Anthony McG

I came across this photo set through Boing Boing and have to admit it’s really classy. It chronicles the title cards that are put up at the start of each Futurama episode. Some of my favourites include “Based on a true story”, “Featuring Gratuitous Alien Nudity” and “Live from Omicron Persei 8″.

BTW: Apologies for the lack of updates, have been up to my eyes of late and leave for Prague tomorrow morning for a week. Will return with loads of photos and stories.

Some guy in Canada is making Super Mario-like blocks and putting them up around his home town of Windsor, Ontario. He believes that the local streets are being “taken over by ads” and this is his way to fight back. I can’t think of anything cooler.

Dave tagged me on a book meme there a few days ago but I’ve only just had a chance to catch up now. Note that there’s some Amazon affiliate links in there in case you don’t feel comfortable with that sorta thing. Anyhow here’s my answers:

How Many Books Do You Own? I think it’s in single digits. I’m not a big reader.

What is the Last Book You Bought? That would have been Michael J. Fox’s book, Lucky Man. I’m roundsabouts half way through it at the moment and its a fantastic read.

What is the Last Book You Read? Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. I like his politics but I have a problem with some of his methods. I got my copy signed by him when I went to a talk he did in Dublin.

Name five books that mean a lot to you. Eh five? That’s a bit of a tall order for me but I’ll give it a bash.

1. Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox: As I said, I’m only half way through but its a very good read.
2. The 9/11 Commission Report: I bought this around Christmas time and it goes into astounding detail on the events leading up to and during 9/11. Solid read but very heavy.
3. Himalaya by Michael Palin: This book accompanies the TV series where Michael travelled the Himalaya route. Has some great photographs and is accompanied by his sharp wit.
4. The Big Dig – Reshaping an American City by Peter Vanderwarker: I actually bought this by accident when I meant to get another book about the Big Dig. This book is quite short, mainly focusing on images of the construction.
5. HTML Utopia – Designing without tables using CSS: I bought this book to re-assert my knowledge of how to build sites properly and it has been an excellent read plus a handy reference for times when I’ve got stuck.

Now “tag” five individuals to provide their own lists. Hmm. I dont really “know” all that many blogging people so I’ll try these in a vain hope they may participate.

• Neil: Not too sure if he’s done it yet.
• Ian: He’s in Europe at the moment but he may do it when he gets back.
• Chu Yeow aka redemption: Although there are mySQL errors appearing on his site and hasn’t posted in a while.
• Alex King: Seems like a nice guy and in one of his latest photos you can see a “Dummies” book. I wonder what it is.
• Hardy: The guy hardly ever surfaces since he’s having too much craic in Australia.

I got a “Lockdown in Sector 4″ error message from GMail about three weeks ago. I think it was due to the fact that a mail wouldn’t send as my net connection had temporarily dropped but whatever happened I got locked out for 24 hours. I sent an email to Google explaining the situation and what I thought had caused it. I got back this generic reply:

Hello,

Our system has detected abnormal usage of your Gmail account. As a result, we have temporarily disabled access to this account.

It will take between one minute and 24 hours for you to regain access, depending on the behavior our system detected.

Your account may be temporarily disabled if, among other things, you are:

- sending or receiving an excessive volume of mail

- using any third-party software that automatically logs in to your account and is not supported by Gmail

For your protection, we ask that you disable any non-supported software before accessing Gmail again.

If you feel that access to this account should not have been disabled, please respond to the following questions:

1. List the date and time of day when you were locked out of the account.

2. What task were you performing when you were locked out? (ex: sending an email, downloading an attachment, etc.)

3. Has access to your account been disabled before this occurrence? If so, when and for how long?

4. Indicate which of the following, if any, Gmail features you use: POP, auto-forwarding, or Gmail’s Notifier

5. Are you using any type of browser extensions? If so, please specify.

6. Do you use any third-party software in conjunction with Gmail? If so, please specify.

Sincerely,

The Gmail Team

I duly responded and got back an automated reply along the same lines as the mail above. The problem is that I’m still getting these errors on and off. I got one this morning and the account was back 30 seconds later. I’m gonna clear the cache in case it’s something to do with that but Google need to look at their support on GMail and come up with better explanations on why people are being locked out. Dave and Ben seem to have had the same issue.

Echoing Neil’s post, I popped over to BlogIdeas and picked a few random topics to post on:

Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours?

Elisha Cuthbert or Lucy Pinder. Close call.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

3. Shoes for work/going out, runners and a pair of trainers I wear to football on Fridays.

Breakfast: Yes or No?

Always have breakfast. Can never leave the house without having it.

What should we do with stupid people?

Lump them on one island in the middle of nowhere and watch the unfolding disaster.