Computer Viruses In Orbit
August 28, 2008
In the news today the International Space Station has caught a computer virus. It has been confirmed by NASA that a laptop carried onto the ISS was infected by a virus called Gammima. A.G.
The worm waits on infected machines and steals login names for online games. NASA are investigating the occurrence, though this was not the first time that a computer virus made it to Space.
The laptop was issued to Read the rest of this entry »
Festival Ticket Trauma
August 23, 2008
Thousands of wanna be festival goers have been left gutted and out of pocket after large scale online ticket fraud.
Last weekend saw large numbers of V Festival goers unable to attend after their tickets had not shown up. The company SOS Master Tickets sold between 400 and 800 tickets for V. After the tickets didn’t arrive in the post consumers were told that they could pick them up from a spokesman at the gate however, no such person was there. They were then told that they would receive a full refund but this then failed to materialise.
The problem is also expected to affect between 1,500 to 2,000 people at the Leeds and Reading Festival too.
The website has since been shut down and the company is no longer contactable. SOS is registered to an Islington residential address and has retained thousands of names, addresses and credit card details.
Currently Islington Council Trading Standards are investigating SOS Master Tickets and are trying to get to the bottom of their activity. SOS was not a member of The Association of Secondary Ticket Agency and clearly has not adhered to their code of ethics. The ASTA alerted the authorities a couple of months ago regarding SOS as the prices that they were offering were no way viable.
I have heard that a number of official ticketing companies have recorded the ticket id numbers on tickets that are being sold on Ebay and plan to prevent them from being excepted on the gate. The problem there is that the touts will get their money, but it will be the consumer who will be burned yet again.
There needs to be some resolve for this situation looking into the future as it just isn’t fair on the festival goers!
Time Catching You Up?
August 22, 2008
I’m starting to get worried… I’m only 25 and I can already see my youthful complexion depleting!!! I started to panic, so in an attempt to calm myself down I decided to research what I could do and thought I’d pass it on.
Apparently, it’s not only age plays a role in how your skin looks but also how you look after it. The advice that beauticians give is to start young, which means now! At the age of 25 you should invest in a good Anti Ageing Cream and luckily there are loads of great products out there on the market.
Here is some advice I was given for my skin…
- Mild cleans your face to remove make up
- Get an oil free moisturiser with SPF for throughout the day, products with vitamin C or E are especially good as well.
- Prevent zits by gently exfoliating a couple of times a week.
- Eye cream is great and as the skin around your eye is thinner than the rest of your face you will need a thicker moisturiser.
- Finally use Anti Ageing Cream before you go to sleep to repair the effect of the day and apparently looking beautiful for longer.
Good look ladies!!! x
We Don’t Want Him In Our Gang!
August 21, 2008
Ex-pop star Gary Glitter has been forced to return to Thailand after being refused entry into Hong Kong. He has just been deported from Vietnam after spending 3 years in prison there for sexually abusing two girls.
Glitter refused to fly back to the UK and claimed a heart attack to prevent having to get onto the plane. Should Glitter be forced to return to Britton he will be met at the airport and forced to sign the sex offenders register. 
It is unlikely according to lawyers that Glitter can be forced back to the UK. If he had been put on a flight direct to the UK then it would have been possible but as he is now in Thailand it will be difficult. However, 19 countries have already refused Glitter entry to their country.
Currently as a country we are not doing enough to prevent sex offenders from committing offences abroad. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has planned to tighten government controls on paedophiles. At the moment police can only use evidence from the last six months about how dangerous an offender is however; under the new plans this period will be extended.
It is important to protect the children in less developed countries from some of the horrific sexual predators that are leaving the UK to offend. In places like Vietnam where Glitter took to, offenders can live like kings and get away with anything as their money gives them so much power there.
Jobsworths!
August 20, 2008
Wikipedia description ‘A jobsworth is a person who uses his or her job description in a deliberately un-cooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner’.
Sometimes I honestly think that I am a magnet for the worst segment of society – jobsworths! Currently I am trying to rent an apartment in Manchester, there are hundreds of letting and estate agents in the area and I have contacted most of them. Has anyone actually managed to help me? No. But literally to the point where I feel like they cannot be bothered to get off their backside and actually do their job?!?! Is it really that much to ask that they maybe do what they get paid to do?
Then there are Post Office employees… these are an extra special segment of jobsworths. In fact I am sure that only the lowest of the low jobsworths are given the privilege of being the worst of all services – Post Office employees. They are so wrapped up in bureaucratic rubbish that they cannot use their own sheepish brain for any useful purpose. Unless there is some rule or method of doing something that they have been taught they cannot work it out for themselves!
I always try to do a good job and in fact go out of my way to surpass the requirements of my clients. Is it some much to ask that I could get the same treatment in the return when trying to use other services?!
No More Noisy Lovers…
August 19, 2008
A Brighton man has been in court this week for continually keeping the neighbors awake with loud shouting and banging in the middle of the night. The courts have band the man Adam Hinton from having sex with his partner Kerry Norris at her home.
The Council in Brighton obtained an injunction for Hinton (32) for threatening neighbors when they complained over the sound track to his love making.
The sexual deviant was last week fined £200 for breaching his noise abatement order. Norris faced eviction, but instead Hinton has been banned from going within 100 meters of his girlfriend’s council flat.
The neighbors said they suffered two years of frantic noise produced by the couple in the evening. They complained of sleepless nights and had to be re-housed by Brighton Council.
Surely the best course of action for the victims in the situation would be – If you can’t beat them join them?!?!?
Computers Affecting Children
August 18, 2008
Children these days have totally different up bringing as to what we had back in the day. When we were young we were sent out to play, told to get out from under our parents feet. Now with fear out on the streets, technology is changing the way children are brought up. More children are inside spending most of their time on computers and watching television.
As the age that children can pick up a computer and become familiar with it gets younger and younger, we need to look at what impact this is having on our nations children.
Professor Greenfield a leading neuroscientist thinks that there could be a link between youthful computer usage and children’s attention span. Not only this, but she also said that this may result in children “staying in the world of the small child”. The last decade has seen a significant increase in ADD drugs which could be linked to the same and she went on to say;
“Why suddenly is there greater demand for a drug for attentional problems?” she asked. “This might, and I stress might, be something to do with the increased exposure of young children to unsupervised and lengthy hours in front of a screen.”
I think that there is a lot to be said for getting a rich upbringing. When my sprogging time comes I’m going to make sure that they get out and about in nature and won’t let technology take over their life, as when that time comes I’m sure there will be even more technology to contend with!
The Religion Effect
August 15, 2008
It has been said that at a dinner party you should never discuss religion or politics as it will always end in an awkward dispute with at least one person offended. I am not sure of my exact beliefs, though surely there must be something after this life. Who is to say it is not reincarnation or heaven or the next dimensional level?!
What worries me is that every single devastating war that the World has seen is down to religion. Why is it such an issue that we have differing beliefs? Why can we not respect each other’s cultures and live in harmony? Surly after all religion is about love and living together?
I always think; are we really so different? Is it not better to have beliefs than no beliefs at all? As a child I was brought up a protestant, though I find some aspects of all religion unbelievable; especially with the scientific knowledge we now have. How exactly could God create the World in 6 days when we are told by some of the most intelligent people in existence that the big bang theory is how it actually came about?
I think to a certain extent religion is what drives a divide amongst us. We should have a ‘no religion day’ to celebrate everyone, irrespective of beliefs. Surely as long as we live with good ethics religion is irrelevant.
The Pound Weakens
August 14, 2008
The pound has hit its lowest point in nearly two years, making fears worse of the pressing recession.
Having fallen further against the dollar it now stands at $1.8619 which is at a 22 month low.
It was Wednesday that the Bank of England gave its grave assessment of the UK’s economy and since then it has dropped sharply. 
With inflation steeply rising and the economies stunted growth it looks like British purses will be in trouble.
Though the dollar has been in real trouble against the pound and euro over the last few years it looks like the benefit of shopping abroad is no more. It is not after all just the UK that is in economic trouble, it is the fear of poor European growth that has aided the dollar in bouncing back from its troubles.
Though the American economy is still struggling with their own credit crisis, it does look like they are on their way back, if nothing else due to the deterioration of the rest of the World.
Last week saw the Euro at a six month low of €1.48, worsened by the Georgian military conflict.
So it not just the UK government that are struggling with its finances. The Bank of England said that it could be two years before we get out of the recession.
We should all brace ourselves for the gloom and look forward to better fiscal times!
Weird and Wonderful Laws
August 12, 2008
Today I read in the media of laws that are weird and wonderful but also current!
The Houses of Parliament is not the place to die… in fact it is illegal!
If you decide to move to France and should get the urge to get a pet pig, whatever you do don’t call it Napoleon, it is illegal!!!
It is illegal to drive blindfolded in Alabama!
Yet it is illegal to get a fish drunk in Ohio?!
Be careful boys, in Indonesia the penalty of masturbation is decapitation!
Next time you get the plague don’t get a taxi as you could get banged up…
And to all you women who like a bit of adventure outdoors… it is illegal for unmarried women to parachute on Sundays?!?!? How anti single people!!!!