All posts by MrDaz

Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.

The IT Joke

Just heard the best joke in the world today, the sort of joke that will devide parties, but not the even division a good old fashioned sexist gag will do. No, the kind of division that has the whole room slient save for one nerd in the corner pissing himself.

Here goes:

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don’t.

Thieving gypsy bastards

I’ve just had a phone call from an engineer appointed by Royal Sun Alliance insurance company who was asked to look at my car, finally.

As you might remember from a previous blog, my car was stolen from the Hillcroft garage in Langstone, Newport, after being dropped off on a flatbed when the radiator blew.

BMW Z3 stolen from the Hillcroft Garage, Langstone
BMW Z3 stolen from the Hillcroft Garage, Langstone

This is really starting to piss me off, big style. Seems the garage is suggesting that the engine was knackered before it was stolen, and driven the 40 miles to Bristol. This means, that according to the insurance company I would be liable for 50% of the cost for a new engine.

What a crock of shit!

However, if I have a ‘reconditioned’ engine, which the Hillcroft conveniently have on stand-by, I wouldn’t be liable for any of the cost.

I can’t have the car written off, because I’m not the client of Royal Sun Alliance. Oh no, instead I can have the value of the car given to me, minus the salvage value of the car. This would leave me with a car with no engine, and some cash.

Useless.

The engineer only phoned me because he was tired of waiting for the Hillcroft to do it, which they kept saying they would. Of course, they had no intention of doing that.

I didn’t mention before that this ‘break in’ at the garage back in July also involved the garage’s safe being stolen, and their cheque stubs going missing… just as they approached their end of financial year.

Anyone smell fish? Can I hear the words ‘inside job’?

I’m going to have to get a solicitor involved, I bloody know it. I can’t believe the cheeky bastards are trying to suggest that the engine was knackered before the car was stolen. They didn’t even look at the damn car before it was nicked.

Work-shy, thieving gypsy bastards!

Tonight with Trevor McDonald

I just received an email from Friends Renuited asking for people to appear on the ITV show ‘Tonight with Trevor McDonald’. The email contained the following paragraph:

ITV’s ‘Tonight with Trevor McDonald’ programme wants to interview Friends Reunited members about how life has turned out after leaving school.

The producers are trying to find out what difference going to College/University after school makes. If you are a university graduate who’s struggled to get a job or if you left school at 16 and now run your own business, the producers are particularly interested to hear your story.

Now, this has really pissed me off. Why? Simple, they’ve already made up their mind about the kind of program they’re going to make, and the conclusion to their show. That’s why they’re looking for ‘failed graduates’ and ‘self made school leavers’. That’s not journalism, or documentary film making. No, it’s propaganda of the worst kind.

Here’s our conclusion, now let’s back it up with some one sided interview footage.

I expect better from Sir Trevor. I would have thought he of all people would have no part in this kind of film making.

I’ve got to stop drinking at lunch time

It’s the same pattern every time, pint of lager, crazy idea, get back to the office and buy a domain name. I’ve got so many sodding domains just sat there now there’s enough work stacked up for the next few years.

What was it this time? A dating site now, www.NextHotDate.com. Quite a good domain really, but how long before I get round to building that one eh? Could be years.

I’ve already got domains like MyExIsABastard.Net, TheWebKit.Com, ToysAnus.com, YouveJustHiredTheATeam.com and many more too lurid to mention here. So you see; I’ve got more on than I can cope with. Next Hot Date will be fun though, a dating site that’s free to use, coming to the web near you as soon as I can spare the time.