Back in January, the BBC released a disturbingly credulous news report on N’kisi, a parrot that not only had an alleged vocabulary of 950 words, but also exhibited telepathic talents. Well, both the language experts and the sceptics were soon debunking it. Now, according to Language Log, the BBC has quietly retracted the original story: […]
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Val
I know you’ve had a very difficult weekend, but please, before you make another appearance in front of the cameras – do something about the bags under your eyes! There are creams for that, and really, it doesn’t do any good for the country’s morale if you look like you’ve not slept for 48 hours […]
The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod It’s strange how a book you’re reading can fit into the moment. I’d already read several of Ken MacLeod‘s books and was impressed enough to grab this one straight away from the library shelf. It’s set in a Britain of the near future, when terrorism has spread widely and […]
A couple of years ago, I had a Worst Website of the Week category, wherein I would expose shoddily-designed sites to deserved scorn. I decided to end it after one site-owner showed his displeasure by inviting all of his nicely-spoken, literate young friends on a forum to email me with their opinions of me; my […]
I regularly take part in a number of online consumer surveys (the pay isn’t much – generally 50p or £1 a time, but every little helps). Usually, they want to know how I feel about the various brands of tomato ketchup or mobile phones, or which supermarkets I shop in. The one I’m doing now […]
….and the wet weather seems to be easing off. It certainly spoiled any plans for observing the Solstice – we’ve had cloudy skies since forever, and last night was the first time I’d seen the moon in about three weeks. Carol had said something about getting a bonfire started to celebrate the Solstice; but when […]
Finally got this machine sorted. I kept reinstalling and getting reinfected – kept removing the trojans responsible with various tools, but failed – took a look at the instructions for completely removing trojans and decided instead to download an up to date version of XP, one with all the security bells and whistles. Did yet […]
Panic now!!: The Terrible Truth About Wi-Fi Meanwhile, Julia Stephenson has replied to Ben Goldacre’s criticism of her laughably unscientific (“Any imbalance in our electromagnetic field creates a disturbance in cell structure and function, which can lead to illness in sensitive individuals”) article on electrosensitivity: At one time scientists assured us the earth was flat […]
……damm spyware…. Spent all day yesterday trying to clear spyware and trojans from my machine. Had just about decided to give up and and reformat, when I remembered XP’s System Restore. So I gave it a try, restoring back to the point before I started installing stuff. And so far it seems to have worked. […]
…still having some problems with the new install. Searching for a way to make my copy of XP at least semi-legal, I went to a couple of less-than-safe sites and ending up getting blasted with trojans both times. Clearing them all out wasted a huge amount of my time and energy. I’d been to those […]