Spam Stocks
Posted: Mon 18 August, 2008 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism 2 Comments »Over the last few week or so, I’ve been getting a load of spam mail about some dodgy oil stock or other. Of course, that’s about as much attention as I ever pay to them, but still, it makes me wonder sometimes.
Now I know that the entire idea of spam is that the actual cost of the advertising is pretty negligible, so the spammer can send out millions of emails for mere pence/cents, and so really it only takes one person to respond and buy in order for the spammer to make a profit. But really, how many people are still stupid enough to think “Oh, I’ve been recommended this stock by a spam email, so yes, I’m going to go out and buy as many shares in it as possible“?
I can’t imagine it happening. After all, spam’s been around for so long, you’d think that there couldn’t be anyone still around who was prepared to go for anything offered by spam methods. Then again, you still see people getting stung by the entire “$50m in a Nigerian bank” scams too, so I guess it must be true, that there really is one born every minute…
Delayed [Update]
Posted: Fri 15 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post and my further comments about it in the same post, I had a look at the distances involved etc. today.
[Mr X] drove for no less than five and a half miles on the wrong side of the A14. At 6am. Now that takes some dedication – or at least dedicated stupidity.
In my opinion, it’s actually pretty hard (and particularly on the section of road in question) to get on to the wrong side of the dual carriageway. Even the roundabout turnoff to get on the off sliproad (in order to get on to the wrong carriageway) would involve an extremely sharp angle off the roundabout – unless you go down the proper ‘on ramp’ sliproad, then decide to do a bloody great U-turn to get on and go the wrong way. Either way, it’s (again) a pretty dedicated manoeuvre.
Looking at the site of the accident this morning, it’s also interesting (in an academic way) to see that there was only one set of skid-marks on the road – and that they were leading up to the crash site by the truck that was going the correct way up the road.
I’m no expert on these things – and make no claim to be – but all the same, the entire incident smacks to me of some pretty major dedication to the cause of driving on the wrong side of the road.
Mind you,in mitigation there’s also this twunt from yesterday’s news who did the same kind of thing having decided he wasn’t going to pay a toll at the Severn Road Bridge. At that point, words fail me.
Slashdot and Backups
Posted: Wed 13 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky, Thoughts Leave a comment »Sometimes Slashdot makes me laugh. More to the point, the commenters make me laugh.
In this case, the discussion about security of online data (and what happens when a company that has all your data only accessible online – think Google Docs, for instance) started off talking about backups, and rapidly went this way…
- Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy
- Redundancy, redundancy, off-site redundancy
There, fixed that for you. Backups aren’t worth a damn if the building is blown up.
- Redundancy, redundancy, off-planet redundancy
There, fixed that for you. Backups aren’t worth a damn if the planet gets blown up by space aliens.Intelligent post, more intelligent/relevant post, silly post.
Love it.
Bah Humbug
Posted: Wed 13 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Festering Season 3 Comments »
Already, it’s apparently time for the first sign of the oncoming Festering Season™. Oh goody, I hear you cry.
The new season of ITV’s X-Factor starts on Saturday – and the hype is already starting.
And why is it a sign of the Festering Season? Because it normally ends roughly 7-10 days before December 25th, thus ensuring the Christmas Single is (yet again) going to be by some eminently forgettable twat. Or – for a change – it might be some longer-running eminently forgettable twat. You never know.
Basic Rules
Posted: Mon 11 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts 1 Comment »This morning, Motley Fool emailed me about a new story on their site, “How to stop falling into arrears [on your mortgage]”.
It’s not a bad article, but to me point one on anything about “How to not fall behind on your mortgage payments” should be just
1. Make your mortgage payment on time. Pretty much all the others can wait a bit, or a payment plan can be organised if you’re in schtuck. But for Christ’s sake, keep the roof over your head.
(Note : Rule 1a would be just “Make sure you pay everyone on time”)
In business, the rule should be
1. Always, always, always make sure you pay HMCE (both tax and VAT now come under this title). Everyone else comes second to HMCE.
To me, if you keep those rules in place then the rest is (in comparison) easy going.
Beijing
Posted: Fri 8 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts 1 Comment »
As you may have noticed, today is the start of the Beijing Olympics.
Do I care? No, not a bit of it.
Will I be watching it? No, most likely not. I might catch a couple of bits if they’re on, but the odds are, no.
And as for the opening ceremony, I can’t think of anything on TV (yes, even East-bloody-Enders) where I would rather watch the ceremony. Nothing at all.
Still, seventeen days and it’ll all be over – fine with me.
How not to promote your company
Posted: Fri 1 August, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism Leave a comment »Sales email received this morning:
To celibrate 5 years of being on the internet we have decided to offer every regisered customer 10% discount off there next order!
Impressive, three spelling errors in 23 words. That’s a 9% error rate!