Wednesday, July 30, 2008

For better or worse...

New technology is supposed to bring benefits. I can think of two areas where it appears to have made it worse.

One is the world of banking, where it now takes one day longer to pay money into your account than it did 30 years ago, although to be fair, that is more to do with banks wanting the extra day's interest even though technology would allow instant transfers should they wish.

The second is weather forecasting. Last sunday, BBC 5 day forecast for London was

Light Showers
Rain
Light Showers
Sun
Sun

By Monday night it was rain for all five days.

What have we had so far?

Monday, Sun with an interesting electrical storm in the evening with a bit of rain to follow.
Tuesday, Sun.
Wednesday, Sun.

Well, the billions that have been spent on the weather satellites have been worth every penny then. It would probably be more accurate just to hang some seaweed outside the door. Unless of course, that is how they do it?

3 comments:

graybo said...

Move your bank to the NatWest. They are the only UK bank (along with their parent, RBS) to fully implement the new computerised instant payment thingy - so when I order a payment to be made, it goes within two hours maximum (provided I do it before 6pm, which is fair enough). Barclays? Still taking five days, FFS.

kennamatic said...

Ah, but how soon does the recipient get their hands on the money?

Masher said...

I believe most of the banks are signing up to the new fast transfer system - and about bloody time.

I can now successfully transfer money from my Nat West account to my HSBC one and from there to my Abbey account, and it all seems to happen pretty much instantly.

Even on a Sunday.