I recently posted a rather flippant attack (for want of a better word) about Yahoo! Answers. In it, I linked to a chap named Doug who is one of the more prolific answerers. I accused him of taking himself a little too seriously, given his rather staggering point count. Well, bless his li’l cotton socks, within a couple of hours of posting it (must have been a slow work day), he responded with a rather scathing full-scale rebuttal. Now, I’m not one to make random “enemies” for no apparent reason, but the only purpose it serves is to validate my original point.
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Internet trolls might call me an Apple fanboy, but I wouldn’t say I am. I am just one of the happy people who made the switch a couple of years ago, and I am well-pleased that I did. I started with the Mac Mini - which seemed like the cheapest way to find out what the switch would be like - all went well - and so have since bought a Macbook Pro. Which all went great, aside from a snafu over the definition of Apple retail versus Apple store.
Anyway, with the new stock MBP in hand, I started looking at upgrading the RAM, from 2gb to 4gb. After finding the specs, first stop was the Apple store to see their prices. You can imagine I was a little taken aback to see that 4gb (2 sticks of 2gb) was a staggering $600 - I’m well aware that Apple hardware is more expensive than most, but $600 seemed ridiculous. And indeed it is - I picked up 4gb of Kingston (a more than reputable memory manufacturer) for $125 from Amazon. I could also have got Crucial or Samsung, for a similar price. Intrigued, I decided to call the Apple store, just to find out why their RAM was so damn expensive. I mean, $200 I could undrstand, maybe $250, but a full FOUR times more expensive? No way. I didn’t really know what answer to expect, so I just went ahead:
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OMG lOlz, like its totaly teh suxx0r. Ahem. Sorry. How bad is Yahoo! Answers? I found myself on the site a few days ago after a Google search led me there and then ended up answering a few questions. It took me back to my Sitepoint Forums days, where I cut my teeth as a web designer. I spent nearly two years at SPF, where over time I learnt the art of question answering in a community atmosphere. The forums at Sitepoint were a remarkable place, as an oft heavy-handed approach to moderation generally ensured that the quality of answers stayed high. Not to mention that it was frequented by recognised experts in a variety of fields. Over the time, I moved up through the ranks to one of the senior moderators and although I spent far too much time there, and at the detriment of most parts of the rest of my life, it was a good time.
Enter Yahoo! Answers and a (not such a-)shock reminder that, frankly, the web is a dank, musty place, where information is freely available, but there are zero guarantees that the information is accurate or correct in any way, shape or form. (Wikipedia being a shining example.) Y!A is far worse than the Wiki, however.
The theory with Y!A is anyone can ask a question and anyone can answer the question. There is a category for moreorless any question you may want to ask and naturally I gravitated towards the Computers and Internet section.
My gripe is twofold and is directed 1) At the question askers, and 2), at the question answerers.
Go figure. I actually missed having a decent forum for being able to rant about stuff. Freedom to say what I wanted; when I wanted. Then I realised - “oooh I know where people do that nowadays! On a blog!”. Then I remembered - I have a blog! Whoop-de-doo for me, and I can release some anger.
Well actually, my anger is pretty limited at the moment. I mean, I’ve spent the last 5 months travelling, and it’s even longer than that I haven’t been at work, moreorless. So when you find yourself in a situation where you can literally do anything you want any time any day, well I guess you don’t have much right to be pissed off about too much stuff.
One of those things that I wanted to do - buy a new computer. And not just any computer, a brand spanking new Apple Macbook Pro. I felt I deserved it, after all, I’ve been working hard these past few months. [Er, hang on.] Long story short, I negotiated a good price with (the) Apple Store (i.e., the online sales people) but because of the way they work, they couldn’t accept my UK-registered credit card. However, the local store (Stamford) has the machine. I phoned them to check if they would pricematch the deal, and they said of course. So I trundle all the way in to the store - and lo and behold - they won’t pricematch. We figure out how the Apple Store has got such a good price and it’s through a mechanism that the Apple Retail (store) [following this?] couldn’t match. Besides giving me some bullshit about why they couldn’t, I wasn’t too bothered about it all. I mean, they’d told me they would match, and when I get there they can’t, well, I’d normally be upset at even that. But this new Zen state of mind of mine has obviously miraculous calming effects on me. In fact I was doing really well about the whole situation, was even prepared to just buy the new ‘pooter at full whack right there and then, until the sorry operator muttered a sentence which, boils my blood every time I hear it:
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George Bush gave his annual State of the Union address yesterday. It had the usual “God Bless America” nonsense, the usual spiel and all the sycophantic applause, despite his approval ratings being at an all time low. The part that has narked me is his thoughts on global climate change. Take a moment to read what he very righteously said:
Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and America’s environment clean. For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence
leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists — who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, and raise the price of oil, and do great harm to our economy.It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply — the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. (Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. (Applause.) We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — (applause) — using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
We made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies here in Washington and the strong response of the market. And now even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we’ve done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. (Applause.)When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East. To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 — and that is nearly five times the current target. (Applause.) At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks — and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.
Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it’s not going to eliminate it. And so as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. (Applause.) And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Applause.)
America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change. (Applause.)
Well gee, all of a sudden America are the stewards of the environment, confronting the challenge of global climate challenge. Why did the rest of the world realise this? If only there was some way that the whole world could bond together and act co-operatively to effect positive global action against climate change. Wow, I think someone should think up a protocol of some sort, I really do.
You can download the entire thing here: 24_01_07_sotu.pdf
I don’t watch Big Brother as I actually have a life and things to do. I can’t think of anything more pointless. But you can’t escape the row over whether or not Shelpa Shetty is being racially abused in the house by the likes of Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd. We all know that Jade Goody is a fat loudmouthed bint who, god help us, has further muddied our gene pool by having more children with dumbass boyfriend Jack Tweed. But Danielle Lloyd is a different story. She’s relatively unknown albeit she’s clearly as thick as the proverbial swine poo. Check out her website, and hear about her plans to make the world a better place:
I would to help those people less fortunate than others. I was given help when I needed it, now I would like to be able to help someone. One in four women has at sometime been the victim of domestic violence and it is not only women who suffer, sadly the children suffer too. Women’s Aid takes thousands of calls from women every year, but unfortunately due to being under resourced and of course severely under funded, last year alone 88,500 calls could not be answered. If I can help in any way no matter how small I will.
I would like to visit many countries and work towards helping those people less fortunate than others. We have so many children and parents who are living in poverty and have to beg, or work from a very early age just to be able to eat day by day. Surely everyone should be able to eat a meal and drink clean fresh water whenever they want. I know it won’t happen overnight, but if we can do something to make a start and put a smile on just 1 child’s face, it would be an achievement.
Magic. I wonder which part of her plans she’s fulfilling by referring to Shelpa as a “dog” and telling her to “fuck off home”. What’s interesting is that her myspace page has gone nuts with people thanking her for the add (i.e., adding them to her friends list)… which is weird, considering she’s in the Big Bro house and has no access to the Internet… but nevertheless in her little blurb, bless her, she says “I’m going in to the BB house so people can see the real me”.
Well, love, I think you’ve managed that. She’s not even that fit.
A Channel 4 insider said: “Racism is ugly but the viewing figures are beautiful.” No shit.
It’s true. I was told it. By a very reputable source.
Oh, by the way, for all those reading not well versed in sarcasm, I’m lying. I’ll clue you in. I get a lot of emails via my website. Most people asking me questions or saying they like the site. I get a lot of random gibberish. And then every now and then I get someone insulting me. Well today I got one such email. Normally I just look at them, smile and then file them with all the other emails. But it was a slow day at work today, so I wondered about it a bit. Anyway, here’s what I got:
From: turd
Their email: uraturd@turdmail.com
Message: u are one sad fag
So obviously there are lots of issues with this email. Firstly, the email was from uraturd@turdmail.com - i.e., YOU ARE A TURD. But then, it’s from turd. So the person who sent this to me was also a turd. And then I am accused of being a sad fag. Well, OK. I can handle that. I’ve certainly be accused of a lot worse before.
What’s a little frustrating about this, is that I have no idea which part of the site they’ve been reading to formulate this opinion of me. I feel that sort of information would help me grow and develop.
The obvious question, though, is why I’ve even bothered to post this up at all. Well, it’s simple, and really it’s for an audience of one - the turd who sent me the email in the first place. Unfortunately, all I know about this person is that they’re somewhere in Australia… and that they’ve obviously got very little to do in their life other than send pathetic insults to people they’ll never meet. So really - please, Turd, if you do read this, get in touch with me. But this time, have some balls and tell me who you are and why you think I’m a turd. I’m interested.