Whatever...

A place to share stuff that isn't at all fintec related but is amusing, absurd or scary.

Nick Hastings 

Not your average journey to work

So after a 4.5 mile hike through the snow from Battersea to St Martins Lane, which took over 2.5 hours, I finally made it to Finextra HQ. Happy to report the rest of the Finextra sales team made it in as well and we're here to answer all your advertising, lead generation, events and marketing questions! I thought I'd share some photos of my journ...

02 February 2009 /payments /wholesale

Retired Member 

All This New-Tech Is No Fun For Techies

I thought I'd do a quick rap-up of some of the 'fun' things done by hackers in the past year. The most fun one is the car navigation system. The one you rent at the airport when you get to some country where you have no idea of the landscape and couldn't hope to find your way anywhere without the sattelite navigation system you insist upon when yo...

01 February 2009 /security /regulation

Retired Member 

Rugby 6 Nations: Finextra Fantasy League

The 2009 RBS 6 Nations are almost upon us - the 10th 6 Nations since Italy were added to the 5 Nations roster in 1999. This year is expected to be a particularly exciting one with defending champions Wales looking for their second consecutive Grand Slam title, joining only 5 other sides ever to do so (perhaps just particularly exciting for me, bein...

30 January 2009

Matt White North America editor at Finextra

Desperate banks turn to drugs

An unlikely saviour for the world's banking system has been identified by Antonio Maria Costa, the boss of the United Nations' crime and narcotics watchdog - drugs money. In an interview with Austrian weekly Profil, Costa says the dirty cash has proved a vital form of liquidity for banks during the crisis and the UN has found evidence that interban...

30 January 2009

Retired Member 

Why Telco's Don't Deserve My Trust

We received an SMS the other day from Vodafone. This is the exact text: Hi from Vodafone. There is some critical info missing on your account! Pls call us on 1555 within 24 hrs to fix it or we may have to disconnect yr service That was it. Context: All required details were provided at the time of connection. The phone is a pay as you go, recharge ...

30 January 2009

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

Halifax - Intelligent Fines

If you've enjoyed the festive season and overindulged, and you're at over 90% of your Credit Limit on your Halifax Credit Card - then beware. You might not have noticed but the Minimum Repayment and your Direct Debit has dropped to 1%. Since the Monthly Interest Rate is still over 2%, your debt is increasing even if you never use the Card. After a ...

29 January 2009

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

HMRC can't have their cake and eat it

I wrote about the UK Government Gateway last week https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=2424 This week the HMRC came under fire over site security http://newswires.vnunet.co.uk/c/1ey330huZqV9pWmp In the latter article the HMRC said that the URL does not contain the password but shows a Unique Taxpayer Record (UTR) which is not based...

29 January 2009

Retired Member 

Where Is All The Money Gone, Forever, will they ever learn?

Where has all that money gone? I have found it hard not to post a blog saying 'I told you so'. I might suggest that at least a couple of hundred billion had vanished before the crash ala the Ponzi schemes running everywhere from Wall St to Widgiemooltha. In fact the financial system itself had become a giant Ponzi scheme. My none too subtle dig at...

29 January 2009

Matt White North America editor at Finextra

Social networking makes you live longer - official

Social networking sites: apparently they can help you find love, get that dream job and even, we're now told, live longer. That's the claim made in a press release put out today by, you guessed it, a social networking site. The site's for independent financial advisors and it's got together with 'Internet expert and psychologist' Graham Jones to le...

23 January 2009

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

Government Gateway hasn't heard of Single Sign On

I run a Children's Charity in my spare (!) time, and since I have 50 Employees the HMRC required me to to Register with the UK Government Gateway in order to make my End Of Tax Year Returns electronically. I didn't get the option of chosing an easy-to-remember User ID, they gave me one - 12 characters NNNANAAAANAA. Then OFSTED come along and tell ...

22 January 2009