« September 2004 | Main | November 2004 »
October 30, 2004
happy birthday cake to me
But how am I going to watch my spongebob hallowe'en special dvd - when i left it at home. (I'm currently down in Plymouth.)
by groc at 03:20 PM | Comments (3)
October 27, 2004
Butterfly
On the other hand maybe watching the DVD of the director's cut of 'the Butterfly Effect' (as good as the film is and as much as I enjoyed it) near one's birthday isn't that good an idea.
by groc at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)
happy birthday Me
from Rakka
by groc at 06:36 PM | Comments (3)
Isn?t it nice living in a Democracy?
A country where any important changes to the law of the land, especially those pertaining to the freedom of it?s own citizens, are all well thought out beforehand and properly researched then carefully debated then eventually put before the people for a vote you know, rather than implimented willy-nilly?
Just one problem - it sure isn?t this country.
(I thought was of the supposedly positive selling points of the ID card was that it was going to be a combined passport and driving license etc. If it becomes yet another plastic card -albeit one which will it be compulsory to carry with you at all times, then er... what's the point of it - when you can *already* use your passport or your driving license as ID?
Oh yes - there's all the databases you'll get put onto. The new ones that will all be able to talk to one another.
Meanwhile - seen any terrorist attacks on British soil yet? You know, the very thing that having an ID card is supposed to be help prevent? No? Neither have I. Odd that. We seem to be doing awfully well preventing terrorism without having to treat every last citizen of this country as a potential threat.
Even odder when you consider how many different things it's been sold to us as... first it was an 'entitlement card', then it was a passport/driving license replacement, then something to help keep track of incoming immigrants, a sure-fire cure for international terrorism...
by groc at 03:08 PM | Comments (2)
October 26, 2004
silvery beach
by groc at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
lame spam
I'm glad to say that these days I'm rarely troubled by spam, but there is stuff from one persistent little cuss that manages to regularly find it's way to my junk folder, and I'm constantly bemused by it's sheer ineptitude. I don?t know what it's trying to pull it's so feeble.
Here's a couple of examples:
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 06:36:10 -0700
Message-Id: <200410031478.i93BpkTw006391@www2.gmail.com>
From: "Brandie Hooks"
(because all legit businesses always use free email addresses don't they?)
Hi again,
[are any legit businesses always this informal and chatty?]
Here is Brandie Hooks. I write to you because we are accepting your mortga=
ge application.
[oh yes? that one I never ever made, not with Brandie Hooks, not with Teri Thayer, not with ...oh lots of other rather implausable sounding names, all of them writing to tell me they've accepted the hundreds of applications I've never made.]
Our office confirms you can get a $220.000 lo=C0n for a $252.00 per month =
payment.
[Because people with .UK email addresses living in the UK use US dollars ...oh wait, no, we don't actually.]
Approval process will take 1 minute, so please fill out the form on our we=
bsite:
http://chimpanzee-gunman.refi-net.com
[Nothing remotely suspicious or stupid about that website address. Or http://protestant-sphagnum.money-stop.com or http://amaranth-tina.refi-web.com -addresses like that, perfectly sensible.]
Thank you.
Best Regards Brandie Hooks
First Account Manager
Here's another:
Received: from djybxgd-rc488.modulo.BeatriceCohen@huhmail.com ([199.236.166.128]) by alsiw60-fcu4401.221.231.97.201 with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.6.8943.2618);
Wed, 13 Oct 2004 03:14:55 +0200
From: "Beatrice Cohen"
Subject: Customer # 45856
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 19:11:55 -0600
Client ID: 341
[an id number -wow this MUST be the real deal then. Oooooh.]
Hello,
Your process is complete. A new rate has been confirmed by our company, 3.=
02 % fixed. Follow the link to finish-up business on our secure site. Than=
k you.
http://diplender.net/?partid=3Dama
chrysolite queue duel molest inarticulate ness hyena language alvin ambula=
nt finley languish emitted melissa albanian misshapen transfer sleet cairn=
carryover bag eduardo scoff somersault universe chick phosphorylate upris=
e blaine cacti feudal holler twelve bursitis compromise=20
dagger aylesbury chairwomen beloit shelter gyroscope durance jose styrofoa=
m provocative coverall millipede indeterminable caddy barbarous blast ti b=
ut=20
You can be taken off immediatly if this wasn't intended for you. Use this.=
http://diplender.net/st.html
timetable cationic apricot congressman hitherto trigram luxembourg expatia=
te scaffold conflagration precept=20
andromache augustan pretext inaction junior detector dalzell lubricious ma=
mmalian nuclear adamant steer downdraft gregory lingo render ho countrify=20
(because legit businesses always put lots of random nonsense prose into their correspondance. It'd be just plain rude not to.)
I can't begin to imagine the sort of person they're hoping to sucker in by this. How daft would they have to be? Surely it would have to be someone so dim-witted they wouldn't be even able to use any sort of computer. I'm guessing this is a phishing exercise or something similiar - but they're not even trying.
I don't know - the state of today's spammers... back in my day...
at least you know where you are with something this blatant:
(this was originally written all in clever obscurification code: like this [ D& # 8238 ;rae& # 8236; C& # 8238;nabiti& # 8236;k Me& # 8238;ebm& # 8236;r,] which looks like normal text in any browser.
Dear Citibank member,
This email was sent by the Citibank Server to verify your email addresses. You must complete this process by clicking on the link below and entering in the small window your ATM-debit card number and your PIN that you use on ATM. This is done for your protection - because some of members no longer have access to their email address and we must verify it.
To verify your email address please click on the link below:
they might as well tell you to put all your credit cards, all your PINs along with samples of your signature and non-photographic proof of ID into an envelope and mail to them directly. What's more, they'll be a few idiots out there who'd do exactly that.
by groc at 06:26 AM | Comments (3)
why American TV is getting worse
Depressing.
by groc at 01:20 AM | Comments (0)
ye olde homo-homepage
hur hur hur.
remember the good old bad old days of personal homepages?
here's a little blast from the past.
aaah bless.
by groc at 12:39 AM | Comments (3)
October 25, 2004
Honest
I was only teasing about the mitten wearers - but now I'm not so sure.
by groc at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2004
digital stuff
via Pete Ashton >>intriguing Wired article: The Long Tail.
I've long had a set of ideas floating around my head that I've long been meaning to pull together and put into a more coherent essay, but have been too lazy to do. Ideas about how digital files and the internet change everything about traditional economics... and how it much it disgusts me how many dinosaur industries spend so much time, money, reseearch, expertise, to do all they can to cripple them in order to make them as much like ...let's say oranges*, all they can. Simply because oranges is all they know how to sell. It creates such total absurdities such as - software on CDs that comes in ridiculously huge empty boxes. Product activation. Regions on DVDs. Macrovision-crippled DVDs. DRM crippled CDs. Suing file sharers and downloaders. Shutting down the original Napster, trying to shut down the other P2P networks. Suing individual Universities and even Military bases for having computer networks that people can share files over. P2P shows people at their best, sharing freely and generously with anyone and everyone, while it shows capitalism and the laws support it at it's worse. I like to think that the deep seated problem is that the whole capitalist system is slowly starting to unravel at the seams. (It's most certainly - most alarmingly corrupt.) That a whole paradigm shift is occuring in the undercurrents. Unfortunately it's almost certain to get a lot worse before we ever see it getting better. Those dinosaurs aren't going to go down quietly with good grace any time soon.
*I originally had this down as apples - but I thought that might confuse the mitten wears. (It's about now they write in the comments box how 'apple rools', 'buy a mac.' 'I love my mac' etc.)
by groc at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2004
5 days later
and my phone line is still f*cked.
Never a fan of BT at the best of times but this is beyond a joke.
(long rant to come later.)
by groc at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)
stormy sundown
by groc at 02:18 AM | Comments (0)
the state of the music today
How long do we have to listen to this for?
(For the record: groc likes much of the buggles album 'the plastic age'. Especially the Elstree track.)
by groc at 01:18 AM | Comments (1)
October 22, 2004
Deconstructing the Adverts
Fabreeze.
Ok. Now I know that dogs have a sense of smell many hundreds of times more sensitive than ours. Fine. But where the whole advert completely falls apart is that I also know that dogs love smells - all smells, and the stinker, more repellent to us humans the better dogs like them. They mark their territory by peeing all over the place, they have anal glands that they love to rub all over your clean carpets, they love sniffing other dog’s arses, and they love nothing better than going out in fields and rolling in other animals shit for god’s sake! Dogs are dirty stinky animals and they positively revel in it. Smells are a whole language to them so the last thing any dog would do is anything that would get rid of the foul odours and pongs they love so much.
Oh and the jingle drives me insane too, especially that one with the door bell.
by groc at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
Running up that Hill
I like Harry Hill - I do. He's even in my blog roll - but please god - so very tired of his Boots Christmas TV commerical already. How many more weeks more of this we will have to endure before it's finally put to rest?
If I was a multi-millionnaire I'd set up a hotel out in the country somewhere in order to provide a totally Christmas free environment that people could escape to over the Holiday period. It would have it's own cable TV where any outside broadcasts were barred -as would any Christmas themed adverts , films, or episodes of shows.
I bet I'd make even more millions.
by groc at 11:43 AM | Comments (9)
October 21, 2004
Music sales rise
Hmmmm. Funny old world ain't it?
Isn't it the case that CDs sales have been on the up in this country too yet the BPI is all set to start taking people to court over file sharing?
by groc at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
clouds
I'm beginning to think someone should give me a job as Worthing's official cloud photographer.
by groc at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)
US passport holders can Privacy
Mmmmm. Okay - we're all being told all over the place that 'Identity Theft' is one of the biggest things we have to guard against in this day and age. So the Americans go on to have this bright idea to put a RFID chip in all their passports that will tell any reader device that asks for it - the name, address and even a photograph of it's owner. All this can take place all without the owner ever knowing about it.
American Passports to Get Chipped.
Anyone get the impression that the Boss Monkeys who think up these schemes are altogether a teensy-bit too in love with new technology at the expense of having any common sense?
by groc at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
5 meg camphone
At this point I thought - oh for pity's sake just put all the mobile phone gubbins in an normal digital camera's body and have done with it now.
by groc at 03:32 PM | Comments (3)
October 20, 2004
gay genetics
From the New Scientist print-edition e-zine:
Gay genetics
IF homosexuality is an inherited trait, why do genes for it survive? Because these genes may make women more likely to reproduce.
Andrea Camperio-Ciani's team at the University of Padua, Italy, asked 98 gay and 100 straight men to fill in questionnaires about their families. They found mothers and aunts had more children if related to a gay rather than a straight man. Mothers of gay men averaged 2.7 babies, compared with 2.3 born to mothers of straight men. Aunts on the mother's side had 2 babies compared with 1.5 for maternal aunts of straight men (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004).
We think of a gene for male homosexuality, but it may be a gene for attraction to men
The team suggests that gene variations on the X chromosome make women more likely to have more children, and men more likely to be gay. "We think of a gene for male homosexuality, but it might really be a gene for sexual attraction to men," says Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist at Stanford University and a writer on sexuality.
But the "maternal effect" could at most account for only 14 per cent of the prevalence of male homosexuality, the Italian team cautions. "Our findings, if confirmed, are only one piece in a much larger puzzle on the nature of human sexuality."
by groc at 06:18 PM | Comments (2)
gasp
oh no yet another Olympus camera I want, nay neeeeeed.
by groc at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)
skelly
by groc at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
proof that BT
really shouldn't be allowed to run high tech...
This from trying to check the status of the report I left at their website last night.
"Error:
The following error was encountered when attempting to run the application:
Can't find class FPR40FaultDetails"
This morning I plugged my phones back in. Nice normal dailing tone. But after one solitary call which I didn't get a chance to answer -and it's back with the constant non-stop continual ringing.
It isn't as if I hated phones at the best of times.
by groc at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
camera fetishism
Is it wrong that I got all excited when I saw an Argus camera being used in 'Niagara' -the afternoon film shown on Channel 4 (this Tuesday). It's much the same camera as seen being held by Gwyneth Paltrow on the 'Sky Captain' poster.
by groc at 01:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2004
The Two Mules
The Two Mules
Originally uploaded by Tom Coates.
if it was two uber rightwing Tory mules they'd fight each other until one was dead - then the winner would gorge on the hay until it's stomach burst and it died too.
PS. What the hell is 'social software'?
Wiki? All those instant messaging things? (which after being burnt out on using AOL im years ago - I only ever rarely indulge in now. Some total stranger: "Wanna cyber?" Me: "No. P*** off and get a real life life or at least a porn video/site/magazine you complete and utter saddo".) Gaydar? Friends United? Flickr? (my current passion.) Something that features a combination of all of the above? Or is it just a rather snazzy-sounding buzz-word that really doesn't mean much of anything...
Is the iPod and iTunes and all the other mp3 players Anti-social hardware?
by groc at 09:52 PM | Comments (2)
how'd you fault 'em?
Errrr. OK. How you get in touch with BT to tell them there's something wrong with your line - when what's wrong with your line is that the phone won't stop ringing and all you get when you pick up is a constant awful clacky buzzy noise - so it won't dial out and when you try ringing them using their 0800 report-a-fault number on your mobile - you'd told (lied to actually) by a recording that the number you've dialled is wrong.
Now I know what phoneboxes are for I guess...
As you can see my broadband connection is fine.
Weird.
Update: Went to the phonebox only to held in a queue for a good 20 minutes only to eventually give up in disgust. Great customer service guys. What am I paying you for again -exactly?
by groc at 08:15 PM | Comments (3)
new Sony clie
Oooooh. Pretty. But sooooooo expensive.
by groc at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2004
obscure formats
Robbie's next album is to come out on a MMC card.
I love obscure formats, once upon a time there was even an album that came out on micro-cassette, and anyone remember the Philips DCC digital compact cassette? That lasted all of about a week. I've even seen proper Minidisc albums on sale in our local branch of MVC (they must have kept them well hidden -because before that sale I'd never seen them before.)
by groc at 05:36 PM | Comments (3)
dvd
of arty short animations that i want but can't afford.
by groc at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2004
carded
But that's OK - Because by then Mr Blunkett will have an top-notch PR and marketing man who'll sell it to us - probably very much like the TV ads for Actimel - making it seem all rather fluffy and friendly and jolly.
Sigh.
by groc at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)
air strip one
Wednesday BBC2 9pm (20th October) The Power of Nightmares. Watch.
by groc at 01:01 PM | Comments (1)
October 15, 2004
an aggrieved outsider class
They're certainly well organized in their sleaze aren't they - those US republicans.
Update: Because the US media really has a left-wing bias. Doesn't it? *Cough.*
by groc at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2004
sigh
I'm currently watching the new Battlestar Galactica remake thing. I am bored, for it is dull and very boring. Mind you I didn't much care for the original series- those hideous brown uniforms they wore -urgh. That furry robot thing that a kid had - urgh. That there was an annoying kid - urgh. That bloke that was once in 'Bonzana' -urgh. The super shiny chrome Cylons with the Knightrider eyes were just about the only thing I did like. But then -they were called the Cylons - which sounds like the name of a washing powder. Feh.
God job I quite liked the new Stargate series and even the new spin-off Atlantis , but with reservations. Many, many reservations.
I am so running out out of cool new good things to watch.
by groc at 10:50 PM | Comments (2)
google desktop
google your desktop. But, but, I don't have Word, Excel (shudder) or powerpoint (spit), nor do I use Outlook or outlook express... nor do I chat much. Oh well, I'm sure everyone else will find it useful.
by groc at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)
Lido at Dusk
by groc at 07:25 PM | Comments (3)
Birthday greetings...
It's my birthday on Halloween (that's the 31st of October -you monkeys) who's going to send me some nice virtual cards for me to post up here on my blog then?
by groc at 03:37 PM | Comments (1)
comment spammers are so moronic.
1. No one's going to respond to an ad in a comments box - especially one for mortgages.
2. This blog isn't indexed by google or any search engines (unless you search for groc) so it isn't going to help their ratings there ...
I do hope this isn't the start of a flood - I've been lucky so far...
by groc at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2004
Blunkett deemed arrogant? -surely not.
by groc at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2004
Ummm
I find this sort of thing very worrying.
by groc at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2004
In one corner---
we have Micosoft getting all cosy with the entertainment industry in order to foist DRM into everything. In the other: "One Canadian's Wireless Neighbourhood Network Could Someday Serve Us All".
Unfortunately in our country the very notion that ‘you can get ahead by co-operating as well as by competing’ is one that has been knocked out of us since those heady ’greed is good’, ’every man for themselves’ Thatcherite-driven 80s. So I don’t hold much hope for the latter happening here any time soon.
Meanwhile elsewhere David Byrne and a few like-minded friends put forward a whole new way of looking at music copyright issues. Y'see the main thing the music industry simply doesn't understand is that it's more about the artists and the music -not the money.
by groc at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2004
Nottingham
Only a couple of days ago I was talking on the phone to a friend of mine - who's also an escapee from Nottingham - about how awful the place had been getting up to the point when I'd left 5 years ago. So sadly this news item came as no great surprise. Gun crime and armed robberies have been increasing year upon year in that city, it was only a matter of time before a tragedy like this was going to happen.
Update: There have been even more killings than I originally knew about.
by groc at 05:51 PM | Comments (2)
October 08, 2004
If I had
recently spent money on an iPod - I'd be feeling a bit peeved by now. But no doubt the Mac-cultists will just shriek with glee and dig deep into their pockets yet again...
Here's another link.
by groc at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
mmmm okay
why is Nestle putting pictures of lesbians on the back of their limited edition lime flavoured yoghurt covered kitkat bars?
by groc at 01:12 PM | Comments (4)
how many megapixels do you need?
"The discontinued C-2100 is a bit of a secret weapon". (That's my baby that is...)
by groc at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
post-it
by groc at 05:59 AM | Comments (2)
October 07, 2004
when non-stick starts coming unstuck
I did a quick google for 'teflon president' and 'teflon prime minister' as soon as I read this article...
I'm just stunned by the irony of it all...
by groc at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
gargoyle
by groc at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)
matching...
Look! matching portable TeeVee sets to got with the PeeCees mentioned earlier. How ace is that?
by groc at 06:53 PM | Comments (1)
Gotta love that
oh so cosy Anglo-American special relationship.
by groc at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2004
OK
it is now my carefully considered opinion that all iPod owners are barking, barking insane. Need a more proof? Here it is...
by groc at 10:00 PM | Comments (1)
privacy? who needs that?
All Americans are about to say bye-bye to the last shreds of their privacy...
You know, 'cause their intelligence agencies are like, so brilliantly excellently good. Like they brought Osama Bin Laden and his "Al Qaeda" terrorist group to justice in next to no time.... er no wait. Cough. Well they definitely lost no time in finding all those WMD that... oh, wait. Er...
Do anyone seriously think that these shady characters should be allowed completely untrammelled, totally unlimited free access to everyone's personal information?
And if -as it is being claimed by Bush and Chaney (and Blair) we're living in a much safer world now - why do they need these new powers?
by groc at 08:16 PM | Comments (2)
yet another end of an era
I’ve just read in today’s Guardian that the Pink Paper is to cease publication - while it’s publishers concentrate on the more profitable (to them at least) Boyz.
Hummm, well, that says it all really. That sex sells, and dumbing down works, that being gay has been turned into a commodity, a mere targetable market segment. Blah blah blah. Drone drone drone. So fellow homosexualists you better keep on spending money -because as soon as we stop... the tide will turn.
by groc at 02:10 AM | Comments (1)
October 05, 2004
arty stuff
It's not arty but a way I've been passing the time -after reading this, then that, and this. After all that I found things like this and this and this and... (NSFW) this.
But mostly it was quite dull. All those digital cameras in the world and so many of their owners totally clueless as to what makes for a good picture. Sigh.
by groc at 03:53 PM | Comments (1)
October 04, 2004
Oi Michael!
on second thoughts...
by groc at 02:45 PM | Comments (3)
Hi there
We've come to piss all over your boring beige monitors and even that dreary new white square im-mac.
Why is it that the Japanese do all the coolest fun stuff and most everyone else is so staid and boring?
[via fridgemagnet.]
by groc at 10:22 AM | Comments (3)
October 03, 2004
broken
Another track for my lovely readers. Broken.
by groc at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
iTuned out
Someone else who's had trouble with arrogant software trying to organize everything for them MusicBrainz is great, iTunes sucks ass.
Myself, I'm not particularly happy that iTunes has made it's own directory for itself within 'My Music' (btw a thoroughly stupid default name) and shoves everything it copies in there. The phrase 'does not play well with others' comes to mind.
by groc at 03:32 PM | Comments (2)
October 02, 2004
sparrows
by groc at 08:21 PM | Comments (4)
the old media vs new media
They just don?t get it do they?
(category: why the human race is doomed.)
So you go to the Newsagents, there in front of you stand an assortment of stacks of newspapers, and nowadays if you go on any weekend you usually have a choice of papers that are as thick as a log with a bewildering array of supplements and these days you even get free music CD s and multimedia CD-ROMs and more increasingly even free movie DVDs to entice you to buy. All these things have cost money to print, and physically make and distribute - there?s all the costs of transportation to the shops etc. and Yet at the point of sale they cost what? Approximately one pound 50 pence sterling -all remarkable value. But then after you?ve taken them home and read them there?s the whole problem of recycling them or trashing them. I hate newspapers for that, especially when the bulk of what you?ve paid for - you never even read. Whole supplements that a are given but a cursory glance before being thrown into the recycling pile. So much wanton waste.
Yet go to the websites of some of these prestigious papers and there are the entire days current news all for gratis, but god forbid that you want to read an old article they?ve published previously. To read that - they suddenly expect you pay a pound. What? A whole pound for a single solitary archived article? Something they?ve already made their money on. What? Do they have to pay a person to sit at a desk and on your bidding go to hunt that article down through hundreds of shelves? Like a local library will do for you - for free? Do you get a free CD or a DVD movie with this purchase? No. You get to read a musty old file on a server just like one of billions you can get to read else on the net for nothing.
Hmmm. I'll pass thank you.
by groc at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2004
merchants of cool
...and this helps explain why there's so little new pop culture around that I like anymore.
by groc at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
Doom Patrol
the Doom Patrol were one of my favourite vintage comics when I was a kid. They were so malajusted and dark compared to all the other super hero groups.
by groc at 04:26 AM | Comments (0)