Future I S Consulting

iPhone and web apps

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 13:44:00 +0000

This blog entry is a pointer to the other non-banking projects that I've been doing over the last couple of years. Smart phones and tablet devices bring lots of possibilities; here are three that I've turned into realities:

Title	What it does	Type	Link
Grayshott e-Guide	Guide to local businesses and organisations	iOS free
Grayshott e-Guide	Guide to local businesses and organisations	Web app	eGuide
FirkinApp	The smarter way to read a beer festival beer list	iOS free
FirkinApp	The smarter way to read a beer festival beer list	Web app	Firkin Web App
Dinner Divider	Work out fair shares for the bill for dinner, taking into account any kitty and the tips	iOS free
Dinner Divider Ad-Free	Like Dinner Divider but without the ads	iOS paid

There's more on the dedicated support blog pages

Update 04/01/2016 - now looking at rewriting the iOS versions using Swift.

Originally published 29/10/2014.

Phishing: Message Options

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 21:56:00 +0000

Many people are investing lots of time and energy in pretending to be who they're not through e-mail: looking for Internet users who will give them sign-on details, account numbers, PINs and so on that they can use to strip bank accounts or run up unpayable credit card debts.

No single method will protect - in the end, you have to be suspicious of any request for personal details or even opinions. How many of us have answered a phone call that was apparently a survey and ended up being asked for details that could open us up to further unwanted phone calls or given details about our address, postcode or buying habits?

If you use a Windows computer, you may also have Microsoft Office. This is a fantastic tool for organising your e-mail, but the latest version has made it harder to look closely at incoming messages before you actually open them. The trick is to look at the Message Options and see if the addresses in the mail headers actually look anything like the apparent sender.

In Outlook 2003 and later versions, it used to be possible to right-click on a message in the Inbox and look at the headers directly. The latest version, Outlook 2013 (also part of Office 365) doesn't allow this unless you first do a little customisation. Here's how to do it.

I haven't yet found a way to restore the right-click function but you can still use it if you customise the Quick Access Toolbar of Outlook 2013. That's the very top of the window, where the Outlook application icon, the Send/Receive All button and the Undo button can be found. It looks like this:

Right-click on the ribbon (that's the feature with the tab names and icons just below the Quick Access Toolbar). You'll be offered the option to customise the Quick Access Toolbar. Set the top drop-down box to Commands Not in the Ribbon. It looks like this:

Select Message Options and then click Add, and move it up one place using the buttons on the far right. When you click OK, the Quick Access Toolbar should look like this:

When you receive a message that looks suspicious - as examples, a bill you weren't expecting, a receipt for a charity donation, a request to confirm your details, a notification of a failed payment, in your Inbox, select but don't open the message. Then click on the fourth icon from the left at the top of the window (Message Options). If when you scroll down, you see evidence of spoofing of addresses, just delete the message - don't open it, and certainly not its attachments. Here's an example of a spoof e-mail with some of the tell-tale signs:

This was supposed to be from NatWest Bank. Why would it send an e-mail from a belgacom.be address, relayed through skynet.be? And then why would its From address be nto.com. Who?

Use this tip and your own intelligence to cut down your risk of being hacked by evil people.

Credit card security blown wide open on postal transactions

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 14 May 2014 21:00:00 +0000

(Originally made this post on Ecademy.com, now Sunzu.com, on 11 Dec 2007)

I'm becoming increasingly worried by suppliers that ask for your debit or credit card security number in writing, along with the card number and expiry date, for postal transactions. This blows the security system wide open. Anyone that intercepts your instructions, either before or after your legitimate payment is made, has everything needed to rip off suppliers (and you).

Why are suppliers doing this? Simply, it's because their banks are demanding these details for Customer Not Present transactions that are entered through merchant machines such as the PDQ.
When you enter card details onto a secure supplier website or a proper payment service such as PayPal, the possible number of fraudsters is quite limited, and collusion or fraudulent action by the owner of the site is a strong suspicion if anything goes wrong. The chain is pretty clear. But just like a pair of CD-ROMs, if a piece of paper goes astray, it could be in anyone's hands, it can be photocopied and sent anywhere in the world, and huge amounts of damage can be done.

Signature as confirmation of identity should be enough for 'cold' transactions where no goods are shipped within 24 hours. When a PDQ machine is used, the bank now seems to require the security number. Specific cases in the last two weeks: NatWest demanded this from a charity for a donation that I wanted to make by card (I sent a cheque instead, along with my Gift Aid form) and a UK passport application where the payment must accompany the application form (I used the Check and Send service at a Post Office which allowed me to make the payment electronically).

This is really dangerous stuff. Barclaycard told me definitely not to send the card security number in writing along with other card details, but I wouldn't be surprised if their merchant people are following the same protocol as NatWest and the Home Office. Is this a general problem? I'd like to gather evidence and to hear of any other cases where this practice has been introduced. And then make some noise in the right places.

Comments received on Sunzu.com:

John, I agree with you and I will not write down a security number. I also agree with S - suppliers keeping written records of credit card numbers also provides a security loophole for dishonest employees and theft from suppliers premises. What's the point of shredding all your documents at home if suppliers have such details in their filing cabinets ! My advice (which I will now take myself in future) is not to write down my credit / debit card numbers on any paper form. Regards, G (UK)

John, I totally agree, you should never give out all these details in writing. The point of the security code, well is.... security. The best practice on this is never to have the card details in writing..... as soon as there is a record, there is a risk towards the data protection rules. As e-retailers, we make 3 important points: 1- all online purchases are managed through secure services so we never have access to the customer's card details 2- for transactions over the phone, we always carry out the transaction live and do not take notes of the card numbers. Once the transaction is finished we (and any other mischievous party) have no way of retrieving the card details. this is quite an effective way of preventing credit card fraud. 3- we never ask for card details in writing I now demand the same type of security from my suppliers, so no employee could take note of the card number in passing. Many organisations do not realise their responsibilities in that area... how many are ensured against employee dishonesty??? S (France)

Agreed

It always makes me think about it on line, I am not sure that is good practice even with the security that wraps around it. K (UK)

I agree with you John, I think there is very little personal safety as regards our financial details. I hate to think how many companies have our details of cards, dob, NI numbers etc. You are right - so much damage can be done in a short space of time. When the CD's went missing I think it gave everyone a shake up. And yet will any of these things stop? I think not. I recently watched a movie. It was called 'The Lives of Others' . It was in German with subtitles. It was set in East Germany just before the wall came down. It really exposed just how thorough the Stasi were in gathering information on everyone. It was a society where people had no freedom, no secrets, no comeback.Nowhere to go to talk about injustice. Anyone who spoke out or argued against the State were imprisoned or worse. Is this what is happening over here. One has to ask - 'What exactly is going on'? L (UK)

Windows 7 / Office 365

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:08:00 +0000

Faced with the removal of support for Windows XP in 2014, it was finally time to bite the bullet of installing a new laptop using one of Microsoft's 64-bit based operating systems.

Nothing I've read so far convinced me that an immediate move to Windows 8 would be anything but a major disruption, so I opted for a Windows 7 Pro system with a free copy of Windows 8 to be used later, if needed.

I chose a Toshiba with Intel Core i3/2348M processor, 4 GBytes of RAM, and 500 GBytes SATA disk. At the level of a system for home or SME office use, this is a good compromise between power and price. It's not going to be used to play games, but can certainly run all of the necessary office software, BBC iPlayer, browsers and so on.

Installation was really very straightforward. A few options - language, etc., account set-up, and we were good to go. It detected the available wifi networks and all I had to do was select one, enter the password and let Windows know that this was a home network. The next step was to create Windows Recovery DVDs - 4 in all. The online manual - accessed with the pre-installed Acrobat Reader - gave the necessary instructions, and I ran the utility with the Verify option set. This was a good idea - the third disc failed verification and had to be re-done.

After that, all was very easy. I downloaded the Chrome browser, as Microsoft's Internet Explorer starts up with all sorts of garish and unwanted stuff, and Bing as a search engine, and then starts leading you off in directions of selecting options. Not interested. I thought we were supposed to be offered a choice of browsers when starting a new PC - the EU spent years and untold millions of euros disputing with Microsoft to give us this - but I saw no sign of it.

Printer set-up was very easy - much better than on the MacBook Pro. Windows scanned the network and found the two printers (one is a multifunction device). All of the necessary drivers were available, and the whole task was complete in a few minutes.

One of the drawbacks of moving from Windows XP is that your much-loved Office 2003 software also becomes redundant. Fortunately, starting up the one month free trial of Office 365 was easy too. This gives you the full Home Premium product including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote and crucially - Outlook. It all hooks up to SkyDrive and a licence allows the software to be used with up to 5 devices. Not sure that I want all documents on SkyDrive - unlike the option that you can set up for a Google account, Microsoft accounts don't have two factor authentication yet. But let's see how it goes, and whether it's really useful or not.

Another worry was the white background in Page Layout in Word. Call me agoraphobic, but it looks as though there's something missing, or the page hasn't rendered fully. A comforting grey would be much less disturbing and not keep making me think that it's not working properly. The same in PowerPoint - don't like it. Fortunately, there's an option to overcome this problem. Just select File / Account / Office Theme and Dark Gray is your friend.

But, like the move to rented rather than bought software licences, I guess this is something we'll have to just accept, like it or not.

Summary: highly impressed with the ease of installation of Windows 7 Pro. This looks a great successor to Windows XP and I feel very confident about using it when I replace my main work PC. Office 365 - there's lots to explore. Familiarity comes with time and practice.

Google changes

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:10:00 +0000

Google announced some months ago that its iGoogle service, which gives a customisable home page, will end on 01 November 2013. As a convenient place to start browsing, iGoogle is hard to beat. It lets you configure a wide range of widgets that link to data sources such as Google Reader (its RSS aggregation service), individual sites' news feeds, and a whole lot more. I've also used iGoogle dashboard widgets for webmaster tools to help manage various web sites, but these seem to have been withdrawn - without notice so far as I know. The tools themselves can still be accessed directly through the webmaster tools home page.

Now there's the announcement that Google Reader itself will be retired on 01 July 2013. Yes, there are other aggregators such as the excellent Pulse app that runs on the iPad, but the search is now on for replacements for these two Google products that have served so well and looked just as good on PC, Mac and iPad. My worry is what could happen to other Google products such as Blogger, currently the platform for all of my different blogs. Could that be heading off into the sunset soon as well?

LIBOR - who benefited?

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:13:00 +0000

LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) has existed for more than 30 years as a means for banks to set the reference rate of interest for variable rate loans such as syndicated loans to national and local governments, international bodies and major corporations. In the 1970s, the reference panel comprised five banks. The fixing was made at a set time each day, the top and bottom rates were disregarded and an average was calculated based on the remaining three, to set for example the three month rate for sterling loans. Rates such as EURIBOR were set in a similar way.

Today, the Sterling LIBOR reference panel has 16 banks, and the daily submissions are made to Thompson Reuters, which manages the process on behalf of the British Bankers' Association (BBA).

The top four and bottom four rates are disregarded at each fixing. So this means, even when its rate submissions were manipulated, that Barclays would have been in the disregarded eight unless at least four other banks were wider from the average than they were. Barclays submissions would have no effect when they're outside the central zone, and therefore any manipulation that had a material impact must have been minuscule.

Here are the members of the Sterling panel, as shown on the BBA LIBOR site

Abbey National plc	JP Morgan Chase
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd	Lloyds Banking Group
Barclays Bank plc	Mizuho Corporate Bank
BNP Paribas	Rabobank
Citibank NA	Royal Bank of Canada
Credit Agricole CIB	The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Deutsche Bank AG	Société Générale
HSBC	UBS AG

Two reasons have emerged for manipulations: one is to enhance trading books, and improve reported profits for the traders involved; the other is to improve a bank's standing as reflected by apparent cost of funding. There are reports that this latter manipulation was encouraged by HM Treasury and possibly the Bank of England.

Every bank has sophisticated systems to manage its interest rate risks. They assemble live data from the bank's trading systems and should be used to derive the rate submissions for LIBOR.

The Parliamentary Inquiry (if that's what happens) can demand a full history from each of the panel members and find out the exact nature of the attempted rate manipulation, the difference between actual and submitted rates, and find from the BBA whether the manipulated rate was included in the day's calculation. Each bank should be able to identify its profit or loss from a successful manipulation, and any individuals that profited personally from manipulating rates.

We live in interesting times, and with good management and some careful legislative change, this scandal can be used to improve processes and accountability in the banking market.

Antivirus update

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:14:00 +0000

I'm now uninstalling Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 from my main Windows XP system, and will give a try-out to Microsoft Security Essentials. If that doesn't work out, I'll be back to AVG. Kaspersky seemed to be unable to give reasonable performance in the set-up that I have for that system:

Toshiba Tecra M10 with 3 GBytes memory and 150 GBytes of disk
Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3
Microsoft Office Pro 2003 including Outlook 2003
Mozilla Firefox as the default browser, though Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari are also installed and were tried out to see if performance would be any better
Microsoft Task Switcher power toy used to move from application to application

The system would hang up frequently, usually when Outlook was used. Moving from message to message could cause processor utilisation to go to 100% and stay there for minutes on end. One of the key components in Kaspersky, avp.exe, seemed to clock up a colossal number of page faults as shown in the Processes tab of Windows Task Manager, and the system fan seemed to be operating most of the time. I tried reducing the e-mail scan heuristics intensity to 'Light' in the Kaspersky settings, but to no avail.

Of course, it's quite possible that cumulative security updates from Microsoft may have messed up Outlook's performance. I felt that performance worsened after about April 2011, and this happened to coincide with updates for AVG Internet Security, which I was using at the time. It will be instructive to see if Outlook performs as well as I'd expect with Microsoft Security Essentials.

The experience of uninstalling Kaspersky and installing MSE has been pretty painless and fairly quick - about three quarters of an hour, including one reboot and the initial quick scan. I decided to opt for Advanced membership for the Microsoft Active Protection Service in the MSE settings, but 'No' to Customer experience monitoring; the former should only be invoked if something happens, while the latter could impact performance at all times - presumably it starts a service at Windows load time.

By the way, MSE is free for small businesses with up to 10 PCs and for domestic use. I'm still running Kaspersky on the Windows Vista PC without any obvious problem, although I don't run Outlook on that system.

Internet World show 25/04/2012

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:10:00 +0000

Earl's Court Exhibition Centre was hosting the 20th Internet World show this week, as well as two other events at Earl's Court at the same time - Information Security Europe and Service Desk and IT Support (IT Service Management).

This had a lot to offer for people using website hosting, development, e-commerce, content management, social media, mobile data, Search Engine Optimisation, digital marketing and web analytics.

There were some blank spaces in the exhibition hall, suggesting that times are hard even in this sector of the industry. I saw a couple of presentations that were very poorly put together; one guy was pointing out details from data listings in a tiny font size that only he could read, and another just ploughed through features of his solution with no attempt to tie them to anyone's needs. One of the handouts had only a US toll-free number on it; unlikely to gain many calls from Europe.

Despite that, there was still plenty to interest the visitor, and I enjoyed these:

Brightstarr, using Sharepoint to give consistent customer branding, and lots of other good things
Dave Coplin of Microsoft Bing on the subject of the digital consumer, and how things like location-based searching will change the ways in which we use information
Frank van den Berg of Dutch-based Salesupply talked lots of common sense about web localisation; his firm wasn't in the exhibitor list so far as I can see
Rick Osterloh of Skype on the changing mobile ecosystem, and a fascinating insight into the potential impacts of lower data pricing; he also described experiences of 4G communications (known as LTE - Long Term Evolution technology) in New York

More about the show here. Despite the soaking received from Wednesday's downpours on the way there, it was worth the time spent.

Antivirus update

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:08:00 +0000

AVG Antivirus (the paid-for version, running on Windows XP Pro) started to give me concerns about 12 months ago. Handling of e-mail in Microsoft Outlook seemed to slow down dramatically, and any sort of activity by the software, such as updates, would make the system grind to a halt. I wrote to AVG on the subject but the best they could come up with was that the PC seemed to be running a great number of programs, and maybe I could cut it down a bit.

This didn't seem fantastically helpful, so I decided to try a different antivirus and internet security package when my licence renewal came due. That's what I've done, and the chosen replacement is Kaspersky Internet Security. Here are my experiences:

Windows XP Pro SP3 (well-configured system, 3 GBytes memory)

Uninstalled AVG and restarted PC, with Internet connection switched off.
Kaspersky installer tried to check for newer version (even though the package was downloaded two days earlier)
Checking for incompatible software - box was empty - said it was removing incompatible software and then asked me to reboot again.
Installation continued after reboot and agreeing for a second time to terms and conditions.
Then I had a Windows error message - Generic Host Process for Win32 Services (?) had fallen over. The installation then hung on 'deleting backup files' - cancelling the installation seemed to do no good, and in the end I did a hard switch-off, holding down the laptop's power-on/off button.
After restarting, lo and behold, Kaspersky antivirus was installed. Reconnected to Internet. I entered the activation code, and then set off the update process. This took ages - something like 150 MBytes to download. More annoyingly, because this wasn't part of the original install package, I have to do this again for each of the other two PCs included in my licence.
A few add-ins (URL advisor was one of them) needed to be checked when loading Mozilla Firefox.
Still getting used to this on Outlook. The set-up for spam detection is different, and I'm not sure it's even as 'quick' as AVG when clicking Next Item. My first feeling was that incoming mail scans seemed to be slower, and I also felt that the PC was less responsive, hanging for a second or three when switching from program to program or window to window using ALT+TAB. Now after a few hours' use, I'm feeling fairly comfortable with it. Maybe the problem was the first run syndrome - sometimes settings need to be made on the fly, and this can slow everything down.

Update 20/04: Had to reboot again following installation of Kaspersky updates. Seemed slow again when starting Outlook.

Update 26/04: Multiple occurrences of system becoming unresponsive for minutes on end. Outlook 2003's CPU usage doesn't just spike, it goes to 100% and stays there. This seems to be triggered by double clicking an e-mail in the Unread Messages list - a little fundamental, and can be overcome by switching to another (non-Outlook) window. I've been searching the support forums for a solution, but found nothing so far. This is causing me to look urgently for some other anitvirus or Internet security package.

Windows Vista SP1

Uninstalled AVG and restarted PC
Kaspersky installer installed without glitches or need to reboot again.
I entered the activation key and then was able to kick off the update process. As mentioned above, 150 MBytes. Then it seemed to sit on 'updating databases and the application (88%)...' for ages, but finally got there.
This is a Windows Vista system, so I don't use it for serious work, but as an occasional standby and browser host. I don't run any e-mail software on it, so I can't compare with the XP Pro experience. Experience so far is that IE9 is fine, but Mozilla Firefox crashed repeatedly when trying to access the BBC News site or iGoogle. Not too clever, a reboot seems to be the next thing to try.
After a reboot, Firefox seems to be working fine. And there's a Kaspersky gadget in the sidebar, slightly bulky but useful nonetheless.

Windows XP Pro SP3 (small memory system)

Installation steps were simple, as for Vista - it didn't ask for additional reboots. Again there was a large download to update after installation. I'll be waiting for feedback from the user of this system, with fingers crossed.

Summary

Installation was fairly painless apart from the first install which was done without Internet connection. I don't like the fact that I had to download the updates three times. That's really wasteful. The glitches with Firefox seem to have been resolved by a reboot. And I've also installed the Kaspersky virus protection product on my MacBook Pro, to see how it goes and if anything is detected. Overall I was starting to feel good about the decision until problems with Outlook came to light. Now trying to find out why, and what I can do about them.

Solution for the Global Tech scam?

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:21:00 +0000

Getting really fed up with the interruptions to my working day caused by calls from the Microsoft Windows Global Tech scammers. They phone up and try to convince you that your computer is infected (by getting you to look at the Event Log, which they reckon will scare you).

They ignore Telephone Preference Service registrations. They claim to be operating from Baker Street in London but the phone calls sound as though they're coming from a very long way away. A legitimate company working in the UK would not be making unsolicited sales calls to a TPS registered line. The scammers don't take any notice of polite requests to desist from making these nuisance calls.

They offer to help by taking control of your computer, in return for a credit card charge.

Since we can't send a jolt of current back up the line to them, another solution is needed. It seems to me that the credit card companies are the critical link and by accepting payments for the scammers, they are facilitating the scam. If people who've been caught out then report the scam to their credit card company, we may see some progress (and fewer annoying calls).

There's more useful information about other peoples' experiences on the Conflict International site (the blog is closed for comments).

You can register your phones with the Telephone Preference Service free of charge at http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/ - don't be misled by others who offer you a paid service that purports to do the same thing.

Deranged phishing spam

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:25:00 +0000

Just received this piece of garbage from someone ostensibly in Iran - why do they even bother?

From:* Rt Hon David Cameron MP <morshedi@nigeb.ac.ir>
*To:* undisclosed-recipients:;
*Date:* Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:27:05 +0330 (IRST)

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE
TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE,
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM.

Our ref: MasterCard/5404/FCO
Your ref:...Date: 27/09/2011

IMMEDIATE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION

I am The Rt Hon David Cameron MP,Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service British Government. This letter is to officially inform you that (MasterCard Number 5404 xxxx xxxx xxxx) has been accredited with your favor. Your Personal Identification Number is 7121.The MasterCard Value is £2,000,000.00 GBP (Two Million, Great British Pounds Sterling).

This office will send to you an MasterCard that you will use to withdraw your funds in any ATM MACHINE CENTER or MasterCard outlet in the world with a maximum of £5000 GBP daily.Further more,You will be required to re-confirm the following information to enable;The Rt Hon William Hague MP First Secretary of State for British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). begin in processing of your MasterCard.

(1)Full names: (2)Address: (3)Country: (4)Nationality: (5)Phone #: (6)Age:(7)Occupation: (8) Post Codes

Rt Hon William Hague MP.Secretary of British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Email; bfcaffair@msn.com
Tel: Tel: +(obscured to prevent anyone calling it)

TAKE NOTICE: That you are warned to stop further communications with any other person(s) or office(s) different from the staff of the State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to avoid hitches in receiving your payment.

Regards,

Rt Hon David Cameron MP
British Prime Minister

Blogger on iOS

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Well done to Google for releasing a Blogger app for the iOS platform. It promises to synch between devices, which will allow users to create and edit blogs on the go as well as when sitting at a desk.

Only two cheers out of three, because at the moment it's only designed for the iPhone (and presumably iPod touch) screen factors, and not the more user-friendly appearance given by the iPad. But it's still very welcome, and has just been used (on the iPad) to make this posting. :-)

Goodbye, PO Box 37

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:15:00 +0000

For the last many years, my company's had a PO Box number and dedicated postcode to separate personal from business mail, and avoid the need for customers or correspondents to write out a 56 character address. The basic service, including delivery to a street address, originally cost £100 for 12 months, but this has been creeping up - £104, £106, £108, £112.30, £115.70, £120.30, £125.70, £125.75. The odd amounts indicate that there must have been some science applied to the increases.

However, the latest billet doux from Royal Mail increases the charge for the next 12 months to a nice round £200. At that rate I can afford to discontinue the service, reprint business cards, notify the few correspondents that used the PO Box, and still be £150 per year better off. And that's probably what Royal Mail wanted me to do. Goodbye, PO Box 37.

More platforms than Clapham junction

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:06:00 +0000

It used to be professional IT that had to cope with a large variety of platforms and operating systems, but innovation in recent years, particularly the development of web services, means that individual users are likely to meet an increasing number of very different environments, even for fairly simple requirements. For every one of these, there are issues of familiarisation, protection and authentication that need to be addressed.

At the start of the home computing story, we could store data locally and back up our key files to a floppy disk, or later something like an Iomega drive. Now we have a bewildering array of possibilities including very large capacity home network attached storage. I'm just getting to grips with the WD My Book Live which has 2 Tb capacity and a price less than £100 before you add VAT and delivery. That's less than £50 per Terabyte! If you prefer online storage and don't have a capped broadband deal, the likes of Microsoft's Skydrive, or the Apple iDisk (part of the current me.com offering) or the forthcoming iCloud, may be even more attractive.

Skydrive is well worth getting to know because it supplies free storage and Office applications - all of a sudden we have a real document sharing and update environment for private users, something that in the past was the province of the better-organised professional IT shop. I suspect that things that I've been able to introduce to corporate projects through the innovative use of Sharepoint will rapidly become commonplace for groups, clubs, societies- anyone with a common purpose and the need to maintain documents together.

But just think what this means in terms of the number of platforms for home computing - you don't have to be an extreme case to use Windows and/or Mac systems, iOS or Android or Nokia smartphone, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Picasa, MS Office or Open Office, and maybe a Kindle reader. That's before we've thought about your e-mail system, your choice of browser or browsers, various plug-ins such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Air, Twitter, Windows (MSN/Live) Messenger, Facetime (on Apple products), online banking (card reader to give additional authentication), a multiplicity of online shopping platforms, Skype, Wordpress or Blogger. And you'd be mad to venture out on the Internet (particularly using a PC platform) without virus protection. Your data is important, and you should have a strategy and the facilities to back it up (see above). Every one of these does useful work, but every one of them also needs to be maintained and can carry a burden in terms of time if not of expense. Why does Adobe have to pester me to agree with its terms every time it updates one of its plug-ins?

I don't think there's any good and easy answer to this one. The big suppliers would like to make us dependent on, loyal to, and advocates of their offerings, but no one offering is ideal for all purposes. I use Microsoft Office on PCs (2003), Mac (2011), and now Skydrive (360). Each has its differences or subtleties. We're just going to have to learn to understand the quirks of the different platforms and to discourage (by voting with our feet) the ones that are least easy to use and maintain.

No to 'Outbound telesales'

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:41:00 +0000

At home, we seem to suffering a new spate of unsolicited sales calls - spam telephony, if you like (or don't). Even though both of the numbers are registered with the Telephone Preference Service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk), the companies that are doing this just don't care. They're calling on what are clearly long distance circuits, with pre-dialling (sometimes several seconds delay after you answer before a human voice comes on the phone), and connect you to someone with a distinctly non-British accent, who doesn't know who they're really trying to contact.

This can be dangerous. Even when the caller identifies the name of the company she or he represents, there's no way to know whether or not this is for real. Someone called me today, she said, on behalf of a company whose services I've used for years. But she got the number of years wrong, and that says to me that she was doing the telephone equivalent of phishing.

I don't want to give any details to an unknown caller to enable them to offer me 'advice'. Nor do I do want to invite a high-pressure salesman into my home just because they happen to have 'someone in the area' next week; what area, planet Earth?

Telephone companies are bothersome at best when they phone to try and sell something. When they ask you at the end of a 20 minute call, "by the way, the contract is for 18 months, is that all right?", that doesn't feel like trustworthy practice. When you say, "I'd like to see the offer in writing", and they say it's only available today over the phone, is that a strong reason buy anyway? And if they send the key details, and they're in grey 4-point on the back of the brochure, is someone trying to hide something?

Frankly, I can find the products I want using Google, a newspaper, or even a flyer through the post. And then visit the website or make the call to Inbound Telesales, knowing who I'm calling, to do the deal. That's exactly what I did regarding buildings and contents insurance recently. Outbound Telesales is only for things you don't really want. Be brave - don't tick the box allowing them to contact you.

Idea: don't tax deposits or transactions, tax risk

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:16:00 +0000

While the Obama proposals to limit banking activities and the resulting restructuring of the banking industry are great news for management consultants and IT specialists like me, I can't help feeling that there's a simpler way to crack this one. Ideas like a Tobin tax, locally or internationally, could mess up trade and financial flows.

Levies based on the size of an institution's deposits, such as the HM Treasury's UK Deposit Protection Scheme, are plainly unfair. This scheme penalises the good rather than deterring the bad. Building societies and retail-focused banks have a large depositor base - and funding operations with a large depositor base is a lower risk affair than relying on wholesale funding as Northern Rock did. Building societies lend against physical assets which in theory should represent properly-valued collateral, which is a whole lot less risky than risking your capital in financial operations.

Banks have spent billions over the last five or six years on technology to calculate and assess risk. It's called Basel II. It has holes that the scruffier end of the market could climb through, but so does any set of rules. Despite that, some banks are really quite good at assessing risk, others less so.

Instead of taxing deposits or transactions, we should tax risk. This can be done at different rates depending on the type and the term of the risk, it would be priced into transactions and deter the sillier types of trade, and it would give a huge incentive both to the institutions and to the tax men to assess the risks properly to avoid underpaid or overpaid tax.

That's my opinion. Comment welcome.

Random sender addresses

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:32:00 +0000

I'm getting really fed up with the practice that some companies have adopted, of setting a new sender address for every e-mail newsletter.

For example, IThound, an Incisive Media publication, sent something with the sender address

mail.ctjkgqetqgbvegquskn@incisive-media.msgfocus.com

This is presumably so that they can route any replies to the originator of the offer that the newsletter covers.

That's not a trusted address so the message is marked as [Spam] and placed in the Junk Mail folder. If I click 'Mark As Wanted' in the AVG toolbar, the message is moved back to the Inbox but no Outlook rules are applied to it. I have to file it manually. A new entry is added to the AVG whitelist, and any further messages from the same sender should be filed according to my Outlook rules settings. In all likelihood, there won't be any further messages with the same random sender address, so all that happens is that my whitelist is stuffed with rubbish like this.

Streetcards, one of my occasional suppliers, who have great products, change the domain name on their outgoing e-mails and the same thing happens.

I actually want to read some of the material that I'm sent. That's why I signed up in the first place. I don't want to unsubscribe, but I don't want to have to waste time either. Hang your heads in shame:

Incisive Media
Novatech
Internet World
Insurance Times
Euromoney plc
Streetcards

Affordability checks for UK mortgage lenders - not so new

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:33:00 +0000

The UK Government and the FSA are making a great play of their plans to introduce affordability checks for mortgage borrowers. The FSA's reform proposals are here.

This really should be nothing new for the banks, which already have responsibilities under the FSA's Treating Customers Fairly initiative. The FSA Treating Customers Fairly pages include six consumer outcomes, including:

Outcome 4: Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.

Drilling down further into the examples, these include a specific example of the need for the mortgage sales process to check affordability.

Affordability will often have been an issue in some types of loan, but these - self-certification, sub-prime and high Loan To Value mortgages - have pretty much disappeared from the market.

Best practice sales processes for lending already include the checks, but of course these are only as good as the information available to them, and some may be circumvented by inaccurate statements or disclosure by potential borrowers. If the proposals include harsh penalties for selling unaffordable loans, lenders will have a problem. Inevitably though, they will find ways to manage and mitigate the risks, even if that means a reduction in the availability of loans.

More later when I've gone through the 118-page FSA document.

XBRL filing for all UK companies?

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:23:00 +0000

The Computing newspaper and its sister publication Accountancy Age are highlighting the change in Corporation Tax filing regulations that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is introducing with effect from 01 April 2011. I've bookmarked some relevant articles here on delicious.com.

The new regulations will affect all firms, and those that file using reporting or accounting package software will need to update and maintain their software to produce returns in the required XML and iXBRL formats.

Most small companies and organisations will be able to use the free HMRC Corporation Tax Online Service to file a Company Tax Return. This can be used by companies or organisations that file a Company Tax Return form (CT600), supporting documentation, and (if necessary) any of these supplementary pages:

CT600A (Loans to participators by close companies)

CT600C (Group and consortium) - parts one and two

CT600J (Disclosure of tax avoidance schemes supplementary pages)

Supporting documents can be supplied in Acrobat (PDF) format.

You can see a demonstration here on the HMRC site.

However, it's not clear from the information on the HMRC site whether PDF format can be used by companies that have to submit the other CT600 supplementary pages:

CT600B - Controlled Foreign Companies (an interest of 25% or more in a foreign company controlled from the UK)

CT600D (2006) - Insurance: company involved in overseas life assurance business (OLAB)

CT600E - Charity and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs)

CT600F - Tonnage Tax

CT600G - Corporate Venturing Scheme

CT600I - Supplementary charge in respect of ring fence trades

There's clearly a cost of change in all of this. The HMRC online filing service looks clear and straightforward, and it should present little problem either for small businesses or for small accounting firms that submit returns on behalf of their clients. However, new methods will have to be learnt, registrations made, and experience gained, in order for this to work efficiently. Larger companies, or small companies with complex affairs, may well face more serious change costs, including the updating of accounting or reporting software packages, and the introduction of new processes and accounting treatments.

All in all - if you're not sure, the time to consult your accountant has come!

(Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant, but a small business owner with an interest in technology.)

Using AVG 8.5 (paid for) with iTunes 8.2

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:20:00 +0000

I couldn't find any way to update podcasts using iTunes 8.2.0.23 on a Windows XP laptop with AVG 8.5.387 (paid for). I kept receiving the message "there was a problem downloading (podcast). The network connection could not be established"

The problem lay in the firewall settings: iTunes was set to 'Allow for safe'. When I changed the setting to 'Allow for All', the problem went away.

UK Euro watch - June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:24:00 +0000

This is our monthly round-up of BBC content touching the possibility of the UK entering EMU and adopting the Euro.

UK Euro adoption was briefly a hot topic in the first half June, largely due to reports of Peter Mandelson's opinions. After that, all went quiet. He may have slipped this in to divert attention from the Government's shocking results in the Euro elections and the ongoing furore over MPs' expenses, but these continued to command much of the available air time.

10th June: Peter Mandelson commented on BBC1's Andrew Marr show (transcript here) "I personally think that our future, economic future will be more secure in the Euro zone with that currency. But I've always accepted that the economic conditions have to be right." Jonathan Oliver wrote in The Times on 14 June that "His confidence is such that on a trip to Berlin last week, Mandelson effectively rewrote Britain’s policy on the euro, declaring that we were “obviously” heading for entry into the single currency."

Mobile phone chargers - one size fits all (The Times)

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:55:00 +0000

At last, some sanity is to be imposed on mobile phone chargers. For years, I've specified Nokia phones for business use. This was convenient for all sorts of reasons, including similar menu/navigation structure and chargers that were all compatible. That started to go wrong a few years ago, and now we have a spread of different plug sizes, power ratings, and shapes. So here's some applause for the GSMA, the trade association for the mobile phone industry. Most phones should use the new chargers by 2012.

UK Euro watch: May 2009

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:59:00 +0000

This is our monthly round-up of BBC content touching the possibility of the UK entering EMU and adopting the Euro.

Most activity during May was concerned with candidates and parties setting out their positions in advance of the European Parliament elections on 4th June. These have been well understood for years - no exciting news here.

For example, on 25 May in Belfast, the Conservatives and Ulster Unionists launched a joint manifesto, opposing UK membership of the euro.

Local initiatives continue to be reported. On 03 May, BBC Sussex reported Euro paying off for resort town that Rye has been accepting Euros since 2002.

Apart from that, there was very little reportage or commentary on the possibility or probability of UK adoption. There was much more activity in June - particularly after Lord Mandelson's opinions were reported. But that's coming later.

UK Euro watch: April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:54:00 +0000

This is our monthly round-up of BBC content touching the possibility of the UK entering EMU and adopting the Euro. Little happened during the month at a political level to move this forward.

17 April: Shops to accept euro for two days: the initiative in Bewdley, Worcestershire on the weekend 18-19 April was part of events marking the 20th anniversary of its twinning agreement with German town Vellmar.

22 April: BBC World Service: In its Global Business series, The Edge of Europe (part 2), Peter Day looked at the edges of Europe and asked whether joining the Euro, or in the case of Iceland wanting to, was worth it?

23 April: Radio 1 Newsbeat reported in Seaside town allows euro payments that some businesses in Poole (and Bournemouth) now accept the euro. It mentioned 'Dunster in Somerset became the first UK town to accept euros', which may surprise businesses in Northern Ireland, in particular Newry, which have been doing this ever since the notes and coins were first circulated.

26 April: In The Westminster Hour, At the Heart of Europe examines how Labour's policy on Europe evolved over three terms in government.

28 April: UK keeps EU working week opt-out, maintaining another key policy difference to the Eurozone

Goodbye Norton 360

noreply@blogger.com (JohnH) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:24:00 +0000

I've used Norton Antivirus and related products exclusively for the PCs that I control for the last 10 years. Laptops arrived with Norton products pre-installed, and these did the job adequately.

Norton 360 was included with the Toshiba Tecra (Vista) laptop that I bought about 15 months ago. Though I didn't like it very much, I renewed the subscription before the 90 days' trial was complete. Now that 12 months' renewal has expired and guess what! All protection seems to have stopped - the product doesn't carry on checking for viruses, firewall, intrusion protection, e-mail scanning, virus and spyware scan. The whole lot seems to have been switched off (if I understand the messages correctly) now that the date has been reached. Other Norton products carry on protecting with the versions of the virus signatures up to the date of the renewal. This doesn't; it's abdicated completely.

Goodbye Norton 360. I won't accept such a business policy. It's AVG for me.