I finally got round to watching (on the iPlayer) Panorama's follow up to the John Sweeney shouty investigation into scientology a couple of years back in which the reporter famously "lost it".
I was looking forward to "The Secrets of Scientology" but found it rather pedestrian with lots of "this is the man who will tell me the secrets", "the secrets will be told soon by this man" build up with lots of fuzzy walking shots and not much pay-off.
Whilst the programme was interesting and shocking (although depressingly not really as we all know what goes on) there was nothing really new in it but I suspect the reasons for this was lawyer-inspired! (Has Carter-Ruck ever been on the side of good? (apart from Mr C-R's deathbed conversion to Liberal Democracy of course (always makes by think Blackadder I's archbishop episode))
What amused me is the utter predictability of the online comments on reviews of the programme (examples in the Mirror and the Metro) from scientologists (some claiming to be and some not) that are so transparent. Why do they think that anyone would be fooled by comments randomly going into the personal history and smears of some participants, especially as the programme had just said this is exactly what they do!
Here's hoping for some Scientology-love to boost my google analytics! :)
Thursday, 30 September 2010
This is a safety announcement
This post about Government adverts over at Liberal Vision remins me about the announcement I recently heard (repeatedly as I was waiting for someone on a delayed train) at Kings Cross station:
"This is a safety announcement. Please do not run in the station and take care around the station and in the surrounding areas"
Gee thanks, it would never occurred to me to "take care" in the station. Also taking care in the surrounding areas would be a thought that would never have crossed my mind!! I mean seriously!!
There were other similarly pointless announcements endlessly repeated which I can't recall now. Notwithstanding the nannying issues surely people are desperately listening out for announcements regarding the delay/cancellation/late platform change of their train and we should restrict announcement to only immediately useful ones like these. (not to mention the confusion this may cause to foreign visitors trying to listen out for useful information)
In the same way there are campaigns about visual clutter (street signs, barriers etc.) should there also be one against audio clutter?
"This is a safety announcement. Please do not run in the station and take care around the station and in the surrounding areas"
Gee thanks, it would never occurred to me to "take care" in the station. Also taking care in the surrounding areas would be a thought that would never have crossed my mind!! I mean seriously!!
There were other similarly pointless announcements endlessly repeated which I can't recall now. Notwithstanding the nannying issues surely people are desperately listening out for announcements regarding the delay/cancellation/late platform change of their train and we should restrict announcement to only immediately useful ones like these. (not to mention the confusion this may cause to foreign visitors trying to listen out for useful information)
In the same way there are campaigns about visual clutter (street signs, barriers etc.) should there also be one against audio clutter?
Friday, 30 July 2010
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Virgin email stopped working? A solution
Has your Virgin Media email stopped working today? I have an ntlworld.com email address and this morning the incoming mail server started rejecting all requests ("terminated unexpectedly") from Outlook Express.
Well, after much googling (anyone who has Virgin will know how pointless and time-wasting ringing them is!) I found the Virgin support forum and this post. The Upshot being what worked for me was to turn off SSL for the imcoming mail (Tools->Account->Mail->ntlworld->Properties->Advanced->untick incoming mail SSL). I am now receiving email again (I imagine it will stop working again once they "fix" it and I'll have to put it back). YMMV
Reading through the forums it seems that this kind of thing is quite a frequent occurrence each time picking out one of their other email domains (blueyonder, virginmedia).
When people ask me whether I would recommend Virgin, I always say that their broadband and TV service is excellent (I love on-demand TV and the broadband has never let me down) but woe betide if anything ever does go wrong as they have the worst customer service this side of Betelgeuse! (Indian call-centre script, have you tried turning it on and off, our systems aren't working at the moment, etc...)
UPDATE: They seem to have fixed it now.
UPDATE 28/07/2010 (the next day). Sigh, it's not working again, switching off ssl works...
Well, after much googling (anyone who has Virgin will know how pointless and time-wasting ringing them is!) I found the Virgin support forum and this post. The Upshot being what worked for me was to turn off SSL for the imcoming mail (Tools->Account->Mail->ntlworld->Properties->Advanced->untick incoming mail SSL). I am now receiving email again (I imagine it will stop working again once they "fix" it and I'll have to put it back). YMMV
Reading through the forums it seems that this kind of thing is quite a frequent occurrence each time picking out one of their other email domains (blueyonder, virginmedia).
When people ask me whether I would recommend Virgin, I always say that their broadband and TV service is excellent (I love on-demand TV and the broadband has never let me down) but woe betide if anything ever does go wrong as they have the worst customer service this side of Betelgeuse! (Indian call-centre script, have you tried turning it on and off, our systems aren't working at the moment, etc...)
UPDATE: They seem to have fixed it now.
UPDATE 28/07/2010 (the next day). Sigh, it's not working again, switching off ssl works...
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Twitter is not just for Chirstmas...I mean...Elections
Well, it is if you're a Tory MP in a safe seat who was slightly unnerved by a stronger than expected LibDem challenge during the General Election and felt you should make an effort to appear responsive to your constituents.
Mark Prisk, the Cornwall-loving MP for Hertford & Stortford opened a twitter account during the General Election in which he didn't really respond to anything other than sycophantic questioning and even then not much (I'd like to check to check the validity of this half-remembered slur but guess what...).
Mr Prisk was safely re-elected with 54% of the vote and, as if by magic, as of last week, the @Mark_Prisk twitter account has been deleted.
Well, it's not like he needs to be accessible to his constituents for another 5 years, is it?
Mark Prisk, the Cornwall-loving MP for Hertford & Stortford opened a twitter account during the General Election in which he didn't really respond to anything other than sycophantic questioning and even then not much (I'd like to check to check the validity of this half-remembered slur but guess what...).
Mr Prisk was safely re-elected with 54% of the vote and, as if by magic, as of last week, the @Mark_Prisk twitter account has been deleted.
Well, it's not like he needs to be accessible to his constituents for another 5 years, is it?
Omninous signs from facebook
Of course, concerted action by a directed group could achieve this. I wonder...
YouGov loses all credibility...again!
After grumbles about YouGov's dubious methodology during the leader's debates in April, their latest impartial and not at all leading question for the recent Sun poll on the AV referendum is a corker:
“Before the election the Conservative party criticised an AV referendum as likely to cost £80 million at a time when the government would be needing to make major spending cuts. In view of the government’s current cuts in public spending, do you think it is an appropriate or inappropriate time to hold a referendum on AV?”
Wow! That's not leading at all is it? Isn't there some polling code they should be following or something?
Oh and the same polling showed overall support for AV. The Sun strangely didn't mention that though!
H/T: UK Election Trend
“Before the election the Conservative party criticised an AV referendum as likely to cost £80 million at a time when the government would be needing to make major spending cuts. In view of the government’s current cuts in public spending, do you think it is an appropriate or inappropriate time to hold a referendum on AV?”
Wow! That's not leading at all is it? Isn't there some polling code they should be following or something?
Oh and the same polling showed overall support for AV. The Sun strangely didn't mention that though!
H/T: UK Election Trend
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