Anti-Spam Screensaver

via Gordon, the BBC is reporting on an anti-spam screensaver made by Lycos, of all people. By upping the bandwidth costs for spammer’s websites, it’s possible that it will make spamming into an expensive proposition. And of course the main thing with spam was that it was cost-effective advertising…

You know, Watson, it might just work.

Train Chaos

Hardly a shocker really (it seems to happen every year) but as always, the UK Rail Christmas timetable still hasn’t been finalised. The various Train Operating Companies (TOCs) can’t organise a piss-up in a brewery for their own “services”, let alone organise anything between them.

Of course, there’s an air of profiteering about it, too. As the story says,

Although open tickets are available beyond Christmas Eve, more affordable rail deals require passengers to specify which train they intend to take – impossible without an agreed timetable.

Anthony Smith, national director of the Rail Passengers’ Council, said: “It’s very, very disappointing. When you’ve got a rail industry which is based on airline-style advance purchases for long-distance travel, this kind of delay undermines the whole system.”

Obviously the last bit is purest bollocks, the rail industry isn’t based on advance bookings, it’s based on fleecing the punters for as much as possible – which is why I’m never surprised that they haven’t agreed the timetables. This means that rather than the ultra-cheap advance tickets, passengers have to get a higher-priced ticket instead. For example (from the story) on First Great Western, an Apex return ticket between London and Bristol ought to cost £20. But without a firm reservation, travellers can only buy a £43.20 Saver.

Since privatisation, the TOCs primary concern has always been the bottom line, the profit margins, and as such getting every punter to spend extra cash is going to have a beneficial effect on that bottom line, and that’s what matters to these money-grabbing cockmunching weasel bastards.

Stunned

So now supposedly Tasers should be classed as lethal weapons according to a study? Now of course yes, in some cases 50,000 volts is going to be lethal – and according to the report in the story, Tasers have killed 70 people in the US. However, what the report (well, as quoted, anyway) doesn’t say is what the sample size was.

If it’s been used 1,000 times and 70 people have died, that’s a 7% mortality rate, and as such it’s quite dangerous. If it’s been used 1,000,000 times and 70 people have died then it’s more of a “shit happens” 0.00007% mortality rate. Just saying “70 people have died” is lazy statistics, and not particularly useful.
As Amnesty International’s UK director is quoted as saying,

“Tasers have been used in the US against pregnant women, unruly schoolchildren and mentally ill people.

In some cases, simply walking away from a police officer has led to people getting a 50,000 volt electric shock.

Is this a glimpse into the future of UK policing?”

Again, yes, maybe it’s in the future of UK policing. But it isn’t a certainty. The sample comes from the US, where the Taser’s been in use far longer than in the UK, and it’s obvious that in the cases listed in the quote, it’s been mis-used.

So yes, regulatory controls are needed on Tasers, as they are with batons, CS spray, and the rest. CS Spray can be seen as lethal too, IF the person sprayed has an allergy to capsicum, for instance. Tasers can be life-threatening if used on someone with a heart-condition or pacemaker, but they’re still a better non-lethal alternative to being shot.

To me, a lot of this article is hype, and should be seen as such.

Non-entity

I must admit, I haven’t worked at all hard at not mentioning “I’m a non-entity, call my agent!” so far during its fourth series. I haven’t watched any of it, and if I’m completely honest I didn’t even know who half the celebrities publicity seeking whores were when the names were revealed.

However, I do find it amusing that they’ve now lost two of the “stars” already. After four series, you’d think that they’d know what they’re letting themselves in for – but obviously not.

Travelling

Sitting here again on a Virgin train from Reading back to Manchester (at least this time the bloody toilets are working!) it’s just occurred to me that I’ll only be doing this journey once more before I move. Five months of this journey three weeks out of four, and it’s finally coming to an end.

In a lot of ways it’s the end of an era – I’ve been in Manchester for nearly six years, and it’s coming to an end. In a month’s time I’ll be moving down to Reading/Bracknell, and then a new phase will start. There’s a lot of changes due to be happening over the next year, although a large percentage of them will be happening in the next two or three months. New job, new house, new living arrangements, new lifestyle. It’s not about New Year’s resolutions, or any of that shit, but at the same time the start of 2005 will bring about a lot of new stuff anyway.

It’s time for change, and more importantly the changes feel like the right thing, at the right time. But it’s still weird to look back on how I was when I came to Manchester, and the changes that I’ve been through since then. Would I now recognise the person who came up here? In many ways yes, but in many others, no, I wouldn’t. The person I was then has grown up a fair bit, and altered a fair bit too – I know myself far more now than I did then, and know more about what I want and don’t want from life. Of course, I still don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m working on it.

There’s still a whole lot of things that will be happening over the next few months. I’m going to be working on a lot more creative things – the photography, the writing, the websites – as well as hopefully getting back into some form of academic work, which is something I do feel I’ve missed out on a bit. I’m going to be taking some big jumps, seeing if I can interest a photographic agent in some of the images I’ve taken, and I aim to be getting involved with some of the local photography clubs etc. once I’ve moved. If I can make money from it I’ll be happy, but if I can’t and it stays as a personal hobby/love then that’s fine too.

Some things will stay the same too – or at least with a minimum of change. D4D™ will change too – I still intend to redesign, and move from Blogger to WordPress at the same time (assuming I can get all the old posts out of Blogger) so there’s likely to be new sections as well as removing old sections I don’t use any more.

Yes, there’s going to be a lot of changes. But d4d™ will be there all the way through to chronicle them.

Toymaster

For various reasons that as yet I can’t be chuffed to go into here, I’ve today had to be looking for a couple of toy-shop websites. The one for Toys’R’Us is OK, but the one for Toymaster is utter fucking shite. On a slow dial-up line (and dear lord 56K is a pain in the bum after getting used to broadband) it takes forever to download, and also insists on loading Macromedia’s Flash7 plug-in, which will take another eternity. If you don’t load the plug-in, the site still loads, but you can’t find anything on the store finder (you have to do it all via the nice swishy Flash map) and it’s a sack of shit.

There’s also no way of contacting Toymaster’s web people in order to tell them it’s a sack of shit. But that’s something I’ll be working on come Monday…