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Did you know?

15/05/2010

The Dolly the Sheep is named for Dolly Parton, because she was cloned from the udder of her mummy? (Ok, one of her mummies.)

From The Geek Atlas, which I highly recommend.

(Read other DYK posts.)

Another Schneier Quotable Quote

14/05/2010

He does have a talent for it…

Schneier on Security: At a security conference recently, the moderator asked the panel of distinguished cybersecurity leaders what their nightmare scenario was. The answers were the predictable array of large-scale attacks: against our communications infrastructure, against the power grid, against the financial system, in combination with a physical attack.

I didn’t get to give my answer until the afternoon, which was: “My nightmare scenario is that people keep talking about their nightmare scenarios.”

BP Circulating Settlement Agreements in Alabama

07/05/2010

Wankers. Pardon my Klatchian, but these slimey fuckers do my head in. How is this kind of crap still happening, are we as a species ever going to learn from our past mistakes?

al.com: Alabama Attorney General Troy King said tonight that he has told representatives of BP Plc. that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians.

The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000.

I’ll need an electrician familiar with ethernet cabling and termination to do a bit of work on a house in the next few weeks, anyone got any recommendations? It’s a tidy-up job, shouldn’t take more than a day.

Tim O’Reilly

04/05/2010

From Jason Kottke:

Inc. Magazine has a nice profile of Tim O’Reilly. Tim’s business philosophy is refreshing.

O’Reilly says he sometimes wonders what would have happened if he had raised venture capital and given his company a chance to get really big. But he sounds more amused by this question than truly troubled by it. “Money is like gasoline during a road trip,” he says. “You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn’t be about the money.”

Sounds like the opposite of an awful lot of companies these days, particularly the Web 2.0 climbers.

’79 Silver Shadow II Panel Van

03/05/2010

This is what Del Boy should’ve been driving in the last series.

(Via Autoblog.)

CitroÃ«n Metropolis Concept

02/05/2010

There are a few concepts that have made my jaw drop, but ones that make it drop further every time I see it froma new angle are very, very rare. My jaw is now in Australia, please return it if you spot it. The only fault is that the idiots at CitroÃ«n diluted the incredible DS brand with this monstrosity, when the Metropolis was sitting in some designer’s brain, itching to get out. They should build this, right now, without a single change, and call it the CitroÃ«n DS-M (for Modern). It’s just beautiful.

(Via Autoblog.)

Dear Bank of Ireland

02/05/2010

Update 13/05: After an extended period of phone tag, I finally closed the account having accepted a €40 refund on the erroneous charges. The balance won’t come close to covering the time and frustration I’ve expended dealing with this idiocy, but I just want shot of it. Of course BOI will learn nothing from this.

CC: Richie Boucher, CEO; Mark Cunningham, Business Banking; Tim O’Neill, Branch Network; Group Credit Operations; Douglas Branch; Customer Care

Dear Person That Wouldn’t Or Couldn’t Type Their Own Name,

With reference to the attached letter, I would like to confirm that I’ll be paying every cent of the direct debits Bank of Ireland erroneously withdrew from my account, despite clear instructions not to overdraw said account when I converted an overdraft to a term loan several years ago. Amusingly, this was at Bank of Ireland’s insistence, with numerous tiresome phone calls.

I had already made one payment before the “official” you “assigned” to continue harassing me, left a message on my answering machine. I rang him shortly afterwards to inform him of this, but his phone rang out. I tried again later but I was directed to voicemail, where I left a message with my name and phone number. He didn’t call me back. (more…)

Real-Life First Person Shooter

01/05/2010

Boarding party retaking a ship from Somali pirates, via helmet-cam. Perhaps a few gamers will stop playing FPS games when they see what it’s actually based on? Ok, probably not. :)

Airspace Rebooted