Random acts of violets

Monday, May 28, 2007

Fish is good for you

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Follow up to Penryn

Yonks ago I posted about the new Intel processor in development with the codename of Penryn.

Turns out a local IT company tried to jump on the panic bandwagon to try and drum up some business and issued some doomladen press releases that got snapped up by the papers everywhere.

I hate this method of trying to get business: scare the shit out of people and then happen to mention in the last paragraph that you can sort it out for them.

What I do love about this story though is the response that it received from those interviewed, generally along the lines of "ah well, yes but it won't _really_ make any difference will it. move along."


Someone else did this ages ago with the Firefox browser, using some distinctly shoddy statistics and a crude approximation of the effects that would be felt.

The screaming headline of "Over 50% of the world won't be able to see your website. you will be DEAD TO THEM!!!!!!!!" actually boiled down to "approximately 15% of the entire world are using this new browser, particularly in tecchie circles, and it's possible that your site won't look exactly like it does in IE when they look at it. Not too much to worry about, but it might be worth having a check sometime, just in case".

Not that I belittle the differences that browsers can have (sometimes quite significant) but as long as the site has been built vaguely properly in the first place, it should be OK.

Of course if you do happen to have a website built for IE that you want found by people using firefox and who just type the word "penryn" into google, I can fix it for about £30k!

Drop me a line...

Words that should be banned

There was a programme on the other day about a school that tried to ban swearwords.
I do have rather a potty mouth, but then it's fucking funny when I swear (not so much the chavs on the street, but there we are).
I have my own set of words, though, that I find offensive and think should be banned. These include:

veggies
chocs
cheeky (as in "she can still have a cheeky chinese")


I'm sure there's more, so I will no doubt update this post as the gorge rises!

Actually, one other thing on words, not that should be banned, but just changes that always irritate me. I have no idea if my views on this are correct, or if the other uses are correct but:

roofs rather than rooves
lighted rather than lit

why is "he lighted the lamps" better than "he lit the lamps". surely both past tense, or is there more to it?
Despite being a fussy pedant (is there any other kind?) I don't really know my tenses by name (how unbearably tense) ((my what a lots of parentheticals)).




oh get on with your work!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

sitting on the dock of the bay

Monday, May 14, 2007

And...

You can also watch that video on the fame game, and vote for it; though heaven alone knows he doesn't need the encouragement!

The opening of the video is brilliant, and I know for a fact that is how Dan wakes up most mornings. Fact.

Also quite scary. For those of you who can't watch the video, a screen shot instead:

Embrace the cheese

Sunday, May 13, 2007

A matter of perspective


Got to be careful what you put on doors.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Remembering Mavis

Caught some of Paul O'Grady's show the other day when Thelma Barlow was on.
She was complaining that since she played some upper class roles in theatre, she now just gets offered "Old Ladies' Parts".
 
 
I'd probably complain too.

Monday, May 07, 2007

And now from our correspondent

This is a post that i'm trying out via email.
Possible that I might end up posting more without having to log in.
 
 
Then again, quite possibly not.

So that's, like, irony?

Just been to see Spiderman 3 at the cinema.
Pretty good, though it does go on rather.
Thankfully through the quiet bits, I could listen in to the running commentary being provided by the prick in the row behind.

In one of the more emotional bits (opposed to lamping and hitting steel girders - which happens a lot) said commentator exclaimed without any apparent irony "there's too much talking".

Wish I'd had the nerve to very loudly tell him to shut the fuck up, but I always have this innate fear that the one time I do do this, I will then be stuck in the room with them for the next 2 hours having just discovered that the person is a genuine mental who will now have a focus for their myriad whatnots. Me.