Wednesday, September 05, 2007
3 hours sleep is not enough.If anyone else knocks at the door, I'm going to start throwing things.
Steve 11:50 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Email problems solved.The technical help desk of our ISP was absolutely useless, predictably, but I was eventually able to solve the problem by changing the firewall on both computers here.
(I'm sure other users of the Orange ISP will be familar with such tales of useless help desks)
Now I don't for one moment think the firewall itself was at fault, as it has been running on both pcs here, quite faultlessly, for around 2 years now. Meanwhile, the ISP has been performing major "upgrades" to the service at exactly the time we were no longer able to recieve email.
Mmhmm... yeah, sure its our firewalls at fault.
Anyway, I switched over to a more popular brand of firewall, and everything's hunky dory again. Pity I personally hate this firewall, but for the sake of having access to email again... beggars can't be choosers.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 6:35 PM [+] (1) comments
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Kittens eh?Cute huh?
A little tip... don't mix kittens with canvas wardrobes.
One of the little furballs climbed up on top of the thing and took a dump.
Way to make my clothes stink.
*walks off grumbling*
Labels: animals, annoyed, cats
Steve 3:26 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, November 18, 2005
I'm absolutely sick to death of my IT lesson in college. So sick of it, I just walked out.After missing the 2nd 2 weeks of the course when I had bad eyes, I got dumped into the bottom group in the class and have been pretty much ignored ever since.
So today I show up, and the computers wont recognise my login and password, and a message has been left saying the tutor will be late.
Well I'm fucked if I'm gonna sit there twiddling my thumbs waiting for him to show up, just so I can log on.
I may yet fail this whole course, coz unless something gets done about this IT course, I'm simply not gonna go to it... and less than 80% attendance in any lesson means failing the whole lot.
I have a personal tutorial next tuesday where I get to talk about the course in general with my tutor, so I plan to kick up a stink.
Steve 9:20 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Well, after much toing and froing between hospitals for blood tests, x-rays and whatever, the usual treatment with drops, and all the inconvenience you might expect, my eyes are pretty much better, though I'm none the wiser as to the cause.All of this left me going back to college having missed a couple of lessons each from most of my important classes, and this being only the start of the course, the reaction to my renewed presence from some of the tutors was a little... hmm... less enthusiastic than I'd have liked.
They basically dismissed me as a time waster, without ever bothering to learn the facts.
Can't say I'm too happy about that.
That pretty much sums up my feelings regarding the whole of the past month really. Difficult.
Oh yeah, I haven't smoked a cigarette in over a month now.
Labels: annoyed, college, iritis, medical
Steve 6:25 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Bollox.So here I am trying to get my life on track when what happens?
Iritis. *Both* eyes.
So now I have to spend at the very least a week, if not several weeks, effectively blind due to the dilating drops.
I'll be able to see well enough to not walk into people, but crossing the road would be dangerous, so I'm effectively housebound while on my own. I certainly wont be able to read or write, so college and all online activities are buggered.
*sigh*
Thanks in advance for any kind or concerned comments. I wont be able to check them for some time, obviously
Labels: annoyed, college, iritis
Steve 10:08 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 21, 2005
A neighbour of mine has become something of a problem just lately, making a lot of noise, and becoming abusive towards all of his neighbours when requested to turn it down.So this weekend, he really kicked off, hurling abuse at me, my next door neighbour, and anyone else who came anywhere near the area.
Needless to say... myself and two other decent neighbours aren't putting up with this.
This morning we had a meeting to discuss it. It seems another unidentified neighbour has already complained about him, and each of us are now adding our own voices to that complaint.
I've written and posted a very direct and informative letter to the housing association.... something they will not be able to ignore, while the two other guys have phoned the housing officer.
Hopefully something will be done about him, before matters escalate into a voilent situation... coz if things continue as they are, that's exactly what's going to happen.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 4:26 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, February 26, 2005
What a week.Monday started out with a trip to the hospital which left me feeling really angry.
You may recall some months ago I mentioned having a lump ...er... putting it bluntly... on my bollox. Well, the treatment I was given didn't seem to do a whole lot, so a month or so ago I went back to see a different doctor, who decided it was probably an epididimal cyst, and made an appointment for me to go and have an ultrasound scan at the hospital.
So when I got there, talk about being treated like a piece of meat.
There were two guys, one a (greek?) doctor who's only interest appeared to be football, and a techician running the machine, who had all the communication skills of a house brick. To make matters worse, just on the other side of a partly drawn curtain where a bunch of other people who seemed to be using the room as an office, and they kept walking through while I was laying on the bed with my bits out, being poked and prodded at.
So... after being made to feel generally very degraded, the doctor announces that yes, it is a cyst, and I ask if it's anything I should be worried about. his reply was "Yes................. in around 2098." Now excuse me, but when I'm looking for information and reassurance about something that I find quite worrying, especially having been made to feel like a worthless piece of meat that barely warrants a "hello" when they walk into the room, I find having a joke about it not only inapropriate, but downright disgusting.
Anyway, moving on.
On the way home, it snowed, which I rather liked, but I somehow managed to lose my bearings and got lost along the maze of cycle paths on the wrong side of town. Heh.
On the plus side, it snowed all day, and that night I went out and took some photos.
Here's an example....
Certainly one of my better night shoots.
What else have I been doing?
Ahhh.... Babylon 5.
Yup, I've had my eyes glued to the tv, working my way through the box sets for the past couple of weeks... every spare minute I've had. It really is that good.
Saying that... I'm a bit concerned with season 5.
They obviously knew they were gonna be cancelled at the end of season 4, and so basically completed all of the really important aspects of the story, leaving only a few loose ends. They could very easilly have left it right there, and you wouldn't have been left feeling short changed and left hanging.
Then they got picked up by another network, and continued with season 5. Trouble is, having already completed the main story, I was concerned that 5 would feel tacked on... and to be honest, the 4 episodes I've seen so far feel very much like that.
I just hope it improves. I'm not writing it off yet.... but so far, it doesn't look promising.
I've mentioned before that Andrea lives some distance from me. Around 105 miles away, up north, to be a bit more specific, meaning we only get to see each other at weekends.
So, up till now, we've been running up huge phone bills, speaking to each other every night in the week.
Well, we've found a solution to that.
During the week, I tried to initiate an audio chat with Andrea using msn messenger, but it wouldn't let her accept the call as she didnt have a cam or mic. So... next day she goes out and buys a cam and mic, and we duly tried again.
The results were... variable. Cam to cam with no audio was excellent, brilliant frame rate. However, as soon as we fired up the audio, the cam frame rate dropped down to a crawl, and the audio was very choppy, and broke up enough to make holding a decent conversation almost impossible.
I figured turning off the cams would improve the audio, but no... still very choppy and broken. Pity.
However....
For the past year or so, I've been hearing about a program called Skype, which a number of people have been using for audio chat, and have said is *very* good.
So, I figured why not give it a try. It's free, so what is there to lose?
Andrea and I duly downloaded, installed, and signed up to it, and oooh boy, is it ever good.
I've used a number of audio chat programs in the past, all with fairly decent results, but this absolutely stomps all over them. It's way better than phone quality audio. In fact, without exagerating, it's like being in the same room. Better yet, if you buy credits (which I haven't done yet) you can call people's home phone using it, for a fraction of the cost of dialing them on your own phone.
Anyway, to top all of this off, we discovered it's possible to run skype for audio chat at the same time as using msn messenger to run webcams, and the cam framerate is almost exactly the same as running msn webcams with no audio at all... ie, very fast.
The end result was that we can now chat for hours, face to face, with near realtime (and excellent quality) cam images, and audio like we were in the same room.... and all of this costing absolutely nothing.
Good stuff :-)
Labels: annoyed, medical, photos, webcams
Steve 5:21 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
ARGH!!!!Fucking assholes.
I got a reply from yahoo/launchcast after I emialed them querying what was happening to my station, and they gave a canned reply telling me to alter my browser settings. Needless to say, this had no effect whatsoever... and now I can't even access the station on yahoo messenger either.
Looks like the bloody halfwits have completely deleted it.
To say I'm furious is something of an understatement.
Labels: annoyed, launchcast, music
Steve 9:11 PM [+] (0) comments
Grrr.
There I was saying Lanchcast had sorted itself out, and now it says my station doesn't exist.
I can still access it from yahoo messenger, but when I go to the website, it gives me the 'create a new station' page... even though I'm logged in.
They better sort that out pronto, or I shall be sending a very stroppy email. After a couple of years fine tuning it, I'm not impressed.
They can't have lost all the settings, or I wouldn't be able to access it from messenger... but damnit. What a fuckup!
Labels: annoyed, launchcast, music
Steve 9:44 AM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, December 18, 2004
This may be the hardest entry I've ever written, so bear with me.When I was around 15, my mum left my dad, and went to live with her 'boyfriend'.
This in itself was difficult to deal with. My dad was/is an absolute bastard, treated us all very badly, with both mental, and physical bullying... bad enough to give my mum a nervous breakdown, and push her right over the edge into insanity.
After years in and out of a lunatic asylum (yes, seriously), by the time my mum left to shack up with this guy, she was so full of pills to stop her from raving, that if you shook her, she'd rattle.
So, the 'boyfriend' was this guy she'd met at a drop-in centre for people with mental problems. He was an alcoholic, drug misusing, smelly, disgusting, compulsive gambler. All in all, a very unsavoury creature.
Over the years, his behaviour, addictions, and mistreatment of my mum got worse, to the point where he made my dad look like a saint... and after my grandfather died, my sister and I managed to convince her to leave him and go to live with my gran.
Excellent, we thought, as my gran couldn't stand the guy either, and wouldn't allow him in her house.
Then my gran died.
Now, there is a clause in my gran's will that states that my mum may live in her house for as long as she likes, and that if/when she decides to move elsewhere, it is to be sold and the proceeds split between my mum and aunt. *However*, if my mum should allow any man (and this is written specifically to stop this drunken disgusting waster from moving in) to move in with her... the house is to be sold, regardless of whether my mum wishes it or not. I don't know who would have enforced this clause, but it's in writing, and legally binding.
So.. from the moment my gran died, the 'boyfriend' began worming his way back into my mum's life, dropping round for visits, totally uninvited, drunk as a skunk, and often at completely unreasonable hours... and then refusing to leave. Don't ask me why my mum allowed him in... it's completely beyond me.
It was obvious to everyone but my mum that this guy was on a serious downward spiral, and seemed absolutely determined to take my mum down with him.
So now we get to the bit that's really troubling me.
Last night I was woken by my cellphone. I keep it in my bedroom for emergencies, as when I'm in bed, I can't hear the landline.
It was my sister, phoning to tell me that the 'boyfriend' was dead. He'd had a heart attack while he was with my mum, and died before the ambulance arrived.
Now you'd expect this to be a traumatic experience for my mum, but I know from past experience that my mum simply can't be traumatised anymore. All of the pills she has to take completely insulate her from reality. When my gran died, my mum's reaction was.. well... she was numb. I asked her how she felt, and she didn't feel a thing. It's not that she didn't care... she just couldn't feel anything.... and that appears to be her reaction now too.
So... is this what's troubling me? No.
What troubles me is my own reaction.
I'm entirely horrified by the first two things that crossed my mind when my sister told me what had happened.
1: "Thank god for that."
Relief that this fucking arsehole can't fuck my mum's life up any more.... but still.... it disgusts me that I could actually be glad that another human being has died.
2: "Okay... that's gonna fuck up my christmas, coz now she's gonna have to come and spend the day with me."
Yeah... really... I actually thought that, and I feel nothing but shame.
The *only* good thing I could ever say about that drunken fucker was that he'd spend christmas day with my mum, saving me from the obligation. I doubt many people will understand that... but it's like I'm the parent and she's the child... a complete role reversal... not just with christmas, but life in general.. and over the years, this has really begun to bug me. So being spared from being the 'christmas host' was quite a relief.
None of this can make me feel good about thinking such a thing though. The depths of my own selfishness make me feel sick.
Labels: annoyed, bereavement
Steve 5:20 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
The audio hardware routing on this pc is an absolute bitch, it has to be said.Shared input and output channels just aren't very clever, if you ask me.
It's all very well if you wanna watch dvd movies with surround sound, but when you wanna plug in a stereo sound source other than a mic, it becomes a total nightmare, with all kinds of feedback problems, or software simply refusing to take a feed from the auxilliary inputs.
I discovered what a pain in the arse it is today, coz I picked up a cheap little record deck, with the intention of ripping all the best tracks from my old vinyl collection onto mp3.
For a while it looked like I wasn't gonna be able to do it, and this would've been a disaster, as I bought this pc specifically with the intention of using it to record my own music.
Eventually I managed to get Cubase to accept an input from the stereo line-in at the back, so all is not lost, but it makes something of a mockery of all the other fancy inputs scattered around the thing.
Labels: annoyed, computers, music
Steve 1:11 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Grr.My VCR's broken.
I guess I shouldn't complain, as I've had it for nearly 10 years, but damnit, did it have to take my copy of 5th Element with it?
More shopping here we come. Its kinda niggly having to buy something that's basically obsolete technology, especially when I much prefer to watch movies on DVD, but my VHS collection is so big, it'd take years to replace them all with DVDs
Ah well.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 9:09 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Yesterday turned out to be quite interesting.I went into town, just to pay in a cheque and do a spot of window shopping. So I was stood in the 02 shop and after chatting with a sales assistant for a bit decided bugger it... I'd buy an XDAII. All was fine right up till the point she needed proof of signature. They don't accept the card I use, and I didn't have any of the other things they'd have accepted. Talk about stupid. For the sake of some dumb beurocratic red tape, I couldn't buy my widget, 02 lost out on a regular income from the data tarrif, and the shop lost out on the sale of a not altogether cheap piece of kit. Idiots.
In a rather poor mood, I wandered off to a games shop and picked up a copy of Half Life 2. (Bitch to install, but it looks great. Haven't spent much time on it yet.)
Anyway... that would've been it, but I figured I'd do my usual lap of the shopping centre before going home, and in doing so I walked past...er... into a gadget shop.
Oops.
For the past couple of weeks I've been looking at this Rio 5gig MP3 player... and walked away every single time. So I was stood in the gadget shop and looking over the MP3 players in there... some that I'd not seen before elsewhere... when this sales assistant who really knew his stuff approached me and proceeded to explain in great deal the finer points of various of the MP3 players. Now this was very refreshing, coz in Dixons, you're lucky if the assistants even know their own name, much less any technical details about the stuff they're trying to sell (though it actually seems they aren't trying to sell anything at all, they're that disinterested in serving the customers).
Anyway... after about 15 mins of listening to the guy, being given demos of each one, I looked at the guy, chuckled and said "Right... I need to go to the bank. I'll be back in 5 mins."
5 mins later I was £200 poorer and in possession of a very nice Creative Zen Touch 20gig MP3 player. I struggle getting my head around the fact that this tiny little thing has the same storage capacity as my laptop, but there it is.
So most of last night and this morning has been spent transferring most of my MP3 collection onto the thing, and then working my way through ripping much of my CD collection. It's heavy going and my eyes are killing me now... but boy is it worth it. Nearly 2 gigs, and 426 tunes done so far. The idea of having *all* my fave tunes to hand wherever I go is very appealing.
Labels: annoyed, gadgets, games, music, phones
Steve 11:48 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Grrr.It's looking like the people who were hosting my photo gallery have shut down their free service. It's probably time I got a paid for service and made a new website... something to host all the stuff I've got scattered around the web.
I figure I'll use the same baisc design as this weblog, and move the blog across to the new location, (when I get it) combining it with the photo gallery, and whatever else.
We'll see.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 3:33 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, October 08, 2004
So I was in town yesterday and this guy in a suit walks up to me with a clipboard, and I think "here we go... insurance salesman or somesuch."I was about to do the usual thing, say "not interested" and keep walking, but he asks something entirely different. He asked if I was interested in full or part time work.
Now this struck me as an odd way of handling recruitment, but i decided to see what he had to say. In typical salesman style, he spoke very quickly and was vague on details to say the least, but assured me that if I gave him my name and phone number, someone would get back to me in the evening with full details. Out of curiosity, I gave him my number. I don't really need the work as such, but something part time might add a bit of stability to my life that's rather lacking just now.
So in the evening, the call comes through, and they give me their address and a time for an interview, but were still very evasive when I asked what specifically their operation was. Like... was it an agency or what? The nearest I got was "It's a call centre. All of your questions will be answered in the interview."
Mmhmm. This didn't feel quite right to me.
So this morning, half an hour before the interview was due, they phoned me again to confirm that I would be attending, and I told them I didn't think I would. When asked why, I replied that the idea of attending an interview when the people concerned wouldnt even tell me what the job was, and the contact number was a mobile phone, jsut didn't seem quite on the level to me.
The woman asked if I'd reconsider if she told me exactly what the job was. I said I'd consider it. So she starts off with "It's a call centre... though not exactly sales..." I interrupted, "So it's cold calling?" Hesitation... "Yes."
"Well, since it's clear that your company's policy is one of deception, just from the way you handle recruitment, I really don't think I want any part of it, so I most deffinitely won't be attending any interview."
You can spot 'em from a mile off.
Labels: annoyed, interviews, work
Steve 8:27 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, September 26, 2004
So yesterday I went shopping for another graphics card.The more I read about the one I'd recently bought, the less impressed I was. It seems my old (new) card is sold so cheap coz it'd crippleware. When making the 9600 chipset, they had a bad batch where only 4 of the 8 pipelines worked, so the manufacurers take their 128 bit chip, stick it on a 64 bit bus, and use a software patch to make it work, albeit at half capacity. Thing is, they dont bother to tell anyone about that.... or at least, the shops dont.
Annoyingly, most of the shops I tried have that card and sell it like its the dogs bollocks... which it most certainly isnt. Worse, PC World looked at me like I was nuts when I told them I was looking for something more powerful. They had a range of decent Nvidia cards 'on display', but did they have them in stock? Hell no!
So finally, the last place I looked, a crappy little shop in town that I swore I'd never go to finally turns out to be useful.
They had the same card I already had, but pleasingly, also had the next card up in the range. More than that, the sales assistant actually knew what I was talking about and understood why I didnt rate the 9600SE.
So anyway, I now have a funky new ATI Radeon 9800 in my machine, and everything runs not just well, but brilliantly. All my emulated games (even the Sega System 2 games) run super smooth, and Farcry is running with maximum settings on all the graphics options with not a flicker of slowdown.
I'm a happy chappy :-)
Labels: annoyed, graphics cards
Steve 5:42 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
I've had better days.Between people pissing me off and assorted aches and pains that I should probably get checked out, I just wanna go to sleep.
Tomorrow's my birthday, so here's hoping it's a better day.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 11:13 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, August 23, 2004
My boiler's broken.No hot water.
Bollox.
I hope they send someone out pronto when I call them in the morning. I think it's the same problem it had around a year ago... flow regulator or something. They fixed it quickly last time.
Hmm.
3am's getting to be a pretty empty hour.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 3:24 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, August 15, 2004
I'm not too impressed with this Microsoft Service Pack 1 for Windows. In fact, it's downright bloody stupid.I donwloaded it yesterday, and began the installation, but half way through it gave me an error alert saying it could not install because the pc's atapi driver was already in use and I should close down any programs using that driver.
Well duh! The atapi driver is for the hard drive, so unless I shut down windows or turn off the whole bloody computer, it's always gonna be in use.
Stupid.
Oh dear. This blog really is turning into a right old winge-fest.
It's not supposed to be that way.
Steve 2:36 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, August 13, 2004
Dontcha just love screaming neurotic attention seekers who neglect to tell the whole story regarding an event, so they can appear to be the innocent victim of someone else's mean nature, when in fact *they* are the aggresor?God knows how I managed to hold my tongue.
Better yet, when they'd rather choose to believe *everyone* is a backstabber than to believe what they're being told is the truth, if that means they'd have to accept something unpleasant about themself.
Am I talking about someone specific?
You better believe it.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 2:07 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Argh!I have an infurriating ringing in my ears.
Actually, I'm not sure if it's in my ears on in my head... it's like a very low frequency hum that sometimes feels like it's coming from the back of the base of my neck. All I can think is it may be some inner or middle ear infection, coz loud or low frequency sounds seem to be extra loud and distorted.
Whatever it is, It's driving me nuts, and sleep isn't getting rid of it.
Steve 12:29 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Argh!Stupid crappy Windows.
My pc had a barny a few hours ago and totally refused to connect to the net. It couldn't find any of my network connections... no dsl, no dialup, no nothing. Whenever I tried to go anywhere near the settings for these it simply locked up.
Drastic measures were called for as everything else I tried failed dismally, so I've just spent 4 or 5 hours doing a full windoze reinstall.
I backed up all the critical stuff I could remember onto my other partition, but god knows how much stuff I'll realise I needed and have lost forever.
Bollox!
Steve 9:16 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Is it a full moon?The things I've witnessed today... the outright stupidity, arrogance and aggression have been just unbelievable.
So... bugger that. I'm just gonna sit back and watch the classic 80s vampire flick Near Dark. I've been looking for it for ages, and finally found it this afternoon.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 1:22 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Yup, no doubt about it... I've been well and truly played.I dunno who I'm more disgusted by... myself for letting it happen, or those involved for being so fucking callous.
Oh well. I can't say I wasn't warned. (Yes, you are always right)
Labels: annoyed
Steve 8:45 AM [+] (0) comments
I'm finding myself hugely annoyed.
Seems some people have absolutely no idea what could be considered inapropriate behaviour in certain circumstances.
Not impressed.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 12:21 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Argh!!!Why do some foreigners assume that because you speak english that you have the time and inclination to do their english homework for them?
Like duh!
The web is a wonderful source of information where you can *learn* everything you're likely to need to know. Getting someone to hand you the answers on a plate is totally defeating the object... and come exam time these people are gonna be completely screwed, coz they won't have learned a thing.
What's even more annoying is they don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "no", and get very abusive when you explain why you aren't going to write their essay for them.
Oh well.
Maybe I'll try a different approach. "If you teach me your entire langguage, I'll take a look at your homework."
Steve 1:35 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, April 15, 2004
God almighty, some people are incredibly stupid.So some guy sends me a message in a particular forum, and coz I went and checked his profile but didn't actually reply, he decides I'm unfriendly and gets all moody with me.
Get a bloody clue.
That's one of the few things that really does bug me with the net. Talk to someone who says hi, just to be polite, and all of a sudden they think they own you, and later on any lack of immediate response from you is seen as an inisult.
It's pretty simple stuff really and you see it in all forms of communication. Just coz a person *can* speak to you doesn't mean they have to or want to... and just coz they may choose to on one occasion doesn't mean they have to or will want to on another.
Sadly some people just don't seem able to grasp that.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:13 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.My laptop's broken... or rather the monitor is. It just stopped working, mid mp3. No glitching, flickering or anything.
So I've hooked up an external monitor from my old pc, which is a pretty poor arrangement, but it's gonna have to do till I can get it fixed... and god I hope I can get it fixed, coz this was a grey import... never officially imported. (Obviously they didnt tell me that when I bought it.)
Fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Steve 5:56 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, February 27, 2004
Today I finally picked up the piece of hardware I needed to start recording some new tunes. A Creative Labs USB Soundblaster card.Nothing fancy... it just adds line in and line out sockets that are lacking on this laptop.
Plug it in, install the drivers, windows is happy and making noises... winamp is happy and making noises... everything is happy and making noises....
Except Steinberg Cubase SX.
Fuck! Bastard! Shitbag!
It can see the card. It accepts it as the card to be used for input and output. It does everything it's supposed to except bloody record or play.
Not impressed and not happy.
Steve 7:32 PM [+] (0) comments
Some people make me sick.
A situation arose in a chatroom where one person disliked the stance of another... and after a period of huffing and puffing came to me and asked my opinion. I gave it to them, and they got very pissed off and upset that I didnt agree with their view.
Come on... if you dont wanna know, dont bloody ask. And don't for one single second expect me to toe the line and be politically correct, coz I toed that line for a few months and hated what I became, and it ain't gonna happen again.
Steve 5:29 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, February 13, 2004
My bank sucks.They've screwed up clearing a cheque and seem to be just sitting on it. It's not a disaster in itself, as I have enough money to get by, no problem. What's really pissing me off though is it's preventing me from buying the piece of equipment I need to start recording the new album I've been brewing for the past god knows how long.
The ideas are coming thick and fast, and plans to promote the new material too. This'll be a make or break album financially, if not creatively... and I plan to take an entirely unconventional route to gain recognition for the new material.
Details as and when.
You can start holding your breath... it won't be long... probably.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:52 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, February 12, 2004
You know what REALLY annoys me?People who keep their browser maximised and dont even know that isnt the only way to have it. So they never realise they can have more than one thing on the screen at once.
"Resize your browser" I say.
"Huh?" they say.
Arg!
Labels: annoyed
Steve 3:04 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
There's not much that annoys me more than to have someone I've never heard of email me and tell me they've decided they like my music so much, they're going to use it to make their new tune.Like... excuse me! Heard of copyright?
They go on to tell me how this will be great for both of us. Really? How exactly? I already made the tune. It's MY tune.
Needless to say, a suitably abbrupt and abbrasive reply was sent.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 8:42 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, January 10, 2004
I find I'm in a truly filthy mood tonight.Being pretty much sidelined in certain areas of my life is depressing, but there's not much I can do about that... and it's entirely my own fault anyway. The politics in the chatroom though... well.
Having thought about it for a couple of days, I find the idea of being given a completely unjustified warning about something by a channel owner who didn't even bother to ask questions or check fact first, totally disgusting. So, rather than just sit and take it, I've resigned my ops.
I'm absolutely damned if I'm gonna be treated with such a lack of regard by someone who has no clue what's going on in the channel, and cares even less.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:28 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, December 08, 2003
Some time ago I posted about how one of my web pages had dropped in rank on google, and how I believed this was due to changes I'd made on my site.Well, a little research has shown that this drop in rank has nothing to do with anything I did, as many other people are having similar issues.
It turns out that google have adjusted their algorithm, so that many small but good and relevant sites have been dropped down the rankings. Effectively small commercial sites that were relying on google (and the host of other search engines that use google such as yahoo and aol) to bring them traffic and customers are now completely screwed unless they pay for a good position.
More than this, all the people who have come to rely on google for reliable and accurate search results have also been royally screwed, as they'll now be faced with either a long list of irrelevant rubbish, or a load of paying commercial sites.
I personally believe Google have abused their position as the recognised best search engine. They have broken our trust and royally shafted everyone for the sake of making a buck.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 1:33 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Is there some universal law that dictates "a person shall only realise the pilot light in the gas boiler has blown out *after* they have filled the bath with cold water"?*Grumble* *Mutter* *Mumble* Stupid gas boiler.
In other news... actually, there really is no other news. Life is just kinda bimbling along in a very non-descript manner at the moment.
So how are things with you?
Labels: annoyed
Steve 11:00 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Tripod are REALLY pissing me off.I opted for popups on this blog so I wouldn't have banners fucking up my nice design and what do they go and do? They stick a banner down at the bottom of the page anyway.
Okay... I can deal with that... not many people scroll all the way to the bottom I'm sure, so the effect is minimal.
So then they go and slap that huge great monstrosity right across the top of the page.
Bastards!
Labels: annoyed
Steve 6:55 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Oh lookie.Some bright spark has been trying to gain access to my yahoo launchcast account again, and caused it to be locked down.
Sad, sad, sad.
Well, it's not the first time, and probably won't be the last. I've seen it all before.
Chances are it's some silly little kid with attention defecit disorder... so lemme tell you... you'll get bore and go away long before I will.
On an entirely different subject, that advertising banner down at the bottom of this page is rather clever. I'd heard about these new targetted advertising schemes, and it seems the technology really does work. I only mentioned quitting smoking a couple of days ago, and all of a sudden the banner's full of 'quit smoking' remedies and schemes.
Labels: annoyed, launchcast
Steve 9:54 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, October 20, 2003
While I'm in the mood to have a bit of a moan, I'm deeply unimpressed with the latest round of Microsoft security patches for Windows XP.Ever since installing said patches, my browser now refuses to find at least 50% of websites without multiple clicks on the refresh button. It would seem that Microsoft's idea of good internet security is to block all traffic, legitimate or otherwise.
Yeah... good one.
Steve 5:59 AM [+] (0) comments
Right, lets make this absolutely clear... David Blaine is a twat!
This stunt of his is entirely pointless, beyond self promotion... and frankly, I don't see that starving himself to gain recognition is much of an achievment.
He's not broken any records, to the point that the Guinness Book Of Records snubbed him completely. People have gone much longer without food, ie people in prison on hunger strike. People have been in isotaion for much longer... POW's and political prisoners.
He's not performing any impressive feat of magic or illusion. It's entirely pointless.
The media, particularly american media, has made some note of the antipathy towards Blaine by the english public, seemingly unable to understand our dislike of him.
Let me put it in very simple terms, for those who don't understand. The Brits don't like a showoff... and that's all he is.
"Hey everybody, look at me. I'm not eating. Aren't I clever?"
Well, actually, no. Mr Blaine, you are a twat.
I for one will be very glad when I don't have to see extremely dull images of some unwashed pillock sitting in a perspex box doing nothing, while making himself ill. If there's one thing I don't understand about the whole thing, it's how anyone with half a brain can not see him for the complete waste of time that he is.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 12:10 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, October 17, 2003
Its not often I see something online that REALLY upsets me, but THIS did.I dont care if this is a joke or for real. These people are sick.
I'm not one to advocate hacking or such stuff, but someone needs to ddos the hell out of that site.
Sick sick SICK fuckers!!!!!
Okay, now I've got that little rant out of my system, here's a fun kitten picture, to cheer everyone up again, 'cause I cant leave you all on such a low note.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 3:20 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, September 11, 2003
I'm feeling a little agitated today.I've never much liked shrinks, mostly because I think they rarely get to the root of a problem, but also largely because I find them very often to be smug self richeous assholes.
I also don't like talking about my family here, mostly because my relationship with my family is no-one's business, and also if I were to say something bad or inaccurate about them, they're not in a position to correct what I've said or defend themselves.
However, today I'm going to make an exception, as both a shrink, and a member of my family are the major cause of my being agitated right now.
So here's the story.
I acompanied my mother to see her psychiatrist today. She's a very nervous person at best after having had a nervous breakdown several years ago. I was with her partly because she doesn't like travelling alone, and partly because the psychiatrist wanted to see a member of her family.
No biggie, it was just a routine review to see that her medication was doing the job and to get an outside perspective. It did mean I had to entirely turn my sleep pattern upside down in order to be awake in the morning, but for her own peace of mind, it's worth doing that every once in a while.
"Every once in a while".... there's the thing.
It would seem that daily routine, while being good for my mum's state of mind, isn't entirely good for her short term memory. When every day's the same as the last, it's.... well, I guess a simple way to put it would be to say it's turning her brain to mush. She's aware of it, and I can see it myself when I visit her.
Me: "What did you do today then?"
Mum: "Nothing really."
Me: "Watch any good tv shows? Listen to any good music?"
Mum: "I can't remember. I don't think so."
See what I mean? There's just very little.... there.
Getting back to the point, the shrink considered this and said I should go and see her more often, give her things to do, take her places... whatever. Something to occupy her mind.
I can see his logic. He's entirely right, she does need something to actually keep her brain ticking over.
However.... and this is what's really got me wound up... I'm 35, have a girlfriend who lives with me, and a life of my own. It upsets me greatly, makes me feel like a bad son, that I resent so much being expected to hold my mum's hand, to be a crutch to support her through life.
I sit here looking at what I've already written, and it's like "You asshole? You don't want to help your own mother?"
Yes I do, but I also want to be able to live my own life as I see fit, without having to keep turning it upside down to accomodate her needs. Parents are supposed to bring their kids up and then let them go, not abandon them in their early teens and then cling onto them later in life.
Obviously I have more issues going on here than just the present situation, the history of my family is a difficult one at best. I've cast off a lot of the shit that happened, and a number of family members with it. I can't and won't shut out my mum... she's my mum and I love her, but that's starting to feel like... being chained to her. I feel trapped.
Does that make sense?
I feel angry at her for being fragile and struggling in life, for needing my help... and I feel angry at myself for being angry with her, as none of it's her fault. I should be happy to be able to help, when really I just want to shake her, shout at her to get a grip.
Needless to say, she's completely unaware that I feel this way. I always put on a happy face when I see her, and will always do so. I'm a selfish and often cold hearted person in many ways, but even though it aggravates me to feel so obligated, I don't want to upset or hurt her.
Okay... that's probably the most open and frank view you will ever see of how I think... a glimps inside the not altogether nice mind/life of Benway.
I probably shouldn't even post it here, but fuck it, I needed to get it off my chest, regardless of how ugly it sounds.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 4:05 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, September 01, 2003
**Grumble grumble** ... comments are still down.... **grumble**....How annoying. If they aren't up and running by the end of the week, I'll go find a new comments system that actually works for more than 5 minutes a month. I know they're free, but damnit! What's the point of having a free service if it never works?
Steve 5:50 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Grrrr!!!I just tried logging into my launchcast station and was refused access due to the number of login attempts having exceeded the set limit. Now since I haven't logged in for days, this says to me someone has been trying to hack into my account.
No doubt some little asshole wants to mess up my playlist. Obviously they didn't manage to get in, but it means though I can listen to my station, I'm unable to edit the playlist till it's unlocked.
Labels: annoyed, launchcast
Steve 10:44 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, August 21, 2003
What utter bastards!!!I opted for popups instead of banners on tripod 'cause banners would mess up my funky design and what do they do? They stick banners on it too.
I'm not impressed.
Obviously though, it being a free webhost, there's not a lot I can do about it, other than pay to get rid of them, and I'm far too much of a cheapskate to do that... not no mention skint. At least the banner's at the bottom.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:38 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
I could so very easilly rip a particular person to pieces here. I could... I'm sorely tempted to, but I'm not going to, purely because even after hearing tragedy after tragedy after tragedy, and wondering just how much is real and how much is made up just to get attention... you never know if this one's for real or not.Instead I'll just say this to that person. You did a thing 9 months ago that made me look at you in a different light. It doesn't even matter if it was for real or the most despicable lie I've ever heard. You dumped your pain onto me and others, and have continued to do so every single day, be it real pain, or made up. Real friends don't do that. Now leave me alone.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 4:28 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, May 16, 2003
Woke up like a bear with a sore head and am in a generally grumpy mood today.Bystanders are recommended to stand well back and not poke their fingers through the bars.
Work on the new photo gallery is progressing, albeit rather slowly.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 6:56 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, May 08, 2003
How is it my mum always manages to phone me when I'm either asleep or in the bath?I'm sure she's got hidden cameras in here.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:00 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, May 03, 2003
Ok... change of plan.Having an already fucked up sleep pattern, even after going to bed early I was struggling to sleep, and then woken completely by a dumbass neighbour playing his music at full blast around 2am. Brigitte knocked on his door and after a heated exchange between the three of us, he finally agreed to turn the noise down, though made like he was doing us a favour. Twat!
The end result is, I still can't sleep and will be in no fit state to go to London tomorrow. Brigitte'd already said if I was too tired (which makes me grumpy) that I should stay home and she'd go alone... which is what's happening. No good me being there if I'm gonna be a grumpy git, especially when I need my sociable head on, being with her parents and all.
I'm not happy about it, `cause I feel like I've let Brigitte down, not to mention the fact that I was looking forward to going. I've made a concerted effort over the past 2 days to get my sleep pattern sorted so that it wouldn't be an issue, and it's all been fucked up by some stupid fucking moron who doesn't see anything wrong in playing music REALLY LOUD at 2am.
Steve 2:53 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 14, 2003
There was supposed to be a workman coming round today to fix the stuff broken by the last guy who came to fix the bathroom. I say supposed to, as after I got up early (anyone who knows me will know I find it almost impossible to get up early) to be ready for him... no-one showed up. Bollox!If I weren't so lazy, I'd have spent the day finishing sorting this place out, but as it was, as soon as it was obvious no-one was coming, I went back to sleep.
Gonna spend some time in the chatroom tonight, as between watching 24 hour news coverage of the war, and being hooked on the sims, I've shamefully neglected my friends there of late.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 6:45 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, April 07, 2003
Blogger's really starting to frustrate me.After losing control of my template for a month or so, I'm now finding it increasingly difficult to make the thing post anything at all, on top of which archives are no longer being saved to my server. The april archive simply doesn't exist.
Grrr!
I'm testing the w.bloggar blogging software to see if anything improves, though I'm not too hopeful, as the issues appear to be with blogger's servers themselves.
If things stay like this, I may end up looking for an alternative blogging system.
Steve 1:05 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, March 24, 2003
Very much as I expected, my manager wouldn't let things lie, much less admit she was wrong.She wasn't there today, but had instructed the supervisor to discipline me, firstly for talking back, and secondly for failing to achieve the (revised) target.
Hah!
I explained to the supervisor exactly what had taken place on friday, and she understood my position entirely, but still had to follow her instructions. Needless to say, I informed her that I would not accept any form of reprimand, especially as the manager didn't have the guts to do it herself. I then told her I'd stay to the end of my shift, purely so she wouldn't be left short-staffed, but that I would not be returning.
On talking to her just as I was leaving, the supervisor told me she didn't blame me for leaving at all. Dozens have already quit for exactly the same reason, and that she was looking for a new job herself. She also told me the only reason nothing is done about our manager is because her daughter is a senior manager. Don't you just love nepotism?
Seems I was right about the place from the start. Totally Mickey Mouse.
Steve 11:46 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 21, 2003
Did I say unprofessional when I mentioned my boss the other day?I should have said totally bloody stupid.
She set us a task today, and then just to make a straightforward job more difficult, she makes it a contest to see who can complete an equal share of the task in the fastest time. So there you have a group of people working against each other instead of with each other, and in such a way that completey dissrupts the normal working routine. That's bad management if ever I saw it. Anyway, she gave us a time limit of 4 hours, which myself and the guy I work with achieved easily, only to be told afterwards that we'd missed the 'real' target time by some margin.
Needless to say, I was not happy about this, and when I queried it with her, she said we'd missed the target and that was that. I asked "what about the 4 hours YOU set us?" She waffled on for a moment, at which point I expressed my displeasure in no uncertain terms saying that I was perfectly happy to work to a target, but for her to move the goalposts afterwards was unacceptable. She walked away.
This probably isn't going to be the last such episode, and it's only a matter of time before I leave. It's a real shame, because I enjoy the job, and like all the other people I work with... I just can't stand to be messed about by an incompetent manager on an ego trip.
Steve 11:42 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Not to be too blunt about it, my brother is a fucking idiot.He just phoned me, at midnight mind you, drunk as a skunk, starts waffling on about my dad and his wife, neither of whom I like as he well knows, and then tells me I need to lighten up or he's going to hang up the phone.
Needless to say, my respone was along the lines of "Okay, now you lsiten to me. Don't you EVER phone me at this hour again, don't you EVER phone me when you're drunk again, and don't you EVER tell me what I should or should not think or say with regard to our dad and his dumb bitch of a wife!!!" after which, I hung up.
Fucking twat!
Labels: annoyed
Steve 12:17 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, March 14, 2003
Not the most enjoyable working day of my life.The management are rather cracking down on the attainment of certain targets, and even though I've only been there for 4 days, I got the lecture along with 2 others. I was however able to sit there rather smug in the knowledge that I'd attained my target for the day.
What I didn't like though was then being thrown head first into a situation of which I have no experience, no training, and hadn't been provided with a fraction of the information necesary to do the job effectively. To me, that's bad management, and I don't appreciate being put in that position.
I'm rather coming to the conclusion that the whole operation is a bit Mickey Mouse, and if it continues like that, I won't stay there long. It's not like I need my hand held the whole time I'm there, but I would like to have certain tasks explained to me, at least once.
The word that comes to mind is unprofessional.
Steve 12:16 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, February 20, 2003
What a downheartening development, or rather lack of development.People were simply falling over themselves to get listed in The Octopus Files when a return link wasn't a requirement. They'd post their link request and promptly not bother to link back... lots of them. Well I got fed up with this, as I've mentioned here in the past, so made linking back a requirement. Guess what? No more link requests... none!
Yeash.
Are people that lazy? Are they THAT precious about the links they include in their blogs? I really don't get it. It's not like it costs them a penny. Sure, I like free stuff as much as the next guy, and don't pay for a thing online, but adding a simple text link in order to get a listing on what's obviously quite a unique and useful site, it doesn't cost anything but a little time, and it's not like it takes more than 20 seconds to do it.
*Shrugs and wanders off muttering*
Labels: annoyed
Steve 10:02 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, February 13, 2003
I learned an important lesson yesterday morning. Stay well clear of so called "warez" sites.After hunting all over the web for a usable MacOS hardfile, then resorting to KazaaLite, and all to no avail, I decided to try a dedicated warez search engine I know of. I know, it's naughty, but there you go.
Ever wondered where those sites get their files from? Let me tell you, it's not all cracked demos and security disabled copies of original disks. They're also getting their files directly from the pcs of users like you and me. How do I know this? On entering one of the sites, my virus checker went apeshit, screaming an alert at me. The site had uploaded a trojan called Download.Small onto my system. I didn't click on anything, download anything, or do anything other than enter the site, and "Bam!" I'm infected with a trojan that would, if I hadn't removed it immediately, have allowed hackers who're no-doubt attached to that site access to my pc.
Bastards!!!
Steve 3:59 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, February 07, 2003
Comes a time when you recognise certain patterns in people's behaviour. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not, but it certainly pays to pay attention.Well I have to say, when I see a form of behaviour that's coldly calculated to cause as much diestress and worry as possible, and I mean see this as a pattern, particularly when the end result is calculated to garner sympathy, the time comes when I have to say I just don't care any more. This card has been played once too often, and I'm simply not buying it. I'm not going to worry myself about it, and I'll feel no sympathy, regardless of the outcome.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 7:00 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Wednesday, wednesday, wednesday.Wednesday is something of a limbo day for me, and it's becoming an issue, albeit not a majojr one... just niggly.
Here's the score. On wednesday, I go visit my mum in the afternoon. We used to go into town for coffee, but since winter, she doesn't like to travel on the buses after dark. Fair enough, she's a nervous woman at the best of times, so now I go round to her house. The thing is, when we were in town, there were things to do, places to go, and sights to see. If the conversation ran dry, which it usually did, conversation not being one of her strong points, we'd just go window shopping or whatever.
Now I know this sounds awful... she's my mum, and I love her, but going round there every wednesday, drinking endless cups of coffee and staring at the walls... it's, well... getting a bit frustrating. Keeping the kind of hours I do, it becomes a lost day. There's no time when I leave to go and do practical stuff.
Ah well. It won't be long before the light lasts a bit longer and she won't be afraid to take the bus again. Till then, I'll just either have to bite my tongue and deal with it, or make excuses and feal guilty about not going on occasion. I guess none of this may make much sense to an outside viewer. I'm just whining and being selfish, but there are issues that I'm certainly not going to divulge here which make the whole thing very uncomfortable for me.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 11:22 AM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, January 04, 2003
Not a good day.Woke up with the bi-monthly strop, the foulest mood you can imagine, for no good reason at all. It usually lasts a couple of days, so I'm just gonna keep my head down and stay out of everyone's way.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 8:07 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Oh what fun.Got up at 9am (that's the middle of the night when you keep the kind of hours I do) to attend an interview at the job centre at 11am. When I got there, there was a long line of people waiting at the reception desk, `cause the receptionist was sat dealing with this guy who she should really have referred to an advisor. Anyway, after 10 mins, another woman comes to the desk and asks if anyone has interviews... I said "I do. I'm here to see Vickie."
"Vickie's off sick today." she said.
"Okay... so what do I do? There needs to be a record made that I actually turned up or something?"
"I don't know. I'm dealing with a client right now. Go and sit over there."
God knows why she even bothered to come to the desk, for all the good she did. After sitting for half an hour, I was approached by an advisor, who asked if I had an appointment. I told her I was there to see Vickie, and she said "Vickie's off sick today."
Grrrr
"I know that. The receptionist told me, and then told me to sit over here... now what am I supposed to do? Is anyone gonna make a record that I was here, or do I just go home? And then what?"
"Please wait here a moment."
15 mins later she comes back and says "You can go home. Vickie will contact you."
What a great way to waste a morning. In a place that functioned in something approaching a logical manner, they'd have phoned all the people who were due to see Vickie today, and told them not to go in. I guess that'd just make too much sense for them to handle.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 12:49 PM [+] (0) comments
So... the chatroom.
"Where's Benway?" seems to be the question on many people's lips at the moment. "Now he's got a girlfriend, he's forgotten all about us."
Well... it's not true.
Sure, I'm not there as much as I used to be, but what many people probably never even considered was, the reason I was so easy to catch online before was that I sat in there for between 12 and 16 hours a day. Dedication above and beyond the call of duty. You simply had to log in whenever you felt like it, and there I was, at your convenience.
Sorry folks, but the real world comes first, and being with Brigitte's obviously going to take priority. What that doesn't mean is that I've abandoned the room and forgotten about everyone. I'm actually in there every night except sunday, usually between midnight and 4am GMT (7pm - 11pm EST)... which is still far more hours than most regulars put in, and then some.
So there you have it folks... I'm not gone, and you're not forgotten.
I have to admit though, considering what the room was originally intended to be... how it was supposed to function, I'm sad to say I see it as something of a failure. It was supposed to be a community room, where everyone came in to chat with everyone... it was all about the group, and for a while, it seemed to work.... or at least, I thought it did. However, all it took was for me to be absent from the place for a couple of days, and the whole thing just died. No-one stayed. Sure, it's very flattering to know that people were going there because I was there, but that's not what it was supposed to be about. It just makes me sad, knowing that if I'm not there for hours on end, every single day, that the place will die... or rather, has died. A few people still drop by on a regular basis, and to those people, you have my greatest respect, especially those who still drop by even when due to the odd hours I keep, they know I'm not likely to be there. You found a place you liked, and you stuck by it. To those who just drop in once in a blue moon, and when asked why they don't visit more often say "Because there's no-one here"... well of course there isn't... too many people do exactly what you're doing, and don't hang out for more than 30 seconds.
I guess that's being rather harsh, but the simple truth is, those of us who've put in some VERY long hours have done so because we care about the room... and no, I don't mean just me... there are others. The thing is, we aren't there for your entertainment, like some tv station that you can just turn on, and there it is. We're people, we have lives, and if you don't interract with us, what reason do we have to sit there night after night? If you want us there every night, come see us, rather than complain if we aren't there when you drop in for the first time in months.
Do I sound annoyed? Well... I guess I am. Maybe I just expected a bit to much. I built the room, so obviously, I have every reason to put in the effort to make it work, and I guess I have no right to expect anyone else to. Even so... can you see why it bugs me some?
Steve 2:25 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, October 21, 2002
Sigh.I recieved another of those Nigerian scam emails today. This in itself doesn't bother me, as they go in the trash with all the other spam. What bugged me was that it was addressed to me by name, ie. my surname. I know my surname is on one of my main websites... it needs to be, purely for copyright purposes, but you have to be actually looking for it, and the idea of these dodgy characters looking through my stuff, looking for my name, and god knows whatever other info they might want... it pisses me off. It says it's not a random massed mailing, but intentionally targetted, and damnit... I'm no-one's fool.
So... if any Nigerian scam-mail scumbags happen to stumble on this weblog... kiss my arse!!!
Labels: annoyed
Steve 11:29 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, October 18, 2002
Hah!My instincts were correct. That job was absolutely NOT on the level. The guy wasn't looking for admin at all, it was simply a scam to draw in people interested in IT, to try and get them to refer customers to him, with the offer of a little money on the side as an incentive. Okay, so I could make a little pocket money from that, but it's not a job, and as such, a complete waste of my morning.
Labels: annoyed, interviews, work
Steve 12:15 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, October 12, 2002
I've been woken by some silly phone calls in my time, but todays has to take the biscuit.My mum rang to tell me she'd found her cat that's been missing for several days... at 7:30am!!!!!
ARRGH!!!
Steve 11:14 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Pet niggle time.This is an excerpt from an email I recieved recently:
I run a site called www.(I'm not promoting your crappy site).co.uk. It features MP3 streaming and downloads. Each band gets reviewed on the front page which helps people visiting the site. Also bands can give up to 2 tracks away free and sell the rest as downloads. We have no backing or £'s and so rely on the help and support of sites like yours.
If you can squeeze me into your front page, I will guarantee that I'll put your banner on my site.
I looked at this site.
There's very little content and if there are free downloads, I couldn't see them.
Now, fair enough, every site had to start somewhere, and I do state on my site that if people will link to me, I'll happily link back to them, so why did this email annoy me?
I get a lot of traffic to my website, and along comes this guy with his crappy little site, no content, no traffic worth mentioning, and he wants me to link to him from my FRONT PAGE, in return for a banner on some unspecified page, that no-one's ever gonna see anyway. Clearly he's going to be making money from this site, as there's some payment system for what content is available, but I'm going to benefit from linking on my front page HOW? I would have run a link from one of my other pages quite happily, but the cheek of this guy... he can go take a hike.
I get this kind of thing quite often and yeash, when are these people gonna realise... when you're the one asking for a link, and have more to gain than the person you're requesting a link from, you're in NO position to go stating terms and/or conditions.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 1:12 PM [+] (0) comments
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