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Whatever...

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

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Tech Reality Check Looks To Get More Real

Back a while I predicted that the Tech sector would go through a 'readjustment'. I couldn't bring myself to state the obvious about the banks, you all knew anyway. I thought that MSoft, IBM and HP would weather the storm albeit slightly worse off. I mentioned google, ebay and Visa as being inflated. Predictions of $275 for google were scoffed at...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Entertainment Industry Bubble To Crash Next

I spend a lot of time in Australia and of course I use the internet. I have always believed that the actions of internet users are their own and do not 'belong' to the Internet Provider. Sabiene Heindl of the Australian Music Industry Anti-Piracy Investigations(MIPI) is of a different view. Following MIPI's line of reasoning, every corporation sho...

Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis Founder at Finextra Research

RIP Reg Varney - first man to use a UK ATM

Reg Varney, a British Comedian famed for his role in On the Buses in the late 60s/early 70s, sadly died yesterday. Curiously he also has a footnote in fintec history. Slip your anoraks, on everyone... Reg was also the first Briton to use an ATM in the High Street, a feat he performed at a branch of Barclays Bank in Enfield (it would be, wouldn't it...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Mobile Makers Could Learn From Detroit

Mobile manufactureres and gadget makers could learn a thing or two from Detroit. I doubt that 48% of new car buyers need help operating their new cars, yet that is the figure for gadgets. If the auto-makers had 29% of their customers complaining that the device didn't work at some time during the year, they would have needed more than a bail-out y...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Is Regulation Needed To Protect The Market From Itself?

I tend to simplify and generalise on a blog, I don't wish to take up to much of readers time. I'll attempt to simplify my view of the markets. It's a sea of money. Incentive. A medium for exchange. Resources for money for labour for money for goods. We're stuck with it no matter what anyone imagines. There is no easy way to work out how to exchange...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Aussie Crash Remedy, Party Naked at the White Cock-a-too?

Australian resort owner Tony Fox has followed the time-honoured tradition of partying while Rome burns, with a month long all-nude and anything goes party at his White Cockatoo tropical resort in Queensland. It mightn't be the only thing getting burned and I expect there'll be a few Red Cockatoo's appearing any minute. A 'cockatoo' is a very large...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

ID - The Issue - Who Cares Who The Stig Really Is?

I have a few ideas about identity management. The mobile money laundering article begins with a premise about Brittany a 'personal entertainer' (my description), who uses electronic payments to collect fees from her clients and to make her purchases because they are allegedly more anonymous than cash. Well I'm not too sure about that. I would hav...

/retail

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Are You Funding Terrorism When You Use That Card?

It is a fair question. Most fraud is card based, law enforcement claims money from fraud goes to fund terrorism (and drug, etc). Customers have to wonder at the real price of the billions of dollars in fraud. Are you inadvertently giving money to terrorists when you participate in card networks? How much of card-holders money gets to fund terrori...

/regulation

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Consumer Spending Was Down Before The Crash

The credit crunch hasn't quite hit the street fully if the retail sales trends over the last year are anything to go by. We were already seeing the warning signs of a sharp downturn in consumer spending, well before the credit crash. Christmas looks to be even tighter and 59% of consumers expect to reduce their spending this holiday season. Higher ...

/retail

Retired Member

Retired Member 

This Fraud Starts Before You Get To The ATM

When I read this, my immediate thoughts (actually let's skip the first), were that if a scammer has called a victim and convinced them to go to an ATM and transfer money to the scammer's account, it is unlikely that the victim is going to turn off their phone. The warning may not be effective if the victim already believes they are transferring mo...

/security

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