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 Gambling Spam Keeps Coming
I’m still getting the gambling spam, I reported about here.
I have only been counting since the 19th July, and as of this morning, I’ve received over 680 in a month.
This must rate installation in the Guinness Book of Records.
There is an iunsubscribe link on the e-mails. But it either doesn’t work or Outlook and my anti-spam system, doesn’t allow it to be used. I of course pass the link to my test machine, which means if it gets infected by a virus, I just delete everything.
MPs Don’t Like Google’s Tax Affairs
According to this article in the Daily Telegraph, Google only paid £6m tax on revenues of £395m.
Obviously, it is not in the interest of the UK, that major international companies pay so little tax. It’s also not in the interest of small UK companies, who perhaps pay high rates of tax and see their foreign competitors in the UK, paying very little.
Years ago, I was involved in monitoring the perception in the press of major companies. After a couple of quarters bumping along at the bottom, companies quickly picked their ideas up.
So perhaps a publicly available table on the Internet, showing the turnover, tax and a few other figures of companies, might not be a bad idea.
Suppose say it was obvious that a well known restaurant chain, was paying a very low rate of tax. Would it mean that customers went elsewhere? Possibly, but it might mean they did other things to justify the low rate, that were of benefit to the UK.
A Country I’ll Never Visit!
I’ve enjoyed the Czech Republic in the past, but I doubt I’ll be going to the neighbouring country, Slovakia, despite this enticing poster.
A Country I’ll Never Visit!
It’s all because I get around thirty spam messages a day promoting dodgy gambling sites, from a site with connections to the country. Here’s an extract from the domain registration.
fname: Dobran
lname: Sulaj
address: Letaliska 101
city: Kidricevo
pcode: 2325
country: SI
phone: +486-40-167802
email: support@dlypromos.com
Get your act together Slovakia!
Creating A Funding Circle Account
I have just created a Funding Circle account, as I want to see how other peer-to-peer lending sites work.
As a Zopa user for many years, I could be considered biased, but although I got registered quickly, there are some things I liked and didn’t.
E-Mail Address Based Account
All accounts, should be based on e-mail addresses. They are in Funding Circle.
Passwords
Because of my gammy left hand, I don’t like passwords where case is important, as I often get it wrong, when I use the shift key. Funding Circle insists on at least one Capital letter and one number.
At least though they didn’t use the dreaded Captcha system beloved of so many sites.
Check Questions
They did have, who was my best friend at school as a check question. This is a question, that I don’t really have an answer to, because I had a bad time at school with personal relationships.
Addresses
Because I’ve only been at my current address for less than two years, I was asked to enter my previous address. I made a mistake and ended up with the wrong address in my profile. I was able to change it easily to the correct one.
Debit Cards
The first investment was by debit card, which brought up the dreaded Verified-by-Visa system. I would prefer to use a Direct Debit or a Bank Transfer. Especially as fake Verified-by-Visa e-mails are being used by fraudsters.
But I did successfully register my account and transfer £1,000 into the account.
Facebook Tries The Gambling Route
Facebook has decided that the way to salvation is to take the gambling route. They’re starting with bingo according to the Daily Telegraph.
That’s all parents want isn’t it! – Kids addicted to bingo on the Internet.
A Verified-By-Visa Scam
Moneywise is reporting a scam on that stupid so-called security system, Verified-by-Visa. I’ve never liked it.
I also only ever use my Visa card on the Internet, when I have no choice. But as the Olympics will be over soon, I shall probably be sticking my Visa card somewhere, where I’m not tempted to use it on-line.
Technology At The Olympic Venues
One thing that has dissappointed me has been the information at the venues about what is happening elsewhere. For instance, I really didn’t realise yesterday how we had won the team show jumping until I got home.
Perhaps it’s because everybody relies on their smart phones. But I don’t! I would have paid for a medal update text alert. But I couldn’t find one.
The Rise of Gambling Spam
I’ve had the impression for a week or so now, that the amount of spam I’m getting from dodgy gambling sites has been grown somewhat.
On the 1st, to the 7th of August, I’ve received 26, 32, 25, 21, 35, 24 and 29 messages respectively. A few months ago, they were quite rare.
They are ideal practice for using the Delete key on your computer.
I must admit I do like the odd small bet, but then only when I have inside information about the nag involved.
The only thing I do with Spam is occasionally eat it, as I’m a coeliac and it’s gluten-free.
I have now found that most of this spam comes from a website called http://www.promotion-rewards.com,which is registered with a Slovenia address.
