My wife got a dodgy call today from some woman  (probably from India) claiming to be from Digital Network Solutions, making some claim about our IP address accessing their servers or something. It wasn’t very coherent and she didn’t really appear to know what she was talking about, so the scam is obviously only going to work on people with no clue about I.T. so It didn’t go very far with my wife, and as soon as my wife said “my husband is an expert in this stuff, let me get him”, they hung up

Having googled it I can see others reporting the same, and it seems the end goal is to try an d extort some “computer protection” fees out of you, so they are presumably trying to convince victims their computers are infected or hacked and just trying to collect card details.

While i’m sure readers of my blog would not fall for such a scam, you may have friends or family who might, so you might want to warn them.

Also just to make it clear to everyone, even if your computer was infected with malware and was attacking servers, the only information they would have is your IP address and from this they could find out your ISP and contact them to log a complaint. Your ISP is not allowed to give out your personal information to just anyone, so it would be up to them to contact you directly and let you know your system might be infected or potentially they would just turn off your broadband until it was resolved.

Earlier this week there was an obligatory Xbox 360 update that we had to install or we could not login to Xbox live.

After installing this update, none of my kids could login to Xbox live as it forced us to go through a security check, wanting me to confirm their email address and then add a mobile number, and it then refused the number telling me I had added it already and said they had to login at account.live.com/p which then required the parent (me) to login and approve them.

(nb: So Microsoft put you in a catch22 it seems, don't upgrade and you can't login, do upgrade, and you still can't login.)

It was at this point after *I* login I got the message "Your account is missing a full name or birthdate. Visit account.live.com to update the required information, and try again."

This was of course nonsense as my account did have those details so there was nothing I could do. Googling the issue I found loads of others with the same problem on the forums, and Xbox live chat had massive queues, so it would seem they had broken things for a lot of people.

So I thought I would share the solution for anyone else stuck in this endless loop.

I was given numerous suggestions by Xbox support, all of which failed, but finally the solution was reset the password on each account and they were then able to login again. There was a delay of 10 minutes or so on one of them, but eventually they were all able to login.
Presumably you can just login to each account and reset the password, but I used THIS LINK to do it.

If this doesn't work for you, then I suggest contacting Xbox live support for help.

Myself and my wife were discussing all these unemployment benefit issues that the government keep moaning about but failing to solve, and to us the solution seems quite simple. So I thought I would blog it and see what others think.

Specifically we were discussing the issues where people are just abusing the benefits, such as benefit fraud, lazy slackers who cannot be bothered to get a job and are happy to just live on benefits, and people wasting their benefits on drugs and alcohol. The last one could equally apply to those who have legitimate reason to be on benefits, as much as it does to the slackers, such as those who lost their jobs and are sinking into depression or students who are at college etc. Many many years ago when I was at college and claiming benefits my lifestyle was prob the same as most people, I would get my money each fortnight and pretty much spend most of it on beer and cigarettes, so I do know how it works.

Most of the problems stem from from the fact that people get cash in the hand, which they are then free to blow on whatever they wish, or simply pocket in the case of the fraudsters. 
This is where we think the solution is actually quite simple, all you really need to survive food in your cupboards and your bills paid, so instead of paying out cash each week/fortnight, give out vouchers which can be redeemed in all the supermarkets, with energy suppliers, at the post office, whsmiths, bus and train stations etc, this covers all the bases. You can buy food, pay your bills and generally survive, you can buy stamps, paper etc for sending out resumes and applying for jobs and travel to interviews.
Or alternately, a benefits credit card, which gets topped up each fortnight and which you can use in approved stores like a normal debit/credit card.

The trick is then to then have restrictions on what these vouchers or cards can be used for in the shops. So you cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol, cannot exchange them for cash, and clearly wont be able to buy any drugs. Suddenly being on benefits is not the easy life anymore as you can no longer do whatever you like.

Sure we all know the real hard-core criminals will find a way to profit from this, but for the average Lazy Joe, being on benefits just got a whole lot less appealing, the low end fraudsters who are signing on in 5 different names are no longer making any cash out of it, and the rest of the legitimately unemployed will no longer to able to give in to temptation or depression and waste their money on booze and cigs and may just find the incentive to get out of their rut.
Also consider those unworthy parents who choose to buy cigs, drugs and booze over food and nappies for their babies, they would no longer have this option, thus improving the lives of those poor children and reducing the chances of some horrible fate befalling them, such as being beaten to death by a drunken parent, starving to death or being left for days in dirty nappies to get horrible painful  infections.

If I was in that position I would be far more likely to be responsible go and get even a crappy part time job that I wasn’t prepared to do before, just so I can have some actual cash in my pocket.

Clearly there is some cost involved to implement such a solution, but we think the savings would outweigh the cost in no-time, and lets be honest, the govt waste money on stupid freaking ideas all the time.

Sociopaths are everywhere,  according to research at least 4% of the population are sociopaths, the most common types you are likely to have come into contact with or be aware of are "Rogue Traders, Conmen, Cowboy Builders etc",  these are the worst types who actively go out out of their way to intentionally harm other people with malice, but sociopaths also exist in our everyday life in less obvious guises, and unknown to you may even be one of your friends. 
I have come across a few in my life, probably more than I am aware of, but the most surprising of which turned out to be one of my best friends of more than 10 years, which just goes to show how clever they can be and how long they can deceive you for.

The main characteristic of a sociopath is a complete disregard for the rights and feelings of others and a complete lack of conscience when causing someone (even a friend or family member) physical or mental harm. 
Sociopaths are also unable to conform to what society defines as a normal personality (although I would argue as to what is normal these days). Antisocial tendencies can also play a big part of the sociopath’s personality. This pattern usually comes into evidence around the age of 15. If it is not treated, it can develop into adulthood.

Visible symptoms include physical/verbal aggression and the inability to hold down a steady job or relationship. The sociopath typically shows no regret or remorse for his or her actions and will never accept any responsibility or blame for his/her actions, often believing they have done nothing wrong and it is them who has somehow been wronged.

Although these symptoms may all present, they may not always be evident and may not always be malicious or extreme. Research has shown that the sociopath is usually a person with an abundance of charm, wit and often intelligence. He or she may come across as friendly and considerate, but these attributes are usually superficial. They are used as a way of blinding the other person to the personal agenda behind the sociopath’s behaviour.

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For the last 9 weeks or so I have been on a diet, it wasn't really a choice, my wife discovered DietChef and make the decision for me (I guess she thinks I am too fat), which is probably a good thing as I doubt I would have done it for myself , but I  have to say that I was actually pleasantly surprised, so I decided to write a review.

DietChef is basically calorie controlled dieting for dummies. If you are too too busy, too lazy, too stupid or just lack the motivation and self discipline to control your calorie intake yourself then DietChef is probably just the ticket for you. You get a monthly supply of calorie controlled ready meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) delivered to your door which you eat every day instead of your usual meals, which you can supplement with things like rice, pasta and vegetables. 
I have always fallen into the too busy/lazy category, I like cooking, but I really cannot be bothered with calculating how many calories in everything I eat, weighing out exact portions, yada yada, this always seems like too much hassle when I get home from work and just takes the pleasure out of cooking...... 

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