on the edge

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Greg Black

gjb at gbch dot net
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If you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.


FQE30 at speed



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Worthy organisations

Amnesty International Australia — global defenders of human rights

global defenders of human rights


Médecins Sans Frontières — help us save lives around the world

Médecins Sans Frontières - help us save lives around the world


Electronic Frontiers Australia — protecting and promoting on-line civil liberties in Australia

Electronic Frontiers Australia



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Software resources


GNU Emacs


blosxom


The FreeBSD Project

Wed, 04 Aug 2004

Stupid banks

I guess everybody knows that banks are stupid and most of us have plenty of anecdotal evidence of that. Here’s one more item. Last week, I went to the bank to close my mother’s account. I explained that she had died so that they would just do everything in one go. We played with an endless array of forms and spent the best part of an hour on this simple task. One of the delays was to arrange for the necessary calculations for fees, interest, etc., to be incorporated in the final balance. Finally, a figure was pulled from the air and a bank cheque was provided (made out to the funeral directors as part payment of their gigantic bill). So far, so good.

Today, as promised, a statement arrived. However, instead of showing a nil balance and a closed account, it showed a debit balance of $5-49. What’s wrong with these people? Stupid question. Just about everything you can think of is wrong with them. And they can’t even count.