The following story might make people think twice about going completely cashless:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/16/hsbc_atm_o ut/ : HSBC's cash machine service turned on customers this weekend with many people complaining that their accounts were held hostage and others saying ATM boxes ate their cards. The issues also extended to HSBC's credit cards with thousands of people affected, The Register can confirm. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/18/hsbc_atm_l etters/ : For HSBC, keeping thousands of customers from their money is just part of doing regular business with the bank. The company explained away Sunday's multi-hour ATM and credit card outage by telling us that it resulted from a "standard server" issue. HSBC issued no apology and called the whole kerfuffle "a minor" incident.
Slashdot Mirror
Not the same kid as the picture in the article. (see the link in my previous comment for the full article, not the print version in the OP).
The Dad is Rory Cellan-Jones, a seasoned BBC reporter on technology. A better link (with pictures) is here BBC News
The following story might make people think twice about going completely cashless:
o ut/ :l etters/ :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/16/hsbc_atm_
HSBC's cash machine service turned on customers this weekend with many people complaining that their accounts were held hostage and others saying ATM boxes ate their cards. The issues also extended to HSBC's credit cards with thousands of people affected, The Register can confirm.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/18/hsbc_atm_
For HSBC, keeping thousands of customers from their money is just part of doing regular business with the bank. The company explained away Sunday's multi-hour ATM and credit card outage by telling us that it resulted from a "standard server" issue. HSBC issued no apology and called the whole kerfuffle "a minor" incident.
The problem with "#" being called "pound sign" is that in the UK we use a "£" as a pound sign. Also, I have heard the "#" being called "square"