Category: Net: General

I’ve just been over at the Esure site looking at home insurance prices, and I noticed the following disclaimer:

I or any member of my family living permanently with me or any joint named policyholder have not:…
* got one of the following occupations: actor, actress or presenter in films, stage, TV or radio; music or other performing arts; professional sportsperson including trainers and managers; non UK armed forces diplomatic staff; or connected with gaming, nightclubs, circuses, fairgrounds, amusements, street trading, scrap waste, second hand dealing, jewellery or antique dealing, licensed premises

Wow! Does that mean that even if you sell old CD’s via Ebay (which would be “second hand dealing”) you wouldn’t be eligable for their insurance?

Have you come across any “strange” disclaimers/conditions like that?

Ok, I’ve feeling really tired at the moment, so I’m just going to make a little entry which was sparked off via overhearing someone on the bus in town today. Therefore, for the benefit of any visitors to Leicester and Leicestershire, here’s some hints to help you:

• “M’duck” is a form of endearment – likewise “Ay up m’duck” means “Hello” (see also: Leicester slang)
• “Frit” means “frightened” – for example: “When Alex started coughing up blood, it really frit us” means “When Alex started coughing up blood, it really frightened us”
• Pineapple Fritters (pineapple slices fried in batter) are available at most Fish and Chip shops – some also sell Spam or Kebab Fritters
• If you are asking for directions in Leicester, do not ask for Belvoir Street or Belvoir Castle (home to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland): instead ask for “Beaver Street” or “Beaver Castle” (blame the French: but it does mean ‘Beautiful View’)
• Despite what the Town Hall Square branch of Barclays bank appears to claim – they do not have cash machines every where. The Bank is on a corner and hence their cash machines are on a street actually called ‘Every Street’.
• If you were reading the Merc in the Royal to see what City were doing – then you’ll be reading the local newspaper (The Leicester Mercury) in the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital (also known as the ‘LRI’) to see what the Leicester City Football Club (a.k.a. LCFC) were doing
• Granby Halls is no longer standing, but the pay and display car-park which is now in its place can be found by the Tigers ground (Leicester City Rugby Union Football Club) at the junction of Aylstone Road (prounced Ale-ston) and Welford Road – just opposite the LRI.
• The “Golden Mile” is, in fact, Belgrave Road – it got that nick name because of its many Asian jewellery shops
• “Charles Street Cop Shop” (and sometimes just ‘Charles Street’) refers to the Police Station on the corner of Charles Street, St. Georges Way and St. Georges Street (opposite the train station and the Leicester Mercury building). The Leicestershire police are also known by their distinctive telephone number “7 2s” – 222 2222.
• Famous historical people from Leicester include Daniel Lambert (“Britain’s fattest man” with a waist of 3.1meters), the 9 day Queen of England – Lady Jane Grey (her ruins of her family home can still be found in Bradgate Park), and Joseph Carey Merrick (more popularly known as ‘The Elephant Man’)
• Other famous people include Gary Lineker (ex-England footballer and now TV personality), Engelbert Humperdinck (singer), Sir Richard ‘Dickie’ Attenborough (actor/director)

I’ve had bookmarked/hot-listed for some time the Who Owns What page which details what other companies certain large megalomaniac companies own. Whilst it is mainly US Media orientated companies (and therefore doesn’t list the companies owned by Microsoft) – it does reveal some interesting things.

Did you know that AOL TimeWarner (the owners of Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Netscape, Mozilla and the Open Directory Project) also partially own Amazon (who, in turn, own Alexa Research who also own The Internet Archive). Or that News Corporation (aka “Fox”) owns such wide ranging companies as the book publishing company Harper Collins, the cosmetic “*ding dong* It’s Avon calling” company, The Sun and The Times UK newspapers, partially own the Electronic Arts games software company and, of course, Sky satellite broadcasters?

One entry I was quite surprised at was Viacom – I didn’t know they owned Paramount Studios, MTV, Nickelodeon (mainly with Fox/News Corp/BSkyB), VH1, BlockBuster video and the Star Trek franchise.

Wow! Combine that with the fact that the Daily Mail And General Trust (that own the Daily Mail newspaper and used to own UKPlus) also owns my local newspaper (via Northcliffe Newspapers) and, via their 29.97% controlled GWR subsidery, my local radio station – it’s quite scary how much of my ‘media input’ is controlled by just a few companies… [add: the DMGT also owns part of the Teletext company via Harmsworth Media and a 20% share in the ITN News corporation which provides news services to ITV and Five]

What about news organisations in your area? Are they owned by just the one company? Or can you list all the companies Microsoft own?

Ok, I know today (well, November 28th) is the American Thanksgiving Day Holiday, but that is no reason for Slashdot to have so many duplicate stories. They’ve had “When Personalization Runs Amuck” (posted at 7:25pm) which was a repeat of “When Profiling Goes Wrong” from 4:36pm on November 26 (both about the same article on the Wall Street Journal about how the personalisation profiling services as used by TiVo‘s and Amazon can sometimes suggest things that make you have a ‘double-take’). Before that, at 4.55pm they ran “Face Transplants On The Way” which was a repeat from November 27th’s 05:07pm story “Getting More Face Time” (both about the same BBC news article that facial transplants could take place in the next six to nine months).

The Slashdot editors then round it off by posting “Hark! I Hear a Dropped Packet” at 3:15am, which – you’ve guessed it – is a repeat again. But this time from the same day, okay at 1:47pm when “Using Sound To Test Internet Connections” was still on the front page (so even the Slashdot editors looking at their own site would have seen it). Ok, it didn’t have so much “lead information” about the article on New Scientist but still…

You’d think if Slashdot really wanted to get people subscribing to them (instead of relying on advertisement revenue), they’ll make at least a little effort to run things professionally wouldn’t you? [end rant]

At least a few readers managed to make a couple of comments which made me laugh….