I recently tried to download a tech paper from a developer site that requires registration. I had already registered but they wanted me to confirm my info. Strange. I hit save and my phone number was flagged. See, I normally turn my real phone number into a 555 number and rest easy. These bastards were smart enough to check for that. I changed it to the 800 number of a company I don’t like, but they rejected that, too. Then I found Humor Hotlines. It was originally created as a way to give your phone number to someone at a bar or club; when they called they got a humorous rejection message. That sounds potentially cruel, but not when it’s a company that insists on bothering you. If more people start doing this, maybe companies will start making that optional. Probably not, but worth a try.
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Website Funny or Die posted their top 10 “must see” videos of 2009. 3 of these videos are actually must see, so I’m including them here:
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Tags: lindsay lohan, natalie portman, rachel bilson, zach galifianakis
Crude, but funny. Saucy language (although the pictures are rated G), so I’m putting them after the jump. Click here see more and send them, post to Facebook, etc.
So about 5 years ago, I wrote about how you didn’t need to add your cell phone to the National Do Not Call Registry, and how rumors that the gov’t would allow telemarketers to call them were BS. Well, recently I’ve been getting calls from telemarketers on my cell phone, but when I went to complain, they wouldn’t allow it because my phone number wasn’t registered. There was no “this is a cell phone” box to check. Thank you, bastard politicians or shortsighted bureaucrats, whichever the case may be. So go register your cell number before they get you, too.
BTW, these weren’t 800/866/888 numbers, they were local (310) numbers I didn’t recognize. I didn’t answer, they didn’t leave a message, but I Googled the numbers and found them on 800notes.com. Pretty handy site.
Update: See the comments for more details and links to learn about the Great Firewall of China and how to test your site.
Update 2: We are no longer banned!
I started tracking stats on Google Analytics about a year ago. Since that time, over 36,000 people have visited the site (thanks!). Of that 36,000, only one person was in China. One! I think I can safely say we’ve been banned, locked out of the Great Firewall of China. I wonder if it’s the words “covert organization” or “free speech” that is keeping us out. I must say, I am pretty proud that we’re the first result when Googling “covert organization” – with or without the quotes. Great success!
Full Disclosure: There are about 21 countries on Google’s global map for which we have zero visits (versus 170 countries that have stopped by). But I’m pretty sure none of those 21 have 1.3 billion people.
Tags: china
I thought I’d post this explanation in case anyone else has problems with getting Firefox to prompt for password recall at EVERY site you need it to. Yahoo, Paypal, and some other portals fail to recall the password, even when forced with that old bookmark trick. (stopped working after Firefox2)
Found on the net and works for me:
Find and open with notepad…
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\nsLoginManager.js
or
\Program Files (x86) if using 64 bit windows.
Then, find this part in the code…
_isAutocompleteDisabled : function (element) {
if (element && element.hasAttribute(“autocomplete”) &&
element.getAttribute(“autocomplete”).toLowerCase() == “off”)
return true;
change the “true” to “false” and save over the original file.
Don’t worry if you screw it up, just delete the file and Firefox will replace it when reinstalled. So far, Firefox updates have not removed the modification. So I didn’t have to go back and perform the edit again.
Noticed something new on Netflix: a rating that wasn’t from the MPAA. Turns out it’s from an organization called Common Sense Media. It strives to do what Roger Ebert has been doing for years – let parents know when the MPAA got it wrong. However, it goes beyond movies into TV and video games, and goes beyond covering sex and violence into areas like consumerism. It also seems to stress – gasp – talking to your kids about how they should think about what they’re watching.
Sadly, this will probably go completely unnoticed by the parents who need it most. Like that couple complaining that the “free under 3″ policy doesn’t apply to R-rated movies. Like the Exorcist. And yes, that’s a true story. We are doomed.
Tags: mpaa, video games
TV shows are in limbo, making this a good time to catch up on those movies you’ve missed. I’ve tried to use Netflix, but it’s recommendation engine is still sub-par.1 Here are two resources that are actually reliable:
Ebert Search: Just select 3.5-4 stars in 2008. You’ll find some interesting stuff from the best film critic in the world.
2008′s Oscar-Eligible Films: Going through the 281 films that can be nominated for the 2009 Academy Awards, I found a lot of interesting films I didn’t have a chance to see.
- No matter how I browsed, it never suggested Step Brothers, even though I haven’t rated it, I want to see it, and Netflix predicts I’ll really like it. [↩]
Tags: xkcd
The trick with fortune cookies and horoscopes is that they are vague enough to shoehorn the specifics of your life to match them, whatever those specifics may be. It occurred to me that Internet dating profiles are the same way. She says she’s looking for someone who’s fun and has a great sense of humor and likes to travel. That pretty much narrows it down to “human”. Everyone thinks reasonably well of themselves, otherwise they’re not posting a public profile.
Even the part that lists specific requirements like age and height and body type are squinted at until they match the reader. She wants someone no older than 40, but she’s 38, so the 47 year old man thinks, “I’m good enough” (and if she has kids, he’s right). He wants someone of average or slender build and she thinks, “Why, that’s what I put on my profile!” Um, yeah, about that.
Dating profiles are sales brochures and daters are used car salesmen. Honesty is out the window because it would never get you anywhere. If I lived in a world where honesty was rewarded instead of punished, here is the profile I would write:
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Tags: dating