I should be meeting Lizzie somewhere in this terminal building.

I’m working hard at the minute to try and get the Australia website all finished for before I go. I’ve been throwing around a lot of ideas and I think I’ve finally (just in time) found something that I like enough to go ahead with.

I’m still running with Inbox Zero which is an ideology from Merlin Mann about how to deal with email quickly and efficiently. You can adapt it to be however you like but the basic premise is that everything that arrives in your inbox needs to be acted upon. Throw it out, file it away, reply (now!), mark it for later etc. In this way you can keep your inbox brand spankingly empty.

I love it.

Here’s the situation. I’ve been having problems viewing my online bill on the O2 website. I’m a fully paid up customer but I’m always interested to know how much I’m spending. And since I don’t get any paper bills anymore this is my only way to check. So today I called up O2 and asked them about the problem that I was having. I was having a “Login Error 2″ as it turned out.

Login Error 2: You don’t know your details because we’ve changed them

The man at the other end of the phone explained this to me. He said that an O2 security feature was to randomly change users usernames and passwords to keep people’s details safe. My username had been slightly modified to have a different number and my password had been reset to the ever secure “abc123″.

The best part of this security feature is that O2 don’t email to tell you that they’ve changed your details they wait for you to get the Login Error 2 which instructs you to call O2 for support. Unbelievable!

I don’t know how often or how widespread this is. From the manner of the man on the phone I would certainly guess that it isn’t that unusual. The idea though that someone somewhere thinks that automatically, and secretly changing users usernames and passwords could possibly be beneficial to either the customer or O2 itself is utterly bizarre. The man I was speaking to certainly thought it was a good idea - because as he pointed out if someone had found out my login details then they would no longer be able to access my account.

The fact that someone might suddenly know my password was “abc123″ didn’t seem to occur to him. I just don’t understand it at all.

I’m heading offline for a while. No more updates to this. No more checking Twitter. No more checking Google Reader. No more TechMeme or RSS feeds… Nothing. I’ve just finished a web design project which might require some slight editing in the next few days but apart from that I’m off.

I’ll be back to sort out The Web Riddle Two in late June.

And you could win an iPod Touch. Or I could ;)  Get involved.

Competition link.

[ Disclosure: This post constitutes my "upgrade" if I win the touch. ]

Last week I did a pyschology experiment in gambling. I got to keep my winnings as a way of thanking me for my participation.  The experiment was a simple slot machine with the setup was as follows:

• I started with £5.
• Each spin cost £0.25.
• Every time I won I got £1.50.
• The chance of winning a particular spin was 1/6.

I had to play for about 30 minutes in order for the experimenters to get enough information about what they were interested in and then I could choose to stop whenever I wanted. If I hit £0 I had to stop.

The question is: When should you stop?

I stopped at £6.50 which I was pleased with at the time since I had started with only £5. However afterwards thinking about it I realised there was an equal chance of hitting zero and getting £10 (moving £5 down or £5 up). And therefore a higher chance of hitting £9 than there was of hitting £0. I felt robbed. Should I? When it is the optimal time to stop?

Thanks to Scott Murphy for thinking through this.

I want to point out two comments on the MacBook Air. I didn’t make either of them myself but I spotted them both on Reddit and thought they were spot on.

Clythos: Sorry, but how is this smaller? Was anyone ever in the situation that they couldn’t take their notebook with them because it was too thick?

CausticPuppy: Actually, I bet there will be protective cases sold for this, which ironically will make it twice as thick.

I think that they are both excellent points. Particularly the first one. From listening to Twit.tv, seeing the comments on MacRumors, Digg and all over the blogosphere I think that the consensus seems to be:

• Yes the MacBook Air is a feat of engineering. Well done Apple.
• No I don’t want to buy one.
• And No I don’t know who would want to buy one.
• And No it is not the thickness that is the most important thing to me - I’d prefer something with a smaller footprint.
• And boy doesn’t the Asus Eee PC look cheap compared to this… and much more portable.

Conclusion: Good try Apple. Not this time though.

If those empty cardboard tubes in the middle of toilet rolls weren’t shipped about the world then the world would be a better place. We should squash the rolls first to save on space in lorries. Apparently they sell them this way in some shops abroad. This should be done everywhere.

Credit to my father who started this meme.

I tried to pick up my photos from my local Jessops today. But I found that they were not there yet. I was told by Snapfish that they would be. This is the first time that I have used Snapfish - and admittedly I am not giving them any money for this service - but really I expect better. I am going to try to get them tomorrow.

I didn’t do my exercises yesterday. Which has screwed up my schedule. I will do them today and tomorrow instead to get back on track. I did do lots of walking yesterday though - which can’t be a bad thing. It is all about hitting a rhythm though and getting out of the cycle so early on is a real downer.