Computerosity

As is regularly the case, the daily mail readership and facebook contigent are up in arms about something.  “Old lady puts cat in bin! ” They shout “Horric evil old crone in animal cruelty shock”, “Tubby witch dumps moggy” etc…

Now, cats are a pain in the ass, but I’ve never considered actually placing one in danger or hurting it (except if they get hit from  a potato which I’ll hurl at them if they shit on my lawn).  This women obviously had other ideas.  It’s quite intriguing watching the video because you can see this thought process; an idea turning into a plan, into action…

but anyway…

She’s under police protection now apparently, nothing like a good witch-hunt to get the blood going.  This is the thing which really grinds my gears

Yes, I do think the act was contemptible, and she deserves prosecution for animal cruelty; but if it had been someone under 25 then this would probably never have made the news (the cat owner said she expected it to be some yobs), what makes this women more of a target for the ‘torch and pitchfork’ brigade?

Also, why are people only enraged to the point of viligantism when they see a video like this, which doesn’t contain direct cruelty, but are happy to skim over newspaper reports of a lad mutilating a cat (or even videos, which have been published on youtube in the past) with a less venomous reaction than this, certainly not the desire to publicly denounce with such vitriol?

Just my thoughts… the modern media love to stoke-up reactions as it ‘makes’ the story.  I think sometimes the reaction should be checked as to whether it’s warranted or not.

Oh Zynga, when will you ever stop being contemptible?

Well, they’re closing down one of their online games and offering their street-racing fans subscribers the opportunity to experience fresh air and fun as an alternative.

Now, this may seem pretty innocuous, so they’re closing down an online game, who cares? Bear in mind though people have actually bought content in this game and now they’re pretty much being told to ‘fuck off’.    There’s no indication of your credits or ‘value’ being transferable to another game.  There’s not even any recognition of people’s purchases in the message.  It’s quite simply ‘Get lost, you’re not making us any money any more’…

Now you could argue that Street-racer was a small time game, with a minimal user base, but at some point what’s to stop them deciding that farmville and cafe world are now old news and the subscriber base should try their new ‘pizzeria pro’ game instead?  It’s obvious they have no qualms about destroying the community when they feel like it.

Personally I would recommend never giving any of your money to this company.  They’ve proved countless times that they’re in it for the quick buck far over the entertainment experience.

See the original thread here

If you’re looking for a film which delivers real suspense with a very simple premise you can’t go far wrong with Paranormal activity.  Released in 2007 this film was shot on a budget of $15,000 but delivers some of the finest scares for any horror film.

I would normally recommend a film like this for those dark winter nights but as the sequel, cunningly named Paranormal Activity 2, is due for release in October this year you might as well enjoy it now if you haven’t already.

As for the sequel?  I’m not convinced how this could improve or move the story on from the initial release but time will tell!

We’ve been having some annoying unsolicited calls recently. They’ve mainly come from a seedy little company called RH International who make calls under the brands of vofferu and prize4u. Their calls come from India based call centres where they seem to have selected the most snarky, maladjusted and rude agents to make the calls.

After complaining several times (and actually being told to “fuck off” by one of the agents to my amusement!) we complained to ICO but we still get calls on the odd occasion. On the last one (I didn’t record it, annoyingly) I decided to try to make the caller sing Kumbaya with me. She didn’t, although I had a good five minutes of god-bothery entertainment at their expense.

Anyway – A Telco called Andrews and Arnold got decidedly annoyed with receiving marketing calls so they have set up a block of 800 numbers which are TPS registered and route to a pre-recorded message. All calls to these numbers are recorded. The intention is to waste these marketers time and make their business less profitable. He has plans to implement this no 4 million VOIP numbers, in a bid to ensure the call centre is tied up as much as possible

Listen to the calls, here (and on previous blog posts):
http://revk.www.me.uk/2010/07/what-moron.html

He has a recent blog entry with his commentary on the legality of junk calls
http://revk.www.me.uk/2010/07/junk-calls-and-legality.html

In the meantime – I’m going to try to work out a way to record calls so I can have some fun with them!