redtape's Blog

Just visit ;-)
Date: Jan 14th, 2006 1:28:33 pm - Subscribe
Mood: Arrogant


I can see this all going horribly wrong but sod it, I've created a new website for my inane ramblings and I invite you all to come along, generate some traffic* and leave some banter/comments/abuse on the forum (heck, sign up just to be random).
Bear in mind, it's a work in progress and generally sucks but it's mine ;-)

Almost forgot to post up the url before I posted! Silly me, it's: www.redtape.tk

* the only ads are a) for the company nice enough to be handing out free** domain names and b) a quick ad before you get redirected to the site. I'm not making a penny out of the thing

** Free as in there's a redirect and the guys giving out the domain names have a strip at the top. Nothing major.
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Stir Crazy
Date: Dec 26th, 2005 6:06:43 pm - Subscribe
Mood: fidgety


Gah! I hate being at my parents house for more than a week or so. I miss my independence and the piece and quiet I only get in my flat...or the lack of ;-)

Oooh, before I forget, I've added a digg.com news feed to the bottom of the front page. I'll get around to fixing it up on the top right of this blog when I can be bothered to learn CSS but for now either put up with scrolling down or...gasp...visit digg.com yourself (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with digg.com but I think it's a pretty interesting news portal).

Found a pretty interesting collection or articles and essays today, all written by Paul Graham. I have to warn you now that they're mostly centered around techie subjects (such as programming and nerds) but even if you'renot into that there's still some essays social dynamics and the like. Take a little browse through anyway since you might just find something that makes you think (or you may even learn something new):
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html

Rant time...
Why is it that so many young people are so...unpolitical? Having started University this year I was surprised at just how many other students can tell you that Tony Blair is the current UK Prime Minister, but some don't know which party he represents and most can't tell you who's currently in charge of the Tories or the Lib Dems. In fact they don't seem to have a clue what's going on in their own country politics wise. They should be getting pi**ed off at the current trend of civil rights infringements, surviellance and general big-brother style behaviour (both by the government and corporations alike). It's worrying to me that my generation are going to be in charge in such a short amount of time yet we can't get it together to stand up for ourselves. So I guess in short, take an interest, it may just save you a whole load of hassle in the future and might even change things for the better.
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Randomness
Date: Dec 25th, 2005 2:19:39 pm - Subscribe
Mood: Chilled out


Well, it's Christmas all over again and for once it's been very enjoyable (lucky me!). But I'm not here to talk about the "holiday" season, what I got *cough*usb*cough*cup*cough*warmer!*cough* because, well, anyone who read one of my previous entries will probably know that I don't go in for the whole online diary style of blogging (No-one would know who I'm talking about or even care so why bother? No offense to anyone who *does* do a diary blog, it's just the way I feel).

Oh dear, the NSA are in trouble again after the New York Times have managed to dig up some more dirt on the White House signing away citizens rights. Looks like it's been a bad year for the US goverment on the whole "war on terrorism" front (more and more US citizens are becoming concerned with the erosion of their civil liberties). But it's Dec 25th, hardly the time to be talking politics...right?

Sooo on a lighter note, those Futurama fans among you will be happy to know that Matt Groening *might* be considering a relaunch! Those of you who *don't* like it will probably be cringing right now but...well...get a sense of humour or don't watch it. It makes _me_ happy ;-P

On a totally random note here, the might of science has triumphed again and brought to us the reason that....*drum roll*....Spaghetti doesn't break in half. Who hands out these grants anyway?

And for those physicists among you here's something of interest. Don't try out these experiments. Seriously, you're probably not professionals or physics degree holders so you'll get yourselves hurt! Read the disclamer on the site and DON'T complain at me for linking to it. Quasi-Legal rant over...

I Hope everybody has a good new year and that today went well for you (if not then perhaps tomorrow will be a tad more relaxed).

Nnite
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Boing rant but I feel like posting *something*...
Date: Dec 20th, 2005 7:46:45 pm - Subscribe
Mood: irked


Ah Christmas time. Back from University for the 3 week duration along with copious amounts of coursework and revision to get through. No rest for the wicked eh? Nevermind...

" US 'winning war' on e-mail spam" is a aheadline over at the BBC that caught my eye. It would seem to me that the whole Spam issue is getting worse rather than better. Sure, smap filters are becoming really rather good at filtering spam (I only ever get a couple slipping through) and there's legislation to give the authorities an excuse to stop the most prolific offenders but well...lets take a quick look at a quote:

"Spam filters and a 2003 US law allowing people to opt out of future mailings were helping cut the problem, it said."

This says to me that whoever wrote the report in question doesn't understand Spam or Spammers in the slightest. Spam filters arn't making the problem go away, they're sticking a bandaid on the problem and wow, if anyone thinks telling the spammers that you no longer want to recieve email from them is going to help they seriously must be smoking something. Most (read majority) Spammers are not concerned with whether or not their activities are legal or not. Spammers want to make money. Period.

So just how *do* you beat the Spammers? Simple, quit buying stuff from them. No more revenue means no more incentive. What's the point of emailing 100,000 people everyday if you don't get anything out of it?
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Finally!
Date: Dec 11th, 2005 7:49:07 pm - Subscribe
Mood: psyched


Wow, it's been quite a while since I've had a chance to update my little blog here.

Ok, quick update: started a comp sci degree last October over here in the UK. As predicted my life's become just a *little* more interesting, oh and I've quit smoking (now on day 7 and not having too many problems).

But that's enough about what I'm up to. I have a distaste for blogs that stray too far into being a diary.

Ok, what's going on in the world?

For any of you using OpenOffice try opening up Calc and in any cell type in:
=Game("StarWars")
and then hit return. It'll open up a little space invaders style game.

(Note: that tip was picked up here via www.digg.com)

There's a story running on wired.com at the moment about employers keeping records of their employees internet activities. While this sounds like a big privacy violation (which to some extent it is) it's also been going on for a long time and is hardly surprising. In the past employers have managed to get into trouble due to employees using the company network to perform illegal activities. Without monitoring the employers cannot take any action to ensure that they themselves do not end up being liable for their employees actions. These days it's common sense not to do anything via your employers network (or any network that you do not own) that you don't want to become public.

Speaking of privacy, I find it very annoying that aeonity.com don't give their users an easy way to make sure that their email address is kept private. Sort it out!
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