UK blogs
I wanted to find UK related blogs written by people in the UK as most blog indexes and search engines naturally tend to be heavily weighted towards the US.
Initially, I searched on Technorati for 'UK' tags. However, this included lots of photo blogs from tourists visiting London on whale watching holidays and UK 'political' news (yawn).
Then I came across britblog.com which is an growing index of UK based blogs which includes blogs listed by region and category in addition to recently added and popular blogs.
Britblog also has an interesting map displaying the distribution of blogs across the UK.
stampede at London Waterloo
Last night, I was standing at London Waterloo station, sincerely hoping that the engineer would be able to fix the carriages for my train home.
Suddenly, there was a stampede of people rushing past me. What on earth was happening ? Was this some spontaneous act of flash mobbing ? Had a train arrived unexpectedly at platform 4 for those impatient people from Basingstoke ? Or was there some sort of inaudible terrorist alert mumbled by the station announcer that I had missed ?
The answer transpired to be none of the above.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts were giving out free samples to promote the opening of a new outlet.
A gentlemen in a suit gleefully came away clutching not one but two large (pizza style) boxes. He also had a can of Stella Artois poking out of his pocket. Bizarre.
Most Haunted #2
'Most Haunted' is a fantastic TV program hosted by Yvette Fielding, where a Liverpudlian psychic medium, Derek Acorah, visits haunted properties resurrecting the spirits of dear, dead departed souls.
The program is notable for absolutely superb acting by Acorah who can fulfill a variety of roles, effortlessly adopting the voice of tortured, Victorian ladies, in pitch darkness, without the aid of a script.
The supporting actors (Fielding and the camera crew) are also superb. They are simply wasted on Living TV. A career in Hollywood surely beckons.
I was fortunate enough to catch a 'Best of Most Haunted' over Christmas. It was simply the most riveting, compulsive, hilarious viewing.
Gary Neville - no apology whatsoever
The Mayor of Liverpool announced that there would a extraordinary 5 minute silence held across the city tomorrow at 12 noon.
A special religious service will be held at the Anglican Cathedral and the two remaining Beatles will reunite and record a special version of '(Please) Let It Be (disallowed)'.
Robbie Fowler will indicate the start and end of the silence by holding up five fingers. This is the number of European Cups that Robbie Fowler has watched Liverpool win on TV.
Guests of honour at the service will be Boris Johnson, Phil Neville and his father, Neville Neville.
Counselling will be available in job centres across Liverpool for those affected by the tragic events at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
Elsewhere in Manchester, people will not be bleating, moaning and endlessly complaining about being taunted by Robbie Fowler holding up various numbers of fingers to the away section in their recent 3-1 defeat at the Council House.
If you give it, be prepared to take it.
credit card security
Yesterday, I had a credit card transaction rejected which is always a little embarrassing. Thankfully, this was over the phone and not in a shop where embarrassed people would quickly avert their gaze, thinking 'Poor man, he's probably lost his job. Just look at his clothes'.
Normally, such rejections happen because the card number or expiry date was incorrectly transcribed and are quickly resolved - 'No I said 6079 at the end'.
However, this wasn't the case on this occasion, so I called the credit card company to check my card hadn't been skimmed and someone was blowing my outrageously high credit limit (that I never asked for or wanted but was given to me by the credit card company, funnily enough) on holidays, fast cars, gambling, online retailers, weekend breaks in Prague and expensive gadgets.
Firstly, we have to dance the security dance where I am asked to confirm my full name, address, postcode, date of birth, my mother's maiden name, the names of all my tropical fish, favourite United player and my best album of all time.
Then I am asked for the fourth and seventh letters of my password 'without divulging the complete password'. For some reason, I find this incredibly difficult. I can type the password in seconds but, to satisfy this request, I always have to write the password out on paper and slowly identify the requested characters (or digits). Then I have to eat the paper which means I am unable to speak properly for 90 seconds.
So, let the straightforward enquiry begin. Hang on - wait a minute. The agent is sensing a cross-sell opportunity.
'Are you interested in transferring your balance to us, interest free for 6 months ?'
'No thanks. I only have one credit card'.
A schoolboy error. The agent has a scripted 'retort' ready for this very weak 'objection'.
'But the 6 months, interest free transfer needn't be from another credit card. You can transfer your ABC balance to your current account, interest free for 6 months'
'No. Thanks. I don't have a current account with ABC. Now about this rejected trans-'
Another fatal error. Again, I have said too much and the agent has another 'retort' ready.
'The current account doesn't have to held with ABC. Any bank account will do'
'No thanks. I do not want to use the 6 months interest free transfer offer for any credit card for any bank account now or at any time in the future.'
Finally. But wait. The agent (script) has something else to add.
'Is is all right to call you Norman today ?'
'Yes.'
Next time, I swear I will reply 'No. I really would prefer it if you called me Janet.'
And so, finally, to the rejected transaction. It transpires that a sophisticated, pattern matching computer program using the latest AI techniques detected that this transaction (Flowers for the wife) contravened the normal pattern of usage (No flowers for the wife. Ever.) and flagged it up as potentially suspect.
Alternatively, "Computer says 'No'."
The credit card company immediately tried to contact me on the phone to verify the validity of the transaction. However, as they were unable to reach me on the phone, they rejected the authorisation and placed a complete block on the credit card. I explained that I was probably on the phone at that time to the merchant desperately trying to explain why the transaction had been rejected.
So, everything was finally resolved, and the agent kindly unblocked the card, I thanked them for their vigilance in the ongoing fight against crime and everything was back to normal.
Well, almost everything. When I got home at night, I received a deeply disturbing telephone phone call from an AI automaton who announced
'This is a call from ABC credit cards about a transaction on your account today (normal female voice). MR NORMAN BRIGHTSIDE (abnormal, very scary, synthesized male robotic voice).
So, I duly input my date of birth in the wrong format twice and then get told off by a robot.
'Sorry - that is incorrect. Please call customer services for assistance'.