Monthly Archives: October 2006

aka Podz

9

I’m going to take my name back. My real name is being increasingly used – at FreshlyPressed all the admin emails use Mark, I’m using it offline more and I also use that as 1 identity when posting to usenet and some forums. So I have 2 online identities (real ones anyway) and one needs to take precedence. The reason for not using Mark is complex and goes back some way. I don’t have the same reaction that I used to have – now I dislike my name as much as many people dislike theirs (‘Marks’ are what kids get or skids leave. I’d much rather have been called … something else. Strange how the name I want depends what mood I am in. Having said that I can confidently say that I have never ever wanted to be called Keanu. Ever.).

So I’m thinking I’ll change my email addresses (not spam related, this name thing has been brewing longer) and where possible, logins. Today though I saw mark.wordpress.com looking rather empty. People sometimes ask for empty blogs there to be given to them but my response always has been – and always will be – to leave a comment and see if that is picked up by the owner. So that’s just what I did. And Mark got back to me saying Yes, no problem – how cool is that? So he’s tidied things up and the blog is now mine :)

Using it? I’ll use it. I will probably start using Mark instead of Mark over at wordpress.com too. I know that makes two Marks (Mark Jaquith being the other of course) but that’s just the way things will have to be….. Mark – TGFKAP :)

And many thanks again to Mark at 2 Irish Geeks and a TV for the blog!

This feed is protected by copyright

7

This feed is copyrighted by me. If you see this anywhere else but in your feedreader then please don’t bother to contact me because I have no means to prosecute even if that were an easy route to take – which it is not. If you are reading this on a splog somewhere then my writing “copyrighted by me” hardly had the desired effect did it? It just took up space in this feed – just like it did yesterday, and the day before, with each and every post..

The fact is that decent people will not steal your words and the not decent will – and the internet offers precious little in the way of padlocks and chains so is that line (or several) really worth the place it is?

Maybe you have a warning on each and every post that someone could land on from Google that states the same thing? Probably not. Why not? Shouldn’t the claim of copyright be easily visible and not be tucked away on some page elsewhere? So why can’t that apply to your feed?

All the copyright notices, activation loops and legal muscle don’t stop software being pirated so why should a line of text protect your feed when you have absolutely no resources to enforce a violation?

Ad-blocking in feeds? I’d rather have the above nuked. Far more irritating.

ex-Blogger

1

Blogger wouldn’t let me delete old posts from 2 blogs I had there. Tried a few times over 3 hours but no way was it going to let me delete my posts. So nuking the blogs was the only option. Not that I wasn’t going to do that, but I wanted to see the posts gone first. It’s been a while since I did much more than hop in and write a quick post so having to sit and watch the yellow triangle with the throbber was painful. Very. Especially when the same nonsensical error kept being returned. If you are going to show me an error message do it fast, don’t keep me waiting. Let me get the expletive out and try again/move on/hate the app more. Tension building may have some dramatic uses – this is not it.

Two more domains bought so I own the com/net/org of 1 I hope to use in the future more than it is now. Wpmu evicted from another domain and a nice long entry in .htpasswd installed instead. I installed Deepest Sender to blog to the protected blog. It seems okay too – no unnecessary bells or whistles (I’d like the icon in the status bar though…)

And I swear someone added an email address of mine to a “please send me lots and LOTS more crap” because for the past few weeks it has flooded into Thunderbird. It’s doing a pretty good job of ID’ing the bad stuff and together with filters it’s not hugely annoying but I think I should start to play with whatever comes with cpanel to see what I can stop on the server. This will sound like a company plug but since the last google dance and my pr being bumped up by 1 the blog spam has shot up. A few hundred a day (currently 27,184) and not one wrong from Akismet – one for email would be neat.

And this next week I am going to try and post at least once a day to two other blogs – and maybe even here too. I have things I want to write but it’s finding those little chunks of time – and also the tools. 3 blogs, 3 tools – because I can’t afford to mix them up and from inside they all look the same…. I know I could look up and check but with distractions being what they are, and the information being what it is….

Leaving that

1

I will be so glad to get this last week gone. A week of feeling like crap each and every day – this cold (or whatever) didn’t have the nuts to just out and clobber me but it’s incessant sniping has been unpleasant.

J is looking at houses. She wants to buy a house. The fact is that adaptations are needed and the sooner we could get them the less anger/frustration/tears will happen and such homes do exist. There is one in the next village – it’s £180K and according to J would suit. The bonus of needing adaptations is that houses with them do not attract a premium on the open market. But the only people that will lend us that money have interest rates that would make even a credit card company blush. So it’s a No. Which I know anyway. If I can’t have I spend very few moments thinking about it because doing so is wasted time. But J has this need to get housing sorted, to try and make things better in some odd way even though she knows it can’t be done. So she looks for and goes to see houses, that annoys me because as much as I want us in such a house it cannot ever happen and I say so – and that annoys her which annoys me. And so it goes round. I’ve said before that a lottery win wouldn’t make masses of difference but a few numbers and that house would make a colossal improvement possible. And there I go dreaming ….

Spanners. Bag of.

3

Another day of feeling like crap.

Still, much work has been done, problems solved.

Looking at pre-ordering the Wii. That’s £220 for the basics, £40/game – I want several games …. at a minimum that’s 500 quid I’ve spent. In my head anyway.

Five Live Idiocy

4

“They should ban fireworks because it affects my cat” says one caller.
Get a bloody grip! How pathetic a reason is that – and how pathetic a person for even considering saying that let alone ringing national radio. Idiot.

Ill.

2

For the last few days I’ve had a cold which has just not quite grabbed me. It’s sitting there making me feel like it’s going to hit tomorrow – but it doesn’t. So I just feel like crap. Not good. Mood brightened slightly by the taxman giving me £220 back – that’ll pay for the aerial work. My first thought was “Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii” but TV is important too. So I’m told.

AAWiL – 18

9

I bought An American Werewolf in London earlier. 21st Special 2 disc edition. I actually bought it because it was £5, as I saw it I immediately began to hum ‘Bad moon rising’ and because Jenny Agutter is… well.. in it. The DVD is next to me now because I’ll play it on here later as I do some other work. Last night I watched Lord of War again. Damn good film. Very very good film. Some sexual suggestion in it, a fair amount of violence both shown and implied. It’s a bloody film in parts. And yet it’s only a 15 cert. AAWiL has less sex, less violence, a damn sight more humour, Rik Mayall and it’s an 18 cert. Oh how times have changed….