A short walk on Christmas Day

VinceH
Fuck Christmas

As anyone who knows me is aware, I’m not a particularly big fan of Christmas – which really means I can’t stand it – for a number of reasons, which chiefly involve me hating it as a religious festival because I’m an atheist, and hating the commercial aspects (specifically the buying and giving of gifts) because… well, let’s just say I think Charles Dickens probably had access to a time machine, and actually based the character Ebenezer Scrooge on me. This year, I decided the best way to avoid Christmas Day itself was to pop over to The Brecon Beacons for a nice little walk.

Read More

Tips – well, one tip, anyway – for driving in snow.

VinceH

The view from my window this morning was of a small white covering on everything: snow. This isn’t deep snow I’m talking about – there was only about an inch of it, judging by the flat, undisturbed surfaces in my garden – but upon seeing it my first thought was “Oh no.” People who drive in and around Bristol can’t cope with small amounts of snow. If only three snowflakes fall, and even those three are nothing more than a rumour, then traffic becomes slow: this seems to have happened…

Read More

No way, Mr Spammer

VinceH

I wondered how long it would take – and the answer is one and a half to two months. One and a half to two months, that is, before spammers found a new potential outlet for their rubbish: the comments section on this blog. (Not that there are very many people reading it!) No spammer has actually tried using the comments to spread their garbage as yet, but today I received a user registration from a very spammy looking address. Well, I have news for you Mr Potential-Spammer – any…

Read More

TeleBilling Call Back Scam

VinceH

I received the following invoice a few days ago from TeleBilling Ltd, showing a total amount payable of £39.50. I didn’t recognise the name TeleBilling Ltd. I didn’t recognise the number supposedly called. I didn’t recognise the service that I was apparently being charged for. And I also didn’t recognise the number given as “my” telephone number:

Read More

Barclaycard expects customers to ignore sensible practices

VinceH

I forgot to pay my Barclaycard bill this month. The amount I forgot to pay was massive. Absolutely huge. Yes, the balance from my statement last month was a staggering £21.28. Okay, that small amount of sarcasm aside (almost as small as the amount in question), at the end of the day the payment was due and I forgot to make it. It was my mistake, so let’s just get on to the point of this:

Read More

The curious coincidence of ‘Carriers’ and ‘The Crazies’

VinceH

Okay, it’s not that interesting – in fact pretty boring – but when it happened, the absolutely amazing alliteration advanced itself into my mind and I just wanted to use it. Basically, the  complete non-story is that when I gave my nephew a lift somewhere yesterday, he commented that he’d been to the cinema the night before and seen a trailer for a film that was about some kind of virus, but it made him think of zombies due to the what happens to the infected, the way they behaved.…

Read More

I appear to have shamed my local paper into censoring me

VinceH

It was only a really, really trivial thing – but that’s what it looks like: My local paper have removed a comment I made on their website, and I can only imagine that it was removed because I shamed them. The news report I commented on is this story about the son of a recent lottery winner. When I read it I noticed the comment that the chap in question wasn’t happy that his “personal life had come out” – the fifth paragraph in the article, which reveals where he…

Read More

Some thoughts on munged email addresses

VinceH

Note: This post is actually an article I’ve had on a couple of websites for a number of years, originally written shortly after softrock.co.uk became the victim of a very deliberate use of email addresses at that domain in the headers of UCE (aka a “Joe Job”). Now that this blog is up and running, it’s the ideal place for such material – so one quick re-read, check and update later, here it is. Introduction Right at the start I should state that I am very strongly opposed to the…

Read More

Spoiler space on usenet and mailing lists

VinceH

Firstly, what actually is a spoiler? It’s where a plot detail in a film, book, TV show or whatever, is revealed to people before they are able to see the film/show, read the book, etc for themselves. Sometimes a spoiler can be fairly mild, revealing nothing more than the name of a new character, but they can also be very severe, revealing a significant plot point, and spoiling the viewer’s enjoyment if they know what’s coming (hence “spoiler”). So, then, what’s spoiler space? Well, a long standing convention on Usenet…

Read More