leyton.org

So here’s a dilemma. I’ve recently had a sizeable (hundreds of pounds) credit made to a personal bank account. Nice, only thing is I’ve no idea who made it or where it came from.

Naturally I reported it to the bank. I’m good like that. But I was rather surprised to hear that, largely, they’re not really that interested. They seem content to leave the money where it is (ie. in my account), despite my protestations that it’s not a deposit I recognise. They go so far as to ask for £10 in order to retrieve the paying in slip to check things, which I really don’t understand.

From their perspective at least they’re trusting their computer systems to have put money where it’s intended. From my perspective I don’t recognise the deposit and so - presumably - somebody else has deposited the money incorrectly in to my account. But, and here’s the rub, why should I risk £10, to perhaps ‘correct’ the banks mistake. Surely it’s the banks responsibility to investigate such a queried transaction? Helpfully (or not) they’ll refund the £10 if it’s found to be their mistake.

So, the best I can expect is to “lose” this unexpected deposit and get the £10 charge back as it’s “their mistake”. The “worst” is that it is a valid deposit and I’ve just wasted £10. My only doubt is that perhaps it’s an old deposit that’s been stuck in the system (Although we’ve no stubs for that amount in the last few years), or that having recently re-mortgaged it’s something to do with that. All that said the credit source is such that I don’t think any of this is likely.

An unrelated variable in all of this, which is at the back of my mind, is that I recently lost a not entirely dissimilar amount of money when a client I’d done a small piece of work for went in to liquidation, leaving my invoice unpaid. Whilst the amount is broadly comparable to the amount owed, they (as with all my clients) don’t have the details of this particular bank account: So I’m entirely certain it can’t be that. Atheist that I am, I’ve no truck with “karma” or “what goes around, comes around”, but I can’t help but feel it’s something in the way of compensation!

I like to think I am a moral person. But my key issue here is why should the obligation be on me to fork out/risk money to correct what I am 95% certain the bank’s (or somebody else’s), mistake? They’re insisting it’s correctly deposited, so could it just be a kind benefactor or my forgetfulness? Am I being a muppet to query this? Should I even be concerned? Especially given the bank is supposed to be well behaved? Finally, the bank remained silent on my question about how long it is that they can take the money back if they get a legitimate complaint about a missing deposit - and what if they demand the money back a year down the road, despite my actions so far?

Your thoughts appreciated. Or even just a click on my wizzy new “advisory poll” feature

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Update 6/Dec/07 :: More detail in my comment, but it turns out it was a refund from our old mortgage provider. Strange way of going about it (the supposed source of the credit does not make sense), and still raises a few concerns about how my bank handles queries like this.

I’m convinced that music is undergoing a massive change at the moment, and the BPI (equivalent of the RIAA in the US) are taking the fundamentally wrong approach in suing people who are downloading and sharing music. The reason they are distributing files “illegally” is no different from the practices of the past, when - as kids - we happily copied tapes and records and make compilation albums of our favourite music. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written a few letters for Amnesty in my time, but today is something different. Today is Free Mojtaba and Arash day, as organised by the committee to protect bloggers.

I’m a strong believer in freedom of speech and expression (even when it might cause offense to certain groups), and the detention of two people for simply speaking their mind is a worthy campaign. Hopefully the attention drawn by this campaign will help Iran move forward to a more open culture where freedom of expression is encouraged rather than repressed. It’s worked before, and it can work again.

See the BBC’s coverage too.

Personal Chemistry and the healthy body is an interesting article for many reasons. It was written twenty years ago, but is as relevant today as it was then.

The message is simple: take care of yourself, and it’s targeted at IT practitioners. It’s not without reason that the stereo-typical image of an IT geek feasting on pizza is so often used in the media. Whilst I know nobody who matches that description, the predilection to long hours, caffeine filled drinks and high-fat food is all too common.

I’d go on to suggest it’s doubly relevant to IT practitioners in the finance industry who - in my experience - tend to put in more hours than most, under very stressful circumstances by other often even more stressed individuals. Lunch breaks are an oxymoron in many financial environs. Yet the rewards are often significant (financial and otherwise).

But what benefit is this if your health and happiness suffer in the long run?

One of the greatest influences on my technical career was one of Britain’s leading rocket experts in the 1950s, and also a well known restaurateur in the 1960s and 1970s. Paul Leyton was also my Grandfather, and he was at all stages of his life a remarkable man, and I’ve finally managed to collate all of the obituaries from the national press.

Whilst it is more of a personal item, Paul Leyton was a remarkable engineer. He often explained how he had used early computer technology to control the Black Knight rocket in harnessed testing. Black Knight is well documented at www.spaceuk.org. As I grew up, his explanations and discussions on his experiences opened the world of engineering and technology up to me. A remarkable man, and a remarkable influence on my life.

Well, I’ve Done it. New look leyton.org. Essentially pushed Movabletype over the top of it.

It’ll be more static than /dev/rant, but allows me to manage things much better. Links to the new look pages for the main content hosted there (recipes, contact information and such like).

… well four days of fun are over on RH300 - The Redhat fast track and certification course. Tomorrow is the exam. 6 hours of Redhat configuring, repair and multiple choice in sunny Guilford await me tomorrow… Read the rest of this entry »

Well, what a suprise. My MP has responded to my letter with a suprisingly large response. The 7 or 8 pages are mostly photocopied, it would seem, or selected from a number of pre-written responses. But a response nonetheless. And it seems actually signed by somebody.

I’ve yet to read it (I’m on a course at the moment, so I don’t really have a huge amount of time. I’ll post my considered response, and maybe the letter I received back (if I can find a scanner), in due course. I’m also a bit suprised she responded at all - kind of wrote the idea off after my last attempt to write to an MP was met by stony silence.

Over lunch, I’ve just read the consumer column ‘Dear Leo’ in The Guardian. This week deals with Nectar reward points, and the information sharing that goes on. Read the rest of this entry »

UK and US citizens are getting advised to leave Iraq and Kuwait. That sabre rattling is getting louder and louder…