Spot the Difference
October 28th, 2009One of these is symbolic of fear itself and all that is nasty in the world to an entire generation of children, the other is a character from a 1960’s kids film.
Mickey to take Minnie away for Valentines?
October 23rd, 2009Received this interesting email today. I am not positive but I don’t think I have ever used Monarch airlines. I would normally assume that this was a spam email and the links within it take you to a fake site which would almost certainly ask for your bank details and you inside leg measurement. However it appears that it is a real booking. Is Mickey taking Minnie and the kids away for a romantic weekend in Tenerife? Well I have posed the question to Monarch and we await their answer.
UPDATE
Four days after submitting a website enquiry to Monarch regarding the dubious cartoon character jolly, they have kindly told me ‘Please contact our reservations department on…’
So adding insult to injury, I have to not only call a national rate number but also answer the question ‘What name is the booking in Sir?’ with Mickey Mouse!
At least there are no signs of the booking appearing on my credit card yet, but you never know. I will keep an eye out for any purchases of large amounts of cheese in Tenerife.
Make spam more fun
May 21st, 2009Here’s a way to turn those wretched Nigerian scam emails into a bit of entertainment – scam them back!
www.419eater.com has some great success stories whereby 419eaters have entered into dialogues with Princes from Ghana, Finance Ministers from Nigeria and whole assortment of motley emailing crew.
Take up this hobby at your own peril! But if you fancy a go, read their tips page first. Happy 419eating.
Making site mobile friendly
April 24th, 2009Personal blogs are the perfect place to try out new plugins and technologies before implementing them on a business site. One such example is the WPTouch plugin from Brave New Code. This allows you to show your viewers a Ajax based version of your site from either a iPhone, iPod or Android. With many customisable settings, you can give a faster and more native feel to your site on a mobile device.
I have activated this plugin for this blog and can confrim that it does not interfere with the regualr theme that viewers see from non-mobile devices.
Feel free to check out this post from your mobile and let me know what you think.
iLife09
February 14th, 2009iLife09 has a few new features, one of which is the new facial recognition feature built-in to iPhoto. So it was with great interest that I let iPhoto scan my library to identify the usual suspects’ that comprise my photo collection. However I believe the Apple geniuses at Cupertino were just simply unprepared for my friends and family…
Would the real David Bowie please stand up
January 25th, 2009
I first noticed the username @davidbowie being snapped up on Twitter at the beginning of the year, shortly followed by the one and only update so far. (I have the hashtag #bowie as one of my searches using Eventbox).
I automatically assumed it was another amusing fake celeb account, which is amusing for about 3 microseconds. I thought nothing more of it.
Between then and now a batch of commentators, blogs, magazines and even newspapers have informed us that Bowie is working on a new album in Berlin, written with a degree of certainty that appeared convincing. A classic example being “David Bowie is currently recording in Berlin, the place where he recorded three of his finest albums, The Quietus is excited to report.” The NME and Classic Rock magazines were all joining in with the claims.
However, as far as I can see, without exception all these stories and reports all stem from this single tweet on Jan 5th. Nothing else except the perpetuating rumour mill appears responsible. In fact, in a strange self-fulfilling prophecy, I am now half expecting Bowie to book a studio in Berlin.
If I had to guess at this stage who created the @davidbowie account, I would probably guess a slightly bewildered teenager, not knowing what to tweet next. Although I can’t deny a part of me wants to be made to look foolish when David himself tweets “albums nearly done. here’s a twitpic of me and Tony V” 
A question for Twitterers
January 16th, 2009UPDATE
The winner of the ‘Who should Twitter’ survery was…drumroll please :
Eddie Izzard
Let’s see if we get some updates soon from Eddie. “I’m covered in beeeeeeeessss!”
Thanks for taking part.
I’ll keep you up to date with the results @ twitter.com/realworld
Also let me know if there’s someone you REALLY would follow!
Christmas is over, welcome to 2009
January 5th, 2009A few memories of our Xmas away from the hubbub of London life.
Apart from a few nasty bugs going around, a good time was had by all. (In fact at one point, more night-nurse was being drunk than alcohol!)
Separated at birth?
October 19th, 2008One of these guys is the ‘genius’ Karl Pilkington, one is children’s’ TV favourite Bod and the other is technology writer and founder of gdgt.com Ryan Block. Prizes for telling me which is which.
Answers on a postcard.
Just one more thing…
October 13th, 2008To get in the mood for the announcements from Cupertino tomorrow, check out what we were getting excited about a decade ago.