Order of the Bath

The Aussies have never been shy when it comes to making a point—remember the safe-sex ad “Got a stiffy, get a jiffy”. Well they’ve done it again with a road safety ad. Of course you have to know what the hand gesture means; just remember, size matters!

Isn’t even the end of the world safe from hackers!?

For those who note the incorrect spelling, apparently it is deliberate.

My ISP, Virgin Media, advertises “Size L, Up to 4Mb, No Download Limits† (unlike some of our competitors)” where the † is a link to the Acceptable Usage Policy (the other grades of service are similar).

Now some people have said that this is a cap in disguise, but I have read all the small print, and it is small, and it makes no mention of any limit of usage except in sections about operating servers (section 7.3 w.r.t. upstream traffic), incoming email (section 9.2.7) and webspace traffic (section 10.6). So if they do have a capping system then it would be in contravention of their own AUP. If they are relying on section 3.2, which talks about “using…to the detriment of other Internet users” then I would think they were on very weak ground.

The only other possible clause is not in the AUP but in the Terms and Conditions section B.4.i where it talks about “usage allowance applicable to your Internet access” but nowhere does it define what this is.

Indeed the AUP is much less restrictive than I remembered or expected. I thought running servers was banned altogether. The only awkward and loose clauses I can see are 6.1.2 banning advertising and 6.1.4 banning business use which should worry big eBay traders.

P.S. Which? has recently criticised the “Up to” phrase but I am getting 3.7Mb and am not at all unhappy with it.

From yesterday, Sainsbury’s will not accept cheques at the checkout. Perhaps I am a bit unobservant (well a lot actually) but I haven’t seen any warning of this. They will provide an inconvenient, slow and possibly short term concession if you are prepared to be escorted to customer service and pay there. I understand Asda, Morrisons, Boots, Smith’s, Shell and Woolworth’s have already done likewise. Tesco’s and Argos will go soon, but not Waitrose—there is a good argument for a customer centred company. The shops claim that “This is to help stop cheque fraud” but they can’t really do that and in the same breath say that “few people use cheques” anyway. If they were, they wouldn’t be making this change, it would affect sales too much.

Here are ten reasons why it would be a BAD THING for cheques to die out completely.

1. There is no better way to transfer money from one individual to another e.g. Birthday presents in the post.
2. It is the best way to send money via an intermediary, e.g. school trip money via your child, then the teacher to the school office.
3. There is no audit trail for cash transfers, hence VAT, tax and benefit fraud.
4. It is the only sensible way to pay large sums of money, a car deposit would blow many people’s credit limit.
5. For various reasons, some small businesses don’t accept cards, e.g. the extortionate merchant fees.
6. Temporary trading locations, like car boot sales, cannot handle chip and pin without expensive satellite or mobile phone equipment.
7. Many voluntary organisations are not geared up to the sophistication of card handling.
8. What happens if the retailer’s card system dies. Twice recently I have had to scrabble around for cash or go to a hole in the wall late at night to pay a restaurant bill.
9. Cheque stubs (or record slip) gives you short term recording of transactions before the statement arrives at the end of the month.
10. If your cards are lost or stolen you will starve for a week while the bank sorts out a replacement.

Can you think of any more?

This is a first for me

Mlle Chantal kouakou,
C’est avec respect et humilité que je vous j’écris cette proposition suite à ma relation avec vous . je crois que ma relation avec vous me sera beaucoup utile .
Je souhaite solliciter votre aide dans la migration et l’investissement dans votre pays la fortune que j’ai hertitée de mon père .
Brièvement, je suis une sierra léonaise agée de 22 ans et la fille unique du défunt DR Kouakou Bah Theodore…

A Nigerian 419 as blog spam, and in French too (it is apparently from Sierra Leone but currently in exile in the Ivory Coast).

Apparently it is 90 years today since the royal family changed their surname to Windsor. It was done in the middle of WW1 because the old name sounded too German.

According to an on-the-street radio reporter survey this morning (in Newcastle) one person thought the Queen’s surname was Rex. Her initials are on the post boxes aren’t they?

After stopping the car and drying my eyes, there was a follow up item—someone had emailed in and said that the Kaiser had invited King George and Queen Mary to a celebratory performance of William Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha.”