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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 

Embrace the virtual galaxy

Galaxiki is a complete virtual galaxy - maintained by its occupants - who are all presumably bored office workers, students or kids who should be doing something MORE USEFUL WITH THEIR VALUABLE TIME. Yes it's very clever - although they do bang on about Web 2.0 in the press release - and there's lots of authentic-sounding astronomy going on - and ...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Dude, did you scoach all my money?

Choosing a new name for a business venture is fraught with pratfalls. How will it translate in multiple languages? Will it offend anybody? What about the domain name rights? All the same, you have to wonder about the advice meted out to SWX Swiss Exchange and Deutsche Börse when they settled on the name 'Scoach' for their new joint venture structu...

/wholesale

Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis Founder at Finextra Research

Squirrel espionage squad foiled by border guards

China is not the only nation to have trained creatures to do its bidding, the Washington Post points out an editorial by Saleh Eskandari headlined "spying squirrels," published July 10 by the Iranian newspaper Resalat. "A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

The resilience of modern infrastructure

I've made a mental note in future to check the weather forecast before taking a day off although today's deluge does bring back nostalgic memories of windswept childhood holidays, somewhere in Wales with it raining sideways. Interestingly the BBC weather site and Metcheck are both down at the time of writing - both displaying errors along the line...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

iPhone in a blender

If you've not heard of Blendtec, then be aware they manufacture kitchen blenders and have a truly inspired marketing team. This month on www.willitblend.com/ they are having a go at seeing if the iPhone will blend. Don't try this at home. iPhone in a blender - could be a song by The Smiths couldn't it?

Retired Member

Retired Member 

How are your threat levels today?

Ok, not really a banking angle to this. Lewis Page was an armed forces bomb-disposal operator from 2001 to 2004. He supported the UK mainland police and he clearly knows his stuff concerning things that go bang. His take on the recent bombing attempts makes interesting reading after the over-hyped TERROR headlines of recent days. Read it here on ...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Visa's Big Whopper promotion

Visa has partnered with Burger King to promote the use of plastic cards instead of cash in the fast food sector. Over the next three months Burger King customers paying for meals with Visa will qualify for a free meal on every tenth purchase. Nice to see Visa doing its bit to fight the scourge of obesity and encourage healthy lifestyle options amon...

/retail

Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis Founder at Finextra Research

Tips: Cleaning debris from dealing room technology

Next time a trader drops his avocado and bean sprout wrap on his keyboard - or one of those private equity boys inadvertently squashes a Quail's egg with his mouse - help is at hand. Just stick it in the dishwasher. The Register spotted the story, originally here. Try it at your own risk - and check your warranty first.

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Blink, and you've missed it

Mind-boggling stat of the day. 10 Milliseconds: trade execution times on the London Stock Exchange's new TradElect platform. 100-150 milliseconds: the amount of time taken to blink the human eye.

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Happy birthday ZX Spectrum

Warning - content contains some nostalgia. Nice piece on the BBC about the ZX Spectrum, brainchild of Clive Sinclair which hit the shops in 1982. Must have been around that time that I splashed out on one from the co-op in Norwich - and then upgraded it with a kit to a heady 48k of memory. Then after three weeks of further tinkering with a solde...

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