Rubénerd Blog :)

Dear CNET Member: Get ready for this year’s big game by creating a new list on CNET, and enter to win a new LED TV in the Samsung Super Bowl Wish List Sweepstakes! [...]

SWEEPSTAKES OPEN TO LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AT LEAST 18 YEARS OR AGE OF MAJORITY IN STATE OF RESIDENCE AND OLDER ON DATE OF ENTRY. [...]

Dear CNET, I provided my location in my account profile with you, please don’t send me spam that doesn’t even relate to me. Sincerely, Ruben in Singapore and Australia.

This sort of thing happens to me all the time, and not just from CNET. How hard would it be to check a user’s provided country before sending them offers and competitions they’re not eligible for? One or two extra lines of code?

Won’t make any difference of course.

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It seems that fix for the Huawei USB SingTel Mobile modem I painstakingly detailed last week has stopped… fixing. Stopped working. Like a Monty Python parrot, it has ceased to exist. What’s worse is the error message is informing me I have to contact myself. Don’t they know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness? I mean, I talk to myself enough as it is.

Damn straight Chanandler Bing, I didn’t want that page I wanted Google! Wonder if any data got Sidekicked?

To be fair Gmail was out again a few months ago too, so it’s just further proof that all this reliance on cloud computing whatnot is a problem.

Dell’s profits are way down, and Microsoft makes a move that could scare beige box makers even more.

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Another quick Optus fail to talk about this morning, this time to do with being disconnected after not paying a bill. Problem is, I did pay it! Budda-boom!

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Presumably the agency Kaspersky Labs hired to plaster their advertising everywhere didn’t bother to do a user agent lookup when they presented me with this graphic. Unless they have a FreeBSD anti virus solution of which I’m not presently nor currently aware that I’d want to "Say G’Day to". I guess one could release such a product for users of Wine and Mono ;-).

I need to install AdBlock Plus in Firefox in this VM, or set up some Opera filters!

Second time in as many hours I’ve got the Fail Pufferfish. Anyone else been having troubles? Gosh darn these URL shortners.

It’s been another very busy day today, though admittedly not as bad as yesterday. While waiting in a queue to have my teeth pulled and to deal with a banking teller (I forget which one ended up happening) I was using the Backgrounds application for the iTelephone that does exactly what it sounds like it does. Normally I uninstall anything with advertising on it in a heartbeat, but I enjoy Backgrounds too much. If they had a paid version without advertising, I’d buy it.

Now here’s where the silliness starts. While looking for some nice scenery images I came across a page that had a series of night time shots, and below in the advertising slot there appeared a link to a website on sleep. For the first time in many years (at least 5+) I thought an online advertisement looked interesting, so I clicked on it. It took me to a website that was completely designed in Flash.

If the penny hasn’t dropped yet, the iPhone does not have Flash… thank heavens! And yet here’s a company with a website that’s completely Flash driven advertising in a Google Mobile advertisement box that’s intended for an iPhone.

It’s like when I’m asked if I want new carpet or a patio extension when I’m living in a rented house, or when I visit a social anxiety support group website and the advertisements are for party organisers.

Decided to try Firefox 3.5.2 again now that I formatted and installed Snow Leopard fresh on my machine. Took even less time to crash this time. Back to 3.0.13 again.

The problem is Firefox is often shown as the poster child for the free and open source software movement and an alternative to unstable, slow and expensive software with vendor lockin. They’re not doing the cause much good with these repeated problems.

It’s affecting lots and lots of people on Windows, Mac and *nix, but fortunately it’s not affecting everybody who uses it.