Confusion Reigns Supreme

Internet's been down at work since Thursday lunchtime and what with it being the end of the month I've not been able to blog down the pub for a couple of days.

Have I missed much?

More to the point - GAAH! *wibble*

Battery's running low. catch up with y'all tomo...*click*

I recieved this email at work today, I though I'd better share it with you. I'm being serious for a change...

Subject: Latest Credit Card Scam

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number, they already have it.

One of our employees was called on Wednesday from "VISA", and I was called on Thursday from "Mastercard".

The scam works like this: Person calling says "This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at Visa. My badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your Visa card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for £479.99 form a marketing company based in London?" when you say "No", the caller continues, "Then we eill be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from £297 to £499, just under the £500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement arrives, the credit will be sent to (your address), is this correct?"

You say "Yes" and the caller continues, "I will be starting a fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 0800 number on the back of your card and ask for security.
"You will need to refer to this Control Number." The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you want me to read that again?"

Here's the important part The caller then says "I need to verify that you are in possession of your card." He will then ask you to turn your card over and look for some numbers. There are 7 numbers. The first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers that you sometimes use to make internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell him the numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen. Do you have any oquestions?" After you say "No" the caller thanks you and says "Don't hesitate to call back if you do" and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number, but after we were called we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question, and are we glad we did!  The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and that in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of £497.99 was charged to our card.

Long story short - we made a real fraud report and closed the Visa account.  Visa is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want is the 3 digit PIN on the back of the card. Do NOT give it to them.  Instead, tell them you'll call Visa/Mastercard for verification of the conversation.  The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information - they issued it!

Please pass this on to family and friends.

By informing each other, we protect each other.

This has been a public service announcement.

This may upset a few people. I saw the following article this morning on the BBC website and just felt the need to have my say.

Welsh dragon call for Union flag

The union jack should be combined with the Welsh flag, according to an MP who wants the change to be made to reflect Wales' status within the UK.

In a Commons debate, Wrexham's Labour MP Ian Lucas said Wales' Red Dragon should be added to the union jack's red, white and blue pattern.

He said the union jack currently only represented the other three UK nations.

But Stewart Jackson, Conservative MP for Peterborough, said the plan was "eccentric" and would be unpopular.

"I do not believe it would add to the unity of the country," he said.

However, Culture Minister Margaret Hodge conceded that Mr Lucas had raised a valid point for debate.

She said the government is "keen" to make the Union Jack "a positive symbol of Britishness reflecting the diversity of our country today and encouraging people to take pride in our flag".

And the minister acknowledged that a number of people across Britain were unhappy about flying the Union Jack as they felt it does not "truly represent the United Kingdom".

However, she said redesigning the flag had not been part of a consultation currently being carried out.

'State of grace'

Their comments come after a Commons debate in which Mr Lucas said: "I believe that the Union Flag should change now to reflect the four nations of the United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales."

He argued that the UK "did not exist in a constitutional state of grace".

"Changing an iconic image such as the union flag may appear to be more difficult to achieve than 200 years ago, but nonetheless I believe the change is right," he said.

"Let the debate begin, let the rest of the world know that the iconic symbol of the United Kingdom may change and that the reason that it will change is that we have a new constitutional settlement that affords Wales its true place in the Union."
BBC News Website
-----------------------------------------

Let's get this straight for once and for all.
The Flag of the Union - for that's what it is, it only becomes the Union Jack when flown from the jack staff of a ship - comprises the flags of the patron saints of the nations of the union:

St George - England (including Wales) - Red Cross on White Field
St Andrew - Scotland - White Saltire on Blue Field
St Patrick - Ireland - Red Saltire on White Field

England and Scotland had existed as separate sovereign and independent states with their own monarchs and political structures since the 9th century. The once independent Principality of Wales fell under the control of English monarchs from the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Under the Acts of Union 1707, England (including Wales) and Scotland, which had been in personal union since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, agreed to a political union in the form of a unified Kingdom of Great Britain.  The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1541 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801.  Independence for the Irish Free State in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Of the principal polities within Wales, only Gwynedd retained independence until the late 13th century, when it was finally conquered by England. However, formal annexation and abolition of Welsh Law did not take place until the 16th century. Wales (with all regions united under one government) has never been a sovereign state, although a number of internal principalities remained independent until the Anglo-Norman conquest and the Welsh national hero Prince Owain Glyndŵr briefly created an independent Welsh kingdom in the early 15th Century.

So there you have it.  There is no need to update the flag, as Wales has always been represented therein.

Nice try, though.

Using the first letter of your first name answer the questions.

The first letter of my first name is "R"

Famous Singer: Roy Orbison
Four Letter Word: Rash
Street that you have been down: Ridgeway
Colour that expresses your mental state: Rose
Gift/Present you would like to recieve: Roll of Banknotes
Type of Vehicle: Rolls Royce
Things In A Souvenir Shop: Rude Postcards
Boy Name: Richard
Girl Name: Rebecca
Favourite Movie Title: Running Man
Alchoholic Drink: Red Wine
Occupation: Ranger
Famous Celebrity: Russell Crowe
Magazine: Razzle *ahem*
U.K. City: Rotherham
U.S. City: Reno
Fruit: Raspberry
Reason For Being Late For Work: Ran out of petrol
Something You Throw Away: Rubbish
Something You Shout: RUN AWAY! QUICK!

I'm Cyclops.

You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause. You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them. Power: force beams from your eyes

But I've got two eyes. I must be Bicyclops.

1. What time is it? 14:50

2. What's your full name? NotBob - Yer not catching me out that easy!

3. What are you most afraid of? Finding out what I've trodden in on the way back from the pub

4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen on Bootleg? Don't watch many films these days. Can't even remember.

5. Place of birth? Hospital

6. Favorite food? Pizza

7. What's your natural hair color? Brown with flecks of white.

8. Ever been to Freak Nick? Eh?

9. Ever been skinny dipping? Yes

10. Love someone so much it made you cry? yes

11. Been in a car accident? Several. None of them my fault, I hasten to add. I just seem to be a magnet for bad drivers.

12. Croutons or bacon bits? Depends. In soup - croutons, in salad - bacon bits.

13. Favorite day of the week? Monday

14. Favorite restaurant? Balaka, my local Indian/Bangladeshi - very nice.

15. Favorite Flower? Honeysuckle

16. Favorite sport to watch? Ice Hockey

17. Favorite drink? Cider, preferably a good cloudy one.

18. Favorite ice cream? Toffee ripple

19. Warner Brothers/Disney? WB

20. Ever been on a ship? Several times

21. What color is your bedroom carpet? Can't remember, it's been so long since I last saw it.

22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Once

23. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? New Scientist

24. What do you do when you are bored? Blog

26. Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? No idea

27. Who will least likely respond? The Duchess of Cornwall. I think she overheard me making rather disparaging comments about her.

28. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? Anyone. I'd be surprised if anyone's read this far.

29. Favorite TV shows – NCIS, CSI, Law and Order, The Bill, anything on Discovery/National Geographic.

30. Who was the last person you went to dinner with? My brother last time he came over from Luxembourg

31. Park or Zoo? Park

32. What are your favorite colors? Red, Green, Blue

33. How many tattoos do you have? None. Yet...

34. How many pets do you have? 2 dogs

35. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Egg

36. What do you want to do before you die? Live

37. Have you ever been to Hawaii ? No

37. Have you been to countries outside the U.S. ? Obviously

38. How many people are you sending this e-mail? None

Windows Vista Error codes

Recently our fiend 'Mad' Mick uncovered these vista error codes when he intercepted a Microsoft's internal memo:

Vista_Error: 001 Vista loaded - Warning your computer is now in danger

Vista_Error: 002 No Error - Check again in 10 seconds

Vista_Error: 003 Dynamic linking error - Your mistake is now in every file

Vista_Error: 004 Erroneous error - Nothing is wrong (just testing)

Vista_Error: 005 Multitasking attempted - System confused

Vista_Error: 006 Kelvin error: Type Mismatch - phone Kevlar

Vista_Error: 007 System price error - Inadequate money spent on hardware

Vista_Error: 008 Broken window. Path not found - phone Glazier

Vista_Error: 009 Horrible bug encountered - Press F13 for more help

Vista_Error: 00A Invalid property assignment. Promotional literature overflow - Mailbox full

Vista_Error: 00B Inadequate disk space - Free at least 50GB

Vista_Error: 00C Memory hog error - More RAM needed. More! More! More!

Vista_Error: 00D Window closed - Do not look outside

Vista_Error: 00E Unexplained error - Please tell us how this happened

Vista_Error: 010 Reserved for future mistakes by our developers

Vista_Error: 013 Unexpected error - Huh ?

Vista_Error: 014 Keyboard locked - Try anything you can think of.

Vista_Error: 018 Unrecoverable error - System has been destroyed. Buy a new one. Old windows licence is not valid anymore.

Vista_Error: 019 User error - Not our fault. Is Not! Is Not!

Vista_Error: 01A Operating system overwritten - Please reinstall all your software. We are terribly sorry.

Vista_Error: 01B Illegal error - You are not allowed to get this error. Next time you will get a penalty for that.

Vista_Error: 01C Uncertainty error - Uncertainty may be inadequate.

Vista_Error: 01D System crash - We are unable to figure out our own code.

Vista_Error: 01E Timing error - Please wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

Vista_Error: 01F Reserved for future mistakes of our developers.

Vista_Error: 020 Error recording error codes - Remaining errors will be lost.

Vista_Error: 042 Virus error - A virus has been activated in a dos-box. The virus, however, requires Windows. All tasks will be closed automatically and the virus will be reactivated.

Vista_Error: 079 Mouse not found - A mouse driver has not been installed. Please click the left mouse button to continue.

Vista_Error: 103 Error buffer overflow - Too many errors encountered. Next error will not be displayed or recorded.

Vista_Error: 678 This will end your Windows session. Do you want to play another game?

Vista_Error: 683 Time out error - Operator fell asleep while waiting for the system to complete boot procedure.

Vista_Error: 815 Insufficient Memory - Only 5,000 Gigabytes available

-o0o-

I think I'll stick with XP for now...

Found this while ferreting for something else. Had to share it!

I think I felt it, too! *snrk!*

I want to be in Edgware.

Oh, well.

Dogs have been walked, fed and watered.
I've been walked, fed and watered.
The houseplants have been walked, fed and watered.

I think I deserve these few snatched hours moments down the pub, catching up with what's what.

I think I might set The Ferret loose shortly. (oo-er, missus!)

So this week's big news story is of the missing CDs with half the nation's personal details on them. We have been told to check our bank statements carefully (what kind of idiot doesn't - oh, yeah, me ) in case a bunch of untrustworthy, unscrupulous, deceitful charlatans try to use your personal details to take your money off you.

Remind me, who created these CDs?

Not much to say about today, really.

Apart from the fact that there are even more health problems in the family which means I've got to stay at home to look after the dogs this weekend while my immediate family splits itself two ways to visit relatives. I was so looking forward to Meno's London Blog-meet. I thought only a lack of finances could keep me away. Such is life, eh?

On the bright side, though, mum's been given the go-ahead by the local common preservation society (of which she's Secretary) to have wireless broadband installed at home so she can do her job more easily, and they're going to pick up the bill! WOOHOO! No more blogging down the pub!

Yeah, as if!

1. Which band would you like to see reform? The Sneaker Pimps with Kelly Dayton on vocals.

2. What are your thoughts on the Spice Girls and Boyzone reunions? Both laughable. According to certain newspapers people are flogging Spice Girls tickets on the cheap. The very same ones that took all of 38 seconds to sell out.

3. What's the best British band of all time? Hmm, difficult one, this. I think Led Zep just about clinches that on for me.

4. Which band would you like to see split up and why? Sugababes. Well, they're used to it ain't they?

5. Friday fill-in: If I formed a band I would call it Worst Nightmare and I would be the accordian player.

I wish I hadn't started playing Cat With Bow Golf.

It's too addictive.

EDIT The 15th Target's a doozie. My best so far is -15.

Oh, those crazy scientists. They love a bit of musical fun...

Anyway - better get on with some work, I suppose!

Another two today, for shame!

Right. Tomorrow, no more. Definitely.

I've given my last few ciggies to my mum. Gods, that sounds heartless, doesn't it?

Just nipped out for my last call of the day to the littlest room and the've turned all the bloody lights out again!

You'd think they'd check, wouldn't you?

Went to the pub (surprise, surprise ) for a quick pint and a packet of cheese 'n' onion and the first thing that I was asked as the delightful Emma poured my cider was "See the match last night?"

Me - "No."

Emma - "Why not?"

Me - "Didn't realise it was compulsory."

And with that I paid up and sat in my normal darkened corner to listen to AC/DC on my stereo.

England lost a game of football against Croatia last night meaning that they're not going forward to the Euro 2008 Finals.

This morning the sun rose (albeit behind clouds), there doesn't seem to have been a major cataclysmic occurence overnight. The world carries on.

So it wasn't the end of the world as we know it last night, OK?

Had two today.

First one to stop me becoming even more iritable at the disruption to my office caused by the furniture and equipment moves. Hated it, but it worked.

Second one as I got in the car to come home this evening. Force of habit

I'll soon be able to completely break this habit of mine. I admit it was a bit foolhardy to think I could just snap my fingers and suddenlly become a non-smoker, but I'm getting there. I still have seven left from the pack I bought yesterday that would normally only have lasted into the early evening.

The big test is going to be the weekend...

*wibble*

In some respects.

I haven't dropped out of the internet all day today. They must have got it sorted at last!

WOOHOO!

I definitely remember going to bed last night, so how come I woke up this morning fully clothed on the sofa?

I also remember a dream about being chased around a very well appointed mansion by a flying security robot

What did I have when I got home last night? Yup. A couple of cans of bitter and a cheese sarnie.

I should know by now not to do that. It does funny things to my head.

I was doing so well, as well.

Lunchtime, popped out for papers and a pint (or two) and ended up giving in to my demons.
I bought ten ciggies.

I've still got nine, though. I only had one.

It's an improvement on twenty-four a day isn't it?

...without any internet connection at work.

The've taken out the old connection that was at times a bit temperamental and replaced it with something that is at best creaky. I managed to connect for about five minutes first thing this morning, but since 9am nothing, nil, zip.

My new plotter is now on order and some of the junk that has been dumped in my office over the last few months has been moved out to make room for it, which is good. I hate it when people use my office as a bloody scrapyard. Mind you, I've got a very handy collection of assorted cables!

More stuff had to be moved out of my office this afternoon after it was discovered that the roof is leaking on the other side of the building and they've got to move the black and white copier over to my office. Sensible, I suppose to have all the copying equipment in one office, but it means a certain loss of privacy. Oh, well. I've had it so good for so long, my luck was bound to run out eventually.

Since my last ciggie.

I'm gasping for one.

Must resist.

"Mother, put that fag out NOW!" was my last intelligible utterance before I had to get out of the house.

Dad's cigars aren't helping much either.

Looks like I'll be spending more time either down the pub, blogging, or in my room doing what boys do on their own in their rooms.

Playing computer games, that is.

I still want a ciggie.

It's peein' with rain out there, and blowing a gale, too. Maybe I'm better off in here with my pint.

*HELP!* 

Maybe I should get some patches.

And I'm saving it for lunchtime.

After that - no more.

I'm giving up.

Not because I want to, not because of my health, not because of pressure from a nanny-state government - well not entirely, not because family or friends have told me to, or are particularly fussed whether I do or not.

I am giving up purely because I can't afford to smoke and run a car on my budget.

I could give up driving, as that's the more expensive, but the busses around here are too unreliable.

Just nipped out for a ciggie. All afternoon and evening it's been raining a sort of gently tolerable rain, but now the wind has picked up and it's started chucking it down. Lovely! I've got to walk home in that!

It certainly hasn't helped my mood, which for reasons a certain hand-picked few will understand, has not been particularly good today.

That's why I let Ferret loose today rather than... well, you can imagine.

I'm not happy.

Shit has happened.

It has been exacerbated by certain people's behaviour.

Comfort has been sought, even if in just getting it off my chest.

I'll get through it.

A great big thank you to those who know what I'm talking about, to all others, don't worry, I'll be back to my normal self before you know it.

They'r turning the lights off now, so I'd better get myself out into the rain.

Later, folks!

...and unlike a fine wine it doesn't get better with age

So why was I tapping my feet to this earlier?

Maybe because I overdosed on Aero's myth.

Yes, you read that right!

Here's me in deepest darkest Surrey and I just nipped out for a ciggie - first one for three hours. All around me were soft southern-types shivering in their thick winter coats whereas I was quite happy wearing just a jumper over my t-shirt.

Jumper?

Eh?

Maybe I'm not such a Northerner after all! *snrk*