March 2005 Archives

I get a call at work from some chick purporting to be from the Commonwealth Bank, of which I am a customer. She tells me its a courtesy call and that she needs my full name, including any middle names, and my date of birth to verify my identity for privacy reasons. Note that at this point the term "courtesy call" has conveyed no meaningful information about why she's calling me, and she's asking for my personal details. Before I hand over my DOB I ask what the call is about, and it turns out its just another lame sales call ... so why do they need my details?!

She offers me her own details so that I can confirm that she's calling from the CBA but why the hell would I want to do that for a sales call?? So, assuming that she is from the CBA, I try to tell her that its not a great idea to encourage your customer base to give our their personal details to random cold callers no matter who they claim to represent. I'm sure I sounded like an irate dickhead, and its frustrating as hell when you know the caller can't do anything about the idiotic sales program CBA came up with.

Article about a Hungarian bloke who'd used a computer inside his shoe to beat the roulette wheel. Shoe used to rob casino.

The article doesn't describe how it actually works but o found a New Scientist article explaining a surprisingly simple and elegant method. Alleged high-tech roulette scam "easy to set up"