Best. T-Shirts. Ever.

Damn. I need one of these. And one of these. And maybe one of these.

Screw it… I think I need pretty much every one of the men’s t-shirts on this page.

They even have my guilty pleasure…

1&1 Internet: Not Recommended

And that’s putting it lightly.

Despite having cancelled a domain I registered through them, they’re still sending me letters asking for payment. When a letter arrived this morning stating that they’re going to refer the case to a debt collector, I phoned them (again) to pay the £10 just to get them out of my hair. I’d Googled them when all this kicked off, and they seem to have a bad reputation for this sort of thing.

So, I phoned them, told them I’d just pay it and be done with it. But they can’t take payment over the phone now, because the account has been closed. I have to send them a cheque.

I asked if there was some misguided logic there that I was missing: I cancel the domain but they still insist that I pay, yet I can’t actually pay by conventional means because the domain is cancelled. They can’t “uncancel” the domain either.

Couple that with the fact that they use a totally separate administration system for domain cancellations (you have to visit their “cancel” subdomain), and the whole thing smells like a big con.

In summary: avoid 1&1 (or 1and1) like the plague.

Quick Bite: 30 Days of Night Trailer

Oh yes indeedy.

Visually stunning and looks scary as all hell. Can’t wait.

The Apprentice

I have to confess to being slightly addicted to The Apprentice this series. Despite managing to resist Alan Sugar’s beardy charms for the first two iterations, I’ve been powerless this time.

Up to now, I’ve managed not to blog about it, but I’m slightly stunned and can no longer keep from mentioning what must surely be the BBC’s flagship reality TV offering. Fans of the show will know precisely why I’m stunned: Katie removed herself from the competition at the last possible moment!

For anyone that doesn’t watch the show: Katie has bitched, back-stabbed, pouted, and schemed her way through the entire series. She has a face like a smacked arse, and yet has the most mesmerizing eyes. She’s eminently dislikable, and yet somehow difficult to not be impressed by. And, when faced with the prospect of being in the final, she turned it down because it wasn’t fair to ask her children and parents to support her in the endeavor.

You’d check first, wouldn’t you? Before even applying for the contest, you’d make sure Mum and Dad were OK with the implications of you winning. Unless, of course, you never intended to win. Did Katie just plan on becoming famous, then walking out at the last moment? Perhaps she intends to follow in the footsteps of previous pantomime reality TV dropouts, like Nasty Nick and all the other useless types whose names have long since dropped out of the accessible recesses of my memory, never to return.

Who knows. But it was a twist I didn’t see coming, and perhaps the reason why The Apprentice is a cut above the usual reality TV nonsense. Next weeks final sees the essentially useless Simon up against the impressively organisation Kristina. It’s a forgone conclusion, but the show is always so enjoyable that it really doesn’t matter.

You Never Get Something For Nothing

Right, the next time someone emails you about some wonderful free offer just bloody ignore it.

My wife forwarded me an email (sad that this is how we communicate now) entitled “Free M & S Vouchers!!!”. It’s clearly an attempt to spam the Andy Curran at Persimmonhomes.com email address. Apparently, there’s this special collaboration between Marks and Spencers and Persimmon Homes; the instructions carefully state that all you need to do is cc him in on the email to ten of your mates, and your vouchers will magically appear in the next few days. Ohmygodohmygod: spam everyone.

So stop. Cleverly, a few people have already blogged about this. Perhaps not so cleverly, they’ve printed Andy Curran’s address in full, so now numerous Internet bots will be furiously spamming the account, along with a large network of gullible Internet users (and, yes, I’d have to include my wife in this group) who want their free vouchers.

I suspect Andy Curran has long since had to change his email address (it sounds like this particular scam has been around for a while), or else Persimmon Homes have invested in some decent spam filtering. In fact, I suspect the “this is a scam” email she got from Message Labs originated from the Persimmon email address; it certainly wouldn’t have come from the assorted gmail, hotmail, and yahoo addresses she forwarded the mail on to.

So today’s lessons:

1) if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

2) if you’re asked to spam lots of people with an email, please don’t; I get enough spam as it is.

3) if you can’t be trusted to use email in a tolerable manner please fill your bath with water, drop any Internet connected computer you may own into previously mentioned bath, and leave for approximately the rest of your life. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to retrieve the computer from the bath.

Two!

I borrowed Dad’s screen; he thought it was playing up so wanted me to plug it in here to try to establish whether the problem was with the screen, or his PC.

I think I need to get myself one…