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December 31, 2004
the road to ruin
Why do big companies have to ruin things?
After nearly totally forgetting about it for - oh I don’t know, for ages, I decided to log into my old hotmail account..
Now I vaguely remember the original hotmail - sort of, before it was bought up by Microsoft. It was plain and simple and it worked very well - especially for someone like me at the time who hadn’t got a internet connection.
Then - because it was such a good idea - it got bought up by Microsoft and now look at it. All these ridiculous restrictions - you HAVE to log in at least once a month or all your old mail gets deleted and any msn groups you might have subscribed to. The you have to plough through two pages worth of mindless newsletters that no one in their right mind would subscribe to - not if they wanted to reserve their allocation of mailbox space to, you know, actual mail. Hotmail has always been hot on deleting things for you. It’s so fricking ugly too and all those flashing banner ads. Jesus. MSN just don’t get it - none of this is appealing - none of this is cool, none of this is going to make anyone feel like signing up for one of those lame paid for accounts when the free version is like this. It all screams big ugly greedy corporation that wants to push adverts at you and getting in the way instead of letting you get on with the things you’re actually there to do - which is read and send e-mail on line.
Asses.
Then there’s Yahoo. Oh yes. Yahoo. They were very nearly cool once. Then they too got bloated and big and lost the plot big time.
Once again a long time ago I remember a thing called e-groups - it was like newsgroups on steroids. You could create or join a group and make and receive your own mailing lists and read them on line. You could send attachments and they were shown as little thumbnails within the body of the message and you clicked on it to see or download the larger image. Messages were properly archived so you could go back over time and catch up on things and messages and attachments you’d missed.
It was such a good idea- Yahoo bought them up. Ever since then they’ve undermined and crippled the service into near un-usability. Basically taken away everything that was originally good about the service and created something rather foul and again - heavily polluted by advertising.
First no more thumbnails. Then added in MASSIVE (often animated) adverts in the body of their html mail, and even have with ‘click to continue’ advert pages popping up after you’ve browsed a few archived messages. Later all attachments were removed form the archives - so you have to have mail sent to you if you wanted to see the attachments (and is in the nature of these things - IE newbies (and the just plain ignorant) not understanding proper net etiquette do stupid things like send out the same images over and over (and over and over and over) - which must infuriate people on dial-up. Then they added in a weird - poorly explained and poorly implemented measure to save on bandwidth. If a group has exceeded it’s set bandwidth for that day or that session the user gets presented a with cryptic and scary message that says ‘you are not allowed to access the page with credentials you supplied’. You might have thought an explanation about bandwidth issues might have been more helpful.
You can’t help thinking - if they haven’t the proper resources to run a e-groups style operation - then why did they buy it in the first place.
In short -two great web based ideas where bought up by big companies and messed around with so completely they’re a former shadow of their former selves and bursting at the seams with various adverts.
(At this point some idiot going to pipe up - there’s no such thing as free - which missed the point - if they have to make money on their stuff with advertising - why do they have to be so utterly crass about it? Surely it makes their brand look cheap and tacky. Is that what they want?)
by groc at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)
December 30, 2004
Remember with id cards
it's not just the plastic card - it's the database, and how the information is to get linked up...
by groc at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
paperfilms
paperfilms. Teeny tiny super short videos using cut out paper characters made on mobile phones.
At the moment I don't quite know what to make of this. Is it a cool idea that's turning out crap. Or is it a crap idea that’s turning out to have the potential to be very cool? Is this the beginning of something from the future (are mobile phones going to improve so much (and so rapidly) no one will need a separate digital camera?) - or is it an obvious dead end...
I just can't decide -yet. Although I do know I’ve got a soft spot for any sort of art made from lo-tech and cheap materials.
by groc at 07:22 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2004
did you know
that the 'new' flavour Revel is just a chocolate coated raisin?
Sigh. Surely they could've come up with something better than that?
by groc at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2004
"I've been watching you"
So one night a while back there was this really tacky trashy movie on the sci-fi channel. Set on a American campus where a series of murders have taken place, a fresh man finds himself targeted by the gayest Fraternity house ever seen. There was also a lot of smooth muscular teen boy flesh on display - which made a nice change from the female boobies that are more usually in these kinds of thing. It was called "I've been watching you" -but in 'Merika-land it's known as 'the Brotherhood'.
Hey - whadda know - the director of this film 'bats for our side'.*
Apparently there's been two sequels but I've not seen either of those.
(*Sorry 'bout that obvious bit of glibness, I realise that you, yourself dear reader might bat for your own side altogether.)
by groc at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)
aaaw crap
"Unable to read database or username"
I thought i was only getting that message because I'd accidently ticked the build pages dynamically, which only applies if you install all the php stuff...
I had thought maybe with deleting spam comments - MT wasn't rebuilding the pages properly.
But as it's still happening - I don't know what it is.
So sick of all this.
If anyone can help drop me a line: groc [at] groc [dot] org [dot] uk
by groc at 05:34 AM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2004
groan
that annoyingly persistant comment spammer is back.
i want their legs broken and for them to be hacked to death with machetes. It's no less than they deserve.
Spam-rage - you saw it here first.
by groc at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2004
Why can't the US tell the difference
between England and France?
I'm watching Shriek on TV and they've just got to the bit where's Robin Hood - a English historic mythic/legendary character - but they've given him and his merry men a French accent. Why?
It reminds me of Star Trek NG - where a completely English actor with a crisp English accent is given a French name and he's supposed to even have been born and bred in France.
Merikans can't be that stoopid can they?
Don't answer that question.
51% of them recently showed just how stoopid they can be when they put their (lack of) minds to it.
by groc at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
dead Freddy
Whimper. I was the supermarket today - trying to buy foodstuffs but I was being driven to distraction by the shop playing bloody Queen’s “Christmas time“ (or whatever it‘s called). The hyper-extended 3 day long mindlessly repetitive remix version. Having dead Freddy repeatedly singing that 'it’s Christmas time' was driving me totally crazy. ‘Argh! I know. OK. I’ve got the message. Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut!
the!
fuck!
up!”
I've never liked Queen at the best of times.
by groc at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)
Yay - cat porn
Upon my instance Zbornak has put up more of his cat pictures on Flickr. They're fantastic. Go see.
by groc at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
just a reminder
to myself to check out the Dresden Dolls later - 'cause I saw a video of theirs on one of those music channels and it did look intriguing it did.
I particularly liked this jokey piktur.
by groc at 05:32 AM | Comments (0)
trying to understand "Santa"
Santa Claus for grown up Joe and Josephine Public = the main Semantic identifier for the mid-winter season and of the tradition of gift giving.
Santa Claus for retailers = blatant cynical exploitation of a non-copyrighted character who is symbolic of the seasonal tradition of gift-giving, to be used as shamelessy as possible in order to push the sales of goods.
Santa Claus for children too young to understand the concept of free presents (let alone Christmas) = parents pushing them on to the knees of a very strange man dressed in a weird costume for no readily apparent reason = total incomprehension and very much distress and often fear.
(link via cage of monkeys)
Mindless parental response = “if it wasn’t for the children we wouldn’t bother“. Answer: if the kids *are* too young to know - then please don't bother. They really are too young to know, you're merely being manipulated by cynical retailers. Usual response to this: "but it's Chriiiiiiistmaaaaas"
(Why is it when people have children their IQ levels totally plummet through the floor?)
by groc at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2004
update
Right - I've closed all comments off older than 7 days (this particular spammmer was targeting archive entries)* and I've now turned comments back on... but as soon as the first bit of spam comes in they're going off again until I find a more elegant solution...
*mt-close2 did work eventually , only it took about ...what? something like 10 or more repeated goes to complete the job.
Sigh - I really do have better things to be doing with my time other than this...
Why haven't blogsters and blogster-software writers got together to start hunt and kill parties on these spamming people?
We also need to kill that tiny percentage of deeply stupid people who actually do buy P 3 N 1 S 3 n L ArG.ing Pot10ns and R-0-L-e-X-s and use those on-line gambling casinos - the very people who make it profitable for the spamming Scum to do what they do. We need to kill them and totally remove them from the gene pool altogether. I bet in Merika they're exactly the sort of people gullible enough to have voted for Bush in the last election too. They've got to go.
by groc at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
what a nice man
by groc at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
Grrrr - again
I've just had to disable my comments again. I'm getting a steady trickle of comments spam, about two to three every hour now, (from some Casino touting *u*ts) and even though I've moderated comments turned on but it's still annoying having to deal with them at all. Oh and I've tried using close comments -which would go a long way to help stem the problem - but it just doesn't want to work.
I'm seriously reconsidering if it's even worth keeping a blog anymore. It's got past the point where it's worth the effort already.
by groc at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
ID cards- the sheep have voted.
Mint sauce on it's way
Register news item. Labour's Zombie Army clinches ID card vote for Clarke.
UK 'sleepwalking into Stasi state'.
Are ID cards legal under human rights legislation?
by groc at 12:33 PM | Comments (1)
December 20, 2004
having worth
I've just found this quote in an old note book:
William Burroughs to Quentin Crisp:
"What is worth having is worth fighting for."
Quentin:
"That which we can only maintain by force we should try to live without."
by groc at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)
beaver stew
by groc at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
more Creepy Christmas
Rakka put me onto this:
Flickr gets written up on Salon and Creepy Christmas gets a mention - twice!
by groc at 01:30 PM | Comments (3)
creepy coincidences
that's oddd. On Flickr I started a whole Creepy Christmas Group back in October, I've just looked at the Sky on screen listings to be told that the BBC is showing horror films over this holiday period - having a "Creepy Christmas" season. (Don't know if that's Sky's words or the BBC's, but either way...)
That BBC is always reading my mind. I remember once having a long rant about Dr Who and all about them killing the show off - and the following week or so there was all that news about bringing him back...
Now if they'd listen about Randall & Hopkirk...
by groc at 12:30 AM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2004
I'm stuffed
I accidently found this while checking out something. Eeeek.
by groc at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2004
eeeevil santa
celebrate christmas - or I'll knive yer.
santa - creepy scary santa (quicktime movie - 1.4m - right click and save as..)
by groc at 11:50 PM | Comments (1)
Wonka
Johnny Depp as Willy?
Tim Burton remakes the Chocolate Factory?
What's that going to be like?
by groc at 12:32 PM | Comments (3)
gameboy mpeg4 player
mpeg4 player for the Gameboy SP.
want.
want.
want.
by groc at 07:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2004
the first piece of comment spam
has already been sent in. Guess what? MT won't let me delete it.
It'll publish it - oh yeah, quite happily - no problem. Delete it? Oh no, it won't do that. Too difficult that. That delete button might as well not be there for all the good it does.
(Update shortly after - after three pieces slipped in. MT would let me edit and save them, the buttons worked for that oh yes, -but delete then? Oh no. Click-click-clicketty on that delete button. No response. Shan't. Grrrrr. So what happens I if I get another dedicated comments spam attack like last time where over two nights I got nearly thousand spams, are they going to sit around on a list like this forever - steadfastly refusing to be deleted?)
Think I'll start looking around for another piece of blogging software..
Update: Pete saved moi life. Apparently a piece of javascript was living in the wrong place. Guess what - this isn't in the MT manual (which btw, despite many others strongly held opinions to the contary - I've long thought was/is an over-verbose piece of pooh) as to where it should be. But anyhoo - thanks again Pete.
by groc at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
CSS sucks.
As once again with with this current reinstall of MT I’ve been thrown into the grim and mucky world of CSS-based page layout, I feel compelled to moan about one of the biggest annoyances I have with this whole CSS thing:
The <div> tag, or more specifically </div>.
In html every mark up tag like for example for bold, <b> has it’s own end tag </b>.
See why that is? It’s so -when in a line or block of text you know when whatever it applies to starts, and when you want it to stop. Brilliant isn‘t it. Simple - effective, easy to understand.
But then ‘they’ invented this whole new div tag - mainly to save the web world from drowning in a sea of font tags and table-based layouts (because table-based layouts in particular are deemed as super eeeevil for some reason)*. But div tags apply to everything to formatting text to making (uh-uh) containers and place holders for things. In a style sheet you define and name a class or identify a div tag. Clever. Oh except all those new div tags -no matter what class or id or whatever - are all ended in the same, one single way </div>.
Er… so how you are you supposed to know what end div tag is applying to what? Answer: you don’t - it usually all comes down to trial and error. (or else using another computer program that will help point it out to you. How very intuitive *that* is.)
This genuine example comes from my MT main index template:
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"> </div>
</div>
Think you’re ending a div class that just applies to a bold headline? Ooops where’s that whole layout column suddenly gone?
Would it have killed ‘them’ to have developed it so that when you create/name a new div tag it automatically had it’s own built in end tag? Something like <div=“white container”> to be followed </div=“white container”> to turn it off.
Nah. That would’ve been too simple and made far too many people‘s lives easier. They just couldn't think that far ahead.
Grrrrrr.
OK - sorry. Rant over. Now I’ve got to go back to puzzling why exactly my right side bar is cutting short, and snipping off content. I’ve never had much joy with the default templates and layouts MT comes with. So much so at the moment I’m beginning to think they (the people behind MT) should be paying their users to use MT in compensation for the grief they cause.
*I'm also not sure how it can really help when the CSS style sheets themselves get massively bloated - like all the default MT ones are. (I printed mine out once - it came to about 10 pages of A4!) Does the browser have to load up the entire style sheet before it can render a page or is it intelligent enough only take out the little bits and bobs it needs as it goes along?
PS. if anyone dares to send me a link to CSS Zen garden or anything else where there’s lots of pretty-pretty CSS layouts (for usually static pages with no dynamic content) - I promise I shall track you down and torture you - before slowly killing you. Have you got that?
Comments on this issue have now been closed - due to me being tired of being patronised by CSS evangalists.
by groc at 10:24 AM | Comments (13)
spammmmmmmm
my new minor irritation is the constant trickle of spam I'm now getting for 'cheating housewives' - whatever they might be. According to one (actually four - (and probably more that that I haven't opened) different 'senders', subject lines, etc. But the exact same message) of the most recent:
"4 Cheating-Wives have been matched for you in your area:
1) Jessica, 120 lbs, 5'9, 36c, 10 miles away, available Dec 17-19th
2) Laura, 127 lbs, 5'8, 36d, 8 miles away, available Dec 16-18th
3) Tabatha, 117 lbs, 5'6, 34b, 19 miles away, available most nights (husband works midnights)
4) Sandra, 134 lbs, 5'9, 36c, 21 miles away, available most week nights (looking for side-fling)."
Of course, as you’d might guess, in actuality they’re all in California, America. Quite a few extra miles away. Which begs the question why do they even bother to send spam to dot UK addresses? I mean I can’t expect them to know that I bat for the other side - but knowing what country someone is in should count for a lot.
My second bugbear is; why is it I only get the sort of spammer who relentlessly sends the same products/services - e.g. mortgages (again American only being sent to a UK address) and now cheating Housewives spams over and over and over again? (I'm guessing everyone is getting the same v-i-a-g-r-a and fake R-o-l-e-x spams at the moment) Can’t I get a little variety here? How am I supposed to get inspired for another round of Spam Monsters if the spam I’m getting isn’t up to the job?
They have no consideration these people.
(I remember recently reading about a spammer being busted in America and that masses of their equipment (T-lines, servers etc.) hidden away in their normal suburban home was consificated. I couldn't help thinking 'what is wrong with those people' - with that amount of equipment they could have easily set up a legitimate business -even as a ISP or web host, and they would have been raking it in, and at the end of the day they wouldn't have ever ended up in prison. Criminals are just so dumb.)
by groc at 02:28 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2004
Ed er... Kenny vs er... Spenny Spence
So what’s this nonsense?
Recently Sky One have this new show on called Ed Vs. Spence.
But as it turns out that it’s a remake Brit version of an ‘Merikan show Kenny vs. Spenny being shown on FX 289.
I suppose this is what you get when you live in a world were there are just far too many TV channels and so little talent and good ideas to go round. Multi-multi-multi-channel TV is a bit of a mistake overall.
Yes - I'll admit it - I've been watching the British one because I think the boys are fairly attractive (especially Spencer) despite their awful haircuts, there's nudity and seething undercurrents of homoeroticism. Things that are solely missing from the Merikcan version. Those two are mingers - sorry.
by groc at 10:08 PM | Comments (2)
Bye bye Blunkett
good riddance. You horrible creep.
by groc at 06:09 PM | Comments (3)
December 14, 2004
Holiday fatigue
Lately I've found myself watching more and more DVDs and videos rather than the TeeVee simply because I need to escape the near constant barrage of TV commercials hysterically proclaiming that it’s Xmas time (well, dur) and that I should be deliriously happy and spending more and more money (which I don’t have anyway) on less and less appealing things. It is totally wearing me out. And there’s to be another 12 to 11 days (or more because it stretches into the New Year Holiday too doesn’t it?) of this to endure? I’d already reached my limit about a month and a half ago. Whimpers.
My previous idea of wanting a special Xmas-free retreat Hotel/Guest House would have to be a long term stay option at this rate.
I had to laugh at a ‘news’ item about a fortnight ago that retailers were disappointed in the current season’s takings. (Not them hiking up their prices in the run to Christmas will have anything to do with putting people off. Oh no.) The phrase ‘counting chickens before they’ve hatched’ readily came to mind. No doubt after the January sales we’ll be told how there’s been record takings - followed not so long after by economists being worried that everything’s been paid for on credit and as a country we’re about a trillion pounds in debt and we should all be saving instead of spending - blah blah blah. Same old song year after year.
I miss recessions I do. People don’t act quite so stupidly when the economy is going through a rough patch.
Meanwhile perhaps you'd like to revel in some of the tackiness and horror of Christmas right here.
by groc at 01:28 PM | Comments (2)
December 13, 2004
flickr
you did know that at the moment most of my blogging type activity is taking place over at flickr - didn't you.
(trying to sort out and rebuild my MT templates is just making my forehead bleed - I'm just not in the mood for it. I hate CSS - I hate writing anything even vaguely computery. Shouldn’t computers be at the stage now where I can take my graphics tablet - draw out what I want and the computer should be doing the dull tedious stuff of working out for me. I thought part of the whole point of computers was to save us from soul destroying tedious repetitive crap - not create more and more of it. (I’m including databases and spreadsheets and junk like that.) Feh.
by groc at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2004
rebuilding da Bloggette
oh god - I've forgotten how lame and difficult MT is to install, manage and to change around. But thanks go out to Pete who sent me a copy of MT 3 for this upgrade.
by groc at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)