Quite a vexing hex

EARLIER this week, I called a bank and had the (dis)pleasure of dealing with an automated telephone operator. You know the type - sing-song voice at much too high a pitch, rattling off more options than there are telephone keys, always implying the solution to your problem is just a "please press 1" away.

Everything was par for the course until she told me to enter my NRIC number, followed by the hex key.

Say what now? The hex key? Why would you ask me to cast a spell?!

It's something I've n…