Feed

In case you haven’t realised this before, you can subscribe to this blog by visiting http://incognitous.wordpress.com/feed/ or clicking on the orange feed button in your address bar and clicking on subscribe. This will save a bookmark which tells you when there is a new post and saves you having to check regularly, especially since by brain-to-keyboard sphincter has tightened up a bit recently. Save the bookmark in a bookmarks toolbar in your browser and everything will be made much easier.

Either that or you’re using a browser other than IE7, in which case I assume you’re bright enough to work it out yourself. Opera has a nice “Feeds” drop-down doodah. Use that!

Read this too: http://willwybrow.com/2009/01/11/feeding-blogs/

File Sharing

A recently updated news story on the BBC news website entitled “UK will not legislate on piracy” caught my attention this week. File sharing is a big problem for the music industry and I can safely say that something obviously needs to be done about it. What made me laugh wasn’t the fact that there won’t be any law changes regarding this, it’s a very difficult problem to tackle, but the only comment in the entire article:

“We can’t have a system where we’re talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms.”

That is the only thing actually quoted from the Intellectual Property minister (there’s a position for that!?), David Lammy. Now I don’t know that much about law, but it is specifically the teenagers in their bedrooms that are perpetrating the crime. There’s no overlord. File sharing websites have their arseholes covered with 6 feet of reinforced concrete, and they’re the only other agent in this. So what’s required is either a major overhaul in the legislative system, or something to be done about the bedroom kleptomaniacs.

As far as I can see, it’s a deadlock, piracy continues to thrive and there’s nothing anyone can do in our current political system. Now, if we lived in a despotic regime or a communist state, this problem would be easily solved.

Democracy is too complicated.

Keep it simple kids, either share equally with no concept of money (which would work in a developed western country unlike Russia or Cuba (joke, in case there are any people with a sense of humour failure (if you are genuinely offended by that vague statement, kiss my ass, you’re not as mentally developed as us enlightened liberal patriots (are enlightened liberal patriots possible?)))) or let one person have all the fun.

FFXII

Damn you Final Fantasy, with your intermittent save points!

What’s with that?

Cherry Cola

Cherry Cola is pretty much Dr Pepper but sweeter really isn’t it?

What’s with that?

Crisps

What’s with all Walkers crisps being vegetarian except for the Cheddar cheese ones?

What’s with that?

Um Bongo

Um Bongo, Um Bongo, They drink it in the Congo

Or so it says on the side of the carton. But do they really drink it in the Congo? Wikipedia says:

It is particularly famous for its long running (sung) slogan of “They Drink It In The Congo”, used with the accompanying animated television advert since the 1980s. However, Um Bongo is not marketed in either the Republic of the Congo or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So why would they say it’s drunk over there? What’s the incentive for people to buy a drink that’s drunk in the Congo (even if it isn’t)? What’s the point? Are more people gonna buy it because it’s drunk somewhere in central Africa? Are they allowed to market something false like this?

I got two of them free with the Independent today, so I don’t mind.

What The Fuck Was All That About?

Having listened to the podcast when it was first available, I didn’t give a second thought to Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’s phone calls to Mr. Sachs. They weren’t particularly offensive and anyone who thinks they were should get their sense of humour checked. Sachs has since accepted the apology, which means that the air should be clear now, surely?

Anyway, I didn’t plan to write about that so much as briefly ponder Five’s decision to air an hour long documentary about the fiasco called “Russell & Ross: What the Fuck Was All That About?”. Without even questioning the idea of releasing this show, I laughed at the title. It’s just so Five isn’t it? I would watch it, mainly because I am a fan of both Ross and Brand, but I know it’s just going to be a boring, drawn out, pun filled ratings booster. What the fuck?

Gratuitous Swearing

Why the fuck are people wearing shorts and flipflops today!? It’s fucking freezing out there. Fucking cunts.

Lecture Note

If you’re going to give a lecture, don’t just stand there and talk in a monotone voice about nuclear fusion, put some effort in. Make a joke, tell a story. Do anything to make people interested. Sure, it’s the students’ prerogative to listen and take notes and get all the information into our tiny little brainboxes, but there’s absolutely no reason to make it harder for us. We want to learn. We want to do well. But it’s nigh on impossible to learn and maintain a healthy appetite for the subject at hand if a boring fart stands at the front and drones on about something that should be interesting. Especially at 9 in the morning.

The guy that did the same lectures last year was interesting. He made bad jokes, he was nervous and he interacted with the audience. Better than standing there and not saying anything other than the notes.

Anyway, to lighten things up, lets have a nice photo of the computer room in the lab where I’m writing all this shit. It’s a very well lit room, yei?

The Cistern

Students often collect their empty cans to make a pile in the living room. This is our version.

It's a rollover!