Great Mullet on this 80’s Kid
Such a great mullet on this kid from the 80’s
Free Tickets to Watch UK Channel Programs
Ever wanted to get tickets to see a TV show being produced? Have a look at Standing Room Only Audiences (UK only) for free tickets - http://www.sroaudiences.com/
Current shows include Mock the Week, Countdown, Bremner Bird and Fortune, Balls of Steel and others
Steorn - Kinetica Demonstration
Apparently Steorn tried to demo its free energy technology but heat from lights caused problems. From the press release
Further to Steorn’s announcement yesterday (5th July) regarding the technical difficulties experienced during the installation of its “Orbo” technology at the Kinentica Museum in London, Steorn has decided to postpone the demonstration until further notice.
Sean McCarthy CEO stated that “technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening. These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area. Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date.”
He continued that “we apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.”
Over the next few weeks the company will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration.
UK Government comment on Unlimted Broadband
The UK government reply on to petition regarding the unfair use of using “Unlimited Broadband” in advertising when infact an ISP does impose a limit….. Basically the UK government say “read the small print you dumb asses and no we won’t do shit to help you”
http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page12235.asp
2 July 2007
We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Insist that OFCOM and the ASA stop Broadband Providers advertising ‘unlimited’ services that are in fact limited in the small print or by un-defined fair use policies.”
Details of Petition:
“Many ISP’s (Internet Service providers) are advertising Broadband with ‘Unlimited’ downloads. The majority of these services are not unlimited as in the providers fair usage policies they either cap the use at a defioned amount, or use an undefined criteria that only they know.”
Read the Government’s response
In general, companies are free to use whatever contractual terms and conditions they consider reasonable. If prospective customers are unhappy with these they can attempt to re-negotiate the terms in question or go elsewhere. There are, however, some legal safeguards for consumers in relation to unfair contract terms.
The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 provide protection for consumers when entering into contracts. Companies who deal with consumers and use standard form contracts must ensure they do not use unfair terms.
These regulations require that any written term of a contract is expressed in plain intelligible language. Consumers should be able to read and understand all the terms of the contract before they are bound by them. Consequently, contract terms which are hard to understand because of obscure wording or unreadable small print are more likely to be found unfair.
Advertising in the UK is controlled primarily by self-regulation and co-regulation under which the Advertising Standards Authority has responsibility for ensuring compliance with the British Code of Advertising Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (non-broadcast advertising), the TV Advertising Standards Code, and the Radio Advertising Standards Code. It requires all forms of advertising to be legal, decent, honest and truthful and prepared with a sense of responsibility to both consumers and society.
The Government is aware of complaints by consumers to the Advertising Standards Authority that some Internet or telephone packages are being promoted as being ‘unlimited’ or ‘unrestricted’ in some way. Qualifying an ‘unlimited’ claim with a fair usage policy in the small print of an ad is allowed as long as it really is fair and not misleading. For example, if 80% of domestic customers fall well within the limit specified by a broadband provider and the remaining 20% fall outside of it, perhaps because they are using a domestic package for business use, then it may be considered a reasonable claim. The Advertising Standards Authority considers each complaint on a case-by-case basis.
Lemmings in Your Browser
Can’t get much better than a bit of retro gaming in your browser with DHTML Lemmings with all the classic levels from the original game
Fat? Blame Your Parents
Scientists have apparently discovered the fat gene. A gene variant has been found in around 16% of the population and it is thought to be responsible for increasing rates of obesity.
If you happen carry two of the fat gene variants, you are 70% more likely to be obese - and are likely to be 3kgs heavier on average.
The robots are running riot! Quick, bring out the red tape
When the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov envisioned a future shared by human beings and robots, he predicted that the mechanical servants of tomorrow would be safely controlled by only three simple laws.
But when Japan’s notoriously zealous bureaucracy looks into the future, it sees robots enmeshed in miles of red tape.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1620558.ece
Asimov’s three laws:
— A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
— A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
— A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
Desktop Tower Defense
Any Dune 2 fans out there looking to build a base full of rows of gun turrets + rocket launchers will absolutely love this free flash game. New in version 1.2
A new Bash Tower - New Spawn creeps - New Fun Modes - New Challenge Modes and a new creep layout.
Balancing one wheel scooter
One wheel skateboard / scooter that auto balances
http://www.hackaday.com/2007/03/08/balancing-one-wheel-scooter/
Remote Control Head Holder
Never lose your remote control again with this Multimedia Remote Control Wrangler
Rock Solid OpenBSD
These are photos from my OpenBSD 40-current workstation/server….Its really ROCK SOLID!!!!PS:This concrete got in the Simulation Lab of NTUA through a hole in the wall (hole for network). There was over 30cm of solid concrete all over the lab…
Pictures of The Northern Lights
Few pictures of the Northern Lights in Oslo
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/bildeserier/article1575745.ece?start=1
Sneaux - The Human Skateboard
Another funny movie via Dave, this time Sneaux - The Human Skateboard directed by PES from eatpes.com
Graffiti Tagging with a Laser Pen on a 15 Storey Office Block
Wow!!! Just got sent this crazy wtf video on huge graffiti laser tagging from Dave (u got a blog?).
A production of the GRL, Agent Watson, Bennett4Senate, and Huib Van Der Werf. This Weapon of Mass Defacement brought to you by the rouge nation of the Netherlands and the Atelier Rijksbouwmeester.
Those video junkies up to no good as usual, projecting a laser from a sneeky van causing mass scandal. Must of been pretty fun to see live walking by and going wft? I am not surprised the police came however but at least no one had to clean up any paint. And damn I want one of those laser pens.
Steorn - Orbo free energy technology
Steorn the Irish free energy company have redesigned its website and have released some more information on its free clean energy product.
Orbo is the brand name of our free energy technology. Orbo is a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy. It can be applied to power products ranging from portable music players to cars.
Technical specifications for Orbo are promised for release at the end of the 1st quarter 2007, and the results from the all so important scientific validation are due at the end of 2007. Note the validation only started in Jan 2007.
Steorns claim:
Orbo produces free, clean and constant energy - that is our claim. By free we mean that the energy produced is done so without recourse to external source. By clean we that during operation the technology produces no emissions. By constant we mean that with the exception of mechanical failure the technology will continue to operate indefinitely.
Previous blog posts about steorn
The Guardian send a reporter to Steorn and sees a 285% efficient demo of free clean energy August 26th, 2006
Steorn - Free clean energy? August 22nd, 2006
Top 10 Bored Cities on The Internet
Is it true as one of my good friends says “Only Boring People Get Bored“? Well thanks to Google trends we can see the most bored cities on the Internet. Don’t know if that will answer the question but its still a good chuckle to see the results.
Sydney, Australia is the clear winner loser in terms of most bored searches worldwide but by far the United Kingdom is the greatest loser taking the next 9 out of the 10 places in the top 10.
Within the UK, Sale just outside Manchester has the greatest amount of bored searches but as a guess an ISP is probably based there so Manchester should be higher on the list. UK people why are you so bored?
Below is a graph of the term “bored” from google trends from 2004 to 2007.
Its nice to see however that internet boredem is on the way down back to 2004 level’s but seriously how bored can one get on the internet?
Note Google Trends does say this about the results:
Google Trends aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. As a Google Labs product, it is still in the early stages of development. Also, it is based upon just a portion of our searches, and several approximations are used when computing your results. Please keep this in mind when using it.
Original Dilbert On Sale
From Scott Adams Blog
ORIGINAL COMIC ART
For the past few years, I have drawn Dilbert directly to the computer, so there will be no new originals. For the first 10 years or so, I used a water-based ink for my originals, and those would fade in direct light, so they can’t be sold unless I solve that problem. The only Dilbert originals suitable for sale are the ones created during a certain window when I used a permanent ink. I have framed a few of them, signed the mat with a drawing of Dogbert, and included in the frame a smaller finished version of the comic as it ran in newspapers. The originals are in pencil, with only the outside panels and the drawings inked-over. The text was later completed on the computer so it shows up as pencil on the original. The price is $1,500.
The target market includes serious comic art collectors, people with too much money, and art investors who think I don’t seem healthy.
DILBERT SLIDE SHOW
This product is a slide show of business-themed Dilbert comics, in color. It’s designed for public viewing, at business events, conventions, meetings, and similar gatherings. The recommended use is as a background show during mixers, or when audiences enter or exit a ballroom, or between events, for example.
The slide show lasts about an hour. It ships on a CD, for Windows. All you need to play it is the free Powerpoint™ viewer. It is priced at $800 for a license to use it at a particular event. The target audience is professional event planners
Lesson Learnt - Use Hotmail?
I am probably pretching to the convereted but don’t use hotmail, or should I say if you have a hotmail account make sure you use it at least once a month.
I have just quite cruelly experienced that the nice guy wannabies Mircosoft will happily delete all your emails after 30 if you haven’t logged into your account. Whats with that? 30 days, bastards. OK I haven’t really used Hotmail since getting a Gmail account but I still would log in every few weeks to check I haven’t got any emails from people who never update their email addresses. I probably just missed the login timeout by a day or two but then again I should remember not to rely someone else providing my email services.
Note to all you web savvy gmail users, you have lush 9 months grace on your account
Account Inactivity
Google will terminate your account in accordance with Section 9 of the Terms of Use if you fail to login to your account for a period of nine months.