Grombles

Anyone who walks across Westminster Bridge next to the Houses of Parliament in London will have experienced small groups of people playing the betting game that uses three cups and a ball. The ball is placed under one cup (apparently), the cups are moved around, and passing tourists are invited to guess which cup the ball is under. Most people apparently guess correctly and have their money doubled... these are members of the same gang as the person doing the trick. At some point the gang will be told that the trickster has palmed the ball and will be waiting for 'the mark', probably a tourist, to make their guess in the belief that several 'ordinary' people before them have made easy money. They always lose, perhaps not with their first bet - so suckering them into making larger bets, but the whole theatre is designed to extract money from gullible tourists. It's a very old con trick. In Romania it's known as Alba-Neagra . The team members also have names. Th...

During a recent board meeting I was informed that one or two of our larger clients (car manufacturers) demanded that our email passwords be renewed every month. Every bloody month! I hit the roof. Like a lot of people these days who live sleep eat and breath emails, I access them on every device possible including phones, tablets, laptops and other PCs. Each one would need the new password entered (assuming I could remember it!) 12 times a year. The world's gone mad. But despite the fact I own the company and therefore chair the board, I had no option. Comply or lose clients. The next day I received the notification I was waiting for to renew my password. It was a typical Microsoft Exchange notification to click here and type in my current password which I duly did, followed by a web screen asking for my new password, which it confirmed had been changed. Now all I had to do was change the password in all my other devices which I would get around to doing later. Total pain in the ...

I was in Paris this weekend to watch England very nearly beat the French at rugby. Really close game, only marred by a) not winning, and b) getting mugged that morning at an ATM for €200. It was about 9.30 in the morning on a relatively quiet road. I needed a top-up of Euros having arrived the evening before with my wife and two (female) friends for a weekend of rugby (yes, I know). So naturally we'd run out of cash since the shops had already been open a good hour. (Note to self... rugby trips are cheaper with blokes). I went up to an ATM outside a post office while the girls stood to one side. I had noticed a couple of teenagers hanging around nearby (one bizarrely was sitting on a grating in the pavement (sidewalk) apparently warming his butt), but I paid them no attention. I inserted my card, entered my PIN and then realised that the kids had flanked me on either side. The guy on my right held a piece of newspaper on top of the lower screen (the one with the keypad buttons). ...