How stupid do the Carphone Warehouse employees think I am?

A few days ago I received an e-mail from someone with the initials 'KE.' In said e-mail, they went on about allegations of anti-competetive business practises by the Carphone Warehouse and potential lawsuits. I thought this was interesting and though I expected a nasty gram from one of their legal team, I posted it.

Today I received a comment from someone saying that I was shit for putting it up. At first I thought it was someone who was genuinely upset I hadn't solved a problem for them. I did a search via Wordpress to see if any comments matched the IP. Nothing. I did a search for the name. Nothing. I checked the e-mail address they'd posted with. It was the talktalkhell address. Thinking something was up, I went to RIPE and did a search for the IP. I was pointed to IANA, then Asia, then Japan. Eventually I sorted that this was either an anonymizing service, or an open proxy.

A Google search reveals that it is more than likely my assumption was true. Which means it's someone who doesn't want to be discovered. Who might that be? Possibly more employees of the Carphone Warehouse? I know we're doing the rounds at their tech support centres in the UK again. I've had a number of referrals from e-mail accounts.

I'm slightly bewildered as to why they chose that particular post. The e-mail I received from someone in tech support was a little upset that we recommend people go straight for second line. He basically listed his CV to me and I found it more than quality. Surely there are better places to post? They could attack my rusty knowledge of ADSL, or my barely comprehensive understaning of LLU. Why that post?

To be continued....

Technorati Tags: Talk Talk, Talk Talk Hell, Carphone Warehouse

Unprepossessing features.

Nov06 057
Originally uploaded by vulgarcriminal.

I had an idea that I would start updating this site more than once a month, perhaps once day. Alas it seems to be once a week. I blame that entirely on alcohol and a sequence of events that wasn't necessarily glorious.

The grand and glorious thing about having a dreadful and tedious week is when good things happen, they're so much better than if you'd been sailing along happily. You know? I suspect the party I went to on Saturday would have been just as fun if I'd been sailing along evenly but was even more so in contrast.

Yay for good friends and good memories.

If there's one thing I'm going to desperately miss about living in the UK, it's the people I have around me. Wouldn't the world be nice if Portland and Manchester were just right next door? If I ever win the lottery I'm going to throw the biggest party you've ever seen and include plane tickets.

Maybe in New York. You know, in the middle.

In the Guardian again!
There was one other thing that kicked the weekend off to a good start. Talk Talk Hell was mentioned in the Guardian again. I'm seeing a nice increase in traffic along with it.

I rather like the context of this article as well. It focuses on the mistakes that CEOs can make when they attempt to harness new ways of communicating without understanding the underlying expectations. Since I started running Talk Talk Hell, I've been bemused to note his lack of updates. But I wonder if he would have made the situation better or worse. His platitudes all over television and in every paper off Fleet Street doesn't seem to have consoled his suffering customers.

I did get some personal assurances that the talk of BT being difficult with exchanges and line activation was true. Other ISPs, besides Talk Talk, have similar difficulty getting them to let go. The problems aren't entirely that of Talk Talk but they don't really help themselves with their sophomoric media antics.

I haven't heard from their legal team for almost two whole weeks. Congratulations in order?!

Technorati Tags: Talk Talk, Talk Talk Hell,

Wii and Gamestop on Women

Oh sweet Christ.

UK: Resistance has a post about how Wii is now advertising in Prima to get more women to buy their product. 'See how fun it is?! Little Julie can hang out with Grandpa and play Animal Crossing. Oh hooray! Oh hooray!'

And equally as bad, in Game Lafe, Eliza Gauger posted a photo of a game rack for girls.

Naturally both advertorials feature the inoffensive colors of 'purple' and 'pink.'

Wake me up when the advertising stops and I can get back to normal.

Technorati Tags: stupid, Nintendo, Wii, gaming, girls in gaming, gamestop

How to take photos in Manchester

Manchester Victoria dome 1
Originally uploaded by vulgarcriminal.

Technically I shouldn't really have a photo of this. The bar staff at Manchester Victoria shouted 'no photography!' at Mr. Me when he whipped out his real camera. I managed a few shots, mine is point and click.

We wandered down to the reception area and asked how we would go about getting photography passes. It turns out it's different for train stations than almost anywhere else.

Here's a run down of what to be prepared for if you want to take photos of tourist attractions in Manchester (or possibly anywhere else.)

Manchester Town Hall

- You must sign a release denying any commercial copyright.

Manchester Victoria

- Permission is available from Bridgewater House on Bridgewater Street. It may take a day or so to actually get the release form. When you do, you have to notify the train station duty manager. Information is available off Platform 3. (Just let the ticket fascists know you're not travelling!)

Manchester Art Gallery
- Oddly, unlike many US galleries, you can actually take photos here. They require a similar release form to the Manchester Town Hall saying the photos will not be sold.

I'm guessing that other places, like Manchester Piccadilly train station and the Manchester Museum are probably similar.

Technorati Tags: Manchester, photos, tips, tourist

Miss Videogame

The more I read about women in gaming, the more I wish that one day I'd wake up and grow a penis so as to leave the microscope once and for all. Until 'the industry' became concerned about how I was feeling regarding games, I never really considered that I was 'odd' or 'different' for playing a bit of Doom. But now it seems that I'm not only odd, but something to be dissected to locate how exactly I enjoy holding a controller so much and harness it to get the rest of my gender to fall in line.

And the more that this campaign to suck women into PS3 hysteria continues, the more cynical marketing schemes are unleashed amongst an unsuspecting public.

These are usually drivel infested beauty contests masquerading under neo-feminism and empowerment.

As an example, meet Miss Video Game contestant Sarah-Rochelle. She's a Suicide Girl (nothing says empowerment like working in crappy alt.porn.) She wants to be a 'influencial' woman via hairdressing and 'no pink' photography and denying ' tyranny.

Young Sarah-Rochelle believes that women are intimidated by men when they game. To which I say, "oh really?" Please enlighten me as to how exactly that happens. Not once have I had a male colleague or friend loom over me aggressively when I play Atellier Iris. Intimidation, to me, is the sum of trying to dominate someone. How many men go on a seek and destroy when a woman picks up a controller? Or you know, is it possible they have something better to do?

I'm not going to go into why so many members of my gender are ignoring the latest Halo release in favor of a facial. There's plenty of analysis being used as kitty litter liner for you glance at on your way to the fridge. What I will say is it's unlikely that contests like Miss Video Game are going to drag receptionists in kicking and screaming. What's more likely is female gamers will scoff and go back to Black whilst some men, feeling throughly charitable and hip, vote while considering how exactly to get SR to finally go hardcore.

Technorati Tags: gaming, women gamers, miss video game, stupid

Long time no post!

Well, hello.

Lots to update on, it's been a pretty busy few months. Talk Talk Hell has been taking up quite a lot of my time. Hopefully the to and fro with their legal team is going to end soon. I'm getting pretty irritated with it.

Many congratulations to the smartest man I've ever met: Larry Galizio on his successful re-election!

In the mean time, however, Feministing has an interesting insight into the synonyms with the word 'girl.'

Have a read through.

I think my favorite is 'jail bait.'



Technorati Tags: feministing, politics, life, talktalkhell