Bank Debit Card Fraud: be warned!Some nasty person (I could think of a few harsher words actually) nicked over £300 from my bank account yesterday, after gaining access to my debit card details at some point over the last 2 months. Fortunately my bank smelled a rat and contacted me almost immediately to query the transactions which came from an ATM in Romania, of all places in the world. HSBC you guys rock! Thanks for the swift action.
I am generally extremely careful with my cards and PINs, but these guys are getting clever. It is most likely that they gained my details from a dodgy ATM or point-of-sale terminal, using some kind of technology to read the details I entered. So a warning to all of you to be very careful where you use you cards and to keep a very close watch on your statements.
Apologies...
for the lack of up-to-date photos on my Flickr account. I have lost my camera cable - so irritating. Anyway, I have uploaded some more this morning.
Photos from LebanonFollowing on from my last post, Vincent found
this Flickr account with graphic pictures of the war in Lebanon. Maybe if enough people publish these kind of images something will be done and fast. The account is maintained by Issandr El Amrani, a Cairo-based journalist who blogs at
The Arabist.
WARNING: THESE PHOTOS ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND WILL OFFEND SENSITIVE VIEWERS.
The most blogged warFirstly, we may as well admit it - war has hit us again and it's escalating. The Middle East is no longer quietly simmering away, and India is in chaos. I'm not afraid to call it outright war and refuse to blanket the conflict in comfortable terms as the US so loves to do at times like these.
Colin recently
blogged about the government restrictions placed on bloggers in India following the tragic bombings that took place this month. It is a very interesting case study of the impact that the blogosphere has on citizen opinion and clearly demonstrates that government powers are frightened of the effect that online blogging communities might have on their fragile hold on the nation.
Read more here.Following on from this the Western and Middle Eastern blogospheres have never been more active and interesting to follow. One example I have been following with interest is the furore surrounding photos of Israeli children writing on artillery shells bound for targets in Lebanon, which has caused outrage among many bloggers, not least those from the Arab world.
Take a look at this blog post and discussion following, and have a look at the links included in the posting itself.
I think that we are entering into a new era of public involvement in war. I stand by and watch with interest to see if these bloggers have enough influence to make a stand against this outbreak and pursuade the Western superpowers to actually care about this needless waste of human life. Of course we have to write off the USA...
South Africans in LondonWarning: this post is a borderline rant.
As many of you may know, there is an embarrasingly high number of South Africans living in London at the moment - most of them in SW London, notably Wimbledon, Putney, Southfields and Richmond. Quite frankly I don't know who is left in SA between the ages of 20 and 35. I live in the SW area, which is lovely, don't get me wrong, but is also very disconcerting because it has become some wierd almalgamation of London and Johannesburg all rolled into one. It looks like London, it smells like London, it's got London weather and London buses... but hold on... everyone speaks South African. I have yet to meet a person of any interesting nationality in the SW.
Then there is the London-SA attitude: SA has gone to the dogs so we have to live in London. But hold on, it's really cold and miserable here and we hate the food so let's open stores all over town that stock Proudly South African products at 3 times the price. But that's not enough either because we are lost without our favourite food chains, so lets import that Spur Taste for Life, Mugg & Bean, and of course Nando's. Hmmm, now we don't like living among strange nationalities so let's all move to the same area and stick to our comfortable groups. Oh and we have to make sure that we gripe about how much we miss home, hate London and are stuck because we can't go home because there are no jobs for white people.
If you miss home so much then go back, and contribute to our economy and growth. Stop complaining and open yourselve up to a new experience for a change. Meet new people and maybe you'll see London for what it is: an exciting melting-pot of interesting places, people and culture.
I'm making a big effort from now on to be approachable, get out and meet non-South Africans and be positive about home, because we have a bad reputation here.
On deadline.
Seventh straight 12 hour day at the office.
Coding with speed known only to gurus.
Eyesight is shot - must see doctor.
Everything that can go wrong cross-browsers has gone wrong.
Initiating campaign to remove Internet Explorer from existence forever.
It's all feeling very familiar...
FESTMONKEYVincent Maher, Jarred Cinman, Jonanthan Ancer and suspicious cohorts have come together to produce yet another star performance at the Grahamstown National Arts Fest.
Check out FestMonkey
here. The
podcasts are really awesome.
Not for sensitive souls that are easily offended.
Vincent explains more
here.
