Author: Richard

Yuku and Illegal File Sharing

| Richard

Some interesting news comes to me recently. A pirated music sharing web site called OiNK has been shut down and an arrest made following a long investigation by music industry umbrella organisations IFPI and BPI.

But what has this got to do with yuku, I hear you ask? Well a while back you may recall I mentioned the special relationship that the JJB forum - an NSync fan site initially - that was on ezboard had with ezboard, Inc.: free Gold status for life and early releases of software updates (oh the irony!). There’s even a rumour that the JJB’s Adminstrator has been doing some customer services work for yuku; again unconfirmed.

Well they’ve moved over to yuku now and are using the resources there instead of ezboard to, let’s say, a mixed reception in terms of downtime, slowness, effect on other unrelated yuku forums, etc.

The JJB forum - it is claimed, though I have never seen it so it could be a completely false accusation - has a hidden forum for music sharing called Media Central, so the news about OiNK has been greeted with obvious concern. Take a look at these threads, for instance:

http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/171573/t/OMG-The-creators-of-OiNK-got-arrested-.html

http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/171642/t/Can-we-do-something-about-Media-Central.html

Maybe that’s why some people are reporting that they cannot see the forum at the moment?

Make of this what you will: as I said, most of it is unconfirmed.

What’s in a Logo?

| Richard

For many, many years now, I have been a Life Member of the Motorcycle Action Group. They say:

“The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG UK) is a lobbying organisation that exists to protect motorcycling from indifferent legislation that threatens the pleasure of riders.

“Established in 1973 specifically to campaign for the repeal of the mandatory helmet law MAG has dramatically broadened the scope of its activity and has now established itself as the legitimate voice of the road-riding biker in the UK….”

I joined them at the beginning of the 80s – I can’t be more specific than that and MAG’s Central Office don’t have the records going back that far – and went on some of their demonstrations.

Anyway, MAG move with the times – albeit slowly sometimes - and over the years have updated their logo only a couple of times from the frankly quite basic (and almost embarrassing):
Old Mag Logo

In fact, I still have my enamel badge with that logo.

In recent years, they updated the logo to this one:
Recent MAG Logo

I quite like that one: an updated version of the original.

But most recently, they’ve revamped the logo once more, apparently to reflect the diversity of the membership:
New MAG Logo

So what’s wrong with the new logo? Well whilst liking the overall look and feel, I can see why a number of the longer term members in particular are up in arms about it. The two crash helmet styles – reflecting that diversity – almost admit defeat in the battle to remove compulsory crash helmet laws. Where is the naked head to go with them?

Rebel Without a Clue

| Richard

What a rebel!

Today, I flagrantly ignored the recently-updated Highway Code. What a radical I am!

How so, you ask?

“123

“The Driver and the Environment. You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.”

This morning, I needed to scrape the ice off the car’s windows so I started it up to warm the engine to clear the inside of the windows, turned the heated windscreen and rear window on to de-ice them and then scraped all the ice off the side windows. I then went back indoors to get my passenger. And all the time, I left the engine running.

You see, I reckon that it’s a safer thing to do this and to ensure that when I drive off I have clear windows than to risk driving off peering through little cleared areas of the windscreen and not be able to see other road users and pedestrians approaching from the side or crossing the road.

Maybe it’s just me…

Microsoft Office 2007

| Richard

Just say no.

It’s slow, bloated and what’s more it’s more difficult to use than before.

Upgrade? My arse!

Today’s annoyance? Word 2007. I want to insert a contact’s name, company name and address from Outlook 2007. Now of course, I cannot find a menu item for this so I have previously added a button to the Quick Access Toolbar for “Insert Address” but the default seems to be “Insert Name and Address but not Company Name” for your contacts.

In earlier versions, you could add an Auto-Text thingy to bring in those details. But I’m not sure you can do that now.

Oh and if you’re really bored, try to find out how to insert an address from Outlook using the so-called Help facility within Word. Utterly pants!

Soap

| Richard

I’m currently in Leeds in a really rather nice hotel. And as usual that means some nice toiletries but I do wonder about the soap.

I get back to my room, get changed and shower to freshen up. So I open up the soap box and use the soap. Then in the morning I shower and use the soap again before breakfasting and heading off.

By the time I get back, the old soap has disappeared and new one is in its place. So what do they do with the old ones? Do the chambermaids take them home en masse?

Fortunately this evening my soap was still in the wire soap dish and a fresh one placed next to the sink.