Representative ExpresionRepresentative ExpresionA personal weblog that discusses my views on life, engineering careers, humour and anything technical that I find Articles
National Television Control / National TV Control – Scam
2010-01-13 16:43:00 I just received a weird telephone call from someone claiming to be from the National Television Control centre. The caller ID had been blocked so I couldn?t verify the number from which the call originated, but from his accent, I would guess they could be based in India. He stated by saying ?Good day, I?m calling from the National Television Control Centre and we have had reports of bad reception in your area. Can you confirm if your reception is working??. When I challenged him he became defensive and would not reveal any other details and eventually hung up. (When I asked for details about the National Television Control Centre, i.e. who owned it, who run it, where it was based, he just became flustered and didn?t answer). I have heard of a similar scam to do with Sky customers, but the caller never mentioned Sky, merely if my reception was fine. Sky have put some information about a similar ?scam? on their own website (Sky Protect) In my case, it appears that the...
Random calls from overseas telephone numbers (03598815400011)
2009-12-17 23:24:00 It happened to me last night around 12.30am. It was my mobile number this time. The phone rings twice, and then the call drops. By the time I get to the phone, there is a missed call from 03598815400011 That is a number from Bulgaria and more than likely, a premium rate number. I had a quick check online to see if there are any other reports on this number and low and behold, there are plenty. It does however appear to be a new number in use. I was amazed to read some of the comments on one site and a few of the questions I have listed below: "How do they get my number?" "Why are they ringing me at that time of the morning? I'm not likely to answer". "Why do they only let it ring once, I will never be able to answer the phone that quick" Some people just don't seem to understand when they are about to be conned even when it jumps up and bites them on the nose. They didn't "get your number". An... More About: Random , Calls , Numbers , Telephone numbers , Telephone
Congratulations to China
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Just a quick post because I'm away from home right now, but I couldn't NOT say something about today's opening ceremony for the Olympics. So while I'm laying here waiting for my meds to kick in so I can slip into my drug induced 'haze' which I call sleep, I decided to give my congratulations to China on an amazing opening 2008 Olympic Ceremony. Just how the heck the UK is going to compete with something like that I don't know. We'll be "knackered" for starters if we try and base it on our 'past' history. We're probably responsible for 99.99% of all world cock-ups (colonisation, religious wars, slavery, corruption, etc etc)... It should be fun seeing how we match up to what the Chinese did today. It was fascinating to watch and even had all 3 of my kids glued to the TV for the whole even (which did surprise me). Apparently China has "human rights" issues, and China has "a bucket load of other issues" according to a bunch of so called "perfect people" in some "...
Lotus F1 back in 2010
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Lotus are to return to Formula 1 for the first time since 1994 after being granted the 13th slot on the grid from next season. They will line up as one of four new teams for 2010 - alongside Campos Grand Prix, Manor and US F1. Great news for us F1 fans, especially those who remember the good old days when Lotus were last involved. Admittedly, it?s been a fair few years since they could be classed as one of the successful teams, but I?m just glad to have the badge back amongst the starting grid. I was born in 67, so not quite old enough to remember their best years between the 60?s and 70?s. Not a lot of people realise that despite withdrawing from F1 back in 94, they are still the fourth most successful F1 team ever. In its new incarnation the team is a partnership between the Malaysian Government and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs and is being led by team principal Tony Fernandes, the founder and CEO of the Malaysian-based Tune Group which owns Air Asia airline. ... More About: Back , Lotus
BLISS - for babies born too soon, too small, too sick
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Just a quick post to highlight a worthwhile cause and to ask you to help in anyway you can. A friend of mine had reason to make use of BLISS some time ago, and I was recently reminded of the charity by a tweet by Tess Morris. Tess and her husband (Lee Morris) will both be running 10miles in the Great South Run, and sponsoring them both is a great way to help the charity. Even if you can't afford a few pennies at the moment, please donate 5mins of your time and forward this event on to your friends, family and work colleagues. From the JustGiving page set up by Tess Morris. Our little girl Eden Summer was born at 29 wks, 11 wks, early by emergency caesarean at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital, miles away from our local hospital which didn't have the facillities to look after a baby so small . Eden's incubator was donated to the hospital by Bliss and the intensive care unit was also referred to as Bliss. I eventually held Eden for the ... More About: Babies , Small
Hotmail Accounts Hacked: New Trojan doing the rounds.
2009-12-17 23:24:00 New variant of Trojan via Hotmail Instant Message Be warned and on the lookout for a new round of Hotmail accounts being hacked and suspicious links being sent to you from your contacts. You might receive a message from a known contact that will contain a link to what initially appears to be a to a profile picture. What it is actually doing is trying to get you to download a windows Trojan. Hotmail Message from Hacked Account The message you will receive could look something like the following: The text will say something similar to the above: "ahha is this you?? hxxp://images-id.com/profile.php?=yahoo:s hinerweb@yahoo.com" How does the attack work? If you receive the above message or similar, because it has come from a "trusted friend" in your Hotmail contact list, you are probably likely to believe the link to have come from them. Most people will just click on the link, but don't worry, you haven't been hacked just yet. In th...
Who the heck is Anthony Benner?
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Well the quick answer is nobody special, although I get the impression that he probably is the kind of guy who thinks he is. So what has he done to get up my nose? Well nothing major, so if you here for some gossip, move on, it?s just a rant from me. I think it was 2006 or 2007 that I joined Ecademy which is a great UK based Business Social Networking tool (and here you can see my Ecademy Profile).
Retaggr Contact Card
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Retaggr so far appears to be the best site for placing all your contact points in one simple place. I have multiple online personas, but Shinerweb/Chris A Wright are my main ?personal? ID?s that I generally use online. More About: Card , Contact
Saying Goodbye to George Bush
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Sure am going to miss the guy? (for all the wrong reasons). Still, I expect there is bound to be more fun ahead with 'Obi' More About: Bush , George Bush , George
Glad not to be mentioned in a Tweet
2009-12-17 23:24:00 The following gave me a chuckle, and given the large number of Twitter accounts I run/manage, I was glad to see that no names were mentioned. It?s probably the one and only time I?m glad not to be mentioned in a tweet/post. I must give credit to Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) for the idea of a "Top 10 People to Unfollow" list. Although I can easily think of several individuals I?d like to place on this list, I figured it would be too mean to actually call them out by name (and possibly result in a libel suit). So the list below contains ten archetypes that I?ve noticed on Twitter. From the post ?Top 10 List of People to Unfollow on Twitter? on the blog by Shannon Whitley. I?m hoping I?ve never fallen into any of those categories, though looking at my main ?personal? Twitter account, one or two (erm, try most) are getting pretty close to another Top 10 reason category of ?Too Drab to be of any interest?. Pop over to Shannon?s site and add any categories you can...
Long Time No Post – Update
2009-12-17 23:24:00 I am still here, just? Apart from being very ill the past few months (erm, let?s try apart from being ill since my last operation on January 8th which is more exact), I?ve been working on 10 new sites as well as a few new ventures with a couple of other people. I?ve also just come back from a 4 week residential pain management course at INPUT, St Thomas? Hospital, London. If you want to read all about that, you can follow my updates over at another blog of mine - ?My Own Personal Pain? Quite a lot has happened since my last post, and in fact it was when Pompey dropped out of the UEFA Cup last night that I remembered that the last time I posted was when the draw for the first round had been made (back in August 2008 - Pompey in the UEFA Cup). I didn?t get to watch it last night, but I did catch poor old David James howler on the news this morning. I think we can forgive him his error seeing as he probably earned us 75% of our points last season). Anyway, I am hopi... More About: Time , Post , Update , Long
Pompey in the UEFA Cup
2009-12-17 23:24:00 So Pompey have drawn Vitoria SC from Portugal in the UEFA Cup. I could do with an away trip to sunny Portugal, just not so sure I could get away with it right now. Oh well, I?m just glad that Pompey are in Europe for the first time in my life time that I can remember. I shall just have to find out which non-terrestrial station will be broadcasting it and bemoan the fact that I don?t have a subscription for it. The rest of the draw looks pretty good for British clubs too: Portsmouth v Vitoria SC (Portugal) Manchester City v AC Omonia (Cyprus) Nancy (France) v Motherwell Everton v Standard Liege (Belgium) Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) v Aston Villa Tottenham v Wisla Krakow (Poland) .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode... More About: Uefa , Uefa cup
Lancaster Bomber over Bramley
2009-12-17 23:24:00 I forgot to post these a few weeks back, but despite the delay and the fact the event is no longer relevant, I think a few of the images are still worthy of a post all on their own. Trust me, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck as this marvel of British Engineering flew over the house, and I mean right over the house. I can?t even remember which of the two nearby air shows it was, but it must have done 3 laps of the air field during a display and each time it?s turning point on it?s approach back was directly over my back yard. The first time it came over I watched and listened in awe to the unmistakable sound of those engines, and then ran indoors to grab the first camera I could find in case it came back (for which I was rewarded). The last image is a final shot of the plane as it headed away from the air show back North,...
Pipex trashed by Tiscali : Avoid Pipex at all costs, it’ll save you i
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Image via Wikipedia A few months back PIPEX changed my fixed IP address without warning. Ok, so I lost a few days in fault finding a few network issues when a few things stopped working because of the IP change. The fact that PIPEX changed my IP wasn't so much an issue, it was the fact that they never told me about beforehand. For operational reasons, I understand that sometimes an IP has to change, it just can't be helped. So I really wouldn't have minded. But to be not told beforehand is just bad business practice and causes a lot of unnecessary work. But PIPEX's ineptitude doesn't end there. More About: Save
Where was everybody ? Abroad or in front of the Xbox?
2009-12-17 23:24:00 Image via Wikipedia It must have been the third week of the summer school holidays in most places around the UK. My wife was still working and wasn?t due her vacation for a few more days, so I had to keep the kids entertained until we could all do something together. As is always the case this time of the year, the subject of "what to do and where to go" was all over the national and local news. But I am confused? Two adults, two children, 9-10 hours of watching top class motor racing at one of Europe's best racing courses (and I really do mean one of the top circuits in Europe!). Total cost? £24 (£20 if you had booked your tickets online). But the most confusing part, was that the place was virtually empty, and I mean really empty. There were more family members of the drivers than actual visitors. I would even go as far as saying there were probably more circuit marshals than their were spectators. Admittedly, the weather for... More About: Xbox , Front
Happy St. Georges Day
2008-04-24 00:00:00 It's a sad fact that more people in England celebrate St. Patrick's Day and even Bonfire Night than they do St Georges Day. I would also bet, most people don't even know who St. George was and when speaking to someone the other day, they didn't even know what a St. George Flag looked like. So head on over to the St. Georges Day website and take part in their campaign! So have a happy St. Georges Day... God knows what we do to celebrate it though... So I'm off for a cup of tea, some toasted crumpet and to watch a bit of Morris dancing. Then I guess it'll be Guinness and a curry tonight (or should it be a kebab). More About: Happy
Chris Miller: His story, his words...
2008-04-22 00:00:00 A few weeks back now, I made a rather large error in a post I made concerning a guy called Chris Miller and the problems he had with the airline Emirates . Having emailed Chris a few times, I asked his permission to re-post his account to which he kindly agreed. "Please think about this before you comment on any story published on a newspaper/tv media site: Firstly can I start by saying that yes I am the person at the centre of the story. We had a perfect right to ask the airline for compensation based on the whole experience which you can see below. You should realise that going to the media will of course have ended any outside chance we had to get any compensation from the airline so we only went to the media because the attitude of Emirates was so appalling that we wanted to publicise how truly bad they were as a warning to other families. More About: Story , Words
Clueless about Malware (And probably life too)
2008-04-16 00:00:00 Here is an excerpt from a post made to a group that helps/deals with Malware reports on web sites. I can no longer visit this site through google. "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!" This is just a lie and I think we all know why this site is being persecuted. Keep your personal opinions and the opinions of your investors out of it. The deeper I dig in to the StopBadware.org manifesto the more obtuse your definitions become. A couple clicks and suddenly "Site may harm your computer" turns in to "contains or links to badware or otherwise violates Google's software guidelines." I hope someone sues you silly. It just goes to show the general level of ignorance out there from people that: Don't understand the size of the problem with regard to the sheer number of infected web sites. Don't understand the dangers to there own machines when visiting such sites. Infected Web Sites In one case alone last ... More About: Life , Clueless
Am I in Bramley or Texas? | Hail Storm
2008-04-16 00:00:00 The sky darkened and suddenly I was reminded of our 3 years in Texas . I looked at my wife and said, "I think there's a storm a coming". One of our friends was visiting and as we all looked out of the window, the first few hail stones began to drop. Nothing ominous at first. In the last few weeks we've had a few hail/sleet showers, but looking at the sky you could tell this was going to be something a bit more substantial. Sure enough, there was a crack of thunder immediately following by an increase in the size of the hail. Now it was starting to remind us of Texas. (Although I will add here, the hail today never approached the golf ball sized hail we once had in Fort Worth). (Clicking on the images in this post opens up a larger version in the same window. Use your browser back button to return to the post) More About: Storm
The quick way to shut down a phising website!
2008-04-09 00:00:00 Ok, so I open up today's spam mail folder and there at the top of the queue is a phishing email 'from' the NatWest Bank. Clicking on the "log in" button takes you to a perfect replica of the NatWest site with a page for visitors to enter in their information to 'verify' their account. The dead give away was the URL contained a non-NatWest looking domain. What caught my eye this time, was the fact that I recognised the website that had been hacked. http://www.companyA.com/folder/folder/nat west.com rather than http://www.natwest.com .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { backg... More About: Website , Quick , Shut
Holly Dolly - Dolly Song (Ieva's Polka)
2008-04-06 00:00:00 I herd ;) it once, now you lot can suffer More About: Song , Holly , Dolly
Clueless about Malware (And probably life too)
2008-04-06 00:00:00 Here is an excerpt from a post made to a group that helps/deals with Malware reports on web sites. I can no longer visit this site through google. "Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!" This is just a lie and I think we all know why this site is being persecuted. Keep your personal opinions and the opinions of your investors out of it. The deeper I dig in to the StopBadware.org manifesto the more obtuse your definitions become. A couple clicks and suddenly "Site may harm your computer" turns in to "contains or links to badware or otherwise violates Google's software guidelines." I hope someone sues you silly. It just goes to show the general level of ignorance out there from people that: Don't understand the size of the problem with regard to the sheer number of infected web sites. Don't understand the dangers to there own machines when visiting such sites. Infected Web Sites In one case alone last... More About: Life , Clueless
Harry to be withdrawn from Afghanistan
2008-04-06 00:00:00 Prince Harry is to be pulled out of Afghanistan after news of his secret deployment leaked out. View Original Article What has made me laugh about the press coverage are those arguing that the UK Media should never have kept it quiet because "the people" have a right to know. A right to know what? This is not just Harry's life we are talking about here, what about those around him who would be put in danger. And what possible reasons could "the UK public" have for wanting to know where he is and what he is doing 24/7 365 days of the year. Give me a break. He's human, just like the rest of us. He leads a different life to pretty much everyone else, but why should he be denied his privacy. (Obviously because of who he is and what he does there will be some aspects of this life that will always be public, but where do you draw the line ?) Those same retards that are harking on about how it's some sort of cover up and a denial of freedom of ...
Sad Money Grabbing Git
2008-04-06 00:00:00 An airline has apologised for wrongly telling a father a member of his family had died during a long-distance trip. From: BBC News Initially I thought how terrible this must have been for the guy to go through. I mean, I'm a father of 3 kids and I was be devastated if I received a phone call like this. That was until I read further on into the story. Mr Miller said he had received a call from someone saying: "I have a couple of numbers for you, the first number is the undertakers dealing with the body". Mr Miller said: "At that point I believed one of my family was dead. I said, 'What happened, what's going on?' but they put the phone down on me. Which must have been a terrible shock. But then you read on: "Then after 10 seconds they rang again to say it was a mistake." 10 seconds ? Now don't get me wrong. Even one second is one second longer than I would ever want to deal with those thoughts.... More About: Money
Internet Sharks - Domain Registration or Daylight Robbery
2008-04-06 00:00:00 A couple of years back I took advantage of an introductory offer on a .co.uk TLD domain name. I can't remember the exact deal, but at the time it was something like £2 for a 2 year registration. At the time, that was cheaper than my current registrar which worked out at about £1.99 per year, so £2 for 2 years wasn't to be scoffed at (especially when you are registering 50 or so .co.uk's a month). The first of them is nearing renewal and so the 60 day renewal warning turned up in my inbox, and as I expected they increased their renewal price to £9.99 a year. I'd already started the transfer to my current registrar so it wasn't a problem. As I said, I was expecting the hike, and I only registered with them to take advantage of saving a packet. What I didn't expect was an email from Nominet. Nominet is the Internet Registry for ALL .uk TLD's. How Domain Registration Works The next part is to give you a basic understanding of how domain name re... More About: Daylight , Robbery
Second Anniversary Of the London Bombings
2008-04-06 00:00:00 PLANS TO MARK THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE LONDON BOMBINGS The second anniversary of the attacks will be marked by a public act of remembrance and opportunities for private reflection. Tessa Jowell, the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy will formally mark the second anniversary of the atrocity by laying flowers at Kings Cross station at the time of the bombings. 7th July Assistance Site There will be no national 2 minutes silence this year, but that shouldn't stop each one of us from reflecting on past events and ensuring that we do something to help prevent this from happening again. More About: Anniversary , Bombings
Time to get some new Bulbs again :(
2008-04-06 00:00:00 The boys were playing indoor football again... And it was bound to happen, he says looking at them mowing the back yard for me... Every bulb I use in this house came from one of the best online stores I've seen, not only for usability, but for the sheer numbers and types of GLS and CFL's they stock in their e-shop. I've just used my last spare bulb and on visiting the site, I see they stock a lot more items than when I last visited. I spent ages looking for a new bulb for the oven a few weeks back and in the end gave up. None of the stores round here stocked one, and the guy in B&Q even tried to convince me that they "don't make em' like that anymore, can I interest you in a new oven sir..." Having just logged into the ebulb shop, they jumped out at me, and low and behold, my lamp is the second one down on the list. Looks like I'll be ordering a couple of them as well. ebulb is just that... it's not just CFL's, I reckon if you get light from it, they'l... More About: Time , Bulbs
Get Friends on Facebook (The Facebook song)
2008-04-06 00:00:00 So how many friends do you have on Facebook ? IceRocket Tags: Facebook Song , Facebook Friends Song
Google and StopBadware.org : Hide not Label
2008-04-06 00:00:00 For those web masters or indeed visitors out there that are not aware, StopBadWare.org is a site that lists sites that contain malware. This article doesn't discuss how they malware got there, but more the way that Google lists them in its index. StopBadware.org is a "Neighborhood Watch" campaign aimed at fighting badware. We will seek to provide reliable, objective information about downloadable applications in order to help consumers to make better choices about what they download on to their computers. We aim to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and the bad actors who spread it, and to become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware.From: StopBadware.org When a site is listed in Google as having badware on it, a warning is displayed similar to the following: The contentious part of the above warning is the "This site may harm your computer".When you click on the link within the Google index to a bad... More About: Label , Hide
NIMBY's vs. 36 Grays Lane
More articles from this author:2008-04-06 00:00:00 A soldiers Story (fictional) You're on your last patrol before your unit returns home after a 9month stint in Iraq. You're on point covering for your squad as they return to the Warrior after inspecting a suspected arms dump on the outskirts of Basra. Spirits are high because tonight's scran in the mess tent will be the last meal before you get home to your mum's Sunday roast. In 8 hours, you'll be on the plane home in to the arms of the family you've been away from for so long. Your squad mates begin shouting, they are pointing towards 3 youths running out of a nearby building. You are almost at the Warrior when there is an almighty 'whoosh', followed by a loud explosion. When you open your eyes, you find yourself 20ft away from the Warrior. You can't focus on anything, you can't hear anything. The dust is settling and you begin to see your surroundings. You try to clear the dust from your eyes, but there is something wrong. You loo... More About: Lane 1, 2, 3 |
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