Posts by Steve James 1

Barclaycard axes bonking payments bracelet

I've had my band since they launched and it's great on the buses and tubes. It's just as quick as using an Oyster and it saves time fishing an Oyster out of my wallet. It's also been useful for the odd sandwich or coffee. The cards were always designed to expire at end of May, so it's not exactly being switched off. An email from them last week said they were introducing a new slimmer version of the band and gave me the opportunity to pre-order the colour I wanted.

Meanwhile once the card expires in a few weeks, I'll just use my Barclaycard Paytag card in the band instead and will use that until the newer version is released. You really can't beat the band for convenience.

'Why don't you buy from foreign sites?' asks Commish, snapping on the gloves

Sites don't give you info up front

If web sites were to give international shipping costs up front it might be useful. Too many times, I have had to go through a registration process and enter all my details before I can even find out what the shipping cost is to the UK, or even if they ship to the UK anyway. I then see that they don't or it's not cost effective for me to order, so I just give up. But now they have my details I will then end up on a mailing list getting regular emails about a company I can't or don't choose to business with. Basically, too much hassle.

Elderly Bletchley Park volunteer sacked for showing Colossus exhibit to visitors

I visited about 2 years ago, and the whole charm of the place was the best tour I've ever had anywhere from someone who truly had passion for the place. We got the whole story, in a perfect setting. Sure the huts need a little TLC, but a glitzy visitors centre is not what is wanted here.

The computing museum, helped to bring the story of the past up to date and was just as interesting as the main Bletchley tour. Also the Churchill museum was an integral part of the story, I understand that's now been removed. The toy museum, although cramped was just as interesting in transporting me back in time.

I would hate to see a sanitised version, cleaned up for the modern age, with tour guides who are no more than just workers doing a job. It's the guides who really made the day, people like that with memories of how it was won't be around for ever and the trust would be well advised to keep them as long as possible. The trust wouldn't exist if it wasn't for those guides keeping the place alive.

I half expect a gift shop with tea-towels and jam is probably on the agenda as well!

BT 118 phone number fee howler lands telco giant with £225k fine

With so many screen sizes, widescreen, 4:3, mobile etc. what now defines 'below the fold'?

BT! dumps! Yahoo! after! 10! long! years! together!

Lets hope BT keep the legacy email address such as .btopenworld.com that I've been using for years.

And also my pro Flickr (or what's left of Pro after Flickrs upgrade) will that remain or will I need to pay to Flickr now to stop the ads?

BT's shock new wheeze: Make phone calls from smartphones

Re: And in many other places as well

We used to get Westminster Cable, bought out by NTL. However Virgin were unable to put fibre in for some convoluted reason, therefore we have no cable service now. Doesn't stop Virgin posting notes to us on a weekly basis telling us how great their service is, which is very annoying when they won't service our area. 200 yards up the road is borough of Camden and they have a service no probs,

Some of us need a landline to be able to get the internet. In central London here where we don't have a cable service!!!

Suits me fine. On PAYG with Three which gives me unlimited data and now I can use this app to call 0800 numbers with no charge whatsoever.

Amazon: e-book purchases push past paper

Would certainly agree that it doesn't mean we are reading more. My Kindle has several hundred books on it, the majority freebies that I've grabbed when I could. As for reading, I've probably finished 5.

Watching Olympics at work? How to avoid a £1k telly-tax fine

Now that iPlayer allows you to watch a program whilst it's still broadcasting then surely you could watch it a few seconds behind real time, then you're not watching live and won't have to wait till the programme is over and the results are in before having to view it

BT reveals ultra-fast cable blowing plan for homes, biz

Centre of London's West End and I can't get Infinity or Virgin cable. Someone needs to be told what century we're in!

Plans for wave-pay Tube tickets don't convince pols

As more and more bank cards issued are becoming contactless, how will I know which card will be charged when I pass my wallet over the reader as I currently do with my Oyster card? I know, I'll just stop at the gate whilst I rummage through my wallet to find the correct card I want to use, therefore creating an impatient queue behind me. Oyster sped things up (apart from the numpties that still stand at the gate whilst fishing an Oyster out of whatever it's being kept in). This will surely slow passage down. FAIL.

Cable broadband making more money than cable telly

Living right in the centre of London, Virgin are unable to offer a cable TV service. The existing analogue cable, previously NTL, and previous to that Westminster Cable will not be upgraded to fibre, and as I understand it, Virgin will be switching off the analogue cable TV in January, leaving Westminster without access to any cable services. However, it doesn't stop Virgin sending me leaflets every month telling me how wonderful their new fibre and Tivo service is, a service we can't get and they have no intention of ever supplying to the area!

iTunes gifting scam plunges Reg reader into the red

Easiest way for Apple to sort this

Now I've finally got my iTunes account reactivated I added a little used payment card and realised I was also asked to register the CVV number. No wonder it's insecure if Apple can just charge when they want to.

All Apple need to do is to ask fro the CVV at each point of purchase, then only a card holder would be able to complete. One of the reasons the use of CVV was introduced, and one that Apple continue to ignore.

But I need my card

I think the most annoying aspect here is Apple's reluctance to see it as their problem and let the banks deal with it. I informed Apple as soon as I got the email about 1 transaction, then discovered loads more on the account history. Smile (Co-op) bank were fine, at the time the charges were only pending, but the only way Smile could stop them was by cancelling my card, therefore leaving me without access to cash for a few days to a week.

This is Apples problem, they were advised by me that it was fraudulent when at the time the charge was only pending. Now that they have actually made the charge to my card after informing them, then does that not make them an accessory to fraud.

So now I have a locked iTunes account, and a locked bank account. Yes, I'm a victim of crime, but had Apple got off their arses and stopped the payments immediatly, then I wouldn;t also be a victim of Apple's criminal ways.

I shan't be buying another Apple product ever again.

Got hit this weekend

I got hit on Sunday morning. Got an email to say a £10 monthly voucher had been paid to a hotmail account. Logged into iTunes to find 6 similar payments have gone through. Basically they had kept on going until my bank declined any more due to lack of funds.

Got a cut and paste reply from Apple telling me that it's down to my bank to refund me. My bank have been fine about it, have given me a small overdraft until they refund the transactions and cancelled my card. Only pain with that is I now have no way to draw cash until my new card turns up! I have a Paypal topupcard which I shall add to itunes in the future and just keep it topped up enough, no way am I trusting Apple with my bank card details again.

BT blasts hundreds of would-be customers' data into Infinity

It wasn't spam

I also got the list last night. Seemed to be 967 emails on the list. Suprisingly the list didn't look like it had been data cleaned either, as one address appeared to be [e-mail] . Interesting country code that one!!!

Also, it was the 1st email I've had from BT in about 10 years that BT Yahoo didn't automatically put into my spam folder. Miracles do happen.

Ask.com kills Bloglines

Moving to iPad

I'm a virtual addict to Bloglines and have always loved the interface, despite the occassional/frequent hiccups of late. Been searching all weekend for a good alternative. Google seems to have the best infrastructure behind it and is likely to be better supported and arround for longer. Although I hate the Google Reader website.

Plenty of apps for the iPad that use Google Reader but took a while to find one that replicates it as much as possible. Finally settled on River of News, fully recommend it as the best replacement for myself. And now I can take my RSS feeds to bed with me to help feed my addiction.