Apr 6 We have the winners of the Worst Own Goal Of The Year Award.
Celine Dion's new album was eagerly awaited by her legion of fans around Europe, and they swarmed to record stores to buy it. The only problem is that the disk doesn't actually work. Insert it into a computer, or a modern computer-assisted jogproof player, and instead of the warblings of a former Eurovision winner, one gets nothing more than the sound of silence. Stop saying "that's an improvement" at the back, these people have paid lots of money.
It turns out that Sea Lion's record company has put out the album in a format that does not work on computers. "We've had complaints from less than 1 in 1000 purchasers," said the Hoplelessly Optimistic Spin Department. "This will stop people from putting the album onto file sharing thingies and not buying the album and sending us lots of money. Money is good," said Anne Yah of the marketing division.
Meanwhile, the entire album is available at all good P2P systems. In summary, an attempt to prevent the sharing of illicit MP3s by PC users has not only failed to prevent it, but has given people who use their computer as their sole music player no option *but* to go and get the illicit MP3s instead of buying the CD.
1-0 to the Wolves.
Apr 5 Wrap up at Exeter, then catch the train home. As I didn't know when I was travelling back, I couldn't make a reservation, so head for the one unreserved coach. It's jammed, but spot a window seat opposite a kid and mother. The aisle seat next to it is full of their bags, and the luggage rack overhead is empty. Typical. The kid is unremarkable, but the mother seems to be paranoid that her kid will do something embarrassing. Always telling him to pull his paper back, and wiping down the table before and after eating, and being rather overbearing all the time. Just before we reach Brum, the kid has to be woken, and starts screaming the place down - probably coz he wants to sleep more. I'd really like to say in their general direction to "stay off the trains until you've matured a bit. And the same goes for your son."
Apr 4 To our Exeter office, and make sure that everything there is ship-shape and Bristol fashion. Well, Exeter fashion. Train down is quiet, but then it is leaving at 8:30 in the morning. Very chatty taxi driver to the office, telling about how grandson wonders why granny mutters at drivers under her breath. No real problems at the office, just a case of installing a print server and being done with it.
Hotel overnight is adequate, but little more. The restaurant is good, but very caught up in the "proper" way of doing things. My mind kept wandering back to Spike's last message to Gareth, The Annoying One, in Buffy 2:03 - "What we need round here is less ritual and more *fun*." Same for this eaterie.
Apr 3 Some spoof new programmes, courtesy of uk.media.tv.misc.
"A Drop In The Ocean": Andrew Drop is a fisherman who falls overboard one day and spends the next six episodes bobbing in the water befreinding the local sharks and mermaids while narrowly avoiding being rescued each week. With hilarious results. [thanatos] The new Michael Palin series in which he tours the red-light districts of the world, called.... oh, forget it. [david freeman] Pole To Pole: "A New Series on the BBC where Michael Palin Tours the Pole Dancing Establishments of 6 Continents" "...where Michael Palin meets Lech Walesa, The Pope, Marie Curie etc..." "...and now on BBC2, a new science series where Michael Palin examine the worlds largest magnets" "...and now on ITV, the Formula 1 Motor Racing Championship, with Michael Palin examining the first place on the all starting grids around the world" [david lewis]
Apr 2 Right, all the stuff about the Queen Mother has gone to a new page.
Up pops a dose of spam, individually addressed to some of our offices. (What a waste of time.) It purports to be from a company called Noble Locks, advertises a website at golocks.com, and offers a phone number and email address. As they have no compunction about stealing our resources, I have no compunction about giving them publicity they don't want.
Ms. Amanda Meler at Noble Ltd.
Tel: 0207 734 6394
Fax: 0207 734 6396
Mobile Phone: 07904 219 724
E-mail: noble_locks@btopenworld.com
A quick blast with samspade shows that noblelocks.com (161.58.167.199) isn't registered with anyone worth knowing about. It's a fake domain. The IP address block is registered to known spammers Verio, and the address itself routes back to cybermedia.co.il - Israeli spammers of very ill repute.
As for golocks.com (64.77.8.226) - that *is* registered, to:
NOBLE ENTERPRISES LTD
MEIR AVGANIM
P.O. BOX 446
SDEROT, 80100
IL
Phone: 011-972-76899-844
Fax..: 011-972-76899-843
Email: NOBLE@NETVISION.NET.IL
Very cleverly disguised to look like a US address, but it's another bunch of Israelis. I can't prove that they're the same outfit... yet?
The IP address is owned by NETlimited, trading as netservers.net. Hmm... netservers.net owns the IP address, netvision.net.il is the email for the owner. Any chance of a link?
Netvision is registered to a building outside Haifa, I can't tell if they're owned by NETlimited. Check the web site? All in Hebrew, so probably a dead end. A Google for both sites together shows them on lists of security risks, while the single joint sighting on Usenet is a spam itself.
BT Openworld? UK ISP, probably being used as a dropbox. Hackles are aroused when they start quoting a reply address that's different from the address they used to send.
Of course, the very name should ring warnings. Noble locks? Ball locks!
Apr 1 Ah, very clever. A cancer research charity unveils its new commercial. The usual mawkish stuff, doesn't make any impression here. Except the soundtrack is the late, great Eva Cassidy performing "Fields of Gold." There's a subtle link here, Eva's career cut short by a cancer.
Revising yesterday's schedules: turns out that ITV replaced TARRANT ON TV (22:00 - 22:30) with an extended news bulletin. Also spotted that there's a nasty smudge at the bottom corner of my set. Now, I know the set is some years old and probably needs replacing, but the picture quality during the grand prix seemed to be worse. Turns out that there's an Intrusive Logo that comes in and goes out in the corner. Don't get this rubbish on the radio. Another viewer defects to radio, especially as it's not as good since Murray left.
Figured out where I've seen the split-screen effect before. Lots of takes on the same event, or on different events taking place at the same time. This is not exclusive to "17", the show that claims to unfold in real time yet only has 42 and a half minutes per hour. No, we saw it on THE MOLE over a year ago.
So, Israel funds Hamas to undermine Yasser Arafat and the PLO in Beiruit. Fast forward 20 years, and said Hamas is staging attacks on Israel. The final line of Perfect Day
appears ... right ... now.
"I shall miss that lovely smile of hers." - QM's Dentist.