Michael

Great Freedom of Information resource:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
about 1 month ago via web

The Guardian on why we hate chuggers so much:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/video/2010/feb/01/chuggers-street-fundraising
about 1 month ago via web

Days to clear a cheque between one account to another in the same bank?

OK, so they're so unfashionable they are being withdrawn by 2018. But still, cheques are part and parcel of a lot of banking.

Today, I have a cheque drawn on one account held by Barclays, and my account held with Barclays. They need a minimum of three days to transfer (this comes with a fee) or "obviously, the normal five days".

Normal.

Five days.

How do they do it? Are there donkeys moving the relevant data within the same organisation from place to place?

It's simply a scam. They know the money is there, and they make money on holding it up in their system.

Another example of banks being run for their own convenience - and profit - and not ours.

2 months ago via web

Glad to see Rage Against the Machine beat Simon Cowell for the Xmas No. 1

The music - "numetal" (whatever that is) - is pretty grim, with lots of swearing, but the point of people power pushing back successfully against the seemingly effortless manipulation of the charts, the tabloids, the whole business - well, that's nice to see.

So less a quiet riot than a noisy one, but still...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY 2 months ago via web

As the great Van Morrison sings, "got:a house on the hill |
An' money in the bank | An' cars in the driveway | An' coloured TVs |
An' mobile phones | An' computer programs, yeah | So tell me baby
How come we're still on the chain gang?"

Or less poetically, how come it takes an hour and 15 minutes for SWT to work out a) there's a broken train up the line b) decide to get us buses to Bournemouth?

That's around 400 person-hours, 50 person-days, wasted (so fa: there may be updates) because they don't seem to have a system to speedily respond in place?

Here's Chrissie on the same subject; although I doubt she has much experience of public transport these days...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy0VOWnK1Qw
3 months ago via web

Phone rings. Recording of artificially friendly female voice, "Hello...this is not a sales call...blah blah [bit of copy suggesting it might even be the government calling] blah blah... press 5 to speak to a sales advisor"

This is deceptive. And rude. And unpleasant.

So I press 5.

Adam explains it's all about "raising awareness" (as opposed to selling a service) (and like that justifies nastily pushy and mendacious cold-call selling behaviour) and "we've been in the paper" (er...and?) and then puts the phone down when I keep complaining.

Pity I can't just set up an auto-calling bot to ring them all day... 3 months ago via web

Trumpington Park & Ride: award-winning, great "park and read" scheme, cool shopping trolley service - but exact money only to get a ticket. So if I didn't know in advance, I'd be marooned (machines don't take cards or give change). Given that I'm paying, machines like this feel, well, just a teeny bit hostile. *Love* park and read though! 3 months ago via web

So the Home Affairs Select Committee have come out and said Alan Johnson can do something.The poor guy's got Asperger's syndrome, his mum says he's suicidal, and he faces one of those bizarre American life sentences that last longer than history.

Stop hiding behind The Extradition Act of 2003. 3 months ago via web

Remember of Winter of Discontent? Looks like we got another one on the way. 3 months ago via web