Top 10? Pah! Blender has it all.

Here is crazy.

But here I hit around 52% by my reckoning.

Michaelangelo, Dali Lama, & ...

John Grisham? This guy is totally off his tree... as good as Alan Partridge (by the way, the .co.uk link to Alan Partridge should NOT be visited as it will probably reboot your PC / lock your browser and stuff like that). I could not even take you to the Corby Trouser Press site either. If you know Alan Partridge you know what I mean... Knowing me, knowing you... Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Not sure if it really is a dog but the music is good.

Here.

Shakira - the hips do more than lie! They fly.

And guys, do not even go there... OK? Slightly disturbing in an odd way...

Time to switch to Linux or get a Mac

Windows Windows Windows... Vista explained... beautifully and lucidly... whatever happened to Solitaire without the shackles...

John Holland & The Worlds Greatest Shave

"Need meds. Need them now."

I do not normally identify people on my blog but this is for the Leukemia Foundation and 'The World's Greatest Shave'.

I had the dubious pleasure of working with most of the John Holland people in Oz and raise my hat to you all. No, I am definitely not shaving my beard off. Pluck a nose hair perhaps but no, absolutely not.

Now, Dimi, a simple question. What are you planning on shaving? I have a rusty saw I could bring over.

Send me the bank account details including the IBAN and I want to see the after photos also.

Some bits about leukemia here and here. Irrespective of the explanations and definitions, it is one bad mother of a disease. YOU can make a difference. The page contains the payment link.

Leukemia is not nice but you can be.

Made in China

Yes it says it on lots of things. What I want to know is when are the marketers going to catch on to this? Why not "Made proudly in Shandong province" or "Produced in the foothills of Changbaisin"

And where do you go to by these things?

And what are they made of?

Photo by Xie Tingting

Most people only see labels. They do not see what is behind them. Good or bad.

For every protester and office pundit who cares to criticise, for whatever reason or motivation, the people who make the things you wear, or communicate with, remember that they are just making a living like you or me. Or at least trying to. Where would America be without the Chinese? There is some interesting and disturbing reading there.

You've got to love America

I do. I married an American and she is wonderful... so are her whole family. Love them all. Who else could I talk openly with about bodily functions (without being drunk at an American-Irish wedding)?

But. The others... no NOT 'The Others'. Now there is a series where the title was too short by two additional words like 'the plot'. Started so well, went wacky and then went wackier still. Utter garbage in my opinion. I would rather eat cement.

I am talking about the mindset behind some of the 300 million people (minus my wife it would make a number with lots of nines in it) who live there.

Exhibit A: Imagine if you will what a difference this amount of money being spent on peacefully 'overthrowing' Iraq would have made. Things like this would not have been written.

Or even a tiny amount being given out to victims of several natural disasters. Or even to people who really need financial support.

Exhibit B: I can turn on the TV and have many channels devoted to violence, rape, murder... etc but people are objecting to this.

Exhibit C: I am not sure what they are bitching about. Good grief, get a life.

And we will not even begin to talk about fiscal responsibility. If I ran my personal budget the same way I would probably be in jail or up the proverbial creek in some way shape or form. Still, the economy is on good shape. Thanks to the wife for reminding me about The Onion again. I had forgotten how funny it can be.

Now I am beginning to flag.

Top 10 Internet Hoaxes and more.

Lots of links to follow.

And a tribute to the greatest 'Chartist' of them all. He was a big part of my teen radio years.

And a Melburnian by birth. Who would have thought so many. Melbourne, you are a great city. More of you another time.

Orange Suck

One definition of 'suck' = "To draw in, as a whirlpool; to swallow up."

My definition = this image here >

If you recall I recently blogged about problems with 'Contact us' and spam. I think this tale is one to beat that.


When I first moved to Spain from Germany one of the first things I did was to get a pre-paid sim. I was not sure how long I would be there before going off on another project. It was longer than I planned but that is another story.

The most readily available cards appeared to be those of Amena so I got one. Six years down the line and several countries (Pakistan & Australia) later we still have the same sim. The only difference is that I have more grey hair and Amena have been bought out. By... see picture above.

With my new project in the Netherlands I decided it might be a good idea to switch it to a contract and maybe get a roaming deal. NO problem... or so I thought.

As my Spanish is not that good. Since the takeover they have stopped the English, German, and Dutch help lines. Are they completely mad? How many tourists are there in Spain? Really good strategy to win customers is that decision. So I then ventured to the 'O' web site. Once again has someone in their marketing department forgotten how many foreigners live in Spain? There used to be German and English pages. Very helpful and informative. Now? Nada. Additionally I encountered the bane of every international traveling web surfer... localisation. If you have been there you know what I mean. You google "good restaurant in Riga" and get ... results in Latvian. Great. If you speak Latvian. And before you say 'but you can save your language preference in Google', I know. I flush out my internet cache every time I leave Firefox.

If you encounter this problem there is an easy solution (or two). First there is GMBMG which is simply 'Give me back my Google'. Second, there is the much simpler option of typing in the address bar instead of the search bar. After that it recognises your language...

Cutting a long story short I ended up at the international 'O' site. Now before you decide to try this I would suggest reading on...

Here are the 'Contact us' details for the 'UK Corporate Headquarters' of a major telecommunications company:

Orange UK Corporate Headquarters

50 George Street, London W1U 7DZ United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 870 376 8888 Fax: +44 (0) 207 984 1601

If you really want to be bothered, ring the number. Unless this has changed since my attempts you will get a "For pre-paid press 1, for contract press 2" or similar. Try pressing one. Great. You get the same message as above. Try pressing two and you need to have a UK orange phone number. Hey! I am an Orange customer here but my number (naturally) will not work.

So, a little detective work later, I arrive at the 'owners' of Orange, France Telecom. Once again, the 'Contact us' leads me around in circles but I do find a 'If you are an Orange customer in France here is the number for English speakers, and here is one for French speakers'. The English line is permanently 'busy' and the French one does not (is there an 'Agincourt' story in here somewhere?).

I give up on the phoning idea and decide to email them through their web page. DO NOT DO THIS unless you want to receive a bucket load of spam in your Inbox. Their web administrators have not done a good job at protecting their web site/s and there appears to be a spambot sitting right in the middle. Alternatively, it could be a twisted form of revenge for something else.


In the end I gave up completely and have now got a mobile with another company. More on that in a future post about moving to the Netherlands.

Other attempts at 'Contact us' with other company web sites have led me to the simple conclusion that most company web sites are not meant as a means to allow you to communicate with them. They are invariably there as a barrier and a means to showcase more product. I am still waiting replies from several technology company web sites where I have emailed their support line through their web pages regarding products I have purchased of theirs.

More of that anon. In the meantime, let me know of your experiences with 'Contact us' through web sites. Good and bad. I may even set up a "Top 10 worst of" like here or even better with this. Currently Orange are top of that list. Look after your customers for goodness sake. They pay your bills.

Curious that the national colour of the Netherlands is orange. At least it does not 'suck' like the colours of this web site. And what on earth do they mean by 'mild winters'?

And I am sick of commodity ideology too.

Philosophy was never this good when I was at university... dialecticalism for brick layers? - "one of the three original liberal arts or trivium". Kung fu and arm hacking. Yum!

Beatbox in the kitchen

This is very clever... eat your heart out Delia. Mind you, your Oven baked Smoked Pancetta & Leek Risotto looks (and seems) delicious. I will have to try it.