Blanche's Long, Rambling, Windy and Awfully Pretentious Blog

Censorship for the masses

Do you ever get annoyed with the constant noise assaulting your senses in shops, pubs, and takeaways? It seems as though places that are quiet enough to think in are soooo last century. There's a TV everywhere yammering away, and it's almost impossible to ignore them all and look away.

But perhaps not for much longer. TV B Gone TV B Gone is a little device the size of a keyring that will turn off almost any TV. That's pretty much all it does, but what a great idea. The possibilities for football season mischief are too tempting to ignore.

Consider also the beneficial effects of this device in the hands of certain users: improving the health of the nation by forcing people to get off the couch more often, or green vigilantes discouraging over-use of electricity. Not to mention the people who can be saved by never having to watch Anne Robinson again.

Strange email invoice scam

I've been getting some odd emails lately. They come as an invoice for various products and services that I don't want or can't afford, such as domain names and webhosting or notebook computers. That they're a scam is obvious because they charge my credit card. No bank is daft enough to give me one of those, more's the pity.

But not everyone has poor credit, so a lot of people might take these emails seriously. At first I thought this was some sort of phishing scam, but there is no mention of a call for passwords, account numbers, and so on. They simply pretend you have already bought the product and provide a link to follow.

If you get an email like this don't click on the link! The scam is to get you to click on their page and go to a dodgy webpage that will attempt to download a trojan to your computer. Click this link for an example of the sort of text these emails have:

http://spamwatch.codefish.net.au/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=98

Windows, Linux, and potato famines

I've been trying to buy a new computer, with Linux as the operating system. It's very difficult to get a shop to sell you one. Typical responses have been:

"We don't do that."

"We don't know how to do that."

"That's a very unusual request. Are you sure you don't mean Windows?"

"Linux. Is that some kind of floor covering?"

*Blank stare*

Why did the Irish potato famines happen? Everybody planted this new wonder crop with improved yields.

Then it was hit by blight, and millions died.

Now consider the rise of virus activity. A worrying increase has been reported in the press . Okay, millions may not die, but computer disasters cost a lot of money. Linux isn't immune, but viruses are rarer and generally it's harder to execute them by accident. But most importantly, it isn't part of the Windows monoculture, and in diversity there is the protection of not having all your eggs in one basket.

It's about choice, and for most users there isn't any. All they are told about is the different varieties of

Windows, or a Mac if you're feeling flush. In the UK there are no major sellers who will provide pre-installed Linux systems, limiting it to the more technically inclined users who know that alternatives exist.

Your operating system doesn't have to be a potato.

Do you trust the what the Government tells you?
The MMR debate has come up again, but this time with a different spin. The UK government

plans to give women MMR instead of the single rubella shot, so it seems like they don't trust us either. Vaccination levels for measles have dropped, so the government is trying another tack. This move means that it'll be much harder to get single jabs, and women will have to choose between no rubella shots at all, and the triple jab which may risk the health of the child they are about to conceive.