It was great to be Catholic and go to confession. You could start over every week.
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Monthly Archives: November 2008
WP track progress
Have ipod touch, have gym, wanted to put the 2 together. I’ve lost a card I used to track my rowing progress so I cannot look back to get any information. It also had other information on weights and some routines. All good, all gone. So I figured the Touch might work as that backs up to the mac.
Off to the App Store I go. If you have GPS, no problem. If all you want to do is throw weights around, no problem. If you want every part of your diet, metabolism and running there is an app for you. But I use the static machines and weights. Weights I can sort with an app and it is proving useful in evening out work. But cross-trainer / bike / treadmill – nothing. So I’m hunting around the app store looking at note taking apps, fitness apps and there really is nothing for the Touch. And then in a moment of clarity I figured one of these blog things might work for what I want – not what I was looking for at all. I have a blog (the backup), the WordPress app (comes with me, holds drafts, I can edit, I can view previous posts to see where I was and I can make notes.) It may take a few keypresses more – but not many. Who would write ‘Treadmill’ when they would more likely use ‘T:’ ? So that’s me sorted then.
Facebook and a fine
“Does Facebook expect to quickly collect 873 million dollars and share the proceeds in some way with our users?” Mr Kelley asked in a posting on the Facebook blog. “Alas, no. …. But we are confident that this award represents a powerful deterrent to anyone and everyone who would seek to abuse Facebook and its users”
What? Someone spams FB, gets fined a stupid amount of money and is told never to use FB again or contact any of it’s members (So he says “Hi” to me and what happens?). Where is the penalty here? I see none. In fact, for kicks why doesn’t someone try to get a higher penalty against them?
Why in the USA do ridiculous monetary awards get handed down? It’s nonsense in every single respect.
Forum search limitations
Can anyone point to the experiences of forum owners that have had forum db’s crash because of searches? So many forums require you to complete a stupid damn captcha before you can Search. What catastrophic event occurred to warrant this nonsense? Which data was lost? What are you trying to do apart from monumentally annoy people both because they have to do one in the first place but also because they probably cannot change image when it is actually unreadable? Why are you putting blocks in the way of people actually trying to find information and not therefore post again to a forum what could be other be discovered?
Want to see nonsense in action?
Roundcube forums are an example. There are so very many more.
So..anyone want to answer?
“The reason we captcha forum searches is ….”
The BJ Amnesty
Mr Woolas said the UK Border Agency was committed to stopping illegal migration… “We are putting more resources into expelling foreign law breakers and last year we removed one person every eight minutes.”
That number again means nothing – we have no idea how many people came in do we? Both sides of the equation or none because one means nothing. BBC
NXE
So the New Xbox Experience is out. One good, one bad, most indifferent.
Indifferent: streaming, anything avatar.
Bad: the avatar. Why the need for this goofy drivel?
Good: install to HD. I can actually play games on it now. The game disk spins briefly and then it’s quiet. (I play most games late at night because that’s when it’s guaranteed time for me as J and P are asleep. So any extra noise (like a CD which sounds like a bad hairdryer) is very unwelcome.
Of course Install to HD is Microsoft’s admission that their CD player is atrocious as well as a way of pushing upgrades. But if I can hear the birds tweeting in Tiger Woods (so to speak) it’ll do for me. (And you have an Xbox, buy Rez. Amazing game.)
Work was pretty busy today so no FFVII which is shame. Next chance is Saturday. Seems that even 2 hours a day to play is not a sure thing – not that I didn’t know it.
Big black nails.
I have around 13 of the steel puzzles from http://tavernpuzzles.com. They have languished in a bag in the garage since we moved here as the decoration did not lend itself to their display. Now though we have a wall for them. They are pretty heavy though. So I’m pondering either 1. Hanging them individually by wire, 2. a horizontal pole (or two) for them, 3. Hooks or 4. Big nails. It’ll probably be the last one as it gives more flexibility in placement. They are very nice things to have – recommended gifts too. The creator has a Youtube channel for solutions though not so many yet. There is at least 1 ebay store selling them.
Fake plastic
Jacq was called yesterday by Natwest who told her that her bank card had been cloned. So that’s the second card of hers which has probably been skimmed. That account is therefore out of reach as new cards are issued and she contacted Barclaycard to get those details changed as a precaution. How to get fast help in such cases? Say “My card has been skimmed” and they don’t mess you about – send you straight to the fraud dept. Apparently Barclaycard have some monitoring checks you can use so J is doing those now. And she already uses Credit Expert to keep an eye on potential issues that way.
She had a call last week from Barclaycard about “unusual activity’. When she asked where she was told iTunes. Turns out my grandiose spending of 59p and £1.79 here and there had set off the alarms. Yet when I buy the shopping on it, an xbox on it and other stuff all in one day or buy online they couldn’t care. And I’d been using the card at iTunes since I got the Touch (and no music. I refuse to buy music from a computer company). I’m sure they’ll say someone could be testing the card for approval.
They say you are fully protected against this sort of thing. But given that you would no doubt have to prove you were not in certain places, given that you would have to do without money until they satisfied themselves and this would be no short process, and also given that we must all surely know by now that bankers are thieves in it only for themselves then I don’t want to be at the sharp end of finding out.
TV Swearing
Almost two-fifths of viewers support a total ban on swearing on television …
Some 30% of people believe the F-word should be banned, while 55% think the C-word should be outlawed.
However, nearly half of all viewers (49%) believe there should be a place for some swear words ? albeit mild ones ? in programmes. Times Online
Some points:
- there is no link to the survey
- the number of people asked is not stated
- ‘almost two-fifths’. Given that the other numbers are %, why use a fraction?
The F word should be banned, the C word should be ‘outlawed’. Is one different to the other?
Define ‘mild’ ones. I want swearing that is appropriate. If I’m watching something with Ray Winston (for instance) I do not want to hear “Blimey” or “Darn it” or “Oh my word”. Dot Cotton can have those, Ray can have every word he wants if appropriate.
I could post a link here to 2girls1cup, or 2men1horse, or tubgirl or anything like that and surround it with warnings about being offended, you cannot unsee this etc but someone would click it and someone would complain. Why do people do this? Why do they watch TV that they know will offend and then complain when they are offended?
And the Times Online should really do better. Or add Tabloid to their title.
Computer held to ransom
Earlier today Jacq’s sister rings and says she cannot connect to the internet and can I help. As I am upstairs working Jacq says she’ll ask later. When she does ask I say there is little I can do from here and would need to go over. Jacq calls her sister to say this.
Since the last call her sister received a call from a woman who in bad english asked for the supervisor but then passed the phone to a man. He asked for Jane’s daughter and then said in broken english that for a one off payment he could fix the computer.
She did say that last week the antivirus warned of a virus but that it was moved to the vault / quarantine (I think she has avast).
Her daughter is a user on the computer (runs XP) so that is how the name was obtained.
I have read of such ransomware before but in this case the computer can still be used. Without opening all directories it is not possible to see just what has happened / what has been encrypted.
So my advice so far has been to burn everything to dvd. Once everything has been safely backed up then we can look at dealing with whatever the actual problem is. In the end it could be the restore from the original image or even a new OS install.
I shall post more when I know.