Complaints, General

My new sofa from CSL

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After my complaint against DFS some time ago, I swore I’d never used them again. True enough, when I needed to order a new sofa for my new house I went everywhere EXCEPT DFS, and finally settled on this one from CSL. It’s a damn fine sofa, and I’ve even bought the ‘cuddler’ chair to go with it, which is a chair big enough for two (or someone and a dog) to sit in, and it swivels!

It should be arriving on Wednesday, after I was assured I would get a phone call tomorrow to confirm the delivery. Can CSL do any better than DFS, or will they be as bad? Only time will tell, and so will I 😉

hugo-chair

Internet

Viruses spread by MSN Messenger: StayFriendsForever.com

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I’ve been getting some messages recently from a contact on my MSN Messenger that clearly aren’t from who they seem to be from. Rather than sending me the usual mixture of adult content and news about Steven Seagal I’ve been getting funny image links and cutesy links from this particular, earthy, northern contact.

Obviously something’s afoot. The man has a virus (this we knew years ago, but hey ho). It’s not actually ‘Eddie’ sending this rubbish, instead it’s his computor, or rather his MSN Messenger, which is infected with something nasty. It’s trying to infect others and is sending this gibberish out so that contacts click on the link and download the virus themselves.

If you’d had anything like this come through, make sure you ignore it. Equally, if Eddie Keaton messages you about anything in general, ignore that too 😉

msn-virus

General, Google

HTC Magic Review

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I bought a new phone this last week, and took delivery of it over the weekend. The phone I bought (leaving Vodafone after a decade, but more on that another time) is the HTC Touch HD.

However, before I go into that phone (as I’m still playing with it and it’s late) I wanted to share this review I found for the HTC Magic. Now, I didn’t even know what a HTC Magic was, and this review makes me think I should have looked at it in some detail. The name ‘Google’ attached to the HTC Magic gives it a certain kudos in my book.

Have a look and see what you think. I’ll get to reviewing the HTC Touch HD shortly too.

Humour, Internet

Play Scalextric in the office

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gtiAs someone who likes to slack off wherever possible (just kidding if anyone important is reading this) the prospect of playing online Scalextric was just too good to be true, especially as it’s a real car, sort of.

The new Golf GTI launches in the UK on May 22nd, and as everyone who knows me is aware, I’m quite into my cars. To promote the release of the ultimate boy racer car, the folks and Volks have created an online Scalextric game where you can test out the new GTI on a virtual test track, using rendered video sequences for the race.

The game is just like the real thing whereby if you keep your finger firmly pressed on the controller you’ll find your car rapidly exiting the track, only to wait patiently while a chap in a white coat retrieves your GTI and places it, slowly, back on the road.

You can play the game online here and test your times against your mates, though I personally recommend playing against a 3 year old (that was always my tactic, and it proved very successful).

Worth mentioning too, if you set the course alight you could win a 3 month test drive of a real Golf GTI. I can’t imagine there’d be much left of one after 3 months if I drove it.

General

British Ginger wins world’s best job blogging on Desert Island

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You may have seen recently that the Queensland Tourist board has been looking for someone to work for them in what they have dubbed ‘the world’s best job’. The job entails swanning around on a desert island, eating barbeque food, swimming in the sea and blogging about great the holiday is.

For this arduous task they’re paying £73,500 per year!

They conducted a lengthy search, which obviously received thousands of applicants (over 34,000 to be precise), all looking for someone with good blogging skills and a penchant for adventurous holidays. Eventually they decided on 34 year old Brit Ben Southall, a Ginger.

Now, just why would you hire a Ginger to be your representative on a desert island? The tropical Queensland weather isn’t going to be that kind to Southall’s complexion.

Yet he’s still excited about his blogging job, stating:

I hope I can fill the boots as much as everybody is expecting. My swimming is hopefully up to standard and I look forward to all the new roles and responsibilities that the task involves.

Responsibilities? All he has to do is get smashed off his face every night, lie around on the beach during the day and write on his blog. A great responsibility indeed. The actual job description for the role read:

To explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle.

If I sound a little jealous about this, it’s because I am. However, could you imagine if I’d actually landed the job?

Day One

Plane was late. Sodding Ryan Air, never using them again. The beach house has no running water. Despite there being only one car on the island, mine, I’ve still managed to crash it… it wasn’t my fault.

Received first month’s pay in advance, CSA have taken all of it… bastards.

Internet, Rants

Why do people use religion as an excuse for hatred?

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I’m not a religious person. I believe that far too many wars have been caused because of religions, the differences between religions and the intolerance of people towards other religions. Without religion there would have been far fewer wars throughout history. I’m sorry if you’re religious and that offends you, but it’s true.

However, as much as I don’t believe in god, I do believe that the idea of religion is a good one. The basic principles revolve around being nice to other people, not killing people and generally making the world a better place. Despite this basic ideology, religion is rarely used in this way, instead it is used a banner of racism, intolerance, ignorance and hatred.

I do have a point, I promise.

This week the news broke about Korean scientists meddling with the genetics on dogs to create glow in the dark dogs. Whatever your feelings on this, and I’m personally against it, religion shouldn’t really come into it. Yet, despite that, some of the comments posted on the website went down the road of the experiments being against god’s wishes, which then created retaliatory posts about god not existing, and a religious war broke out… on a website about dogs.

Now, one of the comments (that wasn’t fit for publishing) harked on about how if god didn’t exist, how did we get here? It was hardly a compelling argument, but then as the poster has a personal website promoting anti-Barack Obama material and believes that Buddhism and Hinduism aren’t religions, we can’t expect a compelling argument, can we?

Anyway, here is the man’s comment in full:

Name: NObama
URL: rumblfighter.webs.com
Email: nobamaplz@yahoo.com
IP: 71.91.137.1

Submitted on 2009/04/29 at 1:43pm

*in respons to the retarded liberal comments listed above*

We Know What God Wants From The Bible/Old Testiment/Other Holy Books
Monst Religions Would Consider This Immoral.
EVEN BUDHISTS/HINDUS
(Which are not religions)

*To The Dumb-A Who Says There Is No God*

HOW DID WE GET HERE IF THERE IS NO GOD?
HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMMMM?

This is where I have the whole problem with religion, or more to the point, the sort of people who attach themselves to religion and use it as an excuse for ignorance. This guy believes that anyone who doesn’t believe in god is a ‘retarded liberal’, a reference of course to Barack Obama and anyone who voted for him.

His website features many anti-Obama graphics and slogans, including one where the ludicrous idea that guns should be banned is mocked. Of course, guns are every American’s right… it’s in the Bible. Jesus was very pro-guns and a member of the NRA.

This is my point. Religion is supposed to show people a set of morals to live by, yet why do so many people think that religion gives them an excuse to spread their hatred, their racism and their ignorance to others? It’s not what religion is about.

/end rant.

Internet, Rants

Vista Print complaints

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A couple of weeks ago I needed to order some business cards. I needed them fairly quick, so decided to use the online print company Vista Print. Vista Print are one of the biggest names in print and come with a lofty reputation, I felt sure they wouldn’t let me down.

That’s where I made my first mistake. Never underestimate the ability of a company to underperform when you need them most. I paid for the seven day delivery, and waited seven days hoping they’d be here sooner.

They weren’t. They never arrived at all. I emailed Vista Print to complain and received no reply, a few more days went by. I emailed Vista Print again through their feedback form on their website, this time I received a reply ‘apologising’ for my not having received my business cards in the timescales for which I had paid.

Did they offer any compensation? Did they at least offer to knock off the postage? No, nothing of the sort. They said they’d send them again if I wanted, or refund me. Bit late as I’d needed them the week before, which was I paid for seven days delivery.

Suffice to say I won’t be using Vista Print again, they can’t be trusted to deliver an order in a timely manner.

However, it gets better. I received an email from Vista Print asking for my feedback on their service. Right, this is my chance to convey just how dissatisfied I am with them. I clicked on the feedback link, to be presented with this page.

vistaprintsurvey

Upon clicking the button, the feedback was complete.

vistaprintsurvey-result

I guess they just needed to know what language I use, rather than anything useful about their service.

Sums Vista Print up really. Their service didn’t work as it was supposed to, why would their feedback survey?

Football

Are the English FA simple?

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If anyone saw the Manchester United v Spurs game on Saturday they’ll have witnessed possibly the worst refereeing decision in the history of football. With Tottenham leading 2-0 away to United, and the second half underway, referee Howard Webb awarded Manchester United the sort of penalty that only United get at Old Trafford.

Even the United fans could see it wasn’t a penalty. Ronaldo scored it, and Man U went on to win 5-2. Up until that point they didn’t look like even troubling Gomez, the Spurs keeper.

The significance of this of course is that should United have lost, which they were doing handsomely, Liverpool would have remained top and United couldn’t have afforded any more slip-ups, with Man City and Arsenal still to come.

Howard Webb, in his infinite incompetency, has probably awarded United the title.

Now, this naturally outraged Liverpool and Tottenham alike, with Spurs’ midfielder Jermaine Jenas stating:

One thing which struck me about it was that he [Webb] didn’t even think. It was like he’d already made his mind up when he came out for the second half that he was going to give something. I think it was a case of a referee crumbling under the pressure at Old Trafford really.

The atmosphere, the occasion, the importance of the match, a lot of factors take their toll when making decisions.

Quite an eloquent statement for a footballer, and spot on. No team would have got a decision like that anywhere else in world football. Those types of penalties only happen at Old Trafford, for Manchester United.

The FA apparently want Jenas to explain his words, giving him seven days to respond. However, I believe Jenas’ words are fairly self explanatory. If the FA is reading this, I think what Jenas was trying to say was this:

Howard Webb is a cheating bastard and cost us the game.

Simple.

So much anger, so little time