* Posts by Rodney Cole

7 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Dec 2007

AVG scanner blasts internet with fake traffic

Rodney Cole

tenuously linked to AVG thread

I upgraded our motley collection of PC's to AVG8 recently and haven't noticed much change in speeds, apart from when the actual scheduled scan is taking place. The only Googled site that I have been warned by AVG about had "this site may damage your computer" written on it already.

I don't really want the sole option of Yahoo! search in the AVG bar because it's soooo inferior to Google, but something happened the other day which I would be grateful for your views on.

I had just booked some Premier Inn rooms online as is my regular wont and then visited a favourite US blog and followed a link to the LA Times archive site. At the top of that page was, guess what, Lenny f++king Henry gazing back at me from a Premier Inn banner, complete with the standard UK hotel search.

As it seems unlikely that Premier would be targetting all LA Times readers with banner ads, the only conclusion is that one of the many tracking cookies that AVG recognises but does nothing about is "profiling" my surfing. Cookies go regularly into the CCleaner bin.

How valuable this is to the advertiser (advertising to an existing customer) is puzzling, or am I in possession of the wrong end of the stick? Or just uninPhormed and paranoid?

Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

Rodney Cole
Stop

Up to...........

should be banned from all advertising, "I saved up to a million quid by insuring with blah blah". Up to your armpits in bullshit.

The New Order: When reading is a crime

Rodney Cole

Feedback

........is one of those words that has been hijacked by the Nickless's of this world to justify anything and everything whilst hinting that there is some form of analytical process going on in the background. A bit like "public consultation" where they keep changing the question till they get an answer they want.

Premier Inn rooms became totally non smoking recently due to customer "feedback". When I asked, as a 50 night a year smoking punter, for details of this "feedback" I was completely ignored. Now I stay in independent hotels as all the big chains have gone the same route, probably inspired by insurance armtwisting.

Isn't it great?

'Extreme porn' law could criminalise millions

Rodney Cole

Definition

According to the terms of reference from the Ministry of Justice to a 3 woman "Rapid evidence assessment" panel, EPM (extreme pornographic material) is defined as

..... 'actual scenes or realistic depictions of: explicit intercourse or oral sex with an animal, explicit sexual interference with a human corpse, explicit serious violence in a sexual context and explicit serious sexual violence'.

Arthur C Clarke lists three wishes on 90th birthday

Rodney Cole

A real gent

Sir Arthur was born in Minehead, Somerset and his brother Fred stil lives near there, commenting this week in the local press that ACC is well, if wheelchair bound, and still has a great affection for his home town. I remember sitting in the freezing cold Regal fleapit there about 20 years ago, mesmerised by this real gent's reminiscences, predictions and impromptu lecture from the dusty stage as he introduced "Space Odyssey", which I watched with new eyes.

The Mayor of Minehead said "nobody has suggested doing anything" and the scandal ridden West Somerset Council said "We have no plans" regarding commemorating their most famous resident's achievements or birthday. Makes you proud, no?

Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain

Rodney Cole

Newbie F**ks Up

Sorry, the particular page I referred to just now is /notintotemptation.htm at that link.

!!Paranoia attack!!; am I meant to post link linked stuff? ; maybe theyll think I m a Ukrainian bot zombie? The FrakSpncerWorm?

Rodney Cole

Oh dear, a newbie, going off topic.

I decided to upload a photo to Wikipedia last week and signed up. I try to be as self taught IT literate as poss for work and pleasure but found it difficult and clunky, a bit like some of the hierachy appear to be. I read El Reg in much the same way I used to read Private Eye (God, he's old), as a probably credible insight into areas of life about which I know nothing, and laugh as I read it. Being work idle until 2008 I have used the recent dark days to crawl all over this Wiki/Overstock/Stein/!!/SlimVirgin/Patrick Byrne web and its been hilarious. Dont we get carried away? Shouldnt a lot of people be? As a time waster the net is great. Please go and see bogritz.com and scroll down to paragraphs 11-15 to see The WikiAntiChrist come back from the dead.