Strangely Perfect

Tomorrow, This Site Is Dead. Why? All my sites go off-line tomorrow in what-is-to-be-hoped a world-wide protest against the proposed SOPA & PIPA acts in the USA. SOPA? Briefly. Under intense lobbying from the entertainment industry behemoths, the law, far from protecting copyright holders like myself, will actually make it a simple process for any [...]

What is the Best Backup for Windows in a Small Home or Office? Which Windows Backup?  A History. Over the years I’ve tried many systems for backing up crucial Windows data.  Currently for small-scale backups I use the ubiquitous and almost bullet-proof flash drives, my current one tipping the scales at 8Gb.  But for major [...]

Actor Edward Woodward Dies I’m quite sad about today’s news, because the show Callan formed a key part of my life, in a way, when I was growing up. The dystopian genre owes a lot to the show.  Right from it’s haunting opening title sequence that had instant echoes of Orson Welles’ Third Man, to [...]

Twitter Today’s news that actor Stephen Fry, famous for his uptake of all new gadgets and one-man publicist for Twitter, is “thinking about giving up on Twitter” got me thinking.  (see Fry ponders leaving Twitter site ) Apparently he thinks there’s too much aggression and unkindness around….. well, dah? Not that I’m disagreeing with the [...]

PreScript Advice If you think you’ve had your bank ‘cleaned out’ by any of a multitude of ‘life cleanse’ or ‘colon cleanse’ type internet scams, there is only one real remedy… Ask for a charge-back against the company through you credit card company. Your reason, when asked, is that the company has either: Not adhered [...]

Introduction I had an interesting referral from an external website early today.  It was, http://kexhoxonxk.iblogger.org/ iblogger.com has a decent WHOIS entry and is USA based.  However, the sub-domain bit is a bit iffy. MyBookFace.net If you follow the link, it’s immediately redirected to http://mybookface.net/ The tagline for this website is: MyBookFace is a friendly social [...]

Earlier this year when Ron Asheton died, I remarked (see Nazi Ron Dies) that it was funny how life takes us on different paths.  James Williamson is now an IT executive for Sony and Iggy Pop is doing car adverts… Well, it turns out that there’s been a problem with that.  The Advertising Standards Agency [...]

There’s a lot of hatred in the UK that we all have to pay a ‘licence’ fee to watch TV. Some people say that it gives quality and independence to the Corporation. Others have commented on the corridors full of empty champagne bottles… Recent scandals like the Jonathan Ross affair have seen the BBC ‘fined’ [...]

Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources Two Films in a Great Story you Must See Before you Die. Today, Claude Berri died.  A common Frenchman who directed a duo of extraordinary films about common people, their loves, jealousies, humour, insecurities and real needs in a harsh land. The beautifully told plot unfolds to it’s [...]

Ron Asheton Dies at Home Tempis fugit and all that.  Ironically, the day after I saw Iggy Pop doing an advert on telly for car insurance, Ron dies at home with no suspicious circumstances.  Amazing. The first time I heard “Down on the Street” knocked me over.  I was just stunned. I heard “Search and [...]

Hanny’s Voorwerp is a new type of astronomical object that’s been found by a Dutch woman as part of the Galaxy Zoo project.  The BBC were the first English speaking news outlet to pick up on this, here: Teacher finds new cosmic object Hanny Van Arkel,started this caper after she read a book by Queen [...]

In my capacity at work, if I steal something from a member of the public while they are on site, I’d get interviewed by the police and prosecuted under the law of the land. Bizarrely, in TV land they don’t work to our laws.  If they steal from the public, the company gets fined by [...]

In the news again (see Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer), is Delia Derbyshire, creator of the Doctor Who theme.  One particular characteristic of the sixties, apart from the fashions etc, is the “sound” behind all the films and of popular music at the time.  However, getting past the cheesy flower power and merseybeat [...]

German police get a disc with heaps of dodgy dealings data on it. Zumwinkel, boss of Deutsche Post (and DHL), is first to be caught for non-payment of 1m Euros in tax and for syphoning the money off to a foreign bank.
His pay without bonuses, shares, pension supplements etc is well over this figure.
Why do they do it, people like this? It’s like stealing sweets from a sweet shop – when he could buy the sweet shop any time he likes!