http://www.thepickards.co.uk standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:30:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Spam comments used to be entertaining to read. You'd get some half-developed story -- see Spam Stories for the sort of thing -- with either a few random links thrown in through the article, or maybe just even in the commenter's URL. However, as spam filters changed and we started to ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/the-trouble-with-spam-comments/ Note to mate from the pub over the weekend. Should we be watching highlights of the Six Nations Rugby on the telly in the pub, and discussing how well the respective teams have performed in the tournament, and you aren't quite sure what I have said, it would seem more logical ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/misheard/ I had really, really hoped that I would like the novel The Amateurs, by John Niven, as I'd been given a copy in exchange for a review on the blog. Fortunately for me, the comedy was strong with this one. On the one hand, it was a book about golf, which ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/the-amateurs/ I found Steve over at Very True Things had taken a personality test to see what sort of person he was. So natch, I had to give it a go. I failed, I only got 37%, so apparently I've not got a personality. Naah, just joshing chief, apparently I'm an ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/test-your-personality/ I don't have a category for stupidity, but it's things like this that make me think maybe I ought to have one. Particularly since I could put my post about my previous post about the cocaine smuggling girls in it. Anyway, back to the new idiotic travellers. Found over at ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/my-e5-ray-bans-were-fakes/ I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.Evelyn Beatrice Hall (Wikiquote) I was invited to join a Facebook group called "muslim protesters fuck off out of britain if your not proud of OUR SOLDIERS". I declined. I presume that the rationale ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/for-your-right-to-say-it/ I was going to save this one for the Goldfish's BADD, but as that is usually in May, and it's only March now, I didn't really think that I'd remember about it. A few days ago, I noticed an article on the BBC News which was about someone with Down's syndrome: Otto ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/disabled-sex/ One of the things about the restaurant reviews you see in newspapers and magazines is that they are always for places like The Fat Duck which, while I would quite like to give it a go were I to become somewhat rich, are somewhat out of my price range at ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/sonnys-delight/ The Local Government Association (LGA) would like to see some of the above words ('blue-sky') etc banned from council use, having sent out a list of 200 words and phrases to councils around the country that they would really rather they didn't use. For the most part this appears to ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/lga-expose-blue-sky-bastions-of-beaconicity-bollocks/ Thanks to Mike Pickard for correctly identifying that this is the sort of thing that I would be interested in and pointing me in the direction of twitalyzer. Can you hear me say Yay! Pointless statistics about twitter! Twitalyzer breaks down your Twitter feed into five categories: Influence, Signal, Generosity, Velocity ... http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200903/me-twitter-stephen-fry-and-the-twitalyzer/