• ISPs and the copyright cops

    According to Euro Digital Rights, the MPA and IFPI – the international versions of the RIAA and MPAA – are trying to persuade ISPs to adopt a voluntary code of practice. It asks ISPs to: * Remove references and links to sites or services that do not respect the copyrights of rights holders * Write…

  • Advertiser love

    When you have Google ads on a page you’re not supposed to comment on them, but fuck it: since my last back-related post the ads have highlighted a few alternative therapy sites. Because I’m interested in this stuff, I followed the links and – in my humble opinion – some of the ads take you…

  • Dance Dance Diet Revolution

    Some good gaming news for a change: Lifehacker reports that a study into Dance Dance Revolution found that kids who play it lose weight.

  • Fighting the phone frauds, again

    Back in January I suggested that you should make a formal complaint about telephone scammers. Naturally I followed my own advice, and I’ve just received this email from the communications watchdog ICSTIS: * The call that you received was made by using Automated Calling Equipment known as ACE. This is actually an offence under the…

  • Waiting lists

    There’s an interesting letter in today’s Herald from a consultant neurologist at Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary: Today, the lady sitting in front of me makes a 185-mile round trip for a consultation which lasts little more than 10 minutes. Her referral letter is dated August 2004 (seven months). She leaves less than happy because I propose…

  • Forget the funeral – bury my Powerbook

    Squander Two talks about living wills, but while the prospect of being kept alive by machines is rather horrible, there’s an even more worrying issue here. If something bad happens to me, who’s going to cremate my computer? It’s something Penn – of Penn & Teller fame – started thinking about when one of his…

  • Bullshit!

    [Warning, contains swearing] If you’re a news junkie like I am, you’ll spend a lot of time reading stories from around the world (and their related discussions on message boards), and you’ll read every column inch of anything printed. And if you do that, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the world is full…

  • Microsoft spanks Sony, says SPOnG

    There’s a fascinating conspiracy theory over at games site SPOnG. The site describes it as: A conspiracy that sees a Microsoft masterstroke which cripples its key opponent, sees it take the moral high-ground and net around $15 million profit in the process. The story centres on the current patent lawsuit against Sony, which came this…

  • Back, again

    A quick update on the back situation: the neurosurgeon reckons a microdiscectomy is the way to solve my (worsening) back problems, so I’ll have my buttocks hanging out the back of a hospital gown in 3-4 weeks time.

  • The book meme

    I’m not a fan of “forward this” questionnaires – for several years my email address was printed in various national magazines and as a result, I seem to be on every email forwarding list in Britain – but I’ll make an exception for this one, partly because Squander Two asked me to do it, and…