I received a phone call today from HSBC. Let me rephrase that, I received a phone call today from somebody who claimed to be from HSBC.

As an IT professional, security is always at the forefront of my mind, so when asked to supply details like my date of birth etc., I was more than hesitant to give these out. I politely declined and told them that as I couldn't be sure of who they were, I did not want to answer, unless they could prove to me that they genuinely were HSBC. He wouldn't do this as he "didn't know if he was speaking to the correct person so couldnt divulge any information" which left us in a bit of a standoff.

I've experienced this with other establishments before, and it strikes me that there is a simple solution. When I set up my online banking, I created a password which I use for online/telephone banking authentication. Surely, the easy way around this would be for them to allocate a password/passphrase from their side, and then quote this to you when they call, this way you know it's them you're speaking to* and not some scammer. The password/phrase wouldnt be anything sensitive, just something to prove they were who they said. I realise this is another thing to remember, but it would be worth the effort for piece of mind.

Anyway, the call ended and I hung up and checked the number in google, it does appear to be a HSBC number, but when I called them on their main line and asked what the call was about, there was no record of any outstanding calls which leads me to believe either a) It was a scam, or b) HSBC don't know what their other departments are doing, neither of which fills me with confidence.

Surely this would be a no brainer to implement and stop any risk of fraud?

* Unless, they've been hacked and have all of your details, in which case you're screwed anyway!

It always makes me laugh when I buy something new and see how dumbed down the instructions are. After getting a new replacement Viewsonic monitor today, I saw this one which is the best I've seen in a while!

How stupid do these people think we really are? :)

Just before 1:00am in the morning UK time, I was playing on PGR 4 on the XBox 360 when all of a sudden, I heard a loud roar and the whole room appeared to shake for a couple of seconds. As we've had a lot of high wind lately, I initially thought that this might have been a strong gust. I had a look out of the window back and front and it seemed very eerie and still outside, no sign of any wind at all.

I thought nothing more of it and went back to play on the XBox. I guessed that I'd probably imagined it as I was getting tired by this point. I just started to play again when in walks my wife (who looked like she'd seen a ghost!) "What was that?" she said.  After I realised I hadn't imagined it, we initially thought it could have been an explosion or a plane crash. I looked outside again, and by this point, half of the street were out in their dressing gowns staring around in disbelief! That's when I realised it had been an earthquake.

We we're both a little shook up and we went downstairs and put TV on and sure enough, breaking news was that an "Earth Tremor" had been felt across many parts of the UK. It later was revelead that the epicentre had been near Lincoln and it measured 5.2 on the richter scale.

In talking to people today, it has amazed me how few actually noticed it. Obviously, I was awake so I was more likely to, but I'm sure it would have woke me had I been a sleep. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. I can't even begin to imagine how awful it would be in a stronger one.

This was something I imagined I would never experience, so if we can have an earthquake in England, who knows, maybe it'll be Boro's year in the FA Cup! (something else I thought I'd never experience!)

I've just moved over to a new platform for managing my website, the wonderful blogengine.net!

While I'm in the process of tidying everything up, you may notice on or two dead links on the site. I am aware of these and will be working to tidy them up as time permits.

Paul.

Printer manufacturers are ripping off consumers by overcharging for printer cartridges, according to a study by the Consumer Association's Which? magazine.

Which? slams the cost of printer ink. A Colour HP cartridge, for example costs £29 or (put another way) 1.70 per millilitre. That's seven times more expensive than the cost of vintage champagne, it points out. A 1985 Dom Perignon costs 23p per millilitre.

Worse still, many printer cartridges give premature warnings that they are running out of ink.

Epson cartridges contain a chip that stop them working when ink runs low. The company says this is a measure to protect consumers from damaging their printer or product sub-standard prints.

But, after bypassing this system a Which? researcher was able to print many more pages at accepted quality before the ink ran dry. In one instance the researcher printed 38 per cent more pages during the tests. The least amount of extra pages he was able to print of on an Epsom printer was 17 per cent.

Last year an Office of Fair Trading investigation ruled that vendors should provide greater information about the cost and yield of replacement ink cartridges. The OFT has recommended that action be taken to develop a benchmark for ink cartridge measurement within the next year.

For its part, the Consumer Association advises consumers to steer clear of brand name printer cartridges and pick cheaper alternatives instead.

And it's not just consumers who are in the dark about the true costs of running a printer.

Forty five per cent of respondents to a survey published today by Kyocera Mita believe that printer vendors provided "very little" information about the running costs of their products, while a further 11 per cent feel that printer vendors "deliberately obscure" the costs of owning their products. Only five per cent of respondents consider that vendors were open about the true costs associated with their products.

Tracey Rawling Church, Head of Marketing at Kyocera Mita, commented: "The results of the survey show that the lack of information on TCO at the point of sale is not just a problem for consumers, but for business users too.

"Purchasers feel that they are being duped by vendors who provide very little information about the true cost impact of their products. With lifetime costs varying between different manufacturers by as much as 60 per cent, businesses can ill afford to make the wrong decision when selecting a printer fleet," she added. ®