Category: Journal

I spent a large part of last weekend working on WipeoutZone, redesigning the front end and customising the new release of phpBB.

The latter turned out to be quite a task, as it’s less customisable than the older version of the forum and with virtually every page being built with includes and from the database it made finding what I wanted to alter a bit of a chore. I got it done to a reasonable standard in the end, and although I really wanted to re-do the icons I just ran out of time. I knew if I rushed them they’d look like crap too, so maybe some day I’ll get back to them.

The re-design was a bit unnecessary, really, as I’d only just re-done the whole site in early January. However, there were some codey issues with NN6 and Mozzila due to the page stretching to fit the screen, so I had to scrap that. I also wanted to take a step back from Wipeout Fusion to concentrate a bit more on the previous versions of the game once more, which meant re-designing the banner of the site as well. I’m finding it hard to compete on a level playing field with the official sites in terms of material, and with WipeoutZone originally being a Wipeout 3 fan site it makes sense to cater for that audience until Wipeout Fusion no longer has an official site.

Wahey – Easter is upon us and aside from being the second mini consumer-fest of the year (after Valentines day), it’s the first proper holiday of the year too. I’ll be making the trek up to Scotland to spend some time with family and friends and hopefully enjoy some mild weather.

I have a sneaky suspicion that I wont see any of the latter, but it cant hurt to hope!

Have a good one, where ever you are :o)

Last night I checked out my bank statement online. On Friday of last week a ?399 transaction was made in payment to BT Cellnet/Internet.

My mobile is a vodafone one, and although my internet service is provided by BT it costs ?385 a month less than the amount withdrawn. So I called BT this morning, then BT internet – both of whom denied taking the money from my account. So I called my bank and asked them to investigate the transaction.

At just after four pm they called me back and explained that my details had been used to purchase a couple of mobile phones from a BT Cellnet shop in Leeds.

I have never been to Leeds and I was freaked at this point.

Turns out that something in my rubbish was used – like a bill or a statement that has accidentally been thrown out. The fraudster called the shop and arranged payment over the phone, then turned up with the bill on them to prove their identity when they collected the purchase.

Pick holes in this plot if you like, but that’s the way my bank pieced it together.

Aside from being quite a cool crime, it’s something that could have gone undetected for almost a month if I did not have internet banking set up.

So, just to let you know, this is obviously a new-ish type of crime… get shredding your paper rubbish.