Names for dogs

Sat down by the canal this afternoon, enjoying the sun reflecting off the water, I heard a man in the field yelling something. At first I thought he was being randomly abusive (some things are pretty common in Manchester *Grin* ) and was just yelling “Wanker!” at the top of his voice. As time went on, it became obvious that he was yelling at the dog that ran past me (not heading towards it’s owner, I hasten to add…) and it was called Franco. Which made a bit more sense.

As he walked towards me, and the volume reduced a bit, it turned out the dog was called Frankie. Which, compared to the other two versions, really was a bit of an anticlimax.

Surreal terrorist targets

A model village had problems getting insured because “it was at risk of terrorist attack”. I’m intrigued to know what type of attack was envisioned that would make it worthwhile to attack a model village. Maybe they could fly a remote-controlled plane into a scale replica of the World Trade Centre? (sorry, Center) Maybe send a model pyramid into orbit? Recreate Hatfield in the middle of the replica train set? A real example of the “shock and awe” method of terrorist attacks.

(And yes, I do realise that it’s more likely to be the recipient of some form of biological weapon, although the same can be said of anywhere that a large group of people is likely to congregate)

Isn’t hacking supposed to be a challenge?

There’s a story in The Register today about passwords. In a very simple survey, 75% of people wrote down their password when asked simply “what is your password?”. In all, 90% of people gave up their password with a bare minimum of social engineering.

It’s amazing to me, that people still don’t realise that things like passwords really shouldn’t be disclosed. It does make me wonder whether they’d do the same with thir cash-machine PIN numbers. In the meantime, I’m off out with a clipboard and a questionnaire. *Grin*

Lunacy

I suspect that Bar-Stool Racing could only be thought up by someone truly stoned out of their mind on some very interesting substances…

So near and yet so far

In the Guardian today, President Blair says he’d have resigned if the Iraq war vote had failed. I hope the “rebels” who suddenly caved in again are now busy kicking themselves.

Page updates

As per Vicky‘s comment about Moveable Type and D4D, yes, it’s still in the process of being worked on. Moving hosting companies is the first part of the struggle – probably to 34sp (thanks Pat and Jez for the recommendation) which has been slightly problematic while still being keffed about fiscally.

Still, all those problems should come to a close next week, so the process may well start up then.

In the meantime, I’ve taken out the code to Stats4All, which also seems to have speeded up the entire download. Once I get rid of the other shonky bastards as well, it should all run quickly and smoothly again. Which would be a shock to the system. I did receive an email a while back from Stats4All saying they were shutting down their free service anyway, and what the hell, I do my own log analysis – having the counters on each page was a pain in the arse, and blatantly innaccurate, but it was nice to be able to get a quick glance at how many people had looked at the page today, rather than just a one off. Just see how it all goes really.

A shocking case

Five police forces around the UK have today started trialling the use of stun guns as an alternative to pepper sprays, truncheons and even firearms. The specs for the stungun they’re using make interesting reading, particularly the fact that each time the TASER (which, for purposes of tragic pedantry, stands for Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle) is fired, it records the time and date it was used, and also ejects AFID tags that can be used to further identify who fired the stun-gun etc. If that helps this kind of device from being mis-used, then I’m all for it.

In the meantime, the forces trialling these things are London’s Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police, Northamptonshire Police, Lincolnshire Police and North Wales Police. If you’re in their areas, it’s time to be good, otherwise it could be revoltingly painful. It’ll be interesting to see how the trials go, and how the media reacts when the first person has one used on them.