All 12 entries tagged Stupidity

I'm With Stupid →

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7435752.stm

It's embarassing to think I share a country with ignorant pricks like these...

: 04 Jun 2008 15:59 |  Tags: Idiocy Idiots Ignorance Ignorant News Race Racism Randomness Stupid Stupidity |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

'Phone calls database considered'

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7409593.stm

Oh for the love of all that's sane. Where to begin? No...all right? Just "No".

This kind of shit is why I have less than no faith in politics.

It was a stupid idea before, it's still a stupid idea, it won't work, it'll be too easily abused, and I seriously doubt it'll catch any real dingleberries.

Whatever happened to privacy?

Whatever happened to this being a free country?

What makes the government think they can protect this data? They don't exactly have a good track record...

: 20 May 2008 01:59 |  Tags: Bastards Government Idiocy Idiotic Idiots Illegal Invasion Of Privacy News Ridiculous Seriousness Stupid Stupidity |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

It's a bypass… gotta build bypasses…

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7344045.stm

I wholeheartedly support Mrs Reid's actions; I find it absolutely disgusting that houses are still demolished to make way for building projects, and I can think of no better way to get that point across.

It is an archaic and irrational process, and I seriously worry about the mental state of anyone who thinks it's a good idea to demolish someone's home for something as frivolous as fucking football or a damned supermarket.

: 12 Apr 2008 13:22 |  Tags: Bastards Demolish Disgusting Everton Insane Irrational News Seriousness Stupid Stupidity Tesco |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

If backpack bombs actually looked like bombs, then they'd be useless…

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/7336740.stm

A BBC radio reporter was held to the ground and searched by police under the Terrorism Act after his transmitter equipment was mistaken for a bomb.

I have several issues with this. Firstly, the equipment apparently looks like this:

Admittedly, as well as a radio transmitter, I will accept that this could look like a bomb, but that is precisely the problem: backpack bombs look like backpacks; if they looked like bombs then the bombers would never be able to get near their target...

Secondly, it is worth pointing out the sentence Mr Khan's backpack contained equipment that is regularly used to allow reporters to broadcast from locations around the city centre. Did you notice the important word? It's "regularly". This equipment is regularly used around the city. It is not a rare occurrence for this equipment to be chosen; it is used regularly.

Thirdly, apparently Police were told an "Arabic-looking man was acting suspiciously" outside a shopping centre. Surely all that matters was that a man was acting suspiciously; or even "someone" was acting suspiciously. What difference does it make if he looks like an Arab or not? Have people forgotten that just the other decade stupid people would have been informing the police of "green-clad suspicious people with shamrocks" or some other appropriate stupid stereotype. "Arab" does not equal "terrorist", and "terrorist" does not equal "Arab"; any Arab terrorists just happen to be Arabs and terrorists for completely separate reasons.

Finally, Chief Superintendent Jane Sawyers said I am pleased with the positive and professional way the officers dealt with the incident. I'm sorry! Forcing a professional radio reporter to the ground because some people decide to make bombs that, apparently, resemble radio transmitting equipment is now considered professional!? What's wrong with "We fucked up, big time" or "Epic Fail", or "Keeping the peace; we're doing it wrong"?

: 08 Apr 2008 16:15 |  Tags: Bomb False Alarm News Police Radio Seriousness Stupid Stupidity Terror Transmitter |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Do it yourself you lazy sod

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7291382.stm

I've just come across this BBC News article which says that apparently Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales has been accused of agreeing to edit a page on the online encyclopaedia in exchange for a donation.

Obviously he denies it, and I wholeheartedly believe him; he of all people should know that the lazy donor could just edit the damn thing himself.

: 12 Mar 2008 14:00 |  Tags: News Randomness Stupid Stupidity Wikipedia |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Missing Data on 25 Million People

Since I first heard about it, I've been wondering just how much data on 25,000,000 people can fit on two "discs". I don't know for certain what type of "disc" they are, but for the purposes of the maths I'm going to assume they were single-layer DVDs.

Taking the capacity of a DVD as 4.7GB, this makes about 403 bytes per person. This might not sound much, but for reference the following block of text (labels included) is only 224 bytes:

Name: The University of Warwick
Address: University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Tel: +44 (0)24 7652 3523
Fax: +44 (0)24 7646 1606
Established: 1964
Dummy bank details: XXXXXXXX XX-XX-XX
URL: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/

So the amount of data on each person would be about double that.

However if the Government isn't keeping up with the times, then 2 CDs at - let's say - 700MB each would give only 58 bytes per person, which is about this much:

The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL 024 7652 3523

That's assuming the data wasn't compressed, of course, which since it was unencrypted wouldn't be unreasonable to assume.

The second block (including spaces) should be exactly 58 bytes. Since I ran out of ideas for real data for the first block, here's a string of Xs and spaces that is exactly 403 bytes:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX

So whatever details about you you can fit in that number of characters (403 including spaces, unsurprisingly) may have been misplaced by the Government in an easily-readable form. If they had any business rivals I'd consider taking my custom elsewhere...

: 28 Nov 2007 22:05 |  Tags: Government Idiocy News Randomness Stupidity |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

"BBC defends early Easter filming

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6494831.stm

I've just come across an article on BBC News about the BBC receiving criticism for filming their Easter Special of Songs of Praise at Christmas. I mean, come on! Do these people really think they film everything at the time?

Several newspapers have accused the BBC of "tricking" fans of Songs of Praise, just weeks after Blue Peter apologised for faking the result of a competition in November.

Because, of course, those two events are exactly the same - on the one hand, you have standard industry practice that is economical, harmless and an intelligent use of resources; and on the other hand, you have people lying about the very nature of a competition. I certainly can't see a difference between them...

I feel, as a public service, that I need to point out a few things to these people that are up in arms about the fact the show was filmed months ago:

• The TARDIS doesn't really travel through time - it's just a box, it doesn't even had the console inside it; that's a set.
• When game show hosts say "See you next week", 'next week' is probably filmed a few minutes later.
• KITT from Knight Rider couldn't really drive himself - it was a man hidden in the modified driver's seat, which was a clever way to do it because 'Michael' (who is really David Hasselhoff) could just jump in the car and take over without anything fancy happening.
• Crop Circles aren't aliens; they're guys with planks and too much time on their hands. I mean what kind of stupid alien race would design ships with such complicated undersides? They'd all have "teleporters" anyway...
• A scene from (I believe) Attack of the Clones was actually filmed during Phantom Menace because it would save them having to go back out the the location. (Maybe you should complain to them, too?)
• The Lord of the Rings films weren't actually in Middle Earth - they were in New Zealand.
• I'm not actually writing this - I have a small team of an infinite number of monkeys to whom I dictate. Eventually they come up with the blog entry...

I could go on, but I won't...

: 26 Mar 2007 18:20 |  Tags: BBC Idiocy Randomness Revelations Songs Of Praise Stupidity TV |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

This kid's an idiot…

Why would anyone want to do this? It’s just silly…

: 09 Dec 2006 13:00 |  Tags: Randomness Stupidity Video |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

This doesn't help my opinion of Americans…

Writing about web page http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/749/749361p1.html

I seriously hope this isn’t true…

My God, what kind of parent would call the police to arrest their son for opening his damned Christmas present early!? His Christmas present! His Christmas present!

They charged him with petty larceny, which I gather carries a fine. I can’t find the kid’s age, but since they use “child” and “boy” rather than something like “teen” I’m going to guess he’s a minor. Surely, therefore, it’ll be the responsibility of the mother to pay for the fine? That would make it even more stupid!

“We charged you son with ‘petty larceny’, ma’am. Now that’ll be $100 for the fine, please.”

It’s too late at night to cope with this…

: 06 Dec 2006 02:37 |  Tags: Christmas News Randomness Stupidity |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Fire Cleanses Everything

I don’t envy the guy that lit it…

: 25 Nov 2006 13:00 |  Tags: Fire Randomness Stupidity Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem