the article has a fault, it’s that it misses out a couple of well known names, who the writer would call disruptive innovators.
I would have thought ARM Holdings and Dyson should be on the list. And I would think that a certain company called Metier Management Systems was one of the first! So we were only a shark in a small pond, but we completely rebuilt the pond.
Do These Scams Still Work?
I got this e-mail today with a title of Heir Information.
Greetings, I am Norman Wong, Chief Auditor Hong Leong Bank. I got your contact email from an online directory; I would need your assistance in re-profiling funds belonging to my late client who shares similar surnames with you. Contact me on my private email for more detailed information.
Regards,
Norman Wong
I still get the occasional one, so sadly they must still bring in the odd mug. The e-mail actually came from Iran, although it may have been routed by South Africa. Could the Iranian connection, indicate it was sent more in hope than expectation? The spelling and grammar are good, which shows a certain level of education.
The Anonymous Widower 