Hoax PPI Claim Scams SMS - PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text Messages

The hoax PPI claim scam text messages are still alive and kicking - this is one received this week. I replied to find out how much I was owed - bearing in mind I have never taken out PPI insurance.

The SMS text message reads:

We have been trying to contact you about your PPI claim, we still have £2308.34 in your name waiting to be sent to you. To get it sent out today reply PPI.

The number sending PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text is 07747124749

The number sending PPI Insurance Claim Spam Text is 07747124749

It appears from the replies that any replies to this number are then sold on to various other PPI claim companies, a very dubious practice if they are obtaining leads gathered through deception like this.

Numbers used by the PPI claim companies to follow up on fake PPI claims are:

01625-665147
01902-371547
01902-371544
01902-440156
Companies operating in this way appear to be Ucall, Flame Communications

Flame Communications even placed a presentation online showing how great their spamming service was for generating leads that could produce £250,000 income from commission on PPI claims.

http://www.slideshare.net/walsh3017/ppi-hot-key-presentation-13553892

Microsoft Money 2005 Free Download

After ending support for Microsoft Money they produced a final version that removed some of the issues with security and tie in with MSN accounts as well as fixing problems with downloading share prices from the internet.

This version is completely free and is available to download directly from Microsoft so you know it is a genuine, non-virus programme. Support for MS Money may have ceased but it is still a great piece of personal finance software and this version is a UK specific one.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

New downloads of Microsoft Stock quote prices - price updates stopped working some time ago but a developer has produced a programme to allow MS Money stock prices to update agaihttp://photo3-tech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ms-money-quotes-working-again.htmln. Details here

Jimmy Savile on Have I Got News for You "Confession"?

Paul Merton recently stated that it had been suggested that Jimmy Savile had been exposed on Have I Got News for You but that the episode had been suppressed. Apparently it wasn't true and no such rumours are true.

However Jimmy Savile did appear on Have I Got News for You. When he was asked "Jimmy, what do you do in your caravan?" His answer was "Anyone I can lay my hands on." 

Rather shocking with the benefit of hindsight.

Watch the video at 45seconds in for the clip from  Have I Got News for You


Jimmy Savile on Have I Got News for You. Is this a "Confession"?

Microsoft Money Automatic Investment Updates stopped working

How to fix Microsoft Money Automatic Stock Updates stopped working?

Since early August 2012 Microsoft Money Stock/Share/Fund Prices have stopped updating in the UK. Updates had stopped for the US some time ago. It reports 'your call was successful' but there are no new prices added to your investments.

As of September it appears that online investment/share price updates for Microsoft Money have restarted for some versions but fund prices have not. Other versions of Microsoft Money such as Money 2000/2001/2002/2003 are now getting an error "Money was unable to connect to online prices server"

There is a later sunset version of Microsoft Money that is still working with the fund & share price updates that was released when Microsoft stopped supporting Money. This can still be downloaded from the direct link below on the MS website. The download search link on Microsoft website doesn't work and just creates a loop looking for the file.

I've tested this and it automatically upgrades the Money 2000 Professional and Business file to the latest 2005 version of MS Money and then updates the online share & fund prices correctly for you.

You can download Microsoft Money 2005 QFE from this link. This is a UK version, the USA sunset version can be found on the Microsoft website.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

Versions of Microsoft Money that appear to have this error downloading fund and share prices are:

Microsoft Money 1999
Microsoft Money 2000
Microsoft Money 2001
Microsoft Money 2002
Microsoft Money 2003
Microsoft Money 2004

More tips and advice on MS Money and how to update it here

Extracting Files from LOB column in Oracle Database - How to Export LOBs to Filesystem

I recently needed to extract data that had been stored as a CLOB (LOB) column in an Oracle database table. The data was a series of PDF and DOC files that had been saved as LOBs but I needed to save the files to a filesystem for use on a website rather than being within the Oracle database.

There were a number of scripts that I found that could save LOB data from Oracle database tables but they were very clunky and manual that may have been suitable for extracting and saving a file from a single CLOB field in Oracle but were totally inappropriate for saving multiple files from a LOB column on a table.

Eventually after many Google searches for various terms I found a piece of software called OraLOB Editor that quickly and easily allowed the export of the files stored as LOBs to the file system. It almost instantly processed every row of the relevant table and created separate files for each PDF stored in the CLOB field.

http://www.withdata.com/oralobeditor/import-export-lob.html

OraLOB Editor also allows the import of LOB data and appears to be the only tool that has this level of versatility for extracting files from LOB data in Oracle with any level of automation for saving multiple files to the filesystem.

OraLOB Editor has a free 30 day trial so that you can test whether it works sufficiently for your needs and only costs $75 for the full licence which is a bargain compared to the effort that would be required to script the process and then manually run it.

Microsoft Money Online Stock Prices Updates Stop Working

UPDATE: May 2014 - Stock Downloads now working again!

New downloads of Microsoft Stock quote prices - price updates stopped working some time ago but a developer has produced a programme to allow MS Money stock prices to update agaihttp://photo3-tech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ms-money-quotes-working-again.htmln. Details here

Microsoft Money Online Stock Prices Updates Stop Working

Since early August 2012 Microsoft Money Stock/Share/Fund Prices have stopped updating in the UK. Updates had stopped for the US some time ago. It reports 'your call was successful' but there are no new prices for funds in your portfolio.

As of September it appears that online share price updates for Microsoft Money have restarted for some versions but fund prices have not. Other versions of Microsoft Money such as Money 2000/2001/2002/2003 are now getting an error "Money was unable to connect to online prices server"

There is a later sunset version of Microsoft Money that is still working with the fund & share price updates that was released when Microsoft stopped supporting Money. This can still be downloaded from the direct link below on the MS website. The download search doesn't work and just creates a loop looking for the file.

I've tested this and it automatically upgrades the Money 2000 Professional and Business file to the latest version and then updates the online share & fund prices correctly for you.

You can download Microsoft Money 2005 QFE from this link. This is a UK version, the USA sunset version can be found on the Microsoft website.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858EDC2F-1806-4D2D-85E3-0FBB08CB720A/Money2005-UK-QFE2.exe.exe

Versions of Microsoft Money that appear to have this error downloading fund and share prices are:

Microsoft Money 1999
Microsoft Money 2000
Microsoft Money 2001
Microsoft Money 2002
Microsoft Money 2003
Microsoft Money 2004

Why is microsoft money not updating fund prices?

Oracle Application Server 10g Swap Space - Setup Installs Fails

When installing Oracle Application Server 10g on Windows 2003 R2 an error can be displayed that install pre-requisites have failed due to insufficient Swap Space. The installer aborts at this point and prevents you continuing the installation despite all the requirements being met according to the Oracle Application Server 10g documentation.

On Win2003 server the swap space is system managed and changing this requires the database to be rebooted which would affect the database users as well as impact on performance.

Checking swap space: 0 available, 500 required Failed.

The solution is to run the installer without the system pre-requisites so that the installer can continue. As the system has the correct requirements the install should proceed successfully. The command line to use is:

setup -ignoresysprereqs

This assumes that your installation server does meet the minimum requirements and that the error that causes the setup to fail is not down to a genuine lack of resources.