Mr Daz http://www.mrdaz.com So much anger, so little time Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:23:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 © daz@whatdvd.net () daz@whatdvd.net() 1440 So much anger, so little time daz@whatdvd.net No no http://www.mrdaz.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/MrDaz144x144.jpg Mr Daz http://www.mrdaz.com 144 144 MrDazhttp://feedburner.google.com Spam comments on your blog http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/m0uP9eeZLCU/ http://www.mrdaz.com/spam-comments-on-your-blog/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:23:45 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1408 When you run your own blog, especially one hosted on Wordpress, you’ll eventually start to attract some spam comments from people trying to build links for their websites (or rather for their clients’ websites). Unethical SEO companies employ cheap foreign workers to scour the Internet adding bogus comments to blogs, usually with the same sort of [...] When you run your own blog, especially one hosted on Wordpress, you’ll eventually start to attract some spam comments from people trying to build links for their websites (or rather for their clients’ websites).

Unethical SEO companies employ cheap foreign workers to scour the Internet adding bogus comments to blogs, usually with the same sort of comment, and attaching links to their clients’ website. You can spot them a mile off because the comments are often nothing to do with the actual blog post, or it’s something generic such as ‘great blog, I will come back often’.

They’re also easy to spot because instead of being attributed to an actual person, the author name is always a keyword or key phrase. Very spammy.

I had two bogus comments recently, one for a dog training website and one for an ‘earn money from home’ website, neither of which were approved, naturally.

What is especially funny about this one is that whoever paid to have the ‘work from home job’ link must be really annoyed with their SEO company because the idiots even forgot to add the client link!

At least whoever has been employed by stopdogfrombarking.info had the good sense to attach a link. That site is just a portal for the website www.kingdomofpets.com, so that they don’t get caught by Google spamming the crap out of other websites.

spam-comments

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/spam-comments-on-your-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.mrdaz.com/spam-comments-on-your-blog/ My son taking a Quantum Leap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/9k_MtrZmWAs/ http://www.mrdaz.com/my-son-taking-a-quantum-leap/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:21:10 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1395 As I mentioned this week, I’ve been looking through some old photos lately and have come across some pictures from a few years ago. This particular one was when I, and my little boy Robbie, met Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap. As you can see, the presence of Al forced Robbie into a leap, though [...] As I mentioned this week, I’ve been looking through some old photos lately and have come across some pictures from a few years ago. This particular one was when I, and my little boy Robbie, met Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap. As you can see, the presence of Al forced Robbie into a leap, though I’m not sure where or when he ended up!

I have more photos like this but due to the crash, burn and refusal to turn back on of my PC last year, I may not be able to recover them all. Therefore the ones I do have I’m adding here, so I won’t lose them in another PC related crash-fest.

2005-05-04_184743_collectormania1

2005-05-04_190623_robbie-leap

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/my-son-taking-a-quantum-leap/feed/ 0 http://www.mrdaz.com/my-son-taking-a-quantum-leap/ Ernie Hudson and me http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/vqZ3z6jqByQ/ http://www.mrdaz.com/ernie-hudson-and-me/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:35:19 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1383 I found some old photos today while backing up a website, and came across this one of me and Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters.It was taken a few years ago, 2006 I think, and is from one of my trips to Milton Keynes and Collectormania. I think this is the year I also bought the Highlander [...] I found some old photos today while backing up a website, and came across this one of me and Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters.It was taken a few years ago, 2006 I think, and is from one of my trips to Milton Keynes and Collectormania. I think this is the year I also bought the Highlander Claymore sword. I’ll try and dig out a photo of that too.

Ernie was great though, such a friendly guy. Mind you, he looks happy!

Ernie Hudson

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/ernie-hudson-and-me/feed/ 0 http://www.mrdaz.com/ernie-hudson-and-me/ BBC Watchdog starts Witch Hunt against Adrian Pengelly http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/67AEF3hUMRk/ http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-watchdog-starts-witch-hunt-against-adrian-pengelly/#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:12:20 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1375 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how the BBC had ruined Watchdog and had turned it from a hard hitting consumer affairs show into nothing more than a prime time version of Loose Women. I’ve just watched last week’s show on catch-up, and it’s no better I’m afraid… in fact it’s worse. Last week, [...] A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how the BBC had ruined Watchdog and had turned it from a hard hitting consumer affairs show into nothing more than a prime time version of Loose Women. I’ve just watched last week’s show on catch-up, and it’s no better I’m afraid… in fact it’s worse.

adrianglastoLast week, Matt Allwright went after a man named Adrian Pengelly who claims to be a natural healer. Adrian Pengelly says he can heal people and animals using his hands. This isn’t an unusual form of alternative medicine and has been around for many thousands for years. I believe someone named Jesus used to do it too.

Now, before I go on I should state I have no opinion of Adrian Pengelly one way or the other. I don’t know whether he can heal, or whether he’s a con man. I don’t know and I don’t care. What I do care about is the way the BBC decided that he was a charlatan and set about chasing him down in something resembling a witch hunt from the Middle Ages.

Firstly, no-one had complained about Adrian Pengelly. This I think is an important fact. He also charges £30 per session according to Watchdog, which they suggested allowed him to live his ‘lavish’ lifestyle. £30 per session seems very reasonable to me. You wouldn’t get a plumber for that, nor a solicitor nor even an SEO consultant!

When you consider that Adrian Pengelly heals with his hands, this is damn cheap.

They then set about trying to catch him out by sending him a horse that had been x-rayed to show it had soft tissue damage in its hoof, and wondered if Adrian Pengelly would spot this. Pengelly examined the horse and said that its knee suffered from tension.

This then prompted the ‘expert’ watching over the computer to proclaim that Pengelly was wrong. Why? Are the x-rays conclusive? Are doctors never wrong? Is this ‘healing hands’ quack obviously wrong because our medical science says so?

No, it’s the opinion of the vet over Pengelly’s. Whether you believe one or the other, you can’t declare one is 100% correct while the other is 100% wrong.

What they did next sickened me. They had a woman who used to suffer from cancer visit Pengelly for treatment, claiming to actually have cancer. Why would anyone in their right mind claim to have cancer, especially when they’ve had it before?

Adrian Pengelly told her that his treatments worked better for people who weren’t on chemotherapy, but insisted he would never advise anyone to stop it unless they were terminal and the chemo was just to prolong life.

This prompted Watchdog and Matt Allwright to miss-quote him and state that he’d advised people to stop chemotherapy, which he didn’t.

It goes further though. Adrian Pengelly is also into ghosts and communicating with the dead, so Watchdog set him up with a ‘ghost house’ filled with special effects to see if he tried to con the resident into believing there were ghosts present. Once, and only once, during this footage did they point out that Adrian Pengelly does NOT charge for this!

How is this Rogue Trader material? He doesn’t even charge!!!

Finally, Allwright was confronted with hoards of people who claimed to have been helped by Adrian Pengelly, and one woman who said she had been cured of cancer. Allwright dismissed their claims as ‘sick people looking for hope’ and summed up that Pengelly was dangerous offering hope to those who most needed it.

This was despite their McMillan Cancer expert stating that hope, such as that offered by Pengelly, helps survival rates and recent research by the University of British Columbia showing that cancer patients showing signs of depression were 25% more likely to die from their illness.

Hope is important in all forms of recovery.

So, the BBC has gone back to the Dark Ages and has started a witch hunt for a man offering alternative medicine because today’s doctors say it won’t work. Is the BBC going after all forms of alternative medicine now? Will they go after hypnotists and psychics next? Perhaps the BBC will go after psychiatrists too; that’s got to be nonsense as well!

Watchdog has become the thing it once fought. Sort it out BBC, it’s disgusting.

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-watchdog-starts-witch-hunt-against-adrian-pengelly/feed/ 13 http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-watchdog-starts-witch-hunt-against-adrian-pengelly/ BBC Pays Google for Search Rankings http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/hEABPZgPVEk/ http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-pays-google-for-search-rankings/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:00:28 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1372 No, I’m not about to write an expose on the BBC and how they have aligned themselves with the criminal underworld at Google to ‘pay’ for top listings, but if you read the Mail on Sunday this past weekend, you might think that had happened. The Mail on Sunday responsibily reported how the evil BBC [...] No, I’m not about to write an expose on the BBC and how they have aligned themselves with the criminal underworld at Google to ‘pay’ for top listings, but if you read the Mail on Sunday this past weekend, you might think that had happened. The Mail on Sunday responsibily reported how the evil BBC was in cahoots with Google to pay money it had taken from the license payers to gain top listings in its SERPs.

What utter crap.

As ever, the headline grabbing Mail on Sunday (part of the Daily Mail) had worked the story to fit its headline and wasn’t about to let the facts stand in the way of a good story. Far from the horror of the BBC illicitly paying off Google for top rankings, what had actually happened was that the BBC had run some PPC on Google Adwords.

The bastards!

The BBC using sponsored links? Whatever next? Advertising their programs on Radio One? Where will it end? Running their own weekly magazine with TV listings?

In fairness, I don’t think the reporter for the Mail on Sunday had intentionally misled the astute readers of the publication into thinking that the Beeb was paying for Google listings… no, I think he was just an idiot and had no idea what Adwords is and how it works. He’d heard that the BBC had paid Google for Adwords and without stopping to check any facts ran with the story, making himself out to be the moron he is.

However, you would have thought that others who reported the story would have checked the facts first! Bigmouthmedia has a news item on their website reporting from the same angle as the Mail on Sunday, and they’ve already attracted the attention of one blogger who’s seen through their mistake.

Perhaps the bigmouth guys are generating link bait through accusing the BBC of paying for Google rankings, as it’s certainly worked, even if it’s not exactly true!

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-pays-google-for-search-rankings/feed/ 1 http://www.mrdaz.com/bbc-pays-google-for-search-rankings/ Watchdog has been ruined by the BBC http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/CNVECxQPrZ8/ http://www.mrdaz.com/watchdog-has-been-ruined-by-the-bbc/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:33:32 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1369 Those who know me will know that I love a good complaint. I’m renowned for it. Because of this, I’m a fan of BBC Watchdog. I often watch the show and get irate at the companies they’re exposing for their unethical practices and poor customer service. Indeed, I like to perform my own exposes of companies, [...] Those who know me will know that I love a good complaint. I’m renowned for it. Because of this, I’m a fan of BBC Watchdog. I often watch the show and get irate at the companies they’re exposing for their unethical practices and poor customer service.

Indeed, I like to perform my own exposes of companies, such as those that have often annoyed me like the CSA, BT and Direct Line, or companies that have the misfortune of having annoyed me just the once and lived to regret it forever, such as Home Delivery Network and Chester Council.

I’m a fan of Watchdog’s work, so much so that I even aided them with their quest to investigate Providence Properties (a company that didn’t annoy me, but I picked up the torch nonetheless).

However, this new series of Watchdog, which started last night, will have companies like Providence Properties popping the champagne corks. What was once a hard hitting consumer affairs show has been diluted into nothing more than a BBC version of Loose Women.

Did we need to see Anne Robinson and Gabby Roslin harping on about pushchairs? Did we have to watch a 10 minute video showing how many bags you can hang on the back of them before they topple over, despite even the voiceover admitting that the manufacturers tell you not to do it? And what purpose did strapping the buggies onto a bucking bronco and seeing how long it took to launch the doll from them actually serve?

None, none whatsoever.

They then complained about Virgin Media. Excellent, as a customer of Virgin Media I’ve had my share of complaints with them. However, complaining that Virgin Media make it difficult to sort out someone’s account after they’d died isn’t really anything to complain about. People would soon complain if it were made easy, then anyone could phone up and claim to be a relative, stating the account holder had died and they wanted all of the documents and account credit transferred to them.

Virgin Media acted responsibly.

I can’t believe I’m saying all of this, but it gets worse.

The report on sunbeds was completely redundant. It’s not illegal for under 18s to use them, so none of the health clubs were breaking the law. What’s the problem?

Just why has the show been merged with Rogue Traders? I’m not a fan of Rogue Traders because I believe the guy hosting it, Matt Allwright, is out of his depth, as he showed again. He’s in the perfect position to really get people’s back up yet seems to act like a petulant clown. If you want to see how to annoy people, read this website, it’s all there.

Matt Allwright followed some salesman from Craftmatic beds, claiming his technique of making three phone calls to the office was hard sell, and his claiming that the bed will make you look twenty years younger was unscrupulous. OK, if you believe that using a bed makes you look twenty years younger you deserve to be conned, and making several calls to the office to get ‘discounts’ for the client is a sales technique. It might not be pleasant, but salesman generally aren’t.

He hadn’t done anything wrong. Then when the Matt Allwright tried to crash the sales conference and was barred from entry he started acting like a child, ordering the man behind not to trap him in the door or it would be assault.

You’re not supposed to be getting worked up mate, they are!

He’s rubbish and the show has been ruined. Bring back Nicky Campbell and the decent format. If you want someone to do Rogue Traders properly, I’ll do it!

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/watchdog-has-been-ruined-by-the-bbc/feed/ 3 http://www.mrdaz.com/watchdog-has-been-ruined-by-the-bbc/ Vicious vet stabs dog then charges owner to fix mistake http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/8VI0qr8RsS0/ http://www.mrdaz.com/vicious-vet-stabs-dog-then-charges-owner-to-fix-mistake/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:58:05 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1364 Some stories seem too awful to be true, and the story of a vet in Heswall, on the Wirral, definitely falls into that category. A Jack Russell had been brought into the Churchview Veterinary Centre in Heswall to have his stitches removed after receiving treatment for cutting himself when he ran into a wall. Rather [...] Buster-300x225Some stories seem too awful to be true, and the story of a vet in Heswall, on the Wirral, definitely falls into that category. A Jack Russell had been brought into the Churchview Veterinary Centre in Heswall to have his stitches removed after receiving treatment for cutting himself when he ran into a wall. Rather than remove the stitches, the ‘trainee’ vet made a further cut in the dog’s side when her hand slipped, slicing the dog open with a knife.

The dog yelped in pain and had to be held down while the new wound, which was parallel to the original wound, was treated by the real vet.

Astonishingly the vets then charged the owner for treating the new wound which they had inflicted!

This is the sort of story that would outrage dog lovers everywhere, and one that should make dog lovers wary of taking their dog to the vets.

Read the full story here, but be warned, it’s not a pleasant one.

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/vicious-vet-stabs-dog-then-charges-owner-to-fix-mistake/feed/ 0 http://www.mrdaz.com/vicious-vet-stabs-dog-then-charges-owner-to-fix-mistake/ Road Tax for caravans http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/uJOtpjWoa3I/ http://www.mrdaz.com/road-tax-for-caravans/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:41:03 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1357 This may be contentious (like I care about that) but I’ve been giving this some thought lately; often while stuck behind a caravan on the motorway or stuck in a queue caused by a caravan that’s toppled over. Why aren’t caravans subject to road tax? They’re huge things and they cause more obstruction on the roads [...] This may be contentious (like I care about that) but I’ve been giving this some thought lately; often while stuck behind a caravan on the motorway or stuck in a queue caused by a caravan that’s toppled over. Why aren’t caravans subject to road tax?

They’re huge things and they cause more obstruction on the roads than any other vehicle. Furthermore, most caravaners have no idea how to actually tow a caravan, swerving out without looking in their oversized mirrors and hogging the middle lane. They’re a danger on the roads and should be either taxed, or made illegal.

caravan_crash

Now I realise a lot of people wouldn’t want caravans to be made illegal, but the caravans of today are so large that when they’re towed by most cars they’re snaking all over the road; they shouldn’t be on the road at all. Older caravans that are fairly small aren’t so much of a problem, but 25 ft plus caravans are just downright dangerous.

The least the government could do is to make caravans subject to road tax. It would generate more revenue for the UK and if it got one, just one, caravan off the road it would be worth it.

Road tax for caravans; the campaign starts here!

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/road-tax-for-caravans/feed/ 2 http://www.mrdaz.com/road-tax-for-caravans/ Virgin Media directs customers to spoof website http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/JV_hJ6Xa3dA/ http://www.mrdaz.com/virgin-media-directs-customers-to-spoof-website/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:28:52 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1352 I recently discovered that with my Virgin Media package that I have for TV and Internet that I get free photos printed with Snapfish, which is great because now that I’ve made the transition to a digital camera I rarely get photos printed anymore. Now, I phoned Virgin Media to find out how this worked and [...] I recently discovered that with my Virgin Media package that I have for TV and Internet that I get free photos printed with Snapfish, which is great because now that I’ve made the transition to a digital camera I rarely get photos printed anymore.

Now, I phoned Virgin Media to find out how this worked and a very helpful woman explained it and said she’d send me an email with full instructions, which she promptly did.

All sounds great so far yeah? Well, this is a section of the email she sent. Bear in mind that she didn’t write this email just for me, it was a standard Virgin Media template email sent to potentially hundreds, maybe thousands of customers.

Spot the deliberate mistake…

If you’ve not been to My Virgin Media <http://myvirginmedia.com/dashboard/start>, you’ll need to log in with your main Virgin Media username and password, and go to My Stuff <http://myvirginmedia.com/vstuff/activate>  to activate it on your account. You can also download the software you’ll need here. You need to install it on your computer, and follow the on-screen instructions to choose which files you want to have backed up.

Did you notice it? No, I’m not alluding to the ‘and’ following the comma; I’m referring to a more dangerous mistake. The URL is wrong. To log in to Virgin Media you don’t visit http://myvirginmedia.com, you visit http://my.virginmedia.com – a subtle difference perhaps, but an entirely different website.

Virgin has been sending people to the wrong URL to login. Anyone who has followed their instructions and ‘logged’ in will have given over their username and passwords to a fake site, all because of Virgin Media’s own stupidity.

I did reply to them about this but received no response, so I’m afraid I have to out them here and let the world know. Virgin Media has been sending its customers to a spoof site in its own emails.

Pretty poor show wouldn’t you say?

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/virgin-media-directs-customers-to-spoof-website/feed/ 1 http://www.mrdaz.com/virgin-media-directs-customers-to-spoof-website/ Sony’s ‘old TV’ deal wins over projector http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MrDaz/~3/BbMMwQRFws0/ http://www.mrdaz.com/sonys-old-tv-deal-wins-over-projector/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:42:37 +0000 MrDaz http://www.mrdaz.com/?p=1349 As I wrote recently, I’ve been looking at getting a new TV or a home theatre projector to replace the TV that currently resides in my home (it’s an eyesore). Anyhow, I was looking at getting a data projector because they’re fairly cheap now compared to the few grand they used to cost and they’re available [...] As I wrote recently, I’ve been looking at getting a new TV or a home theatre projector to replace the TV that currently resides in my home (it’s an eyesore).

Anyhow, I was looking at getting a data projector because they’re fairly cheap now compared to the few grand they used to cost and they’re available from pretty much any retailer. The problem is though that they’re actually quite expensive to replace the bulbs, which have a limited life. When your projector bulb breaks you need to replace it, and not just the bulb, the whole housing.

Naturally, they’re not the 99p bulbs you get in Asda either. Epson projector lamps for example can cost hundreds of pounds each. Not something I want to be buying regularly.

Luckily, I went to the Sony Centre this week and found a deal on a 40” widescreen TV (W model) better than that found on Amazon. Yeah, Amazon was cheaper, but listen to this:

  • Sony offer £100 cash back when you take in any old TV
  • Sony offer a free Blu-Ray player (which I’ve been meaning to get anyway as I have two Blu-Ray movies already and no player)
  • Sony offer 9 months interest free credit

That beats Amazon’s price hands down, and dispels any ideas of getting a projector. I’ll be getting a new TV at the start of September now.

Wicked!

]]> http://www.mrdaz.com/sonys-old-tv-deal-wins-over-projector/feed/ 0 http://www.mrdaz.com/sonys-old-tv-deal-wins-over-projector/