I didn't quite catch that...

I’ve been asked: why must Jonathan Frakes die? And I answered off the cuff, but I think that actually presenting an argument may be the sensible thing to do. And since I’ve got this wee site upon which to put forth my arguements, I thought I’d put it here as well.

So, to Mr Frakes. While he has committed many, many wrongdoings (for example, the beard and the possible ending of Enterprise), none of them are, individually, enough for this sentence.

Thunderbirds, on the other hand, is.

Why? Well, for me, this movie failed for two general reasons: as a movie, it sucked, and as a Thunderbirds effort, it sucked.
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Found at Slugger, we have the 2012 Norn Iron Olympic Bid.

Featuring:

• The Olympic PSNI Landrover, which will burn throughout the games as a symbol of hope.
• The Olympic Village will be in HMP The Maze. Revel in the history of the place, known and loved by all Norn Ironers.
• A revolutionary drugs policy: Drugs testing will not be mandatory at all. In fact, in keeping with the Maze tradition drugs will be freely available for one and all!
• The Marathon Snickers will take in all the sights; Holy Cross, Drumcree, and more!
• No riff raff: During the games a strict door policy will operate at all venues – no trainers or sports gear allowed. And bring I.D.

If we work together, we can make these a game to remember! Everyone’s a winner!

Well, hopefully the trackbacks are working…

I think that the upgrade is pretty much done… Obviously there is much in the way of customisation to be done before it’s all looking right round here, but I am now using 1.5. And there isn’t all that much difference from this end. Yet.

We’ll have to see how the nasty spam-killing plugins that are exclusive to 1.5 work…

If anyone notices any formatting or other very obvious errors, let me know. Cheers.

I’m kinda busy at the moment upgrading to WP1.5. Do not adjust your set, normal service will resume shortly.

The repercussions of this could be huge:

Sony will continue to sell its PlayStation 2 in the United States while it appeals a court-ordered ban on sales of the market-leading game console, the company said Monday.

Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for Northern California issued the order late last week in a patent infringement case filed against Sony Computer Entertainment by Immersion, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of “haptics” technology. Among other applications, the technology can generate force feedback in games so that the game controller rattles in response to events during play.

Jaysus. The DualShock controllers (that feature this force feedback) are essential to the sucessful operation of a PlayStation II, and probably the PSIII as well. And there are huge numbers of these things out there, tens if not hundreds of millions of them. The court has already awarded $90m + in damages, but I don’t think it will end there, as the publishers of many games are also in the firing line, including the ever brilliant Rockstar (makers of GTA).

Holy moley. That’s a lot of people who are going to get hit by this.

Hat tip to Ramblings Journal.

Remember the fuss a while back about the NHS IT program? Specificially, the electronic care record and the lack of any real opt out capability?

Well, that may have been confirmed. I say may because it was in one email from a minister to a GP, not a big press release or anything.

But it doesn’t bode well; surely people have the right to not have their information held if they don’t want it?

But Mr Hutton said: “I believe very few people will opt out of the records.

“I hope and believe that patients will want to be part of this because it will help to save people’s lives.”

Ah, yes, for it would be in the common interest that people sacrifice their right to privacy, yes? Capital.

Apparently, there’s an Office of Tobacco Control down South.

Never mind that it’s putting people out of work, never mind that it’s infringing on the rights of business owners, no matter that it’s a very dangerous precedent, obviously the smoking ban is a success.

Or, maybe, it’s just a farking stupid idea with the government sticking it’s nose where it has no right to be…

You know, I was happy there for a bit. The government looked like it was seriously going to lay some new tarmac, which would have been long overdue, but still very welcome.

Now, it looks like it’s all up in the air again, because of a couple of big ugly birds:

Ulster roads chiefs are considering changes to a major road dualling scheme in order to safeguard swans.

Plans to upgrade the A6 between Randalstown and Castledawson have led to concerns about the impact on a whooper swan habitat close to Lough Beg and the Lower Bann.

Guys, were they planning on covering the whole of Lough Beg? No? Really? Then shut the fuck up, the swans can still stay there, and we can have our lovely new road.

Problem solved.

Heard about this case? A special needs teacher was sent to jail for six months for shooting a pellet gun near (note: near, not at) the foot of an 18 year old. After alerting the police that she was about to do so, because her son’s car had been vandalised.

Now, my considered opinion on this.

• To hell with the people who put the law on the books that allowed this prosecution.
• To hell with the judge who handed down the sentence.
• To hell with the CPS for bringing the prosecution.
• To hell with the police for being involved in this prosecution.
• To hell with Det Sgt Frank Hayley in particular, for saying “The use of a firearm was an extreme reaction and Greater Manchester Police will not tolerate the use of such a weapon on the street, irrespective of the offender’s justification.” *
• To hell with the unfortunate woman’s employer (Salford City Council) for suspending her from her job and instigating disciplinary action against her.
• To hell, in a handbasket, with society.

Six months, for owning and firing a pellet gun, more for the owning than for the using. If this wasn’t real people who were being shat on by this, it would be funny. But this woman’s life is totally ruined by this; I get the feeling she isn’t going to work as a teacher again, she’ll do jail time, and no doubt she’ll come out of prison the local tossers will have declared open season on her.

All this on a day when a London council announced that it would rather reward trouble makers with free holidays than punish them. So, even if the poor lad who was near where the aforementioned woman shot had been vandalising a car, he’d have been off to camp anyway. Justice would totally have been served.

Hell. Handbasket. Going to one in the other.

–
* – so, mate, you’re saying that, under no circumstances, should a private citizen use a weapon in the street, right? Obviously, that’s a right reserved for the police, who never fuck up, no never.

Further comments can be found here.

Ever wanted to curse people in new and novel ways? Tired with the same usage of the venerable english words and phrases? Bored with constantly recycling cock, jockey, your mother, suck, fuck, twat and tosser?

Personally, I think that recycling the old ways is never dull, cock jockey. I find that a tosser like myself can keep using the same words without feeling like a twat. But if you fuckers want something more, there are ways.

The first way is, obviously, to study Twenty Major, for he will use old words in new and interesting ways.

The second is to go here and create your very own Irish curses.
Irish: Go gcreime na gr?inneoga cealgr?nacha do chuid infheist?ochta?.

It seems that Tony “I’m one of the lads” Blair has some competition for the more cringe-inducing-leader title:

Koizumi takes a turn with Gere

Gere insisted on being ‘the man’

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the Hollywood actor Richard Gere have treated reporters to an impromptu ballroom dance performance.

Gerbils for miles around were rumoured to be ‘very concerned’.

… and not only does you site get shat on, but you miss out on some very important news.

Such as two of your favourite bloggers getting engaged. Congrats to the future Mr & Mrs J.

And other goings on: Michele has a bee in her bonnet about something. Specificially, this:

An increasing number of pharmacists around the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth-control and morning-after pills, saying that dispensing the medications violates their personal moral or religious beliefs.

And she says this is a bad thing. Well, here’s something else: a pharmacist is a person, not a robot. They also (in the UK, anyway) exist in a strange land between the health sector and private business, and as such they have a lot more freedom in what they have to do than a doctor. And, because it’s a business, you have a choice about using it. You don’t like the taste of a pint in a pub, you can go somewhere else. A chemist won’t supply you with what you want, then there’s bound to be another nearby that will. Just sayin’, is all.

Make a choice. Do you want to be a pharmacist or a priest?

Or, possibly, be yourself, and don’t sell out your own morals just because the rules changed since you qualified. If euthanasia became legal, would you force all doctors to administer it, against their will? Because it’s only their primitive beliefs, isn’t it?

I stay away from a computer for a day or so, and what happens? 231 comment spams. 231. That’s not fucking on. Bastards.

The clock go forward tonight.

I only post this because I completely forgot and was lucky enough to be reminded by a very strange indian fella at work. Which was part of a very surreal conversation that I’ll not go into right now, because it still doesn’t make sense in my head, let alone written down.

Found at Seldo’s linklog, this little page is the mutt’s nuts.

First off: Jonathan Frakes must die.

Secondly, NIreland really suck at this football malarkey.

That is all.

Motorised buggies. You know, those wee cart like things that old / ‘mobility impaired’ people get to allow them to move about on their own. In my opinion, a Good Thing.

Not everybody agrees.

The consensus seems to be comming from the politicians that Something Must Be Done?. Because seven people have died in the last year in accidents while using said buggies. Now, it doesn’t say how many who would have died didn’t because they used one of these buggies; you know, people could fall on ice while out walking, or they could starve to death because they couldn’t make it to the shops.

But anyway, your friendly neighbourhood LibDem moron has these helpful suggestions:

• there should be more rules on ‘user competence’ – maybe a test. Because they’re not difficult enough for people in their prime of life, are they? Pensioners will just fly through them, honest.
• Third party insurance. Another brilliant idea. At a time when the state pension doesn’t cover council tax, let’s charge old people for their right to move about.
• More rules on ‘maintenance and second-hand sales’. Oh yippee! More government regulation! Fantastic, that always works!

Obviously, I’m a fan of these ideas. But what really, really warmed the old heart was to be found in the comments:

should be more controls for these motorised wheelchairs, particularly when people use them on the road. But I very much agree with the Wheelchair Users’ Chairman’s comments about cyclist – too many people ride on the pavements with almost no regard for pedestrians. And cyclists, too, should have to be insured.
Kevan James, Norwich, Norfolk

Ex-fucking-scuse me? Have we come to the point where people are seriously demanding that bicycles have to have insurance? You know, those wee metal framed things, weigh about the same as my arm, one-person-power? Used widely by kids? Maybe we should make this back-dated; say penny farthings are insurance group 5, cos there’s no real directional control, while a childs bike could be group 2? Fucking hell, I dispair sometimes, I really do.
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A couple of days ago, I mentioned that bastarding son of Satan that is ANPR, the new cameras that every police force in England and Wales are getting that check every number plate they see against several databases and blah blah blah.

And I wasn’t in favour, if you remember.

Now, el Reg is on the case as well.

The national rollout of the UK police’s ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system is kicking off, with the goal of deploying a network of over 2,000 cameras on motorways, major roads and city centres. The system is claimed to be able to run database checks on 3,600 plates per hour, on vehicles travelling at speeds of up to 100 mph – but there are just a few snags.

Well, just one or two snags:

• The general crapness of public sector databases, specificially the MoT and DVLA car tax and alert list ones, which were reporting a false positive rate of 40% at times during the initial trial. Which I would say was unacceptable, really.
• The general uselessness of the private sector data regarding car insurance – just cos a car is covered by some insurance doesn’t mean that the driver is. And all the money going into this system can’t change that at all.
• It is a little known phenomenon that, on rare occasions, the driver of a vehicle isn’t the registered keeper. My take on this: Fucking horrible as that may be, it could mean that if the car owner is a wanted criminal with a history of firearm offences, and yet the car is borrowed by their son, the son could end up facing the wrong end of an over-zealous armed response unit. With the distinct possibility of ending up looking a bit like swiss cheese.
• Will it eliminate the way that a driver can give false information regarding their name to a police officer? Not hardly. So, it would only be properly effective if used in conjunction is a national identity scheme, like an ID card or roadside fingerprinting. Neither of which I particularly like.
• Cloning of numberplates will happen more often, mark my words.
• Can you say “the motorist is a cash cow”? Because, trust me, uk.gov can say that. And has, repeatedly, for a lot longer than I have walked this Earth.

Good to see that el Reg and I agree on this one. Even if they’re a little more … subtle … about expressing their dislike.

So, I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow the other day. And it was very good to look at. The plot totally sucked, and Gwyneth Paltrow basicially needs shot to stop her from acting so badly, but the visuals were good.

It’s basicially the closest thing I’d ever seen to the old english comics of the 30s/40s/50s, which (IMHO) totally rocked. Unfortunately they didn’t adhere to such a high standard with the script.

So, my thoughts are: the backgrounds rocked, while anything with people sucked. So, ideally, we should be able to just see the decent visuals and ignore the acting. Maybe a decent track over the top would improve the whole thing.

Which is lucky, because Seldo already did that with his Sky Captain and the Spitfire of Prodigy video. Which was great. And it says a lot about the film if it can be bettered by being cut down to fit a single track, dun’t it?