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AuthorAdam Owen

NatWest suffers IT problems on Cyber Monday

December 3, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Monday was Cyber Monday, the busiest day of the year for online retailers.

The same day that NatWest and RBS suffered a system crash, which affected all methods of payment – ATMs, online e-commerce payments, online banking and their mobile app. What’s more, their online helpdesk couldn’t cope with the traffic and also went down..!

Meanwhile, there were reports of “SOS” text messages from NatWest Managers offering ‘unlimited overtime’ for the Tuesday ‘chaos’ shift.

https://twitter.com/ultramacky/status/407602733085360130

Even worse, they don’t seem to be bothered with updating their ‘Service Status’ page to inform their customers of the issues.

https://twitter.com/ritchmedia/status/407613491080462336

Considering this is the third time this has happened in the last two years, NatWest clearly don’t seem to be able to learn from their mistakes…

Have a great Christmas party, NatWest IT guys!

Why Reddit moderation is corrupt

November 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Since a few months back, I’m a regular user of Reddit. Initially on the webhosting area, but also the Bitcoin area.

One thing I’ve noticed is how biased/corrupt the moderators on each sub-reddit area can be.

Let’s take the webhosting area as an example. I’ll often reply to posts for people looking for web hosting.

However, I recently got banned for ‘spamming’, even though I rarely recommend companies.

After a little research, it seems (at least) three of the four moderators in the web hosting sub-Reddit work for various web hosting providers. Hardly impartial moderation…

Why you should be investing in Bitcoin

November 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I’ve always had an interest in the financial world, but had always been put off by high initial investments and fees.

Whilst traditionally investors would place their money with the likes of gold and oil, there’s a newcomer; Bitcoin.

Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is a ‘crypto-currency’, which isn’t backed by any government and is what is known as a ‘de-centralised currency’.

Wouldn’t you much rather invest in Bitcoin and see a 7-10% profit in a week (98%/mo), than invest in oil/gas, where you’ll have to wait years for any noticable profit?… Where’s the fun in that?! Here’s the chart for Bitcoin value on the Mt. Gox exchange over the past year:

Mt. Gox Bitcoin GBP 1 year chart

Of course, being a ‘de-centralised currency’, there are high risks associated with it, but there’s also the possibility of an incredible ROI. For example, there was a recent story of a Norwegian man who bought $27 worth of Bitcoin in 2009, and until recently had forgotten about it when he realised it was now worth around $800,000!

It’s very possible that all of the major money has now been made, but the value of Bitcoin still seems to rise.

I’ll be regularly investing small amounts of £GBP into Bitcoin as I’ve already had great results. One of the things that I find incredible about Bitcoin is that it was created from nothing. By comparison, stocks/shares are backed by an initial IPO.

Another big benefit is that when you decide you’d like to sell your ‘stash’, there are a number of Bitcoin exchanges such as Mt.Gox, Bitstamp and LocalBitcoin through which you can sell your coins. Bitcoin transfer fees are negligible (usually under £0.01), and you could transfer a million dollars worth of Bitcoin for less than a dollar!

Even if it’s just £5, I’d recommend giving it a go!

LincUpLive #LUL360

October 25, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I went to LincUpLive (#LUL360) yesterday. Held at the Doubletree by Hilton on the Brayford Wharf in Lincoln, LincUpLive is an annual ‘tweet-up’ style event which attracts businesses from all over Lincolnshire.

The event was well-structured, with a number of keynotes and ‘breakout’ sessions where you could choose the session you felt would be most of interest and beneficial to you.

Keynote speakers included:

Redg Snodgrass (Co-founder, Stained Glass Labs) – who brought a Google Glass prototype)
Redg spoke about the future of ‘wearables’, and how he thinks they will change the world we know today.

Steve Middleborough (Director of Engineering, Siemens) – Steve mainly spoke about the new Siemens Teal Park development on the outskirts of Lincoln. It was interesting to hear him mention that he plans on providing Siemens’ field engineers with Google Glass within the next few years.

Graham Puntis

Wayne Gibbins (Funding expert, Notion Capital) – It was interesting to hear about alternative ways to raise startup capital. Wayne also spoke about Kickstarter (one of my favourite websites).

Richard Duxbury (Lincolnshire Media) – Richard explained how Lincolnshire Media has shifted to the ‘digital age’, focussing its operations around their online presence rather than print.

Alan Moore

Councillor Colin Davie – Colin gave his view on the technological developments and spoke about how the Lincolnshire County Council will be doing their bit to help promote growth within the county.

Throughout the day, there were also a number of breakout seminars which covered all aspects of online marketing.

As with all good local events, the Onlincolnshire ‘#dreamteam’ were there taking care of the PR/Social side of things, along with a number of students from Lincoln University.

Here are a few of my favourite LUL360 Tweets:

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