Safer browsing

McAfee, one of the main players on the virus security software market have acquired the service called siteadvisor, which gives you an indication of a web sites security when you are browsing it.

In addition, when you Google something, it provides a traffic light indication to whether a site has been reviewed and considered safe, mediocre or unsafe.

The community works such that if a site has not yet received a recommendation, you can submit it for review.

The traffic light is based on tests for pop-ups, browser exploits, phishing activity, adware, spyware and malware.

The service can be downloaded as an extension to Firefox and is free of charge.

Barclays Banking, masochism or insanaty

When moving across to the UK, Barclays Bank was recommended by Den Danske Bank. I am struggling to see why.

Their financial services are un competitive in any ways possible. Their credit cards are charged at around 20% which has received plentiful comments from the Ombudsman. The fact that they paid Jennifer Anniston GBP 2M for a TV ad that ONLY made the headlines because of that fact does not halp either.

Their mortgages will always be higher than other high street banks. Their marketing consists of hand written signs in the banks by desparate employees trying to meet their head office targets. I would imagine the consequence of not meeting the target is to be sacked as there is always new staff in the branches, which you as a customer has to "appreciate and accept" ??? Maybe thatg is also the reason you always wait minimum 20 minutes to be served, because all staff goes to lunch at the time their customers come to see them. After lunch they are just way busy with their mobile phones and chatting across the barriers about football.

Back to the cosequence of being sacked - don't worry there will be something better for you out there...

Try and file a complaint? You are left to send an email to a service that still hasn't responded to my letters. If you manage to get hold of a telephone number to one of their branches as I once did, prepare yourself for a mouthful for calling them on that "secret" number...

Should you go into overdraft they will charge you a "learn the lesson fee" of GBP 30 per day if new transactions occur...... Imagine coming home from a 3 day holiday where 3 transactions have caused you to overdraw with just GBP 10 - that holiday will cost you an additional GBP 90 - enough to go to Paris for a weekend break.

Did I forget to mention all the other services they manage to sell you each time you go into the bank? And also remind me to tell you about the GBP 3.5 billion they distribute to their shareholders each year...

Free mobile and landline telephony!

There is no doubt that internet telephony is the way forward. Many ideas are revealed these years. Not to forget Skype that was sold to eBay for around USD 3.5 BN.

This new service from jajah.com deserves a mention - and an incouragement for all friend and family to sign up.

The charge to call a non registered user is reasonable but the real benefit comes when both parties are registered, as the call from landline to landline (or from mobile to mobile) is then completely free .

How it works is basically that the caller logs into jajah.com and makes a selection of whom to call (address book or dial-pad) and from which phone he/she wishes to call from. The callers phone will ring and then shortly after the recipient is called.

Initially before subscription, you get 5 minutes of free talktime, which I used on a quality test of the service by calling my Dad. He was busy cutting down the apple-tree in the garden!!!

The quality from UK landline to DK landline is top notch.

Even when you subscribe you get around GBP 1.88 (presumably the equivalent of USD 3.00) to enable you start talking.

So please subscribe and lets enjoy free communication as long as it will last...

Regular breakdowns at Copenhagen Airport

This was the weekend, we went to celebrate my Dad, Erik's, 60th birthday and his retirement.

Usually we return back to the UK on a Sunday evening but this time we thought we would like to utilize the entire weekend and thus fly back on the Monday morning.

Oh what a mistake. Although we thoroughly enjoyed Sunday evening with a picnic in a park, the relaxed feeling was somewhat offset with the stress of Monday morning at the airport...

This time we flew with Sterling Airways from terminal 2. Before we entered the airport terminal, we could see the orange screens, and all the people through the sliding doors. At first I thought orange = EasyJet and people = charter holidays which equals = not my problem!

What a mistake. The entire building was full of people waiting to check-in with Sterling. Initially we tried to maneouvre down to the end of the queue in the other end of the building but eventually we just stepped into the queue somewhere. This later turned out to be the general plan as people generally proclaimed the situation to be a state of emergency....

As usual there was very little communication and what was even more worrying was that the message that was broadcasted was a pre-recording... They seem to be used to the situation??

Eventually after 90 minutes of queueing we were checked in, only to re-iterate the exercise at the security gate. Here people were now coming to the conclusion that all flights but theres would be delayed and thus most people had an average of 6 - 20 minutes to board the plane and thus they should be in the front of the queue. No worries, we did the same....

Besides from all this there was some PSIP (Potentially Self-Important Person) on the plane as we boarded from gate B1. this gate is located at the ground floor, away from all fingers and passport controls.
We sat waiting in a row of chairs facing a speakers chair. When we got to Gatwick we were welcomed by a row of limousines picking of the passenger (could not see whom because of the wing).

The only lesson to be learned is: As staff was walking around the airport announcing that people to this and that destination now had to come forward in the queue, you may as well sit down at Cafe Karen Blixen and enjoy breakfast whilst watching the farce around you until your destination gets preference....