Cool. Its good to see this hit the streets, glueing the banking and telco sectors together.
27 Jul 2009 09:50 Read comment
I enjoyed this Blog. Very insightful. We've all seen the dross and tripe that ends up on most social sites, including some (hopefully less hateful) dodgy comments on good ol Finextra. The problem is surely the perceived anonymity. Anyone can be crass/rude/brave if they think there will be no repercussion. The same behaviour works in the real world - when policing becomes ineffective the crime escalates. Kids get away with (sometime literally) murder in the classroom because they think they can.
YouTube (for example) is a fantastic tool, but the associated comments on the majority of clips don't bare reading. Its not good enough being able to filter, sensor or remove the worst, there needs to be some 'come-back' on what is written. Not a litigious, legal response (necessarily), but simply a 'threat' that if you are not prepared to have your real identity on the post, then don't post. It should be possible to have free speech without hiding behind a 1-way tirade of abuse. If you break the rules or 'code', the punishment is to have your 'real' name tagged to the comment. Deciding to expose someone in this way would be a big issue and need a warning process, but hey, if you want anonymity it comes with responsibility.
It all comes back to your pet subject - Identity.
27 Apr 2009 12:50 Read comment
Wow. Subaru. Such a status symbol, and so Australian.
I've no idea if this is real, but assume it is. Its a sad state of affairs that those who try to follow the rules get stitched up time and time again. It breeds suspicion that those with any kind of real wealth probably acquired it by shafting someone else or by 'evading' their taxes! We all need a business environment that encourages investment and risk taking to grow, and that growth needs to deliver a better margin than today or else why bother.
11 Mar 2009 12:22 Read comment
Maybe, just maybe ... could be worth following up.
09 Mar 2009 10:26 Read comment
I love it. Its a bit like splitting the mortgate with a second (state) lender who charges no interest. You'd have to enforce to waive any mortgage redemption(payment) penalties by the existing lender, but that's a good thing too.
I heard a great explanation of the current (save or spend) dilemma on BBC Radio yesterday: the logic for individuals right now is to be frugal and save, but the greater good (globally) is served by people all spending. There used to be a post (2nd) wartime saying 'save 12 shillings and you put a man out of work'.
I'm doing my bit and spending!
09 Mar 2009 10:10 Read comment
Its truly tragic.
The description is the best I've seen. I always wondered what happened to the 'air' and oxygen in these events too. I guess that is another killer, together with the heat, flame and smoke.
Is the Insurance industry going to provide the right advice? I would hope so, but cannot bank on it. A life might be insured for $500k, the loss of property and valuable might be considerably more.
The idea of location linked mass-notification via mobiles is not new. The mobile operators and the governments could easily implement a mass-texting notification service, to all mobiles in a danger zone and those minutes would save lives.
Condolences to those tragically affected.
10 Feb 2009 11:14 Read comment
Yep.
On the plus side, its a lot faster than previous years, and I didn't have to queue up for several hours trying to submit it by the deadline.
I had the same issues you reported, the worst being the one about not being able to launch PDF within IE (unable to write to cache or something).
A lot of the instructions are more ambiguous this year. I don't think they tested it very well. Beats the paper system by a mile though.
31 Jan 2009 01:23 Read comment
Got one of those. They are a royal pain. Every time I use it, I am not sure what its doing. It works, but its not exactly handy, and I didn't have it with me when I got the phone call. They need to do a basic check of me, then tell me something that shows me they know me (like a recent txn, or the month of my birth - nothing too specific).
31 Jan 2009 01:07 Read comment
Sorry Dean, did they really spell Vodafone as Vodaphone? Assuming that's your mistake (and a common one).
Don't forget that the CSR who txt'd you is just human, and not a marketeer, so abbreviating to yr is not such a crime - its modern day.
I had a very similar experience with a vmail from my bank which I looged here a couple of days ago. It was my bank, but it was also pretty poor. https://www.finextra.com/community/members/PreviewComment.aspx?c_id=2195
31 Jan 2009 01:03 Read comment
I had 1hr of my time wasted by my Bank yesterday, and posted my own rant here https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=2425 You would appreciate my inability to validate that I was talking to my Bank, and not a good phishing line.
When they operate shoddy online services like this, it's no wonder they lost all our money ;)
28 Jan 2009 13:42 Read comment
Welcome to Finextra. We use cookies to help us to deliver our services. You may change your preferences at our Cookie Centre.
Please read our Privacy Policy.