Tuesday, August 31, 2004

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Dvorak; The Bottom 10: Worst Software Disasters

I don't know if it's sad, a sing of old age, or a sign of experience; I have used most of the products that Dvorak mentions in his Worst Software Disasters article.


I know serveral “products” that are way worse then these but I guess I should mention them as a sign of respect for my work colleagues...


 

Monday, August 30, 2004

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My Big Fat … Wedding


Watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding this weekend. I expected a real Crap & Capability (aka Sense & Sensibility) kind of movie but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually enjoyed it and had a few great laughs.


Probably because I married an Italian in Italy and most of the gags applies to ous as well…

Sunday, August 29, 2004

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Autorun crap


Isn't it sad the way the computer slows down when you install more crap  (eh, software) on it? Using Auturons from sysinternals  you can easily see and control which programs start when you log in.


Process Explorer from sysinternals is another great tool to track down the memory and CPU hogs.


autoruns, or "What is all this stuff doing on my computer" revisited has more info on what this autorun stuff is all about.


 

Saturday, August 28, 2004

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Beep, I know you are here!

Or, I could know you where here if I followed the instructions at Hear your web site being hit


With all the talk about the Siemens M65 being recalled (and here, and here, and here) I guess I shouldn't though. Having the server beep every time someone makes a request could be fun at home but a pain in the ...
ears at my current client where we get close to 10 million mobile requests per day.

Friday, August 27, 2004

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Worth 1000's scared the crap out of me

Worth 1000 has done it again. This time with a nightmare theme.

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WC Ghost


1.8 million Germans have bought the WC-Geist (WC Ghost):


 



It is placed below the toilet seat and is activated when the seat is lifted. In no uncertain terms the user is told to lower the seat ASAP and sit down. The German version comes in two flavors; Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schröder.



Patentwert will launch the WC-Geist on the British and Spanish markets this autumn. I was expecting them to use the voice of Margaret Thatcher but it looks like British ghost will come in the following flavors:



  • American Cowboy (Sit down or I shoot your balls off?)

  • Queen Elizabeth

  • Tony Blair

The German version can be found on eBay (bid, buy now)

Thursday, August 26, 2004

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A holder for my TP


Where there is crap, there is toilet paper (hopefully). Toilet Paper Roll Holders for Fashionistas has compiled a guide to all the weird toilet holders we buy. I wish I had enough spare time to undertake a crap project like that.


Via BoingBoing.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

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eBay powered by Sun?


I was checking out my auctions on My eBay (UK)  when I noticed a “Powered By Sun” logo next to the eBay logo. I clicked the logo and got the following message:



Powered By Solaris, the operating system the world trusts
Powered By Java, the world's preferred platform
Powered By Sun Systems running SPARC processors
Powered By Sun services and solutions
Sun helps to power eBay’s Global Marketplace.

eBay has chosen Sun's Solaris Operating System and its suite of low-cost Solaris servers and Java software to help power the The World’s Online Marketplace. If you're running a business like eBay's, or have similar aspirations, get some Sun.


This stuck me as strange as the url is http://my.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBay
Unless they pulled some strange tricks it is an ISAPI DLL which means the system is running a Microsoft IIS server.


To find out if it was crap or fact, I fired up Ethereal to have a closer look.  Guess what.... eBay is still running Microsoft IIS 5.0 on Win2k for the main features; catalog details, bidding, my eBay. These are some of the headers from My eBay (cookies etc removed):



Connection: Keep-Alive
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 95743
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:42:42 GMT
Content-Type: text/html;charset=iso-8859-1
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Server: WebSphere Application Server/4.0
Cache-Control: no-cache=Set-Cookie
Content-Language: en


Some of the static stuff like the home page has been moved to Sun though.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

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Crap Art or Art Crap?

Believe it or not, Karin Frank makes small statues of people following the calls of nature.

Friday, August 20, 2004

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Why Crap & Crapability?

Once upon a time,
in a country, far, far away,
I worked in a town called Dublin.


We had a few pints after watching Sense & Sensibility,
and we all agreed it should be called; Crap & Crapability


I have have since moved on to Italy but “Crap & Crapability“ still struck me as a good name for a blog for posting;



  • some of the crap I come across on the net
  • things I think about over a crapuccion (a vending machine will always spew out a crapuccino, it can never serve a good capuccino)