Tube ski stunt blasted by police

This BBC story is about how bad it is to ski down the escalators. As a public service I am linking to the YouTube video. So that you can all see how bad it is.

My EBay account got hacked today

I got an email at 10.45 am from eBay this morning saying my account password had changed. I actually took this seriously and I examined the email to see if it was phishing. It did contain both my eBay account name and my real name. But when I went to the eBay website and checked my account it seemed that my email address was unchanged. I decided to ignore it. I got the same email again at 10.46 and 10.59. I ignored these later emails.

At 1.18 pm I got an email with subject ‘A26 TKO NOTICE: Restored Account‘. EBay had rolled my account back to its previous state. I was then able to reset my password. When I was at home I was able to fully restore my account by clicking on links that caused me to get a computer phone message on my home phone.

I had definitely not fallen for any scams so my account was broken in some way. I had a not stupid but not particularly good password. I now have a much better password.

The scammers had used my account to list about 30 items for sale, and to bid on about 20 others. They wouldn’t have been able to use my credit card as that is behind a different (paypal) password. Why then did the use my account to bid for things? I’m not sure, though there all sorts of tricks people pull with canceled bids. Perhaps they aim to make money with the sales and the bids are just a smokescreen.

So what did I learn? Well it is worth having a strong password. It is worth paying attention to emails from eBay, especially if they are about a change of email address. I was impressed with the way eBay handled things. I don’t know how they detected the fraud, but they were able to deal with it with automated systems. The calling a home number is a clever touch.

The quiet one

Such a cute story of a girl who was penfriends with George Harrison's mum. It also constitutes proof that there are Beatles stories that Mojo has not yet printed.

Codex Seraphinianus

The Codex Seraphinianus is now available on flickr. This is an obsessive art book written in an imaginary script.

The Donnas + Boyskout @ Bottom of the Hill, 2-March-2007

Boyskout were charming. They sound like The Cure and Talking Heads so I guess the 80s revival continues. They did a lot of swapping of styles and varied who sang. Christina, a smart Princess Di look-alike sang a great party piece: Girl on Girl Action, incorporating ‘Is that all there is’ in the style of her namesake Kristina. But the leader as far as I could tell was the great rhythm guitarist, Leslie Satterfield who also sang. The all boy rhythm section stayed in the background.

Boyskout shifted their own gear but The Donnas had guys who set up for them. I don’t know if it was the guys or the Marshall stacks but they got a fantastic sound, the best I have heard at Bottom of the Hill. The Donnas have quite a metal sound, driven by fantastic guitarist Allison Robertson who combines rhythm and lead in a way that reminds me of Bob Mould. Their professionalism and sheen brought a smile to my face. They may copy AC/DC but that just shows they have good taste. I had a good time.

The "Works on My Machine" Certification Program

This is what developers says when someone brings them a bug.

You Do Like Reading Off a Computer Screen

Great piece by Cory Doctorow on how it's not that we don't like reading off screens, we just don't like reading long form works there. One thing he doesn't mention is how good a user interface the books has. A nice book is just as delightful as an iPod.

Unreleased Jimmy Page Guitar Riff To Be Retrieved From Secret Vault To Save Rock And Roll

The Earth 'Feels flat to me!'