I have never had any dealings with HSBC, nor do I know anything about their customer service. But I can take a wild guess as to how their tech could be different than their customer service. Maybe, just maybe, those are two different departments. Perhaps those two different departments are not staffed by the same people. And perhaps, even if they are the same people, some people are really good at one thing (tech for instance) and not so good at another (people pleasing) perhaps.
And perhaps the organization as a whole is lousy at hiring people, even if they do work in different departments. Organizations tend to take on the character of their leadership -- in this case, clueless.
My wife is a former customer of HSBC, because they were nothing but a pain. She had put some money in a savings account with them and sent her an ATM card which she destroyed, not wanting to be tempted to withdraw the money at any time. They claim to have sent her a pin for her online banking account, but she never received it, and when she called them up to try and get it reset so she could log in, they refused, even though she could provide them with all the relevant identification information. This went on and on until finally she told them to simply cancel the account, which they stated they could do, but they could not simply transfer the money back to the account from which they'd originally taken it, and would instead send her a check.
Their customer sevice stinks, so why should their tech be any different?
Statistically 15 people have been murdered in the last 8 hrs in the USA... and by the end of today that number will be 45... 315 a week...
but for some reason that isn't news
And agreed, it's sad that we disregard these statistics, but that's the nature of the animal. A random killing, which until discovered is pretty much anonymous (unless celebrities are involved) does not make any impact on us. However, massive, large-scale death and destruction do. This certainly qualifies. Add to that list: the number of people who die from wars in foreign countries (other than Lebanon and Iraq), those who die from disease (AIDS, cancer, etc.), and those who die on the highways every year. We become numb to it after a while.
It seems to me that if the terorists wanted to cause chaos and confusion, they've been doing a good job. Look at how we have to analyze this to see just what the DHS is up to, rather than simply thinking "Hey, patching my copy of Windows is probably a good idea." It's funny that when Microsoft says apply the patch, we dutifully go about it and grumble about all the bugs in their software, but when DHS says to do it, it's part of some sinister plot... or is it? We've become so conditioned to the idea that the government is corrupt, we fail to notice when they are actually doing their job. THe thing that maes this problematic is that DHS is being pretty cryptic, and they have no track record of doing this. It'll be interesting to see if this happens again when the next MS patch cycle occurs.
In a somewhat unusual move, the DHS warned that the patches cover a remote code execution vulnerability that could be used in a network worm attack similar to Blaster, Slammer of Sasser.
"Windows users are encouraged to avoid delay in applying this security patch. Attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems routinely occur within 24 hours of the release of a security patch," the agency said in an public advisory.
Do they know something we don't know? Coming on the heels of this news about the thwarted atacks on trans-Atlantic flights, it makes you wonder if there's something even bigger that DHS knows about. Or it could be their innate paranoia -- hard to tell without any more info from them.
And how long before I can travel with my notebook onto an aeroplane again, as we all know a cargo hold is no place for a lithium ion battery?
Good point. A flight crashes, not because a terrorist's bomb goes off, but because a fire breaks out in the baggage compartment due to an overheated lithium ion battery. Although, as I remember, don't the cargo and baggage areas on aircraft have some type of Halon or other fire suppressant system?
This has been on CNN for the last 8 hours. I think that Slashdot's entire story submission process is to slow to effectively cover breaking news, since it just isn't news anymore.
Thank god Slashdot is not CNN; they tend to take one little piece of news with very few details and rake it over the coals for hour after hour after hour until you are so sick of it you want to puke.
Not news anymore? Hello, McFly?!?!? According to news sources, these people were going to blow up trans-Atlantic flights bound for the US filled full of people. How does that stop being news in just 8 hours? Have you become so inured to the whole terrorism thing that you can't see an important piece of news when it's right in front of you?
I think the idea is that it's so easy, you might as well have a computer do it for you. i.e., maid vs. Roomba
Well, if that's so, wouldn't it be easier to replace all those freckle-faced kids with the Burger-Flip-O-Matic and take humans completely out of the equation? I remember Harry Harrison wrote about that in his Stainless Steel Rat stories.
Is managing a fast food restaurant so hard that you need a computer to do it for you? Worked in a few -- not rocket science. It's an interesting idea to use trend analysis and inventory control to map out ordering and control costs by managing employees time, but I think it's wasted on the fast food industry. Now if Ford or Boeing or even my local supermarket chain were using it, that would be interesting.
Well, you can look at it one of two ways: User 17556639 is a diseased member of society or User 17556639 is a coroner doing research. Which is it? How do you decide based on just search information? And what does "steak and cheese" suggest?
Yes, AOL releasing this information was the longest in a series of boneheaded decisions, and when it finally dies, no one will mourn its passing. However, unless you're a card-carrying member of the tin hat brigade, there's not much to fear. Yes, someone can potentially trace you, as they did with this lady, but the fact is so many searches are non-descript that you'd have a hell of a time tracking someone down. Look at User 17556639's searches -- what in that string of searches tells you who this person is, where they live, what they do, etc. If you're smart, you keep your searches general. It's not so much the searches you have to watch out for anyway, it's the links in those searches you click on that can give you away.
I predict the price of Apples will drop when the new version of Newton comes out...
Re:Flash as an application development platform
on
The Future of Flash
·
· Score: 2
You are implying that you have some sort of intrinsic right to have information delivered to you in the format you prefer by all sites on the Internet.
No, I'm implying that the state of the Web is deplorable, made more so my hack developers who think Flash animations are "the neatest thing ever" and hide the content I'm looking for behind all this useless crap. I'm also saying that I don't patronize any site where such things occur. If there's information I want on a site, but I have to wade through Flash to get at it, I'll do without, thank you.
Re:Flash as an application development platform
on
The Future of Flash
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Like it or not, Flash is here to stay.
Like it or not, some of us would like it to go away. Flash is a pestilence which has led to a lot of flashy and meaningless content clogging up web sites and making them unuseable. It's been smeared so liberally around the Web that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a site that uses it in some gratuitous fashion. No, I'm sorry -- I need to be able to go to a web site and find the information I'm looking for, not watch inane animations and pointless fluff.
The project's goal was to track what our representatives were talking about at any given time, and researchers were able to do it without human training or intervention.
Don't all circular/spherical objects bulge around the middle?
If they are planets and they are spinning, yes. Just look at pics of the Jovian worlds, especially Saturn. And the Sun has a definite bulge. Of course, for most of the planets, the bulge is pronounced because they are still elastic to some degree. The Earth bulges owing to the fact that the continents are riding around on their crustal plates, which ooze on molten material, and the Moon is tugging on them as it goes aroudn us. The Moon's is more fascinating because it is a geologically dead world, so the bulge happened some time in the past and then got frozen in place.
Slashdot Mirror
And perhaps the organization as a whole is lousy at hiring people, even if they do work in different departments. Organizations tend to take on the character of their leadership -- in this case, clueless.
My wife is a former customer of HSBC, because they were nothing but a pain. She had put some money in a savings account with them and sent her an ATM card which she destroyed, not wanting to be tempted to withdraw the money at any time. They claim to have sent her a pin for her online banking account, but she never received it, and when she called them up to try and get it reset so she could log in, they refused, even though she could provide them with all the relevant identification information. This went on and on until finally she told them to simply cancel the account, which they stated they could do, but they could not simply transfer the money back to the account from which they'd originally taken it, and would instead send her a check.
Their customer sevice stinks, so why should their tech be any different?
Especially if you use the time-honored method of hunt-and-peck typing.
Statistically 15 people have been murdered in the last 8 hrs in the USA... and by the end of today that number will be 45... 315 a week... but for some reason that isn't news
And agreed, it's sad that we disregard these statistics, but that's the nature of the animal. A random killing, which until discovered is pretty much anonymous (unless celebrities are involved) does not make any impact on us. However, massive, large-scale death and destruction do. This certainly qualifies. Add to that list: the number of people who die from wars in foreign countries (other than Lebanon and Iraq), those who die from disease (AIDS, cancer, etc.), and those who die on the highways every year. We become numb to it after a while.
It seems to me that if the terorists wanted to cause chaos and confusion, they've been doing a good job. Look at how we have to analyze this to see just what the DHS is up to, rather than simply thinking "Hey, patching my copy of Windows is probably a good idea." It's funny that when Microsoft says apply the patch, we dutifully go about it and grumble about all the bugs in their software, but when DHS says to do it, it's part of some sinister plot... or is it? We've become so conditioned to the idea that the government is corrupt, we fail to notice when they are actually doing their job. THe thing that maes this problematic is that DHS is being pretty cryptic, and they have no track record of doing this. It'll be interesting to see if this happens again when the next MS patch cycle occurs.
Do they know something we don't know? Coming on the heels of this news about the thwarted atacks on trans-Atlantic flights, it makes you wonder if there's something even bigger that DHS knows about. Or it could be their innate paranoia -- hard to tell without any more info from them.
And how long before I can travel with my notebook onto an aeroplane again, as we all know a cargo hold is no place for a lithium ion battery?
Good point. A flight crashes, not because a terrorist's bomb goes off, but because a fire breaks out in the baggage compartment due to an overheated lithium ion battery. Although, as I remember, don't the cargo and baggage areas on aircraft have some type of Halon or other fire suppressant system?
I wonder if the mousse in my hair will get me a trip to gitmo...
No, but perhaps if you ask nicely, the Department of Homeland Security can give you some hair styling tips...
Well, if that's so, wouldn't it be easier to replace all those freckle-faced kids with the Burger-Flip-O-Matic and take humans completely out of the equation? I remember Harry Harrison wrote about that in his Stainless Steel Rat stories.
This innovation seems to take the human manager out of the equation entirely.
And if my experience in fast food taught me anything, perhaps that's a good thing!
Overheard behind the counter: "I'm sorry Bob, I can't allow you to jeopardize the restaurant. This conversation can serve no useful purpose. Goodbye."
Is managing a fast food restaurant so hard that you need a computer to do it for you? Worked in a few -- not rocket science. It's an interesting idea to use trend analysis and inventory control to map out ordering and control costs by managing employees time, but I think it's wasted on the fast food industry. Now if Ford or Boeing or even my local supermarket chain were using it, that would be interesting.
Well, you can look at it one of two ways: User 17556639 is a diseased member of society or User 17556639 is a coroner doing research. Which is it? How do you decide based on just search information? And what does "steak and cheese" suggest?
Yes, AOL releasing this information was the longest in a series of boneheaded decisions, and when it finally dies, no one will mourn its passing. However, unless you're a card-carrying member of the tin hat brigade, there's not much to fear. Yes, someone can potentially trace you, as they did with this lady, but the fact is so many searches are non-descript that you'd have a hell of a time tracking someone down. Look at User 17556639's searches -- what in that string of searches tells you who this person is, where they live, what they do, etc. If you're smart, you keep your searches general. It's not so much the searches you have to watch out for anyway, it's the links in those searches you click on that can give you away.
From the article, Dell says he has their top of the line Dell Precision.
He had a Dell notebook, but it got consumed in an office fire...
I predict the price of Apples will drop when the new version of Newton comes out...
You are implying that you have some sort of intrinsic right to have information delivered to you in the format you prefer by all sites on the Internet.
No, I'm implying that the state of the Web is deplorable, made more so my hack developers who think Flash animations are "the neatest thing ever" and hide the content I'm looking for behind all this useless crap. I'm also saying that I don't patronize any site where such things occur. If there's information I want on a site, but I have to wade through Flash to get at it, I'll do without, thank you.
Like it or not, Flash is here to stay.
Like it or not, some of us would like it to go away. Flash is a pestilence which has led to a lot of flashy and meaningless content clogging up web sites and making them unuseable. It's been smeared so liberally around the Web that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a site that uses it in some gratuitous fashion. No, I'm sorry -- I need to be able to go to a web site and find the information I'm looking for, not watch inane animations and pointless fluff.
Isn't that near Nevada? Or maybe Montana -- my geography's not good.
I stand corrected -- it's been too long since Geology 101 back in college.
Which will get them in trouble with Pontiac, not to mention Knight Rider fans. Mission Commander David Hasselhoff anyone?
Don't all circular/spherical objects bulge around the middle?
If they are planets and they are spinning, yes. Just look at pics of the Jovian worlds, especially Saturn. And the Sun has a definite bulge. Of course, for most of the planets, the bulge is pronounced because they are still elastic to some degree. The Earth bulges owing to the fact that the continents are riding around on their crustal plates, which ooze on molten material, and the Moon is tugging on them as it goes aroudn us. The Moon's is more fascinating because it is a geologically dead world, so the bulge happened some time in the past and then got frozen in place.
Damon is too old to play a 20-year old guy.
Yoda: Yessss.. he is too old to complete the training...
Maybe he won't be such a good choice after all if they are looking for an actor more like Shatner?
Then that could leave only one option: Luke Perry!