Spam commenters are losing their minds

Despite the smaller visitor numbers, this blog seems to leave way more spam in the Akismet queue than the other Wordpress installations we have. I had wanted to write a post swearing at some of the dumb comments that come in, as all of these are automated, but three of the first ten today are […]

Read More… from Spam commenters are losing their minds



Bingo! Merry Christmas!

Here’s a Christmas treat, an hour in to Christmas Day in New Zealand. Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, filmed in 1977 33 days before the crooner’s passing, featured a duet between Bingo and David Bowie.    Taped on September 11, 1977, the special aired after Crosby’s death, on November 30. The set is supposedly the […]

Read More… from Bingo! Merry Christmas!



Civility is a good thing

Baidu Talk, which launched in September, has netted 1 million users already, according to PC World. Michael Kan reports that thanks to the service’s insistence that no aliases are used (registered users’ identities are verified with the People’s Republic’s government) ‘this has led to more “civil” discussions between users on Baidu Talk.’    It shows […]

Read More… from Civility is a good thing



Starting Upstairs, Downstairs this weekend

I know I did this on November 23 on my Tumblr, but I have to share this joke with the Ashes to Ashes fans out there.    Will the opening of Upstairs, Downstairs on Boxing Day on BBC1 (at 9 p.m.) begin with the Alexander Faris theme tune (see also below), or will Keeley Hawes […]

Read More… from Starting Upstairs, Downstairs this weekend



Giving a toss about web hosting: Americans 2, Brits 0

© Generally, I turn a blind eye to people who use thumbnails of our work or take an excerpt from an article and link the rest to us. Pity, then, that so many of these sites are splogs, but at least they stop short of outright piracy.    It’s when someone takes an entire article, […]

Read More… from Giving a toss about web hosting: Americans 2, Brits 0



A new Eric and Ernie clip

I wonder if I should get part of the Broadcasting Fee, the way I promote the BBC.    I like real-life dramas, particularly about recent history. BBC2’s Eric and Ernie, to be shown on January 1 at 9 p.m., looks very good.    A new clip came out on YouTube 12 hours ago. The earlier […]

Read More… from A new Eric and Ernie clip



Finally, confirmation that Firefox is crashing a lot

After discovering about:crashes and Bugzilla, I’ll be finishing 2010 with some vindication that Firefox is, indeed, a buggy, crash-prone browser.    At Bugzilla, where Firefox bugs are filed, the “unmark purple” bug that has been giving me so much grief over the last few months, which has crashed Firefox up to 11 times a day […]

Read More… from Finally, confirmation that Firefox is crashing a lot



New Twitter, less utility?

I might have to go on to one of those Twitter clients, when “new” Twitter is forced upon all users soon.    When it eventually began working (it didn’t initially), I liked the new Twitter’s overall look. It was only missing one feature: telling us what the last Tweet of the person was at a […]

Read More… from New Twitter, less utility?



What others write about their Firefox crashes; Chrome is the oddity with font-face

  It has been interesting reading the comments from other disgruntled Firefox users over the ‘unmark purple’ error (nsXULControllers::cycleCollection::UnmarkPurple(nsISupports*))—now that I can trace the majority of my crashes to this.    Yesterday, Mozilla’s Crash Reports’ site crashed (rather fitting), and today, the CSS wouldn’t load, which allowed me to read what others wrote on the […]

Read More… from What others write about their Firefox crashes; Chrome is the oddity with font-face



BBC drama, this autumn and winter

Don’t know how I could have missed this. Oh, yes I do: I was running for office.    Now that I’m not, I want to give the BBC a bit of a push, because these dramas look awesome. Aurelio Zen, with Rufus Sewell, looks like my sort of drama, and begins the first week of […]

Read More… from BBC drama, this autumn and winter