I’ve finally put together my own application for The Best Job in the World.

I appreciate that the video is not a slick as some and that I’m not a bikini clad young lady, but I do possess the actual skill set that is required for the post. I’m also a stills photographer, rather than a video editor.

Following yesterday’s post about problems accessing islandreefjob.com it seem that Tourism Queensland’s web hosts have improved the availability of the site for the “Best Job in the World”. It now runs smoothly and efficiently, in both English and Japanese. Well done.

Looking at the video applications, for the $150,000 6 month caretaker and publicity job, most applications so far are unfortunately inarticulate or justifying their desire to get the job by saying they don’t like their current one. Many emphasise the their enthusiasm for the benefits of the post as if it is a holiday, not a job, without apparently noticing that paradise island caretaker will be required to communicate well and and regularly.

So far, there has been, to my mind, one outstanding application for the island caretaker job. She is Christine from Canada who shows personality and an ability to communicate well. Since I’m considering applying, she’s the current person to beat.

In Australia, Queensland’s Tourist Authority is pulling off a phenomenal publicity stunt. Which may be a victim of its own success, as the web site for a single job seems to be barely accessible because of the quantity of hits on their web site.

Queensland are advertising a well paid real job, under the slogan “The best job in the world“, for six month on the the Great Barrier Reef paradise island called Hamilton Island.

The aim of using this job to attract international interest in Hamilton and the other reef islands seems to be being met too well. In the few days since the Queensland Tourist authority started advertising the island reef job, it has attracted the attention of British, American and Japanese news media.

For the last three days, http://www.islandreefjob.com/ has rarely been accesible because of the overwelming web traffic.

There’s been quite a bit of coverage on the radio about a scam, where people receive a call on their mobile phone, but it rings off quickly, either just before they answer or as they answer.

The scam relies on the victims having a natural, and reasonable inclination to ring the number back.

What the victim hears when they call back is the tone that tells them call is ringing. Many people are very patient and listen for a fair time before they give up. What they are actually listening to is a recording of a ringing tone, on a premium rate number. of course, the longer the victim holds on and the more they call back, the more money they are paying on their phone bill to the scammer.

I’ve recently had a selection of calls to my mobile phone which fit the profile, but I have not wasted my money by ringing them back. In my case they all called on different days between 11:00 and 12:30 GMT, presumably hoping I’d call them back at lunch time.

The numbers which called are :

• 07506738901
• 07791832748
• 07791835658
• 07791841162
• 07908583355
• 07908583385
• 07908583386
• 07908583387
• 07944453453

My advice is not to call back any number you don’t recognise, particularly if it rings off quickly. Genuine callers will wait for you to answer and will try again.

If you know of any other numbers that might be linked with this type of scam, please add your own comments.

Freecycle is an organisation that tries to keep unused objects out of landfill, largely through locally based email groups on yahoo. Unfortunately, as with every good idea, there can be some downsides.

I am a moderator for the Congleton Freecycle group, and as such have to try and keep out the obvious scammers and spammers.

Recently, I’ve seen a surge in a particular type of scam on the freecycle groups.

It starts with someone, who usually has recently joined the freecycle group, advertising a high value item, such as a PS/2 or a Tom Tom Sat Nav.

When people respond to the advert, they get a reply saying the item has gone but directing them to a web site where the goods can be won  or purchase cheaply.

At best victims that fall for it provide referral commission to the scammer, and at worst they provide their identity and credit card details to the scammer for later fraud or identity theft.

A typical scam response read like this:

I’m really sorry, but the Playstation 2 has already been given away to someone else I wish I had more to give away.

However, the least I can do is try and provide with some useful information to grab yourself a free Playstation 3 (which is how I got mine, which arrived in just over a week!)

First of all, you need to head over to <Scam web site> – sign up to the website, and then you need to complete an offer… I’d recommend either doing the the Lovefilm offer or the HSBC Bank Offer (where you just have to open a bank account), as they’re both free! Or, you could complete the Gala Bingo offer which only costs £5!

All of the companies which are offers are really well known so there’s no risk.

I have already received my Playstation 3 through my door! And am awaiting some new games for it too. I was really skeptical about this at first, but my friend showed me what he had received for free, so I thought I may as well try it out, and I’m so glad I did! (I have the new iPhone 3G coming soon too!)

If you have any questions, please reply to this email with the subject as QUESTION.

Once again, I’m so sorry that you missed out on this Playstation 2, but I hope that you will be able to obtain a brand new Playstation 3 just like I did this way.

The website again is:<Scam web site>

Thanks a lot.

<Scammer name>
xxx

When I’m not flying helicopters or writing books I like to relax with various sorts of craft work.  A short time ago I found this fun new craft – Pixelhobby.  It enables you to make your own mosaics, using tiny plastic tiles on a baseplate.  No cutting or glueing is involved, and it’s the sort of thing you can do in odd moments.  You can even use the Pixelhobby software to make mosaics from your own photos.  Anyway, when my supplier decided to give up I bought all her supplies, and…well, you can find out the rest by going to the Pixelhobby website.

Many thanks to the dragon for giving me some web space.  I’m  a helicopter instructor, working at Tatenhill Airfield, near Burton-on-Trent.  Helicopters are tremendous fun, so if you fancy having a go, have a look at my web pages and then contact me to book a trial lesson - or even a whole Private Pilot’s Licence course.

Right, I’m off to sort out some marketing stuff for the helicopter book.  Bye for now.

Having again hosted a pair of Japanese students, who are learning English, it still amazes me how they cope with the vagaries of English spelling.
Just when they were leaving, I remembered a few verses that were designed to try the patience of anyone learning our language.
The verses below have be variously attributed to NATO, in an attempt to get translators to discard an array of accents, to George Bernard Shaw and to a poem written in 1922 entitled “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité a.k.a. “Charivarius” 1870 – 1946. I suspect that the version presented here, is an updated edition of “Charivarius” as the original contains some fairly antiquated wording.
Regardless of their original source, it is an amazing achievement for a non-native speaker of English to read these verses intelligibly.

English is tough

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

I was called today by somebody who gave their web address as w*w.resortvacationsvip.com which is a travel company with no links to enabling booking. I wonder how they could get any legitimate business.
They claimed I was being offered a free holiday from a competition that I or a member of my household had entered.

They couldn’t tell me which competition I had won, but did tell me it was only open to Visa card and Mastercard holder. – I pointed out that this would apply to over 98% of the adult UK population.

They had my correct name and address.

The scammer had a heavy, possibly Indian or Chinese accent.

When I confirmed that I did own appropriate credit cards, they tried to extract my credit card details – when I refused on the basis that this was probably a scam, they kept trying to get my credit card number out of me, assuring me that it was OK – apparently they’re FCCA registered, and because of that the details couldn’t be misused. – I countered that in fact, as my cards are issued on the UK and therefore FSA regulated and that f I was stupid enough to give it to cold callers, they could attempt to misuse it with a card not present transaction.
When I kept asking why they needed the credit card details, at first I was told that it was so that they could verify that I was a credit card holder. I pointed out that they called me so I was the person that needed to verify their credentials. Then he switched tack, and said that the would need my credit card details for a registration fee of around £250. I questioned this, pointing out that I had been offered a completely free holiday competition prize. He said “Nothing is free“.

They gave me a “Toll-free” number that I could call them back on. I pointed out that a phone number in the USA is not toll-free when called from the UK – It is an international call.

When I asked for their FCCA registration number, the caller evaded answering.
I kept leading him on for a while, to keep him from trying to scam others, and to research his web site and comments about the scam company. One particularly enlightening one was on 800notes.com

I asked him if he had heard of Perfect Travel Promotions Orlando – Which appears as the title on w*w.resortvacationsvip.com and has an identical web site at w*w.ptporlando.com. He claimed he hadn’t heard of PTP Orlando. They have the same phone number (1-877-727-7605) and email addresses of CustomerService@PTPorlando.com and sales@PTPorlando.com

When I kept asking him the name of the company he was working for he refused to give it then finally hung up.

In short, it had to be scam. What legitimate company employee would not know their own company’s name?

If you have similar experiences, or wish to comment on this, please do so.

The new shiny Dell Inspiron 530 has finally arrived. It appears that Dell have moved away from their old dark grey to a shiny Steel look.

The computer seems robust and well made – I only hope it lasts longer than the Fujistu Siemens machine.

After the failure of the Fujitsu Siemens PC I’ve ordered a new Intel Quad Core Inspiron 530 to replace it.

With my new PC only just a month old, there has been a catastrophic failure of the hard disk drive. Windows Vista initially reported issues with the USN journal on my data partition.
Vista suggested formatting the drive.
Instead, I managed to get it back temporarily using a chkdsk /R and backed up the data.
With the data safe, I allowed it to attempt to reformat the data partition – it failed claiming that there were errors.
I tried a full system recovery, first from the recovery partition and then from the recovery DVDs I’d created when I received the machine.
The computer refuses to recognise the hard drive completely now, and has been returned.
John Lewis, who sold me the computer have refunded the money, as they were unable to replace it.