What's the Oolite website worth?

[Cody]

Use the 'zoom out' on your browser (Firefox anyway, don't know about other browsers).

[Commander McLane]

Ah!

Next hurdle: I can't access my Paypal account anymore, because I haven't done for ages and forgot my password. And I can't get a new password, because I used an email address for Paypal which doesn't even exist anymore, because the provider apparently disappeared in 2008 without notifying me.

And I can't just open a new Paypal account, because my bank account is tied to the old one, and Paypal doesn't accept the same bank account twice.

Oh, and before anyone asks: I don't have a credit card, either.

Otherwise, some ₤ would be on their way right now.

[DaddyHoggy]

Ah, the old "I've forgotten my paypal password" line...

[Cody]

I don't have a credit card, either.

Neither do I... nor a bank account.

[Commander McLane]

Ah, the old "I've forgotten my paypal password" line...

I may not be the only one there...

Anyway, the story doesn't end there: I contacted them via email, and somebody replied and told me that my account is inaccessible now, and the only thing I can do is ask them to delete it completely.

However, in order to process this request they need a copy of some identification of mine which shows my name and my address being the same as in my account. Well, I have of course moved since I opened the account, so my ID doesn't show the same address (to be very precise, I don't even have a German identity card anymore, because my old one expired, and I am currently not living in Germany, therefore I can't apply for a new one). And my passport shows no German address either.

Bottom line: I guess I'll never be able to use paypal ever again.

[DaddyHoggy]

Couldn't you open a bank account in Nigeria? (you're at least on the right continent!)

[JensAyton]

Clearly you need more bank accounts. :-)

[Commander McLane]

Couldn't you open a bank account in Nigeria? (you're at least on the right continent!)

Well, I have two in Tanzania. But I don't think those offer the type of transaction paypal needs (being debited with my payments). Pretty much the only transaction bank accounts in Tanzania offer is to allow you to physically withdraw money, put it in a plastic bag, walk to the bank of the guy you want to transfer money to, and physically pay it in his account. (Made easier if he happens to be a customer of the same bank as you, because in that case you may actually just hand in a withdrawal form for your account and a pay-in slip for his. If you're not so lucky, you have to walk the walk. If you somehow managed to get a current account, you may also write a cheque and send it to him. Then he has to walk to your bank in order to get the money in cash, or to his bank in order to have it credited to his account.)

This rather archaic "banking" system makes financial transactions of any kind to be real fun. Because everybody has to go to the bank and queue for every transaction (oftentimes twice in different banks), banking queues are really worth the while. For the most part a long while. Spending one to three hours in a bank is quite common. And if you're the accountant of a small project, chances are that you're doing that on a daily basis...

[JensAyton]

Wow. Makes me appreciate how comparatively advanced Swaziland is, by virtue of being near South Africa. Last time I was there, there were ATMs and everything.

(And that’s despite a relative having spent two and a half years trying to get at accounts in South African banks using only decades-old dead-tree documentation.)

I’d somehow forgotten where you were; when you can create as many bank accounts and credit card numbers as you want after only half a minute of log-in fiddling, it’s hard to remember how the other 90 % lives, even if you’ve seen it up close.

[Commander McLane]

Wow. Makes me appreciate how comparatively advanced Swaziland is, by virtue of being near South Africa. Last time I was there, there were ATMs and everything.

Oh, there are ATMs, but again they're only good for withdrawing cash. Admittedly that's a huge progress, because you can avoid the long queue inside the bank and opt for the long queue in front of the ATM instead.

(That's actually only half kidding. At the end/beginning of the month I'd strongly advise everybody not to try to do any business in the National Microfinance Bank (NMB). That's the bank all the teachers in government schools, and I guess a good deal of other government employees as well have the accounts they get their salaries paid into. The result is that both queues tend to reach half around the block, and the pupils are all on their own for two to three days...)

And yes, South Africa is vastly more developed than Tanzania. Only with great astonishment did I read Desmond Tutu mentioning in his autobiography that in his parents' home in the fifties they had neither electricity nor tap water inside, which he seemed slightly embarrassed of. Well, having neither electricity nor tap water is the state of roughly 80% of Tanzanian homes right now.

Another very obvious difference is that Tanzanian TV (both the government channel and the three or four commercial channels) looks like something produced by a bunch of amateurs in their basement. South African TV, however, looks pretty much like real TV.

[JensAyton]

And yes, South Africa is vastly more developed than Tanzania. Only with great astonishment did I read Desmond Tutu mentioning in his autobiography that in his parents' home in the fifties they had neither electricity nor tap water inside, which he seemed slightly embarrassed of. Well, having neither electricity nor tap water is the state of roughly 80% of Tanzanian homes right now.

And roughly a third of South African homes, despite some pretty intense work since ’94.

Another very obvious difference is that Tanzanian TV (both the government channel and the three or four commercial channels) looks like something produced by a bunch of amateurs in their basement. South African TV, however, looks pretty much like real TV.

Swazi TV was amateur hour, and great fun. It also had all the latest British programmes, “imported” by agents with VCRs. :-)

[drew]

There's a problem with that page. It only scrolls the main body, NOT the menu. And if the menu is larger than your resolution (as in my case) - you don't see the donate button.

Same here, I've only got a diddy laptop most of the time!

Cheers,

Drew.

[snork]

And the same for me (Opera).
As El Viejo pointed out - zoom out the whole page.

And roughly the same for me with Paypal as for Cmdr. McLane.
(Though no cool stories with it)

Plus I despise paypal and believe their arbitrary attitudes and actions to be pretty much on the criminal side.
So I won't try to get a new account.

I smallishly support 2 other little communities, one by bank-to-bank money transfer (no problem within EU), one by sending money by mail. Any such possibility for here would be .

[Corny]

There's a problem with that page. It only scrolls the main body, NOT the menu. And if the menu is larger than your resolution (as in my case) - you don't see the donate button.

Same here, I've only got a diddy laptop most of the time!

Cheers,

Drew.

Yep, same here! That's probably why I never noticed it.

[aegidian]

Thanks again everyone!