Just doing a little light reading over brekkie and – yet again – there’s a story in the “geek press” about the record companies and publishers in the US doing all they can to protect their out-dated business model.

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Record companies demonstrate idiocy – again
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Just doing a little light reading over brekkie and – yet again – there’s a story in the “geek press” about the record companies and publishers in the US doing all they can to protect their out-dated business model.
Apparently my Windows PC is broken… again…
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Loyal readers (hello Mum) will remember this story where I received a call from “David James” to inform me that there was a problem with my Windows PC.
(I recommend you read the earlier post for the full back story!).
Back then it was fun to ‘mess’ with the head of the poor guy sat in a call centre in Delhi but this time I couldn’t be quite as bothered.
Continue reading...
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Right, it’s unlikely they’ll see this…
I’m looking for a new hosting company. After almost 10 years with the current ones, the customer service has hit rock bottom since they were bought out by a larger company. Support requests take 4/5 days to be replied to, auto-renewal of domains doesn’t happen and last week I got someone else’s cancellation notice emailed to me.
Doesn’t fill one with much trust really…
So: I need a reliable hosting company for 10 or so domains, across 6-8 accounts, access to MySQL, mod_rewrite (some hosts don’t allow it) and an easy/quick control panel for me to add domains/accounts without the need for anything involving a terminal.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
England goalkeeper offers me technical support
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Ring, ring.
“Hello, Ross Brown.”
Pause. Static. Click.
<thick foreign accent> “Hello, is that Mr Brown?”
“Who’s calling please?”
“My name is David James, I’m calling because we’ve received a number of error reports from the computer in your house – and I want to help you to fix them.”
Continue reading...
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
So, if you’re an Internet savvy whizzkid – like my good self – you probably make use of Google Docs, especially when working collaboratively on a project.
For those not in the know: Google Docs is essentially a web-based version of Microsoft Office, with all your documents – word processor documents, spreadsheets etc. – living in the internet cloud (aka “the ether”). Is it perfect? No, far from it but it passes the basic “good enough” test.
Now, set up correctly, Google Docs is even cleverer – as it allows you to work on documents offline; perfect if you have a flakey Internet connection.
Well… it allowed anyway.
On May 3rd, Google removed the ability to work on documents offline, promising to replace the ability with a “new improved” version some time soon.
Well that’s useful isn’t it. Soon. How long’s that then precisely?
And would, you know, leaving the existing functionality in place whilst we wait for “soon” to come round have been such a terrible idea?
The mind, it boggles.
Microsoft Songsmith: Dear God, tell me this is a joke…
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Following the dog’s breakfast that was Windows Vista, Microsoft has got to do something pretty special with the upcoming Windows 7. But it looks like they just don’t ‘get it’.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Interesting email just arrived in my box, all in Portuguese. God bless Babel Fish.
The long and the short of it, some Brazilian fella wants to ensure I let Barrichello stay in the Honda team. Yes, that’s Rubens Barrichello and the Honda Formula One team. Continue reading...
Google Chrome and why I hate IE6
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
So, today’s big news was that – after years of rumours – Google has launched it’s own web browser, Google Chrome (Windows only at the moment – grrr!).
Grrr! Stop telling me what I can download…
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
So, I’m currently trying to download a file using bittorrent. Before anybody gets up in arms – please remember that bittorrent doesn’t mean illegal, just as not all MP3s are “dodgy”.
Sack a footballer? Are you mad!
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
So, yesterday, this guy was released from prison after serving half of a six month sentence for actual bodily harm against one of his work colleagues. And his boss says he has a future with the company.