Yah! Exams are over and I don’t have to go back to school until Tuesday.
I’d also like to post a ‘shout out’ to Will, who told me doing this blog ‘shows I care’ about this website. Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but thanks all the same… 
Yesterday I found a website owned by some loonies in the States which seemed to gather every bad idea every thought up and suggest them all. From why Harry Potter is an evil influence, to why AOL is the best ISP, why gay people should be burnt at the stake (obviously these people are quite unsure about themselves, judging by some of the other posts) and why you should need a licence for the internet.
There are others, many others, but one of my favourites is an article (I can’t believe this isn’t satire!) entitled “Is Your Son a Computer Hacker?” and gives some top tips to recognise hackers, such as ‘The safest policy is to limit your children’s access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day,’ ‘Quake is an online virtual reality used by hackers,’ ‘If your son is using Quake, you should make him understand that this is not acceptable to you’ and my ultimate favourite:
“BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called “xenix”, which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people’s computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people’s stereos to steal their music, using the “mp3” program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as “telnet”, which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.”
along with a more physical description
“If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a hacker on your hands. Hackers tend to dress in bright, day-glo colors. They may wear baggy pants, bright colored shirts and spiky hair dyed in bright colors to match their clothes. They may take to carrying “glow-sticks” and some wear pacifiers around their necks.”
OK, I’d admit – this is SATIRE. And it’s incredibly well written!
Just to make clear though, the rest of that website is mostly right wing trash. Entertaining until you realise they really are stuck in the middle ages.
Woo hoo! Just got my domain name registration letter from Nominet and printed off my certificate using their rather wonderful ‘registrant’s online’ service. I love Nominet – when you compare them to the US equivalent you can see why!
Well today’s batch of exams were interesting…
We started with a 2 hour ICT exam, and everyone ended up finishing in 30 mins. Great. Still, at least I was bored enough to stuff several ads for this site into it, so you never know, I might be getting some more visitors… 
History, on the other hand, was a tight squeeze. I think I just did it with about 3 minutes to spare, but the cost of doing 11 full sides of A4 writing in 1 and a half hours is very sore and tired hands. Which is why I think I’ll be stopping this blog around… er… now.
Until next time
Well, I’ve finally decided to let loose my little insignificant thoughts on the world, complete with spelling mistakes no doubt. Hey wait, this thing has a spell check! Cool…
In the world of the internet I upgraded my email system from POP3 to IMAP yesterday. No, I’m not going to explain what those means but so long as nobody actually bothers to read this I should be OK. Phew!
End of Year 10 exams are still here. Did Science today. Well, it went alright I suppose. Still got no idea about generating electricity from a magnetic field though.
In more important international news, the EU expands from 15 to 25 members on Saturday (see, this blog will jump around from topic to topic wildly so just enjoy the ride.) It’s a great moment, sadly being ignored by the eurosceptics who have decided that 25 countries is just too many to be friendly to. How dare those qualified people come and steal OUR jobs, given to use by divine birthright? Agh! Now we might have to do some hard work for a change…
Jeff DuBowe on Haarlem globetrotters: “One of our favorite spots. Super walking city. I think we were the ones who told your In-Laws about it…” Oct 14, 15:15
