Posts in category Personal

PayPal Hacked maybe?

Feb15
2011 Written by Mauldor

Before I jump into the story, let me tell you a bit of background. I only have a paypal account as I sold some items on eBay many years ago and recently I used this method I think to buy something from eBay. As a general rule I do not log into my PayPal account, I have no funds on there and I honestly thought it was safe. Yet more background – my passwords are so hard (Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers – no real words, longer than 12 characters in length) that I have to write them in a book which is secure. I would like to say that maybe Chrome saves my passwords but in the case of Paypal and the fact I had not logged into it for so long, it was not stored on this computer.

So what is the Hack you may ask? Well let me go through a sequence of events which all took place today and I am glad I carry a phone that shows my emails as they come in.

Tagged fraud, hacking, lockdown, mobile, password, paypal

Libraries under threat–what next?

Feb05
2011 Written by Mauldor

Today in the news we have a story that says in the UK 400 libraries are under threat of closure. Does this news surprise anyone much in the same way we hear the the post office is not doing as much business as it used to in the day before computer? When was the last time you went out and spent time in an library and borrowed a book? I recall my past when I used to head down to the libirary to first read the latest computer magazines (which had been handled by many people before me – think of the germs crossing over there) and the loaning some computer books. I remember not been able to have enough time to read the books and more often then not returning them without having read through them all or having to pay a fine when I was late bringing them back.

Posted in Thoughts - Tagged amazon, blockbusters, email, library, pdf, technology

Challenging the Retail Stores

Dec30
2010 Written by Mauldor

If you recall, when I popped into the local Toys’R'Us Store and spotted the Elonex 10″ Tablet they refused my request to open one to see if it was of any use, build quality and so forth. While it is not law that they obey my every whim, I felt an object such as this tablet was the ideal object that should be out for all to see. I did write them an email and this post shall detail not only what reply I got back but also my thoughts.

Tagged aftersales, complaints, customer, hq, manager, tablet, toysrus

Online vs Retail store

Dec19
2010 Written by Mauldor

The purpose of this post is to examine shopping (in this case for Playstation 3 games) either on-line or in a store and how in my eye’s the brick and mortar stores need to re-think how they operate if they want to keep selling items. If you are shopping for say a TV, then it is nice to walk into a store and see how they look but in the case of software, what you get in the store is the same as you get on-line. I would also love to hear what you do, only ever buy online, rent games, store or whatever.

Posted in Gaming, Thoughts - Tagged game, Gaming, online, ps3, store, toys-r-us

Winter has Arrived in the UK

Dec01
2010 Written by Mauldor

They said it would snow in the UK and they also said it would hit a deep freeze. Monday and Tuesday it snowed but not enough to stop most from getting into work but during the day on Tuesday it snowed almost all of the day but by sheer luck never managed to settle due to it been 1c. Once 5pm came along though, it dropped to 0c and this allowed the snow to form on the ground. It snowed most of the night and combined with Winds, by time I woke up in the morning – I was met with most of the features (including cars) on the ground been covered by snow.

Tagged blocked, drifting, england, snow, snowing, UK, winter, xmas

Broken Toshiba 37″ LCD TV

Nov21
2010 Written by Mauldor

About two years ago I went out and bought a Toshiba 37″ LCD TV and it cost back then in the region of £650. The reason why I bought 37″ by the way was I had to fit it into a gap and 42″ was just too big. The TV lasted for Two years and I had started to switch everything off at night to save electricity. One day while watching something – the picture went off, the sound was still in and you could still see it lit up. One I was happy that the TV was never going to come on again, we replaced the TV with a much better 42″ LG model – which only cost £450. I was about to scrap this TV as it just sat doing nothing in the garage but I gave it one last chance, how much to get it fixed.

Posted in Tech - Tagged broken, ebay, expensive, repair, toshiba, tv

Steam versus Retail Store

Nov15
2010 Written by Mauldor

Steam is the service created by Vale who in turn make games such as Half-Life and TeamFortress (plus many others of course). Recently over at Tom’s Hardware I read a story about Game Stores View Valve’s Steam as the Devil - The basics of the story is that a Major UK Game Retailer in the UK are upset enough by Steam to threaten that they will not carry any product that carry any Steam integration – I am having a guess here that the store in question is Game maybe? I might be wrong, but how about we look at buying a game via a store verus buying the same title over the Steam Service.

Posted in Thoughts - Tagged box, game, online, playstation, real, shop, steam, store, transaction, UK, xbox

What to look for in Car Insurance

Nov12
2010 Written by Mauldor

I am not sure how well this may translate across the world as each country I am sure is different on the subject of insuring a car but I wanted to write about a few points that have bitten myself and others in the past when dealing with car insurance. In the UK at least, it is the law that you have valid insurance for you car and this comes as either Fully Comprehensive or 3rd party – most people I know have Fully Comprehensive. I am in no way an expert on insurance and I do not sell or endorse any company out there – this is just my own experience of when it all goes wrong.

Posted in Thoughts - Tagged car, crash, insurance, lost, mis-sold, shocked, stolen, theft

An Apple for Christmas

Nov03
2010 Written by Mauldor

Before we begin, the story is not about me buying an Apple for Christmas, this is a tale of the ‘normal’ people view of apple, what there children are asking for and the shock factor when you tell them how much they cost, what they do and probably why there children want one. By the way – the picture above – Designed and hand-built by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the Apple I was Apple’s first product, and went on sale in July 1976 at the distinctly unsettling price of $666.66. Only 200 units were produced, and unlike many other computers of the day, the Apple I came as a fully assembled circuit board containing around 30 chips.

Posted in Macintosh, Tech, Thoughts - Tagged Apple, christmas, expensive, gift, iMac, Mac, money, price, xmas

Fixing computers for friends and family

Oct23
2010 Written by Mauldor

I have worked in I.T. for most of my working life and basically people expect you to fix there computer for them – either for free or very cheap indeed. As well as fixing computers, we also have the on-demand computer expert when they are buying something, such as a Laptop or a Printer for example. It might start off with just the odd person but eventually you can be sitting with 3 Laptops to fix when in reality you should be doing something more productive. How does it build up and why are computers different from says cars for example?

Posted in Thoughts - Tagged broken, cheap, laptop, time

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Posts in category Personal

PayPal Hacked maybe?

Libraries under threat–what next?

Challenging the Retail Stores

Online vs Retail store

Winter has Arrived in the UK

Broken Toshiba 37″ LCD TV

Steam versus Retail Store

What to look for in Car Insurance

An Apple for Christmas

Fixing computers for friends and family

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