Re: you'd have to be terminally thick to fall for them

Luckily for the scammers, one thing of which there will never be a shortage, is terminally thick people. (Average person = pretty thick; ergo, 50% of population is more thick than that.)

Windows user icon, natch.

Screw the jet-packs !

- wake me up when robot wives are cheap and reliable

Re : HR drones

Do they do anything *apart from* use their Facebook accounts ?

(Read 'Hello' and paint their nails, I suppose...)

Pronunciation

It's pronounced 'Krin-ya'

(In the same way that the Irish lame hippy chanteuse Eithne has her name anglicised as 'Enya')

My thoughts entirely

His op-ed piece didn't state that GS was a sh1t place to work, it stated that it *treats its clients like sh1t*.

No doubt the 99.99% of GS employees who aren't "disgruntled" are the 99.99% who would sell their own grandmothers into slavery if they needed the capital to cover a margin call.

Spawn of Satan icon, natch.

Re: tin foil lined wallet

Have you never heard the phrase "keep it under your hat" ?

@ Irongut

So if you are Mr Jones of Exeter, and someone places an order using your card number with the details of Miss Smith of Newcastle, you actually expect a retailer to say "oh well it *could* be legitimate, let's send that Fondleslab2" ? You might not care as Amazon are picking up the tab, but if they allowed this and *you* had to pay, you'd be pretty pissed off, I believe.

If the CC number was not connected to any existing Amazon account, then the *initial* transaction (at least) should be subject to a 'Code 10' check (i.e. the customer must enter the address *exactly* as it is on the bank statement, and the retailer verifies this with the bank before the goods are sent. Mismatch = possible fraud. This does not prevent the retailer from accepting a different *delivery* address.)

"Would you prevent a family having separate accounts on the same CC" ? - Yes, absolutely. This may come as a shock to you, but your family do NOT have the right to use your credit/debit card, any more than they have the right to write (and sign) a cheque in your name. At my former job (games + peripherals, mail-order: ergo, highly sellable down the pub), we were endlessly having to tell wives that they are not allowed to use their husband's card details. If you trust your spouse (or your kids) with your credit card, it's a simple enough process to get them a *separate* card, payable on your account, but with their name on it (& if the kids are at a different address - off at college, presumably - registered to their address).

Re: "shunning of new technology"

Because :

new =/= (useful, reliable, trustworthy...)

I presume you haven't noticed that some other articles on El Reg highlight *problems* with technology ? Particularly, problems that the profit-takers are happy to sweep under the carpet ?

As the Native American saying goes, "Only an idiot tests the depth of the water with both feet..."

Re: All this seems kind of illegal to me

IANAL, but I think previous posters saying that they would take the line “I presume this is some sort of test” are missing a trick.

Given that accessing the account would be a breach of the Communications Act (in the UK), surely the very act of asking for your login credentials is a criminal act in itself ? Not sure whether it could count as blackmail (if you don’t do X, then we won’t give you a job), or bribery (we *will* give you a job if you do X), but it’s certainly ‘social engineering’, to get unauthorised access to a system.

I don’t see how it is therefore any different from the interviewer saying “one last thing…suck my cock”. He has committed a criminal act, and this isn’t negated by him backtracking and saying “oh that was just a test to see how you’d react, hahaha”.

Interested in people’s opinions on that… but if I’m correct then the appropriate response would be to advise them that they have just committed an offence, and you *are* going to report it to the authorities – and then walk out.

Personally I’d also contact media such as El Reg and the Grauniad, and as you didn’t get the job, there should be no problem naming company names, either…

(Thinks : I’m not actually looking for a job at the moment, but I might just start applying for a few, just for the laughs mwahaha…)

Re: Seems Yahoo is the big culprit here

Anecdotally... I've noticed on my Yahoo account in the last 7 days, that one mail *from Yahoo customer services* (confirmation of a change that I'd made) was sifted into my Spam box. While one with 'Viagra' (not even 'vigara' or 'viagara') in both header and body happily passed straight into my Inbox. Go figure.

March Of The Cretins

Given that you would still need to actually pick up the associated phone to receive any incoming message...so you probably wouldn't leave it that far away from your own location in space (especially if it had a high fondle-rating)... are that many people so *stupid* that they actually need a vibrating tattoo to tell them when a text message arrives ? Or when the phone needs recharging ?

Oh, right, bit of a silly question really.

Re: work as a chemist...wash your hands BEFORE using the toilet

Yeah, one of my mates made that mistake when preparing a 'five-alarm' chili. Ooooh oooh ooh the ring of fire....

Re: There are plenty of blokes...

My thoughts entirely - so many people seem to be baffled by the concept of hand-washing that I'm suprised WSCC didn't get Professor Cox in to explain it.

In fact I think the aforementioned council could produce a lot more videos, such as "When to use the indicator lights on the car you're driving", "How to put used teabags in the bin", or "Wet towels - hang them up !" and none of them would be a waste of money.

(I can only hope that trusted colleagues are, in fact, "wiping their arses", and don't need an instructional video on how to do *that*.)

Re: Transformers blowing up

Wow, I thought they only existed in the movies ! Does Megan Fox live near you, cos if so I'm moving there

@ Kubla Cant

Don’t know where you’ve got your info from but there’s a lot of factual inaccuracy there - I think you’re trying to conflate the two sites just because of their *relative* proximity (there are actually a good couple of mountain ranges between them). Dinorwig (still very much in use) is linked directly to the National Grid, it’s nothing to do with Trawsfynydd (which hasn't produced any power in 20 years).

Dinorwig simply uses the spare overnight capacity of the NG to pump water uphill, ready to release during the advert break in Coronation Street (for example) when most of Britain decides to have a nice cup of tea. From zero, to 1800 Megawatts in 16 seconds, now that’s what I call acceleration. (The most powerful station in Europe – Drax – produces just over twice that, so Dinorwic gives us the ability to effectively add a sizable power station to the Grid at will, run it for up to 5 hours, but then switch it off again in seconds. BTW It gives about 75% efficiency – i.e it takes about 33% more crackle-magic to pump the water back uphill again, than is produced by letting the water go downhill through its turbines.)

Not having ever decommissioned a Magnox power station myself, I can’t speak from first-hand experience, but I’m pretty sure that any electrical requirements they still have at Traws similarly comes down a cable from the rest of the Grid.

Pumped storage wasn't expanded further because (in the early 80s) the UK cancelled a lot of its planned nukular stations; output from 'conventional' (fossil-fuel-fired) stations can be increased or damped down to allow for seasonal variations in demand, whereas a nukular plant produces about the same output for its entire operational life. So, fewer nukes means less requirement for ‘on demand’ production capacity.

Re: Newsflash: Crowdsourced data is inaccurate...

My ogglefloggle needs fleening ?

Damn that IT guy, he told me I needed a new flux capacitor.

Re: didn't want to give any money to Apple

I suppose even crystal meth manufacturers have *some* scruples about the sort of low-lives they want to do business with.

Have YOU been injured by a flying book ? Ring our helpline NOW to speak to a claims specialist...

Re: pissoirs

One essential difference though, is that pissoirs are actually designed for pissing in, unlike a garden.

We've all taken a leak somewhere in public, behind a tree or in a shop doorway, if we're nowhere near an available toilet, but you have to be one lazy-ass mo-fo if you *can't be bothered to walk into your own house* to take a slash.

I imagine his neighbours' mockery is based more on his laziness, than on his violation of the acceptable rules of French behaviour (which I understand to be somewhat more 'relaxed' than those of the average Daily Mail reader).

Mine's the one with the funnel and plastic tubing in the pocket.

Re: Secure?

A friend has parents who are both Salvation Army officers (pretty upstanding & reliable members of society, I think we'd all agree), and they have frequently (and for many years) been involved in the physical process as monitors at the polling stations. However they have *never* been invited to join in the teams that actually count the papers, and say that they have *no idea* who those people are...

If anyone knows how the counters are recruited, I'd be interested to hear.

(Personally I think all 'representative democracy' is like giving sheep the choice of which wolf they want to be eaten by... it doesn't really matter which one wins)

This is definitely a SOLUTION, not a PROBLEM.