A Little Egg on Face

I spoke to Egg, and they do appear to have thought about it a little after all.

The primary account holder has to sign up to their blame-shifting scheme first, and apparently the secondary account holder can then set up another password. I say “apparently” because this has yet to be tested. In this case the secondary account holder signed up first. In order for the primary account holder (me) to sign up first, the secondary account holder (Wen) has to first de-register, and then re-register after the primary account holder has registered.

If this works, I might then try de-registering myself and see if I can continue to get away with not signing up to their evil one-sided conditions, leaving Wen to wallow alone in implied fraudulent complicity should anyone at the bank steal anything.

And to put a ribbon on it, my NatWest Maestro cashcard is now a Visa debit card, and is afflicted by Verified by Visa as well.

Verified by SecureCode My Arse

Despite prolific online shopping, I had so far managed to avoid using the stupid and useless phishing magnet which is known as Verified By Visa or Mastercard Securecode. I’ve done this by pretending to use it and then cancelling it at the last. This has always worked.

Wen has less patience than me, so last time she used it she caved and registered.

Today I tried to buy something from Tesco, and up popped the Mastercard Securecode (or was it? who can tell as it is a separate window from another website – the very thing that we are taught never to trust when online) with the username filled in as MSWLAW. Clearly this isn’t me. I had just told Tesco that the name on the card was D Law.

This has happened because we have two cards on the same account, which have the same number. Egg clearly haven’t thought this through at all.

The terms and conditions of Mastercard Securecode are very strict. You are not allowed to write it down even though it must be 7 characters long and include at least 2 numbers. (So what will people do? Choose something obvious and easy to remember, of course.) More pertinently, you are not allowed to tell anyone. So I can not now use my credit card, because Wen has registered, and is forbidden to tell me her password. I rang Tesco: they said it was “the law” made by Mastercard and Visa and I must call my card issuer. I rang Egg, but the normal helpline shuts at 3pm on Saturday. What a surprise that I should shop online outside working hours!

I have another credit card, which is now registered in my name and Wen won’t be able to use that card online.

And yet, I have no idea why adding another password makes this in any sense “safer”. I suspect that what it does do is make it much more likely that any fraudulent use of my card will be blamed on me, because I must have told someone my password.

Gits. More on Moday when I’ve spoken to them.

Maybe there’s life in the Labour Party yet

John Prescott was on Today this morning.

He was talking about the Conservative Plan to increase the inheritance tax limits, a tax change which would benefit approximately 1% of people in the country – the richest, of course – almost all living in Chelsea and Kensington. Mr Prescott said,

“it will be the only tax cut ever proposed where the man making it will know by name everyone who will benefit.”

Genius.

Cheshire, Scotland

Yahoo Maps has a strange opinion about how to spell Macclesfield. It seems to be in Scotland, although the clan MacClesfield is new to me. It’s not just a typo, as you can see from the nearby MacClesfield Forest. Obviously some over-zealous speel chequer, but it doesn’t help Yahoo’s image much.

Robbery

We went into Cambridge early yesterday for eye tests. I have at least another year without specs, although I am now a little short-sighted. Wen has plumped for some varifocals and prescription sunglasses. Some part of that was free, but it still ended up over £600.

Then we met Donna for lunch, did a little clothes shopping in John Lewis, and went up to Ryman’s for a scrapbook.

When we got back to the car less than 5 hours later, we discovered that Cambridge County Council demanded SEVENTEEN POUNDS before they would let us leave. SEVENTEEN POUNDS!

Insurance Time Travel

This hurts my head.

Apparently, my car insurance renewal notification got lost in the post. Prompted by Wen, I finally decided to check last night and discovered that last year’s insurance ran out on the 6th. Oops! I quickly went online and insured myself with Directline (the interwebs never sleeps).

This morning I rang Egg (for it was they) to find out why they hadn’t sent my renewal notice. They said they did, in August. Another mystery. However, having not heard from me, they had automatically renewed my insurance and the certificate was already in the post. I asked how much, and it was a lot more than Directline, so I declined.

“Fair enough,” they said. “We will cancel it and refund the payment.”

So, even though I thought I wasn’t insured, I was – but now that I have cancelled it, I wasn’t. Ebbeh.

Atheist Quote

“I think the trouble with being a critical thinker or an atheist, or a humanist is that you’re right. And it’s quite hard being right in the face of people who are wrong without sounding like a fuckwit. People go: ‘do you think the vast majority of the world is wrong’, well yes, I don’t know how to say that nicely, but yes.”

Tim Minchin

Glastonbury 2009

It was tremendously fab.

We had a horror journey there (12 hours on the coach) and so had to put the tent up in the dark when there wasn’t much room left, but that was soon forgotten.

We ate Fish’n’Chips, Green Chicken Curry, Pommes de Terres d’Or, proper Sausages, bacon roll with rocket, fruit salad, Yeo Ice Cream and Yoghurt, tempura and noodles, organic jacket potatoes, never the same thing twice, and all the food was splendid. We drank beer, strawberry pear cider, lager, freshly squeezed fruits and lots of water – as it was, with the exception of Friday morning, exceptionally hot. The Calais Capes did get an hour’s use as capes, and many more as groundsheets!

We watched lightning flash across the valley from the safety of our tent.

Bruce was best. Not only his pyramid stage gig on Saturday (2 1/2 hours), but we also went to see The Gaslight Anthem in the John Peel tent, and he popped in there for a spot of guest guitar playing and chorus singing. The smallish crowd went berserk, and Wen nearly fainted.

We were at the front for Lily Allen, The Specials, The Gaslight Anthem, Kasabian, Bruce and Tom Jones; and near the front for Nick Cave and Blur, and in the arena for Spinal Tap, Tony Christie, Bjorn Again, Fleet Foxes, Madness, The Script, Paolo Nutini, The Maccabees, The Ting Tings and Bloc Party.

Rolf Harris was major and had the biggest crowd that Jazz World has ever seen. We saw and danced to a groovy old band on the Bandstand called Biggles Wartime Band (we only stopped because they had a tuba player in a tiger suit) who covered Bear Necessities and finished with their own composition called “Gluesniffin”. We danced some salsa in the Parlure, watched Banjo Circus (the smallest banjo orchestra with circus tricks in the world) in the Circus Outside, heard that Michael Jackson was dead from some kid with a mobile phone in The Glades, grooved to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in a Kidney Donor disco in Shangri-La, watched giant metal heads play music with firejets in Trash City, and walked miles and fucking miles.

That’s how fab it was. Next year is the 40th anniversary. It’ll be awesome.

Democracy Inaction 2009

This time, the people of Willingham, Over and Longstanton didn’t vote for a representative on Cambridgeshire County Council.

Despite the political cloud hanging over Shona after her brief tenure as leader of the council, she managed to convince 63% of the electorate to stay at home.
Actual details:

Candidate Party Votes
Charlie Wilson Labour 185
Rob Falla Libdem 888
Shona Johnstone Tory 1485
Lazy Bastards 4448